43rd Annual Federal Sector Labor Relations & Labor Law Conference

Steven M. Bierig Related Seminars and Products

Attorney-Arbitrator-Mediator

Steven M. Bierig is engaged in the full-time practice of arbitration and mediation specializing in labor and employment disputes on a national basis. He has received both Ad Hoc appointments as well as being a member of numerous arbitration panels. Those panels have included the USPS and its constituent Unions, the City of Chicago and its constituent Unions, the Chicago Board of Education and Chicago Teachers Union, the State of Illinois and AFSCME, the National Elevator Bargaining Association, the NTEU and IRS, the FAA and NATCA, the AFA, IBT, ALPA and United Airlines. Mr. Bierig has served as a contract mediator for the EEOC and as the mediator of medical disputes between the City of Chicago and the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #7. Mr. Bierig has served as the Fact-Finder for the Chicago Board of Education and the Chicago Teachers Union. Mr. Bierig is a referee for the National Mediation Board and is affiliated with FMCS, AAA and the Illinois Department of Labor. He serves on the roster of arbitrators for the Illinois Labor and Educational Relations Board. He is a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators and a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.

Mr. Bierig has served as an Adjunct Professor at IIT/Chicago Kent College of Law and the UIC School of Law. He currently serves as an instructor at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. He has written numerous articles on labor and employment issues and lectures frequently on the topic.

Mr. Bierig received his J.D. with high honors from IIT/Chicago Kent College of Law. Prior to becoming a full time neutral, Mr. Bierig was engaged in the practice of labor law on the management side as a Senior Attorney Supervisor at the City of Chicago Law Department and was an attorney in the Labor and Employment Department at the Chicago Office of Katten Muchin & Zavis.

June Wallace Calhoun Related Seminars and Products

Supervisory Administrative Judge

the Chicago District Office of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

June Wallace Calhoun has worked for the U.S. Equal Employment  Opportunity Commission in the Chicago District Office for more than 30 years.   Judge Calhoun spent the majority of her tenure with the Commission as a Senior Trial Attorney prosecuting employment discrimination cases for 23 years.  Beginning in 2015, she accepted the challenge of joining the ranks of elite Administrative Judges in the  Commission’s Federal Hearings Unit.  In November 2021, she was promoted to Supervisory Administrative Judge.  Judge Calhoun received her Bachelors of Science Degree in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois and her Juris Doctorate of Law Degree from the University of  Wisconsin School of Law, Madison, Wisconsin.  Judge Calhoun also worked as an Associate at Chapman and Cutler for three years prior to joining the Commission.  She has two awesome sons, one of whom is a Special Olympics athlete and two adorable grandchildren who are affectionately known as her "Glitter Bunnies!"  

Margaret Donaghy Related Seminars and Products

Arbitrator and Mediator

Donaghy Dispute Resolution

Margaret A. Donaghy is a labor arbitrator and mediator. She has 16 years’ experience as a neutral as well as an extensive history in federal labor relations on both the management and union sides. In 2009, Ms. Donaghy was appointed as an Administrative Law Judge for the Office of Hearings Operation for the Social Security Administration where she presided over thousands of due process hearings adjudicating disability claims. Prior to that, she spent eight years as an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel for the Social Security Administration handling federal court appeals and all aspects of the agency’s labor and employment law practice, including representing management in arbitrations and before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).

From January 2022 to August 2025, Ms. Donaghy also served as the Deputy National Grievance Chair for Judicial Council 1 of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) (a/k/a AALJ). In that capacity, she represented AALJ bargaining unit members in all matters pursuant to SSA and AALJ’s collective bargaining agreement.

Ms. Donaghy earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and French from Hofstra University in 1997 and a Juris Doctor from Boston College Law School in 2000.

Felicia Frazier Related Seminars and Products

Managing Partner

Odelson, Sterk, Murphey, Frazier & McGrath, Ltd.

