Claudia Graf-Pfohl, M.A., is a doctoral researcher in industrial sociology and an applied digital change manager. Since 2021, she has supported companies through complex development processes related to the introduction of new technologies and is a recipient of the Civic Innovation Award and the Marie-Pleißner Prize.

Claudia Graf-Pfohl, M.A., is a doctoral researcher in industrial sociology and an applied digital change manager. Since 2021, she has supported companies through complex development processes related to the introduction of new technologies and is a r... Show more

Luka Pejić (1996), an English Language and Literature graduate and a literary translator (English into Croatian)

Luka Pejić (1996), an English Language and Literature graduate and a literary translator (English into Croatian) Show more

Nandipa Sozoyi is a PhD candidate, transdisciplinary researcher, and systems thinker working at the intersection of Indigenous Knowledge Systems, digital infrastructure, spatial governance, and emerging technologies. Her research explores how knowledge systems function as adaptive infrastructures that inform contemporary challenges in AI, sustainability, governance, and technology design.

She is the founder of Noncedo Development Collective, a South African systems design and research initiative focused on ethical development architectures, knowledge infrastructures, and innovation ecosystems. Her work spans academic research, community innovation, and applied platform development, including community-based initiatives through Zithulele Development Collective and IKS SoMbo Connect, an emerging initiative exploring how Indigenous knowledge can be translated into digital and institutional systems.

Nandipa’s work has received innovation funding, featured in innovation showcases and collaborative initiatives, and increasingly bridges architecture, systems thinking, and technology futures. She also contributes to higher education through research mentorship and studio teaching while building models that connect research, communities, and emerging technologies.

Nandipa Sozoyi is a PhD candidate, transdisciplinary researcher, and systems thinker working at the intersection of Indigenous Knowledge Systems, digital infrastructure, spatial governance, and emerging technologies. Her research explores how knowled... Show more

I hold a PhD in Linguistics (Univ. Padova), and I am currently an Assist. Prof. of Italian in the University of Rijeka (Croatia, EU). I have previously held research and teaching appointments in the universities of Pula/Pola (Croatia) and Klagenfurt (Austria, EU). In Fall 2024 I was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Italian, Columbia University, and in Spring 2025 a Fellow of the Italian Academy at Columbia University.

I hold a PhD in Linguistics (Univ. Padova), and I am currently an Assist. Prof. of Italian in the University of Rijeka (Croatia, EU). I have previously held research and teaching appointments in the universities of Pula/Pola (Croatia) and Klagenfurt ... Show more

Steve is a frequent and engaging keynoter, speaker, and trainer at over 150 events across North America, speaking to diverse audiences including families and individuals, business leaders, healthcare professionals, and the United States Military. Steve is passionate about the human sciences and wellbeing. He is currently writing a book. Having spent over 20 years as a passionate technologist, he also speaks about cognitive accessibility.

Steve is a frequent and engaging keynoter, speaker, and trainer at over 150 events across North America, speaking to diverse audiences including families and individuals, business leaders, healthcare professionals, and the United States Military. Ste... Show more

Dr. Adio Dinika is a researcher at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bremen's Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), where he co-leads the AI Pan-Africanism project. His research examines AI labour, digital colonialism, platform economies and the political struggles shaping technology governance in Africa. Drawing on empirical research across African contexts, he explores how workers, communities and historically marginalised populations can exercise greater agency over the technologies that shape their lives. His work brings together critical AI studies, political economy and African philosophical traditions, particularly Ubuntu, to rethink the governance and futures of artificial intelligence.

Dr. Adio Dinika is a researcher at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bremen's Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), where he co-leads the AI Pan-Africanism proj... Show more

Astrid van Wanum is an international organizational transformation and culture advisor who believes that meaningful change begins with understanding people.

With experience spanning complex digital transformations, leadership, organizational culture and cross-functional collaboration, she has seen how even the best-designed change initiatives can lose their way between strategy and everyday reality.

Her curiosity about people extends far beyond organizational boundaries. With a linguistic repertoire spanning 11 languages, she uses language as a bridge to different cultures, perspectives and ways of thinking.

