Our 2022 Leadership Team

Xaulanda Simmonds-Emmanuel, Co-President

Xaulanda is currently the Senior Consultant for Urbander, specializing in Strategic Marketing, Business Development, and Diversity & Inclusion. With a BA in Business Administration and MBA in Healthcare Administration, she is currently pursuing a PhD in Industrial Organizational Psychology.

Leon Jablow IV, PhD, Bi-monthly Programs VP 

Leon is owner and president of IV Consulting Group, a management consulting firm focused on leadership development, coaching and advisory services and facilitation.
A graduate of the US Naval Academy, Leon served for 22 years as a Naval Officer. He was Vice President of Business Development and Strategy for a defense contracting service and continues to consult serving clients across government, academia and commercial sectors.  His specialties are leadership development, organizational change management, advisory services, coaching, training and education and research and analysis.  He earned a PhD in Leadership/ Organizational Management, a MA in International Relations, a MA in National Security Studies, and a BS in History.

Tara Goodlander, Membership VP

Tara (pronounced  tar-uh vs tear-uh) is a Senior Talent Management Specialist at Momentive.ai (formerly SurveyMonkey). With a Masters in I/O Psychology, Tara’s experience includes roles in Succession, Talent Development/Management, and Leadership Training. After moving to Florida, she enjoyed 9+ years in Talent Management roles within in the Central Florida health care systems before joining Momentive.ai. She is a Certified Coach with iPEC and holds a number of additional licenses and certifications. As an activist, she dedicates her efforts to animal welfare and LGBTQ+ organizations most often.

Peggy Jackson, Secretary

Peggy is Principle Consultant with Thrive Development Partners, LLC. and works with business leaders and professionals to elevate their professional performance through group facilitation and individual coaching. 

Donna Hogan, Treasurer

Donna is an Organization Effectiveness Sr. Specialist with Lockheed Martin. With over 30 years of experience in Human Resources, she has expertise in Learning and Development, HR Business Partner, EEO/AAP and Compensation and Performance Management.  Donna is a certified coach and Prosci Change Management certified and is currently focused on transforming how learning and development is delivered in line with workforce of the future principles. This includes building self directed learners using a social collaboration group built on SAP JAM platform.

Clayton Alves,  Community Programs & Events Co-Director & Mentoring Chair

Clayton is a Senior Change Manager at Adventist Health Systems. He has a BA from Vanderbilt and  Masters from Carnegie Mellon.

Advisory & At Large Board

Kristin Chase

Kristin is the Senior Director of the Organizational Development (OD) department for Universal Parks & Resorts. She has contributed to Universal for 18 years through consulting and leading employee feedback surveys, performance and talent management, executive development and assessment, mentoring, competency model development, employee research, facilitation, and team effectiveness. She is a 2003 graduate of the UCF Masters' program in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. 

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinchase

Margo Hamel -- (Also our Auditor)

Margo is Principal at Empower Coaching and Consulting LLC specializing in personal, professional and executive coaching and performance consulting. She spent her last 30 years at SunTrust Bank in Private Wealth Management and SunTrust University specializing in leadership development and coaching, advisor development, instructional design, sales and sales management consulting, performance management, and client loyalty programs. Margo holds an MBA from Florida Institute of Technology and is a Registered Corporate Coach through the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches. 

Deborah Novak, Internal Consulting Co-Chair

Deborah Novak, MBA has helped leaders build high-performing sustainable teams for 15 years. She brings depth and breadth of change management strategies, executive coaching and leadership development design and delivery to being the Internal Consulting Co-Chair. She is certified in PROSCI change management, LMAP 360 Senior Executive Assessments and is a certified Marcus Buckingham Standout 2.0 Coach. As part of Florida Hospital, she presented nationally on Team Engagement as a Driver for Patient Experience, Employee Engagement, Retention and Promotion. She thinks strategically and builds strong collaborative client partnerships while delivering tactically. She is currently acting as an Interim Leader at DSN Consulting while she is looking for her next full-time internal opportunity. 

Richard Ray, Internal Consulting Co-Chair

Richard has over 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry with a focus on Talent for the last 10 years. He currently Training Manager for Seaworld Orlando and  holds two Masters degrees, one in Organization Development and Leadership and the other in Post Secondary and Adult Education. He likes to to network with individuals who have a passion in talent management and unlocking the potential in everyone.

Anisa Ali, Community Forum

Anisa Ali is currently a Senior Manager in Organization Development.   She has been with Universal Orlando Resort for 15 years, and started with the company as an intern.  Anisa obtained her undergraduate Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Florida (Go Gators!) and her Master’s of Science degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Central Florida.    She has spent her career in HR, and has been an Organization Development professional for 13 years.  Her organizational development role frequently involves project architecture/management, data analysis, consulting/writing on feedback surveys, succession planning, focus groups, research, analytics, employee engagement, 360 Feedback, leadership competencies and performance management.