Speakers

SekouWorld Inc. founder and CEO Sekou Andrews is one of the most successful spoken word poets in the world. On any given day, this school-teacher-turned-entrepreneur, who built a seven-figure company on poetry, can be found keynoting at a Fortune 500 company, inspiring thousands at a concert, or performing for Barack Obama in Oprah’s backyard. Andrews created poetic voice, a cutting-edge speaking category that seamlessly fuses inspirational speaking with spoken word poetry—like Hamilton meets TEDx. This innovative blend of strategic storytelling, thought leadership, spoken word, theater, and comedy humanizes content, making it entertaining, moving, and memorable.  

Andrews has garnered numerous national awards across industries and Forbes has called him a “polymath” and “the de facto poet laureate of corporate America.” His wow-factor is in high demand with the world’s most successful organizations and top media have featured his work. Andrews has given private performances for such luminaries as Maya Angelou, Quincy Jones, Larry King, Hillary Clinton, Norman Lear, and Coretta Scott King. He has also emerged as a powerful voice for health and wellness, routinely evoking tears, cheers, and standing ovations at events for companies, hospitals, and the American Medical Association.  

Andrews has shared stages with Drake, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, Carlos Santana, Kendrick Lamar, Maroon 5, Jill Scott, and John Legend and appeared in national commercials, feature films, and a critically acclaimed two-man play. He returned to the classroom to teach his rockstar secrets to help influencers and leaders become more dynamic communicators. Andrews brings spoken word poetry to the world’s largest stages, redefining the notion of what a speaker is—and what a poet can be.

Sponsored by StratéGenius

Dr. Suzanne Barakat is a practicing physician, humanitarian, and prominent advocate for inclusion and social justice. She earned her undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before completing her residency in family and community medicine at University of California San Francisco (UCSF). Barakat has worked extensively with refugees and has contributed to research on the mental health of Arabic-speaking communities worldwide. Her clinical practice spans hospital medicine, labor and delivery, and urgent care, focusing predominantly on underserved communities.

In 2015, Barakat gained international recognition following the tragic murders of her brother, his wife, and her sister in an Islamophobic hate crime in North Carolina. She now serves as board chair of Our Three Winners Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to combating Islamophobia and promoting social justice. Her advocacy extends to high-level policy influence, where she has engaged with top U.S. officials and contributed to the White House Strategy to Counter Islamophobia.

The violent loss of her family members to hate and persecution, in the U.S. and abroad, has uniquely positioned Barakat to combine medical training with advocacy work, establishing her as a national leader in refugee health and asylum medicine. As the executive director of the UCSF Health and Human Rights Initiative, she spearheaded efforts to standardize clinical training and documentation of human rights violations and developed the world's first clinical fellowship in asylum medicine.

A respected lecturer who frequently speaks on refugee and asylee health, human rights, and countering Islamophobia and hate crimes, Barakat has participated in roundtable discussions with global leaders, appeared on major news outlets, been featured in documentaries, and delivered a TED Talk. President Biden honored her with the Uniter award.

Kenji Yoshino is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law and the director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. A graduate of Harvard (AB summa cum laude), Oxford (MSc as a Rhodes Scholar), and Yale (JD), he specializes in constitutional law, antidiscrimination law, and law and literature. Yoshino received tenure at Yale Law School, where he served as deputy dean before moving to NYU. 

He has published in major academic journals, including the Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review, and Yale Law Journal. He has also written for more popular publications, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. Yoshino is the author of three books. His fourth book (co-authored with David Glasgow), Say the Right Thing: How to Talk About Identity, Diversity, and Justice, was published by Simon & Schuster in February 2023. 

Yoshino has served as president of the Harvard Board of Overseers. He currently serves on the board of the Brennan Center for Justice and Meta’s Oversight Board (the body that adjudicates content moderation for Facebook and Instagram). Yoshino also serves on diversity and inclusion advisory boards for Morgan Stanley and Charter Communications and on his children's school's board. He has won numerous awards for his teaching and scholarship, including the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, Peck Medal in Jurisprudence, and NYU's Distinguished Teaching Award. 

He lives in Manhattan with his husband, two children, and a Great Dane. 

Sponsored by Educator’s Ally

Author, leadership consultant, speaker, and attorney Karen Walrond helps individuals and organizations cultivate and practice value-focused, compassionate leadership. Trained in positive psychology coaching, she uses the science of well-being and research-based assessments and interventions to generate greater satisfaction, purpose, and fulfillment in life. Walrond helps clients discover their gifts and superpowers, develop leadership skills, and use them to thrive and change the world. Exploring how our assumptions might be based on false premises, she shows us how to tap into the lessons of past successes to create futures full of light. 
 
Walrond's bestselling book, The Lightmaker’s Manifesto, beckons readers toward lives of integrity, advocacy, conviction, and joy. Her latest book, Radiant Rebellion, a 2024 Nautilus Book Awards Silver winner, investigates how to resist ageism, create powerful futures, and live a light-filled life along the way. Her debut book, The Beauty of Different, is a chronicle of imagery and portraiture, combined with written essays and observations on authenticity, courage, and the concept that what makes us different makes us beautiful. 
 
Walrond is the former chief counsel of Landmark Graphics Corporation, one of the largest software companies in the oil and gas industry, and former chief of staff of Halliburton Energy Services. In these roles she gained extensive experience in strategy development, change-management processes, and corporate ethics management and education, as well as invaluable proficiencies in counseling business stakeholders.  
 
CNN.com, USA Today, and Good Housekeeping have featured her work. Walrond holds a bachelor’s in civil engineering from Texas A&M University and a JD from the University of Houston Law Center. She is an active member of the State Bar of Texas. 

Ruha Benjamin is the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, and author of the award-winning book Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code, among many other publications. Her work investigates the social dimensions of science, medicine, and technology with a focus on the relationship between innovation and inequity, health and justice, and knowledge and power.

Benjamin has received many awards and honors, including the Marguerite Casey Foundation Freedom Scholar Award and the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton. Her most recent book, Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want, won the 2023 Stowe Prize. It was born out of the twin plagues of COVID-19 and police violence and offers a practical, principled approach to transforming our communities and helping us build a more just and joyful world.

Benjamin recently released her fourth book, Imagination: A Manifesto. 

Sponsored by Carney, Sandoe & Associates