Justin Ackerman
Partner, Jones, Skelton & Hochuli, P.L.C.
Justin is the trial group leader of JSH’s appellate department. He represents clients in federal and state appellate matters in cases involving federal civil rights claims, wrongful death, personal injury, bad faith and premises liability. After graduating as the valedictorian of his class from Phoenix School of Law, Justin worked as a law clerk for the Hon. Michael J. Brown in Division One of the Arizona Court of Appeals. Following his clerkship, Justin has handled over 75 appeals, successfully arguing before the Arizona Court of Appeals, Arizona Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Justin has spoken at many seminars on appellate preservation topics and is recognized as a Southwest Super Lawyer and Best Lawyers’ Ones to Watch in the area of appellate practice.
Randy Anderson, CSP
Co-Founder, E3 Professional Trainers
Randy is co-founder of E3 Professional Trainers, a Texas-based training firm that provides customized training, keynote presentations and personal coaching. The goal of E3 is to help people become more engaged in their work, be better equipped to do their job and feel empowered to live a more fulfilling life that will count for something after they’re gone. Before starting E3 in 2005, Randy spent 20 years in sales and sales management. Most of that time was spent in media sales, which gave him the opportunity to work with virtually every type of business and in every industry. His clients included small businesses as well as large corporations, and were spread all across the United States. It is from that experience that he draws the ideas and strategies to help his clients improve their performance in the workplace and to achieve their maximum potential in life. His areas of expertise include communication, conflict resolution, time management, organization, leadership, and sales as well as inspirational/motivational presentations, all of which deliver strategies and tools to increase productivity and profitability.
Teresa Bartlett, MD
Senior Medical Officer and Managing Director, Sedgwick
Dr. Bartlett has a background in family medicine. She began her business career working as the medical director for a large automotive manufacturing company. After gaining experience in health, safety, onsite medical operations, preparedness planning, wellness, fitness, workers' compensation and disability operations, she arrived at Sedgwick to manage the clinical teams. Currently, her responsibilities and span of control involve pharmacy benefit management, physical therapy, utilization management, network management for independent medical evaluations and peer reviews as well as oversight and guidance on all quality and clinical programs. She works to tailor special programs to meet the needs of many unique clients. She is a frequent national speaker.
Brian Billings
Vice President, Advanced Analytics, Midwest Employers Casualty
With almost 30 years of technology experience in industries including banking, investment services, insurance services and healthcare, Brian is an established leader in the areas of artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics. He holds a BS in management information systems and a Juris Doctor from Saint Louis University. In his current role, Brian leads a team of skilled professionals that specialize in deploying advanced analytics and AI to improve decision-making processes, optimize workflows and deliver business value.
Tim Bridgeforth
Vice President, Business Development & Customer Value, Midwest Employers Casualty
Tim, a Midwest Employers Casualty (MEC) veteran since 2003, has extensive workers’ compensation insurance industry knowledge through various roles in underwriting, sales, and actuarial. Tim is currently the vice president of business development and customer value at MEC, a Berkley company, where he is responsible for growth, market penetration, and the delivery of long-term value to partners and self-insured customers. Tim graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Missouri with a degree in secondary mathematics education and also holds the Associate in Risk Management (ARM) designation.
John Chino, ARM-P, ARM-E, CSRM
Area Senior Vice President, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
John has been working with public sector clients of all types since the late 1980’s. He is located in Southern California and has city, county, school and special district clients in eight different states. He also enjoys teaching risk management and is associated with The Institutes as a course instructor and is also on the faculty of the National Alliance.
Dean Coughenour, ARM
Risk Manager, City of Flagstaff, AZ (Ret.)
Dean is the recently retired risk manager for the City of Flagstaff and directed their Risk Management Department, managing a comprehensive risk and safety program that includes reducing risk factors, grass root integration of the risk management decision matrix, safety, insurance, litigation management, workers' compensation, training, and facility inspection programs. Dean has over 30 years’ experience in proactive risk management and has served on various boards and associations including Arizona Municipal Risk Retention board and City of Scottsdale Loss Trust Fund board. He is a past national board member of PERI (Public Entity Risk and Insurance), past loss trust fund board chair for the City of Scottsdale, past president of national PRIMA and has held various other community leadership positions. Dean is a frequent speaker on risk management topics both at national and local conferences. He serves on the national speaker bureau and is a champion for risk management and the employment of the risk management decision matrix in day-to-day operations of public sector entities.