Managing Partner at Odelson, Murphey, Frazier & McGrath, Ltd., Felicia Frazier provides experienced counsel in the areas of school, municipal, and labor law. A graduate of Illinois State University with a degree in Psychology, she earned her Juris Doctorate from John Marshall Law School. Felicia is a member of the Illinois Council of School Attorneys and is admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Prior to coming to the firm, Felicia served as an Assistant States Attorney with the Cook County State's  Attorney's Office. As a trial attorney, she prosecuted hundred  of cases in both bench and jury trials. In addition, she provided domestic battery training for Area 4 Police Headquarters personnel.

Felicia presently serves as general counsel to numerous school districts, as well as village attorney for multiple municipalities. Felicia’s school law experience includes hearings before the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, teacher dismissal hearings, and labor contract negotiations, including arbitrations. Her public sector experience includes personnel issues, labor and employment matters, and contract negotiations. She represents employers in state and local labor board hearings, as well as grievance and arbitration hearings.

Felicia has served as a speaker at school and municipal conferences on topics including employee discipline, discharge, pension related issues, and social media. She has also conducted training programs for a variety of employers on labor and employment law issues.

In 2022, Felicia was named as one of Crain’s Chicago’s Notable Women Lawyers and was 1 of 4 recipients of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois Top Women Lawyers in Leadership Awards.

Dan Kaspar Related Seminars and Products

Director of Field Operations & Organizing

National Treasury Employees Union

Dan is the Director of Field Operations & Organizing for the National Treasury Employees Union. He is based out of Washington, D.C. and was previously Deputy Director of Field Operations & Organizing and an Assistant Counsel in NTEU’s Chicago Field Office, where he practiced before arbitrators, the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the Merit Systems Protection Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and others. Dan has also held several leadership positions in the American Bar Association’s Section of Labor and Employment Law, including Union Co-Chair of the Federal Sector Labor and Employment Law Committee. Dan is a graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology. He holds a M.S. in Human Resources and Employment Relations and a M.B.A. in Economics from Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan Graduate School of Business, and a B.S. in Business Administration from Illinois State University.

Katrina Kelley Related Seminars and Products

Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and Founder

Modern Insight Therapy

Katrina Kelley is a licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and founder of Modern Insight Therapy, a Chicago-based private practice. With more than a decade of clinical experience, she specializes in relationship work, helping individuals and couples navigate challenges, communication, and connection. Her expertise also extends to supporting clients through trauma, grief, identity challenges, depression, and anxiety.

Katrina's approach combines evidence-based practices with real-world experiences, creating a supportive and practical holistic space for professionals to build stronger relationships and foster meaningful change within themselves. Katrina equips professionals with tools and strategies that promote healing, self-awareness, and growth both professionally and in their most important relationships. 

In addition to her clinical work, Katrina is a speaker and trainer who partners with organizations and professionals in high-stress industries. She offers practical, evidence-based strategies for navigating the intersection of ethics and mental health, while also providing approachable tools to manage daily stressors and maintain well-being. Katrina work empowers individuals and teams to stay grounded, resilient, and aligned in the most demanding environments.

Hal J. Krent Related Seminars and Products

Professor of Law

Chicago-Kent College of Law

Harold Krent graduated from Princeton University and received his law degree from New York University School of Law, where he served as notes editor of the Law Review and garnered several awards for excellence in writing. Krent clerked for the Honorable William H. Timbers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then worked in the Department of Justice for the Appellate Staff of the Civil Division, writing briefs and arguing cases in various courts of appeals across the nation. He has been teaching full-time since 1987 and has focused his scholarship on legal aspects of individuals' interaction with the government. His book, Presidential Powers, is a comprehensive examination of the president's role as defined by the U.S. Constitution and judicial and historical precedents. In addition, Krent has served as a consultant to the Administrative Conference of the United States. He has also litigated numerous cases with students on behalf of indigent prisoners. Krent joined the IIT Chicago-Kent faculty in 1994. He was appointed associate dean in 1997 and interim dean in 2002 before assuming the deanship on January 1, 2003. He continued is his role as dean until July 31, 2019.

