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General Session Speakers
Phoenix, AZ

Soledad O’Brien

Monday, June 3

Soledad O’Brien

Award-Winning Journalist, Entrepreneur, and Host of the Weekly Syndicated Political Show Matter of Fact

Soledad O’Brien is an award-winning documentarian, journalist, speaker, author, and philanthropist; and founder of Soledad O’Brien Productions, a media production company dedicated to telling empowering and authentic stories on a range of social issues. She anchors and produces Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien, a Hearst political magazine program. She is a correspondent for HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and was inducted into the Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame in May 2023.

Soledad has a national impact through her op-eds, social media, speeches, and books, including her critically acclaimed memoir The Next Big Story and her 1.3 million Twitter followers. She gave Congressional testimony on media disinformation. She has anchored shows and specials on CNN, MSNBC, NBC’s Today Show, Nat Geo, BET, ABC, and CBS.

Soledad O’Brien Productions’ most recent projects include the Peabody Award–winning documentary, The Rebellious Life of Rosa Parks, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and streams on Peacock, and the multi-part series Black and Missing, which won the Independent Spirit and NAACP awards and streams on HBO. Other productions have appeared on Discovery Plus, CNN, BET, PBS, and others. She also works with major foundations, like Ford and Gates, to produce impactful documentaries on topics like hunger, race, and education.

O’Brien’s work has been honored with four Emmy awards: three times with the George Foster Peabody Award; four times with the Gracie Award, which honors women in media; twice with CINE Awards for her work in documentary films; and with an Alfred I. duPont Award. She founded the PowHerful Foundation in 2011, which has helped dozens of young women get to and through college and connects with thousands of others through regional mentoring conferences.

Sponsored by

Indeed

Tuesday, June 4

NACE Real Talk

This must-attend discussion is for anyone interested in staying ahead of the game in today's fast-paced world. Early talent experts will dive into highly intriguing issues that matter to our community. From navigating the ever-evolving college to career landscape, to grappling with the weighty and provocative issues shaping higher education, the corporate community, and recruiting, our experts promise to deliver a high-octane and interactive exploration of the challenges and opportunities impacting us all.

Panelists:

Dan Black
Dan Black, Global Leader, Talent Attraction & Acquisition, EY
Tariq Meyers
Tariq Meyers, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Untapped
Jamelia Smith
Jamelia Smith, Director of Early Talent, Cox Communications
Dr. Ashley Finley,
Dr. Ashley Finley, Vice President of Research and Senior Advisor to the President, AAC&U
Andy Chan
Andy Chan, Vice President, Personal and Career Development, Wake Forest University

Sponsored by

Podium Education + Untapped
Michelle Poler

Wednesday, June 5

Michelle Poler

Latina Entrepreneur, Author, and Creator of the project, 100 Days Without Fear and founder of Hello Fears

Michelle Poler, creator of the project 100 Days Without Fear and founder of Hello Fears, inspired a movement that has reached over 70 million people worldwide.

Today, Michelle’s work as an author, digital educator, and social influencer continues to amplify her impact helping audiences turn fears into opportunities, comfort into growth, and ultimately go from being just ‘one more’ to becoming one of a kind.

Michelle’s best-selling books, The Hello, Fears Challenge: A 100-Day Journal for Self-Discovery and Hello, Fears: Crush Your Comfort Zone and Become Who You’re Meant to Be have been translated into seven languages, and distributed across four continents.

She has been invited to speak at The Global Leadership Summit, Google, P&G, ESPN, TEDx, Netflix, Microsoft, and Meta among many others, and her work has been featured in: The TODAY Show, Forbes, CBS, CNN, Buzzfeed, Mashable, and HuffPost to name a few.

Michelle holds a master’s degree in Branding from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and early in her career, she worked as an Art Director for brands like Hershey’s, Wendy’s, AT&T, and Revlon.

Sponsored by

Indeed
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General Session Speakers | Virtual

Zeynep Ton

Wednesday, June 26

Zeynep Ton

Founder of the Good Jobs Institute, Professor of the Practice at the MIT Sloan School of Management

Zeynep’s research explores how companies can design and manage their operations in a way that satisfies customers, employees, and investors simultaneously. In 2014, Zeynep published her findings in a book, The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits. The book draws on 15 years of research to show that the key to offering good jobs to employees, great service to customers, and superior returns to investors is combining investment in employees with specific operational choices that increase employees’ productivity, contribution, and motivation.

The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, and Meaning to Everyone’s Work (Harvard Business Review Press, June 2023), is a follow up to her first book. Practical, prescriptive, and often provocative, this book is essential reading for company leaders who want to—who need to—choose excellence.

Zeynep’s research has been published in managerial and scholarly journals, including Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, and Organization Science, and featured widely in the media, including The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, PBS, and NPR. At MIT, Zeynep teaches MBA and executive education courses in operations management, service operations, sustainability, and operations strategy. She received several awards for excellence in teaching both at HBS and MIT Sloan. She was also named one of the World’s 40 Best Business School Professors Under the Age of 40 by Poets & Quants.

Amy Loyd, Ed.L.D

Wednesday, June 26

Amy Loyd, Ed.L.D.

Assistant Secretary for the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education

Prior to joining the Biden-Harris Administration, Dr. Loyd was a Vice President at Jobs for the Future (JFF), where she designed and led programs across the United States that improve education and workforce outcomes. Her work at JFF focused on state and regional policies, practices, and cross-sector partnerships that engaged K-12 education, community colleges, adult education, workforce development, economic development, and employers to build systems of college and career pathways, leveraging career and technical education. She also oversaw JFF’s work in workforce development with a lens on economic advancement, state and federal policy, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. She previously was the Director of Education at Cook Inlet Tribal Council, leading a network of schools providing culturally responsive education, training, and wraparound services to the Alaska Native and Native American communities. Dr. Loyd attended Santa Fe Community College and Northern New Mexico Community College, and holds a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s College and a doctorate in education leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she was an adjunct lecturer on building career pathways to increase opportunity and equity.

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