MEET THE SPEAKERS
DR. ALEKSANDR YAMPOLSKIY
Dr. Aleksandr Yampolskiy, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of SecurityScorecard, is a globally recognized cybersecurity innovator, leader, and expert.
Since SecurityScorecard’s inception in 2014, he has led the company with a vision to create a new language for measuring and communicating risk. SecurityScorecard is now one of the world’s most trusted cybersecurity brands, with tens of thousands of customers—including half of the Fortune 100 and nine of the top 10 U.S. banks—and over 600 employees. The company has earned the Gartner Peer Insight Customers’ Choice award and been named a Leader in the Forrester New Wave. In 2021, Yampolskiy was named E&Y Entrepreneur Of the Year 2021 New York Award winner and Cyber Defense Magazine’s CEO of the Year.
Prior to founding the SecurityScorecard, Yampolskiy was a CTO at BlogTalkRadio, the largest online talk radio and podcast hosting platform, whose technology he scaled to over 30M+ visitors each month. He was also a CISO at Gilt Groupe, where he managed all aspects of IT infrastructure security, fraud, secure application development, and PCI compliance. Yampolskiy has led security teams at Goldman Sachs and Oracle, among other companies where he built authentication and entitlement infrastructure for trading.
Alex has published numerous articles, winning Public Key Cryptography Conference Test of Time Award for his verifiable random function invention, holds numerous patents, and is a published book author of “The Perfect Scorecard : Getting an ‘A’ in Cybersecurity from Your Board of Directors”.
He holds a B.A. in Mathematics and Computer Science from New York University and a Ph.D. in Cryptography from Yale University.
TONY KEITH JR., PHD
Tony Keith Jr., PhD, is an award-winning poet, author, and educational leader from Washington, DC. He is the founder and CEO of Ed Emcee Academy, an educational consulting agency that integrates poetry, spoken word, and Hip-Hop culture into learning experiences that strengthen literacy, identity development, and leadership. A higher-education scholar and practitioner with deep community-based roots, Dr. Keith’s work is grounded in research on Hip-Hop Educational Leaders and culturally responsive pedagogy, with a focus on empowering young people and transforming the conditions for learning and engagement in schools, libraries, museums, and community organizations.
Dr. Keith is the author of How the Boogeyman Became a Poet and Knucklehead: Poems (HarperCollins), and his writing and performances have reached audiences locally and internationally, including stages such as the Kennedy Center and the Lincoln Theatre. He is a multi-year fellow of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and frequently collaborates with educators and institutions to design programs that blend rigorous learning with creative expression. As a TEDx host, Dr. Keith brings a dynamic, youth-centered presence and a deep commitment to storytelling as a catalyst for community, imagination, and social change.
DOUG HOLLADAY
The career trajectory of Doug Holladay has been a blend of public service, business, non-profit work, and now teaching and journalism. His bestselling book, Rethinking Success, offers a clear path for leaders looking to bring high purpose and meaning to the commercial experience.
He is a co-founder and general partner of two private equity firms, Park Avenue Equity Partners, LP and Elgin Capital Partners LP. While Mr. Holladay continues as an active investor and board member, as well as devoting time to a non profit he created with many of the nation’s leading lights, PathNorth, Inc. which helps CEOs and business owners to ‘broaden their definitions of success’ to include purposeful living. As a full time faculty member, Mr. Holladay holds the prestigious Heinz Christian Prechter Executive in Residence position at Georgetown University where he teaches MBA students to integrate purposeful living into the business context.
Mr. Holladay was formerly a senior officer with the international investment banking firm Goldman Sachs and Company. At Goldman Sachs, he served as founding President of One-to-One Mentoring Partnership (Points of Light), an initiative to bring imaginative solutions to the challenges of ‘at risk’ young people.
Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Mr. Holladay held senior positions in both the White House and Department of State. After working under White House Chief of Staff, James A. Baker III, Mr. Holladay was appointed by the President to the personal rank of Special Ambassador. In that unique role, he coordinated America’s public response to the challenges posed by South Africa and its entrenched policy of apartheid prior to the dramatic release of Nelson Mandela.
Mr. Holladay holds degrees from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Princeton Theological Seminary and Oxford University in England as well as two honorary doctorates from Morehouse College and Nyack College.
CASSANDRA DAHNKE
Cassandra Dahnke is President and co-founder of The Institute for Civility, a grassroots, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) founded in 1997 to reduce polarization by facilitating dialogue, teaching respect, and building practical skills for civil discourse in both public and private life.
