HRPA Meeting Details

Sheri Blades is a Coach and Consultant with extensive knowledge and experience in leadership, change and organizational effectiveness. Sheri thrives on building trusted relationships through meaningful conversations to effectively meet the needs and concerns of her clients. She’s always thinking of ways to offer different perspectives to help her clients move beyond self-limiting beliefs and to come to the best decisions to achieve their goals in life, career and beyond. When she is not consulting, Sheri can be found traveling to sunshine destinations, listening to audiobooks on long walks or making rum punch for friends and family.

Karen Mann is a results-driven Human Resources professional, with a passion for making a difference. As a collaborative leader and big-picture thinker, she has a proven ability to implement programs and initiatives, and stay focused on making work matter. She began her career as an HR business partner and has almost three decades of HR experience in national and multi-national corporations, across the technology, telecommunication, business-to-business services, and retail industries. Karen has held progressively senior HR business partner roles, managed a regional team of HR professionals, led a national staffing function, and in 2012 joined McLean & Company. McLean & Company is professional services firm which provides HR research, advisory services, diagnostics (e.g. engagement, DEI, retention, new hire, and exit surveys), workshops, and consulting for HR teams and also provides HR and leadership training. Karen’s first role at McLean & Company was as a Senior Consulting Analyst, conducting HR research and developing practical guides and tools for HR professionals to use in accelerating their HR projects. She also provided guidance to external HR clients on a wide spectrum of HR topics. Karen’s role has expanded along with McLean & Company’s explosive growth, and she is now the Vice President of HR Research, Learning Solutions, and Advisory Services. Her team of more than 40 professionals leverages their collective intelligence, insight, and experience to develop practical, evidence-based research, training, diagnostics, and highly rated experiences that solve our member’s toughest problems through development of HR research and learning products, and delivering advisory services, workshops, webinars, and training to our multi-national client base. Among the many new products she helped launch at McLean & Company are Executive Services, which provides strategic advice and support to CHROs and other HR leaders as well as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion services offering. Karen earned her MSc in International Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations from Manchester Business School in the UK and an Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree from McMaster University. She is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (Chartered MCIPD), holds the Certified Human Resources Executive (CHRE) designation, and is a Certified Coach Practitioner.

Alicia currently works in the higher education sector and is dedicated to student development and success beyond the classroom. In her current role, she manages a project devoted to cultivating the signature learning experience at Sheridan College. She is passionate about building relationships, has an eye for systems-thinking and is dedicated to designing processes to drive forward implementation outcomes. She is also a part time professor of Sociology at Sheridan. In her previous role at Sheridan, Alicia contributed to fulfilling its human rights, equity, diversity and inclusion commitments to foster respectful and equitable learning and working environments. Alicia worked in the non-profit sector for several years where she was an equity, diversity and inclusion consultant to Canadian and global corporations and firms which are leading the charge towards accelerating gender equality in the workplace. Before that, she spent her early career internationally overseeing research, programs and policies designed to improve the socioeconomic conditions of a population. Alicia is actively involved in the local community where she lives, serving as the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Program and Outreach Advisor for the Canadian Caribbean Association of Halton and as an advisor to the Halton Children’s Aid Society African Black Caribbean Advisory Committee. During the heights of the global pandemic in 2020, Alicia co-authored an anthology, 21 Resilient Women: Stories of Courage, Growth and Transformation. Alicia’s inspiration comes from her desire to live in a world where her children (and all children) are treated equitably and provided universal access to the highest quality educational resources and experiences to optimize their potential.

Ingrid Wilson is an accomplished Senior Human Resources Executive & CHRO and a Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Strategist, with almost 30 years of experience in corporate human resources, board, and business strategy. She has organizational experience with crown corporations, non-for-profit, public sector, private and public companies, in regulatory environments, with global expertise working for organizations with diverse operations, including the US and Europe. Ingrid is a recipient of the Top 25 DEI Person of the Year Award, 2021, The Canadian Multicultural Group. She has a deep knowledge in Culture, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and expertise in developing and executing on Corporate CDEI strategies through inclusive Talent Management and Leadership Development programs, Psychological Safety and Wellness Programs, Employee Engagement and Accessibility and Learning strategies to eliminate systemic issues and physical and technological barriers to foster an inclusive and safe and respectful work environment. Ingrid is also a recognized speaker and panelist on the topics of Systemic Racism, Unconscious Bias, and Inclusive Leadership. Ingrid is a trained mediator and facilitator providing facilitated sessions within several industries and organizations and within non-for-profit environments for organizations working with vulnerable and racialized communities. She is currently the Senior Director, Culture, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Walmart Canada, a position that allows her the opportunity to be part of the equity and inclusion journey lifting up our communities for financial sustainability, growth, and development through a focus on employment equity, health equity, wellness, education, and development.