Previous Conferences

Ivanie Cedeño, through an innovative combination of personal anecdotes and statistics, redefines what healthy eating means to her. Focusing on her journey and heritage, she discusses how her relationship with food, nutrition, and even veganism has developed over the years.

Ivanie is a student in the Latin American studies department at Wesleyan University, as well as a reproductive health advocate, birth worker, and in-training doula who also owns a crochet business that pays homage to her home country of Puerto Rico.

Utilizing numerous personal visual aids, Dr. Alton C. Byers presents a fascinating talk detailing his research identifying how high mountain regions have entered an era of the accelerated glacier and high mountain hazards. Using various glaciers in Nepal as case studies, he then delves into how communities in these areas can build resistance through both localized and interdisciplinary approaches.

Dr. Alton C. Byers, Ph.D. is a mountain geographer, conservationist, and mountaineer specializing in applied research, high altitude ecosystems, climate change, glacier hazards, and integrated conservation and development programs. His work has been recognized by the Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal from the Nepali NGO Mountain Legacy; David Brower Award for Conservation from the American Alpine Club; Distinguished Career Award from the Association of American Geographers; Ecosystem Stewardship Award from The Nature Conservancy; and as an Honorary Lifetime Member of the Nepal Geographical Society. Dr. Byers has published widely on a range of scientific and popular mountain topics and is an author and co-editor of Mountain Geography: Human and Physical Dimensions (University of California Press at Berkeley, 2013). His most recent book, Khumbu Since 1950, is a unique collection of historic and repeat photographs of the Mount Everest region and its Sherpa people over time. In May, 2022 he and his botanist wife, Elizabeth, will return to Nepal to begin a six-month research project on glaciers and high-altitude alpine ecosystems in the Kanchenjunga region, funded by the 2021-2022 Fulbright Nepal Research Program.

As anyone who’s ever taken a humanities class knows, working creatively takes impressive collaboration skills. In her talk, Kate Purdy offers an innovative demonstration of these imperative skills, fielding advice from past and present collaborators for a truly contemporary presentation.

Kate Purdy has won a Writer’s Guild of America Award for her work on the show, Bojack Horseman, and has gone on to be the co-creator and showrunner of the award-winning series Undone on Amazon Prime.

Brad Herzog speaks about his expertise in the process of writing.

Brad Herzog is the author of dozens of children's books, as well as a series of travel memoirs that the American Book Review has called "the new classics of travel writing." A native of Chicago and graduate of Cornell University, he began working as a freelance magazine writer in 1992. A few years later, he and his wife took a 10-month, 48-state RV trip, which inspired his first travelogue, States of Mind. After Brad discussed the book on the TV game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire, it rose to #2 on the Amazon.com bestseller list, behind only Harry Potter! For the next 16 summers, he and his family roamed the country as the RV industry's "Explore America Family." Brad has been a guest on the Today show and Oprah and has received numerous awards, including three CASE Circle of Excellence Awards for magazine writing and an IPPY (independent publishers) award as one of the "10 Outstanding Books of the Year" in 2000. He also started his own publishing house: Why Not Books. From his home on California's Central Coast, he continues to write about everything from sports car racing to civil rights.

In today’s world, finding information is not the problem–using it is. Chris Frank and Paul Magnone focus on putting together strategies and collaborating with information rather than being overwhelmed by it. In a world brimming with facts and data, they emphasize how teamwork is a team sport.

Previously at Microsoft, Chris Frank led global initiatives in satisfaction, branding, and communications research. He is currently the Vice President of research and analytics at American Express. Chris started his career at Accenture and launched two start-ups. He teaches courses on decision-making at Columbia University and is an author. His first book, Drinking From the Fire Hose, which he co-authored with Paul Magnone, focused on making smarter decisions with the information. His ability to connect insight to strategy in a coherent and actionable way has won him global recognition as a leader in his field.

In today’s world, finding information is not the problem–using it is. Chris Frank and Paul Magnone focus on putting together strategies and collaborating with information rather than being overwhelmed by it. In a world brimming with facts and data, they emphasize how teamwork is a team sport.

Paul Magnone is the head of Global Strategic Alliances at Google. He has worked for some of the world’s most influential technology companies including IBM and Deloitte. He is a leader in understanding where technology and innovation are headed to help businesses form growth strategies. Paul has conducted business in over 30 countries, holds four patents, and is passionate about mentoring young entrepreneurs and advising promising new businesses. Paul regularly teaches courses on quantitative intuition at Columbia Business School with Chris. Their second book Decisions Over Decimals will be published this fall.

