Finalists for the inaugural position of vice president and Chief Human Resources Officer will be visiting campus starting this week.

Public open forums will be held starting April 29 in Kreger Hall 319.

Chris Lehman

• April 29, 9:30-10 a.m., public open forum, Kreger Hall 319
• Candidate feedback

Chris Lehman is the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at the University of Vermont, where he leads the university’s people strategy to foster an engaged, high-performing workforce. Leaders at the University of Vermont describe Lehman as, “A strategic leader who quickly builds trusting relationships with the community through collaboration and delivering results.”

Prior to joining the University of Vermont, Lehman served as CHRO at OTC Industrial Technologies, a $1 billion engineered equipment distribution and service company based in Columbus. There, he led transformative HR initiatives focused on talent and leadership development, total rewards optimization, and culture change.

Lehman holds a B.S. from Manchester College and earned his MBA with honors from the University of Notre Dame.

Eric Roesler

• May 2, 9-9:30 a.m., public open forum, Kreger Hall 319
• Candidate feedback

Eric Roesler serves as the associate vice chancellor of Human Resources at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. In this role, he has also taken on critical responsibilities as the university’s Affirmative Action officer, Title IX coordinator, ADA coordinator, and ethics officer. As one of the most tenured Chief Human Resources Officers in the UW System, Roesler has led the 13 Universities of Wisconsin in the Title and Total Compensation Project, retitling 86,000 employees throughout the System, and the Administrative Transformation Program Project that has resulting in the implementation of a single instance of Workday for all 13 UWs, which serve over 160,000 students.

Roesler holds a Ph.D. in Business with a specialized focus on Human Resources, alongside an MBA and an undergraduate degree in Business.

Jessica Palatka

• May 6, 9-9:30 a.m., public open forum, Kreger Hall 319
• Candidate feedback

Jessica Palatka performs the non-exclusive functions and duties of the assistant secretary for administration for the Department of Commerce (DOC), while serving as the Chief Human Capital Officer and director of Human Resource Management. As a member of the Senior Executive Service, Palatka is responsible for providing leadership, developing policies, and directing programs in all aspects of human resources and human capital management and administration for all bureaus of the DOC, covering nearly 58,000 employees located in all 50 states, every U.S. territory, and more than 88 countries.

Palatka is also an adjunct associate professor for the University of Maryland, Global Campus, for undergraduate courses in Human Resources and Business.

Palatka earned a Bachelor of Science cum laude in Management Science and Statistics, Decision and Information Technology in 2000 and a Master of Science in Human Resources Management in 2006 from the University of Maryland.

In March, the university announced that it would consolidate its Human Resources (HR) structure, bringing together services and operations previously housed within multiple university divisions.