David Lidow Related Seminars and Products

Administrative Judge

U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board

David R. Lidow is an Administrative Judge with the Merit Systems Protection Board in the Central Regional Office located in Chicago.  The MSPB is an independent, quasi-judicial agency that adjudicates federal employment disputes and whistleblower retaliation claims.   He previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the civil division, representing the United States in employment discrimination cases, claims brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act, civil rights cases, and pursuing fraud claims on behalf of various federal programs. 

Martin H. Malin Related Seminars and Products

Chairman

IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law

Martin H. Malin is Professor Emeritus at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology, where he taught for 41 years, founded the Institute for Law and the Workplace, and served as Director of the Institute for 25 years. He joined the Chicago-Kent faculty in 1980 after serving as law clerk to United States District Judge Robert E. DeMascio in Detroit and on the faculty of The Ohio State University. A renown scholar on the law governing the workplace, he has published more than 80 articles and seven books on labor law. Professor Malin has served as National Chair of the Labor Relations and Employment Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools, Secretary of the ABA Section on Labor and Employment Law, member of the Executive Committee of the Labor Law Group, member of the Board of Governors and Vice President of the National Academy of Arbitrators, and member of the Board of Governors of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. In October 2009, President Obama appointed Professor Malin as a member of the Federal Service Impasses Panel. President Obama reappointed Professor Malin in 2014 and Malin served until May 2017. In 2016, the ABA presented Professor Malin with the Arvid Anderson Award for lifetime contributions to public sector labor law. He has a B.A. from Michigan State University and a J.D. from George Washington University.

Mike J. McAuley Related Seminars and Products

National Counsel

National Treasury Employees Union

Michael J. McAuley is National Counsel for the National Treasury Employees Union, a labor union representing over 150,000 federal employees in 33 agencies. He is a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and has served as Union Co-Chair of the American Bar Association Section on Labor and Employment Law, Committee on Federal Service Labor Management Relations. He has been an Adjunct Professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, and is a frequent lecturer and speaker on federal sector legal and labor relations matters. He works exclusively on federal sector labor/management related matters, has negotiated several contracts and handled numerous cases at arbitration and before the FLRA, FSIP, MSPB, EEOC and in the federal courts as well as working and managing organizing campaigns. Mr. McAuley is a member of the bar in the District of Columbia, New York and Illinois as well as various Federal District and Circuit Courts of Appeals and is a graduate of Georgetown University and Union University, Albany Law School.

Anna Molpus Related Seminars and Products

Chief Counsel, Office of Chairman Kiko

Federal Labor Relations Authority

With sixteen years of experience practicing federal-sector labor law at the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), Anna Molpus currently serves as Chief Counsel to Chairman Colleen Duffy Kiko.  Anna assists the FLRA in resolving unfair labor practice disputes, determining the appropriateness of units for labor organization representation, adjudicating exceptions to arbitrators’ awards, and resolving legal issues relating to the duty to bargain.  She also assists the FLRA in informing federal agencies and unions of their statutory rights and obligations, and she has delivered training programs on numerous topics including:  comprehensive arbitration training, representational rights and the representational process, management rights and exceptions to those rights, unfair labor practices, and the negotiability appeals process.  

Previously, Anna worked as an associate at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where she was involved in the firm’s wage and hour litigation practice, and counseled clients on matters arising under various labor and employment statutes, including the National Labor Relations Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Fair Labor Standards Act.  Anna received her B.A. cum laude in political science from Bryn Mawr College, and received her J.D. magna cum laude from American University’s Washington College of Law.  She is a member of the Maryland and District of Columbia bars.
 

Daniel C Mullenix Related Seminars and Products

Area Counsel

U.S. Department of the Treasury, IRS Office of Chief Counsel

Mr. Mullenix is an Area Counsel with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, IRS Office of Chief Counsel.  He supervises and directs a staff of attorneys who provide legal advice and litigate cases concerning federal sector personnel and labor-management issues before the Merit Systems Protection Board, Federal Labor Relations Authority, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and before third parties in arbitration.  Mr. Mullenix has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he taught an advanced legal writing course focused on labor and employment law.  He received his B.A. in Classics, cum laude, from Washington University in St. Louis, and graduated with honors from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 2009.

