Featured Speakers
Wes Moore
Sunday, October 4 | 5:00-6:15 p.m.
Wes Moore is the CEO of Robin Hood, one of the largest anti-poverty forces in the nation. He is a bestselling author, a combat veteran and a social entrepreneur.
Moore’s first book, The Other Wes Moore, a perennial New York Times bestseller, captured the nation’s attention on the fine line between success and failure in our communities and in ourselves. That story has been optioned by executive producer Oprah Winfrey and HBO to be made into a movie. He is also the author of the bestselling books The Work, Discovering Wes Moore, and This Way Home.
Moore grew up in Baltimore and the Bronx, where he was raised by a single mom. Despite childhood challenges, he graduated Phi Theta Kappa from Valley Forge Military College in 1998 and Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hopkins University in 2001. He earned a master’s in International Relations from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 2004. Moore then served as a captain and paratrooper with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne, including a combat deployment to Afghanistan. He later served as a White House Fellow to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Before becoming CEO at Robin Hood, Moore was the founder and CEO at BridgeEdU, an innovative tech platform addressing the college completion and job placement crisis. BridgeEdU reinvents freshman year for underserved students. Moore remains chairman of the board of directors at BridgeEdU. He has also worked in finance as an investment banker with Deutsche Bank in London and with Citigroup in New York.
Moore’s proudest accomplishments are his two children with his wife Dawn.
Sponsored by 
David Epstein
Monday, October 5 | 8:30-10:15 a.m.
David Epstein is the author of two top 10 New York Times bestsellers: RANGE: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, and The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance.
Epstein brings bold new insights to business, education, technological innovation, healthcare and other industries on the best approach to career development. Sharing fascinating examples from the career trajectories of Duke Ellington, Roger Federer and a preeminent CEO who took her first job around the age her peers were retiring, Epstein shows that at every stage of life — from children’s development in math, music and sports to students fresh out of college to mid-career professionals in need of a change and would-be retirees looking for a new vocation — generalists triumph as the world around them becomes increasingly specialized.
Epstein has spoken on five continents on the science of high performance and novel uses and misuses of data, and his writing has appeared in numerous national and international publications, including The New York Times, The Atlantic and National Geographic. He was previously an investigative reporter at ProPublica.
Merging stories from the worlds of sports, business, medicine and education, Epstein sheds light on the paths to peak performance. From how to best prepare for our specialized world to how to optimally incorporate AI into our workplaces, Epstein unpacks the science of success, leaving audiences with actionable takeaways to improve how they live, work and prepare for the future.
Ira Shepard
Tuesday, October 6 | 8:15-9:00 a.m.
During an election year, what better way to kick off the morning by discussing the law! Come join Ira Shepard, CUPA-HR’s general counsel and a labor and employment lawyer in Washington, D.C., as he details current and foreseeable blockbuster HR issues. He will also share a controversial higher ed employment case to test your skills. Finally, hear Ira’s takeaways to avoid similar litigation on your campus.
Sponsored by: 
Dr. Shaun Harper
Tuesday, October 6 | 9:10-10:10 a.m.
Dr. Shaun Harper is a provost professor in the Rossier School of Education and the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (USC). He also serves as the Clifford and Betty Allen Chair in Urban Leadership, founder and executive director of the USC Race and Equity Center, president-elect of the American Educational Research Association and a past president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education.
Dr. Harper’s research focuses primarily on race, gender and other dimensions of equity in an array of organizational contexts, including K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and corporations. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and other academic publications, and his research has been cited in nearly 12,000 published studies. Johns Hopkins University Press is publishing his 13th book, Race Matters in College.
The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and several thousand other news outlets have quoted Dr. Harper and featured his research. He has interviewed on CNN, ESPN and NPR and has testified to the U.S. House of Representatives and presented his research at various White House and U.S. Department of Education convenings. He was appointed to President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper advisory council in 2015 and recognized in Education Week as one of the 10 Most Influential Professors in the field of education in 2017.