Jason Hunt
Jason Hunt is a dynamic, engaging, and passionate author, speaker, and trainer. During his second year as a principal of a large middle school, Jason found himself hiding in a portable classroom because he didn’t think he could do his “dream job.” After realizing that leadership has less to do with process and much to do with people, Jason turned around the toxic culture of the school in just over 2 years through developing personal influence with his staff. Jason’s messages focus on helping leaders lead through influence rather than title. Being an introvert himself, he has an interesting viewpoint and many unique tools that can help any leader navigate the complicated world of relationships, resulting in less turnover, a stronger organizational culture, and more job satisfaction of the leader. Jason’s first major leadership role was to run a branch of 100 church members in outer Siberia when he was only 19. Since then, he continues to be involved in many leadership positions. Jason has a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota in leadership, is certified by the John Maxwell Leadership Institute, and is the author of The Other Side: 5 Rules for Leading with Influence. Jason currently lives in Owatonna, Minnesota with his wife and four kids.
Jordana Green
Jordana Green is an Emmy award winning television news anchor, a Marconi award winning podcast writer and producer, and drive-time news-talk radio talk show host. Jordana started her career in television news at various stations in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Her career advanced to television news anchorwoman in Indianapolis and the Twin Cities. Jordana migrated from a teleprompter to broadcasting her points of view on a variety of topics as the co-host of the “Paul & Jordana Show” on WCCO Radio in the Twin Cities. She considers learning how to snowboard at age forty as one of her greatest physical accomplishments until being challenged with a rare form of leukemia in 2020. Her straight talk Jersey girl truth telling is funny, transparent, and humble. Her colleagues all agree that when Jordana enters a room, the energy shifts to the positive and everyone knows she’s there… and on ‘their’ side. She has learned many life lessons from her challenges of and rebounding from job loss, moving from city to city, divorce, balancing her career with motherhood, and leukemia. She remarried and is raising three teenagers in her Minneapolis home filled with lunacy, love and laughter. “Finding Your Moments of Clarity”, Jordana’s presentation allows listeners to dig deep into their experiences to identify life changing moments that have molded their past decisions. She offers clear steps to identifying future ‘moments of clarity’ that will generate the confidence everyone needs to make the next right moves. Jordana is inspiring, vulnerable, and funny. She connects deeply with all who hear her and motivates them with specific guidelines to be on their true career, personal and spiritual paths.
Vineeta Sawkar
Vineeta Sawkar is a five time Emmy award-winning television anchor who is now the Director of Public Relations at the University of St. Thomas. Vineeta spent twenty-three years in the television news business. She is best known for her eighteen years at KSTP-TV in Minneapolis. She left KSTP in 2013 and pioneered a new role at the Minneapolis Star Tribune as a video host. She and her family are proud St. Paul residents. Vineeta is a former Friends of the St. Paul Public Library board member and Children’s Hospital Association board member. She is now volunteering with the Minnesota Wild to recruit more kids of color to play the sport of hockey.
Wendie Pett
Wendie Pett, is passionate about motivating people to make fitness and good nutrition part of their daily routine. She teaches the balance of mind, body and spirit through her Visibly Fit™ wellness program. Wendie has a nationally syndicated television program that airs every Tuesday on the NRB Network. Her show also airs on Upliftv, WLCN, and IBN Television. She contributes weekly on KTIS radio in the Twin Cities as ‘Coach Wendie’ and is a featured columnist in VEGWORLD Magazine, The Christian View, Best Ever You, Refreshed, Vegan Lifestyle, and Diet.com. Wendie is a full-time business owner, a naturopathic doctor, wife, mother, author, speaker, TV host, advisory board member for Christian Women in Media and part-time volunteer. Her business consists of whole-food/plant-based wellness coaching, emotional healing, personal online training, fitness planning, educational and motivational speaking, and creating new products/tools to assist clients along their wellness journey. After a major injury to her shoulder, she resorted to body weight resistance exercises for strength and healing and hasn’t turned back to any other form of training since. She has helped countless others reach their fitness and health goals without ever compromising their joints, tendons, or ligaments – teaching that Your Body Is Your Gym™ and instilling new diet habits that have shown to reverse multiple diseases and allow people to get off medications.
