7th Annual Wellness Forum & Vendor Fair – Pushing the Wellbeing Envelope

Jeanette Fuente is the VP of Programs and Conferences at Northeast Business Group on Health in New York City. She specializes in preventive health and worksite well-being and has over 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry. She has worked for Merrill Lynch, Hospital for Special Surgery, NYU Langone Health, among other institutions. Jeanette has led corporate wellness teams and start-ups in occupational health settings and large healthcare systems. She is a trusted partner who strategically collaborates with clients and senior leaders to create opportunities that significantly increase member engagement, revenues, and business growth. Jeanette earned a BS from the Hunter School of Health Sciences in Community Health Education and received her graduate education at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in the School of Sociomedical Sciences.  She is bilingual and fluent in Spanish, active in children’s theater, community food drives and fundraising. She has a dog named Finn who is a Doxiepoo and loves the outdoors!

Dr. Cunningham-Hill is an employee health expert known for his ability to create, identify and implement high-quality workplace health programs including prevention and screening, chronic illness interventions, and mental health and wellbeing initiatives. His broad occupational medicine and public health experience encompasses addressing chronic diseases impacting employers, employees and communities within the context of  social, cultural and racial determinants of health.

Mark has served as the Medical Director for Northeast Business Group on Health since early 2018. Until 2017, he served as Senior Director, Global Solutions Center and Head of Occupational Medicine at Johnson & Johnson, Inc . At J&J, Mark led a team of experts covering occupational medicine, health and wellness, personal energy management, EAP and mental wellbeing, and work-life effectiveness, and supported regional operational groups delivering health services to 135,000 employees in 120 companies. Prior to seven years at J&J, Mark spent 17 years at GlaxoSmithKline in both London and Philadelphia, including as Head of Global Operations, Employee Health Management.

Mark received his MB ChB, Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at Manchester University in the UK. He is a Fellow of both the American College of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, and the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, London.

With over a decade and a half of experience working in the Human Resources and Benefits industry, Mike has a passion for helping businesses build effective, supportive and productive corporate cultures. Mike spent nearly twelve years building and ultimately running Plum Benefits – an industry-leading employee benefit service providing companies with direct access to exclusive live entertainment events, travel, and dining. In this role, Mike developed and nurtured nearly 20,000 relationships with Human Resources departments of large and small businesses nationwide. An expert in employer to employee communications and engagement, Mike has spoken on panels and presented to thousands of senior executives, Human Resources professionals and associations across the country including but not limited to the Society for Human Resources Management (HR/NY Chapter), Association of Legal Administrators, Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, Financial Planners Association, Women in Financial, Insurance and Legal Services (WIFS), Marsh & McLennan Companies and many more. Mike was an advisor to the New York City Department of Health and helped them create an employer wellness, communications and resources package that was made available to all NYC based businesses. Mike is also a proud member and contributor to the TED community and attends the national conference each year. Currently serving as Vice President of Employee Benefits at Rethink, Mike works with companies nation- and world-wide to better serve the needs of employees’ children with Autism as well as other developmental disabilities.  Mike and the Rethink team are launching the first and only neurodiversity inclusion center that will help employers better accommodate employees with conditions like autism at work.

Kathleen Fennell has over 30 years of leadership experience with Delta Dental of New Jersey and Connecticut.  She rose steadily through the ranks in Human Resources and was promoted to Senior Vice President, Human Resources in 2016.

Kathleen leads a team that provides overall strategic Human Resource leadership and direction to the company.  In a very complex organization with management, hourly and union employees, she plays an instrumental role in developing a strong, collaborative culture.  

Kathleen developed Delta Dental’s talent management program to ensure the company has the right team and capabilities in place for the future. Its elements include recruitment, retention and employee relations. She created the succession planning program to ensure the continued vitality and success of the company.   She also created the leadership development program to prepare future leaders of the company.

She is a passionate advocate of volunteering. Kathleen helped establish the company’s associate volunteer program in the community. Delta Dental associates currently support more than 20 donation and volunteer events each year. Kathleen helped create the company’s volunteer policy, which gives employees up to two days off with pay each year to support a charitable cause. 

