Brightmine Editorial Team
Melissa Gonzalez Boyce, JD, Content Manager, HR and Employment
Melissa Gonzalez Boyce is a former practicing employment law attorney with more than 15 years of experience counseling employers and HR professionals. She currently manages a team of legal editors on the Brightmine editorial team. Previously, Melissa was a Brightmine legal editor covering topics relating to workplace health, safety and security, including OSHA, COVID-19, workplace violence, marijuana and data breaches.
Melissa holds a Juris Doctor from New York Law School. Before joining Brightmine, she was an employment law attorney representing private and public employers on a diverse docket of employment-related matters, including those relating to discrimination, retaliation and discipline as well as labor relations.
Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn and X.
Melissa Burdorf, JD, Senior Content Manager, Policy Solutions
Melissa Burdorf is a former in-house attorney and practicing employment law attorney with over 20 years of experience serving HR professionals. She leads the Brightmine Policy Solutions team - including Automated Handbook Management and the Handbook Templates tool.
Melissa holds a Juris Doctor degree from American University, Washington College of Law. Before joining Brightmine, Melissa served as in-house counsel for various companies. In that role, she provided advice to HR on a multitude of employment-related issues. Prior to working in-house, Melissa worked as an employment law associate, where she handled a diverse docket of employment-related matters, such as retaliation, harassment and discrimination.
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Michael Cardman, Senior Legal Editor
Michael Cardman has more than 20 years of experience in publishing and has specialized in employment law for more than 15 years. As a member of the Brightmine editorial team, he focuses on wage and hour compliance, including minimum wage, overtime, employee classification, hours worked, independent contractors and child labor.
Michael holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Virginia. Prior to joining Brightmine, he was the managing editor for Thompson Publishing Group's library of HR publications. In this role, he was responsible for overseeing books, manuals and online tools covering a variety of topics such as wage and hour, employee leaves, employee benefits and compensation.
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Amanda Czepiel, JD, Head of Content
With over 16 years of business compliance publishing experience, Amanda Czepiel leads the Brightmine US content team, focusing on the development of content to meet the ever-changing challenges of the Brightmine audience.
Before joining Brightmine, Amanda headed the content team at BLR, overseeing its human resources and environmental, health and safety editorial operations for the company's flowchart services, live events, print publications and media and training offerings. Amanda holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Arts degree in food studies from New York University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Connecticut. She has served on the Program Committee for the Specialized Information Publishers Association (SIPA) annual conference.
Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn.
Helen He, Legal Knowledge Management Analyst
Helen joined Brightmine in 2021 as a legal analyst. In this role, she works as a liaison between the content team and other departments, such as marketing, UI/UX, technology, and data science, to develop new products and services to meet employers' evolving strategic HR and compliance needs.
Helen studied at Fordham University and holds a BA in economics. She formerly worked at global law firm Ropes & Gray as an information governance analyst. There her responsibilities included training incoming legal support staff on legal technology solutions, monitoring information systems and identifying areas for improvement in information management. Prior to that, Helen worked at a marketing firm as a corporate trainer for sales.
Sarah Peterson Herr, JD, Legal Editor
Sarah Peterson Herr is a former in-house attorney with over 10 years of employment law experience. As a member of the Brightmine editorial team, she focuses on compensation and benefits compliance, including health care benefits, health care continuation and retirement benefits.
Sarah earned a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Baker University, a Master of Arts in counseling psychology from the University of Kansas and a Juris Doctor from Washburn University. Prior to joining Brightmine, Sarah led a team conducting workplace investigations. She previously worked in-house as a research attorney in a firm specializing in employment law. Sarah's employment law interests include leaves of absence and accommodations, AI and privacy issues.
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn.
Victoria Kelleher, Lead Survey Specialist
After more than 5 years of research experience in academia, Victoria Kelleher joined Brightmine as a Lead Survey Specialist. In order to collect data that can be used to generate actionable insights, Victoria designs and fields surveys on a wide range of HR-related topics.
Before she joined Brightmine, Victoria worked as a Graduate Assistant at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. She led multiple undergraduate-level Research Methods courses as an instructor. While pursuing her Master of Arts in research psychology, Victoria conducted independent survey research on emotion regulation and mental health. Victoria also holds a Bachelor of Science in biology and a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy.
Connect with Victoria on LinkedIn.
Taylor Lewellyn, JD, Legal Editor
Taylor Lewellyn has over 7 years' experience in legal publishing. As a member of the Brightmine editorial team, she focuses on health, safety and security, including HR and workplace safety; workplace security; drugs, alcohol and smoking; employee health and worker's compensation, as well as immigration and training and development. She is also a member of the Handbook Templates and Ask Our Experts teams.
Taylor holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from the College of William and Mary and a Juris Doctor from Roger Williams University School of Law. Before joining Brightmine, she was a senior content specialist at Simplify Compliance. In that role, Taylor coordinated the development and maintenance of all environmental, health and safety (EHS) training content for the BLR-branded websites and products, helping organizations comply with OSHA, EPA and DOT rules. She also covered a variety of EHS topics and presented webinars related to training and compliance issues.
Connect with Taylor on LinkedIn.
