Break

Tuesday, September 30, 2025 - 11:00am to 11:15am
Ruth Hickin
Vice President, Workforce Innovation & Transformation
Salesforce
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Ruth Hickin is Vice President of Workforce Innovation & Transformation at Salesforce, where she leads strategies for workforce adaptation in response to AI, skills development, and talent redeployment. She oversees the Career Connect internal mobility platform and drives transformation to meet future business needs.

Before joining Salesforce, Ruth was with the World Economic Forum, where she led strategy and thought leadership on the future of technology and global tech governance, publishing influential reports. She has also held leadership positions at Virgin Unite, focusing on strategic partnerships and impact investments.

Ruth holds an MBA in Design Strategy from California College of the Arts, an Executive Master of Arts (MA) in Global Leadership from the World Economic Forum, and a Master of Arts (Honors) in English Literature from the University of Glasgow.

SESSIONS:
Mick Ebeling
Founder
Not Impossible Labs
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A Fortune Top 50 World’s Greatest Leader and Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award winner, Mick Ebeling is a pioneer who uses innovation to solve global challenges. As the Founder of Not Impossible Labs, he’s renowned for inventions like the Eyewriter (eye-tracking tech for paralyzed artists) and Project Daniel (3D-printed prosthetics in conflict zones), driven by his “Help One. Help Many” ethos.  
 

A three-time TIME Best Inventions honoree, Mick’s work spans restoring speech (Don’s Voice), combating hunger (Bento), and immersive music experiences (Music: Not Impossible). His philosophy, “Commit, Then Figure It Out,” fuels boundary-pushing solutions merging tech, storytelling, and human need.  

A powerhouse keynote speaker, Mick transforms audiences with tales of turning “impossible” into action, inspiring bold problem-solving. His book, Not Impossible: The Art and Joy of Doing What Couldn’t Be Done chronicles his journey from small acts to global impact.  

Mick empowers individuals and organizations to redefine limits, proving that audacity + empathy = world-changing innovation. 

SESSIONS:

Keynote: The Fallacy of "Impossible"

Sunday, September 28, 2025 - 1:45pm to 2:45pm
 

Ascend: Breakout Session

Tuesday, September 30, 2025 - 1:30pm to 4:00pm
 

Break

Tuesday, September 30, 2025 - 4:00pm to 4:15pm
W. Brad Johnson, PhD
Best Selling Co-Author of Good Guys and Co-Founder of Workplace Allies
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W. Brad Johnson, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and the co-founder of Workplaceallies.com. For 30 years, he served sailors and marines in the U.S. Navy, first as a commissioned officer in the Navy’s Medical Service Corps and later as a tenured full professor at Annapolis in the U.S. Naval Academy’s Department of Leadership, Ethics, and Law. For 20 years, he was also a clinical faculty associate at Johns Hopkins University. Brad is a mentoring expert specializing in developing gender-inclusive mentoring cultures for organizations around the globe. He is the author of numerous publications, including 14 books, in the areas of mentoring, professional ethics, and gender inclusion. Recent books include Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace (2020, October, with David Smith); On Being a Mentor: A Guide for Higher Education Faculty (3rd Ed.) (2025, with Kimberly Griffin); The Elements of Mentoring (3rd Ed.) (2018, with Charles Ridley); and Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women (2016, with David Smith).

SESSIONS:
David G. Smith, PhD
Best Selling Co-Author of Good Guys and Co-Founder of Workplace Allies
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David Smith, Ph.D., is co-author of the book Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace, an associate professor and co-director of the Gender & Work Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. He also serves as a member on the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS). A former Navy pilot, Dave led diverse organizations of women and men, culminating in command of a squadron in combat, and flew more than 3,000 hours over 30 years, including combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a sociologist, his research focuses on gender, work, and family issues, including allyship, inclusive mentorship and sponsorship, gender bias in performance evaluations, and dual-career families. He is the co-author of the book Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women and numerous journal articles and book chapters focused on gender and the workplace.

SESSIONS:

Optimize: Watchdog Skills: Disrupting Bias in Real Time

Tuesday, September 30, 2025 - 9:45am to 11:00am
 

Ascend: Breakout Session

Tuesday, September 30, 2025 - 9:45am to 11:00am
 

Advance: Learning Teams

Tuesday, September 30, 2025 - 1:30pm to 4:00pm
 

Lunch Break

Tuesday, September 30, 2025 - 12:30pm to 1:30pm