Kathleen is a member EWNJ (Executive Women of New Jersey) and both the Morris County and national Society for Human Resource Management.  She attended Berkeley College in New Jersey where she studied retail management.

Laurie Lovett is chief human resources officer of Verisk Analytics. She heads human resources and talent for the company and is in the top HR position for the company reporting to the CEO. Ms. Lovett is responsible for transforming the human resources function to align with the organizational redesign from a federation of business units to a centralized HR organization. Additionally, is responsible for driving business process improvement, employee experience and growth initiatives across Verisk. Ms. Lovett in responsible for integration of over 30 acquisitions during her time in role and international expansion in Europe and Asia. She is proud to have guided the organization to be certified as a “Great Place to Work” for 3 consecutive years since joining. Verisk is a leading data analytics company serving customers in insurance, energy and specialized markets, and financial services helping customers make better decisions with greater precision, efficiency, and discipline.

Before joining Verisk, Ms. Lovett spent over 20 years at Accenture in various consulting and HR leadership roles designing and implementing strategic operating models and talent management strategies to support business objectives in every region of the world. In her operations role she was responsible for learning and development, employee relations, onboarding, mergers and acquisitions, shared services, operational excellence, inclusion and diversity, and alumni strategies. Earlier in her career, Ms. Lovett held human resources management positions with the Hess Corporation and American International Group, Inc. (AIG).

Ms. Lovett is a board member of Girl Stats, a not-for-profit organization that encourages businesses to empower adolescent girls. The platform provides data and insights to target meaningful investments that advance the lives of young women around the world.

Ms. Lovett earned a master of science degree in organizational development from Stevens Institute of Technology and a bachelor of science degree in labor and industrial relations from Syracuse University. She has a passion for skiing, nature, and best in class infrastructures that enable people.

Cassandra Lammers is Vice President of Total Rewards at Audible, where Cassandra leads compensation, benefits, and people analytics & insights strategy, program implementation and administration. Cassandra is a strong believer in Audible’s People Principles – Activate Caring, Be Customer Obsessed, Imagine and Invent Before They Ask, Articulate the Possible and Move Fast to Make it Real, Study and Draw Inspiration from Culture and Technology.

Cassandra’s passion collaborative and creative solutions to business, employee, and community needs. Prior to joining Audible in 2016, Cassandra led multiple areas of total rewards operations for Samsung, General Electric, and Alcatel-Lucent (now Nokia).  Cassandra is a past member of the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC). She has extensive experience as a global contract negotiator and deal-maker. Among other distinctions, Cassandra has spoken at global and regional conferences in the Americas, Asia and Europe.

Cassandra is a New Jersey native, whose work has taken her many places, yet she always comes back to her home state, where she lives with her family. Cassandra is a graduate of Rutgers University, and she also attended the University of Michigan and la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She is currently pursuing an executive certificate in Data Science. Cassandra focuses her discretionary time and effort on family time, travel and causes that are dear, including Autism NJ.

Leadership requires us to be whole and resilient to engage with our fullest energy. Deb offers clients pathways to achieve results and live a healthy and rewarding life – providing practices,  tools, and strategies for her clients to live well and lead well. Deb combines a lifelong interest in health and fitness with her commitment to learning and teaching to nurture growth and  transformation for her clients.

• Partnering with a global organization of journalists and media professionals to build resilience and wellbeing as they navigated high stakes, high pressure challenges
• Delivering nursing care, education, and management in a variety of contexts: multi-hospital healthcare systems, outpatient clinics, and homecare/hospice
• Teaching a range of undergraduate university courses: Lifetime Wellness, Nutrition, Gerontology, Exercise Physiology
• Owned two fitness facilities and managed 320 franchisees as Mid-South District Manager, Jazzercise

Deb Bucci is the Principal for LiveWell Strategies. She received her nursing degree from Owens Technical College, her Bachelor’s degree in Human Development from The Ohio State University (Go Bucks!), MA in Health and Exercise Science from Furman University, MA in Organization Development and Change from Fielding Graduate University. Deb is also on track to complete her PhD in Organization Development, January 2020.