A NASA astronaut, Joan Higginbotham is a trailblazing electrical engineer who in December 2006, flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery to become the third African American woman to travel into space. Over the nearly 13-day mission, she joined the seven-member crew to continue construction of the International Space Station (ISS), embarking on four space walks and operating the station’s robotic arm. Sharing captivating insights from her 20-year distinguished career with NASA, Higginbotham inspires audiences with her personal journey of breaking barriers into space and beyond. Taking groups aboard the International Space Station and sharing her lessons-learned along the way, she highlights the keys to succeeding in her missions – including preparation, perseverance, and never giving up – and how these tactics can be applied to any endeavor.

Cassandra “Cassi” Chandler is an innovator, strategist, investigator, and leader who has broken barriers, led diverse teams, and built cultures of motivational leadership and inclusivity at some of the world’s most important organizations, including Bank of America and the FBI. In a career that has included many “firsts” across the U.S. government and financial services industries, she served as the FBI’s first African American female special agent assistant director as well as the Bureau’s first female national spokesperson and director of public and community affairs. In addition to defining the tools motivational leaders need to mindfully build more high-performing cultures, Chandler provides actionable insights on how to move the needle while leading with empathy.

A globally recognized brand-building innovator and a champion both of creativity and challenging the status quo in the workplace, Marisa Thalberg is 1 of only 18 to be inducted into the Forbes CMO Hall of Fame. She is considered one of the most dynamic and versatile marketing executives in the field, displaying versatility and adaptability that has led to her being an exceedingly successful leader in a diverse portfolio of industries, ranging from luxury beauty (The Estée Lauder Companies) and fast food (Taco Bell) to big box retail (Lowe’s Home Improvement) and theme parks and entertainment (SeaWorld/Busch Gardens). Her passionate advocacy for women at work led her on the path to social entrepreneurship as the founder of Executive Moms, an organization created to connect and support accomplished women who are both professionals and moms. In this capacity, Thalberg became an early leading voice and supporter for women, and particularly mothers, in the workplace, appearing across a range of media outlets including The TODAY Show, FOX, CNN, NBC News, and many more.

Never one to be bound by the limits society has set for him, Demond “Dom” Mullins is a pioneering adventurer whose remarkable feats of grit and endurance against all odds are inspiring the next generation of diverse adventurers. He is a member of Team Full Circle, which made history by becoming the first all-Black expedition to summit Mount Everest in the spring of 2022. Mullins is among the most influential voices in the outdoor adventure community known for his endeavoring spirit and unyielding tenacity, as well as his ability to impart these traits into his teams on the journey to unlocking peak performance to achieve a shared purpose.

Angie Bastian, entrepreneur, co-founder, and namesake of Angie’s BOOMCHICKAPOP, took a kernel of an idea and popped it into one of the fastest growing brands of natural popcorn. She and husband Dan founded their snack company in their Mankato, MN garage in 2001 as a means of creating a college fund for their children. Their gluten free, non-GMO, whole grain popcorn is proudly sold in natural food, grocery, club and mass retail outlets nationwide with a product presence in Canada, South Korea, Peru, Japan, the Caribbean and Mexico. The company is constantly innovating and is one of the fastest growing and most successful popcorn brands in the market today. Angie’s BOOMCHICKAPOP is loved by fans as an empowered, spirited brand that represents authentic, real food that delivers on the attributes of clean, transparent labeling and great taste experience.

Marti Mongiello is a former White House Chef, Private Investigator, Security Expert, Executive Chef, and a GM of the Camp David Resort and Conference Center working with the past five Presidents for 25 years, from H.W. Bush through Trump. He is a disabled and injured military veteran with a 30-year US Navy retired certificate serving in wars across three continents. Marti served as a butler, housekeeper, military aide, and bartender carrying the proverbial, "chalice for his/her majesty to drink from," having been trained by the CIA, USMC, Navy, and Army in specialized courses for nuclear, chemical, and biological attack manning the underground bunker of Orange One as well as bribery and poisoning. When he first received his Top Secret, Yankee White, SCI clearance, he was in the nuclear submarine fleet and had been identified as a polyhistor and polymath. He has an MBA degree and a second Master's from Lenoir-Rhyne University as a Master Certified Food Executive (MCFE). He attained his Bachelor's from the Art Institute, Summa Cum Laude.

