hrsummit - Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

HR Summit 2025 Elevate

A one-day event designed to equip leaders like you with essential HR knowledge to navigate compliance, legal challenges, and workplace investigations confidently.

Information

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Date: April 9, 2025

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Location: Markham Woods SDA Church – Longwood, FL

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Time: 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM

What to Expect

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Classifying Employees Correctly: Exempt vs. Non-Exempt Demystified

Avoid costly misclassification mistakes and understand the legal differences between exempt and non-exempt employees.

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Handling Investigations with Integrity: Protecting Your People & Organization

Learn step-by-step investigation techniques to ensure fairness, minimize risk, and maintain credibility in the workplace

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Leaves & Accommodations: What Every Leader Needs to Know

Understand FMLA and ADA to support employees while staying compliant.

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HR Hot Topics & Legal Updates: What’s Changing in 2025?

Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your leadership and gain critical HR insights to help you lead clearly and confidently.

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Burnout & Self-Care: Leading Without Running on Empty

Gain practical strategies to prevent burnout, prioritize self-care, and lead with resilience.

Online registration is closed

Online registration is closed, but free registration will be available onsite.

2025 HR Summit Speakers

Joseph Rivera

Devotional
Beyond Policies: Spiritual Reflections for HR Leaders

Joey Rivera serves as the Vice President of Mission and Ministry for AdventHealth’s West Florida Division, overseeing 15 campuses. In this role, he leads the Chaplain Corps, Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program, and the Spiritual Integration program, while also managing AdventHealth’s global mission initiatives in Ecuador, Poland, and Chile. An ordained Seventh-day Adventist minister with over 20 years of ministry experience, Joey is a Certified Educator with the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE). He has spent the last 14 years in clinical ministry, including as a chaplain, CPE educator, and manager of the CPE program at Texas Health Huguley Hospital. Joey proudly served as a Chaplain in the Navy Reserves. Additionally, Joey completed the AdventHealth Executive Leadership Program, enhancing his leadership capabilities within both healthcare and spiritual care settings. Joey earned a double major in Theology and Behavioral Science from Southern Adventist University and holds a Master of Divinity from Andrews University. His passion lies in integrating faith with healthcare, developing and empowering individuals and teams to address spiritual and emotional needs with compassion and care. Joey and his wife, Denise, are celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary this year. They have a daughter, Ashley, a registered nurse at AdventHealth Winter Park. Joey enjoys camping, off-roading, and traveling with his family.

Natalie Ivey

Keynote: Navigating Employee Relations
Seminar: Fundamentals of HR Investigations

Natalie Ivey is the Founder & CEO of RPC Human Resources, a company she founded in 2002 and based in Daytona Beach, Florida. Natalie is an HR consultant, licensed private investigator and author of How to Conduct Internal Investigations: A Practical Guide for Human Resource Professionals (2013). Her first book, published in 2013, has received great book reviews on Amazon, HR Magazine, and Security Management magazine. The second edition of her book will be released in early May 2025. Natalie is also the host of The HR Investigations podcast: Exploring the Issues, Challenges, Strategies, and Solutions, available at rpchr.podbean.com, iHeart, Spotify, and Apple iTunes. Natalie is notorious for saying, “the best investigation is the one you don’t need to conduct” as her philosophy is to ensure that supervisors and managers are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to manage effectively in the current, very complex U.S. work environment. Natalie’s most popular management training program is Contemporary Leadership: Driving Results & Managing Risk as this program educates leaders on theimportance of achieving organizational results while also minimizing the risk of fines and penalties for violating employment laws and losing talented employees. Natalie resides on a small farm in DeLand, FL with her husband, Ken, and their beloved rescue dog, Luke, a French Brittany Spaniel. In her leisure time, Natalie enjoys quality time with her family, caring for animals, cooking for a crowd, sewing, saltwater fishing, and restoring antique furniture.

Nick Howard

Plenary Session: Beating Burnout: Skillfully Fighting the Good Fight

Seminar:Godly Self-Care: The Uphill Path to Flourishing

In his mid-twenties, Nick sensed a surprising calling from God to serve pastors. That led to earning his doctorate in clinical psychology from Wheaton College in 1999, and soon he began seeing some pastors for therapy. In 2002, he felt led to serve pastors as well through providing coaching and leadership development services. Since 2005, Nick has had the distinct privilege of working with Florida Conference providing coaching skills training, self-care training, and individual coaching and therapy services. Nick’s therapy and coaching practice, the Finish Well Group, is based out of Virginia. His team shares his evangelical Christian values and passion for helping Christian leaders in Florida, Illinois, and other states as well.

Ruben Gandia

Seminar: Creating a Culture of Compliance

Mr. Gandia received his B.A in Psychology from Southern Adventist University in 1997 and his Ed.S. in School Psychology from the University of Tennessee in 2001. He received his J.D. from Texas Southern University in 2014. Mr. Gandia was appointed Associate General Counsel in September of 2022. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Gandia clerked in federal district court and the court of appeals, worked at a global law firm, at a litigation boutique, and served as Assistant General Counsel for a public state university.

Practice areas: Employment (human resources, compliance), contracts (MOUs, employment agreements), education (academies, higher education), and general advisement to GC institutions and departments.

Stephanie Marchman

Seminar: Classifying Employees Correctly

Stephanie Marchman is a Florida Bar Board Certified Labor and Employment Lawyer and Shareholder at GrayRobinson. Stephanie’s law practice focuses on representing employers, including religious organizations and non-profits, in all aspects of labor and employment law, including developing employment agreements and policies, guiding employers through day-to-day employment challenges, conducting workplace training and investigations, and representing employers in arbitrations and administrative, state, and federal litigation.

Bob Burrow

Seminar: Balancing Conflicts of Interest with Moonlighting and Side Hustles

Robert “Bob” H. Burrow serves as General Counsel for the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists. In that role, he provides legal advice for NAD leadership and support for the Unions and entities within NAD. Previously, he served as Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, and General Counsel for Adventist Risk Management, Inc. In that role, Bob was responsible for hundreds of cases against SDA entities involving employment issues, catastrophic injury issues, misappropriation of funds, sexual misconduct, discrimination, and others.
Bob was also previously associated with the Baltimore law firm Bouland & Brush, LLC where he gained extensive bench and jury trial experience. His practice primarily focused on defense litigation, including representing several SDA entities from case selection through trial.
In addition to disputes and cases, Bob advises various SDA entities on legal and administrative topics. He has a detailed understanding of SDA entities’ operations, particularly the challenges faced by school administrators and teachers. This understanding allows him to effectively assist church administration.
Bob holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland School of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Columbia Union College, now Washington Adventist University. He is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and the United States District Courts of Maryland and Washington, D.C., as well as the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. He has also been an active member of the Defense Research Institute, Society of Human Resource Managers.
Bob is married to Lisa Burrow. They have two adult sons, Aaron and Andrew. They live in Maryland and are all active members of the Spencerville SDA Church in Silver Spring. Bob loves spending time with his family, the beach, skiing, nature photography, reading, and all Philadelphia sports teams.