Speakers

Stacey Diane Arañez Litam is an associate professor of counselor education at Cleveland State University, a licensed professional clinical counselor, clinical sexologist and racial equity strategist. A member of the Forbes Health Advisory Board, she also serves in national leadership roles with the National Board for Certified Counselors and on advisory boards for the Cleveland Clinic and the Philippine American Society of Ohio. Named to Crain's Cleveland Business' 40 Under 40 in 2023, Litam is a leading researcher on the effects of racial discrimination on mental health. Her work has been featured by the White House, NIH, NPR, Forbes Health and other national organizations and media outlets.

The topic of her talk is The Secret to Breaking Generational Trauma Patterns.

Richard Austin is a scholar-practitioner in urban education, youth development leader and former professional athlete whose work focuses on educational equity, student belonging and leadership development. He serves as director of Ignatian and Community Belonging at St. Ignatius High School, where he leads initiatives that foster inclusive, mission-driven school communities. He earned a doctorate in urban education from Cleveland State University. 

The topic of his talk is Safe Spaces are Essential for Marginalized Students, But True Belonging Requires Institutions to Move Beyond Symbolic Inclusion and Create Systemic Change.

Camilo Ferro is an entrepreneur and sustainability innovator with more than 15 years of experience developing solutions to plastic waste. He founded Earth 2 Earth, served as vice president of sustainability and innovation at Nature's Source and is president of RAWS Americas. 

In that role, he is helping bring to market a plastics technology designed to eliminate persistent plastic waste without creating microplastics. Throughout his career, Ferro has focused on advancing sustainability through innovation grounded in scientific research, transparency and practical implementation, with the goal of creating solutions that are both environmentally responsible and commercially viable.

The topic of his talk is New Chemistry to Solve the Microplastics Epidemic.

Jessica L. Gallagher-Steuver is a music educator, choral conductor, performer and clinician. She is a visiting assistant professor of music education at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory and has taught at Cleveland State University and Case Western Reserve University.

Gallagher-Steuver is artistic director of Windsong, Cleveland's feminist chorus, a nonprofit organization focused on music and social justice. In 2025, she founded the Journal of Queer Choral Studies, the official academic publication of GALA Choruses. Her research focuses on queer studies in music education, the social and emotional benefits of choral singing, vocal health in older adults and community music-making.

The topic of her talk is The Power of Group Singing to Build Community. Windsong Women’s Chorus will also perform.

Mandi Goodsett is the Performing Arts and Humanities librarian at Cleveland State University. She holds two master's degrees (one in Library and Information Science and one in Adult Learning and Development). Goodsett is the author of 16 peer-reviewed articles, has presented at dozens of conferences and has worked for over 12 years as an academic librarian.

Goodsett is the 2024 recipient of the Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO) Jay Ladd Service Award and a champion for textbook affordability and information agency - or in other words, control of one's online spaces.

The topic of her talk is Curiosity over Cynicism-Reclaiming our Attention and Agency: How to Stop Scrolling and Start Choosing. 

Sabine Kretzschmar is an art historian and museum professional with more than 30 years of experience as a curator, museum educator, collections director and university lecturer. As director of the Education Art Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, she oversees a teaching collection of more than 10,000 objects spanning 6,000 years of human history. 

A passionate advocate for object-based learning, Kretzschmar also partners with Cleveland State University's Department of History to digitize and provide historical context for the collection. In addition, she owns a bakery.

The topic of her talk is How to Explore the World One Object at a Time: How Objects Inspire Curiosity, Discovery and Life-Long Learning. 

Christa Laser is a former scientist and attorney with a decade of experience litigating high-stakes patent, intellectual property and advertising cases for Fortune 500 technology and pharmaceutical companies, including Apple, Samsung, AbbVie, Abbott and Intel. She is now a law professor at Cleveland State University specializing in intellectual property and innovation policy. 

Her research focuses on building an intellectual property system that promotes innovation, investment and public benefit. Laser is also an award-winning Toastmaster, a world champion of the Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition, a published researcher in Science and a medalist in national and North American fencing competitions.