Jesse Ross
Jesse is an international speaker, executive coach, & a diversity, equity, & inclusion leader, that works with leaders and organizations specializing in personal and professional development. He focuses on transformation from the inside out and believes that everyone he encounters should expect ascension.
Jesse has a keen ability to apply his education, training and certifications, over 15 years of business, nonprofit, and practical experience to motivate others to greatness, increase productivity, and to take their rightful place as a leader. Jesse has delivered over 600 speaking engagements at colleges, conferences, corporate and nonprofit companies, with a large number of Fortune 500 companies.
Jesse offers trainings, workshops, evaluations, assessments, and strategy development for your school, business or organization. Jesse has been engaging his audience with his Morning Minute call-to-actions on his Instagram and LinkedIn social media pages.
Eric Perkins
Never truly good enough to play college or professional sports, Eric Perkins decided to talk about them instead. Perk as he’s better known, grew up immersed in sports, but also in television. His father Jack was an NBC Nightly News correspondent for decades before becoming the host of Biography on A&E. Perk combined his two passions and became a sportscaster where he worked in Tupelo, Memphis and Atlanta before finding his way to Minnesota where he currently serves as the sports director for the NBC station (KARE-TV) in the Twin Cities.
Since joining KARE in the late 90’s, Perk has won several Emmy Awards for TV work. He’s covered Super Bowls, Final Fours, All Star Games and even five Olympic Games. But he’s perhaps best known for his Perk at Play segment, in which he’s taken part in everything from Skydiving to Demolition Derby, playing tennis with John McEnroe and being body slammed by Brock Lesnar during the decade long run of the segment.
Perk is very involved with local charities and often can be found serving as an emcee for galas, fundraisers, or awards ceremonies throughout the state. Over the last few years, Perk has emceed events for Gillette Children’s Hospitals, Children’s Cancer Research Fund, Second Harvest Heartland, Spare Key Foundation, St. Jude and many others. He even created his own charity event, Perk’s MessFest. The “slopstacle course” for kids is now in its fifth year, and benefits the Pinky Swear Foundation which helps families dealing with childhood cancer. Perk also regularly emcees that Foundation’s annual gala as well.
Perk lives in the western suburbs of the Twin Cities with his wife, three children and cockapoo.
Elizabeth Ries
Elizabeth Ries is a television and radio personality in the Twin Cities. She spent years as a news anchor/reporter, but is now the co-host of Twin Cities Live weekdays at 3 pm on 5 Eyewitness News (KSTP). She chats about pop culture, celebrity gossip and manages to get a few pro-kale statements on the air when she co-hosts the Margery & Elizabeth show on myTalk 107.1. Elizabeth also frequently contributes articles on food and urban farming to Edible Twin Cities magazine.
Elizabeth is an uplifting speaker who inspires attendees and she is an excellent Emcee as well!
Ian Leonard
Ian has been Chief Meteorologist at FOX 9 in Minneapolis since 2006. His science is the great outdoors and his passion is forecasting the weather. His passion has taken him from Alberta, Canada to Mississippi, Iowa and finally Minnesota. For over 20 years he has used the phrase “stay sky aware” to help viewers stay ahead of the storm. It now is a regular “hashtag” in Ian’s social media updates during severe weather season to his 35 thousand Facebook and Twitter followers. He calls his work at FOX 9 a dream job because of the 4 incredibly diverse and always entertaining seasons of the Upper Midwest. Ian graduated from the Broadcast Meteorology Program at Mississippi State University and is a member of the American Meteorological Society, The National Weather Association and The Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society.
Ian is an extremely active supporter of persons with intellectual disabilities. He is on the road every month supporting the incredible athletes of Special Olympics Minnesota. You can find him “freezin’ for a reason” on most late winter weekends taking the Polar Plunge into lakes across Minnesota. In the past 8 years he has plunged 103 times and helped raise over 15 million dollars.
