The Employment Law & HR Summit: Houston

Cynthia Foster, is the Vice President of Human Resources at Safran Seats USA, a division of the Safran Group. Safran is an international high-technology group, operating in the aviation, defense and space markets, with more than 100,000 employees in 27 countries, where Cynthia is  recognized for her innovation and geekiness. With a 20+ year history of performance improvement, Cynthia transitioned to HR in 2007 to impact employee performance and quality, consistently bringing creative solutions to the workplace, from spearheading digital transformation projects to implementing AI and digital tools that boost productivity, engagement, and collaboration. She is celebrated for leading teams through change, driving measurable improvements in turnover and training, and fostering cultures that thrive on open communication and continuous improvement. Cynthia holds an MBA, SHRM-SCP, and Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. In addition to her corporate leadership, Cynthia is a double-bassist and the co-owner of Top Secret Rehearsal Studios in Denton, Texas.

Ashley Smith is a dynamic Global People Business Partner with a proven track record of shaping inclusive, high-performing workplaces across leading companies like Peloton, Tesla, and Target. With deep expertise in talent strategy, change leadership, and employee engagement, Ashley is passionate about empowering people-first cultures that drive business success. As the founder of The People Partner Co., she also consults and coaches organizations on building impactful HR strategies. Her keynote will inspire HR leaders to lead boldly and reimagine the future of work.

Josh Northcutt is the Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Inchcape Shipping Services. Founded in 1847, Inchcape is one of the largest maritime services providers, with over 250 offices in 61 countries and a team of over 3,100 professionals and committed staff. A seasoned Human Resources and Talent Acquisition leader with extensive experience supporting complex workforce operations across global logistics, maritime services, and corporate environments. His background includes comprehensive responsibility for recruitment strategy, workforce planning, employee relations support, policy interpretation, compliance alignment, and the development of processes that strengthen organizational effectiveness.

Josh has been globally recognized by OnCon as a 2024 Top 100 Talent Acquisition Professional, and under his leadership, his organizations earned the Top 50 Talent Acquisition Team Award and the Top 50 Human Resources Team Award. His continued impact in the profession has also earned him finalist distinctions for the 2025/26 Top 100 Talent Acquisition Professional, Top 100 Talent Acquisition Team Award and Top 100 Human Resources Team Awards—further underscoring his influence and excellence across the people function.

In his leadership capacity, Josh has collaborated closely with senior management, legal partners, and operational stakeholders to ensure employment practices remain compliant, consistent, and aligned with both organizational objectives and regulatory requirements. He has led initiatives that enhance hiring integrity, improve documentation standards, streamline employee lifecycle processes, and reinforce a culture of accountability within HR and Talent Acquisition functions.

Josh is recognized for his disciplined approach, his strong adherence to ethical employment practices, and his ability to translate complex HR and legal considerations into clear, actionable workforce strategies.

Kia Williams is Senior Counsel at LiquidPower Specialty Products Inc., where she provides legal leadership on labor, employment, compliance, and business-related matters for the Houston-area energy products company. In this role, she counsels leadership on workforce-related legal risk, employment law compliance, contract negotiation and interpretation, dispute resolution, and other areas that support effective, compliant people and business practices.

Williams is licensed to practice law in Texas, Illinois, and Missouri and is based in Houston, Texas. Her practice spans a mix of labor and employment, commercial litigation, administrative and public law, contracts, and alternative dispute resolution—reflecting a broad legal foundation for serving in-house business needs across complex regulatory and operational environments.

She earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, grounding her counsel in both strong legal analysis and practical operational context.

Denise brings expertise in workplace discrimination, wrongful terminations, investigations, policy development, and performance management. She has led complex employee relations matters, shaped HR policies, and implemented training programs that equip leaders and employees for long-term success. Her focus is on building supportive environments that empower employees and align with organizational goals, grounded in integrity and compliance.

Lizeth Moreno is an accomplished Human Resources Business Partner with more than a decade of progressive experience specializing in employee relations, organizational development, and workforce strategy. She currently serves as the HR Business Partner, Corporate & Compliance at U.S. Silica, where she partners with senior leadership to drive people-focused initiatives, elevate compliance practices, and strengthen organizational culture across corporate functions.

Throughout her career, she has held key HR roles supporting multi-state operations in the energy and industrial sectors. Her expertise includes managing complex employee relations matters, leading investigations, shaping HR policies, overseeing performance management frameworks, and implementing training and development programs that equip leaders and employees for long-term organizational success. She is passionate about cultivating workplaces where employees feel supported, empowered, and connected to organizational goals.

Outside of her career, Lizeth enjoys the joyful chaos of raising her two small children, who keep her humble and regularly on her toes. She is also a proud wife and credits much of her success to the unwavering support of her husband, who consistently celebrates every win in her journey as a dedicated professional and working mom.