The topic of her talk is Why Innovation Fails Us: The Laws that Shape Progress and How to Change Them.

Samantha Martin is a communications leader specializing in mission-driven storytelling, stakeholder engagement and strategic collaboration. Since 2020, she has served as director of communications and engagement at the Cleveland Water Alliance, where she promotes the region's leadership in water innovation and speaks to audiences around the world about Lake Erie and Northeast Ohio's water economy. Martin is also active in her community, serving on the Cuyahoga River Area of Concern Advisory Committee and the Cleveland 2030 District Board.

The topic of her talk is Cleveland: The Silicon Valley of Water.

Claudio F. Milstein is a speech scientist specializing in laryngology and voice disorders. Born in Buenos Aires, he earned his medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires before completing a doctorate in speech sciences at the University of Arizona. He also trained at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A staff member at Cleveland Clinic's Head and Neck Institute since 2001, Milstein has more than 20 years of experience treating voice disorders. He is an affiliate scholar at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, lectures internationally and has authored numerous publications on the human voice and its disorders.

The topic of his talk is Normal Lungs, Struggling to Breathe:  The Silent Epidemic.

Charlie Mosbrook is an award-winning songwriter, vice president of Folk Alliance International and president of Folknet. He also serves as program and education director for Roots of American Music, advancing music education across Northeast Ohio. His songwriting has been recognized by the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival and John Hartford Memorial Festival, and he received the Folk Alliance Region Midwest Lantern Bearer Award in 2025. A longtime interpreter of Woody Guthrie's music, Mosbrook has performed at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and released *There Is a Better World Coming*, a tribute to Guthrie and the music of the Dust Bowl era.

The topic of his talk is History Brought to Life with Song.

Lidiia Reviakina moved from the Ukraine to the United States when she was 12 years old. She struggled with English and began making videos about culture, relationships and social behavior as a digital content creator and observational comedian. She has connected with millions of people through humor and shared experiences and has a combined audience of two million plus followers. She is currently a Cleveland State University undergraduate student studying Electrical Engineering computer Science and Business. Lidiia is also an entrepreneur and participant in the Weston Ideation Lab Accelerator program.

The topic of her talk is Before I Spoke the Language, I Learned to Make People Laugh.

Sharon Sobol Jordan is president and CEO of United Way of Greater Cleveland, where she is leading the modernization of one of the region's most trusted social impact organizations. She uses technology, data and cross-sector partnerships to expand economic opportunity and upward mobility across the region. Jordan's career spans the public, private, nonprofit and technology sectors, with a focus on modernizing organizations and improving community outcomes. Before joining United Way, she served as interim CEO of DigitalC, founded OpenSpace Solutions, led Unify Labs, was chief of staff for Cuyahoga County and served as president and CEO of The Centers for Families and Children.

The topic of her talk is The Evolving Definition of Crisis and Poverty.

Eleanor Hayes is an award-winning journalist who has anchored television news in Cleveland, Columbus, Milwaukee and Nashville and reported on major events across the United States, Europe and Cuba. A four-time Emmy Award winner, she earned her latest honor in 2025 for the documentary "Sheltering Hope." She also received the Thurgood Marshall Journalism Award for investigative reporting on a wrongful conviction in Ohio. Hayes earned an MBA from Cleveland State University's Monte Ahuja College of Business and serves on its Weston Ideation Lab Advisory Board. She is also an entrepreneur, communications consultant and graduate of Leadership Cleveland.

Dr. John Holcomb has been a professor and applied statistician at Cleveland State for over 25 years. Before becoming the vice provost, he was chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Holcomb has published over forty articles on topics that include stroke rehabilitation (with researchers at Cleveland’s Veteran’s Hospital), nutrition, bank expansion and food security. In the greater Cleveland community, he serves as an officer for the Cleveland Chapter of the American Statistical Association and serves on the Board of Directors for Global Cleveland.