She is known for a plain-spoken, field-tested definition of civility: “claiming and caring for one’s identity, needs, and beliefs without degrading someone else’s in the process.” Cassandra focuses on what people can do in real time when conversations get hot—listen across difference, de-escalate conflict, and stay engaged without surrendering core beliefs.
Her expertise is grounded in delivery, not theory. Through the Institute, Cassandra has designed and led trainings, workshops, and speaking engagements for civic, educational, nonprofit, faith-based, and governmental audiences across the United States. She also leads Washington, D.C. legislative seminars and student civic-education programs that combine civility training, guided issue research, and direct engagement with congressional offices—turning democracy into something participants can practice.
Cassandra’s work has been featured in national media including PBS, C-SPAN, National Public Radio, The Diane Rehm Show and Roll Call. She is co-author of Reclaiming Civility in the Public Square: 10 Rules That Work, a practical handbook that translates civil discourse into repeatable behaviors and actionable rules for everyday public life.
Cassandra holds a B.A. in Sociology from Texas Tech University and a Master of Divinity from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Before dedicating herself full-time to the Institute, she served for more than 17 years as pastor of Woodforest Presbyterian Church.
JOE WANG
Joe Wang is a technology executive who operates at the intersection of systems, people, and change. Over the last decade, he has built and led large, complex organizations across Fortune 500 companies and venture-backed startups, working in domains that include aerospace, semiconductors, automotive, energy, and restaurant tech.
What often catches people off guard is how he arrived there. Born in Harbin and raised across three countries and more cities than he can easily count, Joe grew up constantly adapting to new cultures, environments, and ways of thinking. Long before his professional career began, change was the constant, and learning how to observe, listen, and make sense of unfamiliar systems became second nature.
Today, Joe is known for his presence: an uncommon intensity paired with deep listening, a sharp memory, and a tendency to ask questions that slow conversations down just enough to matter. He cares deeply about relationships and responsibility, at work, with his teams, and at home as the father of five. He believes creativity is a virtue, persistence is underrated, and progress belongs to those willing to stay engaged when things get tough.
Joe currently serves as the Vice President of Sales at Tektronix, a company whose technologies sit beneath many of the world’s most ambitious innovations. His work lives upstream of progress, at the hard-technology layer that enables breakthroughs in AI, space, and new energy, long before they reach the spotlight.
He brings to the TEDx stage a rare perspective from where innovation is not only imagined, but built.
GLENN KIRSCHNER
Glenn Kirschner is a former federal prosecutor with 30 years of trial experience. He served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia for 24 years, rising to the position of Chief of the Homicide Section. In that capacity, Glenn supervised 30 homicide prosecutors and oversaw all homicide grand jury investigations and prosecutions in Washington, DC.
Prior to joining the DC U.S. Attorney’s Office, Glenn served more than six years on active duty as an Army Judge Advocate General (JAG) prosecutor, trying court-martial cases and handling criminal appeals, including espionage and death penalty cases. Glenn spent six-and-a-half years as an on-air legal analyst and columnist for NBC News and MSNBC but left corporate media in early 2025, choosing to be all independent in his legal analysis work. Glenn has a YouTube channel and Podcast, “Justice Matters with Glenn Kirschner” dedicated to analyzing the legal issues of the day. He taught a criminal law course, Anatomy of a Homicide, for four years at George Washington University Law School, and he taught undergraduate criminal justice at GWU for five years.
Glenn tried hundreds of cases in his 30 years as a prosecutor, including more than 50 murder trials, multiple lengthy RICO trials and precedent-setting cases. His cases have been made into major motion pictures (murder conviction of a sophisticated con man who ran in elite DC circles, subject of “Georgetown”, a film starring Vanessa Redgrave, Christoph Waltz and Annette Bening) and TV documentaries, including the multi-part documentary, “Who Killed Robert Wone?”
Glenn attended Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia and was First-Team All American football player in 1983. In 1987, he graduated with honors from New England School of Law in Boston, where he was named a Trustee’s Scholar.
Glenn has received numerous awards, including: the Harold J. Sullivan Award for Fairness, Ethics and Trial Excellence; the John F. Evans Award for Outstanding Advocacy; the Metropolitan Police Department’s Chief of Police Medal of Honor; the United States Attorney’s Office STAR Award; U.S. Army Meritorious Service Medal; Washington & Lee University Athletic Hall of Fame Inductee; and induction in September 2018 into the American College of Trial Lawyers.
ELIZABETH O’DONNELL
Elizabeth O’Donnell is the founder and executive director of Aaliyah in Action, a nonprofit organization advancing compassionate, equitable support for families after pregnancy and infant loss while working to improve perinatal bereavement care systems nationwide.
