2023 Speakers
Leslie Osborn, Oklahoma Commissioner of Labor
In 2018 Leslie Osborn was elected State Labor Commissioner and re-elected in 2022. Prior to that she served ten years in the OK House of Representatives for District 47. During her time there she was the first female to chair the Judiciary committee of the House, and in December of 2016 she was named the first Republican female chairman of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee.
During her tenure she authored landmark workers' compensation reform and passed into law the first Pay for Success contract in Oklahoma, which was a public-private partnership with the Department of Corrections and the Kaiser Foundation to move women from incarceration to the Women in Recovery Program.
Osborn received a B.S. in business administration from Oklahoma State University and resides in Mustang, Oklahoma. Leslie owned and operated her own business for 22 years selling heavy duty truck parts, Osborn Pick-Up Accessories, and is the mother of two children.
Osborn serves on the advisory board of OK Small Business Development Centers, the Oklahoma Academy, THRIVE to prevent teen pregnancy, and the Canadian Valley Technology Center Foundation. She was in Leadership OK Class 27 and served as the state director of the national group Women in Government.
Cinthya L. Allen, CEO
CLA Consulting Solutions, LLC
With nearly 20 years of Fortune 50 executive experience and strategic leadership, Cinthya leads with a collaborative, servant leadership approach, maximizing diversity, equity and inclusion programs and effectively influencing business operations.
Cinthya is President and Founder of CLA Consulting Solutions, LLC. Her firm was established in 2021 and is dedicated to help organizations of all sizes and industries to tap into the strengths comprehensive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion commitments bring.
Her commitment to Diversity is carried out in her current role of Chief Diversity & Equity Officer in municipal government at the City of Norman, the third largest city in Oklahoma. Cinthya is responsible for developing and directing a strategic roadmap to drive impact across all internal departments, including police and fire. Her responsibility also spans an external focus to include community engagement. She serves as the City’s ADA Coordinator and is responsible for implementing programs designed to ensure fair and equitable opportunities for citizens, staff and council. Cinthya also serves as Adjunct Professor at the University of Oklahoma in the Department of Human Relations.
Her professional experience and DEI roots began at AT&T, where she spent almost 20 years rising through the corporate ranks, expanding DEI impact across the country and serving on international DEI business. Cinthya’s passion for community impact led her to HACEMOS, AT&T’s Latino-focused Employee Resource Group. She led the organization as it grew from 900 members to over 11,000 through various executive leadership roles and ultimately National President. She then served at the University of Oklahoma, a Tier 1 Research Institution, as Director – Corporate Relations overseeing all colleges across its three campuses to build a comprehensive and strategic plan, leading with a Diversity & Inclusion approach.
Cinthya is honored to have received many accolades throughout her career. Most important to her are the relationships built and the results of driving change for communities and lives. Cinthya extends her leadership by serving on meaningful local boards, including the Latino Community Development Agency, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Norman, and is a member of Oklahoma City Rotary Club 29.
Cinthya is a native of Chihuahua, Mexico and a proud mother of three daughters. She is an Alumna of the University of Oklahoma and earned a Graduate Certificate from Cornell University.
Walter L. Darr, Jr., Field Operations Manager
FMCS Region 5
Meghan Christie, OSHA Assistant Area Director
Oklahoma City Office
Meghan Christie began her career as a safety and health professional in 2003 at Imation Enterprises Corporation in Weatherford, Oklahoma as the facility Environmental and Safety Engineer. In 2008 Meghan began working for Terex Roadbuilding Corporation in Oklahoma City as a safety specialist. Meghan began her federal career with the Occupation Safety and Health Administration in 2010 as a Compliance Safety and Health Officer. In 2013 Meghan was promoted to Assistant Area Director in the Oklahoma City Area Office.
Meghan earned a bachelor of science in chemical engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 2003.
Walter L. Darr, Jr. is currently a Field Operations Manager with the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service. Mr. Darr joined the FMCS as a Commissioner in March 2015. He is stationed in Houston, Texas and has responsibility for the management of 20 Commissioners that have responsibility for providing services in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida (Panhandle), Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.
