Maribeth Desuyo
Education Chair
| Education Session Presenters |
| Education Session – Friday 5:15 PM |
| William C. Davis |
William C. Davis
Sponsored by:
The DNA of Leadership: Building Genuine Relationships to Shape Great Teams
This program explores leadership through a human-centered lens, showing how genuine relationships, sincere empathy, and emotional intelligence create trust, influence, and lasting impact. Drawing from real-world leadership experience, participants will learn what people truly need from their leaders and how to inspire collaboration rather than competition. Aligned with Toastmasters’ commitment to communication, growth, and service, this session equips members to lead with authenticity, clarity, and connection—empowering individuals and strengthening community.
Biography
Meet William Davis—a man who’s spent 38 years not just leading teams (maintaining a 90+% retention rate) but lifting them up. With a career that spans the heights of corporate America, William has become a trusted voice in leadership, blending decades of experience with a genuine passion for guiding others. He’s the kind of leader who doesn’t just talk about success, he builds it, one relationship, one project, one person at a time.
| Education Session – Saturday 9:00 AM |
| Dr. Mayme Doumbia – Leadership |
Dr. Mayme Doumbia
Sponsored by:
Burleson Toastmasters
Leadership & Influence: The Inner Hero Habits That Build Trust and Move People to Action
Leadership influence isn’t just what you say, it’s what people learn from you in the small moments: how you clarify direction, address what’s hard, and follow through consistently. In this interactive session, we will equip leaders with three “inner hero” habits: clarity, courage, and consistency, plus two simple tools to communicate in a decision-ready way, hold respectful accountability conversations, and build trust under pressure.
Biography
Dr. Mayme Doumbia is an Army veteran and an Industrial–Organizational psychologist. She is a leadership and team coach, founder of Xcelsior Coaching & Consulting, and President of Coaches of Color & Culture (CCC). She helps leaders strengthen trust, culture, and execution through clear communication, aligned decision-making, and accountability rhythms that improve performance. She has facilitated leadership trainings and workshops for audiences across corporate, nonprofit, and military settings, translating behavioral science into practical tools leaders can use immediately. Her style is practical, direct, and human-centered, focused on the everyday leadership moments that shape culture and influence outcomes.
| Andrea Flack-Wetherald – Inspiration |
Andrea Flack-Wetherald
Sponsored by:
Your Inner Hero’s Journey
Ready to put your leadership superpower into action? This workshop goes deeper on the superpower skill taught in the keynote. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how this too-often overcomplicated skill can be simplified and operationalized in your life.
You’ll identify 2-3 key leadership behaviors/skills you’d like to strengthen within the next year, and you’ll get assistance in connecting the dots between “The Ultimate Leadership Superpower” and consistency on those specific skills.
This is an interactive workshop – wear comfy shoes and bring a journal and pen. Join me for a time of laughter, reflection and growth.
Biography
Andrea Flack-Wetherald is a social worker turned comedian and the founder of The Center for Brave Communication. She is the bestselling author of The Funny Thing About Forgiveness (2021) and Mindful Improv Thinking: Build a Culture of Resilient Trust (2024), which equip leaders with the practical skills needed to protect focus, trust and enthusiasm during seasons of change.
Outside of work, Andrea is a scouting leader, cyclist and avid reader. She lives in the Akron, OH area with her husband and two children.
| Education Session – Saturday 10:00 AM |
| Felipe Rodriguez & Marcos Rodriguez – Leadership |
Felipe Rodriguez
Marcos Rodriguez
Sponsored by:
In Honor of D25 Veterans
Unleashing the Discipline Within: Your Hidden Superpower for Success
What if discipline—not motivation—is your true superpower? In this engaging and practical session, U.S. Marine Veteran and kidney transplant survivor Felipe Rodríguez shares how adversity revealed the mindset required for sustained success. Through structured insights and real-world application, attendees will learn how to strengthen resilience, prepare intentionally, and activate their inner hero to grow as leaders, communicators, and contributors within their clubs and communities.
Biography
Felipe Rodríguez is a U.S. Marine Veteran, author of Unbreakable, certified life coach, certified personal trainer, and Veterans Disability Strategy Coach. After experiencing kidney failure and spending years on dialysis before receiving a life-saving transplant, he rebuilt his life through discipline, preparation, and personal responsibility.
Felipe now speaks on resilience, leadership development, and mental readiness, helping individuals strengthen consistency in communication and decision-making under pressure. As a father of two and advocate for veterans, he is passionate about equipping others to lead themselves before leading others.
Through structured frameworks and lived experience, Felipe challenges audiences to replace motivation with commitment and activate the inner discipline required for sustained success.