Elizabeth’s work is rooted in lived experience. In 2020, her daughter Aaliyah was born still after what appeared to be a healthy pregnancy. In the days that followed, Elizabeth encountered profound gaps in bereavement support, workplace protections, and institutional recognition of baby loss, revealing how often grieving families are rendered invisible by the systems meant to support them.
Motivated by both grief and responsibility, Elizabeth founded Aaliyah in Action to ensure families receive tangible, trauma-informed support during the earliest and most vulnerable moments of loss. Since its founding, the organization has supported thousands of families across the United States through hospital partnerships, bereavement care packages, and provider education focused on culturally responsive care.
Elizabeth is currently pursuing a Master of Public Health with a focus on stillbirth prevention, maternal health equity, and bereavement systems reform. Her work bridges direct service and systemic change, centering both prevention and care as essential components of maternal health.
Through Aaliyah in Action, Elizabeth continues to honor her daughter’s life by advocating for meaningful, lasting change so no family navigating pregnancy loss is left unseen or unsupported.
DR. KRISTIN MOORE, PHD
Kristin Anderson Moore, Ph.D., is Senior Scholar and Past President at Child Trends. She is a social psychologist and has worked at Child Trends for more than 40 years. She studies trends in child and family well-being, positive youth development, education and employment programs, teen pregnancy and parenthood, family structure, poverty, and the effects of public policies and programs on children. She has worked to share knowledge with practitioners, funders, journalists, and policymakers.
Dr. Moore has helped develop constructs and measures for numerous surveys, including the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten and Birth Cohorts, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 Cohort, the National Survey of Children, and the National Survey of Children’s Health. She was a founding member of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and currently serves on the Upstream Program Committee. She has been a member of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Advisory Council and served on the Census Scientific Advisory Committee. Dr. Moore headed Child Trends as President from 1992 to 2006, before she chose to return to full-time research. She has published more than 160 journal articles and books, as well as numerous research briefs and blogs and is widely cited.
In 1999, Dr. Moore was awarded the Foundation for Child Development’s Centennial Award for her achievements on behalf of children. She received the 2005 American Sociological Association’s Distinguished Contribution Award from the Section on Children and Youth. She was selected as Researcher of the Year by the Healthy Teen Network in 2010 and as a Fellow by the National Council on Family Relations in 2014. In 2018, she was awarded the Distinguished Career Award for the Practice of Sociology by the American Sociological Society.
Dr. Moore’s husband, Dr. Jeff Moore, is also a social psychologist and served as a research Psychologist at the Census Bureau. They have four children, five grandchildren, and a rescue dog.
NATHALIE BLAIS
Nathalie Blais is the Founder and CEO of Coach Academy and an ICF Master Certified Coach whose work focuses on how people think, connect, and lead. Her central idea is both simple and disruptive: connection is not an assumption—it is a skill. At a time when communication is increasingly reactive and transactional, she challenges people to reconsider how influence is built and how change actually occurs.
She argues that coaching skills are connection skills, and that coaching has become the language of influence, inclusion, and meaningful exchange. Rather than fixing or directing, her work emphasizes creating the conditions for insight, responsibility, and growth—an approach that has shaped how leaders, educators, and coaches engage across systems and cultures.
Blais holds a Master’s degree in Psychology from Harvard and has logged more than 50,000 hours in facilitation, learning design, research, and education development. She is the architect of multiple ICF-accredited coach education programs and has trained thousands of leaders and coaches worldwide. A contributor to Forbes Coaches Council, her research explores fear, motivation, grief, compassion, and connection. Her forthcoming 2027 book examines why human-centered connection is becoming a critical skill in an increasingly automated world.
DR. NATASHA LATOUF, PHD
Dr. Natasha Latouf, NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) Fellow, is a recent Ph.D. graduate from George Mason University studying astrobiology - the study of life on planets outside of our Solar System, known as exoplanets. Specifically, she studies the atmospheres of exoplanets to understand the requirements to detect indications of life on other worlds. Her full project is titled “Bayesian Analysis for Remote Biosignature Identification on exoEarths”, otherwise known as the BARBIE project. The BARBIE project will further the development of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), a next-generation telescope that is designed with the detection of exoplanet atmospheres in mind.
Additionally, she researched mentorship practices in physics and astronomy to break down barriers and improve the experience in STEM for all. Natasha serves on the board of The Neuroverse Initiative, co-founded the grassroots organization SPECTRUM, and was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and Future Investigator in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology Fellow.