Ms. Emily M. Dickens

As the head of government affairs for the world’s largest human resources trade association, Emily M. Dickens leads the SHRM’s advocacy and policy initiatives. This includes its advocacy team — the “A-Team” — composed of nearly 30,000 HR professionals across the United States positioned front and center in efforts to advance the interests of the HR profession. She oversees government affairs, global policy, legal affairs, and the SHRM Foundation, the 501(c)(3) philanthropic arm of SHRM.

Dickens has been a featured expert on workplace issues and business leadership — with commentary appearing in CBS News, NBC News, AP News, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Bloomberg Law, Crain's Business, Marketplace, WTOP, Yahoo Finance, HR Brew, and HR Dive among others. In addition, Dickens has testified before Congress and the EEOC on worker and workplace topics like AI, gender bias, and paid leave.

Dickens serves on the boards of the following industry organizations to maximize SHRM's impact and voice in global, national, and local business and labor policy debates: B20 Brazil Women in Business Action Council (co-chair); USCIB-United States Council for International Business (governance committee); the Bryce Harlow Foundation; Skill-up, and the National Foundation for Women Legislators.

Before SHRM, Dickens served as a passionate advocate for access to higher education as the general counsel/head of policy for the DC-based Thurgood Marshall College Fund; vice president of public policy for the Association of Governing Boards for Colleges and Universities; and the assistant vice president for federal affairs at the University of North Carolina System. Dickens leverages her higher education background to promote the importance of leveraging the education-to-employment pipeline to address future workforce needs. She has also worked at Duke University and Fayetteville State University in administrative and external affairs roles.

Actively engaged in board service, Dickens is a member of the North Carolina Central University Board of Trustees and the NCNW Board of Directors (co-chair, personnel committee). She is a life member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, where she has served as chairman of the International HBCU Task Force, and on the sorority’s Education Advancement Foundation Board (AKAEAF). Emily is a graduate of North Carolina Central University and the North Carolina Central University School of Law.