Elisabeth (Elisa) Nolte Related Seminars and Products

Administrative Judge

U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board

Elisabeth Nolte is an Administrative Judge for the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). Prior to joining the MSPB in 2024, Elisabeth held various attorney positions with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). Most recently, she served as a Senior Trial Attorney in the Chicago office of DOL’s Office of the Solicitor, where she led enforcement litigation and handled internal employment cases in federal district court and administrative tribunals. Elisabeth received her J.D. from DePaul University College of Law.

Noah Peters Related Seminars and Products

Sr. Adviser to the Director, Office of Personnel & Management

Office of Personnel Management

Judge Som Ramrup Related Seminars and Products

President

Association of Adminstrative Law Judges

Judge Ramrup has been an administrative law judge (ALJ) since July 2016 with the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Office of Hearings Operations in New York City (New York Varick). As an ALJ, Judge Ramrup adjudicates disability benefits and non-disability cases that require a decision after an opportunity for a hearing. Since January 2022, she has served as the President of Judicial Council No. 1 of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, AFL-CIO, which represents over 1000 non-supervisory SSA ALJs. Judicial Council 1 is also known as the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ). Before becoming an ALJ, Judge Ramrup spent 17 years at SSA’s Office of the General Counsel (OGC) and was appointed the Deputy Regional Chief Counsel in New York City in 2011. As Deputy Regional Chief Counsel, she supervised approximately 50 OGC attorneys and handled an expansive range of legal issues for all agency component clients, including supervising significant litigation, providing legal advice to client components and interacting with outside stakeholders, such as the federal district court judges and their staff, the Department of Justice, various United States Attorney’s Offices, and the plaintiffs’ bar. Prior to that, she defended SSA in federal court as a Special Assistant United States Attorney as well as before the Merit Systems Protection Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Federal Labor Relations Authority. Judge Ramrup earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from SUNY-Binghamton in 1989 and her Juris Doctor from Cornell Law School in 1992.

Judge Ramrup is appearing on behalf of the AALJ. She is not speaking on behalf of SSA. The views expressed are her own and those of AALJ and do not necessarily represent the views of SSA or the United States Government.

Gina Rozman Related Seminars and Products

Administrative Judge

U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board

Gina N. Rozman joined the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) as an Administrative Judge in 2022. Prior to coming to the MSPB, Gina worked as an Assistant Regional Counsel with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the General Counsel (OGC) for 9 years. Before she joined OGC, Gina was a litigation associate at Winston & Strawn LLP.  Gina received her J.D. and undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan. 

Carolyn Shapiro Related Seminars and Products

Professor of Law; Associate Dean for Academic Administration and Strategic Initiatives

Chicago-Kent College of Law

Robert Shriver Related Seminars and Products

Managing Director, Civil Service Strong and Good Government Initiatives

Democracy Forward

Brooke Worden Related Seminars and Products

Administrative Judge

U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board

Brooke Worden is an Administrative Judge with the Merit Systems Protection Board.  Prior to joining the MSPB in 2022, Brooke worked as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Labor for 10 years, litigating various employment-related cases.  After receiving her J.D. from Indiana University Maurer School of Law, she spent three years in federal clerkships before joining DOL as an honors attorney.

Melissa A. Smart Related Seminars and Products

Director of Education

IL Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission

Melissa Wisniewski Related Seminars and Products

Deputy Chief Counsel, Office of Member Wagner

Federal Labor Relations Authority

Melissa Wisniewski is the Deputy Chief Counsel to Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) Member Anne Wagner.  At the FLRA, Melissa also has served as:  the Acting Chief Counsel to Member Wagner; the Deputy Chief Counsel to Chairmen Ernest DuBester; an Attorney-Advisor for Chairman Colleen Duffy Kiko and for Chairman Carol Waller Pope; and a detailee to the Federal Service Impasses Panel; the FLRA’s Office of Case Intake and Publication; and the FLRA’s Collaboration and Dispute Resolution Office. 

Melissa also worked for the Federal Communication Commission’s Labor Relations & Performance Management Service Center; the Social Security Administration’s Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity; the Appellate Court of Maryland, and private practice.

Melissa has a BA from Goucher College and a JD from the University of Baltimore School of Law.