Faculty

Dr. Paul F. Clark is director and professor of the School of Labor and Employment Relations. His research interests include employment relations in the U.S. health care industry; union structure, government and administration; union member commitment and participation; and new union member orientation and socialization. He is the author of four books, including Building More Effective Unions, first published by Cornell ILR Press in 2001, second edition 2009. His research has appeared in the leading scholarly journals in industrial and labor relations and applied psychology.

Dr. Elaine Farndale ​is associate director of the School of Labor and Employment Relations and professor of human resource management. Dr. Farndale's areas of specialization and research include international and comparative human resource management (HRM); the power, professionalism, and roles of the HR department; HRM and firm performance; change management and HRM; eHRM and new HR delivery mechanisms; and HRM and employee engagement. She has presented numerous papers at international conferences and has published articles and chapters in both the practitioner and academic press. Dr. Farndale has also worked as an HR specialist for several years.

Dr. Antone Aboud is a professor of practice and director of online programs for the School of Labor and Employment Relations. From 1985 through 2012, he was a full-time consultant, developing risk management and investigatory policies and practices as well as management, leadership, and supervisory training. He has authored training programs taught in more than 40 states and the District of Columbia.

Sarah currently serves as the assistant vice president, human resources for TMNA Services (TMNAS). She joined TMNAS in 2012 as HR manager/HR business partner before being promoted to director in 2013 and AVP in 2017. In her current role, she has responsibility for overseeing and directing the implementation of human capital initiatives in alignment with business strategy. She serves as a trusted advisor to the company's executive management, assists with global initiatives in partnership with Tokio Marine Global Talent Management Group, and leads TMNAS’ human resources business partner and talent acquisition teams. Prior to joining TMNAS, she spent nine years in regional HR and corporate associate relations roles at Nationwide Insurance. She began her career in HR at Dana Corporation in 1999. She also possesses numerous certifications, including Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP), Global Professional in Human Resources (GPHR), Compensation Management Specialist (CMS), Certified Employee Benefit Specialist (CEBS), Certified 401(k) fiduciary (C(k)PF), Certified Compensation Analyst (CCA), and Associate Fellow, Talent Management through TMI/Wharton. 

Mathew Barkley is the human resources director for the Pepsi Beverages Company Southwest area of Arizona, New Mexico, and west Texas. He is responsible for developing the strategic people agenda for approximately 1,700 sales, manufacturing, and supply chain employees. His diverse background includes more than 11 years of experience in human resources and another 8 years of sales leadership and operational roles in the consumer electronics, telecommunications, and health care fields.

Valerie Braman is a lecturer in labor and employment relations courses and a labor educator. Previously, she was employed by the American Federation of Teachers as a staff representative and affiliate organizer. She also served as an instructional reform facilitator and bilingual English teacher at Kensington High School for the Creative and Performing Arts in Philadelphia.

Kathleen Conlan has worked in the labor movement all her adult life. She started in the Research Department of Service Employees International Union, and she retired as the education director for the Laborers' International Union of North America in 2012, where she was responsible for developmental classes for the union's leadership. She also served in the AFL-CIO legislative department. She taught online and residential classes at the National Labor College from 2000 until 2014.

Renata Dash is an attorney who specializes in labor and employment law. She first practiced labor and employment law for the private sector at a nationally recognized law firm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, later moving to a position as the associate general counsel in-house at an international labor organization. She holds licenses in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Tennessee, and before the U.S. Court of Appeals in the Sixth and Seventh Circuits.

Michael Eggert began his career as a field examiner for the Pittsburgh Regional Office of the National Labor Relations Board. Subsequently, he was a private attorney in employment and labor law for nearly 11 years, representing a variety of clients that included employers, individual employees, and several union locals. Between 1998 and 2009, he held positions as the director of human resources for the cities of Altoona, Pennsylvania, and Port Orange, Florida, and for The Arc of Centre County, Inc., Pennsylvania.