Mr. Darr has over 34 years of labor relations experience. He has held responsibility for negotiating, administering, and mediating many collective bargaining agreements, including serving as bargaining team Chairman and Chief Spokesperson.
Since joining the FMCS, Mr. Darr has worked with parties mediating the successful negotiation of collective bargaining agreements as well as disputes growing out of grievances related to the implementation and management of collective bargaining agreements. Mr. Darr has developed and delivered training encompassing Dispute Resolution, Collective Bargaining, Grievance Mediation, Interest Based Bargaining, Affinity Bargaining, Effective Communication, Mediation, Steward-Supervisor Relations, Negotiability Issues and many other subjects.
Mr. Darr was a Mediator with the National Mediation Board for almost 5 years immediately prior to joining the FMCS. He served the Board in airline, railroad, and related cases, including Grievance Mediation cases. Mr. Darr also served as an Instructor in the NMB’s Interest Based Bargaining and Grievance Mediation programs as well as in the NMB’s development and delivery of Dispute Resolution courses as part of Dominican University's Masters of Conflict Resolution program. For almost 7 years immediately prior to joining the NMB, Mr. Darr served as Principal for an independent consulting firm, with successful engagements in industries governed by the Railway Labor Act as well as the National Relations Labor Act.
Mr. Darr was a contributing author of “Options for Improving NEGOTIATIONS AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION: A Report of the Working Group on AIRLINE LABOR RELATIONS” produced by the 2004 Working Group on Airline Labor Relations in cooperation with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the MIT Global Airline Industry Study.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix as well as a certificate in Alternate Dispute Resolution from the A.A. White Dispute Resolution Center, University of Houston School of Law.
Mr. Darr currently serves as a member of the Executive Committee to the Board with the Texas Labor Management Conference and the Houston Chapter of the Labor & Employment Relations Association. He resides in Missouri City, Texas with his wife and daughter.
Charlie Plumb, Attorney
McAfee & Taft, PC
Charlie Plumb represents management in all phases of employment law and labor relations. Much of his practice is dedicated to counseling employers on compliance with a broad range of state and federal employment laws and regulations and educating management on best practices for avoiding disputes arising from the employer/employee relationship. He also has extensive litigation experience before federal and state courts, regulatory and administrative agencies, and in arbitration matters involving claims of discrimination, wrongful discharge, retaliatory discharge, breach of contract, and constitutional law violations.
As part of his labor practice, Charlie represents unionized employers in collective bargaining negotiations with labor unions, arbitrates grievances, and defends management against a variety of claims before the National Labor Relations Board and Department of Justice and in state and federal courts. He also represents employers who seek to maintain a non-unionized workforce by counseling management on union avoidance strategies and by providing training and advice to management and supervisors. His clients include numerous municipalities throughout Oklahoma and companies engaged in the manufacturing and distribution, construction, energy, public utility, technology and business services industries.
Charlie is a member of the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section and the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Labor Council. He is also the designated representative of McAfee & Taft as the exclusive member firm representing Oklahoma in the Employers Counsel Network. He has previously served as leader of the firm’s Labor & Employment Group.
Charlie is a frequent speaker on labor and employment issues before state, regional and national audiences, has been interviewed by local and national media on a variety of state and federal employment law matters, and has been a guest legal columnist and contributing author to numerous business and professional publications, including The Oklahoman, The Journal Record, HRlaws.com, and EmployerLINC. He is also co-editor of the Oklahoma Employment Law Letter, as well as co-editor for the Oklahoma section of the annual guidebook for employers and human resources professionals, 50 Employment Laws in 50 States.
Leroy Skinner, FMCS Commissioner
Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
John has 45 years of experience in conflict resolution as an advocate, mediator and arbitrator. During John’s multiple career experiences, he has developed an extensive working knowledge of the interworking's of the Federal, Private, and Public Sectors. His work not only involved collective bargaining negotiations and mediation, but relationship development training and, alternative dispute mediation.
