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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

Michelle Pole

Wednesday, June 5

Michelle Poler

Latina-Jewish Entrepreneur, Brand Strategist, Author, and Professional Speaker

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.

Sponsorship available