Nicholas Enoch is a partner with the Phoenix/Denver/El Paso law firm of Lubin & Enoch, P.C., which focuses on the representation of labor unions throughout the Southwest. He routinely appears before arbitrators as well as all courts and administrative agencies in matters arising under traditional (e.g., National Labor Relations Act, Railway Labor Act, Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act) and non-traditional labor and employment law.

Kathleen Evans is a 15-year-veteran of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, where she gained experience as a field representative in negotiating contracts, grievance processing and arbitration, training members in advocacy, expert witness testimony in fact findings, and dealing with various employment issues for teachers and school support personnel. She has also been a classroom teacher, librarian, and local union president.

Dr. Kayla Follmer is an assistant professor at the Perdue School of Business, Salisbury University. Prior to completing her graduate work in psychology, she served both as director of administration and director of member services for the Foodservice Consultants Society International.

Dan Garrison is vice president of human resources for Milliken & Company. He began his career with Milliken working in process improvement. He later moved into education and human resources. Dan has held positions in twelve of Milliken’s manufacturing locations and worked at the corporate headquarters as a division MPS director. Dan has worked with locations in the U.S. and manufacturing in France, Belgium, England, China, Australia, and India. In addition to his role at Milliken, Dan is a part-time instructor at Penn State. Dan is also actively involved in Milliken’s college recruiting activities. 

David I. Goldman serves as a U.S. administrative law judge (ALJ). In this capacity, he adjudicates cases for the National Labor Relations Board. Prior to that, he served as an ALJ for the Social Security Administration, hearing claims for social security disability. Prior to becoming an ALJ, he served as assistant and then associate general counsel for the United Steelworkers of America, AFL–CIO, CLC, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Dennis S. Gouran, a specialist in group communication, has received awards for scholarship, including the Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Communication Association, and Penn State's Faculty Scholar Medal for the Social and Behavioral Sciences. He is the author of more than 100 books, articles, and reviews dealing with communication in groups.

Dr. Tara Habasevich-Brooks' current research interests include work and family, and women's employment and child care. Previously, she worked for several years as an HR manager. In addition to teaching, she currently works as a research consultant for various clients and as a financial caseworker.

Julie Hartley has served in a variety of human resource management roles for more than 20 years. She is the director of human resources at Foxdale Village, Inc., a continuing care retirement community in State College, Pennsylvania. Prior to that position, she was human resources manager at the Centre Area Transportation Association in State College. She has achieved both SPHR and SHRM-SCP certifications.

Dr. Roz Jaffer is a professor of management, human resources, diversity, and leadership. She is a consultant for both public and private businesses, and she has provided a wide range of professional development seminars and training programs. Dr. Jaffer has served as an academic department chair at various higher education institutions. She has also held several other positions in the areas of diversity and inclusion, affirmative action, human resource management, housing, and Title IX.

Dr. Jill Jensen serves as an instructor with the School of Labor Studies and Employment Relations and as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Redlands, California. She has focused on the study of comparative labor law and social policy, human rights, and global labor markets and trade. Her academic work analyzes the history of the International Labor Organization and its attempts to formulate and monitor international labor standards in the global economy.

Larry Kaye, Esq., consults with individual attorneys and firms on persuasion strategies and litigation training. After law school, Larry clerked at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims for the Honorable Christine Miller. After completing his clerkship, Larry opened his own practice in Montgomery County, Maryland, to focus on civil litigation, employment, and civil rights. Larry is licensed to practice law in Maryland and the District of Columbia, and he practices in state and federal court. He has been a featured speaker on local and national television and radio, and on television and radio in France and Canada, speaking on the subject of litigation. He is a frequent speaker to attorney groups on the subject of litigation strategy, and he trains individual attorneys, firms, and government legal staff on litigation strategy and improving courtroom effectiveness.