Sarah Curtis
Loss Control Consultant, Public Entity Partners
Sarah began her career in risk management in 2022 when she joined Public Entity Partners as a loss control training consultant. Previously, she served as a training consultant for the University of Tennessee’s Municipal Technical Advisory Service. Working in the public sector for over 10 years, Sarah has served as an instructor, consultant, facilitator and instructional designer. Since 2018, she has worked with municipalities and other public entities to design and deliver training programs that improve organizational outcomes by focusing on individual development. Sarah earned a Bachelor of Science in psychology in 2007 and a Master of Arts in sociology in 2011 from Middle Tennessee State University. She also completed a Master of Business Administration from the University of North Alabama in 2016.
Temo Garcia
Vice President & Team Leader, Middle Market Leader - West Region, Aon
Temo leads Aon's cyber efforts for public entities and is responsible for consulting with clients on their cyber, professional liability, technology and media risks by identifying exposures, managing insurance market relationships, strategizing, and creating tailored risk transfer solutions, as well as executing on policy terms, conditions and servicing. Temo began his insurance career in 2006 as an account manager, transitioning later to account executive. Prior to joining Aon in 2018, Temo served as an underwriter/broker at Risk Placement Services, leading the Chicago Binding Team while handling property and casualty risks with underwriting authority from multiple carriers.
Gordon Graham
Co-Founder & Board Member, Lexipol
Gordon has been actively involved in public safety since 1973. He has taken his background as a street cop, supervisor and manager and coupled it with his education as a risk manager and his experiences as a lawyer. He is the co-founder of Lexipol, a company designed to standardize law enforcement, fire and corrections policies around America. Gordon was the first recipient of the Governor’s Award for Excellence in California law enforcement training and was the 2008 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in California Law Enforcement. In 2015, Gordon received the lifetime dedication award from the International Public Safety Leadership and Ethics Institute. In 2018, he received the James Oberstar Sentinel for Safety Award for his lifetime work in improving aviation safety internationally. In 2019, he received the Howard W. Rayon Distinguished Service Award. In 2022, he received a lifetime achievement award from the California Highway Patrol and the Centurion Award for Excellence for his outstanding work as a public safety innovator, trainer, and educator from the Peace Officers Association of Los Angeles County. Additionally, he is the only police recipient of the Presidential Award from the International Association of Fire Chiefs for his lifelong work in improving firefighter safety and performance.
Lori Gray
Assistant Director of Finance for Risk & Wellness Services, Prince William County, VA
Lori has over 30 years of risk management, safety and loss control experience. As risk manager for the county for over 22 years, Lori has succeeded at building an outstanding risk and wellness program from scratch after the entity had previously outsourced the function. She oversees the administration and management of the Prince William Self-Insurance Group (PWSIG) and is chairman of the board of trustees for the PWSIG. Through her successful strategies and risk control techniques, the PWSIG has recognized dividend payments totaling over $20,000,000. During her tenure, Lori has implemented 22 award-winning programs recognized by PRIMA, National Association of Counties (NACo) and the Virginia Association of Counties (VACo). Before joining Prince William County in 1999, Lori was with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA).
Lori holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Old Dominion University. She is currently a member of Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc. (RIMS) and serves on the PRIMA and PERI board of directors. She was recognized as PRIMA’s Risk Manager of the Year in 2008 and Business Insurance’s Risk Manager of the Year in 2013.
Kayla Guenther
Risk Management Analyst, City of Fort Myers, FL
Kayla has been working in risk management for the City of Fort Myers for five years. Her main role is in their workers’ compensation program and third-party claims handling, but she provides other risk management functions as well. She works closely with the city’s human resources team and has helped them develop wellness initiatives that lower the cost of workers’ compensation claims for the city’s first responder population. Prior to Kayla joining the City of Fort Myers, Kayla worked as a private investigator. Her area of focus was insurance fraud investigations for both property and casualty carriers and self-insured public entities. In addition to conducting investigations, she also trained and supervised a team of other investigators. When she began her work with the city, she brought her passion for thorough investigations to the city and has seen success in lowering settlement values and claims costs through pointed investigations. Kayla graduated from the University of South Florida with a bachelor’s degree in criminology. She recently obtained her CPCU designation, and has also earned her Associate in Claims (AIC) and Associate in Risk Management (ARM) designations from The Institutes.
