Announcing 2022's Excellence in Benefits Award winners

September 13, 2022 5:29 AM

It's no secret that the world of benefits is going through a time of change. But this year's Excellence in Benefits Award winners are more than up to the task.

These HR leaders, tech innovators and benefit advisers are pushing employers and employees to think outside of the box — they're creating better benefits around healthcare and well-being, changing the cultural conversation around mental health, child care and financial wellness, and striving everyday to put people first.

EBN's 2022 Excellence in Benefits Awards celebrates 16 of these changemakers, who offered insight into their worlds — the problems they're solving and the way they approach their mission. Check out all of our winners and stay tuned for more coverage throughout September.

Bekki Early: Global well-being program manager, Equinix

Throughout the pandemic, Bekki Early introduced a number of programs that helped employees prioritize their physical and mental health, and her efforts have produced a sea change in the culture at Equinix.

"One of the big initiatives this year is listening sessions to understand employees' experience with the well-being program," Early says. "Active listening creates a really nice dynamic of knowing you have a role in the company. I have a tremendous track record of acting upon the feedback. I'm going to put these things into action."

Read more:

Excellence in HR: Equinix's Bekki Early is making business more human

Paul McCarthy: Chief people officer, SevenRooms

Paul McCarthy wants people to work less. At hospitality solutions platform SevenRooms, where McCarthy is CPO, all employees must take five consecutive days off in the first and second half of the year.

"Our employees could have worked anywhere, but they chose to work here," McCarthy says. "So we have to make sure we do right by them."

Read more:

Excellence in HR: SevenRooms' chief people officer is making employees take time off

Susan French: Head of global total rewards, Ocean Spray

Susan French is determined to normalize mental health care. The head of global total rewards at Ocean Spray, an agricultural cooperative with 2,000 employees, has rolled out partnerships with Headspace and Talkspace and eliminated copays for mental health support.

"We removed mental health copays," French says. "Even if it's $25, that can add up if someone goes once a week."

Read more:

Excellence in HR: Ocean Spray's Susan French is tackling the stigma around mental health

Tanner Brunsdale: Senior manager of benefits and mobility, Lyft

In his 20s, while working his first job in the world of benefits, Tanner Brunsdale was diagnosed with lymphoma. Despite his professional expertise, he struggled to manage his own care. Simplifying healthcare became part of his greater mission, and since joining Lyft in 2021, Brunsdale has prioritized benefits that serve all employees equally.

"That's my driver now," he says. "I want to remove the friction within the healthcare system."

Read more:

Excellence in HR: Driving Lyft's benefits toward equity

Diedrae Bell-Hunter: Executive director of human capital management, Dallas Independent School District

The Dallas Independent School District is made up of 145,000 students across 230 schools, served by 22,000 professionals. As the executive director of human capital management, Diedrae Bell-Hunter feels a responsibility to each of them, and allows leaders the space they need to be themselves.

"Leaders need a BMW space — bitch, moan and whine," she says. "My team and I create that space in meetings, get stuff off our chests, and then do positive affirmations."

Read more:

Excellence in HR: At Dallas ISD, focusing on whole-community health and wellness

Andrew McNeil and Rosario Avila: Principal and Consultant at Arrow Benefits

For Andrew McNeil and Rosario Avila, recognizing the unique needs of every human being has made their work as advisers more fulfilling and successful — and it starts with their own differences.

McNeil, a principal at Arrow Benefits Group, met consultant Avila when she joined the firm in 2016. On paper, they don't have much in common, but the duo formed a close working relationship that has led to the creation of BenefitsTV (a YouTube and social media channel for bite-size benefits content) as well as Alianza, the company's Spanish-language division.

"We're two completely different people: male, female, different generations, different races or ethnic backgrounds," McNeil says. "By taking those two perspectives and bringing one solution to the client, it's helped us strategize."

Read more:

Excellence in advising: Arrow Benefits keeps care from getting lost in translation

Lester Morales: CEO and founder of Next Impact

Lester Morales knows what happens when employers put profits before people. His father was forced into bankruptcy due to costs associated with his multiple myeloma cancer, despite having employer-sponsored health insurance.

"Sixty-seven percent of bankruptcies are because of healthcare," Morales says. "We have a responsibility to be an advocate."