Marcos Rodriguez AKA Rod, President of the Swordsmen Foundation, U.S. Army veteran, served eight years in law enforcement. Founder of P.R.I.D.E. Security Grounds in Frisco, Texas. Rod is also a husband and father of four.
| Elizabeth de Moraes – Inspiration |
Elizabeth de Moraes
Sponsored by:
Commanding the Room: The Three Dimensions of Leadership Presence – Your Superpower for Success
Why do some speakers instantly command attention while others struggle to have their ideas heard?
In this interactive session, global presence and branding strategist Elizabeth de Moraes introduces her powerful framework, The Presence Orbit™, which reveals the three dimensions of leadership presence: Inner Presence, Expressed Presence, and Expanded Presence. Participants will learn how presence shapes influence, why delivery often determines whether ideas move forward, and how speakers can develop the presence that attracts attention, trust, and opportunity.
Through practical demonstrations and experiential exercises, attendees will discover how to strengthen their stage delivery, communicate with greater authority, and connect more powerfully with their audience. Whether speaking on stage, leading meetings, or presenting ideas, participants will walk away with tools they can immediately apply to command the room and amplify their influence.
Aligned with the conference theme Superpowers for Success, this session shows how developing leadership presence can become one of the most powerful superpowers a speaker and leader can cultivate.
Biography
Elizabeth de Moraes, M.A., M.F.A. is a Global Presence and Branding Strategist, international speaker, TEDx speaker, and media personality who helps leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals command the room, amplify their message, and expand their influence. Through her signature frameworks and coaching, she teaches individuals how to strengthen their presence, communicate with authority, and position themselves as trusted voices in their field.
A former professional dancer, choreographer, and university professor, Elizabeth brings a unique perspective to leadership communication by integrating embodiment, delivery, and message strategy. She is the creator of The Presence Orbit™ and the U.N.L.E.A.S.H. Framework, models designed to help leaders develop the presence that attracts attention, trust, and opportunity in today’s fast-moving world.
Elizabeth works with speakers, executives, and thought leaders around the globe and is passionate about helping others step forward with clarity, confidence, and influence.
| Education Session – Saturday 11:00 AM |
| D. Chris Olsen – Leadership |
D. Chris Olsen
Sponsored by:
Electric Toasters
Bridging the Worlds: Sports to Automation
Chris speaks on leadership at the intersection of sports, technology, and people development, offering practical insights for leaders who want to move from managing work to coaching high performing teams.
Biography
Chris Olson is a Manager II – Innovative Automation at TXU Energy Retail Co.LLC, where he leads teams focused on building scalable, reliable automation solutions that deliver measurable business outcomes. Before moving into enterprise automation, Chris developed his leadership foundation as a football coach, where success depended on discipline, preparation, trust, and the ability to develop people—not just plays. That experience continues to shape his management philosophy: coach the fundamentals, build strong teams, and let consistent execution win over time.
In his current role, Chris applies coaching principles to technical environments—translating playbooks into processes, film review into performance feedback, and “nextplay” mentality into resilient automation teams. He is known for building cultures of accountability, clarity, and continuous improvement while navigating the realities of change, scale, and complexity in modern organizations.
| Karen Gray, Moderator – Inspiration |
Karen Gray
Sponsored by:
Panelists
Elizabeth de Moraes
Brian Galke
Sarah Strackhouse
The HUMAN Edge: How to lead, Speak and Communicate with Deeper Purpose and Connection
In a world being dominated by artificial intelligence, your greatest competitive advantage is your ability to be human.
Your voice. Your brand. Your influence. These are not features of your platform. They are features of you – as a leader, as a communicator, as a speaker, and as the person your team can count on and trust.
This panel explores the five dimensions of human presence that no algorithm can replicate, through the lens of four practitioners who each bring a completely different expertise to the same truth:
H — Heart: Leading and communicating from values, identity, and genuine connection.
U — Uniqueness: The embodied presence that belongs to one person and no one else.
M — Mission: The purpose that gives your voice weight no AI-generated content can match.
A — Authenticity: What your audience feels before you say a word — and what gets lost when you perform instead of connect.
N — Nonverbal Connection: The facial expressions, body language, and micro-signals that command a room in the silence between your words.
Attendees will leave with real life resources and strategies they can apply immediately — on stage, in a boardroom, on camera, and in every relationship that matters.
Biographies:
Karen Gray — Moderator & Panelist
Authority Strategist | ICF Certified Coach | President, Texas Business Women | Co-Founder, The Speakers Advantage
Karen Gray is the President of Texas Business Women and the founder of Gray Legacy Coaching. A Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and speaker, she works with leaders to strengthen confidence, clarify identity, and elevate communication. With over 30 years of leadership experience and more than 16 years in professional coaching, Karen helps individuals move beyond limiting beliefs and step into intentional leadership.
