SHRM Connect Live Insights from SHRM’s Leaders

Mike Aitken is EVP of Membership & Communities at SHRM, following 15 years of leading SHRM’s successful advocacy programs as Vice President of Government Affairs. Mike is a leading authority on the issues important to the human resource profession and drives SHRM’s membership vision, ensuring excellent member experiences, and implementing the organization’s newly developed business strategy. He applies his proven model of engagement to shape the future of work, workers, and workplaces. He is an expert relationship-builder across diverse constituencies and stakeholders, always seeking out the “win-win” in every situation. As a member of SHRM’s executive team, Mike also plays a key role in setting the strategic direction of the organization, offering important counsel on SHRM’s educational programs and professional development opportunities. Prior to joining SHRM in 2003, he spent 14 years with the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR), which represents more than 23,000 HR professionals at over 1,900 higher education institutions. In 2015 and 2016, Mike served as an employer representative on the U.S. delegation to the International Labour Conference.

Carolynn Johnson is  President of the SHRM Center for Inclusion & Diversity, a credible, research-based “source of truth” think tank and member community for inclusion and diversity.

Before joining SHRM, she served as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Editor of Fair360 (formerly DiversityInc), the leading workplace fairness management platform for content comparative benchmarks, and predictive workforce analytics. She led teams of data scientists to build advanced analytics, benchmarking tools, and predictive models measuring inclusion, diversity, and performance. Under her leadership, the Top 50 survey became a catalyst for thought leadership and revenue growth, and she launched the DiversityInc Top 50 Event series in 2009—widely known as the “Oscars of Diversity and Inclusion.”

Carolynn has testified twice as an expert witness before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services. She was named a Distinguished Alumna of Rutgers University (2016) and, in 2022, received an AACSB honor for her research on intersectional workplace issues with a focus on gender—recognizing alumni who demonstrate leadership and societal impact. A CEO Action signatory since 2019, she worked alongside senior leaders at PwC and public-policy partners to help expand the coalition’s reach by engaging executive leaders across client organizations.

She completed an executive management fellowship at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and earned her MBA from Rutgers Business School. She also holds two MIT certifications in Artificial Intelligence in Business Strategy and Machine Learning and Data Systems. In 2023, she consulted with Wharton to design talent development coursework for undergraduate, MBA, and EMBA students. The creator of the Women of Color and Their Allies Leadership Program, Carolynn serves on national nonprofit boards including the Center for Healthcare Innovation (CHI) and is Co-director of the Relationships Across Differences Roundtable within Wharton’s McNulty Leadership Program. She is also a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.