Strategic Advisory Board

Richa Batra

Richa Batra is the Vice President and General Manager of the Student Success organization at Anthology. Richa has held various roles within Student Success over the last 13 years and has 20 years’ experience in Workplace Development, Contact Center Operations, Client Experience and Education Technology. Richa oversees a team of over 1000 front line contact center employees that double in size to support back to school with 8 million annual interactions supporting students.

Richa is passionate about the intersection of higher education, workforce development, employability and customer experience. Richa learned the “Nordstrom way” in her first job focused on customer experience and has been a focus throughout her career managing clients, teams and contact center operations.

Richa is a first generation college student and is focused on her work to drive increased access and student retention to students from underserved populations. Richa holds a BA from the University of Maryland College Park in Communications and an MBA from the George Washington University in International Business.

Nate Brown

Nate Brown is a perpetual student of the world’s greatest experiences and the people who create them.Having spent the first decade of this career managing a complex technical support environment for Occupational Health and eLearning software, Nate transitioned to Customer Experience in 2015. After authoring The Ultimate CX Primer, Brown was dubbed the “CX Influencer of the Year” by CloudCherry in 2019, and a top global CX thought leader by ICMI, Exceeders, Netomi, Martech and many more. Nate also co-created CX Accelerator, a first-class, non profit community to help Customer Experience professionals grow and succeed in every stage of their career journey.

Steve Campbell

Steve Campbell has 27 years of consulting experience in the contact center space. Steve skillfully works with all levels of the organization, forming strong partnerships with client companies to deliver improvements in cost, quality and service. His ability to quickly recognize and understand operational challenges combined with his engagement style has earned the trust and confidence of clients around the world. His unique combination of skills has directly resulted in hundreds of successful client engagements over the past two decades.

Justin Chase

Justin is a nationally recognized subject matter expert in crisis systems, recovery-oriented systems of care, peer integration, non-profit organizational leadership and development. His expertise also includes developing sustainable, effective and efficient healthcare programs and systems. He has worked within the public behavioral health and child welfare systems for more than 15 years. Justin has served as the President and CEO for Solari Crisis & Human Services since 2014.

Justin earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s of Social Work degrees from Arizona State University, a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and holds a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University. Justin is a Licensed Master Social Worker in the State of Arizona, Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality, Six Sigma Green Belt, and a Fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives. Justin also serves on the Board of Directors for Lifeline International and the International Council for Helplines.

Murphy Fraser

As Team Lead & Senior Consultant at TTEC Digital, Murphy leads delivery of contact center optimization and customer experience transformation projects for clients of all shapes and sizes in the financial services, insurance, healthcare, travel and hospitality, and professional services space. Her team's technology-agnostic, people-centric approach helps organization increase operational efficiency, realize return on technology investments, and improve the employee and customer experience. Murphy is both a strategist and an executor, enabling her to lend a unique perspective to the clients she serves.

With experience spanning contact center and support operations, customer success, and customer engagement program management, Murphy is a trusted practitioner and advisor that carries with her a deeply human approach to doing business. She has been recognized as an ICMI Top 25 Thought Leader, frequently speaks at ICMI events, and was named CloudCherry Top 10 CX Champion.

Ted Hunting

Ted Hunting leads marketing at Bright Pattern, an innovative cloud customer experience platform. Previously Ted worked at Genesys where he held multiple roles including leading marketing in the Americas, APAC, and Corporate Marketing. Hunting is a recognized speaker in the CX industry with presentations at conferences including Gartner, Forrester, Frost & Sullivan, and others. Ted has also led marketing for start-ups acquired by Boeing and Amdocs as well as large enterprise software companies with a background in business intelligence.

Eric Mackowitz

Eric has been with Amica since 2003 when he started as a First Notice of Loss telephone representative in Lincoln, RI. Later, after spending a few years as a Claims Adjuster in Massachusetts, Eric returned to the contact center as a Supervisor and has since served as the Manager in the Carmel, IN, Spokane, WA and Lincoln, RI locations. He was promoted to his current role in early 2019 and has oversight of the First Notice of Loss units throughout the three contact centers. Eric is a graduate of Stonehill College in Easton, MA with a degree in Economics and is a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter. Outside of work, Eric enjoys coaching his young sons’ sports teams, playing golf, skiing, cooking and travelling with his wife Molly and two sons, Charlie and Teddy.

Rhonda Manski

Rhonda Manski is the Associate Vice President of Member Services for UPMC Health Plan where she is responsible for the daily call center operations and overall customer satisfaction.

Rhonda joined the organization in 2011 as the Program Director of Customer Satisfaction.

Rhonda has managed in customer service for over 20 years with a focus on customer retention and service excellence. Accomplishments include the creation and implementation of our comprehensive service and recovery strategy. In addition, she has focused on creating an excellent experience for our team members through developing an improved recruitment, onboarding, training, coaching and engagement program.