Taylor White partners with senior business leaders, HR professionals, corporate counsel, and decision-makers on employment decisions and litigation. He regularly advises employers on day-to-day issues, including requirements and best practices regarding discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims under state and federal employment laws, and he often counsels clients on a myriad of litigation avoidance strategies. As a litigator, Taylor is a zealous advocate on behalf of his clients for claims of wage and hour violations; discrimination, harassment, and retaliation issues; breaches of employment agreements; breaches of covenants not to compete and not to solicit; misappropriation of trade secrets; breaches of fiduciary duty and other employment-related torts; and other state and federal law issues stemming from workplace disputes. Taylor is the lead blog writer for employerlawresource.com.

Mark R. Zeidman is Chair of the Employment Law Section at FBFK Law and Head of the firm’s Houston office. For nearly 45 years, he has advised business management and in-house counsel on employment issues and workplace disputes, representing employers in state and federal courts as well as before the EEOC and the Texas Workforce Commission. His experience spans high-stakes matters involving discrimination and harassment claims, employee theft, trade secret disputes, and restrictive covenant issues, including non-competition and non-disclosure agreements.

In addition to employment law, Mark supports clients on a wide range of business and commercial matters, including transactions and disputes involving construction, manufacturing, information technology, and government contracts. He negotiates and drafts business agreements such as NDAs, master services agreements, teaming agreements, distribution and sales representative agreements, and asset/equity purchase and sale agreements. Mark earned his J.D. (with Honors) from The University of Texas School of Law and his B.A. (Highest Honors) from The University of Texas at Austin, and he is admitted in Texas and multiple federal courts, including the Fifth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sadiqa Banks has 14.5 years of experience in employment law, which involves employment litigation, federal agency, corporate employment consulting, HR development, corporate employment investigations, and employment training and development. Currently, Sadiqa is the Associate General Counsel, Employment & Immigration for a fintech, OppFi. Prior to OppFi, Sadiqa served as Assistant General Counsel & HR Consultant at Engage PEO.
Sadiqa has been described as having a 360-degree view of the employment relationship. She ultimately promotes, “Your career. Your responsibility.” She teaches this approach to help employees be proactive about their career path and how they can better participate and show up in the workplace.
Sadiqa is born and raised in New York City, holding a J.D. from Thurgood Marshall School of Law – Texas Southern University, and a B.A. from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.

Lee Barrett is Vice President, Associate General Counsel at Planet Home Lending, where he advises leadership on litigation, consumer bankruptcy, and regulatory compliance across the mortgage lifecycle. Additionally, he manages all employment related litigation, administrative proceedings and investigations. Lee provides primary legal support to the Human Resources team in areas such as wage and hour matters, restrictive covenants, leave and benefit administration, accommodation requests, termination and disciplinary reviews, whistleblower complaints, and development of employment policy and procedure for a nationwide workforce.  Before joining Planet, Lee served as Assistant General Counsel and Privacy Officer at Pacific Union Financial and as an attorney with the U.S. Small Business Administration, and he has extensive experience in private practice focused on commercial litigation.

Sheena R. Hamilton concentrates on employment litigation and internal investigations. Primarily, Sheena defends public and private employers in state and federal courts and before administrative agencies nationwide. She leads strategy handling all aspects of litigation through trial and appeal. She also handles sensitive, high-stakes internal investigations for corporations, public entities, and educational institutions, bringing experienced judgment to matters that demand independence, credibility, and strategic clarity. Her focus is helping prevent and address concerns through comprehensive workplace, whistleblower, ethics, and Title IX investigations.  She is uniquely qualified to offer solutions and investigative findings are positioned to withstand regulatory, judicial, and public scrutiny.

During her tenure as the City Counselor, Sheena served as the chief attorney for the City of St. Louis, overseeing its Civil Law Department which housed more than 80 civil servants. In that role, she represented the City’s elected and appointed officials along with its boards, commissions, departments, and agencies – including St. Louis Lambert International Airport, the St. Louis Development Corporation, and the Metropolitan Police Department. This role deepened her executive leadership experience and broadened her exposure to a wide variety of complex civil and class action litigation, legislative review and enforcement, and complex investigations across a large, decentralized organization subject to overlapping regulatory and public accountability frameworks.

Sheena regularly speaks and writes on emerging legal issues. An author of more than 20 articles in publications such as Missouri Business and St. Louis Lawyer, Sheena also has been quoted as an authority on legal matters by The New York Times, Law360, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and the ABA Journal.

