Sullivan Speakers Bureau
The Sullivan Speakers Bureau is a collection of facilitators, speakers and social entrepreneurs who have previously been involved with Sullivan programming. Students at Ignite Retreats and on our Field Trips have the chance to meet these leaders and listen to their journeys.
The Speakers Bureau is an opportunity for schools to bring those individuals onto campus to share their stories more widely with their student body. Schools may use approved Sullivan Foundation funds to pay for honorariums and expenses. To inquire about costs for bringing a speaker to your campus, please reach out!
Community + Economic Development
David Gray
Deputy Director of Community Benefits – SFPUC
As a Hurricane Katrina survivor, David is driven by a deep desire to empower communities so they can take control over the factors and decisions that shape their lives. His diverse professional and personal experiences – spanning from New Orleans to San Francisco – have revealed many lessons at the nexus of public policy, social innovation, and community engagement. View more on David’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: David once fought a bull in Costa Rica, and he is a three-time lottery winner (total winnings $6).
Talk Themes: Community Empowerment // Political Advocacy // Leadership Development
Recognition: Urban Ed Academy Community Cultivator Award // Oral Lee Brown Foundation Community Award // Vice Chair, Rubicon Programs
Josh Nadzam
Co-Founder + Director – On The Move Art Studio
Josh is the co-founder and director of On The Move Art Studio and an instructor at the UK College of Social Work. He escaped a tragic childhood and went on to run Track and Field at the University of Kentucky and ultimately earned a master’s degree in social work. Since then, he has been involved in and led many community initiatives around social justice and community building. View more on Josh’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: In his entire life, Josh has never had coffee or energy drinks. His work energizes him more than any caffeine drink ever could!
Talk Themes: Impact of the Arts on At-Risk Youth // Grassroots + Community Organizing // Overcoming Adversity
Recognition: Sullivan Medallion Award // Lexington Leadership Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year // Emerging Cities Champion
Mama Shu
Founder + CEO – Avalon Village
Shamayim ‘Mama Shu’ Harris is a mother, a community activist, a former school administrator, and the founder and CEO of Avalon Village in Highland Park, Michigan. The self-sustaining eco-village encompasses an entire city block that Shu is transforming from blight to beauty in honor and memory of her 2 year old son who was killed by a hit and run driver. View more on Mama Shu’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: Mama Shu is simply a force of nature – she has a vision, makes a plan, and gets things done – there is no stopping her.
Talk Themes: Being a Force for Positive Change // Healing from Grief and Loss // Creating a Nonprofit from the Ground Up
Recognition: Featured on the Ellen Show // NBC Nightly News // CBS Evening News
Spud Marshall
Chief Catalyst – iamspud.com
Spud is a dedicated to cultivating changemaker communities and innovation ecosystems. He has co-founded multiple ventures, including New Leaf (a co-working office), the co.space (a 20-person residential home), Trailhead (a community-funded grant), and Three Dots (an arts & innovation center). He also consults organizations world-wide to develop similar programs through Barefoot Consulting. View more on Spud’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: He constructs cardboard prototypes (sometimes life-size) of any venture first to determine their viability in a community.
Talk Themes: Creativity + Design // Fostering Small Town Innovation // How to Build Intentional Communities
Recognition: PA Business Central Foremost Under 40 // Emerging Cities Champion // TEDxPSU Talk: Bathrobe Conversations
Kayana Sessoms
Community Animator + Liaison – KayanaSessoms.com
Kayana is a Detroit native with 15+ years experience in Arts & Culture Program Development. She believes in the power of resident driven spaces. Much of her work helps residents and CDCs to develop strategies for building creative, engaging community spaces. Kayana’s projects are an extension of her professional work moving communities toward individual and collective empowerment. View more on Kayana’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: On her birthday, Kayana plans a community beautification service event to make the city she lives a better place.
Talk Themes: Creative Placemaking // Arts Engagement // Volunteer Recruitment
Recognition: Skillman Foundation’s Most Influential Detroiter // Emerging Cities Champion // “Green Earth Task Force” Earth Day Award
EDUCATION
Alan Webb
Founder – Open Masters
Alan is a grassroots community builder and popular educator. He is passionate about helping students take initiative, try out crazy ideas they haven’t told anyone yet, ask questions that go beyond the curriculum, and find community to help them do any of that. Alan has created and mentored many self-directed learning communities, like Citizen Circles, the Open Master’s, and Alt*Div. View more on Alan’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: Alan produced a documentary on a Universal Basic Income pilot in Canada and currently lives in a convent with the Nuns & Nones project.