John has been active in the Oklahoma Labor/Management Conference, Texas Labor Management Conference, the Mid-America Labor/Management Conference, the Quad-Cities Labor Management Conference and Mock Mediation for High School students in the Quad-Cities area of Illinois and Iowa. While assigned to the Chicago, IL Field office John was active in the Youth Initiative/Peer Mediation Program in Bradley/Boubonnais High School.
In 2019 John established the Texoma Conflict Resolution Center LLC providing arbitration and mediation services in the Federal, Public and Private Sectors. Currently, John is active in several arbitration cases in the Midwest Region.
John Rasmussen, Commissioner of Mediation
Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
John Rasmussen is a Commissioner assigned to the Wichita, KS field office of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). In this capacity, he assists parties in the private, public, and federal sectors in contract negotiations and grievance mediation. He also provides training for labor and management advocates in collective bargaining, contract administration, communication, and relationship building. John began working for FMCS in May of 2016.
Prior to joining FMCS, John worked fifteen (15) years as an attorney for the Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB). In his role at KASB, John served as the chief negotiator for school boards in their negotiations with the teacher unions all across the state. His duties included representing school boards during Impasse proceedings including fact finding hearings. John also coordinated and provided training on bargaining for school districts. As an attorney, John advised school administrators and board members across the state on all areas of school law and represented districts in other court and administrative proceedings.
Prior to joining KASB, John worked for the Kansas League of Municipalities as a staff attorney providing legal services and lobbying on behalf of cities in Kansas.
John is a native of Lincoln, Kansas and graduated from the University of Kansas in Lawrence with a degree in Secondary Education. He taught and coached for ten (10) years in high schools in Kansas before going back to law school in 1996 where he graduated with a JD from Washburn University in Topeka.
Diego Peña, Arbitrator
Peña Arbitration and Mediation Group
Tony Puckett, Attorney
McAfee & Taft, PC
Diego J. Peña is a fulltime labor & employment arbitrator, serving on the FMCS, American Arbitration Association and National Mediation Board panel of labor arbitrators. He also serves on panels for the City of Houston/Houston Police Officers’ Union, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Trial Board, and for Southwest Airlines and the Transportation Workers Union Local 555. He also serves as an Independent Hearing Examiner for the Texas Education Agency.
A practicing attorney for more than 40 years, prior to becoming a full time neutral, he personally tried more than 85 labor arbitrations and 50 contested cases in state and federal courts. Mr. Peña also taught labor relations and business ethics as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Publications in San Antonio and Fort Worth have recognized Mr. Peña as a top labor & employment attorney. He is a frequent speaker on labor arbitration advocacy.
Tony Puckett represents management in all aspects of labor and employment law. His practice involves counseling employers in employment issues and representing employers in discrimination cases, wrongful discharge cases, wage and hour actions, charges investigated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigations, National Labor Relations Board proceedings, union negotiations and arbitrations. In addition to representing private employers, Tony also represents municipalities in all areas of labor relations, including union negotiations, grievance and interest arbitrations, unfair labor practice proceedings and civil rights employment actions. Tony served as the leader of the firm's Labor & Employment Group from 2005 - 2007
Tony's achievements have earned him inclusion in Chambers USA Guide to America's Leading Lawyers for Business, The Best Lawyers in America (employment law – management; labor law – management; labor and employment litigation) and Oklahoma Super Lawyers. He was named by Best Lawyers as "Oklahoma City Labor Lawyer of the year (Management)" in 2014 and 2016.
Tony is a frequent speaker at seminars and institutes on employment law issues in the public and private sectors. He has also presented sessions at the Annual Labor Management Conference, sponsored by the National Academy of Arbitrators Southwest Region, and the International Personnel Management Association.
He is also the author of numerous articles, including “Supreme Court Broadens Liability for Sexual Harassment”, Oklahoma Bar Journal (8/98); “Supreme Court Decides Same-Sex Sexual Harassment Issue,” Oklahoma Bar Journal (4/25/98); and “Reviewing the State’s Drug and Alcohol Testing Act,” Oklahoma Cities and Towns (2/28/99). He also co-authored Age of Discrimination in the Workplace: A Primer for Human Resource Professionals, published by the Society of Human Resource Management Foundation, and was a contributing author to the sixth edition of How Arbitration Works, published by BNA.