Early in her career, she clerked for the then-Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Jennifer Ivie-Lopez is a seasoned Total Rewards executive with over 20 years of experience leading compensation, benefits, HRIS, payroll, and HR operations across complex, multi-industry and multi-entity organizations. Built on a foundation of HR operations and business partnership, she combines strategic vision, operational depth, and a strong employee-centered approach to rewards strategy. As Director of Total Rewards for Toshiba Americas Group, she leads rewards strategy for the Americas, including enterprise job architecture, compensation modernization, and benefits harmonization. Jennifer is known for clear, data-driven leadership and for leveraging technology, analytics, and operating model redesign to create scalable, cost-aligned programs that strengthen organizational performance and elevate the employee experience.

Katie Chatterton serves as Assistant General Counsel for Labor & Employment at S&B, where she provides legal leadership and counsel on workforce-related matters, including employment law compliance, workplace risk mitigation, policy development, and labor relations. In this role, she supports business partners and operational leaders in navigating complex labor and employment issues in dynamic industrial and construction environments.

Justin Caruthers is a people operations and total rewards professional.  He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business from Austin College, and a Juris Doctorate degree in Law from Southern Methodist University.  Mr. Caruthers is licensed to practice law and is a certified compensation professional.  Mr. Caruthers has led and participated in several projects that involve designing reward programs, ensuring cash and benefits programs are competitively positioned and assisted with the procurement of various benefits products such as healthcare products, third-party administration agreements, and wellness vendor partnerships.  Prior to working with OppFi and Elevate in the FinTech industry, Mr. Caruthers spent time with Hilltop Holdings in their centralized human resources function designing and implementing a consistent reward program for their entire portfolio of companies.  Prior to joining Hilltop Holdings, Mr. Caruthers was a senior consultant within Hay Group’s compensation, benefits, job evaluation and compliance practices.  Prior to Hay Group, he served as the Coordinator of the Compensation Department at the Dallas Independent School District (DISD). Prior to DISD, he held the positions of Senior Analyst at Texas Utilities (TXU) in the Corporate Planning Department, Forecasting Analyst for ONCOR Electric Delivery, and Trading and Information Analyst for TXU Energy Trading.

Christapher Martin is Senior Analyst for Executive Compensation at Sysco Corporation, where he plays a key role in shaping compensation strategy and supporting total rewards programs that align leadership performance with organizational objectives. In this capacity, Martin works closely with HR, finance, and business leaders to analyze pay structures, support competitive benchmarking, and help ensure pay equity and market-aligned executive reward practices.

With a strong analytical foundation, he applies data-driven insights to complex compensation matters, contributing to decisions on incentive plans, salary structures, and long-term reward strategies that support retention and performance across Sysco’s leadership ranks.

Martin earned his graduate business degree from Rice Business – Jones Graduate School of Business, grounding his work in both practical and strategic frameworks for compensation and organizational performance.

Micah S. Heilbrun is Senior Director, Labor & Employee Relations at Phillips 66 Company in Houston, Texas. He leads the HR team for all unionized workforce management and non-union employee matters.  Before his current role, Micah spent 5 years as Senior Counsel, Labor & Employment for Phillips 66.

Prior to joining Phillips 66, Micah worked for Exxon Mobil Corporation’s Legal Department and Patterson-UTI Drilling Company as Senior Counsel and VP-Human Resources.  Before working in-house, Micah was in private practice with Littler Mendelson’s Austin and Houston offices specializing in labor and employment law.  He has been board-certified in labor & employment law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 2008.

Micah is a member of the Texas State Bar’s Labor & Employment Law Section, the ACC’s Traditional Labor Law Practice Group and the American Petroleum Labor Lawyers Association. He is a volunteer for the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program (HVLP) and provides pro bono representation for unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings through Kids in Need of Defense (KIND).

Micah earned his BA from Denison University (Granville, Ohio) and his law degree and Master’s degree in Industrial Relations from Wayne State University (Detroit, Michigan).  Micah played college football and lacrosse for Denison University and professional rugby for the Detroit Tradesmen for 2002-2004.

Selena Young is the Head of HR Business Partnering at Seadrill, where she drives global strategy across investigations, policy enforcement, executive communications, and organizational alignment. With over 20 years of experience in the industry, she is recognized for her ability to balance strategic vision with operational rigor while navigating complex transitions and ensuring compliance with employment law.

She leads a global HRBP team, shaping frameworks that protect credibility and integrity while fostering a culture of fairness and respect. Selena earned her post graduate education from Cornell University, further deepening her expertise in organizational leadership and strategic human resources.

A proud Houstonian, Selena treasures her role as wife, mother, and dog mom. Family is the cornerstone of her life. She brings the same energy, encouragement, and commitment to her family that she models in her professional leadership.

Tracy is a seasoned trial lawyer skilled at utilizing the litigation process to achieve her clients’ business goals.

