Bob Gregg, Boardman & Clark Law Firm in Madison, Wisconsin

Description: We may see some significant developments in employment laws, regulatory enforcement, and the Supreme Court. The direction of the change will be very different depending on who wins the election – but there will be changes. The 2017 Developments, Trends & Hot Topics program by Bob Gregg will address:

• What is appearing on the post-election horizon

• Significant developments and warnings fo the past year

• The changing nature of discrimination

• Strangest employment law cases of the year

Bio:  Bob Gregg is an employment relations attorney with more than 30 years of speaking and training experience. Bob litigates and serves as an expert witness in a wide variety of employment cases. His main emphasis is helping employers achieve enhanced productivity, creating positive work environments, and resolving employment problems before they generate lawsuits.

Meredith Nethercutt, SHRM

Description:  Meredith Nethercutt, Senior Associate of Member Advocacy with National SHRM, will provide education and training on the engagement activity associated with meeting and advocating on Wisconsin SHRM’s behalf when engaging our state Legislators.
 
Meredith’s presentation will conclude with organizing groups of individuals attending the same legislative meetings. Time will be provided for groups or individuals to prepare for the afternoon legislative meetings.

Bio:  Meredith Nethercutt is senior associate for member advocacy at the Society for Human Resource Management. Overseeing SHRM’s Advocacy Team (A-Team) network of volunteer advocates, Meredith facilitates relationships between SHRM members and lawmakers to strengthen the Society’s advocacy objectives in legislative districts nationwide. In addition, Meredith provides training and guidance to HR advocates on how to effectively communicate with lawmakers regarding workplace policies. A critical part of the Society’s enhanced advocacy initiative, the A-Team advances the HR perspective and agenda by leveraging the reach and knowledge of SHRM members through grassroots advocacy.

Prior to joining SHRM, Meredith served as director of public affairs and grassroots advocacy at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), where she oversaw the complete association advocacy program branding and reorganization, as well as the construction of a strategic association-wide key contact program to leverage relationships between manufacturers and federal lawmakers. Meredith’s previous career experience includes advocacy positions with the International Franchise Association (IFA) and the National Restaurant Association, where she managed both association’s grassroots programs. She started her career in advocacy at Associated Builders and Contractors. 

Meredith received a Bachelor of Science degree from Vanderbilt University. She resides in Denver, CO.

Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch

Description:  Lt. Governor Kleefisch will discuss her efforts to bring business to Wisconsin and to attract & retain a skilled workforce. She will discuss initiatives in place to assist ex-offenders find employment, as well as her work with the K-12 public education system to create a pipeline from schools to the workplace.

Bio:  Meredith Rebecca Kleefisch is Wisconsin's 44th lieutenant governor. Since January 2011, she has been Wisconsin's Jobs Ambassador, a champion for worker training, and a leader for creative solutions to our state's toughest challenges.

A former small business owner, Rebecca developed the annual Governor's Small Business Summit. She works frequently with economic developers and business owners to recruit new businesses and grow current employers. She also chairs the Manufacturing Committee for the Aerospace States Association. And as Wisconsin creates more jobs, she's working hard to expand the talent pipeline that fills them.

Rebecca wants our state's success to embrace all our citizens, especially those who must overcome barriers to prosperity. So she chairs the Governor's Task Force on Minority Unemployment, works on the issues of homelessness and offender reentry, and advocates for returning veterans and people with disabilities looking to join the workforce.

Through her travels and activities, Rebecca's earned a reputation as an effective policy leader who doesn't shy from a challenge or a fight. She has been recognized with a "Courage in Leadership Award" by the Faith & Freedom Coalition and a "Woman of Exceptional Courage" award from the Clare Booth Luce Institute. In May 2014, the Washington Post cited her as one of 40 rising stars in American politics.

Rebecca is a colon cancer survivor, a recovering news reporter, a member of the NRA, and graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the mother of two daughters, Ella and Violet, and lives in Oconomowoc with her husband, State Representative Joel Kleefisch.

Charles Franklin

Description:  Professor Franklin will provide analysis of the most recent election (November 8, 2016) – To include a review of the results on both the national level (presidential, Senate and House of Representatives) and state level (presidential, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, Wisconsin Senate and Wisconsin Assembly) and his interpretation of the results.  Professor Franklin will also project what may happen with the upcoming mid-term elections – To include a projection as to the national level (Senate and House of Representatives) and state level (U.S. Senate, Governor, Wisconsin Senate and Wisconsin Assembly).  Finally, Professor Franklin will provide his opinion as to where the country and Wisconsin are currently at from an elector’s standpoint and where the country and Wisconsin may be headed in the near future from an elector’s standpoint.  The audience will be encouraged to ask questions throughout.
 
Bio:  Nationally recognized government scholar and pollster Charles Franklin has been director of the Marquette Law School Poll since its inception in 2012 and became a full-time member of the faculty in 2013.
Franklin led the Law School Poll during the highly scrutinized 2012 election cycle, establishing Marquette as the definitive source for information concerning public opinion in Wisconsin.
 
Under Franklin's direction as a visiting professor at Marquette, the poll became the largest independent polling project in state history. It accurately captured voter attitudes before every major election in 2012, including the gubernatorial recall, U.S. Senate and presidential races.
 
Since joining Marquette as a professor of law and public policy in August 2013, Franklin has used the poll to continue tracking political races of interest to voters and explore additional public policy issues.
 
Prior to joining the Marquette faculty, Franklin was a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison beginning in 1992.
 
In 2005 Franklin co-founded Pollster.com, an award winning website for the analysis of polling data. The site received the Warren J. Mitofsky Innovators Award in 2006 from the American Association for Public Opinion Research, was featured in the New York Times Magazine's Year in Ideas of 2007, was cited by data graphics author Edward Tufte for best visualization of the 2008 election and by Time magazine as one of the 50 Best Websites in 2008. In 2010 the Huffington Post acquired Pollster.
 
He is a past president of the Society for Political Methodology and an elected fellow of the society. Along with his co-author Liane Kosaki, Frankin received the Lasting Contribution Award of the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association in 2009. He served for eight years as a member of the Board of Overseers of the National Election Study. In 2008 he was co-director of the Big Ten Poll which correctly estimated the presidential outcome in all eight states with Big Ten universities. His articles on partisanship, public opinion and the Supreme Court and U.S. Senate elections have appeared in a number of major journals and book chapters.  He has been a member of the ABC News election night analysis team since 2002.
 
Franklin received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan.

Jim Chiolino, DWD

Description:  Jim will discuss emerging issues and trends in Wisconsin and federal wage and hour laws, to include the following:

• Updates on Equal Rights Division proposed rule changes and any court decisions
• Developments with federal law and the Fair Labor Standards Act
• Trends regarding minimum wage laws at national, state and local levels 

Bio:  Jim Chiolino has worked for the Department of Workforce Development since 1991. He has worked with both of the Equal Rights Division’s bureaus: the Civil Rights Bureau and the Labor Standards Bureau. Jim took a 3-year hiatus from state service and practiced law in the area of Employment Law, representing employers. He currently serves as Assistant Equal Rights Division Administrator and Director of the Labor Standards Bureau, and is the author of the Wisconsin State Bar/Pinnacle publication Wisconsin Wages and Hours Handbook.