2025 Message from Your State Director
Happy New Year!
I am honored and humbled to share my first message with you in 2025 as your State Director of Wisconsin State Council SHRM. We have an exciting year ahead of us, and I’m excited to work with everyone to make our State Council and Chapters an influential voice for HR in our state and support our nearly 6,000 SHRM members here in Wisconsin.
If we have not yet met, let me quickly introduce myself. My name is Jeff Palkowski, and I have served in several roles on the Wisconsin SHRM State Council since 2019. Before joining the Council, I served on the Board of Directors for the Greater Madison Area SHRM chapter. In addition to serving as State Director, I serve with national SHRM as the SHRM Foundation’s Ambassador for Individual Giving and as a SHRM Influencer for their Annual Conference. For my day job, I have worked in public sector human resources for the State of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin-Madison for nearly 20 years, but I will be retiring from my full-time role in early 2025.
Reflecting on 2024, we have plenty to be proud of: record attendance at our Workplace Policy Conference, hosting SHRM President & CEO Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. as a keynote speaker for our State Conference, and, for the second year in a row, having a Wisconsin affiliate chapter win a prestigious SHRM Pinnacle Award, this year going to Jefferson County Human Resources Association.
As we move into the new year, we would like to introduce our 2025 Wisconsin State Council SHRM Members:
| WI SHRM Core Council |
2025 |
| State Director |
Jeff Palkowski |
| State Director Elect |
Jen Zahari |
| Past State Director |
Connie Bitter |
| Secretary |
Jen Jirsa |
| Treasurer |
Annie Goffard |
| Conference Liaison Director |
Leah Rozeski |
| Certification/Progamming Director |
Kortney Jenks |
| Core Leadership Area Director |
Sheree Yates |
| College Relations Director |
Emily Blakeslee |
| Communications/Social Media Director |
Taylor Forshee |
| District Director - North West |
Jill Gorres |
| District Director – North East |
Margaret Baltus |
| District Director - South East |
Brittany Hanson |
| District Director - North Central |
Bobbie Moore |
| District Director - South West |
Mary Vogl-Rauscher |
| District Director Elect - South West |
Anita Herrick |
| Inclusion & Belonging Director |
Tanya Hubanks |
| Foundation Director |
Pam Berkovitz |
| Leadership Director |
Dani Stuhr |
| Legislative Director |
Jay Stephany |
| Membership Director |
Katelyn Spanbauer |
| Partnership and Sponsorship Director |
Amy Doepke |
| Workforce Readiness Director |
Kellie Dunn-Poggemann |
I look forward to working with this fantastic group of volunteer leaders as we work to provide you with both familiar and new offerings in 2025. We hope that you will save these events on your 2025 calendar.
Our first WI SHRM event will be our Workplace Policy Conference in Madison on February 19th—20th. Previously known as the “WI SHRM Day on the Hill,” we continue to provide our attendees with employment law and legislative updates to help prepare them for the legal and policy changes and challenges our industry can expect each year.
A few days later, WI SHRM is proud to partner with our fellow SHRM State Councils in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan to offer an entirely new event, the HR Conference Cruise, from February 22nd through 27th. This 5-day Caribbean cruise combines a relaxing getaway with pre-cruise webinars and onboard educational sessions, providing attendees with 15 SHRM and HRCI professional development credits. You can learn more about the HR Conference Cruise at: https://hrcruise.com/
On April 5th we are looking to roll out another new event, the inaugural WI SHRM HR Student Summit. While details are still being finalized, we are looking to host HR college students from across the state for a day of networking, panel discussions, and participation in a potential community service project. We are excited to bring together the future of HR for a day of education and connection.
The world’s largest HR event, the SHRM Annual Conference & Expo, will be held from June 29th to July 2nd in San Diego. We hope to see good representation from Wisconsin in sunny California!
Finally, our premier annual event, the WI SHRM State Conference, is back at the Kalahari Resorts in the Wisconsin Dells from October 8th to 10th. We are one of the top conferences in the Midwest and look forward to welcoming you to another excellent conference experience.
As you can see, we have plenty of great opportunities for our Wisconsin HR professionals in 2025. If you are a member of one of our 18 Wisconsin affiliate chapters, please also check out their event calendars. If you are not yet a chapter member, please consider contacting the chapter nearest you to learn more about what they offer. You can find contact information for our chapters here: https://www.wishrm.org/Chapters.
On behalf of the entire Wisconsin State Council SHRM, I wish you all a great year. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at StateDirector@wishrm.org.
Jeff Palkowski, MHRM, SHRM-SCP, PMQ, PHR
Wisconsin State Council SHRM State Director (2025-2026)
SHRM Foundation Ambassador for Individual Giving
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