Our Leadership Team

In 2012, an early plan for an association was outlined by founders Ben Gotkin and Gerry Crispin.

In 2016, the Association of Talent Acquisition Professionals was brought to life by a community of inspired and engaged volunteers.

Board of Directors

Each member of our volunteer board is elected to a two-year term. It’s with gratitude and pride that we announce our board members.

Officers

Christy Spilka

ATAP Board President
VP, Global Head of Talent Acquisition at iCIMS

Christy Spilka is the VP, global head of talent acquisition at iCIMS, the talent cloud company that accelerates transformation for a community of more than 4,000 customers, including 40% of the Fortune 100. Christy is responsible for leading the global talent acquisition strategy and team, ensuring that iCIMS has the right people on the right teams to achieve business success. With 20 years of experience, Christy is a passionate and avid supporter of providing top-notch talent experiences. Her expertise is in building talent acquisition teams that serve as a competitive differentiator. She believes that talent fuels organizational growth and the way that we attract, engage, hire, and advance top talent determines growth potential.

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Sarah Fell, MBA, LSSGB, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

Vice President
Head of Talent Acquisition, AEVEX Aerospace

In March 2023, Sarah joined Great West Casualty Company as Head of Talent Acquisition. Sarah is tasked with raising DEI standards to promote equitable and inclusive hiring practices to strengthen the business and do the right thing. Another key objective is to professionalize the recruitment process, training every recruiter to be a sourcing and recruiting SME. In Sarah’s past role she led HRO Today’s 2022 Recruitment Team of the Year – North America at AEVEX Aerospace. Sarah has also recruited for aerospace, medical, corporate, telecom, and tech roles. Sarah has an MBA in Business Analytics from University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management. She was also a 2022 OnCon Icon Top 10 Talent Acquisition Professional award winner.

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Tarah Littlejohn

Treasurer
Talent Acquisition Manager, Americas here at MoneyGram

Tarah Littlejohn currently leads the Talent Acquisition team for the Americas at MoneyGram, a Global Fintech company. With over 20 years in Talent Acquisition spanning staffing, executive search, and corporate recruitment Tarah has a wealth of knowledge across multiple industries and environments including healthcare, finance, retail, and IT. Her expertise includes developing TA Professionals to operate at both a functional and strategic level, and guiding business groups through growth and change management to ensure talent solutions align to business strategy. Her passions are data/analytics, process improvement, and finding efficiencies to create an elegant and agile TA process. Tarah is based in North Texas and when she isn’t making an impact in the TA world, she can probably be found at a yarn store searching for ideas for her next knitting/crochet project.

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Cathy Henesey

Immediate Past President
Executive Director of Talent Acquisition, AdventHealth

Cathy Henesey leads talent acquisition for AdventHealth headquartered in Orlando, FL. She has more than 25 years of talent acquisition and sourcing experience in a variety of industries, including IT, manufacturing, banking, and healthcare. Cathy’s expertise includes transforming teams to maximize process efficiencies using innovative sourcing strategies, funnel analytics, and workforce planning. Cathy has spoken at many national conferences, including the ITAA CEO Summit, ERE Expo, ASHHRA, and SOURCECON, and has been quoted in various newspapers including the Wall Street Journal. She has represented the recruitment industry in Washington D.C. as an advocate for the Immigration Visa Quota bill and healthcare initiatives.

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Rob Lockard

Secretary
Senior Recruitment Management Consultant, Helios HR

With 19 years of Talent Acquisition experience, professionally Rob is a Senior Recruitment Management Consultant with Helios HR.  Helios HR is an award-winning human capital and talent acquisition consulting firm based in Washington, DC.

Here, he partners with clients across the globe ranging from startups to the Fortune 500 to help them attract top talent, navigate changes in the modern workplace, and secure future leaders.  His efforts have helped to build cultures of intention – that have allowed his clients to retain an exceptional workforce that excels.

Originally from the Washington, DC Area, Rob currently lives outside of Kansas City, MO, with his wife and two young boys. A Navy brat, he is the only brother to four sisters, is an avid college (American) football fan, and a recovering college/semi-pro mascot.  His hobbies include kid wrangling, growing Bonsai, kayaking, and Shinrin-Yuko (Forest Therapy to some, “enjoys being outdoors” to others). His drive comes from experiencing new events (shiny object complex), learning, making friends, and being in or around water.