Shannon Gunderman, CPCU, ARM, AIS, CWCP
Executive Director/Senior Consultant, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
Shannon is an executive director and senior consultant at Arthur J. Gallagher, where he divides his time between enterprise risk management consulting and Gallagher’s public sector & K-12 education practice. Shannon has over 22 years of risk management experience. His areas of expertise include project management, enterprise risk management, process improvement, predictive analytics, strategic planning, data analytics and visualization, litigation support, safety and HIPAA compliance, and claim management. Prior to joining Gallagher, Shannon served as the administrative services director for Yuma County, AZ, where he managed the county’s property, liability, unemployment and workers’ compensation insurance programs. He also designed the county’s award-winning enterprise risk management program using ISO 31000. The ground-breaking initiative involved leading and managing the project, conducting workshops, drafting training materials and forms, communicating with elected officials and employees at all organizational levels, and integrating the program with the county’s strategic planning and budgeting processes. As a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt practitioner, Shannon has led several process improvement projects in the areas of administrative records management, customer service and the criminal justice system. His efforts identified significant programmatic inefficiencies and resulted in the implementation of several improvement plans. Shannon is a certified public manager through Arizona State University and holds the CPCU, ARM, AIC and CWCP designations.
Marcus Henthorn
Managing Director/National Sales Leader, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co./RPA
Marcus is the national sales director for Risk Program Administrators (RPA), where he is responsible for providing strategic guidance, industry expertise and custom services to advance public and private entity risk pools and programs. He also serves as the managing director of Gallagher’s Public Sector & K-12 Education practice where he is responsible for developing and executing business strategies for Gallagher's largest and most dominant practice groups, comprised of 500+ employees, 18,000+ clients and over $2B in premium. Marcus enjoys nothing more than the challenge of providing risk management and administration expertise to some of the largest and most complex public entity programs in the United States. Throughout his career at Gallagher, he has worked in multiple offices, including Lloyd’s of London, and he is based out of the company's global headquarters. He has received several Risk & Insurance Power Broker and Rising Star awards, the Business Insurance Americas Top Producer and the Business Insurance Break Out Award over the course of his career.
Jennifer Hood
Safety & Risk Director, Montgomery County (TN) Government
Jennifer is the safety and risk director for Montgomery County Government in Clarksville, Tennessee, serving 1,200 employees and 220,000 citizens. She has served in this capacity for 14 years. In this role, Jennifer administers the on-the-job injury program, designed to protect employees from injury and appropriately care for them as needed. She strives to protect Montgomery County against financial consequences by preserving county assets from loss, destruction or depletion with stringent safety and operational policies, procedures and employee training. She also oversees the general liability insurance program and manages the county's safety program. Jennifer was recently named the 2021 Tennessee PRIMA Risk Manager of the Year Award, is a Certified Occupational Safety Specialist, Certified Occupational Safety Manager and current Middle Tennessee Vice-President for TN-PRIMA and a director on the board for PRIMA.
Keith Hummel
Vice President, Law Enforcement Risk Control, J.A. Montgomery Consulting
Chief Hummel is an associate director for J.A. Montgomery Consulting. He provides safety and loss control consulting services for law enforcement agencies within municipal and county entities. The services provided address elements of a uniform consulting plan, which include training, accreditation plans, loss analysis, regulatory compliance, and on-site consultation and inspection. Chief Hummel serves as a liaison to the MEL Safety & Education Committee and offers advice on law enforcement exposures and controls.
Dan Hurley, CSP, ARM-P
Independent Risk Manager
Dan has a long career in public service starting as a safety officer with the City of Norfolk, VA and as a risk manager for Norfolk Public Schools, then later with the City of Chesapeake, VA. Dan also served as a practice leader for schools and colleges with Midwest Employers Casualty for two years. His professional service includes president of PRIMA, president of Virginia PRIMA, president of ASSP's Greater Tidewater Chapter and as treasurer for PERI. Although retired, Dan still serves as the program manager for Virginia PRIMA. He enjoys volunteer work as a track/road race official and is currently a docent at Jamestown Rediscovery. Dan holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from Virginia Tech as well as an MPA and MS in environmental health from Old Dominion University.
Geoff Jones, Esq.
