Monday, September 29, 2025 - 12:15pm to 1:15pm
Haben Girma
First Deafblind Graduate of Harvard Law School & Bestselling Author
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The first Deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School, Haben Girma is an award-winning advocate, author, and keynote speaker. She earned the Helen Keller Achievement Award, reached Forbes 30 under 30, and President Barack Obama named her a White House Champion of Change. She believes disability challenges are opportunities for innovation, sparking new technologies that move society forward. Haben travels the globe teaching organizations how to build stronger, resilient, and more connected communities.

Her bestselling book Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law takes readers on adventures around the world, including training with a guide dog in New Jersey, climbing an iceberg in Alaska, fighting for blind readers at a courthouse in Vermont, and talking with former presidents Biden and Obama at the White House. Warm, funny, thoughtful, and uplifting, this captivating book shows how we can resist isolation and find the keys to connection. The New York Times, Oprah Magazine, the TODAY Show, and Stephen Curry have all praised the book.

A spellbinding speaker, Haben’s keynotes have touched the stages of Apple, Bottega Veneta, Disney, Gartner, Google, Microsoft, Oxford University, and many more. Her engaging presentations ignite audiences to make positive changes in their communities. TIME included her as a speaker in TIME100 Talks.

In 2023, Haben became one of the first leaders appointed to serve as a Commissioner for the World Health Organization’s new Commission on Social Connection.

Haben was born and raised in California, where she currently lives. She travels with her Seeing Eye® dog Mylo. He often falls asleep during her keynotes.

SESSIONS:
Monday, September 29, 2025 - 11:30am to 12:15pm
 
Monday, September 29, 2025 - 11:15am to 11:30am
Meredith Lozar
Executive Director, Partnerships
Hiring our Heroes
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As the Executive Director, Partnerships for the United States Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Hiring Our Heroes initiative, Meredith Lozar provides oversight and direction for the organization’s strategic engagement and partnerships, working across the public and private sectors to create economic opportunity for transitioning service members, veterans, and military spouses through coalition leadership, advocacy, and strategic partnerships.   

An active-duty Marine Corps spouse, military child, and leader in the military affairs field, Meredith uses her experience to promote various military spouse and veteran initiatives and serves as a subject matter expert on issues impacting the military community.   

Meredith also serves as the Past-President of the Board of Directors for the Association for Financial Counseling, Planning and Education (AFCPE) and is a member of the Board of Directors for Child Care Aware of America. She graduated summa cum laude from Purdue University and the University of Oklahoma from which she holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and a Master of Human Relations, respectively. An active volunteer for both the USMC and Daughters of the American Revolution, Meredith currently resides in California with her husband, Nick, and their daughter, Clara. 

SESSIONS:
Monday, September 29, 2025 - 1:15pm to 2:30pm
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:
Monday, September 29, 2025 - 10:00am to 11:15am
 
Monday, September 29, 2025 - 10:00am to 11:15am
 
Monday, September 29, 2025 - 9:30am to 10:00am
Khaliah O. Guillory
Founder of Nap Bar, Speaker, Coach & Innovator
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Khaliah O. Guillory (KOG) worked her way from banker to vice president at a Fortune 100 company that oversaw a $1 billion book of business and over 220 employees. While Vice President of Wachovia Bank, she served as one of the founding members of the Diversity Council, influencing positive change at the company. During this time, the organization saw a retention increase of approximately 35% due to her leadership. After leaving Corporate America, her phone started ringing off the hook and hasn’t stopped since.

An avid napper and Forbes Featured Sleep Coach, Khaliah is obsessed with sleep so much, she founded Nap Bar™, the first-of-its-kind, white-glove, virtual reality wellness experience in the world. Nap Bar offers communities and companies onsite and en-suite rest sanctuaries to help reduce sleep deprivation and increase mindfulness and alertness.

In 2015, Khaliah founded KOG & Co., a boutique firm that partners with corporations to transform human emotion through inclusion, equity, culture, wellness, and employee engagement experiences. Khaliah is an international speaker chosen to deliver the 2018 MBA Commencement Speech at the University of Houston-Downtown. She has been featured in a plethora of national media outlets, including Forbes, Huffington Post, Essence, Houston Business Journal, Fox News, ABC, and NBC.

Khaliah’s thought leadership has inspired companies like Microsoft, Synchrony Bank, Shell, NASA, and LinkedIn, to name a few. As a dynamic professional speaker, she champions workplace well-being and belonging with electrifying energy and real-world insights.

When she’s not revolutionizing the way we rest, you can find Khaliah chasing her next adventure — like skydiving from 10,000 feet out of a perfectly good plane. She’s a lover of ’80s music, a travel junkie, a vinyl collector, and has an undeniable obsession with socks, sunglasses, and watches.

A member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Khaliah is also the recipient of the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award. Her impact runs deep, so much so that former Mayor Sylvester Turner and the City of Houston declared October 29 as Khaliah O. Guillory Day in recognition of her philanthropic work.

SESSIONS:
Tuesday, September 30, 2025 - 4:15pm to 5:30pm
 
Monday, September 29, 2025 - 7:30am to 8:30am
 
Sunday, September 28, 2025 - 3:15pm to 5:45pm