Tracy Morley, SPHR, SHRM - SCP, Content Manager, HR and Employment
Tracy Morley has more than 25 years of HR experience. She leads a team of legal editors and is actively involved in the HR profession as a member of SHRM at both the national and local levels. She also serves as an appointed volunteer writer for the HR Certification Institute (HRCI).
Tracy holds a Master of Science degree in counseling/HR development from the University of Bridgeport. Before joining Brightmine, she held a variety of roles in multiple HR disciplines, including employee relations, benefit plan administration, payroll administration and performance management and compensation.
Connect with Tracy on LinkedIn.
Helena Oroz, JD, Senior Legal Editor
Helena Oroz is an attorney with 19 years of employment law counseling and litigation experience. She joined Brightmine in 2022 as a legal editor covering various leave topics such as paid sick leave and FMLA as well as disability, multistate employer issues and other emerging HR trends.
Helena earned a Bachelor of Arts in communication and English from Denison University and a Juris Doctor from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University.
Before joining Brightmine, Helena worked as a law firm associate counseling and defending employers with respect to a wide variety of employment law issues, including leave management, restrictive covenants, harassment and discrimination, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and COVID-related compliance issues. She also wrote and edited legal content concerning critical employment law issues. Helena also previously worked as in-house Employment Counsel for a global consumer goods company.
Connect with Helena on LinkedIn.
Rena Pirsos, JD, Legal Editor
Rena Pirsos has more than 30 years of experience in legal publishing. At Brightmine, she covers topics related to payroll, including income and employment tax withholding, depositing and reporting; taxation of employee compensation and benefits; wage payments; child support and garnishment order compliance; and international payroll issues.
Rena holds a Juris Doctor degree from Hofstra University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and French literature from Fordham University's College at Lincoln Center. Prior to joining Brightmine, she was managing editor for the American Payroll Association and developed and co-authored many of its core publications. In earlier years, she was managing editor of the UCC Law Journal and Banking Law Journal at Warren Gorham Lamont/Thomson Professional Publishing, and a legal editor for Thomson Reuters' Payroll Guide, Prentice Hall's guides to federal, state and local income tax, and CCH/Wolters Kluwer Federal Securities Law Reports.
Emily Scace, JD, Senior Legal Editor
Emily Scace has more than a decade of experience in legal publishing. As a member of the Brightmine editorial team, she covers topics including employment discrimination and harassment, pay equity, pay transparency and recruiting and hiring.
Emily holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Connecticut School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in English and psychology from Northwestern University. Prior to joining Brightmine, she was a senior content specialist at Simplify Compliance. In that role, she covered a variety of workplace health and safety topics, was the editor of the OSHA Compliance Advisor newsletter, and frequently delivered webinars on key issues in workplace safety.
Luke Schulz, JD, Legal Data Analyst
Luke joined Brightmine in 2021 as a legal data analyst. In this role, he works to monitor the ever-changing legal landscape and helps to develop new products and services to meet employers' evolving strategic HR and compliance needs.
Luke studied at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and holds a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry and a Juris Doctor from Seton Hall Law School. Before joining Brightmine, he held a variety of positions in research, including in the chemical, literature and legal fields.
Melissa A. Silver, JD, Content Manager, Policy Solutions
Melissa Silver is a former practicing employment law attorney with 10 years of experience. As content manager of the Brightmine Policy Solutions team, she supports Automated Handbook Management by ensuring the tool includes the most up-to-date and legally compliant local, state and federal employment policies available.
Melissa holds a Juris Doctor degree from Syracuse University College of Law. Before joining Brightmine, she defended clients in a variety of employment-related matters involving harassment, discrimination and retaliation claims, as well as the enforcement of restrictive covenants.
Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn and X.
Melissa Stein, JD, Legal Editor
Melissa Stein is a former practicing employment law attorney. As a legal editor at Brightmine, she covers various forms of leave, including paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave. Melissa also works with the Handbook Templates team to craft and update Brightmine handbook statements.
Melissa holds a Bachelor of Arts in global studies from Arizona State University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Before joining Brightmine, Melissa worked as an Equal Employment Opportunity attorney at the American Federation of Government Employees, where she represented union members alleging employment discrimination claims against federal agencies. She also conducted trainings on federal employment discrimination law. Previously, Melissa worked as an associate at a civil rights law firm in Washington, D.C., where she focused on litigation involving employment discrimination, harassment and retaliation.
Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn.
Robert S. Teachout, SHRM - SCP, Legal Editor
Robert Teachout has more than 30 years' experience in legal publishing covering employment laws on the state and federal level. At Brightmine, he covers labor relations, performance appraisals and promotions, succession and workforce planning, HR professional development and employment contracts. He often writes on the intersection of compliance with HR strategy and practice.
Before joining Brightmine, Robert was a senior HR editor at Thompson Information Services, covering FMLA, ADA, EEO issues and federal and state leave laws. Prior to that he was the primary editor of Bloomberg BNA's State Labor Laws binders and was the principal writer and editor of the State Wage Assignment and Garnishment Handbook. Robert also served as a union unit leader and shop steward in the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild of the Communications Workers of America. Actively involved in the HR profession, Robert is a member of SHRM at both the national and local levels, and gives back to the profession by serving as the communications vice president on the board of his local chapter.
Connect with Robert on LinkedIn and X.