Ritu Chattwal speaks on “Eating Our Way out of Extinction,” discussing how plant-based foods represent a solution to the unsustainable eating habits of the present world. She emphasizes how a trade-off between sustainability, delicious, and nutrient-dense food is unnecessary if plant-based foods are utilized appropriately.

Born in Havana, Cuba, Dr. Ritu Chhatwal has lived and worked in 15 countries. Starting with teaching primary school in the Middle East, tackling social development and public health issues in the Caribbean with the UN, and running a successful clinical hypnotherapy practice in India, Dr. Chhatwal has accrued a unique global perspective. She is now a serial entrepreneur passionate about creating a new category of nutrient-dense foods. Her latest venture-funded startup GreenGourmet Foods is developing a line of delicious planet-friendly products to help us "eat our way out of extinction!"

Raquel Graham, through a fascinating combination of personal anecdotes regarding her health and career, describes how she overcame her setbacks by prioritizing and investing in herself. Overcoming a harrowing health diagnosis, she reframes the idea of “success,” asking the audience to reinterpret what success means to them.

Raquel Graham has had a star-studded career in helping companies build their brands, but she considers her biggest achievement to be her own business, ROQ Innovation, a product innovation company that makes life easier for others by developing problem-solving solutions. Mrs. Graham has been featured by Martha Stewart and The View, and her company even walked away from Shark Tank with $200K.

Sprinkles Founder and Cupcake Wars Judge, Candace Nelson uses her journey from investment banking analyst to pastry chef as an example of the vitality of letting go of hustle culture and taking the time to “play.” She emphasizes the benefits of play, discussing how it helped her, and can help others achieve a fulfilling, balanced life. Candace Nelson is an entrepreneur, angel investor, pastry chef, TV personality and NYT best selling author. Candace created a new category of food retail with Sprinkles Cupcakes and emerged as America’s sweetheart on Food Network’s Cupcake Wars and Netflix’s Sugar Rush.

2021 Jamaican Rhodes Scholar Fitzroy “Pablo” Wickham describes his journey from feeling lonely to finding peace and success in said solitude. He emphasizes the need for purpose in doing this, as well as being confident in one’s identity and goals. Fitzroy ‘Pablo’ Wickham is a Jamaican-born Wesleyan undergraduate double majoring in Neuroscience and Theatre with a minor in Chemistry. He is a research assistant in the Naegele Lab at the Wesleyan University conducting stem cell research to treat temporal lobe epilepsy in mice. On campus, he also serves as a Head Resident for Residential Life, Senior Class President, Honor Board/Community Standards Board member and is also involved in the Basal Gang, Wesleyan Minority Association of Premedical Students (WesMAPS), student theatre and the Jamaican Heritage Club, YAADI. His aspirations are to become a neurosurgeon, researcher and actor. He is the Jamaican Rhodes Scholar for 2021.

NFL insider for ESPN and Host of Fantasy Football Now Field Yates describes the importance of being nimble within life, using his successful career at ESPN as an example. He emphasizes that, like the media industry, the world is ever changing, and dynamic thinking helps adapt to and maximize output within such growing environments. NFL insider for ESPN and Host of Fantasy Football Now.

Field Yates was a two-sport athlete and psychology major at Wesleyan.
Mr. Yates helps lead ESPN’s NFL and fantasy sports coverage as an NFL Insider for ESPN and is the co-host of the network’s Fantasy Focus Football podcast. In his current role, Mr. Yates focuses on poring over and interpreting players’ statistics, which he described as "central arteries of fantasy football”. While it is hard to project matches due to the inherent difference between predictions and results, Mr. Yates’ keen insight into sports and interpersonal skills motivate him to keep a positive mindset and to face the long odds.

Two-time Peabody Award-winning producer of Car Talk and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me Doug Berman offers a framework for producing creative work. He describes how to approach sketches as engineering problems, solving them to maximize their humor. Two-time Peabody Award winning producer Doug Berman led NPR’s expansion into comedy, creating shows enjoyed by millions of listeners over many decades. Starting with Car Talk in 1980’s, and later with Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, he created a style of entertainment he calls “not a complete waste of time.” He started his career working for NPR News, editing for NPR All Things Considered and NPR Morning Edition, and launched Car Talk on NPR while serving as News Director at WBUR 90.9 FM in Boston. He lives in Oakland, California.

