This year’s event will explore the idea of Constant / Change. As a society, we often think of innovation through change: the next big thing, the discovery, the breakthrough. But what if, instead of chasing after change, we focused on the things that remain constant beneath it all? Could there be just as much to learn from things that stay the same?
Speakers
Speakers may not be confirmed. Check event website for more information.
Brian Roberts
Brian Robertson is an experienced entrepreneur, CEO and the creator of Holacracy, a management system for governing and running organizations without a typical management hierarchy. A variety of global leaders have implemented Holacracy, including Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, Twitter Co-Founder Ev Williams, and the best-selling author of Getting Things Done, David Allen. Brian previously founded a software development firm that won numerous awards for both fast business growth and innovative people practices. He is the author of the upcoming book, Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World.Brian Robertson
Brian Robertson is an experienced entrepreneur, CEO and the creator of Holacracy, a management system for governing and running organizations without a typical management hierarchy. A variety of global leaders have implemented Holacracy, including Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, Twitter Co-Founder Ev Williams, and the best-selling author of Getting Things Done, David Allen. Brian previously founded a software development firm that won numerous awards for both fast business growth and innovative people practices. He is the author of the upcoming book, Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World.David Chae
David Chae is an assistant professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland. His research focuses on how dimensions of racism generate racial disparities in health. He has received grants from the National Institutes of Health to study links between racial minority stress and risk factors for accelerated biological aging. Collectively, his work has provided further evidence for the ill health effects of racism.David Weston
David Weston is the founder/CEO of the Teacher Development Trust, the U.K.’s national charity for effective professional development in schools and colleges and one of the foremost voices on teacher development. He has written extensively in top education publications such as the TES and The Guardian, and was recently appointed to chair the U.K. Department for Education's new Teacher Professional Development Expert Group, charged with developing a new set of national standards. As one the first openly gay teachers in his school, he also founded OutTeacher.org and speaks frequently on TV and radio about LGBT issues.Deborah Alden
Deborah Alden is the managing director of the Pratt Institute’s Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator (BF+DA). With more than 15 years of experience as a designer, strategist, educator and intrapreneur, her work has ranged from innovation and brand consulting for Fortune 100 companies to launching new initiatives, such as Firebelly U—a start-up incubator for designers launching social enterprises. In addition, she is a frequent media advisor for the Sundance Institute and Skoll Foundation’s Stories of Change initiative.Gina Fattore
Gina Fattore is a television writer/producer whose credits include Masters of Sex, Parenthood, Californication and Gilmore Girls. She began her TV career working on the animated series King of the Hill. She’s known for her work on WB network’s signature teen drama, Dawson’s Creek, writing more than 20 episodes over four seasons and working her way from executive story editor to co-executive producer. She has also sold original pilots to FOX, ABC, NBC and FX, and is currently writing a book about the 18th century novelist and diarist Frances Burney.Henry R. Muñoz III
Henry Muñoz III serves as chairman of the board and chief creative officer of Muñoz & Company, one of the largest minority-owned design practices in the country. In January 2014, he, Don Graham, CEO of Graham Holdings Company, and Carlos Gutierrez, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, founded the TheDream.US, a multimillion-dollar national college scholarship fund for immigrant youth who qualify under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy.Jorge Sá
Jorge Sá is the author of several books on business and has worked as a private consultant for a variety of companies, including Coca-Cola, SHELL, IBM, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson. He holds a master’s degree from the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management in California, a doctorate in business administration from Columbia University in New York and earned the Jean Monnet Chair, the highest European academic award.Kim Dabbs
Kim Dabbs is a social entrepreneur, advocate and innovator who currently serves as executive director of the West Michigan Center for Arts + Technology (WMCAT). Her transformation of traditional educational models through design thinking earned her an invitation to participate in a 3-month residency at Stanford’s d.school in 2015. She has spoken on social impact design at the Aspen Institute and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and is a guest author for Edutopia.Melody Roberts
Melody Roberts is the global senior director of experience innovation for McDonald’s Corporation. She and her team focus on the five- to ten-year horizon, envisioning and prototyping practical, scalable solutions to complex customer and employee experience challenges. In her nine years with the company she has helped to shape the long-term global service strategy, to implement modern retailing practices, and to define the potential of digital commerce. Prior to McDonald’s, she spent seven years in design consulting, including two years with IDEO, helping clients foster a culture of customer-centered innovation within their organizations. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in American studies from Yale University and a Master of Design in human-centered product design from Illinois Tech.Miriam Petty
Miriam Petty is an assistant professor in the Department of Radio/Television/Film and African American studies at Northwestern University. She writes and teaches about stardom, reception, genre, race, and media, and the history of African American representation in Hollywood film. Her forthcoming book, Stealing the Show: African American Performers and Audiences in 1930s Hollywood (University of California Press, 2016) explores the complex relationships between black audiences and black performers in the classical Hollywood era.Penny Lewis
Penny (Penelope) Lewis is a neuroscientist at the University of Manchester, where she runs the Neuroscience and Psychology of Sleep (NaPS) lab. Her research investigates the role of sleep in strengthening and altering memories and the ways people can use this to their advantage. She is the author of The Secret World of Sleep, which has sold around 10,000 copies, and has written for a variety of popular science publications, including New Scientist, Scientific American and BBC Focus.Radha Mistry
Radha Mistry works as a foresight and innovation consultant at Arup, an international firm providing design and consultation services. Prior to Arup, Radha worked in the architecture industry focusing on hospitality, education and retail projects in the United States, Southeast Asia and West Africa; subsequently she co-founded the design office GOATstudio in New Orleans, Louisiana. Radha has worked on E.U.-funded community engagement initiatives in cities across Europe, exhibited work during the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, and currently sits on the Global Generational Advisory Council for World Future Society.Riva Lehrer
Riva Lehrer is an instructor in medical humanities at Northwestern University, and an artist/writer focusing on issues of physical identity and the socially challenged body. Her work has been presented across the nation, including at the United Nations, Smithsonian Museum and the Chicago Cultural Center, and featured in numerous documentaries, including The Paper Mirror and Self Preservation: The Art of Riva Lehrer. Her writing and art have also been included in publications such as Criptiques and Sex and Disability.Sean Saifa Wall
Sean Saifa Wall is an intersex activist, researcher and visual artist. He founded EMERGE, a visual art project that examines conversations about African American culture and inequality. Originally from the Bronx, New York, Saifa witnessed the devastation of the 1980s crack epidemic firsthand, losing his father to the prison industrial complex, and eventually to AIDS. He was featured in the documentary One in 2000, and has been a guest on Huffington Post Live, speaking on the issues faced by people born with variations in sexual anatomy.Organizing team
