Get to know the HR experts behind Brightmine

Michael Cardman
Senior Legal Editor, Brightmine

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 and US Country Manager, Brightmine

Amanda Czepiel is the US Country Manager at Brightmine, a leading global HR and data insights provider. Amanda leverages her expertise as a licensed attorney with over 20 years of business compliance publishing experience to lead the Brightmine US business, where she focuses on sharing insights on the needs and challenges of HR professionals. Prior to her current role, Amanda headed the content team at BLR, leading its HR and environmental, health and safety (EHS) editorial operations in its workflow, training, event and media offerings.

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Sarah Peterson Herr, JD
Legal Editor, Brightmine

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, SHRM-CP
Former Lead Survey Specialist, Brightmine

Victoria is a former Brightmine as a Lead Survey Specialist. She joined Brightmine with more than 5 years of research experience in academia. 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, Brightmine

Taylor Lewellyn has over 9 years’ experience in legal publishing. As a member of the Brightmine editorial team, she focuses on training and development, immigration and international content. She also covers health, safety and security, including HR and workplace safety; workplace security; drugs, alcohol and smoking; employee health and worker’s compensation. She is also a member of the Ask Our Experts team.

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
Senior Content Manager, Brightmine

Tracy worked in Human Resources for 25 years before moving to legal publishing, where she leads a team of legal editors.

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,

Helena Oroz is a former Senior Legal Editor at Brightmine and an attorney with over 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, Brightmine

Rena has nearly 40 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, Brightmine

Emily Scace has more than a decade of experience in legal publishing. As a member of the Brightmine editorial team, she focuses on pay equity, pay transparency, discrimination, harassment, accommodations and other EEO issues.

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.

Melissa A. Silver, JD

Melissa Silver is a former Principal Legal Editor at Brightmine and a former practicing employment law attorney with 10 years of experience. In her role as a content manager on the Brightmine Policy Solutions team, she supported Automated Handbook Management by ensuring the tool included the most up‑to‑date and legally compliant local, state, and federal employment policies.

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.

Melissa Stein, JD
Legal Editor, Brightmine

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, Brightmine

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.

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