Level Up HR 26 Recap and Photo Gallery

Level Up HR 26 brought the Villanova HRD community together for a dynamic, future-focused week of learning, dialogue and celebration, culminating in a powerful day of in‑person programming that captured our values, energy and distinct impact. TLDR; it was awesome. Gallery of photos at the bottom - new LinkedIn headshots for all!

Day one of Level Up HR 26 opened with a presentation from Christopher Fernandez, former head of AI for HR at Microsoft.

Christopher is Founder and Principal of Agentic Connect, and he shared powerful insights from his extensive experience implementing AI at scale for organizations. Here's one of his most immediately applicable tactics for HR leaders unsure of where to start in establishing their organization's human plan of record for AI.

FIVE QUESTIONS TO ANSWER NOW

1. Do you have a documented AI adoption plan with people — not platforms — at the center?

2. Have you defined what the future role of each employee looks like after AI is implemented in their domain?

3. Are your incentive structures designed to reward contribution to AI systems — or inadvertently punish it?

4. Have you established a community of practice that crowdsources human expertise rather than just deploying top-down mandates?

5. Are you building a culture of Sovereign Architects — or a culture of passive AI users?

Answering these questions is where ROI actually begins.

Later sessions shifted attention to creativity and well-being in an AI‑enabled workplace.

In a conversation on creative health at work with Dr. Heather Cluley Bar-Or, Katina Bajaj reframed creativity as a whole‑body practice rooted in openness, play and flexibility. She emphasized that perfectionism limits innovation, that disagreement can fuel stronger ideas, and that constraints often unlock creative thinking rather than blocking it. She also noted that AI ultimately amplifies what humans bring into it. A playful, curious mindset keeps technology a tool for expansion rather than replacement. Participants were able to apply these ideas immediately through a creative exercise led by Dr. Cluley.

Dr. Casey Fiesler, Associate Professor of Information Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, opened our second day with a session in conversation with HRD professor Bethany J. Adams.

Her remarks challenged common assumptions about artificial intelligence, bias and learning. Dr. Fiesler emphasized that bias cannot be eliminated through prompting alone, that diverse voices are essential when assessing potential harms of new technologies and that AI should only automate work their human users already understand well. She also raised critical concerns about organizations removing entry-level roles in the name of AI efficiency, warning of a “broken ladder” that threatens long-term talent pipelines and leadership development.

Our in-person day featured a keynote by Grace McCarrick and a faculty panel exploring the future of work in the age of artificial intelligence.

Among her many well-observed and thought provoking points, Grace pointed out some of the very human challenges that we're facing in an increasingly automated workplace:

1. Common sense must now be taught. In the past children were parented not just by their guardians, but by their families and everyone around them. Things that we in older generations take for granted (take off your hat when you come indoors, rise and shake someone's hand when they walk into the room and greet you) were actually drilled into us by repeated social learning that Gen Z is missing. For HR managers with early career employees this could be a critical blind spot in orientation and culture building. You can't support your employees if you don't know what they don't know.

2. A strong point of view is the new smart. In the past being perceived as intelligent required you to know a lot of things off the top of your head. Today, we have access to more data and fun facts than ever before, so the name of the game is not quantity, but quality. What information do you ignore, and what do you integrate into your point of view? Having a strong point of view means being vulnerable because you're giving others insight into how your brain works and what you care about. They may take the opportunity to poke holes in your theories or challenge your perceptions, but that's why you need a strong sense of your values. Your point of view is your foundation, and others will be impressed by your ability to interpret data through your own lens.

3. Psychological safety is not emotional safety, and this has led to the rise of "safetyism." Psychological safety means that in a group, members can disagree with each other and criticize each other's ideas respectfully. Emotional safety means that no member of a group should have to experience negative emotions because of the words and actions of others. Psychological safety is a must for a fully optimized workplace because it allows the best ideas to rise through open dialogue and shared perspectives. Emotional safety might be nice in certain settings and relationships, but it stifles the healthy back and forth we need to show weaknesses in our plans and let others improve them.

For our final event of this year's conference, HRD faculty panelists Fiona Jamison, Helynn Nelson, and Kelly Jones examined how emerging technologies continue to reshape leadership, decision making and the role of human resources. Each of our panelists came from a somewhat different perspective in the HR landscape.

1. Fiona Jamison is VP of Research and People Analytics at People Results, a human resources consultancy that helps businesses to pool, parse and understand their data. She teaches People Analytics for HRD, and her contribution to the panel addressed the need for HR professionals to get comfortable working with data and telling stories with it. AI can gather information for us and even assemble it into a presentation, but understanding the story you're trying to tell with the data, and using it to influence leadership to make evidence-based decisions, is a fully human operation that we all need to learn.

2. Helynn Nelson is a Senior Manager and People Consultant for Google in the HR4HR space. She teaches Strategic Workforce Planning, and approached the discussion from the perspective of a leader who needs to decide what work will be done best by human beings while allowing AI to take on low value tasks that distract us from the core of our work: person to person communication and connection. She predicts that one of the harder transitions we will have to go through as professionals will be letting go of the work we don't need to do anymore. This is a great time to take stock of your workday and decide what tasks you would do away with if you had unlimited help.

3. Kelly Jones is Founder and CEO of The Jones Group, an executive coaching and leadership advisory practice supporting senior leaders, executive teams, boards, and investors. In his experience, this era is leading executives to desire authenticity and high emotional IQ. When leaders don't know where to start, he asks them to appreciate where they are and then decide where they want to go. This process requires our executives to be more transparent and vulnerable than they're used to being; they need to admit what they don't know and realize who might have the answers they need. That leads to a great space where HR is both qualified and needed to guide, measure, and inspire.

Their conversation reinforced a recurring theme throughout this year's Level Up: HR professionals are uniquely positioned to ensure innovation remains grounded in human insight and responsibility.

Several "thank yous" are in order:

1. The day was emceed with confidence and professionalism by HRD graduate assistants Abby Fortune, AnaLeah Overbey, Gina Imperiale, Kaitlyn Jashinski, and Alexis Seriana. Their interactive games, and prizes kept the room engaged while reflecting our community's collaborative spirit.

2. Level Up HR 26 was made possible through the generous support of conference sponsors Greater Valley Forge Human Resources Association and Philly SHRM. Longtime partners of Villanova HRD, both organizations continue to serve as essential collaborators, offering research, practitioner insight, and meaningful connections to the broader HR community.

3. During the conference, we announced a newly endowed scholarship for HRD created by a Villanova University alum. The scholarship represents a long-term investment in our students and the future of the profession: expanding access and supporting the next HR generation.