Ian has had his share of personal storms – making it through a traumatic brain injury in 2013 and adding the line “cancer survivor” to his resume in 2016.
Ian is a humorous and impactful Speaker who motivates organization’s teams to move through their business and personal storms – toward finding passion and purpose.
His high energy and quick wit also makes him the perfect Emcee or Live Auctioneer for your next event. He has assisted organizations in raising millions of dollars at their Fundraiser Events over the years. Attendees love him!
Lori La Bey
Humorist, Heartfelt Stories, Practical Tools & Resources
Families and healthcare professionals are looking for the same thing when it comes to caring for those they serve. They want new, innovated way to assess and share knowledge. Lori La Bey has been recognized by Oprah as “Health Hero,” Maria Shriver as an “Architect of Change,” Dr Oz as the “#1 Influencer Online for Alzheimer’s,” and by AARP MN as a “Disruptor, Caring Creator, and Inspiring Leader.” Members of Lori’s audience benefit from her humor and heartfelt style as she:
- Delivers simple, practical tools and techniques they can easily implement,
- Provides a wide array of resources, and
- Demonstrate techniques to shift mindsets from crisis to comfort.
Been There Done That
Lori understands the lived experience of caring for others and herself. Her own family maneuvered the roller coaster of dementia with her Mother for 30 years, the journey of brain cancer with her Father, having a child almost die from Meningitis, taking in teens and adults in her home that no longer could live with their families. She knows what it’s like to be in the trenches of care: the stress, exhaustion, tug of war with family and friends, frustration of lack of access to support, knowledge, plus lack of a cure. Her healthcare background allows Lori to understand service delivery systems and how to adapt to move forward. Her marketing experience allows her to create unique strategies, create friendly onboarding processes, which provide dignity, respect, and empowerment to all involved. Lori understands we must provide a variety of platforms to engage and reach various learning styles. Some initiatives Lori has launched:
- The first, radio show dedicated to dementia and caregiving in the world,
- The first, video platform which raised the voices of people living with dementia in the world,
- The first, Dementia Friendly Community in the United States,
- Bringing the Memory Café’ concept to the United States from the United Kingdom, and
- The first global resource directory for dementia care.
- Her emotional based training to get people to feel the need to change, not just the mandate to do a job.
Caring Has No Boundaries
Lori La Bey specializes in dementia care, but her programs are easily adapted to a variety of groups as caring has no boundaries. Other prime audiences are: Hospice & Palliative Care, Loss and Grief, Conscious Compassionate Selfcare, Divorce, Bullying, Empowerment and Well Being, Cancer and Other Terminal Illnesses, Struggling Teens, Ageism, Economical and Simple Culture Adjustments, Living with Purpose, Marketing to Be Remembered, Caregiving and more. Lori presents to patients, families, and professionals and can easily adapt to be inclusive and respectful when speaking to combined audiences. She is available for keynotes, breakouts, and training programs range from an hour to multiple days.
Lori La Bey – Changing How Care Is Perceived, Received and Delivered
Paul Douglas
Paul Douglas is Penn State meteorologist with over 45 years of television and radio experience. A serial entrepreneur, Douglas has launched 7 businesses. Founder and Chief Meteorologist at Praedictix, providing weather services, consulting and briefings for media and corporate interests. Developers and engineers create unique streams of weather data, imagery and API’s for corporations via AerisWeather. The latest science and models are leveraged to provide insight for corporations factoring climate trends into investment, resilience and sustainability via ClimaTrends. Douglas is a member of the Climate Science Rapid Response Team. In 2017 he co-authored a book on climate, focused on matters of faith and science: “Caring for Creation, the Evangelical’s Guide to Climate Change and a Healthy Environment”. A frequent contributor to MSNBC, Douglas was featured in NOVA’s “Decoding the Weather Machine”, Douglas has spent the last 25 years connecting the dots between climate volatility and weather disruption.
Paul uses weather as a metaphor to track the “storms of business”, telling his unique story, and the lessons he’s learned from starting up 6 companies – often the hard way. He is also the perfect Emcee for your next event.