AWI Board of Directors

Amy Oppenheimer, President. Amy Oppenheimer has more than 25 years experience working in the field of employment law, emphasizing preventing and responding to workplace harassment and discrimination. As an attorney, she has litigated employment cases. Since 1992 she has acted as a neutral in a variety of capacities, including investigating claims of harassment and discrimination, training workplace investigators, mediation and arbitration. Amy is the author of many articles about harassment, bias and discrimination, including one of the only practical guides to doing investigations: Investigating Workplace Harassment, How to be Fair, Thorough and Legal, published in 2003 by Society of Human Resource Practice (SHRM). She is a trial qualified expert on the issue of employment practices in preventing, responding to and investigating workplace harassment and discrimination.

Michael A. Robbins, Vice President. Michael A. Robbins is President of EXTTI, Incorporated. EXTTI provides Expert Testimony, Training and Investigation services in employment matters. He is a frequent lecturer and author on employment issues. Mr. Robbins has conducted over 250 workplace investigations and has served as an expert witness in close to 400 employment cases--mostly on investigation and interactive process issues. Prior to forming EXTTI, he was a Labor & Employment attorney for 20 years--including 4 years as in-house counsel and 16 years in two nationally recognized law firms. Mr. Robbins graduated Phi Beta Kappa from San Diego State University and received his JD degree from UCLA School of Law. He is a member of the Executive Board of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Labor & Employment Section, is a founding member and President of the Society of Independent Workplace Investigators (SIWI) and is a Charter Member of the Association of Workplace Investigators (AWI).

Sue Ann Van Dermyden, Secretary. Sue Ann Van Dermyden, a shareholder of Van Dermyden Allison Law Corporation, has specialized in employment law since 1993. She is a licensed private investigator and certified EEOC investigator. Her practice focuses on investigating complex work-related claims related to harassment, discrimination, retaliation, misconduct and performance issues; providing expert witness testimony on employment matters; advising clients on complex employment-related matters; and, conducting training seminars. Ms. Van Dermyden is a founding member of the Association of Workplace Investigators (AWI). She is also a AWI Board Member and Officer, and currently serves as the Annual Conference Committee Chair and the Sacramento Local Circle Convener. She has authored numerous articles on employment law and conducted countless training seminars. Ms. Van Dermyden is a native of North Dakota and alumnus of Pacific McGeorge School of Law.

Walter Cochran-Bond, Treasurer.  Walter Cochran-Bond is a graduate of the UCLA School of Law.  Over the course of his career, Mr. Cochran-Bond has represented both employees and employers in a wide-variety of employment-related matters, including employment counseling, drafting employment-related policies and litigating individual and class action cases.  In his current practice, he serves as an arbitrator though the Employment Law Panel of the American Arbitration Association and as an independent investigator for employment-related matters.  Mr. Cochran-Bond also has served as Board Chair for the Labor and Employment Law Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the Western Justice Center Foundation, the Public Counsel Law Center and the Walden School of California.

Barry Chersky, Assistant Secretary.  Barry Chersky is a trainer and consultant focusing on civil rights issues in the San Francisco Bay Area and nationally. For more than 20 years he has presented training on preventing discrimination, harassment and retaliation in a variety of workplace settings. He has conducted investigations on behalf of employers in a wide range of industries including entertainment, biotechnology, insurance, financial services, legal, and medical, in workplaces ranging from small non-profits to labor unions to multinational corporations. He has served as an expert witness in several court cases which included the evaluation of investigation practices. Since 2007 he has served as the Senior Human Resources Consultant at Saint Mary’s College of California where he conducts internal investigations. Mr. Chersky is a private investigator licensed by the State of California.

Marilou F. Mirkovich, Assistant Treasurer.  Marilou Mirkovich is a partner in the Cerritos office of Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo. Ms. Mirkovich represents employers in all aspects of labor relations and employment law. She focuses on defending discrimination claims in federal and state courts and handles matters pending before the EEOC, DFEH, and FEHC. In addition to her employment practice, Ms. Mirkovich serves as the firm's lead investigator on numerous public and private sector matters. Ms. Mirkovich has served as President of the Board of Directors for the Community Family Guidance Center. She has been an active participant in the HIV & AIDS Legal Services Alliance (HALSA). Ms. Mirkovich has also been on the Board of Directors for the Friends of the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. 

