Workshop Facilitator

Cindi has a robust career history, starting as a social worker in public education and falling in love with the training and development field. She completed her Masters of Education in Human Resources Development at Xavier University and has worked in not-for-profit, Fortune 500 and small businesses throughout greater Cincinnati with variety of titles and hats. Her greatest accomplishments are creating ah-ha moments for learners, and providing safe, friendly environments for open dialogue and questions. Cindi has experience with instructional design, classroom and virtual facilitation, consulting with business partners, launching enterprise wide learning management systems, leading change management activities during system implementation and building relationships. Gild has encouraged her path back to the classroom. Most recently, Cindi took on a new opportunity as a producer and host of Human Capital Institute's Nine to Thrive podcast.

Her heart is most full when visiting her like-a-nieces and nephews in Michigan. She loves adventure, travel, dark roast coffee and bargain shopping, and has travelled internationally to countries including South Africa, France, Scotland and Spain and more.

Workshop Facilitator

Kate’s background is in psychology, leadership development, law, statistics, and human resources. She holds two Master's degrees in Human Resource Management from Rollins College and Industrial Organizational Psychology from Northern Kentucky University. She is currently a Vice President of HR and has built the HR department she leads from the ground up. Previously to this role, Kate worked as a consultant conducting research within organizations and working with executives to establish plans for organizational change. Prior to that she worked as an HR Business Partner with Fortune-200 companies focusing in organizational development, executive coaching, championing culture, data & metrics analysis, project management, policy development, legal compliance, and performance management. She considers herself to be very curious, inquisitive, analytical, direct, compassionate, and empathetic.

Kate is also a wedding photographer and loves music (a collector of vinyl), trying new foods, traveling (especially to national and state parks). Originally from Orlando, FL, Kate has resided in the Cincinnati area for over six years and lives with her husband. She is also a huge animal lover and has two loving dogs and four adorable cats.

Workshop Facilitator

Kara is a HR practitioner with a Masters in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. During her Master’s program, she authored a thesis focused on mothers in the workplace, particularly how the presence of family-oriented workplace practices impact a mother’s career advancement potential. Kara has a passion for gender equality in the workplace, which led her to Gild Collective.

Currently, Kara is a Manager of People Operations and Analytics for a New York-based educational non-profit organization. Prior to her current role, Kara worked as a talent insights consultant and in human resources roles at Luxottica and L3 Technologies. Outside of work and school she enjoys golfing, tending to her flock of chickens, coaching a local high school girls golf team, listening to 80’s-90’s country music, reading, and kayaking.

Advisory Board Member

Eisha Armstrong, Co-Founder & Partner at Vecteris, is an information services business leader with 20+ years of experience creating and managing highly profitable data products, executive education products and advisory services. Her firm, Vecteris, provides product management consulting for small to medium-size Business-to-Business companies.

Previously, Eisha served as a Managing Director with E.W. Scripps, the diversified media company, where she led their new marketing analytics business, MarketPredict, In this role she led product management, data science, and data visualization.

Earlier in her career, Eisha held senior management roles with CEB, now Gartner, where she had profit and loss responsibility for CEB’s flagship advisory and analytics products for corporate finance executives. She was responsible for product strategy, team leadership, data and research quality, forecasting, sales support, marketing, key client relationship management, client utilization, competitive intelligence, and identifying and monetizing new opportunities.

She currently serves on the Advisory Board for Datazar and she is on the Board of Directors for Women Helping Women of SW Ohio and the Cincinnati Early Learning centers. She is a member of the Hamilton County Commission on Women & Girls and a Limited Partner in Next Wave Impact, which is working to increase women’s participation in angel investing while investing in companies that achieve both social impact and financial return.

Eisha earned her MBA at the Harvard Business School and her Bachelor of Arts in both Economics and Women’s Studies at the University of Kansas.

Advisory Board Member

Ben is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. 

An assistant professor of management at Cleveland State University, Ben researches and teaches human resource management and organizational behavior. His research has appeared in numerous scholarly journals, and he serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Business and Psychology. He is also a partner at the management consultancy Agility Consulting and Training, and his consulting clients span a wide range of industries and sectors. Since 2002, Ben has served as an officer in the U.S. Navy and is currently a commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve. He is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, and from December 2012 to December 2013, he served on active duty as an adviser to the Afghan National Police as part of NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan. 

Ben holds bachelor’s degrees in political science and communication from Villanova University and earned his master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology and Ph.D. in organizational science from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

When not working with dynamos of the business, academic and military worlds, Ben enjoys picking up heavy things and running (sometimes at the same time, but not usually). He lives near Cleveland, Ohio, with his wife and four rowdy children. 

Advisory Board Member

Amanda Thompson is a director of strategy and corporate development for the EW Scripps Company.  She has been advising businesses within corporations for 5 + years and started her career in financial auditing in 2003.  Besides advising businesses, she applies her financial acumen while researching industries and opportunities for corporate investments and acquisitions.  She enjoys working with entrepreneurs and advising them how to build a sustainable business for the long term.  As a graduate of Miami University of Ohio, she resides close to her alma mater in the suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio.  When she isn’t working, she is a busy mother to two beautiful children and spends a lot of time with family.