Tall and thin, with remarkable onscreen energy and ease, the actor possessed intense malleable features that he used to good effect in both dramatic and comedic roles. Despite this gift, he surprisingly began his career with off-screen pursuits. Jones worked as writer and story editor for NBC's college-set comedy "A Different World" from 1991 to 1992. In 2000, he took on a role in a sports-themed feature set in the recent past in "The Replacements" and in 2002, Jones portrayed a band director out to prove that he has the best band/drumline that the historical black colleges and universities have to offer in the drama "Drumline." Jones has appeared in numerous television series including "Rules of Engagement," "Necessary Roughness," "House M.D." and "Pushing Daisies."

As the first female F-14 Tomcat Fighter Pilot in the U.S. Navy, Carey Lohrenz is used to working in fast moving, dynamic environments where inconsistent execution can generate catastrophic results. The same challenges are found in business: markets change, customer needs evolve and if you do not adapt quickly, your company is at risk. In her motivating and engaging keynote presentations, Carey shares her fascinating experiences operating in one of the world’s most challenging environments – an aircraft carrier. She is uniquely qualified in the fundamentals of winning under pressure, reducing errors and overcoming obstacles. Her mastery of these fundamentals can help your team triumph in this high-risk, time crunched world.

Referred to by his fans as “the Artist for the People,” Phil Hansen is an internationally recognized multimedia artist, speaker, author and innovator—at the forefront of bringing art to a wider audience. Crashing irreverently through conventional boundaries, Phil works at the intersection of traditional art, electronic media, offbeat materials, and interactive experiences. He is most widely known for his meta-art, videos that document the creation process (sometimes even through destruction), showing millions that art is action, not just result. For the tens of millions who have seen Phil’s art on TV and online, it’s hard to imagine that his artistic journey nearly came to an end when a tremor developed in his drawing hand. In exploring new ways to create art, he discovered that by embracing his shake, limitations could become the passageway to creativity. His inspirational story was first shared on the TED stage to a standing ovation, and then shared around the world including on PBS, BBC and CCTV. He’s the author of Tattoo a Banana, a guide to exploring creativity through art with everyday materials and he’s the founder of Goodbye-Art Academy, providing high quality and free art education videos to teachers and students everywhere.

For twenty years, Billy McLaughlin astounded audiences around the world with his complex and rhythmic music. In 2001, Billy was diagnosed with Focal Dystonia, an incurable neuromuscular disorder that rendered him unable to play his own music. By 2002, Billy’s career was over. Then in 2006 he did the unthinkable, he launched a comeback by learning to play the guitar with his opposite hand. He helps audience members learn how to prosper by adapting and refreshing their approach to accomplishing their goals, and he does this through a combination of masterful stories and music.

On a crusade to reduce stress, improve communication, and put the heart back into business, Amanda Gore helps her clients get more out of life. Stressing the importance of creating joyful corporate communities that bring people together productively and profitably, Gore discusses how to develop relationships that work at work.

Cy Wakeman is a dynamic international keynote speaker, drama researcher, New York Times best-selling author, and global thought leader and business consultant with over 25 years of unparalleled experience who is recognized for cultivating a counter-intuitive, reality-based approach to leadership. Grounded in reality, Wakeman’s philosophy has helped organizations and individuals all over the world learn to ditch the drama and turn excuses into results. Named one of the “Top 100 Leadership Experts to Follow” on Twitter for seven years in a row, Wakeman’s influence continues to build. She was also recognized as #23 on the Global Gurus 2019 list of the World’s Top 30 Leadership Professionals around the world for 2019. Her programs are consistently ranked by participants as the single most impactful training they have ever received.