Talk Themes: Connecting What You Want to Learn to Your Deepest Why // Learning Beyond the Curriculum // Finding Community in Unlikely Places
Recognition: On Being: The Radical Art of Learning from Within // TEDxFurmanU Video // ExperimentQ Podcast // TEDxUVA Video
Jarren Smalls
Co-Founder + CEO – Legends Do Live
Jarren started ‘Legends Do Live‘ to fund and equip disadvantaged youth and communities through workshop programs and events. He recently created ‘Reading with A Rapper‘ to connect academics with socially conscious lyrics, video content and technology. Jarren frequently partners with groups such as Microsoft and the Houston Rockets to give scholarships and establish programming for inner city public schools. View more on Jarren’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: Through Jarren’s five years of starting ‘Legends Do Live’, he has raised and given 16 million dollars of scholarships to High School seniors.
Talk Themes: Creative Connections // Bringing Culture into the Classroom // Securing Corporate Partners
Recognition: Beyond Borders Article on ‘Reading with a Rapper’ // Click2Houston Feature
Perry Wilson
Founder – If I Had a Hammer
Perry struggled in school as a child, and couldn’t connect with teachers through conventional methods. That’s what led Perry to create an applied math and science program that The New York Times called “one of the top educational programs in the country.” If I Had A Hammer has worked with over 1,000,000 children in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. View more on Perry’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: Perry became a master carpenter as an adult and used these skills to create the Hammer House Build Experience and Hammer Math.
Talk Themes: Hands-on + Alternative Education Methods // Securing Sponsors to Support Social Ventures
Recognition: Video Feature in Hobgood Elementary // Promo Video for If I Had a Hammer // TimesNews Featured Article
Tessa Zimmerman
Founder + Executive Director – ASSET
Tessa grew up experiencing severe anxiety in the classroom. It wasn’t until private high school that she learned the tools to cope with stress and anxiety. Tessa founded ASSET to bring equity to education and make sure all teachers have the tools to help their students cope with stress and anxiety. She has grown ASSET to impact 5000 students in 4 different states and launched her first book, I Am Tessa, in 2017. View more on Tessa’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: Tessa could earn a second diploma for how much time she has apprenticed with the problem of student anxiety in Denver high schools.
Talk Themes: Apprenticing with the Problem // Creating an Effective, Personal Solution // Succeeding With & Because of Anxiety
Recognition: First Graduate of Lynn + Watson // Winner of the 2016 Denver Public School Design Challenge // Interview on CT Style
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Dustin Betz
Content & Community – Founders Institute Insights
Dustin is an agro-biologist, hardware entrepreneur, and communications strategist. As a content curator and startup community builder, his work at the Founder Institute focuses on elevating the changemaker entrepreneurs doing amazing things within FI’s global network of 3500+ portfolio companies. Dustin is also the Founder & CEO of InteriorEcosystems, an urban agricultural product design company. View more on Dustin’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: Dustin transformed his weirdest college hobby (beekeeping) into a six-figure manufacturing business called BEEcosystem.
Talk Themes: Why College is the Best Time to Start a Venture // Fundraising 101 // Lean Startup Methodology
Recognition: Inhabitat Press for Crowdfunding Campaign //Start-Up Chile Accelerator Fellowship //Parallel 18 Grant Award
Jared Yarnall-Schane
Startup Coach – Happy Valley Launchbox
Jared Yarnall-Schane is a startup coach that has helped launch more than 50 social impact startups from around the world, including Agrosmart, Biteback Insect, and Rice Inc. He currently works with Happy Valley LaunchBox at Penn State University and other early-stage startup training organizations through his consulting efforts at Jarnall Consulting. View more on Jared’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: Through his work with Thought for Food, Jared coached a team that went on to win the $1 million Hult Prize in 2018.
Talk Themes: Food & Agriculture Innovation // Emerging Markets // Pitch Training
Recognition: Interview with UN Environment // Interview with Forbes // How to Validate your Idea with Youth Assembly
HEALTH, HUNGER + POVERTY
Brin Enterkin
Executive Director – Watson Institute
Brin founded Ugandan based NGO, The African SOUP— now making systemic impact across the Education system across Uganda. She also co-founded a bow tie company, Lion’s Thread, and a renewable energy company, M-Power, while in Uganda. Currently Brin lives in Boulder, Colorado and works for Watson Institute and is driven to inspire young people to strategically build a life of impact. View more on Brin’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: Brin climbed a live volcano in Congo, kayaked the Nile in Uganda and completed the Skyline Traverse in Colorado.
Talk Themes: How to Change a System // How to Build a Team that will Change the World // Launching a Social Venture
Recognition: Forbes 30 under 30 // CNN Person of the Day
Kyle McCollom
Co-Founder + Director – Everly
In college, Kyle started a workforce development social enterprise to create jobs for former offenders. After graduation, he created Everly – a natural beverage company focused on healthy ingredients, reducing waste, and hydrating those in need. He now runs a community focused on banking the unbanked and leads growth at Passfolio giving people access to better places to store their savings, regardless of income. View more on Kyle’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: As a college students, Kyle lived in a halfway house with former offenders while starting a social enterprise.
