People Side of AI: Lessons from Change Management Front Lines : Crystal City, VA
About the event
AI tools are the easy part. The hard part is people: how they adopt, resist, and ultimately embrace change. This panel brings together three experienced organization development and change management consultants to share what's really happening inside organizations implementing AI: the common pitfalls, what's shifted in the last year, and the practical moves that separate stalled pilots from lasting impact.
Featured speakers:
• [Tasha (TC) Cooper, Esq.](https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamcoachtc/)\, AIGP\, ICF-PCC\, AI Innovation & Governance Strategist \| Attorney \| ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) \| Board Member \| Former Chief Privacy Officer and SAOP \| Founder\, UpwardAction® Advisory • [Debra Mitchell ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchelldebra/)\, Leadership Coach & Change Advisor \| I help leaders and organizations navigate growth\, workforce change\, and transformation\, without losing their people • [Sarah Smith](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahleasmith/)\, Do you know where your bottleneck is? \| Focus over Friction \| Ops Architect for founders\, startups\, SMBs\, and VC-backed companies • [Laura Gramling](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauragramling/)\, Empowering Leaders to Elevate Teams & Unleash Collective Intelligence \| Driving Innovation\, Alignment & Impact in an AI-Driven Era \| Building All-Voices-Heard Cultures
Location: AWS Skills Center, 1550-G Crystal Dr, Arlington, VA 22202 Drinks and Networking After: Tacombi, 1550 Crystal Dr, Arlington, VA 22202
Additional info: [Tasha (TC) Cooper, Esq.](https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamcoachtc/), is an attorney, AI governance strategist, and Professional Certified Coach who equips leaders to make sound decisions about AI. As Founder and President of UpwardAction® Advisory, an AI readiness and governance consultancy, she partners with organizations to build the governance, leadership, and workforce capabilities needed to adopt AI and emerging technologies. TC brings more than 25 years at the intersection of law, governance, emerging technology, and organizational risk. Long before AI governance became a headline issue, she was addressing how AI systems intersected with the handling and protection of personal information, including over 16 years of federal government service culminating in a role as Chief Privacy Officer. She created the Human Intelligence Value Mapping™ framework and the UFO Framework™, which equip organizations to strengthen human judgment, govern AI-enabled decision-making, and build trust in the age of intelligent systems. An AI Governance Professional (AIGP) and Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) through the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), TC speaks to bar associations, government agencies, and organizations navigating AI adoption, translating complex AI topics into practical strategies leaders can implement.
[Debra Mitchell](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchelldebra/) is the founder of Debra Mitchell & Company. She helps leaders and their teams get on the same page, so that what leadership means, what managers pass down, and what people actually experience all line up. For more than 20 years, Deb has led change inside Fortune 500 companies, federal agencies, and nonprofits. New technology. Restructuring. The next set of leaders coming up. Through all of it, she keeps the focus on the people doing the work. She helps teams build the clarity, trust, and communication that make change stick, so it takes hold instead of fading once the rollout is over.
[Sarah Smith](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahleasmith/)[ ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahleasmith/)is a transformation and operations leader who helps founders and organizations scale with intention without sacrificing culture, execution speed, or the systems that make great teams great. As the founder of Iconoclast Innovations and a former Fortune 500 enterprise transformation consultant, she brings 13 years of experience in organizational design,…