Senior Claims Counsel, Midwest Employers Casualty
Geoff is senior claims counsel for Midwest Employers Casualty (MEC), where he has worked throughout the United States for the past 14 years. In this role, he provides legal guidance and solutions for catastrophic and complex workers’ compensation claims. One of Geoff’s strongest assets is his ability to mitigate and resolve high exposure claims, leading to significant savings for MEC partners. His knowledge of Medicare implications enables favorable outcomes for injured workers and other claim stakeholders. When not settling claims, Geoff frequently collaborates with MEC’s advanced analytics unit and clients to drive meaningful innovation. His focus in the use of advanced analytics is to create positive outcomes for MEC partners in a collaborative, solution-oriented manner.
Amy Larson, Esq.
Risk & Litigation Manager, City of Bloomington, MN
Amy has been the risk manager for the City of Bloomington, MN for more than 23 years, including the past 13 years as the risk and litigation manager. She is responsible for the overall planning, management, administration, organization and coordination of the city’s risk management program; review and negotiation of city contracts; and litigation management. Amy is a licensed attorney in the state of Minnesota and a frequent presenter for many national PRIMA events, including PRIMA Institute, the national conference and speaker's bureau. Amy is the current chair of the PRIMA Institute and has been actively involved with PRIMA Institute since 2013. She also served on the national PRIMA board of directors from 2012-2019, including serving as the national PRIMA president from 2017-2018, and serving as a member of the Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI) Board of Directors from 2012-2017. Amy is also very active in the Minnesota chapter of PRIMA and currently serves as its past president.
Michele Molinario, Esq.
Partner, Jones, Skelton & Hochuli, P.L.C.
An experienced trial attorney, Michele has dedicated her professional career to two areas of law: government liability defense and employment law. Michele’s career is focused on defending private employers and public entities and their employees, including police officers, detention officers, emergency responders, public works directors, building inspectors, traffic engineers, etc. Michele is a longtime member of the firm’s Governmental Liability/Employment Trial Group and is on the firm’s Management Committee. She has tried both state and federal juries as well as bench trials and administrative law hearings. In addition to her 20+ years of trial experience, Michele has an impressive record for her motion practice. Michele routinely disposes of the vast majority of her cases through orders of dismissal or summary judgment.
Jess Osborne
Partner, Miller Nash LLP
Jess is a partner at Miller Nash LLP, located in Portland, Oregon. Jess represents public, private and nonprofit employers in a variety of employment and labor relations matters, including advice and litigation. She guides employers through a myriad of issues, including compliance with employment law statutes, challenges with organizational change, organized workforce questions and conducting workplace investigations. Jess represents clients during all phases of their labor relations matters, including contract negotiations and administration, and negotiating collective bargaining agreements.
Carleen C. Patterson, ARM-P, CIC, ARM
First Vice President & Practice Leader, Alliant Insurance Services, Inc.
Carleen joined the Alliant Insurance Services team in 2020. Carleen is the national public entity and higher education practice leader. She works with higher education and public entity clients across the United States providing insurance brokerage and risk management expertise. Carleen’s expertise includes the design and negotiation of client insurance programs, evaluation and analysis of alternative risk transfer plans including captive plans, risk management evaluations, and the creation of complex property risk and insurance programs. She has been in the insurance industry since 1988. Prior to Alliant, Carleen served in a similar role for a large, international broker. She has risk management, claims, and insurance brokerage experience; and has spent the last 21 years specializing in self-insurance and insurance brokerage and consulting for higher education institutions as well as large public entity clients. Her expertise is in the design and implementation of large property and casualty insurance programs. Carleen earned her BS in Education from the University of South Dakota. She is licensed as an insurance agent/producer in many other states and holds the Associate in Risk Management, Associate in Risk Management for Public Entities, Certified Insurance Counselor and Certified Risk Manager designations.
Mark Pew
Provost & Founding Partner, WorkCompCollege.com
Mark is an award-winning international speaker, author and jurisdictional advisor in workers' compensation. He has focused on the intersection of chronic pain and appropriate treatment since 2003. Mark created "Qualified Medical Intervention" that won a 2012 Business Insurance Innovation Award, received WorkCompCentral's Magna Comp Laude award in 2016, IAIABC's Samuel Gompers Award in 2017, named "Top 100 Healthcare Leader" by IFAH in 2021 and received the Health 2.0 Outstanding Leadership award in 2022. He is co-founder of The Transitions and is on the advisory boards of Simple Therapy, Harvard MedTech and Goldfinch Health.