Talk Themes: Balancing Profit + Purpose // Product-Market Fit // Banking the Unbanked
Recognition: Ingram Scholar // Clinton Global Initiative University Outstanding Commitment Award // Stellar Build Challenge Finalist
Connor Lie-Spahn
Program Director – FeelGood
Through FeelGood, Connor runs a youth-led movement on 25 college campuses, working to eradicate extreme poverty globally by using social enterprise to fund gender-focused, community-led development world-wide. He also co-founded EPIC-Amazon to support Indigenous peoples of the Ecuadorian Amazon resist environmental destruction and cultural genocide through an EFL exchange program. View more on Connor’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: During his time in college, Connor founded a Chinese pop a cappella group.
Talk Themes: Sustainable + Gender-focused Development // Ecotourism // Climate Change // Environmental + Indigenous Legal Advocacy
Recognition: Coming soon…
MEDIA + TECHNOLOGY
Jasmine Babers
Founder + Editor – Love Girls Magazine
Jasmine started her first non-profit, Love Girls Magazine, at 15-yrs-old in response to the bullying, low-self-esteem and lack of social justice in her High School. The magazine combined her love of fashion, photography and writing with methods of social activism, anti-bullying and story-telling to inspire over 10,000 readers across the nation and raise over $150,000 towards the mission. View more on Jasmine’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: She is a self-taught graphic designer and has laid out the award winning magazine for over 7 years and designed every cover herself!
Talk Themes: Youth Social Entrepreneurship // Anti-Bullying and Women’s Empowerment // Peacemaking // Leveraging Media for Activism
Recognition: Soros Fellow //Peace First Prize // Interview on the Harry Show // USA Network Characters Unite Award
Romain Sepehr Vakilitabar
Founder – Pathos
After seeing how technology and media was being used as a tool for hatred, Romain Sepehr Vakilitabar founded Pathos, a non-profit laboratory focused on finding ways that technology and media can dismantle hatred, and most effectively create understanding and compassion across lines of difference. Romain also leads the American Media Fellowship which provides support to tell impactful stories around the country. View more on Romain’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: Romain retrofitted a school bus into a state of the art mobile film studio to interview individuals across the country who feel invisible.
Talk Themes: How to Dismantle Hatred // How to Use Technology for Good // Identifying the Biases that Exist Deep Within Us
Recognition: NBCUniversal “Erase the Hate” Fellow // TEDxMileHigh Talk // Colorado’s 6 Entrepreneurs Under 25
Tony Weaver Jr.
Founder + CEO – Weird Enough Productions
During college, Tony recognized that there was a severe lack of positive roles for black men. Volunteering with black males in his local community showed him how widespread this misrepresentation was, and the devastating effects it was capable of having on minority groups. With the intention of changing the media narrative of black men, Tony founded Weird Enough Productions at age 20. View more on Tony’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: Tony’s love for comics as a kid became instrumental as he built his social venture.
Talk Themes: Media Representation + Literacy // Building a Social Venture with Friends // Discovering Your Unique Selling Point
Recognition: Forbes 30 Under 30 // Echoing Green Fellow // Camelback Ventures Fellow // TEDx Talk // Forbes Article
Uchechi Kalu
Founder – UchechiKalu.com
As a poet, tech entrepreneur and web designer, Uchechi uses many tools towards one impact: to help creative entrepreneurs find, use and share their voice. She brings a multidisciplinary approach to her work as a digital storyteller, leveraging her background in poetry and technology. She is the CEO of Linking Arts, a holistic web design agency, and inspires creative resilience through her Dear Creative letters. View more on Uchechi’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: She brings poetry to the stage at most of her public speaking events.
Talk Themes: Multidisciplinary Approach to Creativity // Representation in Technology // Creative Resilience // Find Impact & Creative Purpose
Recognition: Forbes: 6 Tips for Maximizing Connection after a Networking Event // Diario Mexico // Innov8tives Top Women in Tech to Watch
JUSTICE, EQUITY + HUMAN RIGHTS
Arshiya Kherani
Founder – Sukoon Active
Arshiya LOVES running and working out, and she’s also Muslim and wears hijab. She started Sukoon Active out of a personal need for activewear that suits her lifestyle choices. With the goal to support women all over the world own their fitness potential, her work involves building brand vision and developing strategic partnerships with individuals and manufacturing partners. View more on Arshiya’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: Her favorite activities from the past year have been a trapeze and trampoline workout class!
