Mental Health in the Workplace

Teri Latter’s passion for mental health began when her 19-year old son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and she vowed to do everything in her power to eradicate the stigma associated with mental illness. Two years later, she became a Family Education Leader for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. After six years of volunteering as a leader in numerous NAMI program, she assumed the role of NAMI Illinois State Program Director in 2018. She is responsible for training, delivery, and development of NAMI peer and family programs in Illinois. She is also on the Board of Directors of NAMI Barrington Area.

Teri spent 27 years at AT&T, primarily concentrating in Marketing and Product Development. After leaving AT&T, she worked for a boutique marketing company where she was the Director of Program Management.

Teri received an Executive Development Certificate through the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and is also a Certified Professional Coach.

Lauren Romero has spent more than 25 years in the CPG industry and others, providing marketing research and advisory services across a wide variety of marketing projects and functions.

Her work has served 30 brands within clients such as Coca Cola, Mars, Nestle, Pepsico, Ingredion, AT&T, State Farm, PPG, Home Depot, Lowe’s, UPS, GlaxoSmithKline, Publicis, The Marketing Arm, plus various nonprofits, and government agencies. An extrovert, Lauren has enjoyed a winding career that’s allowed her to speak with and learn from hundreds of people from all walks of life. Being of Puerto Rican heritage, Lauren is a native bilingual in both English and Spanish, and has served as a U.S. Hispanic subcultures marketing researcher and advisor.

She currently provides category management advisory services to Treehouse, Inc. food company, on behalf of Advantage Solutions, one of the largest food industry brokers in the U.S.

Lauren holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. She also speaks broken French and German, is fascinated by political and social economics, has traveled extensively, loves the water, the outdoors, dogs, gardening, and spending time with her teenage kids. She’s a champion of numerous causes related to human betterment, including that of those like herself with temporary or chronic mental health challenges.

Brian Schoo, Director of People Analytics, has worked at Nestle for 14 years. Prior to his developmental transfer to HR, Brian held various US and Global Supply Chain and Manufacturing roles across Nestle, most recently as Senior Director of Supply Chain Operations for the Beverage and Global Brands Divisions. He is currently a member of the Talent Leadership Team and the Digital Leadership Team at Nestle, USA. Additionally, he founded and leads the Mental Wellness Pillar within the THRIVE Ability Employee Resource Group at Nestle, USA.

Brian graduated from Ohio State University in 2007 with a degree in Logistics Management. He has a passion for surfing, wrestling, soccer, and pole vaulting. He was a founding member of the Ohio State Surf Club, has held various high school and kids club coaching positions in wrestling and pole vaulting throughout his career, and is currently a board member for the International Surf Therapy Organization.