Courtney Ramirez, ARM
Senior Vice President, Alliant Insurance Services, Inc.
Courtney is senior vice president with Alliant Insurance Services. Courtney manages a large book of mid-to-large public entity accounts and drives new business development. Courtney creates solutions to address the unique needs of her clients, such as establishing a platform to control costs for state lottery agencies and developing the Alliant Deadly Weapons Response Program (ADWRP) for active shooter coverage. Courtney is proficient in reading contracts and recommending language to mitigate clients’ risk. The overall services provided to Courtney’s clients have amounted to millions of dollars of premium savings. With her unique expertise, Courtney is a frequent guest speaker for industry associations and universities. Courtney earned her Bachelor of Science degree in business management and leadership and has achieved several notable designations and industry accolades including Power Broker (2020), Rising Star (2020), and, most recently, named one of the 2023 Women to Watch. Courtney enjoys educating and mentoring others and is invested in growing the industry through her support of young professionals. She is especially committed to ensuring women have an equal platform and that working parents are given the opportunity to maintain a healthy personal and professional balance.
Marci Reading, CFE
Vice President of Business Development, Command Investigations
Marci brings nearly two decades of experience in insurance and investigations. Her extensive background spans from early operational roles to SIU program management, multi-line account management and, most recently, client relations and business development for Command Investigations, LLC. Marci holds the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) designation from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) and is a Licensed Continuing Education Unit (CEU) Instructor with the Florida Department of Finance. She delivers state-accredited continuing education for Command across the United States. An active participant in the industry, Marci is a member of several professional organizations, including the Women's Alliance in Workers' Compensation, ACFE, CLM, SERMA, NRRDA, and NEFLRIMS, along with various regional claims associations. In her spare time, she volunteers as a big sister with Big Brother Big Sister of northeast Florida.
Liani Reeves
Partner, Miller Nash LLP
Liani is a partner at Miller Nash LLP, a Northwest regional law firm. Liani works with employers on a wide range of issues, including as a litigator and as an outside investigator. Liani brings special expertise working with education and public sector clients. She served as general counsel for the Office of the Oregon Governor, providing advice on a wide range of legal issues including employment, public transparency, First Amendment, government ethics, tribal and public safety policy matters. Prior to the governor's office, she spent almost a decade at the Oregon Department of Justice where her primary focus was employment litigation defense.
Maria Robinson
Risk Management Director, City of Flagstaff, AZ
Maria is the risk management director for the City of Flagstaff, AZ. She has almost 20 years in the industry, more than 25 years in the public sector, and has previously served as the loss prevention/safety manager for the City of Tucson and the occupational medical manager for Pima County, both in Southern Arizona. Maria draws upon her experience to build relationships, offer mission-oriented solutions, and help others get to “yes” whenever possible. She is described by her organization as “invaluable” to the team. Maria’s earned a BSBA from the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management, a Master of Legal Studies in compliance and legal risk management from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law and holds a Professional Certificate in Occupational Safety and Health from UCSD. Public speaking engagements include AZ SWANA, ADEQ, Southern AZ NSC and ADOSH. Maria is a Certified OSHA outreach instructor, a Registered Safety Professional (RSP), holds a Black Belt Certification in Lean Sigma and has obtained her Fire Inspector I Certification. She is also a board member with AZPRIMA and a member of ASSP.
Jason Stoddard
Director of School Safety and Security, Charles County Public Schools (MD)
Jason is the director of school safety and security for Charles County Public Schools. He is responsible for sustaining a safe learning and work environment for over 27,000 students and nearly 4,000 staff members. Since serving the public schools in April of 2018, he has created the Office of School Safety and Security and has been awarded millions of dollars in grant money, implemented major evolutions such as revolving backgrounds for all employees, options-based active shooter response, the “I love u guys” Foundation Standard Response Protocols (a state of art radio communication system with public safety interoperability), first-of-its-kind intelligence unit, drone program and, most recently, has installed Gun Detect, an artificial intelligence driven solution for surveillance cameras in all the system schools. Jason has a master’s degree in organizational leadership. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, School of Police Staff and Command, and the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Program. Jason also serves as an adjunct professor at three universities, teaches executive-level leadership for the Maryland Police Training Commission, has authored several articles for magazines on topics ranging from school safety to organizational leadership, serves as a consultant for the Department of Justice and National Institutes of Justice, sits on several advisory boards, and has often traveled the country teaching school safety, active assailant response, leadership, data/evidence-based decision making, crisis communications and incident management.
