Featured Speakers

Janet Napolitano

President, University of California

Janet Napolitano is the 20th President of the University of California, and the first woman to serve in this role. She leads a university system of 10 campuses, five medical centers, three affiliated national laboratories, and a statewide agriculture and natural resources program. The UC system has more than 273,000 students, 223,000 faculty and staff, an operating budget of $36.5 billion, and two million living alumni.

A distinguished public servant, Napolitano served as the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security from 2009 to 2013, as Governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009, as Attorney General of Arizona from 1998 to 2003, and as U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona from 1993 to 1997.

Since she became UC president in September 2013, Napolitano has been a steadfast advocate for California students, working to stabilize in-state tuition and to enroll historic numbers of California undergraduates. She has aimed to increase the number of qualified community college students who transfer to UC and expanded efforts to support California high school students from all backgrounds in their pursuit of a higher education.

Napolitano has launched an initiative to accelerate the translation of UC research into new businesses and inventions that benefit the public good, and she has implemented reforms to UC’s approach to preventing and responding to sexual harassment and sexual assault. She also created several programs to encourage UC students to pursue work in the public interest, including founding a first-of-its kind systemwide public service fellowship program.

In 2017, under Napolitano’s leadership, the University of California was the first university in the country to file a lawsuit to stop the federal government’s rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Injunctions granted in the case have allowed more than 117,000 DACA recipients—including members of the UC community—to renew their authorizations to live and work in the United States.

Napolitano has upheld the university’s legacy of leadership on global climate action, putting UC on a path to 100 percent reliance on clean electricity across all campuses and medical centers by 2025, the same year the university aims to achieve systemwide carbon neutrality. In 2017, she also spearheaded the formation of the University Climate Change Coalition, or UC3. This group of 18 leading North American research universities and systems are working to help local communities achieve their climate goals and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon future.

Napolitano earned a B.S. degree (summa cum laude in Political Science) in 1979 from Santa Clara University, where she was Phi Beta Kappa, a Truman Scholar, and the university’s first female valedictorian. She received her law degree in 1983 from the University of Virginia School of Law. In 2010, she was awarded the prestigious Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal (Law), the University of Virginia’s highest external honor. In 2014, she was appointed a tenured faculty member of UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. In 2015, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2017, she was inducted into the American Philosophical Association. She serves on the Council of the American Law Institute and is a board member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Napolitano is the author of How Safe Are We: Homeland Security Since 9/11, to be published in March 2019.

President Janet Napolitano Keynote:

Good Morning UC with President Napolitano

Wake up, grab your favorite morning beverage, and join President Napolitano in the Grand Ballroom for a moderated Q&A. We'll discuss her journey prior to joining UC, her role in affirming and advancing UC as premiere, global institution, and her vision for continuing to lead UC into the future. Submit a question for President Napolitano.

Dwaine B. Duckett

Vice President Systemwide Human Resources, UC Office of the President

As Vice President, Mr. Duckett is responsible for Systemwide Human Resources and programs. This includes Strategic Planning, Employee/Labor Relations, Talent Management, Health & Welfare benefit policies and programs, Senior Management Recruitment, Compensation, Performance Management, and ensuring compliance with the University’s Staff Human Resources policies. He also serves as the primary fiduciary, as delegated by the Board of Regents and the President, to oversee all aspects of benefit plans and is the Plan Administrator for the University of California Retirement System (UCRS). Duckett is the Chair for the Association of American Universities (AAU) Human Resources Institute which is comprised of the top Human Resources Officials from the 60 largest and most prominent research universities in the U.S. and Canada.

Mr. Duckett’s primary experience has been in leading and transforming various human resources functions within large multi-billion dollar corporations. In his most recent assignment before joining UC, he served as Vice President of Human Resources for Heinz North America, the largest division of the H. J. Heinz Company. He has held several chief and senior level human resources positions for organizations such as AT&T Wireless, Automatic Data Processing Incorporated (ADP), the Pepsi-Cola Company, Covisint LLC, Phillip Morris, and Sony.

His primary focus at UC is to build the human resources organization to add strategic value. He is also charged with leading efforts to continuously improve the function and services it provides. The University has 190,000 faculty and staff across its ten campuses, five medical centers and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Donna Salvo

Conference Moderator
Executive Director, Systemwide Talent Management, UC Office of the President

Donna Salvo has been with the University of California since 2010 and appointed as Executive Director, Systemwide Talent Management in 2012. Responsible for the initiatives related to Systemwide strategies and programs which include attracting, hiring, deploying, developing and retaining talent. Her focus is to lead and identify best practices in a systemwide integrated talent management function that enables employees to succeed by strengthening the connections between the employee and their opportunities at UC.

Known for her expertise in aligning strategies to attract key talent, improve performance, drive leadership effectiveness and employee engagement. She is passionate about advancing the disciplines in talent management by creating positive experiences which resulted in sharing her insights at 2011, 2012, 2013 LinkedIn Talent Connect, 2016 & 2017 Perspectives, 2017 HCI , 2018 Argyle , CUPA and CLO conferences . She serves as a thought leader and talent management innovator which was recognized in 2016 and 2017 with “creating an impact in Higher Education” an award from Skillsoft/Sum Total. She and her team were also recognized with the Talent Management Bronze award for transformational work in organizational learning and development at the 2017 CLO Symposium+PLUS event.

Programs she is involved with include the creation of the UC Systemwide Job Board and deploying LinkedIn tools to help UC’s Talent Acquisition groups in utilizing social media. Creation of the Systemwide Talent Management Consortium to deliver programs that creates a cultural synergy across UC.  Highlighted programs she and her team have delivered are: UC Management Development Program, UC-Coro Systemwide Leadership Collaborative, UC People Management Series and certification which includes Hiring for Success, Onboarding and Performance Management, Managing Implicit Bias and most recently the annual UC systemwide People Management Conference supporting the development of UC’s 46,000 people managers.

Prior to joining UC, she held the position of Vice President of H.R. Operations for AAA and other top human resources positions over her 20+ years of experience for organizations such as Wells Fargo Bank, Citigroup, Palm Inc., Hexcel, ADP, Transamerica and Colgate-Palmolive.

Nancy Chen Lane

Conference Moderator
Senior Director, Integrated Talent Management, UC Office of the President

Nancy builds talent strategy aligning higher education organizational culture and people to business strategy. With knowledge and understanding of higher education organizational development and current workforce challenges, she implements talent development leading practices that enhance employee engagement and contributions. She has over 19 years public and private higher education experience working with staff, faculty, and students specializing in leadership and management, organizational and talent development, change management, performance management, coaching and communication, conflict resolution, and diversity awareness. Nancy holds a Masters in Higher and Postsecondary Education Administration from the University of Michigan and a Bachelors in Business Administration and Accounting from the State University of New York at Buffalo.