Our authorsThe Top HR and Government experts

Hennepin County (Minnesota) commissioner Linda Higgins was first elected to the county commission in 2012 after serving 16 years as a Minnesota State Senator, where she chaired the State and Local Government Committee and the Public Safety Budget Division, although not at the same time. At Hennepin, she is the past chair of the Health and Human Services Committee and currently chairs the Housing and Redevelopment Authority. She also is the Association of Minnesota Counties’ secretary-treasurer in 2015 and is the chair of the Behavioral Health Subcommittee of the National Association of Counties’ Health Committee. Connecting people and jobs is a passion of hers. This column reflects some of the work she is tackling at Minnesota’s most populous county. If you follow Linda on Facebook or Twitter, you’ll see she posts a lot of job openings so people can take advantage of the information.

Liz Hogan is a CPRW and the Community Manager at Find My Profession. She regularly shares her advice on job search strategy and resume writing with others. She is also passionate about volunteering and learning new languages.

Lois Zachary is an internationally recognized expert on mentoring and leadership. You’ve likely seen mention of Dr. Zachary’s books, or read her quotes in The New York Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Inc. Magazine, T&D, Leadership Excellence, The Chronicle of Higher Education, or other business and leadership news outlets.

Lou Adler is the CEO and founder of The Adler Group -- a training and search firm helping companies implement Performance-based Hiring(sm). Adler is the author of the Amazon top-10 best-seller, Hire With Your Head (John Wiley & Sons, 3rd Edition, 2007). His most recent book has just been published, The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired (Workbench, 2013). He is also the author for the award-winning Nightingale-Conant audio program, “Talent Rules! Using Performance-based Hiring to Hire Top Talent (2007).” Adler holds an MBA from the University of California in Los Angeles and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University in New York.

Lucy Reed considers herself an entrepreneur since she was a kid, from the lemonade stand she opened in her parent’s driveway at age 10 to the dog walking business she started while in college. She created the site Gig Mine to help like-minded business people take advantage of the growing sharing economy.

As co-founder and sole developer of Hourly, Brooke brings more than 15 years of leading application development to the company. Brooke started his technology career at The Motley Fool, where he served as director of engineering, and helped to build the website from a startup into one of the largest web properties on the Internet. Since that time, Brooke has worked on a number of broad based strategy and engineering projects for Match.com, SONY, Hotlist.com, NBC Universal, The Port Authority of NY & NJ (Smart Card Program), Unity08 and The Publicis Groupe.

Marc Miller is the founder of Career Pivot which helps Baby Boomers design careers they can grow into for the next 30 years. Marc authored the book Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for Baby Boomers, published in January 2013, which has been featured on Forbes.com, US News and World Report, CBS Money-Watch and PBS’ Next Avenue. Career Pivot was selected for the Forbes Top 100 Websites for your Career. Marc has made six career pivots himself, serving in several positions at IBM in addition to working at two successful Austin, Texas startups, teaching math in an inner-city high school and working for a local non-profit. Learn more about Marc and Career Pivot by visiting the Career Pivot Blog.

Mardee Handler is a career coach whose mission is to empower clients to make confident and intentional career decisions. She is certified in the Highlands Ability Battery™ and Personal & Career Vision Coaching method, which serve as the foundation for her coaching engagements. She is also a Certified Career Transitions Coach (CTL). Prior to coaching, Mardee was a marketing director-turned-consultant. Her career background also includes 15+ years as the founding and managing editor of MuniNet Guide. To learn more about Mardee, visit mardeehandler.com.

Maren Hogan is a seasoned marketer and community builder in the HR and Recruiting industry. She leads Red Branch Media, a consultancy offering marketing strategy and content development. A consistent advocate of next generation marketing techniques, she has built successful online communities, deployed brand strategies in both the B2B and B2C sectors, and been a prolific contributor of thought leadership in the recruitment and talent space.

Mariela Kashukeeva is a Marketing Еxecutive at SaaS BPM, a productivity process management system solution designed to manage the recurring activities of teams and entire organizations. With over 2-year experience in SEO, she is responsible for establishing collaboration opportunities with high-authority websites and creating amazing content.

Mark Nation is a globally-recognized management expert, leadership consultant, executive coach, author, and speaker with an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is the founder and president of Nation Leadership and the Made for Amazing Project. He is the author of the forthcoming book, "Made for Amazing: An Instrumental Journey of Authentic Leadership Transformation", which will be released in October 2017 from Greenleaf Press. He is personally driven to discover what makes individuals, teams, and organizations amazing—those elements which power the heart and soul of individuals and businesses worldwide.