2026 Speakers (more to come)
Kathryn Landis: Why the Decisions You Avoid Are the Ones That Define You
Our lives aren’t shaped only by the choices we make, but by the decisions we avoid. This talk explores the hidden cost of inaction and what changes when people recognize where delay has been doing the deciding for them.
Kathryn Landis works at the intersection of decision-making and the unseen forces that shape leadership, teams, and everyday life. She teaches at New York University and is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and Fast Company.
Her work examines how decisions are made—or avoided—when stakes are high and pressure is real. Through her teaching, writing, and work with senior leadership teams, she observes how people adapt around unresolved choices, how priorities quietly drift, and how responsibility shifts when decisions go unmade.
She helps groups name what they have been working around, clarify what truly requires a decision, and understand the downstream effects of delay on outcomes, relationships, and well-being.
Stephen Trzeciak, MD: The Hope Effect
Most people think of hope as a feeling or a trait—something you either have or you don’t. But three decades of peer-reviewed research point to something very different: hope is a measurable, trainable capacity that predicts health, longevity, performance, and resilience after adversity. It is not wishful thinking or blind optimism. It is a way of thinking and acting that can be strengthened in yourself and awakened in the people around you.
Stephen Trzeciak, MD, is a physician-scientist and practicing intensivist who serves as the Edward D. Viner Endowed Chief of Medicine at Cooper University Health Care and Professor and Chair of Medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in southern New Jersey. A clinical researcher with 150 publications, his work has been published in JAMA, Circulation, and The New England Journal of Medicine, and has been supported by grants from the NIH and AHRQ. His research now focuses on the science of hope—how it works and how it can be built. His work has been featured on CNN, NPR, The Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, and Freakonomics. His mission is to show—through science—how hope improves outcomes that matter.
Ryan Abbott: The Inventors - Artificial Intelligence and the Quest for Paradise
Who, or what, is the creator of work made by Al, and how should we respond to creative and inventive machines? These are questions at the heart of worldwide lawsuits, with answers that will have profound social, economic, and philosophical impact. We'll dive into these cases and see why it's best for everyone if Al can be both an author and an inventor.
Ryan Abbott, MD, JD, MTOM, PhD, is Professor of Law and Health Sciences at the University of Surrey School of Law, Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, partner at Brown, Neri, Smith & Khan, LLP, and a mediator and arbitrator with JAMS, Inc. He has published widely on issues associated with life sciences and information technology in leading legal, medical, and scientific books and journals. Among others, he is the author of The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law (CUP, 2020), editor of Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence (Edward Elgar, 2022), and a co-author of International Intellectual Property in an Integrated World Economy (Aspen, 2024). His research has been featured prominently in the popular press including in The Times of London, the New York Times, the Financial Times, and other media outlets involving time. Professor Abbott has worked as an expert for institutions including the United Kingdom Parliament, the European Commission, the World Health Organization, and the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Chester Elton: What Will People Say About You When You’re Gone?
Three messages in three days changed how I think about success, legacy, and what really matters. In this deeply personal talk, Chester Elton shares stories of loss, love, and the quiet power of simply showing up for others. He challenges us to rethink how we measure a life—and reminds us that in the end, it’s not achievement people remember, it’s service.
Chester Elton is a bestselling author, leadership expert, and one of the world’s foremost voices on workplace culture and human connection. Often called the “Apostle of Appreciation,” he has spent over two decades helping leaders build cultures where people feel seen, valued, and inspired to give their best. Chester is the co-author of multiple New York Times and #1 bestselling books, including The Carrot Principle, All In & Leading With Gratitude, and has worked with organizations such as Microsoft, American Express, and the U.S. government. His work explores a simple but powerful idea: how we treat people—at work and in life—is what they remember most.
Nicole Nuttall: Love is a Plan: Ensuring Peace and Confidence at the End of Life
We plan everything; our careers, our weddings, the birth of our children and even our vacations months in advance. But when it comes to the plan everyone will need, the plan for the end of our lives, we treat it as something too uncomfortable to even talk In this TED talk, Nicole Nuttall, Chair of the Completed Life Initiative, flips the script, discussing how death planning is not a morbid chore, but the ultimate act of love, a final gift that gives your loved ones peace and clarity today.
Nicole Nuttall serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Completed Life Initiative. Originally from Oklahoma, Nicole began her career in New York City, where she pursued photography and film before establishing a successful photography business in Fairfield, Connecticut.
Nicole believes that the ability to determine when one’s life feels complete—and to do so with dignity, autonomy, and compassion—is a fundamental human right. Her perspective is shaped by deeply personal experiences: as a young adult, she witnessed her grandmother’s decline in a nursing home; later, she supported her mother through nine years of serious illness following multiple strokes and vascular dementia; and she watched her father confront metastatic prostate cancer with courage before his death. Motivated by this commitment to self-determination and compassionate choice, Nicole helped Faith Sommerfield found the Completed Life Initiative in 2019.
Michael Pellegrino: Mental CPR: The Power of the Pause
Atlantic Cape Community College Auditorium
August 20, 5:30 pm
What if the most powerful tool we have in moments of pressure is something we rarely practice? In high-stress situations, our reactions often happen faster than our awareness, and those reactions can shape the direction of our lives. In this talk, Michael Pellegrino introduces Mental CPR™ — Catch, Pause, Reframe, a simple framework designed to help people interrupt automatic reactions and regain clarity. Because sometimes the difference between regret and resilience… is a single pause.
Michael Pellegrino is the founder of Resilient Minds On The Front Lines, a national nonprofit dedicated to strengthening mental wellness and resilience for first responders, leaders in all professions and communities. After a distinguished 27 year career in law enforcement, he committed his life to helping others navigate pressure, adversity, and change. Michael is the creator of Mental CPR™ — Catch, Pause, Reframe, a practical framework designed to help people interrupt automatic stress reactions and regain clarity in critical moments. He is the author of Crisis = Opportunity and a co-author of Wounds to Wisdom. Through his speaking and training, Michael equips individuals and organizations with tools to turn life’s toughest moments into opportunities for growth.