Start Date: 11/18/2026 8:45 AM EST
End Date: 11/18/2026 10:00 AM EST
Venue Name: Virtual Zoom Meeting
Organization Name:
HR Alliance DC
Contact:
Welcome and Speaker Introductions 8:45 - 8:55 AM
Join us on time for this virtual event so we may welcome you and set the stage for this AI panel.
Program: 8:55 - 10:00 AM
Program Overview:
This session, featuring individuals with varying roles who are seeing AI shift conversation, working norms and expectations across the board, will be talking about AI implementation and the practical considerations, opportunities and pitfalls that they are seeing real-time with some insight around how to think about AI as tool to augment and enhance rather than something to see as a threat. Subthemes will touch upon upskilling and development, platform feedback, managing the change and helping people see the opportunities that come with introducing AI into practices at your organization. The aim is to pique your curiosity and to get you thinking about where there may be opportunities in your organization and why framing the conversation and goals around AI implementation and introduction is critical.
Learning objectives:
- Things to consider as you integrate AI into your work and teams.
- The impact of introducing AI as a component of work and metrics on your team.
- How to build your team and skills to meet the needs of work with AI today.
Panelists:
- Nat Emery, Founder and CEO, LearnSpectrum
- Derrick Pledger, Chief Digital & Information Officer, Maximus
- Lygeia Ricciardi, Founder and CEO, AdaRose
Moderator: Janet Brewer, Chief People Officer, Arcfield
Nat Emery is the CEO and Founder of LearnSpectrum. Nat founded the company in 1998 on just a theory that customers needed help with managing external learning & development. He never thought that he’d be working with everyone from start-ups to the nation's largest corporations.
As a CEO with 25 years in the professional training and coaching industry, Nat experienced the transformation of employee training and development. He welcomed the new technologies. Nat embraced the shift from "training" to "learning" human capital, and talent development. He continues to evolve LearnSpectrum’s enterprise learning & development solutions to allow clients to gain time, save money, broaden their L&D programs, and achieve their goals.
Derrick Pledger is Chief Digital and Information Officer at Maximus, leading digital and AI-enabled transformation across the enterprise. He draws on expertise spanning strategy, P&L management, large-scale system implementations, software development, cybersecurity, and AI-driven digital transformation to drive value, efficiency, and improved service delivery for government customers.
In his role, Derrick leverages existing and emerging technologies to drive outcomes internally and externally for Maximus’ government agency customers, overseeing digital modernization across the enterprise.
Before joining Maximus in 2024, Derrick served as CIO at Leidos, overseeing global IT operations for that $16 billion enterprise with more than 47,000 employees. His leadership was instrumental in executing digital and enterprise strategies, supporting worldwide delivery operations, and securing major contract awards in technology and federal mission support.
Derrick serves on the Board of Directors of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and on advisory boards for Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business and Howard University’s Center for Digital Business. He chairs the CIO Council at WashingtonExec, is a published author, and is a frequent speaker and executive trainer. In recognition of his contributions to federal IT, he was named a 2026 Federal 100 Award winner by Nextgov. Derrick is also a U.S. Army veteran, having completed multiple tours of duty in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa.
Lygeia Ricciardi is the Founder and CEO of AdaRose, which provides personalized, gamified team wellness programs to employers to enhance employee productivity, engagement, and wellbeing. Lygeia has spent more than 20 years at the vanguard of the patient engagement movement in digital health, in both the public and private sectors, and has been named among the Top 30 Voices Transforming Wellness, Most Influential Women in Health IT, and the 50 Most Influential Voices in Healthcare.
Lygeia is a frequent speaker and blogger and has appeared in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and Consumer Reports. She holds a Masters in Technology in Education from Harvard and a BA from Wellesley College. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband, daughters, and two Siamese cats.
Moderator:
As chief people officer at Arcfield,
Janet Brewer is responsible for developing and executing the company’s people-related initiatives including organizational development, talent acquisition, total rewards, employee experience and engagement.
Janet has almost 30 years of experience in global human resources, leading large teams and managing business transformation through mergers and acquisitions and scaling for growth. Throughout her career, her focus has been on maximizing the impact of companies by effectively leveraging the power of communications, HR and technology to achieve sustainable business results. She is passionate about empowering people to perform at their best and love what they do every day.
Prior to joining Arcfield, Janet was the vice president of human resources at Peraton, where she oversaw a 50-person team responsible for strategic human capital consulting and employee relations. She held a similar leadership role at Perspecta, before the company was acquired by Peraton. Before joining Perspecta, Janet held various roles of increasing responsibility at SAP, including SAP Concur and SAP SuccessFactors, as well as working at the company’s global headquarters in Germany for two years as an expat. Earlier in her career, Janet managed leadership development programs and delivered technical training at Freddie Mac, Experian and MicroStrategy.
Janet earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the College of William and Mary, a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from Marymount University.
Professional Development:
This program has been pre-approved for 1.0 HR (General) recertification credit hour toward aPHR®, aPHRi™, PHR®, PHRca®, SPHR®, GPHR®, PHRi™ and SPHRi™ recertification through HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®).
HR Alliance DC is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP® recertification activities. This program is valid for 1.0 PDC for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP®. For more information about certification or recertification, please visit shrmcertification.org.
Staff Notes:
After you successfully register from the website, you will receive an email confirmation. Within that confirmation email there will be a link to join our fully virtual program. We will also re-send the program link the day prior and about 45 minutes before the program start time.
Registration will close for this event at 4:00 pm on November 17th.
Pricing for this Virtual Program:
- Members:
- Individual and Organizational Members - Free; HR Practitioner Guests - $50
- Annual Sponsors - Free; HR Practitioner Guests - $50
- Org. Member Substitutes - Free (promo code must be entered)
- Public (Non-Member)
- HR Practitioners: $75
- Service Providers/Vendors: $125
