Adam Schieferecke
Adam is interested in the idea of using viruses as beneficial tools to help treat human genetic diseases such as cancer. He worked three academic years characterizing oncolytic (cancer-killing) poxviruses in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University. He completed a 2015 summer internship in the Department of Entomology at Kansas State University, which resulted in his co-authorship of a scientific manuscript published in the Journal of Experimental Biology. He studied measles virus replication as a 2016 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow in the Virology and Gene Therapy Track at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He is a 2016 Barry Goldwater Scholar, which is the United States’ premier honor for college students in mathematics, natural science, and engineering fields. His additional interest in the intersection between science and public policy led to his nomination to represent Kansas State University in the 2017 Harry Truman Scholarship competition.
Betsy Allen-Manning
Featured on FOX, CBS, ABC & NBC, Betsy is a nationally recognized leadership speaker, author and organizational development expert. Betsy shows leaders of multi-billion dollar corporations how to measure and build a leader’s credibility, respect and effectiveness within any organization simply by mastering the 3 quotients that ensure a leader’s success. Some companies that have experienced Betsy’s keynotes and trainings are: BMW, Toshiba, TSA & The U.S. Department of Defense. Betsy holds speaking, coaching and training certifications from highly-acclaimed leadership expert, John C. Maxwell and Human Behavior Expert, Dr. Robert Rohm. Betsy travels nationwide as one of the top keynote speakers and corporate trainers on leadership & organizational development. With 15 + years of experience as a leader for multi-billion dollar corporations, including Disney. Betsy has been able to develop employee training programs for the Golden Globe events in Beverly Hills and Steve Wynn’s $70-million dollar establishment in Las Vegas.
Brady Miller
Brady works with universities, nonprofits, and corporations to design and produce message-driven, high-profile events such as campaign launches and closings, leadership transitions, VIP visits, educational summits, and milestone celebrations. He is also a frequent speaker on creativity, event strategy, storytelling, and programming.
Now the Senior Consultant and Creative Director for events firm Stratelyst Creative, Brady previously spent more than a decade managing major ceremonies, special events, and strategic communications projects for universities across the country. He is a Certified Special Events Professional (CSEP), a premier events industry certification held by only a few hundred people in the world, and his work has been awarded recognition at the regional, national, and international levels.
Brady holds a master’s degree from Indiana University, where he wrote his thesis on the roles of academic ceremonies in higher education. He is also an alumnus of The Protocol School of Washington and has extensive experience working with elected officials, foreign dignitaries and delegations, military personnel, elite speakers, and celebrities.
He lives in Kansas with his wife, two boys, dog – and a basement full of LEGO bricks.
David Quick
David is a speaker, executive coach, Vistage Chair, and a Culture Index Licensee. He is committed to "helping bulls thrive in china shops" by helping people who run companies: work fewer hours, be significantly more successful, and build stronger professional and personal relationships.
Deji Akingbade
Deji also challenges the conventional idea to “Think outside the Box”. The true nature of any innovation is to “create new boxes” to think outside of. Hence the solution to mankind’s existential crisis begins with one question – What is wisdom?
Deji Akingbade writes for lifehack.org. His articles on Work, Leadership and Communication have received over 25,000 shares.
Jessica Smith
Jessica currently serves as an Assistant Soccer Coach for Kansas State Women’s Soccer, a first year program in the Big 12 Conference. She is a high school All-American and Big 12 Conference champion, who knew early on that she wanted to give back to the game she loves through coaching and mentoring others. Jessica is a passionate leader who is an advocate for young women, empowering them to become the best version of themselves. For the past 7 years at the Division I level, Jessica has been privileged to work with a diverse group of elite level women from all over the world. Her focus includes developing players on and off the field, creating opportunities for each young woman to add value to themselves and spreading her daily mantra of “scattering sunshine”. Off of the field, Jessica is committed to helping all young people feel more positive about themselves, preventing LGBT youth suicide and serving as an ally to underserved groups.
Nicole Edwards
With a background in mental health, Nicole has focused her career efforts on designing and facilitating distinct learning experiences that meet the intricate needs of people seeking meaningful change. Nicole has worked with thousands of individuals in her trainings, courses and speaking events in various non-profit, corporate and educational settings to approach their work differently by challenging their limiting beliefs.
Nicole wholeheartedly believes in her life’s work to help others gain increased self-awareness and to fearlessly embrace their own particular style or way of being. It is then that we can build bridges that provide the infrastructure that can transform the way in which we work and live.
Parker Heinze
Parker, Psychological Sciences major, is passionate about understanding people complexly. He a student of social psychology who thinks that people too often reduce others to group memberships, but he imagines a world where people understand that whole humans are more than just the sum of their parts. He has researched how people tangle and untangle certain groups in their minds and how people manage their perceptions and express prejudice in the context of intersectionality. His area of expertise is Gender and Sexual minority prejudice. His talk will be about how the current research in social psychology is refocusing the study of perceptions of transgender and non-binary people from being a subset of homophobia research into an independent category. In addition, he will discuss how the shifts in perceptions of these individuals influence the way gender nonconformers are treated in society.
Steve Shields
Steve is an international thought and action leader in the creation of innovative models in intergenerational living. He is a sought-after keynote speaker and workshop presenter on leadership and transformation in multigenerational living and hospital care. He was formerly the President and CEO of Meadowlark Hills Retirement Community in Manhattan, KS, an internationally known senior living provider that, under Steve’s leadership, pioneered and shaped the “Household Model” in the 1990s – bringing heart into the home. Along with LaVrene Norton, Steve co-authored the book, “In Pursuit of the Sunbeam: a Practical Guide to Transformation from Institution to Household,” which is currently in its sixth printing and has sold in all 50 states and a number of foreign countries. He also co-authored “The Household Model Business Case,” a definitive work establishing viability of this model in long-term care. Steve also taught leadership in long-term care for 17 years at Kansas State University.