Shedding the Light on Employer Responsibility Under MHPAEA

David Sydlik is a Senior Advisor for the Office of Health Plan Standards and Compliance Assistance (OHPSCA) at the U.S. Department of Labor.

Elizabeth K. Green is a partner with Kantor & Kantor who joined the firm at its inception in 2004. Elizabeth represents individual clients seeking health benefits pursuant to ERISA benefit plans. She has developed a specific focus on mental health benefits and particularly the protections provided by federal and state mental health parity laws. Elizabeth enjoys the unique challenges of ERISA and health law and being an effective advocate for her clients.

Elizabeth’s legal career has focused on representing individuals to obtain insurance benefits. Elizabeth has also represented individuals seeking long term care, disability, and life insurance benefits at Kantor & Kantor. Following law school, Elizabeth represented insureds to obtain homeowners’ insurance benefits at Quisenberry & Kabateck LLP.

Elizabeth was born in Illinois, raised in Southern California, and lives in Glendale with her husband and their three children. On weekends, she enjoys running the trails in Griffith Park and watching her kids’ soccer games.

Nicole Bitter is the Director of Compliance at Willis Towers Watson.

Tara Silver-Malyska is a Senior Principal in the Willis Towers Watson Human Capital Practice’s National Legal & Research Group.

Tara is an accomplished attorney with more than 20 years of experience focused on employee benefits, including health and welfare, qualified retirement and executive compensation.

She held positions with four big four accounting firms, and served as Employee Benefits Counsel for a global actuarial and consulting firm. She has also provided advice to a government agency regarding appeals of defined benefit entitlements.

Tara monitors and analyzes employee benefits legislative and regulatory issues, writes and peer reviews technical articles, performs related research, and provides guidance to clients and consultants. Her consulting experience includes plan design, drafting, and qualification, correction program and compliance issues, government filings, reporting and disclosure, tax issues, M&A, QDROs, PBGC, Dodd-Frank, and public and private audit assistance. In addition, Tara has experience with employee benefit internal audits and not-for-profit entities.

Tara is the American Bar Association Group Chair and a member of the Tax Section. She is the Dallas Bar Association, Employee Benefits/Executive Compensation Past Chair. She is a Gulf Coast TE/GE Council Member and SouthWest Benefits Association (SWBA) member; the Past Program Chair for the Northern Virginia and Dallas Chapters of Worldwide Employee Benefit Network (WEB); the Past President D/FW Chapter and Program Co-Chair Dallas Chapter and current board member, and Past Seminar Chair and Board Member Capital Chapter of the International Society Certified Employee Benefits Society (CEBS); and Dallas Benefits Society Past Co-Chair.

She is a frequent speaker and author on employee benefit topics.

Tara received a J.D. from Texas A&M University School of Law, Fort Worth, Texas; an MBA from the University of Dallas, Irving, Texas, Sigma Iota Epsilon; and a B.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.