Tracy has extensive experience in employment law, complex commercial litigation (including technology-related products and services), directors & officers’ litigation, general liability, and intellectual property.

Tracy’s experience in the area of employment law is deep and covers virtually all disputes that arise in the employment context, including litigation concerning the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), discrimination claims under Title VII, and workers’ compensation retaliation claims. She is board certified in Labor & Employment by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Tracy’s litigation background is extensive and covers a wide range of disputes—including commercial litigation, ERISA, IP, trade secrets, the enforcement of noncompete agreements, RICO, and securities fraud—in both federal and state court. Tracy uses this broad knowledge of the litigation process to help clients develop strategies that achieve underlying business goals in the most efficient manner possible. Her no-nonsense, business-centered approach is appreciated by clients from across the spectrum of industry and business, and she routinely handles matters for a wide range of organizations, including healthcare providers, institutions of higher education, school districts, public utilities, and a variety of private businesses.

Since 2020, Tracy also serves as an adjunct law professor at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, where she teaches a section in trial advocacy.

Taylor White partners with senior business leaders, HR professionals, corporate counsel, and decision-makers on employment decisions and litigation. He regularly advises employers on day-to-day issues, including requirements and best practices regarding discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims under state and federal employment laws, and he often counsels clients on a myriad of litigation avoidance strategies. As a litigator, Taylor is a zealous advocate on behalf of his clients for claims of wage and hour violations; discrimination, harassment, and retaliation issues; breaches of employment agreements; breaches of covenants not to compete and not to solicit; misappropriation of trade secrets; breaches of fiduciary duty and other employment-related torts; and other state and federal law issues stemming from workplace disputes. Taylor is the lead blog writer for employerlawresource.com.

Alex Amerine is a litigator representing employers and executives in complex employment and business disputes. Her practice includes defending clients in state and federal courts across a range of claims involving discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour issues, trade secret misappropriation, and breaches of contract, fiduciary duty, and restrictive covenants.

Alex also represents employers before the EEOC and state administrative agencies, managing all aspects of investigations and responses. She regularly drafts and argues dispositive motions, manages discovery strategy, and handles depositions and hearings in high-stakes litigation.

Beyond her litigation practice, Alex counsels employers on preventative measures and day-to-day compliance. She advises on onboarding materials, employment agreements, handbooks, restrictive covenants, and wage and hour matters under the FLSA.

Tracy is a seasoned trial lawyer skilled at utilizing the litigation process to achieve her clients’ business goals.

Tracy has extensive experience in employment law, complex commercial litigation (including technology-related products and services), directors & officers’ litigation, general liability, and intellectual property.

Tracy’s experience in the area of employment law is deep and covers virtually all disputes that arise in the employment context, including litigation concerning the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), discrimination claims under Title VII, and workers’ compensation retaliation claims. She is board certified in Labor & Employment by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Tracy’s litigation background is extensive and covers a wide range of disputes—including commercial litigation, ERISA, IP, trade secrets, the enforcement of noncompete agreements, RICO, and securities fraud—in both federal and state court. Tracy uses this broad knowledge of the litigation process to help clients develop strategies that achieve underlying business goals in the most efficient manner possible. Her no-nonsense, business-centered approach is appreciated by clients from across the spectrum of industry and business, and she routinely handles matters for a wide range of organizations, including healthcare providers, institutions of higher education, school districts, public utilities, and a variety of private businesses.

Since 2020, Tracy also serves as an adjunct law professor at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, where she teaches a section in trial advocacy.

Kevin Koronka is a Partner in Husch Blackwell’s Austin office and leads the firm’s Labor & Employment practice group. He focuses on advising and defending employers—particularly healthcare systems and providers—across high-stakes investigations, discrimination and harassment matters, non-competition agreements, reductions in force, and complex leave and accommodation issues. His approach emphasizes practical problem-solving over procedural compliance, delivering quick, actionable guidance that minimizes legal exposure while keeping businesses operationally focused. His litigation track record includes complete defense verdicts in workers’ compensation retaliation and discrimination jury trials, summary judgment victories in Title VII cases, and successful enforcement of restrictive covenants through injunctive relief.

Beyond courtroom advocacy, Kevin actively shapes employment law policy, having testified before the Texas legislature on multiple occasions and regularly counseling clients on emerging legislation. Chambers USA (2025) recognizes him for taking “a practical and real-world approach to handling issues of employee claims,” while Benchmark Litigation has named him a Future Star (2024-2026) and Austin Monthly has recognized him as a Top Austin Attorney in Labor & Employment (2021-2025). He earned his J.D. from Baylor Law School (Order of Barristers) and his B.A. magna cum laude from St. Edwards University.