Outside of professional and personal realms, Rob also brings with him experience participating in and chairing the ATAP Membership Committee, participating on and leading numerous local community-based non-profit boards (in growth modes), as well as the honor of serving as both SHRM State Director for the District of Columbia (2012), and as President of the DC SHRM Board of Directors (2011), before being awarded the “Volunteer of the Year” award by SHRM-KC in 2014.

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Members

Chloé Rada

Member
Senior Director, Global Talent Acquisition Operations, Nielsen

Chloé brings 22+ years of data-driven Recruitment Operations and Employment Branding experience and is known for driving big ideas and empowering others to make a positive change for the future of Talent Acquisition. She is passionate about recruitment marketing, storytelling, candidate experience, recruiter enablement, and technology automation.

As the Sr. Director, Global Talent Acquisition Operations, she is responsible for the strategic management of the TA operations functions including delivering excellence and efficiency around our hiring processes, technology systems, candidate experience and employment branding strategies.

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Angie Alvarez

Member
Certified International Senior HR Professional, Scouter

I´d like to help empower TA professionals in LATAM. Latinx are always willing to learn and share best practices with others. From our side of the world, we can contribute to building a better world for all.

  • 20 years of experience in international companies

  • MBA, Certified as International Senior HR Professional by HRCI , SCRUM and CDE candidate by IDC Institute

  • Co-author of Hispanic Rising Star Vol III

  • Entrepreneur, Speaker and TA Professional with DE&I DNA

  • Founder of Scouter 1st low cost recruitment company in LATAM

  • Director of HR master degree program in CENTRUM Business School

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BJ McGuire

BJ McGuire

Member
Director, Enterprise Talent Acquisition, The Walt Disney Company

BJ McGuire is an executive with over 20 years of experience in talent acquisition. He has led talent acquisition teams within technology search firms, financial services, media and entertainment, and SaaS. Based out of Los Angeles, CA, BJ currently leads the global talent acquisition function for Procore Technologies. He is responsible for all aspects of talent strategy, sourcing, insights, operations, branding, and recruitment delivery across the US, EMEA, ANZ, APAC, LATAM, and CA. Prior to his experience with Procore, he spent 15 years leading the Corporate and Enterprise Talent Acquisition function for the Walt Disney Company.

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Melissa Thompson

Melissa Thompson

Member
Global Head of Talent Acquisition, Ford Motor Company

In November 2021, Melissa joined Ford as the first Global Head of Talent Acquisition.  Melissa’s focus is to transform Talent Acquisition to effectively meets the business hiring needs. Key objectives in this first year will be defining a global recruiting process model, developing metrics and reporting to drive operational excellence and delivering a global talent attraction strategy.

Melissa has held recruiting leadership roles at Nielsen, McGraw-Hill, Dell, Citrix, and Lenovo. She is a results-oriented, strategic Talent Acquisition leader with more than 25 years’ experience in Global Human Resources and Talent Acquisition. Her experience includes designing Employee Value Propositions, driving a “Passport to Recruit” training suite for managers, delivering ATS optimization and introducing the foundational CRISP recruiting process model.

Melissa is based in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex where she spends time with family and reconnect with friends from both college and high school.  Melissa is a farm-to-table restaurant aficionado and enjoys beach vacations. 

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Have a question for the board?

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Special Thanks to Our Founding Volunteers

Tara Amaral
Dan Black
Sarah Brennan
Tom Brown
Bryan Chaney
Ryan Christoi
Gerry Crispin
Jim D’Amico
Dean DaCosta
Tom Darrow
Nicole Dessain
Matthew Doucette
Rob Dromgoole
Eric Dunlap
Suzie Grieco
Lance Haun
Eric Jacquith
Christine Johnson
Ric Klinger
Michael Kannisto
Ric Klinger
Allison Kruse
Carl Kutsmode
Susan LaMotte
Jer Langhans
Steve Levy
Cindy McGregor
Rob McIntosh
Diana Meisenhelter
Crystal Miller
Danielle Monaghan
Chris Murdock
Chloé Rada
Pete Radloff
Tracey Richardson
Tim Sackett
Robin Schooling
Rayanne Thorn
William Uranga
Scott Weaver
Kara Yarnot
Derek Zeller

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