Catherine A. Balin has spent over twenty years working in the ever changing field of Human Resources. As Affirmative Action Coordinator for Home Savings & Loan in the 70’s she helped oversee this targeted organization through the definitive years of the EEOC. In the 80’s as Vice President of Human Resources for a national health care company Ms. Balin sat on the Executive Board and helped the organization go from a small family owned Company through two acquisitions to one that is international. It is through these years that she learned to anticipate the needs of the ever-changing work force, deal with the mercurial needs of merging cultures and refining the art of communicating the unique demands of managing cultural diversity, and conflict resolution within the workplace. In 1990, Ms. Balin joined a well-respected Human Resources consulting firm, Bench International, where she was named Executive Vice-President. While at Bench, she continued to consult in the health care industry and also developed a particular expertise in the Biotech and pharmaceutical areas. Ms. Balin joined EXTTI, Incorporated in 2002. Over the years, she has been called upon to provide numerous seminars on management and Human Resources issues—particularly providing in-house seminars to Executive-level employees. A respected consultant, she has a unique ability to engender trust and confidence. And she is known for her skill at “calming” difficult situations. At EXTTI, Ms. Balin uses her expertise to provide executive coaching--including in sexual harassment and discrimination avoidance; training in these same areas; and workplace investigations of claims of harassment, discrimination, management misconduct  and employee misconduct (including "Cotran" investigations).

Nancy Bornn, Director. Nancy Bornn is a named partner in Bornn & Surls, a Manhattan Beach employment law firm. She has over 30 years of experience as an employment lawyer. She currently focuses her practice on conducting workplace investigations, testifying as an expert witness on HR matters, and training for AB 1825 compliance. Ms. Bornn is a Governor on of the Board of Governors of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, and serves on its Credentials Committee. She is a Founding and Charter Director on the Board of Directors of the Association of Workplace Investigators, Inc.  She is a former Chair of the Labor & Employment Law Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. She is a former Chair of the California Employment Lawyers Association. Ms. Bornn also served as an Executive Board member of the National Employment Lawyers Association. Ms. Bornn has published numerous articles in the area of employment law and is the author of the legal treatise, Representing California Sexual Harassment Plaintiffs (James Publishing 2004), updated in part in 2007 (Bornn & Surls 2007), and the co-author of Practice Pointers for Workplace Investigations (SHRM 2010).

Mary Egan, Director. Mary Egan assists local government agencies with both human resources and organizational effectiveness advisory work. She has consulted with many high profile clients since starting her own firm in 2001 and has recently affiliated with Municipal Resource Group LLC and serves as the partner in charge of the Human Resource practice. Ms. Egan has held key positions with both the City of San Jose – where she was the Employee Relations Officer and Chief Negotiator (1988 - 1993) and the City of Sacramento where she served in various capacities (1980 – 1988).  She is a Private Investigator licensed by the State of California.

Lindsay Harris, Director. Ms. Harris brings considerable employment law and investigative experience to her current practice focused on conducting independent investigations of suspected workplace misconduct. Prior to founding West Coast Workplace Investigations in 2009, she spent nearly five years as senior counsel at Speer Associates/Workplace Counsel, where her practice focused on conducting internal investigations of alleged workplace misconduct, with an emphasis on high-level, complex, and sensitive matters. Among other employment law-related claims, Ms. Harris has examined allegations of discrimination retaliation, harassment, and sexual favoritism. Ms. Harris has investigated allegations affecting senior and executive management, and her clients have included companies across a variety of industries, Fortune 500 companies, and public-sector organizations. Prior to joining Speer Associates, Ms. Harris practiced employment law at the international law firm of Morrison & Foerster. She currently serves as co-chair of AWI's Ethics Committee.