Dr. Taesung Kim has more than 10 years of experience as an internal manager and external consultant in the field of human resource development and management. Most recently, he worked for KPMG Korea, a Korean member firm of the KPMG global network that provides audit and business advisory services, as a senior manager in the Learning and Development Center. He served simultaneously on the HR Steering Group, the Labor-Management Council, and the Promotion and Communication Steering Group.

Mark Linsenbigler is employed as the occupational health and safety manager at Penn State. His background includes occupational safety and health experience in a variety of industries, including light and heavy manufacturing, construction, and municipal environments. He is also recognized as a certified safety professional by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals.

Dr. Charles Lumpkins' research focuses on the history of working-class African Americans. He is the recipient of several honors, including the Illinois State Historical Society Certificate of Merit for Scholarly Publication for his article "American Pogrom: The East St. Louis Race Riot and Black Politics." He has also written about the civil rights movement in Maine, notably in an article reprinted in Maine's Visible Black History: The First Chronicle of Its People (2006), edited by H.H. Price and Gerald E. Talbot.

Mary MacDonald served as director of the health care division of the American Federation of Teachers, representing more than 100,000 nurses and health professionals, for 20 years. Prior to that, she worked for the National AFL-CIO in their Education and Community Services Divisions and staffed the AFL-CIO Labor Law Task Force. She has taught a variety of courses as a labor educator for Cornell University. She frequently speaks on health care industry issues, and she has served as the chair of the Maryland Health Care Foundation.

Dr. Paolo Marinaro is a lecturer in labor and employment relations and a researcher affiliated with the Center for Global Workers’ Rights at Penn State. His research focuses on precarious workers organizing in Mexico and the U.S., with particular attention to the border area. He explores issues related to trade union practices, alternative strategies of labor organizing, and the future of workers. Employing an intersectional approach, he analyzes how the dialectic between global economic restructuring, the renegotiation of gender identities, and different migration regimes shapes labor relations in North America.

Dr. Joe Martocchio joined the Penn State HRER program as an instructor after 30 years as a professor of human resource management in the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. At Illinois, he taught master’s-level courses on employee compensation systems, statistics, employee benefits, human resource training and development, and employment systems. At the doctoral level, he has taught seminars on human resource management theory and strategic micro research methods and processes. Dr. Martocchio has written three textbooks in the fields of compensation, employee benefits, and human resource management: Strategic Compensation: A Human Resource Management Approach (10th edition, January 2019), Employee Benefits: A Primer for Human Resource Professionals (6th edition), and Human Resource Management (15th edition).

Dr. Allison Maurer has extensive experience in both the science and practice of management in the government (e.g., United States Secret Service and Department of Justice) and other business areas (e.g., Panera Bread, March of Dimes, and Badges for Vets). Her current research interests fall broadly into two categories: personnel selection and managerial decision-making. She has also taught a range of management courses at more than seven higher education institutions, including Penn State.

Sean Moeller works as the director of administrative services for the College of the Liberal Arts. One of his responsibilities is to oversee human resources for the College. Originally from lower Bucks County, Pennsylvania, he spent several years serving overseas in the United State Marine Corps.

Dr. Tunde Ogidan is a proven HR leader with extensive experience across multiple HR disciplines. He has held a number of senior positions in the field of human resources and has been responsible for providing strategic HR leadership and executing HR, market-level, and enterprise-wide initiatives. He is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). Dr. Ogidan has about 15 years of human resource experience that includes organizational development, human resource technologies, compensation and benefits, performance management, strategic talent development, workforce planning, recruiting, change management, training and development, succession management, competency identification and development, and career development and progression.

Dr. Brian Redmond is an associate teacher professor in LER. He had worked in several organizations (manufacturing, financial, education, management, and service) before deciding that education was his true calling. He still occasionally performs organizational consulting, specifically, leadership assessment and online education. Dr. Redmond teaches and authors courses in leadership that span the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels. He has been teaching online since 2004. He has published and presented research and applied solutions regarding online education since 2003.