For Astrid, leadership is also a language. And successful transformation requires more than communicating a message: it requires understanding how that message is heard, interpreted and translated into action.

Through ALIVE, she brings together her experience in transformation, culture, communication and human behavior to challenge conventional thinking about change.

Her guiding belief: Transformation doesn’t happen when the system goes live. It happens when people find a new way forward together.

Astrid van Wanum is an international organizational transformation and culture advisor who believes that meaningful change begins with understanding people. With experience spanning complex digital transformations, leadership, organizational cultu... Show more

Prof. Dr. Esma Dumanlı Kadızade is a Mersin University scholar specializing in Turkish language education, modern literature, and children's fiction. Her research encompasses literary theory, education, gender, mythology, fantasy, and cultural transmission. She has pioneered theoretical approaches in her field, focusing on Diversity, Magical Realism, and Fantasy Fiction Analysis. Additionally, she is the founder and publisher of CHEDAR, Turkey's first scientific children's literature journal, established in 2017.

Prof. Dr. Esma Dumanlı Kadızade is a Mersin University scholar specializing in Turkish language education, modern literature, and children's fiction. Her research encompasses literary theory, education, gender, mythology, fantasy, and cultural transm... Show more

Jacey Milliner is a licensed marriage and family therapist, TEDx speaker, and creative who is passionate about helping people see what’s possible for themselves and their lives. Blending her background in mental health with her love for storytelling, personal growth, and meaningful conversations, Jacey brings a refreshing, relatable, and thought-provoking perspective to the stage.

Her work explores the power of mindset, self-belief, perseverance, and what it means to step outside of the stories that hold us back. Through honest storytelling and practical insights, she encourages audiences to challenge their limitations, embrace new possibilities, and start asking themselves one important question: Why not me?

Jacey Milliner is a licensed marriage and family therapist, TEDx speaker, and creative who is passionate about helping people see what’s possible for themselves and their lives. Blending her background in mental health with her love for storytelling,... Show more

For more than fifteen years, William has worked at the intersection of human behaviour, technology and social change. He has founded an award-winning research and design studio and a social-cohesion nonprofit, advised Australian governments and global organisations, built technology products, led major research programs and served in governance roles.

His work has taken him from the World Economic Forum in Davos to the Obama Democracy Forum in Chicago, and from national public-policy projects to research into online hate, digital culture, and the future of human connection.

Today he works selectively as a strategic advisor and board leader while writing, speaking and making films about technology, culture and what it means to be human.

For more than fifteen years, William has worked at the intersection of human behaviour, technology and social change. He has founded an award-winning research and design studio and a social-cohesion nonprofit, advised Australian governments and globa... Show more

Janah Esplana attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where she earned both a B.A in English with a minor in Asian and Asian American Studies and her M.A in English Literature. She is currently pursuing her M.A. in Teaching Secondary Education at UNLV. Outside of academia, Janah teaches secondary English Language Learners (ELL) how to empower themselves through the English language.

Her scholarship investigates the ways Filipinx/a/o-American literature and drama intersect as a means of survival, resistance, and reimagination within the racialized 20th- and 21st-century American landscape. She is specifically interested in the ways immigrant-driven narratives in musical theatre conform to stereotypes and challenge the formation of American identity.

Janah believes that every story deserves to be told, and these stories are at the root of who we are. She aspires to draw on her expertise in arts, culture, and leadership to further develop scholarship as well as advocate for the AAPI community.

Janah Esplana attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where she earned both a B.A in English with a minor in Asian and Asian American Studies and her M.A in English Literature. She is currently pursuing her M.A. in Teaching Secondary Edu... Show more

Aydin Quach (he/they) is a scholar and artist specializing in Asian North American Studies, Performance Studies, Sound Studies, and Nightlife Studies. Their research is concerned with intra-Asian desire in queer nightlife, which has often been derogatorily called “sticky rice” by white gay men who are rejected by Asian North Americans. He examines how “sticky” relationships between Asian Americans reveal about race, sexuality, and Asian American identity when whiteness is no longer the primary point of reference. Aydin’s writing and thoughts have been published in the Journal of Festive Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies, as well as in other op-ed venues such as Huffington Post.

