Caroline Dowd-Higgins is a powerhouse speaker, author and executive coach. She authored the best-selling book and maintains the blog: This Is Not the Career I Ordered® (now in the 2nd edition) which showcases her savvy professional development advice and women who are thriving after a career transition or reinvention. Caroline writes for the Huffington Post, the British online magazine - The Rouse, Ellevate Women’s Network, and a column for The Chronicle newspaper in Indiana. 



Caroline is a sought-after media expert on career-related topics. An accomplished public speaker, Caroline is a member of the National Speaker’s Association and presents to audiences globally. Her podcast show - Your Working Life features international guest experts sharing wisdom about life and career and is available on iTunes. She hosts and produces an online series - Thrive! about career satisfaction and health & wellness for women, featured on her website and YouTube channel. www.carolinedowdhiggins.com

For as long as she can remember, Sheila Kelly wanted to be a teacher. She fulfilled that dream by the time she was 20, grabbing her first teaching job at a large high school without so much as a job interview. What she didn’t realize was that she would wait decades for coaching to be invented to fulfill her real teaching role. For the past 15 years she has coached hundreds of individuals over thousands of hours. Her current work is focused on helping individuals with and speaking to groups about removing the self-limiting beliefs that are keeping them stuck in unhappiness, disengagement, and stress. 

T.L. Myers is a freelance writer and educator, originally from the Central Florida area.  He received his BS in Education from The University of Tampa.  He currently resides in North Georgia with his wife and children.  

 

T.L. has worked in both the public school system as well as in private education.  In addition, he has held prominent jobs in sales for two separate billion dollar companies.  

 

He published his first book, The Neighborhood, part 1, in 2015.  The book focuses on a modern American neighborhood shortly after the collapse of the dollar.  Seeing so many apocalyptic movies over the years, T.L. wanted to take a more realistic approach to the potential times and trials that could arise due to the fall of the dollar.  Studying human beings in both his time as an educator and his career in sales, he wanted to write such a book that focused more on the psyche of the characters more than the actions.  

 

He is currently writing part 2 of this trilogy, with the hopes of having it published in the spring of 2017.  

Bob Whipple is CEO of Leadergrow Inc., a company dedicated to improving leadership in organizations.  Known as "The Trust Ambassador", Bob is a professional speaker, and a member of National Speakers Association. He has been named by Inc. Magazine as one of the top 101 Leadership Speakers. 

Bob was named by Leadership Excellence Magazine one of the top 15 thought leaders on Leadership Development, and also has won the “Lifetime Achievement Award” for Trust Leadership by the Trust Across America: Trust Around the world Group. He has four published books on the topic of trust and over 500 published articles and videos on various leadership topics. He specializes in Trust in the online environment and how leaders can improve connectivity in e-mail and other forms of virtual communications.

Neil Ihde is a speaker, lecturer, consultant and founder of Life IQ where he motivates groups and individuals to work, play, relate and live intelligently.  He has worked with numerous managers, directors, corporate leaders, and teams to improve their personal and professional effectiveness.  



Neil’s list of Fortune 500 companies he has worked with includes Wal-Mart, Merrill Lynch, PepsiCo, and AT&T among others. Neil has also consulted internationally with clients from a dozen countries.  He is the co-author of the book “When Would Now Be A Good Time?” and was recently a personality consultant to Woman’s World magazine.  His Life IQ YouTube channel recently surpassed a quarter of a million views. Neil is a Master Practitioner Consultant of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Neil's academic background includes a B.A. in Psychology, a B.A. in Sociology and an M.A. in Counseling.

Neil and his wife Deb have two children and live in Appleton, Wisconsin.

David lives at the intersection of innovation and storytelling. 

He helps entrepreneurs, artists and business people focus their ideas through the power of narrative. In short, he helps people get their story straight. 

After running an ad agency and holding numerous senior marketing roles in Internet companies, including Yahoo!, David created Box Out Industries to work with innovators and Spiral Staircase Productions to collaborate with artists. He is currently producing an original musical by Bruce Hornsby.  David teaches at Berkeley-Haas Business school and speaks all over the world about the power of storytelling.

Barbara Lee is the Sex Minister. An award winning speaker, international author, and ordained interfaith minister, Barbara doesn't just explain the complexity of the situations we human beings so often find ourselves in, she also provides concrete actions you can take today toward becoming more resilient, more compassionate, and more fully human. 

