Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
The MMHR held its annual Fall Conference as a series of three webinars (clockwise from top left) Lakisha Coppedge, founder and principal of Coppedge Consulting, Evelyn Rivera-Riffenburg, director of human resources for Chicopee Public Schools, Springfield Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Talia Gee, and Meghan Sullivan, managing partner of Sullivan, Hayes & Quinn.
The Massachusetts Municipal Human Resources association held its annual Fall Conference virtually this fall as a three-session webinar series on Oct. 15, 22 and 29.
The series kicked off with a “cultural humility and dexterity” training led by Lakisha Coppedge, founder and principal of Coppedge Consulting, who gave an overview of the concepts of cultural humility and dexterity and how they can be incorporated into the workplace to recognize and redress power imbalances.
Coppedge discussed connections between historic and current racism in the United States and strategies for building stronger communities and strengthening relationships. She also covered the key role of allies in advocating for and maintaining institutional accountability.
Following the training, Coppedge was joined by Springfield Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Talia Gee and Meghan Sullivan, managing partner of Sullivan, Hayes & Quinn, for a panel discussion about diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. The panelists addressed how to kick off diversity, equity and inclusion work in municipalities, changes that can be made immediately to improve inclusive spaces, and developing a diverse candidate pool in hiring. They recommended training resources, including books, articles and podcasts.
In the second webinar, Jackie Kugell, a partner with Morgan, Brown & Joy, discussed the intersection of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act. She gave an overview of FMLA eligibility and usage, and how FMLA leave comes into play in the context of reasonable accommodations under the ADA.
Kugell also covered ADA and FMLA legal decisions that municipal employers should be aware of, and responded to questions on using the FMLA for COVID-related leave requests and designating FMLA for employees without medical paperwork.
The third webinar of the series covered pay equity, with Cheryl Pinarchick and Jennifer Scully from Fisher Phillips, who gave an overview of the federal and state laws that govern compensation practices. They reviewed what constitutes compensation, legal justifications for pay disparities, and best practices for conducting a self-audit of compensation practices. They answered questions about the use of seniority systems in determining pay, frequency of compensation self-evaluations, and contractual versus statutory leave requirements.
About 130 human resources professionals registered for the Fall Conference. The registration fee includes access to the webinar recordings and any followup materials. The recordings are available only to those who paid for the series.