Aydin Quach (he/they) is a scholar and artist specializing in Asian North American Studies, Performance Studies, Sound Studies, and Nightlife Studies. Their research is concerned with intra-Asian desire in queer nightlife, which has often been deroga... Show more

Osasere Omorodion, known as HealingwithOsas, is a founder, writer, and teacher who helps people rebuild their lives from the inside out. She grew up in Benin City, Nigeria, surrounded by faith, family, and tradition, and now lives in metro Atlanta. She founded The God Study, a live platform for studying sacred texts across traditions, and built it without a traditional tech background. She also founded Worldwise United, a nonprofit focused on healing and community. Her sessions are practical and nonclinical, and every story she tells ends in a practice people can use the next day.

Osasere Omorodion, known as HealingwithOsas, is a founder, writer, and teacher who helps people rebuild their lives from the inside out. She grew up in Benin City, Nigeria, surrounded by faith, family, and tradition, and now lives in metro Atlanta. S... Show more

Van Tran Nguyen (she/her) is a Vietnamese American artist-scholar, practicing filmmaker, curator, and multimedia artist. In 2017, Tran Nguyen earned a master's degree in fine arts from the State University of New York, at Buffalo. Then in 2021, she earned her doctorate in the Philosophy of Electronic Art at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

Tran Nguyen’s monograph in progress, Playing With Myself: Repetition as Self Determination reexamines the tools of media-making as diasporic technologies, asserting that the advances and techne of storytelling are recuperated by Asian artists from weapons of subjectification to mediums of liberation. She wrote and co-directed two films: ERIE COUNTY SMILE (2021) available for public access via PBS and THE MOTHERLOAD (2024) which premiered at the Hawaii International Film Festival with support from the Vilcek Foundation’s New American Perspectives. THE MOTHERLOAD is available to watch on Apple TV, Prime TV, and Tubi.

In the fall of 2021, she was appointed the Maya Brin Institute for New Performance and Technology Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is an alumni of the Early Career Fellowship at the UCLA Center on Race & Digital Justice (2024-2025). In the fall of 2024, she joined the Department of Performing Arts at Georgetown University as the Assistant Professor of Performance and Film & Media Studies.

Van Tran Nguyen (she/her) is a Vietnamese American artist-scholar, practicing filmmaker, curator, and multimedia artist. In 2017, Tran Nguyen earned a master's degree in fine arts from the State University of New York, at Buffalo. Then in 2021, she e... Show more

Youngbin's research explores how race, gender, migration, and space intersect to shape belonging, exclusion, and everyday experiences of inequality across transnational contexts. She is broadly interested in the racialization of Asian communities, public-space violence, and the shifting meanings of national identity and hospitality in a global era. Drawing on feminist theory, intersectionality, and critical race studies, her work seeks to illuminate the often invisible dynamics that structure social hierarchies and to imagine more just and relational futures for migrant and marginalized communities.

Youngbin's research explores how race, gender, migration, and space intersect to shape belonging, exclusion, and everyday experiences of inequality across transnational contexts. She is broadly interested in the racialization of Asian communities, pu... Show more

An omnicompetent professional and a researcher, a recipient of the prestigious, fully funded Erasmus Mundus Scholarship by the European Commission, awarded globally to high-achieving students for international academic mobility and excellence. Bringing 10+ years of successful, multidisciplinary experience rooted in a foundational background in political science, international relations, and regional studies, further refined through a diplomatic internship at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan:
• Business Operations & Management: Business administration, international marketing, and logistics.
• Language & Translation Services: High-level simultaneous and consecutive interpreting, alongside professional translation and localization.
• Research & Education: Independent anthropological, ethnographic, and regional studies research; academic research assistance and research center operations support; language teaching and pedagogy.