Emily McEvoy, through a fascinating combination of personal, political, and historical anecdotes, dives into the American liberal tradition. She discusses how historical remnants affect both the daily lives of individuals, as well as policy at large, emphasizing the United States’ response to COVID-19. Emily is a passionate student of social theory and an organizer with Middletown Mutual Aid Collective and in Connecticut at large. She works for the Middletown Youth Services Bureau and is a student coordinator of the Wesleyan community service program, Wesleyan x North End Action Team (WesNEAT). Emily is committed to combating elitism and insularity in the University setting, and building solidarity between University students and the surrounding town. Having grown up in Waterbury, CT, and currently living in Middletown, Emily is committed to making her state a place where people have the resources to lead and create for themselves and their own communities. In her free time she enjoys contemporary and hip hop choreography, studying music production, taking care of plants, and traveling to hidden gems around the state with friends!

Senior Vice President and Editor-At-Large at ESPN, Rob King, discusses spending time in the “Awful In Between,” and how it is okay to not always have the answers. He
emphasizes the importance of the journey, and how everything happens in its own time. Rob King majored in English at Wesleyan, where he also ran track and was on the basketball team.
After joining ESPN for 16 years, Rob was named Senior Vice President and Editor-At-Large ESPN Content in March 2020. In this new role, Rob acts as an advisor to ESPN’s leadership team and coordinates complex editorial issues. He also ensures ESPN’s journalistic excellence through the development of company-wide content projects and leading the content division’s journalistic direction.

Is it possible to use comedy as a coping mechanism? Global comedian and writer Abby Govindan describes her process of healing through doing exactly that. Govindan delves into how finding punchlines in her personal trauma allowed her to regain control of her narrative, as well as the reverberative impact such humor can have. Abby Govindan was in her junior year at Fordham University when she launched her comedy career by making her debut at Caroline’s on Broadway in New York City in December 2017. Since then, she has performed stand-up all over the country and toured internationally, including headlining a national college tour at the age of 21. She has also performed on various renowned stages, such as Carolines on Broadway, Eastville Comedy Club, Stand Up New York, and Dynasty Typewriter.

Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Sociology, Afroamerican and African Studies, and Public Policy at the University of Michigan, Alford A. Young, Jr. delves into the condition of Black men in America. He elaborates on this, endorsing “unknowing” as an appropriate place to begin social justice efforts. In doing this, he urges the audience to be open-minded in relearning what they think they know, citing this process as key to becoming a more egalitarian society. Professor of Sociology, Afroamerican and African Studies, and Public Policy at University of Michigan.

Professor Young received a degree in Sociology, Psychology, and African American Studies (with honors) at Wesleyan University in 1988.
With a primary interest in urban poverty and social hierarchy, Professor Young has pursued research on low-income, urban-based African Americans and African American scholars and intellectuals. Employing an ethnographic interview method to collect data, his principal scholarly objective has been to explore how the social experiences of African Americans shape the emergence of worldviews, belief systems, and ideologies.

Gato Nsengamungu, using anecdotes from his personal life, describes his journey to valuing pride as a gateway to success and humility. In his talk, he delves into how people can use pride as an asset to help others grow, while also reflecting on how valuing such people is vital to personal progress.

Adam Smiley Poswolsky is a millennial workplace expert, keynote speaker, and bestselling author of The Quarter-Life Breakthrough (Penguin Random House) and The Breakthrough Speaker. An internationally renowned motivational speaker, Smiley speaks about millennials, employee engagement, and intergenerational collaboration at Fortune 500 companies, business conferences, associations, leadership trainings, and universities. His TEDx talk has been viewed over 775,000 times, and he has done hundreds of speaking engagements, reaching over 50,000 people in 14 countries. Smiley’s writing has been published in The Washington Post, Fast Company, Time, and Business Insider, and his work has been featured in USA Today, Forbes, Inc., Mashable, CNN, CNBC, MarketWatch and the World Economic Forum, among others. Smiley is a proud graduate of Wesleyan University (class of 2005) and lives in Oakland, California.

Alex Bergstein is a Connecticut State Senator representing Greenwich, New Canaan and Stamford. She unseated a 5-term incumbent to become the first Democrat in 88 years and the first woman ever to represent this district! Alex is also an attorney, an academic and a community advocate who founded and led organizations dedicated to environmental health and women’s equality. She is a graduate of Wesleyan, and earned a law degree from the University of Chicago and a Masters from Yale. Alex’s mission is to change the narrative in Connecticut, and our country, with positive vision and action.