Sherri Swain
Director of Enterprise Risk Management, Maricopa Community Colleges (Ret.)
Sheri retired as the director of enterprise risk management at Maricopa Community Colleges in January 2023. Sheri has over 30 years of experience in insurance and risk management. Sheri was responsible for planning, organizing, directing, evaluating and overseeing district-wide risk management for 10 colleges, three skill centers, two high schools, 11,000 employees and 200,000 students. She is past president for national PRIMA and a past president of Arizona PRIMA. Sheri has served as chair of PRIMA’s education and chapter relations committees, member of PRIMA’s Leadership Development Committee, and past chair of PRIMA’s Loss Control Task Force and Cyber Task Force. Sheri is currently working part time as a consultant with her previous employer, Maricopa Community Colleges, to assist with projects in risk management. Sheri is passionate about risk management and would like to continue presenting, teaching and helping other entities achieve a successful risk management program.
Austin Tippett
Vice President, Cyber Solutions, Aon
With a background in offensive security consulting, Austin leverages his unique experience to support Aon customers on both proactive and reactive cybersecurity initiatives. He has a strong belief that cybersecurity needs to be better aligned with the overall risk management strategy of companies and believes that Aon has the unique experience to help support that mission. Prior to joining Aon, Austin was a part of Forcepoint, where he served as an insider threat specialist. In that position, he helped clients with the development of complex insider threat programs. The result of Austin's work with these organizations was often a mature insider threat program that focused on proactively identifying risks instead of scrambling to react to threats.
Austin was also an early employee at the security consulting firm Rhino Security Labs. There, Austin wore many hats as the company quickly grew in both reputation and headcount. He spearheaded the growth strategy of the open-source AWS post-exploitation tool Pacu, which was built alongside the cloud security teams of Amazon's largest customers and gained significant traction within the cloud security community. Additionally, Austin managed the relationships of Rhino's largest customers and helped develop penetration testing and vulnerability management programs at several Fortune 500 companies.
Mel Thomson
ERM Lead, Risk Coordinator, City of Phoenix, AZ
Mel leads enterprise risk management at the City of Phoenix. She focuses mostly on uninsurable risks that can impact the city’s strategic plans and goals. Through consulting and facilitation, Mel works with city departments to engage with others in a formalized process to identify, assess, mitigate and prioritize cross-cutting risks. This allows teams to manage and optimize their risks to either acceptable or unacceptable levels, while leveraging the upside of risks. She also works with leaders to craft their appetites to connect risks vertically and horizontally, which produces risk-based decision making and value throughout the city. Mel began in the benefits consulting arena and later transitioned into property and casualty at the State of Arizona’s Department of Administration in the Risk Management Division. She was the risk administrator for the City of Maricopa, AZ where she designed and implemented a new risk division. Currently, Mel serves at the City of Phoenix's Risk Management Division in the Finance Department.
David Weightman
Risk Control Manager, Public Entity Practice, The PMA Companies
David is a risk control manager for PMA Companies and is currently responsible for managing the risk control services provided to public entity clients. With more than 30 years of experience, David has held various field and management positions with PMA where he has managed and delivered safety and risk control services for both the traditional insurance market and self-insured clients.
Ya’Sheaka C. Williams
Partner, Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A.
Ya’Sheaka is a partner in the Tampa office of Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A. Her practice involves the representation of employers, self-insured employers and insurance carriers in all aspects of workers’ compensation claims in Florida and appears before judges of compensation claims throughout Florida. Ya'Sheaka became recognized as an expert in workers’ compensation law by the Florida Bar when she became board certified by the Florida Bar Board of Legal Specialization and Education. She is also a certified workers' compensation law instructor by the Florida Department of Financial Services and has presented numerous classes and seminars to employers and claims adjusters throughout Florida. Ya'Sheaka has extensive experience in settlement negotiations, claims resolution, contract negotiations, mediation and litigation. She has attained an AV Preeminent® designation rating from Martindale Hubbell Law Directory, which is the highest possible rating for legal ability and ethical standards. She received her Juris Doctor from Stetson University College of Law, Gulfport, Florida in 2003 and a Bachelor of Arts from Brenau University Women’s College in 2000, graduating with majors in conflict resolution and pre-law.