An omnicompetent professional and a researcher, a recipient of the prestigious, fully funded Erasmus Mundus Scholarship by the European Commission, awarded globally to high-achieving students for international academic mobility and excellence. Bringi... Show more

Dort.ssa Ileana Moreno Viqueira è Professoressa di Lingua e Letteratura Italiana presso
l’Università di Porto Rico, Recinto di Río Piedras, dove insegna corsi intensivi di lingua
italiana
e seminari avanzati di letteratura, incluso il corso interdisciplinare “Literatura y ciencias en
la
cultura italiana,” che esamina Calvino come chiave critica per letteratura, matematica e
scienza.
Cresciuta a Madrid prima del trasferimento della famiglia a Porto Rico, la Dott.ssa Moreno
ha
attraversato due sistemi educativi distinti, esperienza che ha plasmato il suo approccio
comparativo alla lingua e alla cultura. Un semestre universitario in Italia segnò l’inizio di
molti
anni vissuti nel paese, dove ha ricoperto il ruolo di Direttrice delle Attività Culturali presso
la
Casa Italiana. La sua carriera ha incluso anche traduzione letteraria, interpretariato legale
e tutoraggio accademico.
Prima del dottorato in Letteratura Italiana alla Columbia University — la cui tesi ha
esplorato le strutture matematiche di Calvino — ha conseguito una laurea in Matematica e Informatica
alla Stanford University, lavorando come Systems Engineer presso IBM.

Dort.ssa Ileana Moreno Viqueira è Professoressa di Lingua e Letteratura Italiana presso l’Università di Porto Rico, Recinto di Río Piedras, dove insegna corsi intensivi di lingua italiana e seminari avanzati di letteratura, incluso il corso int... Show more

## Salma Mohammed Salem Alketbi

**Emirati Educator & Researcher | Arabic Language Curriculum Specialist | Educational Leader & Innovator**

Salma Mohammed Salem Alketbi is a distinguished Emirati educator and researcher specializing in **Arabic language curriculum, educational innovation, and teacher development**. Currently serving as a **Vice Principal**, she has made significant contributions to advancing teaching practices, empowering educators, and enhancing student learning experiences in the United Arab Emirates.

Her outstanding educational achievements have earned her prestigious recognition, including the **Mohamed bin Zayed Award for Best Teacher** and the title of **Best Teacher in the Arab World**. She also became the **first Emirati teacher to enter the Guinness World Records** through a pioneering innovation in creative writing—an achievement that reflects her passion for transforming ideas into meaningful educational impact.

Throughout her career, Salma has led and contributed to several influential educational initiatives, including the **International Teachers’ Knowledge Fund Platform** and the **Tokkatsu Project**, focusing on teacher development, student character building, and innovative learning practices. She has also supported national programs promoting reading, writing, and student readiness for educational assessments.

As an active researcher and educational contributor, Salma has participated in research projects, conferences, and professional forums at both national and international levels, sharing innovative practices and contributing to curriculum development and educational advancement.

Salma believes that **education is more than the transfer of knowledge—it is a powerful force for shaping people, communities, and the future**. Her mission is to empower educators, inspire students, and cultivate lifelong learners who are prepared to make a meaningful contribution to society.

### Areas of Expertise

**Educational Innovation | Arabic Language Curriculum | Educational Leadership | Creative Writing | Teacher Development & Empowerment | Reading & Writing Strategies | Educational Research | Student Character Development | Educational Initiative Design & Implementation**

### Suggested Speaker Tagline

**“From the Classroom to Guinness World Records: An Emirati Journey of Innovation, Creativity, and Educational Impact.”**

## Salma Mohammed Salem Alketbi **Emirati Educator & Researcher | Arabic Language Curriculum Specialist | Educational Leader & Innovator** Salma Mohammed Salem Alketbi is a distinguished Emirati educator and researcher specializing in **Arabic ... Show more

Mary Foster is the Heritage and Cultural Arts Program Manager for the City of Allen, Texas, where she oversees programming and interpretation at Allen Heritage Village and supports preservation and interpretation efforts at the historic Allen Cemetery. Her work brings together historic preservation, public programming, community engagement, and parks and recreation to connect residents with the history of their community.