As a medical student and a medical practitioner, Dr. Robin Cook shares his thoughts on the contrast between the altruistic profession he had anticipated going into the medical field and what he found it to be. His disappointment as he faced this unexpected reality led him onto a path where he sought to transform the profession into the facade that drew him into it initially. Dr. Robin Cook was a Wesleyan graduate, where he majored in chemistry with a distinction in government. To this date, he has written a total of 35 worldwide bestsellers - ranging from medical/biotech ethical and public policy issues. Dr. Cook has received many recognitions, including the Author of Vision Award 2002 by the RP International and the 2014 Literary Legend Award given by the Florida Heritage Book Festival. He was also appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C by President George W. Bush.

Congresswoman Jahana Hayes gives the blueprint for breaking the mould that has been carved for who a politician should be. She makes a case for congress to start having more representatives who are reflective of the ordinary citizen and not just people who fit the mould of a quintessential or stereotypical politician Congresswoman Jahana Hayes was elected to represent the Fifth District of Connecticut in November 2018, making her the first African-American woman to ever represent the state of Connecticut in Congress. Hayes first garnered widespread notoriety while serving as a teacher at John F. Kennedy High School in Waterbury, when she was selected as the Connecticut Teacher of the Year, before going on to earn the distinction of 2016 National Teacher of the Year, leading to an invitation to the White House by then President Barack Obama. In her capacity as NTOY, Hayes traveled the country and the world as an ambassador for public education engaging all stakeholders in policy discussions meant to improve outcomes for students.

Mitali Thakor is an assistant professor in the Science in Society Program. Her current book project, Facing the Child, is an ethnography of artifice, evidence, and the global policing of child pornography. Mitali earned her Ph.D. from MIT's Program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, & Society, and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Sexualities Project at Northwestern. Mitali is also a professional birth doula.

Dr. Laman A. Gray, Jr., is Professor of Surgery and Emeritus Director of the Division of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the University Of Louisville School Of Medicine, the Executive and Medical Director of the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute (CII) and the Jewish Hospital Distinguished Chair in Cardiothoracic Surgery. Dr. Gray is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of cardiac surgery and development of artificial hearts and circulatory support systems. Dr. Gray’s outstanding accomplishments include performing the first heart transplant in Kentucky (1984).

Dylan Shumway is a Junior here at Wesleyan studying a mix of Music, Neuroscience, and Design. Outside of classes, he spends his time working with tech support, singing acapella, and developing video games. Despite his varied academic and extra curricular interests, his talk actually developed from something much more simple - the day to day interactions with friends, those that are often even overlooked or under-appreciated.

Dan Drew was the 61st Mayor of Middletown. He was an EMT at 18. By 23, after graduating from UConn, he was a journalist ​who exposed political corruption. ​And​ a​s a young father working at the Community Renewal Team, he developed a welfare-to-work program to give single mothers the opportunity to improve their lives through job training and placement.

Maria Santana is a New York based anchor and correspondent for CNN En Español and frequent contributor to all CNN networks and platforms. She is a three-time News and Documentary Emmy nominee, most recently for CNN's 2017 coverage of the devastating impact of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. She is a versatile, bilingual, multi-platform journalist who handles a wide range of topics, from breaking news, politics and finance to sports and entertainment.

Lucy A. Hutner, M.D. is an internationally recognized expert in women's mental health. She is one of a small group of psychiatrists in New York City with extensive expertise in reproductive psychiatry, which focuses on the mental health needs of women and their loved ones before, during, and after pregnancy. She has particular expertise in perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and in the psychiatric issues of high-risk pregnancies and infertility.

An expert in health care, medicine, science, technology, culture, power, and social inequality, Dr. Hatch is author of Blood Sugar: Racial Pharmacology and Food Justice in Black America and Silent Cells: The Secret Drugging of Captive America. Dr. Hatch's research has been featured in the Wesleyan Magazine's "Health Care and Racism: A Toxic Mix," RisingUpWithSonali.com, Information is the Best Medicine, and The Scientist Magazine. Dr. Hatch is also the co-creator of Black Phoenix Rising: Death and Resurrection of Black Lives, a multimedia digital scholarship and cultural arts project that explores the aesthetic contours of antiracist scholarship and resistance.