Read more:

Excellence in advising: Lester Morales puts people before profits

Elena Lynett: Vice president, Segal

As VP and senior health compliance consultant, Elena Lynett is sharing her expertise and helping clients prioritize mental health and substance use support, as well as leading Segal's own mental health and substance use disorder workgroup.

"We know that there is a nexus between physical and mental health, and that supporting that inner relationship is important," she says. "When these issues are addressed you see positive things like less absenteeism and longer turnover rates."

Read more:

Excellence in advising: How Segal's VP is shining a light on substance abuse

Lori Power: Founder, MP Benefits

Lori Power sees herself as a true partner to her clients — she knows that benefits impact recruiting, on-boarding, and retention.

"I work with leadership so they understand what they're really offering an employee," she says, adding that she regularly challenges employees to engage with benefits before they need to. "If you have an EAP, go out and try it on the app or give them a call about something easy. That way when there's a trauma, you're already familiar with it."

Read more:

Excellence in advising: Lori Power builds partnership into benefits

Shadiah Sigala: Co-founder and CEO, Kinside

Shadiah Sigala and her co-founder Brittney Barrett were already seasoned tech entrepreneurs when they started Kinside, a platform that helps working parents find and pay for child care. And they knew they could solve their own problem. Since launching in 2020, Kinside serves more than 4,000 employers and their employees, who get access to a database of child care providers they can pay for using dependent FSA dollars and other employer-provided stipends.

"We're parents and we feel the pain of child care every single day," Sigala says. "That was the impetus for Kinside, of combining our technology background with the fact that we're employers and we're parents."

Read more:

Excellence in technology: Shadiah Sigala is pushing child care into the digital age

Claire Schmidt: CEO, AllVoices

In 2015, Claire Schmidt read about a sexual assault allegation at Uber — and how the employee who stepped forward ultimately exited the company due to HR's inaction. The troubling account inspired Schmidt to create AllVoices, which offers case management and tools to support fair and timely investigations of workplace conduct.

"Most tools aim to make HR leaders' lives easier, but they don't put people in employees' shoes," Schmidt says. "Our goal is to help companies retain workers, reduce risk by addressing harassment, and reputation management."

Read more:

Excellence in technology: How AllVoices is helping employees speak up

Donald DeSantis: Co-founder and chief product officer, Nava Benefits

The benefits landscape notoriously lacks transparency, with HR teams often purchasing benefits through brokers whose incentives can at times be murky. Donald DeSantis is building the solution with Nava Benefits Search Engine, letting users shop for benefits across 28 categories without a fee.

"We wanted to provide something unbiased, and created a centralized source for all vendors in the benefits space," he says. "We want to drive transparency, and our work is far from done."

Read more:

Excellence in technology: Nava Benefits' chief product officer is reshaping the benefits marketplace

Alex Frommeyer: Co-founder and CEO, Beam Benefits

In 2022, Beam Benefits — formerly Beam Dental — rebranded and added vision, life, disability and supplemental health insurance to its platform. Alex Frommeyer, co-founder and CEO, is helping small businesses find strategic ways to break the status quo to attract and retain talent.

"We want to bring benefits together on one digital platform and make it feel seamless for employers," he says. "You will see us rebuild ancillary benefits from the bottom up."

Read more:

Excellence in technology: How Beam Benefits is prioritizing small businesses

Karen Stander: Vice president, Hinge Health

Can technology support better pelvic health for women?

Earlier this year, Karen Stander, the VP of physical therapy and women's health at Hinge Health, led the launch of a women's pelvic health program, addressing conditions that one in four women will experience.

"So many women will talk to their moms, sisters, friends, and say, 'Is this normal?'" she says. "Digital-first access reduces barriers to care and suits a world in which people are no longer distrustful of telehealth."

Read more:

Excellence in technology: Creating digital solutions to support women's health

Kristen Carlisle: General manager, Betterment at Work

Companies may be inclined to shy away from helping employees with debt management, seeing it as an unnecessary risk. But it's a risk Kristen Carlisle believes can create real rewards. As GM at Betterment at Work, Carlisle is using technology to help employees manage their finances, most recently with the timely 2022 launch of a student loan management platform.

"Employees with a Betterment 401(k) plan can link their student loan accounts to visualize key information and view repayment projections. Employers can contribute to employees' loan payments, and employees can deduct directly from their paychecks."

Read more:

Excellence in technology: This Betterment exec is helping employees erase their debt