Talk Themes: Empowering Women from Minority Backgrounds // Real Sustainability // Product Development + Manufacturing // Crowdfunding
Recognition: ABC NEWS // TopRank Podcast // HuffingtonPost: One Muslim Entrepreneur Making it Easier to Work Out in a Hijab
Katie (Tenny) Marshall
Founder + Director – Stand for State
Katie is a licensed professional counselor and facilitated the creation of and currently oversees Stand for State, Penn State’s bystander intervention initiative. The initiative launched in 2016 at the 23 commonwealth campuses of Penn State and addresses four topics: interrupting sexual & relationship violence, interrupting acts of bias, mental health concerns, and risky drinking/drug use. View more on Katie’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: To launch the program, Katie filled a room with 2500 balloons to lounge in + dream about what a safer campus for all may look like.
Talk Themes: Large-scale Behavior Change // Bystander Intervention // Empowerment
Recognition: PSU State of State Talk // ‘All That We Are’ Event Announcement // PSU Appointment
Tom D’Eri
Co-Founder + COO – Rising Tide Car Wash
Tom is a Forbes 30Under30 Social Entrepreneur with a passion for turning untapped potential into business value. He is the co-founder and COO of Rising Tide Car Wash, an award-winning social enterprise that employs over 70 individuals with autism in a thriving business. Tom is also a partner in Rising Tide U, which is dedicated to enabling jobs for people with autism by proving the autism advantage. View more on Tom’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: Tom spends his free time scuba diving with sharks and hiking the Florida bush in search of Panthers (yet to find one).
Talk Themes: Becoming a Social Entrepreneur // Inclusive Leadership and Culture // Business Case for Hiring People on the Margins
Recognition: Forbes 30 Under 30 // NationSwell Video Overview // Inc. Article: Why you should hire people with autism
ENTREPRENEURSHIP + FACILITATION TRAINING
Alexis Taylor
CEO – 3 Day Startup
As the CEO of 3 Day Startup, Alexis J Taylor partners with universities, governments, and corporations to democratize the entrepreneurial mindset. She has eight years of experience in various entrepreneurial endeavors and knows that in a rapidly changing world, equipping individuals with this way of thinking is key to shaping more inclusive, fair, and prosperous communities. View more on Alexis’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: Alexis could fly a plane before she could drive a car – she’s never shied away from a challenge!
Talk Themes: Entrepreneurship Diplomacy // Systems Change // Coalition Building
Recognition: MiskTalk – Activating Entrepreneurial Capabilities for Students // Silicon Hills – Alexis takes on CEO role // U.S. Delegate
Chad Littlefield
Founder – We and Me, Inc
Chad Littlefield is the co-founder of We and Me, Inc.—an organization whose mission is to create conversations that matter. Forbes calls Chad a “global expert on asking questions that build trust and connection in teams.” He is a TEDx speaker, author, and creator of We! Connect Cards™, which are now being used to create conversations that matter on campuses and companies in over 80 countries around the world. View more on Chad’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: Chad was hit by a Jeep while riding an electric scooter to deliver a keynote – who then drove him so he could deliver the keynote on time!
Talk Themes: How to Ask Powerful Questions + Create Conversations that Matter //Building Relationships that Create Change // Positive Social Risks
Recognition: Forbes Feature // Chad’s TEDx Talk // Chad’s Kickstarter Campaign to Launch a Product
Harrison Wood
Program Coordinator – TFA Graduate Fellows Program
Harrison Wood is the Coordinator of the Teach For America (TFA) Graduate Fellows Program – a program who works to address Mississippi’s ‘brain drain’ by equipping next generation change makers with entrepreneurial tools to address some of the toughest challenges facing Mississippi. To date, Harrison has supported 30+ Fellows and 400+ students in entrepreneurial project development. View more on Harrison’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: After being diagnosed with Lupus in 2013, Harrison became a registered yoga teacher to support those battling chronic inflammation.
Talk Themes: Prototype a Problem // Pitch + Find The Money // Customer Discovery
Recognition: Mississippi Entrepreneurial Center for Creative Arts // Pitch Competition // Talent Agency Launch
Kaveh Sadeghian
Facilitator + Creative Strategist – Kaveh.NYC
Kaveh trains today’s most ambitious problem solvers. These days, he’s designing programs for high-impact organizations, including the World Bank, Amnesty International, and the Obama Foundation. He’s also the Creative Director & a Founding Member of UPenn’s Center for Social Impact Strategy. To date, Kaveh has trained 2,500+ students and leaders in-person and 80,000+ individuals through online education. View more on Kaveh’s linkedin.
Fun Fact: Kaveh once helped break the world record for the most number of people spooning.
Talk Themes: Design Thinking for Personal Growth + Social Innovation // 21st Century Skills // Supportive Communities of Learning + Practice
Recognition: AshokaU Cordes Innovation Award Winner // Regular Speaker at Social Enterprise Trainings