The first African-American woman to hold the top policing job in Seattle, Washington, Carmen Best served with the Seattle Police Department for 28 years. In 2018, Best was promoted to Chief of Police, a job she called “a dream of a lifetime.” Best quickly began efforts to diversify the police force, which had long been less diverse than the city, recruiting more than 40 new officers of color. Chief Best speaks on diversity, inclusion, and leadership lessons-learned guiding a police department during times of crisis.

A testament to the power of the human spirit, Kath Koschel is a survivor who has overcome incredible odds and unimaginable tragedy to inspire ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Koschel is formerly an elite cricketer and Ironman competitor whose world came crashing down when she broke her back twice in the span of five years and was told she’d never walk again. Instead, she faced the challenges head-on and defied all medical prognoses by teaching herself to walk again on three separate occasions. Driven by a passion to spread gratitude in the world, she founded Kindness Factory with the goal of encouraging one million acts of kindness and helping people find the light during dark times — just as she has done so many times.

As a motivational keynote speaker, author, and entrepreneur, Laura Gassner Otting helps innovators, idealists, and iconoclasts get “unstuck”, increase confidence, and achieve extraordinary results. Laura inspires change agents, entrepreneurs, investors, leaders, and donors to push past the doubt and indecision that keeps great ideas in limbo. She delivers strategic thinking, well-honed wisdom, and catalytic perspective informed by decades of navigating change across the start-up, non-profit, political, and philanthropic landscapes. Laura dares listeners to find their voice, and generate the confidence needed to tackle larger-than-life challenges, and ultimately leads them to seek new ways of leading, managing, and mentoring others. Excited by the audacity of The Big Idea and the larger-than-life goal you just can’t seem to shake, she's an instigator, a motivator, and a provocateur, and she’s never met a revolution she didn’t like.

Sam Rapoport is the Senior Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with the National Football League with over 19 seasons working in football. Rapoport has dedicated her career to creating innovative business models aimed at enfranchising marginalized populations in sport. With this focus, she has worked to shift and progress diversity hiring in football. Rapoport is also a retired quarterback who played in the women’s professional football league. Rapoport catalyzed a movement for women in sports by creating a new diversity platform for the NFL, that has since been replicated by other professional sports leagues. Through this effort, 190+ female coaching, scouting and operations candidates have been hired since its inception in 2017; a record number. Rapoport was recently named one of Sports Illustrated Most Powerful, Most Influential and Most Outstanding Women in Sports and was included in The Athletic’s NFL 40-under 40. She was also awarded the NFL Commissioner’s Award selected by Commissioner Roger Goodell, Fortune 40 Under 40, Outsports’ Hero of the Year, and was recently named one of People Magazine’s 25 Women Changing the World.

Warm and engaging, Deborah Rosado Shaw shares her climb from the tough inner-city to becoming an advisor to Fortune 100 CEOs while discussing diversity, marketing, entrepreneurship, and business strategy. She encourages others to dream big and offers advice on personal empowerment.

Susan Ershler tours the world sharing with others her secrets for success, determination, and achieving seemingly impossible goals. Susan is the fourth American Woman to climb the Seven Summits and the twelfth American Woman to climb Mt. Everest. When she got to the top of Mount Everest on May 16, 2002, she and her husband Phil became the first couple in history to climb the Seven Summits. Susan illustrates how she utilized her experience as a sales leader as the foundation to her training for climbing mountains.

Victoria was 11 years old when she came down with a rare viral disease, Transverse Myelitis, with which she battled for five years including four years in a vegetative coma. The disease left her without the use of her legs for nearly a decade. A lifelong swimmer and athlete, Victoria never gave up her childhood dream of competing in the Olympics Games. In June of 2010 she returned to the pool for the first time since her illness and in the spring of 2012 she qualified for the London Paralympic Games in four events. There she won a Gold Medal, and three Silver Medals. Despite missing five years of school during her illness, Victoria graduated on-time with her triplet brothers, from Exeter High School (New Hampshire) in June of 2013. Victoria is now an on-air TV personality with ESPN reporting for numerous programs including X-Games, Invictus Games, The ESPY Awards, espnW, Frozen Four, Special Olympics World Games and Sportscenter.