Foster holds a bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Texas at Tyler and previously served as a museum curator at the 1859 Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum, where she curated exhibits and developed educational programs. She also served as Campaign Director for United Way of Smith County, supporting fundraising efforts for 26 local nonprofit organizations.

With nearly a decade of experience working across museums, history, parks and recreation, and nonprofit organizations, Foster is particularly interested in local and recent history, historic cemeteries, urban archaeology, and finding creative ways to make history meaningful and accessible to the communities where it happened.

Mary Foster is the Heritage and Cultural Arts Program Manager for the City of Allen, Texas, where she oversees programming and interpretation at Allen Heritage Village and supports preservation and interpretation efforts at the historic Allen Cemeter... Show more

Frank Malaba is a multidisciplinary artist, storyteller, photographer, and creative facilitator working between Oslo, Norway and Cape Town, South Africa. His work moves fluidly across theatre, performance, poetry, and natural light photography, guided by a central question: How does the body remember, and what stories does it insist on carrying?

Drawing from Southern African oral traditions, queer lived experience, and a deep commitment to dignity and presence, Frank creates narrative spaces where memory becomes a form of knowledge. His solo works, including Stories of My Bones and The Chaos of Belonging, have toured internationally, inviting audiences into intimate encounters with ancestry, identity, and the quiet rituals that shape us.

As a photographer, Frank documents everyday rituals and marginalised lives with tenderness and clarity. His 2025 exhibition Rituals opened in Cape Town to critical acclaim, and his ongoing project I Met a Mermaid explores African water spirituality, homelessness, and the ocean as a site of survival and myth.

He is also the founder and curator of Uncovered: Stories in Oslo (Avdekket: Fortellinger i Oslo), a live storytelling platform centred on true, lived narratives. His facilitation practice blends embodiment, listening, and community building, creating spaces where people can speak from the truth of their lived experience.

Across all mediums, Frank works from the belief that storytelling is not performance, it is presence, witness, and a return to the body as archive.

Frank Malaba is a multidisciplinary artist, storyteller, photographer, and creative facilitator working between Oslo, Norway and Cape Town, South Africa. His work moves fluidly across theatre, performance, poetry, and natural light photography, guide... Show more

Taylor Norfleet is an interdisciplinary legal scholar and researcher working at the intersection of law, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and policy. She earned her Juris Doctor from Emory University School of Law and holds a Bachelor of Science, cum laude, in Psychology from Xavier University of Louisiana, with minors in Biology and Chemistry. At Emory Law she served as Staff Editor for the Southern Journal of Policy and Justice and competed in the AIPLA Giles Sutherland Rich Memorial Patent Moot Court Competition.

Her scholarly research addresses blind spots in emerging technology governance by bridging cognitive science with legal theory. She serves on the Editorial Board of the Law Student Engagement Committee for the ABA Science and Technology Law Section and co-authored “Who Owns the Decision? Why Emotion AI Demands a New Legal Framework” in The SciTech Lawyer, analyzing how real-time emotional decoding subverts traditional notice-and-consent regimes. Her scholarly work includes research on AI companionship platforms (“Engineered Intimacy”), applying vulnerability theory to argue for a functionalist regulatory framework that protects universal human cognitive vulnerabilities, and work on generative AI (“Hybrid Thinking Systems”) conceptualizing Large Language Models through the extended mind thesis as a digital exocortex that scaffolds cross-disciplinary human thought.

Her practical experience spans research and litigation. As a Team Member at the Emory University Center for AI Learning, she authored the legal and ethical considerations for institutional data pipeline projects. She has served as research assistant, researching global intellectual property frameworks supporting technological ecosystem development in emerging markets, and as law clerk supporting trade secrets litigation and confidential document reviews. She is the founder and proprietor of Norfleet Digital LLC, a learning practice building a sociotechnical culture inclusive of all minds by helping people to better grasp human-AI interaction and develop language to describe their own lived experiences.

Taylor Norfleet is an interdisciplinary legal scholar and researcher working at the intersection of law, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and policy. She earned her Juris Doctor from Emory University School of Law and holds a Bachelor of S... Show more

Amber Daughn is an international speaker, facilitator, entrepreneur, and founder of Women Onstage Collective whose work explores communication, connection, leadership, gender, and the lived experiences that shape how we show up in the world.