Aaron Painter is a global executive who is passionate about how listening empowers people and organizational growth. As Vice President and General Manager at Microsoft in China, he leads a broad team of sales, marketing, product, and partner management professionals. He is also an executive sponsor for Microsoft's rising millennial workforce of recent hires from top undergraduate and MBA programs. Painter has lived and worked in six countries across four continents and exemplifies a new generation of global leaders. He is a highly sought-after speaker and advisor to companies that are seeking business transformation.

Sharon Belden Castonguay, EdD, is the Executive Director of the Gordon Career Center, the instructor for Career Decisions: From Insight to Impact on Coursera and the host of the podcasts Careers by Design: The Interviews and First Year Out. She is an adult developmental psychologist and career counselor with over 20 years of experience working with professionals at all levels of their careers. She currently serves as President-Elect of the Liberal Arts Career Network, a consortium of 39 top liberal arts colleges and universities devoted to the career development of liberal arts students and graduates in a global and ever-changing marketplace.

Lily Herman is a contributing editor at Refinery29, where she writes political commentary and does original news reporting. In addition, she regularly contributes to Teen Vogue and Allure, covering the intersection of topics such as politics, youth empowerment, wellness, feminism, and more. She's also the founder of Get Her Elected, a network of over 2,000 people offering skills like writing and graphic design pro bono to more than 200 progressive women candidates running for U.S. political office.

Senator Matthew Lesser represents the ninth district, serving the citizens of Cromwell, Middletown, Newington, Rocky Hill and Wethersfield. Lesser is also a member of the Government Administration and Elections Committee and a member of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee. He has been a principal author of a number of important laws, including Connecticut’s first in the nation Student Loan Bill of Rights, a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing waste and a major workplace safety law later adopted as a national standard. He has been a leader on consumer protections, the environment and paid family leave. Representative Lesser has championed Middletown’s interests in the legislature, significantly expanding funding for local roads and schools and securing millions of dollars to help rebuild Middletown’s waterfront.

Mohamad Hafez is a Syrian architect who is on a mission to humanize refugees through his artwork. By incorporating the refugee narrative into pieces that stir conversation, Hafez invites us to leave our comfortable circles and invest in true conversation and consider the labels we impose on communities we may otherwise not be familiar with. Mohamad Hafez is an interdisciplinary artist and architect born in Syria, raised in Saudi Arabia and educated in the Midwestern United States. Hafez uses his expertise as a licensed AIA architect as well as his lived experience of Damascus’s rich built environment to create lyrical streetscapes high in fidelity and charged in content. His sculptural compilations of paint, metal, and found objects anchor uneasy conversations, stimulating deeper audience engagement on contentious topics like torture at Abu Ghraib, tyranny in the twenty-first century, or the ongoing global refugee crisis.

Photographer Michael Yamashita has been shooting for the National Geographic magazine for over 30 years, combining his dual passions of photography and travel. After graduating from Wesleyan University with a degree in Asian studies, he spent seven years in Asia, which became his photographic area of specialty. Upon returning to the US, Yamashita began shooting for the National Geographic as well as other American and international magazines and clients.

Anand Kini was named Chief Financial Officer for NBCUniversal in May 2015. In addition to his role as CFO, Kini will continue to help shape NBCUniversal’s long term strategic direction, and lead the data-driven consumer and business insights division and the Information Technology group. He is a member of the Executive Committee and reports to Steve Burke, CEO, NBCUniversal.

Angela Yee was born and raised in Brooklyn. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a BA in English. After college, Angela became assistant to the CEO of Wu-Tang Corporation. Having a knack for marketing she spent the next five years working with internet startups, a distribution label, and clothing brands. A few years later she became a morning show host at Sirius Satellite Radio after establishing her niche in a memorable interview with Jay-Z. After pitching her own weekly nighttime show called “Lip Service,” The show was the only female-hosted program on Shade 45. After six years at Shade 45 Angela left to work with New York City’s Power 105.1 and formed ‘The Breakfast Club’ with DJ Envy and Charlamagne Tha God. Fast forward, the nationally syndicated morning show is now heard 30 markets weekday mornings and over 70 markets on the weekend. Angela donates her time and effort to speaking at schools, educational panels, other charitable organizations.

Sallome Hrlaima is currently the National Dream Director of The Future Project, working with high school students throughout the United States. Dream Director Sallomé Hralima works to to unleash the individual and collective genius of others. She challenges the nature of American workplaces, to cultivate the possibility of people and acknowledge the danger of looking at employees as resources.