Karin Martin

Karin Martin began her career as a business analyst developing contact center processes. However, it was her passion for putting people before process that quickly led to her first leadership role and building her first contact center. Today Karin oversees all service delivery for Arbella, a $1 billion regional insurance company just outside Boston. She is responsible for the company’s omnichannel strategy and setting all standards for customer-facing service. Karin’s experience has given her the opportunity to focus on helping people versus conducting transactions.

Karin recently led the consolidation of three contact centers into one, resulting in greater career opportunities for employees, procedural efficiencies, and a more holistic view of the customer experience. An approachable leader, Karin strives to inspire passion for creating a caring service experience that differentiates Arbella in the insurance market.

Karin believes in continuous learning. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from New England College of Business, and numerous insurance certifications and licenses.

Renee Rhem

Renee Rhem is Vice President, Customer Advocacy for Subaru of America, Inc. (SOA). In her role, Rhem leads the customer advocacy department and oversees the Subaru customer experience across all channels ensuring the Subaru Love Promise is present at all interactions with customers. Her team also works to maintain customer and brand loyalty and fosters positive partnerships with more than 630 Subaru retailers to resolve customer issues.

Rhem brings more than 20 years of experience to the SOA executive team. Prior to joining SOA, Rhem was vice president, operational effectiveness at Prudential Financial where she led more than 200 customer service associates managing 480,000 customer insurance claims per year. She previously spent nearly 10 years at Independence Health Group as the vice president, sales support and vice president, customer service and 13 years in various leadership roles at Bank of America.

Rhem holds a bachelor’s in psychology from Spelman College in Atlanta and is on the board of directors at Las Americas ASPIRA Academy (Delaware Charter), and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and the National Alumnae Association of Spelman College.

Paul A. Richardson

Paul has over 30 years of experience in program management and 25 years of contact center industry experience. Paul focuses on leading with an ethical approach that ensures fairness to the employee, the company, and the customer while incorporating continuous process improvement, and putting people first, always. He recognizes that success is rooted in understanding that we are all in the people business and making the connection between the head and the heart requires empathy, emotional intelligence, and technical acumen to bridge the gaps that ultimately enable people to thrive. As Zeiders President and CEO, Paul has strategic and operational responsibility for the company’s worldwide operations.

Prior to joining Zeiders in 2012, Paul was as a business process consultant for the U.S. Air Force, an executive with Anthem BCBS managing the customer service operations for the Department of Defense (DoD) TRICARE contracts, a Vice President for Contact Center Planning with Amerigroup Corporation’s health plan services, and a Vice President for Ceridian overseeing the Service Delivery Operations for over 6 million members of the DoD EAP program, Military OneSource. Paul served as a Medical Service Corps Officer in the U.S. Army and is a combat veteran of the First Gulf War.

Josh Streets

Josh Streets lives life with one purpose: “To bring out the best in people and their businesses.” He is a trusted advisor to executives and organizations around the country regarding contact center operations, technology and leadership performance. Josh works with clients on a range of projects focused on contact centers, operations, technology, customer experience and leadership. As ICMI's Technology Practice Leader, he is applying his deep experience and proven success in working with contact centers of all sizes to guide ICMI's suite of contact center technology consulting services.

Josh learned the importance of high performing leadership and honed his business skills early by serving in Fortune 500 senior leadership roles over the course of nearly two decades before creating Scoreboard Group Consulting and joining ICMI as a consultant. Since 2015, Josh has worked with ICMI on medium to large sized strategic business performance projects.

Along with finishing his upcoming book ‘Fix the Root, Get the Fruit’, Josh spends a great deal of time traveling with his family and also serves the needs of several non-profit organizations and causes.

Hannah Steiman

Hannah Steiman is an accomplished entrepreneur, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Revenue Officer, with more than 20 years of experience building businesses, managing teams, and serving in strategic communications roles. In five years, she has built Peak Support into an Inc. 5000 company with more than 1,700 employees worldwide, while preserving its unique and positive culture. She has served as a strategic advisor to companies including ExxonMobil, Johnson & Johnson, and Medtronic, USA, helping them develop new, innovative business models that would improve their resilience against the forces disrupting their industries. In the non-profit space, she has experience with global organizations (Clinton Global Initiative) as well as regional organizations working in food security.

Scott Whitely

Scott is an experienced Operations leader and driver of continuous improvement initiatives designed to improve the overall customer experience. He believes that a commitment to continuous learning and a positive attitude towards change provide the foundation for effective customer experience and continuous improvement programs.

He has over 20 years of experience in the contact center industry. Throughout his tenure with Agero, he has held a variety of positions in operations management, quality assurance, project management, customer experience management, and continuous improvement. As Senior Director of Customer Experience, he is responsible for continually reimagining and redesigning key operational processes in an effort to maintain pace with evolving customer expectations while also managing operational costs.

Scott holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and MBA from Laurentian University. He is also a black belt in Lean Six Sigma. Outside of work, he likes to spend his time outdoors. Depending on the season, he enjoys biking, hiking, skiing, boating, fishing, and snowmobiling.