 Pamela L. Hemminger, Director. Pamela L. Hemminger is an arbitrator, mediator, investigator and trainer. She is on the American Arbitration Association employment panel (Southern California) and a mediator with expertise in complex, class action, and individual cases. She also represents employers and employees, particularly executives. An employment law partner of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP for many years before recently retiring, she is a past chair of the Labor and Employment Law Section, Los Angeles County Bar Association, a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, a Board member of Dispute Resolution Services and a gubernatorial appointee to the California Law Revision Commission. She is a well-known author and speaker, including, as a contributor, Employment Discrimination Law (settlement), California Practice Guide: Employment Litigation (leaves of absence; worker safety) and EEOC Litigation and Charge Resolution (employer responses), and has been featured in The Best Lawyers in America and Top 50 Super Lawyers (Southern California).

John A. Lohse, Director. John A. Lohse is the Director of Investigations in the Office of the Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance and Audit Officer of the Regents of the University of California. He is responsible for coordinating, tracking, managing and conducting investigations at the Office of the President and system-wide. Mr. Lohse came to the University of California in January 2004 after a career with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), where he served as a Special Agent, Associate Division Counsel and Chief Division Counsel for the FBI's San Francisco Division. In addition, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California appointed Mr. Lohse as a Special Assistant United States Attorney. Prior to his service with the FBI, he was a criminal prosecutor with the Maricopa County Attorney's Office in Phoenix, Arizona. Mr. Lohse is a member of the State Bars of California and Arizona. He is also a Private Investigator, licensed by the State of California.

Julie A. Moore, Director. Julie A. Moore is President of Employment Practices Group, a legal and human resources consulting firm in MA and NH which she founded in 1998. She has been practicing law for 20 years and previously litigated cases. Much of her practice is devoted to conducting investigations into alleged harassment and misconduct. She also conducts training for employers; drafts policies, procedures and handbooks; consults and advises on employment law and HR issues; and represents employers and employees before administrative agencies. Ms. Moore has over 100 publications and speaks at seminars for the MA Bar Ass'n, NH Bar Ass'n, Business and Legal Resources (BLR), local and regional SHRM chapters, and many business and trade organizations. She is a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). She has been retained as an expert witness in cases involving a wide variety of employment-related issues, and has testified at trial in NH, MA and ME courts.

Debra L. Reilly, Director. Debra L. Reilly received her J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1989. She joined Murtaugh Miller Meyer & Nelson LLP, from 1990 to 1999, where she became a partner practicing employment law. Since 2002, Ms. Reilly has focused her practice on conducting workplace investigations. She has conducted over four hundred employment investigations for Municipalities, Districts, Authorities, the United States Postal Service (holding a “sensitive” security clearance by the Postal Inspector’s Office), and numerous private sector employers. She has qualified as an expert witness in arbitration and testified as to best practices in conducting sexual harassment investigations. Ms. Reilly has published articles on employment law and has authored a quarterly newsletter on federal and state employment issues.

Keith Rohman, Director. Keith Rohman is founder and president of Public Interest Investigations, Inc. A licensed private investigator,  Mr. Rohman is a recognized expert in the investigations field, including workplace investigations. He serves on the Equity Oversight Panel (EOP) of the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department, which is a civilian oversight panel charged with monitoring Internal Affairs investigations at the Sheriffs Department. Mr. Rohman has also served as the Executive Director of the Office of Discrimination Investigation for the City of Los Angeles. In this role, he directed an investigative team responsible for conducting workplace investigations into hundreds of discrimination and retaliation complaints raised by City of Los Angeles employees. Following this project, Mr. Rohman made recommendations to the Los Angeles City Council, which led to the establishment of a new City agency to address EEO issues. Mr. Rohman is an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School where he teaches Fact Investigation. He has presented at CLE programs on a range of topics, including making credibility assessments, interview techniques, and conducting EEO investigations.

Stephen P. Angelides, Executive Director. Steve Angelides received his JD degree from Boalt Hall Law School and his MPP degree from the the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, and practiced law in Oakland, California for 13 years. Since 1991 he has served as a neutral and as an officer, director and executive of non-profit and government agencies. He has been a founding principal or executive of three non-profit corporations, headed an office with 50 employees and a $7 million budget, managed two multi-million dollar high technology projects and six large statewide conferences, and conducted numerous training sessions on various legal and technology topics. In the past Mr. Angelides has also worked as a law professor, technology consultant, website editor, journalist, salesperson, retail clerk, and entrepreneur. As Executive Director of AWI he now does all of those things.