The HR Tune-Up Playbook

A Science Girl in an HR World

A Science Girl in an HR World: Shayla Thomas on Carbon Capture, Culture, and AI in HR Shayla Thomas did not take the traditional path into human resources. With bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology, she came to Texas on a medical school track, moved into medical scribing, stepped into team leadership, and eventually found herself building an HR career inside one of the most fascinating clean-tech companies in the country. In this episode of Navigating AI, Rich Wilson sits down with Shayla, Human Resources Manager at CarbonFree, a San Antonio-based company converting industrial carbon emissions into useful minerals and products. Shayla shares how her scientific mindset shapes the way she leads HR, why curiosity and trust matter inside a growing technical workforce, and what it means to build people systems at a company moving from early-stage innovation into commercial scale. The conversation also explores Shayla’s practical use of AI in HR, including tools like ChatGPT and Claude for communications, workflow support, and policy research. But Shayla is clear-eyed about the risks: AI can be helpful, but HR leaders still need accuracy, context, judgment, and a strong understanding of people. This episode is a conversation about science, culture, trust, benefits, and the future of HR in an AI-enabled workplace.

AI Without Hype

In this episode of Navigating AI, Rich Wilson sits down with Yoonki Na, Vice President of People & Culture at Jefferson Dental & Orthodontics, to explore what practical AI adoption looks like inside a real HR function. Yoonki leads people strategy for a distributed healthcare workforce across more than 60 Jefferson Dental locations. In a business where communication, consistency, and employee engagement are critical, his team has been using ChangeEngine to create more timely, personalized, and scalable HR communications. Yoonki shares how AI-enabled tools have helped his team reduce manual communication work, improve employee feedback, automate key touchpoints, and strengthen connection across a multi-location workforce. He also discusses how HR leaders should evaluate new technology without getting distracted by polished demos or AI hype. This conversation is a grounded look at how AI can help HR teams create more capacity and consistency while keeping human judgment, empathy, and trust at the center of the work.

From Psychology to People Strategy

In this episode of Navigating AI, Rich Wilson sits down with Steffi Thomas, owner of Tulloch Consulting, to explore her journey from psychology to people strategy and what it takes to lead a modern HR consulting firm. Steffi shares how her background in human behavior, executive leadership, and HR shaped her approach to helping organizations build stronger people operations across industries. The conversation covers the shift from traditional HR to true people strategy, the common challenges organizations face when they outgrow “lightweight HR,” and what leaders can do to create more clarity, consistency, and trust inside their teams. Rich and Steffi also discuss the future of AI in HR, where it can genuinely help people teams, and the guardrails leaders need to keep the work ethical, compliant, and human. This episode is for leaders who want practical insight into scaling people strategy without losing the human side of the business.

From School Culture to Family Preservation: How Christine Simpson Is Building People-First Change

In this episode of Navigating AI with Rich Wilson, Rich sits down with Christine Simpson, Vice President of People and Culture at STARRY, a Central Texas nonprofit helping children and families access support before they ever reach the foster care system. Christine shares her journey from nearly three decades in education, where she served as a teacher, principal, and area superintendent, into nonprofit leadership focused on culture, coaching, and family preservation. She talks about what it takes to build a people-first organization in a mission-driven environment, how STARRY has expanded its reach across Central Texas, and why real change starts upstream by strengthening families before crisis hits. The conversation also explores how Christine is thinking about AI in a practical, human-centered way. Rather than treating it as hype, she explains how AI can help lean teams cover more ground, support leadership development, preserve knowledge, and improve efficiency without losing the human touch that matters most. This is a conversation about leadership, culture, innovation, and the kind of systems change that can transform lives.

What Large Language Models Actually Are

Large language models are everywhere now, but most leaders are still unclear on what they actually are, what they can do well, and where the risks begin. In this episode of Navigating AI, Rich Wilson is joined by Vrat Jerabek of PsychTests, along with returning guest Dr. Ilona Jerabek, for a practical conversation about what large language models really are. Vrat has been building and studying AI systems for more than 30 years, and his message is clear: these tools are powerful, useful, and impressive, but they are not thinking the way people think. The conversation breaks down why fluent language is often mistaken for real understanding, how LLMs recognize patterns and generate responses, and why leaders should be careful before trusting AI with business decisions. Rich, Vrat, and Ilona also explore black-box risk, hallucinations, bias, drift, explainability, and the practical guardrails organizations need before using AI at scale. This episode is for CEOs, CFOs, HR leaders, and anyone trying to use AI responsibly without getting caught up in hype or fear.