 

She is the Founder and Experi-Mentor of Extended Grace, a nonprofit organization that works at the grassroots level to build community while solving problems. Barbara empowers, challenges and equips people and organizations to move beyond shame and shame-based solutions in order to build resiliency, strengthen relationships and change the world.

 

As a survivor of sexual abuse and domestic violence who has worked in human services and ministry for over 20 years, Barbara has crafted the tools that lead to higher self-esteem, healthier relationships and a deeper respect for the many facets of sexuality. 

 

Barbara’s books include Sacred Sex: Replacing the Marriage Ethic with a Sexual Ethic and Tension in the Tank: Embracing Interfaith Mysticism without Leaving the Church. She has also developed the online Sextegrity program that provides simple, effective tools for thinking critically about the messages we have internalized about sex and the ways they have shaped our attitudes and behaviors. Barbara encourages her audiences to think objectively about the cultural messages they have received and to replace a rigid rule-based marriage ethic with a healthy and empowering sexual ethic, one that celebrates 

sexuality and treats it with moral integrity – Sextegrity.

It seems that stress has become part of our lifestyle. Whether it is about work or relationships or illness or children…there is just no getting away from it. It affects everything we think, say, and do and even our health and physical well-being. What can we do about it?

Dave Balch has some ideas on the subject. He has experienced tremendous stress caring for his wife through four bouts of breast cancer since 2002.  2 rounds of chemotherapy and 6 surgeries, going with her to over 450 medical appointments and driving over 48,000 miles, as well as taking care of household chores like cooking, laundry, and cleaning been tough, especially while trying to earn a living on top of everything else.

He is using his experiences to help others and has written a best-selling book, given 100’s of presentations around the country, worked with Rosalyn Carter on a national caregiving initiative, been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, and served as a caregiving expert on WebMD. He also founded CopingUniversity.com, the School of Hope and Empowerment.

Dave says that stress is often the result of feeling a lack of control; that there is nothing that you can do about difficult situations in your life. The truth is that there ARE specific things you can do to feel better, and once you learn them your difficulties are much easier to handle. Traditional stress techniques often don’t work. Why? Because we don’t do them! He has identified a technique that does work, though, which is easy, permanent, and only takes a few minutes a day.

In his previous life Dave ran a successful international home-based software business for over 20 years; he considers himself a “recovering programmer.” In his spare time (if he had any) Dave would enjoy motorcycles and total eclipses of the sun.

Do you want to wake up 10 years from now and lament, I wish I’d lived a little more instead of work around the clock? Helene Segura doesn’t want to either. That’s why she tells her time what to do - and teaches busy professionals how to do the same by slaying lost time. The author of two Amazon best-selling books, Helene has been the featured productivity expert in more than 100 media interviews. During her time management keynotes and workshops, she shares her mind-bending framework for decreasing interruptions, distractions and procrastination so that companies can spend more time generating revenue. On weekends, Helene can be found experimenting with recipes or sneaking adult beverages onto the lawn bowling court. Her third book, The Inefficiency Assassin: Time Management Tactics for Working Smarter, Not Longer (New World Library) released in April 2016.

Janet’s passion is to share the concepts of positive psychology to create and inspire high performing workplaces and individuals.  Participants in her programs rave about her authentic and engaging style as well as the practical tips they learn.

As a national presenter and President of JME Insights, she provides keynotes, trainings and consulting to industries of all types.  She’s consulted and trained leadership teams, healthcare professionals and employees in higher education, engineering, service and manufacturing, to name a few.  She has consistently spoken to over 50 groups annually, including businesses, associations and university professional development programs.

Janet’s 30 years of leadership experience includes being a Director in a leading health insurance organization (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts) and a manager in a Fortune 50 company (Georgia-Pacific Corporation) along with work in small to mid-sized businesses, non-profit organizations as well as a consulting firm.  

While still working full-time, Janet took care of her husband, Charles, during the five years he fought an Atypical Parkinson's disease. She authored a book, Finding Meaning with Charles, about their experience of trying to stay positive amidst the phenomenal challenges.  

Janet’s leadership experience has been punctuated by her work on various non-profit Boards, including recent past Board Chairman for The Foundation for PSP | CBD and Related Brain Diseases where she served as Chair for nearly five years. Janet has a Master's degree from Georgia State University and is a member of the prestigious National Speakers Association.