Her talks and workshops are built around a simple premise: some of the most useful things we know aren’t things we learned from a textbook. They come from what we’ve lived, noticed, navigated, questioned, screwed up, and figured out along the way.

Amber brings those ideas into rooms through keynotes, interactive workshops, and multi-day facilitated experiences. Her work ranges from helping people uncover and articulate their Lived Genius and tell better stories, to examining how gender shapes feedback and recognition, why women can be highly rated yet less heard, how leadership changes across different environments, and why most of us were never actually taught how to network and build meaningful professional relationships.

Her current talks and facilitated experiences include Lived Genius Mapping, Pocket Story + Campfire, Networking Primer, Rated Higher + Heard Less, Alpha to Omega Leadership, and Atta Boy vs. Good Girl.

A full-time nomad with no home base, Amber has built businesses, communities, and relationships across cultures and countries. That global perspective runs through her work, along with a curiosity about the assumptions we inherit about how we’re supposed to communicate, connect, work, and lead.

Amber Daughn is an international speaker, facilitator, entrepreneur, and founder of Women Onstage Collective whose work explores communication, connection, leadership, gender, and the lived experiences that shape how we show up in the world. Her t... Show more

Carmen Alessandra Gonçalves Reis desenha e orquestra agentes conversacionais e arquiteturas de RAG a partir de um ângulo raro no mercado de IA: o da Linguística. Formada em Letras/Linguística Aplicada (UFRGS) e em Análise e Desenvolvimento de Sistemas (UNIASSELVI), defende que os maiores gargalos em sistemas de IA generativa são falhas de estrutura conversacional, não de modelo. Há 4 anos atua com prompt engineering e orquestração de agentes nos setores de RH, jurídico e telecomunicações; atualmente é Analista Desenvolvedora Sênior na vertical de telco da Engineering Brasil.

Carmen Alessandra Gonçalves Reis desenha e orquestra agentes conversacionais e arquiteturas de RAG a partir de um ângulo raro no mercado de IA: o da Linguística. Formada em Letras/Linguística Aplicada (UFRGS) e em Análise e Desenvolvimento de Sistema... Show more

I have an MA in cultural studies, but I work as a kindergarten teacher. Tolkien was/is my first love, and I haven't cared much for Marvel until I met my Thor.
I love reading, boardgames, quizzes, arts & crafts and karaoke (try me at your own peril) and have two beautiful children (I promise pics only on request).

I have an MA in cultural studies, but I work as a kindergarten teacher. Tolkien was/is my first love, and I haven't cared much for Marvel until I met my Thor. I love reading, boardgames, quizzes, arts & crafts and karaoke (try me at your own peril)... Show more

Katrin Jäser ist akademische Mitarbeiterin und Stellvertreterin der Geschäftsführung am Zentrum für wissenschaftliche Weiterbildung (ZWW) der Brandenburgischen Technischen Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU CS). Aktuell arbeitet sie an ihrem eigenen Promotionsvorhaben an dem Institut für Wirtschaftswissenschaften, im Fachgebiet Personalmanagement der BTU CS und ist sowohl in der regulären Lehre als auch in der Weiterbildung aktiv. Sie studierte Sozial- und Organisationspädagogik (M.A.) an der Universität Hildesheim.

Katrin Jäser ist akademische Mitarbeiterin und Stellvertreterin der Geschäftsführung am Zentrum für wissenschaftliche Weiterbildung (ZWW) der Brandenburgischen Technischen Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU CS). Aktuell arbeitet sie an ihrem eigene... Show more

Ayobami Èkó is a musicologist and composer. As a researcher, he synthesises findings from music transcription, musical analysis, and ethnography in his investigations of Nigerian art music, popular music, and film music. He is nearing the completion of a PhD in music at the Department of Music, Lagos State University, where he is analysing the adaptation of popular music in Nigerian art music. Èkó taught music in primary and secondary schools for over 10 years before joining the university system, where he has been teaching and supervising undergraduate projects in music and performing arts.
His art music compositions encompass a diverse range of vocal and instrumental works, as well as commissioned institutional anthems. He received an award of honor in 2024 for composing the anthem of the Lagos State University International School.

