For more than 25 years, Ms. Smith has counseled presidents and world leaders through global crises, advised Fortune 50 CEOs through complex challenges, and helped manage the reputations of some of the world’s highest-profile individuals. She founded Smith & Company, a strategic advisory firm considered to be one of the top crisis firms in the world, that has offices in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, New York and London.  

In addition to her work as a communications advisor during high profile moments, Ms. Smith is a long-time counselor to some of the world’s largest and most influential companies such as Amazon, Facebook, Panera, Lowes, Sony, Kaiser, United Healthcare, and Walmart. She provides her clients with strategic advice on a variety of corporate communications issues such as mergers and acquisitions, product recalls, intellectual property litigation, corporate positioning, diversity and other corporate, investor and public relations matters. 

A former federal prosecutor, Ms. Smith worked in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia where she handled high-profile investigations. She also served as Deputy Press Secretary to President George H.W. Bush, during which time she worked on a host of domestic and international issues.

As a result of her wide ranging and ground-breaking career, Ms. Smith inspired the hit TV series, Scandal and served as Co- Executive Producer of the project. Ms. Smith’s advice and counsel has been valuable to corporate boardrooms and she currently serves on the boards for Save the Children, Global Citizen and Ariel Investments.

Nick Truxal is establishing Andersen Corporation’s first Organization & People Analytics team.  Prior to Andersen, he served as EEOC Commissioner Sonderling’s Chief Advisor on Human Resources and Technology Policy, where he specialized in artificial intelligence in the employment sphere. 

Prior to his work with the EEOC, he acted as an consultant on artificial intelligence in human resesources, working with HR Transformation, People Analytics, Talent, and Legal teams.  Nick Truxal has previously worked in the financial services, technology, and educational sectors. 

Nick Truxal received his B.S. from the North Dakota State University, an M.A. from National University, and an M.S. from New York University.

Katie Horwitch is a nationally recognized author, speaker, mindset coach, media correspondent, and self-talk activist. She is the founder of WANT: Women Against Negative Talk, a platform that gives women tips, tools, motivation, and inspiration to live fearlessly by shifting their negative self-talk patterns. Her first book, Want Your Self: Shift Your Self-Talk and Unearth The Strength In Who You Were All Along, (October 2023, Sounds True), guides you to change your self-talk at the deepest level—so you can move forward fearlessly into the life you were meant to live.

“Want Your Self is a book to help you shift your negative self-talk patterns in a real, lasting way that goes far beyond ‘speaking nicely to yourself,’” Katie shares. “Instead of starting with the ‘talk’ part of self-talk, Want Your Self gets to the root of the issue by diving into the ‘self’ part of self-talk — giving you a strong base to make real shifts that last in the long run.”

Katie has spent almost two decades studying the conversations we have about ourselves, and the implications of them out in the world. She has spoken across the country — from places like SXSW and Dreamworks to corporate workshops and creative non-profits — about self-confidence, living fearlessly, and shifting the stories that help shape our negative self-talk patterns. She is the host of the WANTcast: The Women Against Negative Talk Podcast (currently in its 10th season) where she tackles subjects like loneliness, jealousy, self-worth, and inter-views visionary women about taking a pragmatic, proactive approach to the full spectrum of life's high highs and low lows. Katie is a prominently featured mindset and self-talk media expert on both national and local TV, a regular guest on NBC News Daily’s “Mental Health Check” segment, and has been praised by CNN as a “woman empowering others around the world.”

As a mindset coach specializing in self-talk, Katie helps clients work through their shame, doubt, overwhelm, and fears — both personally and professionally — so they can be proactive leaders in their own lives. She is a certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Coach Practitioner by the NLP Center of New York, and uses a combination of NLP strategies as well as her own methods honed over the last decade to meet each client with deep empathy, fierce support, and a highly individualized game plan. She has consulted with and coached some of the world’s most prominent brands and leaders on building confidence and creating impact on both a micro and macro scale, and works with each client to craft systems, structures, and goals so that they walk away from Katie feeling clear, self-assured, and self-sufficient.

Katie is the ultimate “self-talk multi-hyphenate.” She was a founding editor of The Chalkboard Mag, and has been teaching group fitness for over 15 years. She is currently a top indoor cycling instructor for Equinox — where she helped launch their signature beat-based, emotion-driven class format, ANTHEM — and as a trainer for the leading audio fitness app Aaptiv, Katie brings her signature style of encouragement and mindset-based coaching to walks, runs, meditations, and cardio-based workouts downloaded by over 100K users per month. As an actor, singer, and host, she's been seen on network TV and feature films, as well as on stages both regionally and Off-Broadway. Most recently, she made solo debut by writing and performing in WANT YOUR SELF: A Book Launch Cabaret — a joyful celebration of what it means to live the full spectrum of your Self out loud. Her goal, on whatever stage or page, is to use her unique voice to help others find, use, and own theirs. She holds a BA in Drama from University of California, Irvine, where she also studied sociocultural anthropology and creative writing.

Katie lives in New York City with her husband Jeremy and dog-daughter Frankie. She spends her energy on shifting the cultural self-talk paradigm, producing engaging new content both online and off, advising creatives and entrepreneurs on how use their unique strengths to make the biggest impact possible, and singing loudly while she runs.

Mike is a Senior Corporate Counsel with Amazon. He's been with the company for about three and a half years and before going in-house, had the privilege of practicing employment law at Seyfarth Shaw and Littler Mendelson. Mike day to day focuses on a mix of traditional employment law, data privacy, government contracting, and, increasingly, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Outside of work he enjoys reading, coding, and traveling.