2016 Keynote Speakers
Ruth Jones Nichols
Ruth Jones Nichols is a powerful advocate for opportunities of empowerment in our communities with a particular focus on youth, women, and people of color. She served as director of resource development for D.C. Public Schools before becoming the Executive Director of YWCA South Hampton Roads. She is now the CEO of The Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and Eastern Shore.
Peter Maybarduk
Peter Maybarduk is a Washington, D.C.-based human rights lawyer and a songwriter who harnesses a variety of talents to create positive change in the world. He directs PUBLIC CITIZEN’S access to medicines and knowledge economy group, which helps partners around the world overcome high-price pharmaceutical monopolies, and he co-founded International Professional Partnerships for Sierra Leone which is dedicated to supporting public sector development in one of the world’s least developed countries. He has also released three music albums.
2015 Keynote Speakers
Clint Smith
Clint Smith is a teacher, poet, and doctoral candidate in Education at Harvard University with a concentration in Culture, Institutions, and Society (CIS). In 2013, Mr. Smith was named the Christine D. Sarbanes Teacher of the Year by the Maryland Humanities Council.
Christopher Phillips
Christopher Phillips has a passion for inquiry -- and of a sort that transforms the way we relate to one another, to ourselves, and our world. A foremost specialist in the Socratic Method, he reminds us that we ought to ask questions – “not about any chance question,” as Socrates put it in Plato’s Republic, “but about the way one should live.” He encourages us to roll up our mental sleeves, turn on our childlike questioning lenses, and become our own best thinkers, askers, doers.
Cosmo Fujiyama
Cosmo Fujiyama's passion lies at the intersection of education, social innovation, and civic engagement. She is currently a GovLab Fellow at the GovLab at NYU where she is building the Open Gov Academy, a free, online community for those interested in teaching and learning how to work more collaboratively to solve public problems that improve people's lives.
Darin Eich
Darin Eich is a William & Mary alum, social entrepreneur, and the founder of InnovationLearning.org. He is the author of Innovation Step-by-Step: How to Create & Develop Ideas for Your Challenge and Root Down & Branch Out: Best Practices for Leadership Development Programs.
2014 Keynote Speakers
Harris Wofford
Harris Wofford has served his country for more than sixty years, starting when he volunteered for the Army Air Corps in World War II and continuing through government and community service during the terms of ten Presidents.
Gemma Bulos
Gemma Bulos is an multi-award winning social entrepreneur, singer and storyteller. Can you believe the mission to bring over 200,000 people with clean water and sanitation in Asia and Africa started with a song?