Ayobami Èkó is a musicologist and composer. As a researcher, he synthesises findings from music transcription, musical analysis, and ethnography in his investigations of Nigerian art music, popular music, and film music. He is nearing the completion ... Show more

Doug Belkofer is a transformation coach, U.S. Army veteran, longtime technology leader, and founder of Forging Truth.

For much of his life, Doug had a life that looked successful from the outside. He was professionally accomplished and had been married for more than a decade. But beneath that surface were deeply embedded beliefs quietly shaping how he related to himself, others, and intimacy. Beliefs that said he wasn't enough. That love had to be earned. That perfection was the price of safety.

Doug didn't recognize those beliefs as distortions. They didn't feel like lies. They felt like truth. They felt like his own voice. And because of that, they went unquestioned, even as the same emotional and relational patterns kept repeating.

That experience now shapes Doug's work with others and his speaking. He explores how beliefs formed through earlier experiences can quietly influence what feels safe, possible, and even visible to us, and why knowing that a behavior isn't working is often not enough to change it.

Doug doesn't approach this work as someone who has "arrived." He speaks from lived experience and continues to learn through listening, witnessing, and walking alongside others as they uncover what they haven't been able to see.

His work isn't about standing above anyone. It's about standing with them, bringing clarity where there was confusion, language where there was self-blame, and awareness where there was once only repetition.

Doug Belkofer is a transformation coach, U.S. Army veteran, longtime technology leader, and founder of Forging Truth. For much of his life, Doug had a life that looked successful from the outside. He was professionally accomplished and had been ma... Show more

CK Ong is a keynote speaker and corporate happiness and wellbeing consultant with over 28 years of experience in emotional wellbeing, human behaviour and personal transformation.

Since 1998, he has shared his work with more than 53,000 participants across six countries, helping leaders, professionals and teams reduce burnout, strengthen inner resilience and create happier, high-performing workplaces.

Through relatable stories, meaningful reflection and practical tools, CK helps people understand themselves more deeply, respond to pressure with greater clarity and build the inner strength to live and lead more effectively.

CK Ong is a keynote speaker and corporate happiness and wellbeing consultant with over 28 years of experience in emotional wellbeing, human behaviour and personal transformation. Since 1998, he has shared his work with more than 53,000 participant... Show more

Suhuyini Frank Nnyayam Bukari is a Ghanaian individual known for his interest in education, communication, and social development. He is passionate about learning, personal growth, and contributing positively to society through knowledge-sharing and community engagement.

He demonstrates strong skills in written communication and critical thinking, with a keen interest in peacebuilding, leadership, and youth development initiatives. Suhuyini Frank Nnyayam Bukari is committed to self-improvement and values integrity, discipline, and service to humanity.

Through continuous learning and active participation in meaningful initiatives, he aspires to make a lasting impact in his community and beyond.

Suhuyini Frank Nnyayam Bukari is a Ghanaian individual known for his interest in education, communication, and social development. He is passionate about learning, personal growth, and contributing positively to society through knowledge-sharing and ... Show more

Njiki Djemi is a gender and public policy professional and applied researcher specializing in data governance, digital rights, and gender-responsive public policy. Her work explores how data and emerging technologies shape governance, public policy, and social inclusion across African contexts, with a particular interest in women's rights, digital inclusion, and equitable access to technology. Through research, community engagement, and policy advocacy, she works to advance people-centred digital transformation.

She has collaborated with civil society organizations, policymakers, researchers, and local communities across diverse linguistic and cultural contexts to strengthen dialogue around digital governance and inclusive technology. Her interests include responsible AI, women's data rights, Internet governance, and technology policy, with a commitment to translating complex policy challenges into practical, community-driven solutions.

Njiki Djemi is a gender and public policy professional and applied researcher specializing in data governance, digital rights, and gender-responsive public policy. Her work explores how data and emerging technologies shape governance, public policy, ... Show more