Fantasy Sharrett is a SHRM–certified senior HR business partner with more than 15 years of proven experience in overseeing full-cycle HR responsibilities, including strategic alignment of talent management and business KPIs to achieve key deliverables for financial success. In her professional capacity, she is responsible for leading key HR functions through planning, implementing, and evaluating HR policies, programs, and practices. She is responsible for professionally engaging leaders and managers to solve complex employment law, workers' compensation, and FMLA/ADA cases, as well as terminations and sensitive employee investigations.

Timothy Shick has been in the field of human resources for 12 years, working in health care, service, and manufacturing settings, in various HR capacities. He is a part-time consultant, as well as lecturer. During the past eight years, he has been a part-time faculty member for Penn State. His major areas of interest are staffing, training, labor and employee relations, and policy.

Dr. Patricia Shope, in addition to teaching in higher education, has held human resources and training positions in health care, manufacturing, community development, and secondary education. She is also a self-employed consultant specializing in organizational leadership, human resources, and customer service training. Dr. Shope has entrepreneurial experience as owner/vice president of a franchise operation and economic development consulting.

Dr. Kristoffer Smemo has published and presented widely on issues related to labor history. He is a member of the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the Labor and Working-Class History Association. His most recent submission, scheduled for publication in 2018, is titled, "The Rise and Fall of a 'New Dealized' Liberal Republicanism," in Beyond the New Deal Order, ed. Gary Gerstle, Nelson Lichtenstein, and Alice O’Connor (University of Pennsylvania Press).

Dr. Leslee Spiess' research interests include the structures and processes surrounding labor regulation, management strategy, and employee representation. She has taught comparative employment relations for several years. She served for many years in the Royal Australian Air Force as an air traffic controller and also worked in the hospital sector as a diagnostic radiographer.

Dr. Maja Vidovic has been a member of the organizing committees for several scientific conferences, focused on knowledge management, the contemporary role of trade unions, and international human resource management — both in Croatia as well as in the United States. She was the Academy of Management's Human Resources Division's ambassador for Croatia, and is the author of several book chapters and many scientific papers, predominantly focusing on human resource management.

Michael Wasser is the legislative and outreach director for the Department for Professional Employees (DPE) of the AFL-CIO. DPE consists of 22 unions representing nearly four million people in professional and technical occupations, ranging from NASA scientists and teachers to paramedics and actors, in Hollywood and on Broadway. Prior to DPE, he was a senior policy analyst for Jobs With Justice, and he served on the labor relations staff for General Motors at one of its assembly plants.

Marc Winters is a labor arbitrator, mediator, factfinder, and special magistrate. He provides alternative dispute resolution services for labor and employment arbitration and mediation, and he has more than 40 years combined experience and training. He is a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators and National Association of Certified Mediators. In addition, he has worked with the Pennsylvania Civil Service Commission as a labor mediation examiner. He also has served as an adjunct instructor at Geneva College.

Justin Zartman works for the Connecticut Education Association (CEA) negotiating teachers' contracts and representing teachers at arbitration and state labor board hearings. Prior to joining CEA, he worked for the National Labor Relations Board in their Fort Worth, Texas, office.

After receiving an M.A. in political science from the University of Pittsburgh, Zach began working for SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, a health care workers' union that now represents more than 45,000 health care workers. He played various roles over 17 years there, including organizing, leading collective bargaining, and arbitrating. He also served in various supervisory and administrative roles, including as secretary-treasurer of the local union. His time in labor movement has made labor and employment relations a true passion for him. While a firm advocate for workers’ rights, he also focuses on building labor-management partnerships. Besides teaching within labor and human resources, he also teaches with the LABOR School at Penn State, an outreach program in which he stays connected to the labor movement and also plays a role in promoting and supporting labor-management partnership.