Elizabeth de Moraes — Panelist
Global Presence and Personal Branding Strategist | Internationally Recognized Speaker | Founder, E.L.I. Productions
Elizabeth de Moraes has spent over two decades closing that gap. As a Global Presence and Personal Branding Strategist, international keynote speaker, media personality, and bestselling author, Elizabeth has guided Fortune 10 executives, world leaders, thought leaders, business owners, changemakers, and international performers across four continents to command rooms, stages, and cameras before they speak a single word.
Brian Galke — Panelist
Facial Decoding Expert | Speaker Coach | Co-Founder, The Speakers Advantage
Brian is a communication strategist, keynote speaker, and founder of Subtle Skills, where he teaches professionals how to decode faces and communicate with greater trust, clarity, and influence. After overcoming social anxiety early in his career, Brian discovered Decoding Facial Features—a practical framework that reveals how people naturally process information, make decisions, and connect. He expanded that foundation with conversational decoding, body language, and negotiation psychology to create an actionable system teams can use immediately.
Sarah Strackhouse — Panelist
Media & Visibility Strategist | Owner, Strackhouse Media | Co-Founder, The Speakers Advantage
Sarah Strackhouse is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and entrepreneur with a passion for storytelling. Since 2010, she has worked as a reporter, producer, anchor, videographer, and graphic designer for major networks, including Fox Business in NYC, The CW in Dallas, CBS, NBC, and Time Warner Cable stations nationwide. She currently hosts two digital TV shows and owns Strackhouse Media, a multi-media company specializing in live event AV production, on-camera media services driving cash flow, and content creation. Beyond her media career, Sarah is also a certified personal trainer and nutritionist. In her free time, she loves making memories with her husband, three sons, and their two dogs.
| Education Session – Saturday 1:45 PM |
| Sandra Park – Leadership |
Sandra Park
Sponsored by:
Afterburners Toastmasters
Title The 5 Superpowers of Successful Leaders
Success isn’t just about what you can do it’s about how you connect, communicate, and show up for others. In this talk, Sandra Park breaks down the five superpowers that separate good leaders from unstoppable ones. From building real connections to finding the clarity that changes everything, you’ll leave with a framework you can use immediately and the stories to prove it works
Biography
Sandra Park is a systems engineer, engineering leader, financial coach, and host of the Engineer Her Path podcast, where she helps women in STEM turn high incomes into lasting financial freedom and autonomy. A 100% debt free millionaire, Sandra draws from her own journey of building wealth while working in the government contracting and aerospace industries to teach professionals how to align their money with their values and lead from a place of choice not obligation.
Over the course of her engineering career, Sandra has worked at organizations such as Lockheed Martin, KBR, SAIC, and MDA Space, operating at the intersection of technical excellence and human leadership. She has served as a keynote speaker and presenter for numerous organizations, both virtually and in person. Sandra is a Senior Member of the Society of Women Engineers, a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and Eta Kappa Nu honor society, and Secretary of the Plus Two Toastmasters club. A Dallas/Fort Worth native, Sandra is the proud mom of one adult son and enjoys traveling, reading and exploring new restaurants in her free time.
| Brian Galke – Inspiration |
Brian Galke
Sponsored by:
Decode to Connect: Speak So People Lean In
Decode to Connect teaches leaders, sales professionals, and entrepreneurs how to build trust faster by decoding faces. In this engaging keynote, Brian Galke shares a simple, ethical framework to spot key facial patterns that reveal how people prefer to communicate, decide, and connect. Attendees will learn practical techniques they can apply immediately to improve rapport, reduce resistance, and communicate with clarity—leaving energized, empowered, and better equipped to lead and serve others.
Biography
Meet Brian Galke — “The Decoding Detective.”
Brian is a communication strategist, keynote speaker, and founder of Subtle Skills, where he teaches professionals how to decode faces and communicate with greater trust, clarity, and influence. After overcoming social anxiety early in his career, Brian discovered Decoding Facial Features—a practical framework that reveals how people naturally process information, make decisions, and connect. He expanded that foundation with conversational decoding, body language, and negotiation psychology to create an actionable system teams can use immediately.
Those skills helped Brian rise to Regional Vice President of Sales, managing a $40M book of business. Today, he’s a sought-after keynote speaker and podcast guest who has shared stages with Chris Voss, Brad Lea, Janine Driver, Steve D. Sims, and Greg Reid, helping audiences master the subtle skills that make communication more confident, authentic, and effective.
