Deborah Jiang-Stein
If you've been more than what you were expected to be then get familiar with this woman. Deborah Jiang-Stein is a national speaker and founder of The unPrison Project a 501(c)3 nonprofit working to empower incarcerated women and girls with life skills and mentoring to prepare for a successful life after prison. Born heroin-addicted to an incarcerated mother, Deborah is the author of the memoir, Prison Baby, published by Beacon Press, described as “One woman’s struggles—beginning with her birth in prison—to find self-acceptance, proving that redemption and healing are possible, even from the darkest corners. “
Kenneth Stratton
It takes a different type of person to come with such compassion and a challenge to better your life and make a plan. Ken Stratton has been a Corrections Officer for 13 years. He takes the stage to share his unique approach to helping incarcerated men heal and achieve their goals. he believes that people will achieve their dreams when they know that others care if they do.
Larry Smith
Connecting people through 6 words? Unbelievable the power of this idea. LARRY SMITH is the founder and editor of SMITH Magazine, and its younger cousin, SMITH Teens. SMITH Magazine is best known for launching the Six-Word Memoir® project, which is a bestselling books series and a global phenomenon. Anticipating the microblogging explosion, SMITH originally launched the Six-Word Memoir project in November 2006 in partnership with Twitter with a simple online challenge asking: “Can you tell your life story in six words?” Now more then 1 million Six-Word Memoirs have been shared across SMITH Mag sites.
Paul Perry
An experienced educator and aspiring system-level leader who has worked as a mentor, teacher, school leader and district administrator in six major urban districts across the United States (DC, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and NYC). Paul holds expertise in school design, public policy, strategic planning, professional learning, curriculum development. Paul is interested in radically reshaping the way our learning systems operate and implementing transformative approaches to connect with other systems in our society.