Brad Montague

New York Times Best Selling Author and Creator of Kid President

Back for a sixth repeat appearance on the STORY main stage due to never-ending demand, he’s practically part of our family, and at this point, it’s hard to imagine a STORY gathering without him. Brad is a writer and director on a mission to create things for kids and former kids.

Brad Montague is the creator of the web series Kid President and the author of the New York Times bestseller Kid President’s Guide to Being Awesome.

He is the creator of Kid President, the popular web series featured on Rainn Wilson’s Soulpancake Youtube channel that has been viewed more than 16 million times. He’s also the New York Times Bestselling Author of the book, Kid President’s Guide to Being Awesome, and is a popular online storyteller whose stories of birds, balloons and floating people have become friends of classrooms all over the world.

Courtney Leak, LCSW

Dynamic Therapist, Wellness Curator and Empowerment Speaker

Courtney Leak, LCSW, LISW-CP is a dynamic therapist, wellness curator and empowerment speaker who utilizes direct honesty wrapped in humor in order to spread the message of living a life that is whole and full of purpose and courage. Courtney received her Masters of Social Work from Winthrop University and has over 10 years of experience working within the mental health field as a therapist. She specializes in working with those who have experienced trauma, grief and loss, attachment disorders, relationship complications and the mental health needs of marginalized populations. Courtney is trained in EMDR, Experiential therapy and Psychodrama. Courtney currently sits on the board for the International Society for Experiential Professionals (ISEP). She also holds the Certified Experiential Therapist, level 2 credential with ISEP. She has presented at various conferences and symposiums focusing on the journey back to wholeness. Through her own experiences and the experiences of the numerous individuals, couples, and families that she has worked with over the years, Courtney has developed insight into the struggles of everyday living and how they are often compounded by the history and patterns of pain that so many people are living with today. Courtney’s fundamental belief is that everyone is naturally equipped with what they need to find and meet their purpose but it is often hidden under fear, hurt, and negative views of ourselves. However, if we are willing to own our story, minus the fear and shame, we can embrace our true selves and live abundantly in our purpose.

Andra Barton

Co-Founder & Executive Director of Chance to Soar + Award-Winnning Educator

Dr. Andra Barton is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Chance to Soar. Through her work with the nonprofit, she commits herself to inspiring both teachers and students to find success by providing them opportunities to take chances.

As a lifelong educator, Dr. Barton believes in the power of planning, believing in people and the space to take chances so that we can transform school culture and create opportunities for students to grow academically and emotionally. She also knows there is unlimited potential within all students that can be unlocked and ignited by teaching goal setting practices and creating an engaging learning environment that assists students in achieving those goals.

Dr. Barton has set the vision, aligned curriculum, and led others as a principal in public, faith-based, and International Baccalaureate schools where her high expectations of students and faculty resulted in increased academic growth for students and accolades for the staff from accrediting and certifying educational bodies. Dr. Barton’s commitment to educational excellence was recognized when she was named a finalist for National Distinguished Principal of the Year. She has also served in leadership roles for non-profit organizations raising funds, writing curriculum, and creating educational opportunities for low-income families.

Dr. Barton holds a Master of Education from Texas Christian University and a Doctorate of Education Administration from Baylor University.

Carlos Whittaker

Author, Speaker, and Hope Dealer

Carlos Whittaker is a self proclaimed “Hope Dealer” who spends the majority of his time telling stories on stages and phone screens across the world that lead people towards impactful action. He’s a People’s Choice Award winner, host of the Human Hope podcast, and the author of three books, Moment Maker, Kill The Spider, & Enter Wild which all lead people towards freedom in some way, shape, or form. Carlos lives with his wife, 3 kids, and 5 3 chickens in Nashville TN.

If you don’t follow @loswhit on Instagram, consider this your invitation. He’s one of our favorite follows at STORY.

Leo Chan

Founder + Chief Innovation & Creativity Officer

Leo is the founder of Abound Innovation – their mission is to unleash the power + joy of innovation & creativity to all. He brings 20+ years of experience to the world of innovation & creativity. He’s the former Senior Innovation Lead at Chick-fil-A and former innovator at State Farm Insurance.

Leo was the catalyst for a thriving culture of innovation at Chick-fil-A. Leo redesigned Hatch, Chick-fil-A’s 30,000 sq. ft Innovation Center, transforming it into an epicentre for innovation. He developed, trained and mentored Chick-fil-A innovators. He also designed and created innovation events attended by 1000+ employees.

Leo is a formally trained graphic designer, a named inventor on 41 US patents, insatiably curious and a lifelong learner. Leo is a licensed trainer of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methods with Strategic Play Global, a Certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Facilitator, Certified Virtual Facilitator and a Certified Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach.

Elizabeth Lesser

Bestselling Author and Co-Founder of Omega Institute

Elizabeth Lesser is the author of several bestselling books, including Cassandra Speaks: When Women are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes; Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow and Marrow: Love, Loss & What Matters Most. She is the co-founder of Omega Institute, recognized internationally for its workshops and conferences in wellness, spirituality, creativity, and social change. She has given two popular TED talks, and is one of Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul 100, a collection of a hundred leaders who are using their voices and talent to elevate humanity.

Kevin B. Jennings

Business Coach and Personal Brand Strategist

Kevin B. Jennings is a business coach and personal brand strategist who empowers entrepreneurs, authors, speakers, and subject matter experts with a plan and resources to turn their vision into value and their passion into profit. He is currently the CEO of Junction 32, a marketing firm that helps influencers and organizations grow their brands and increase their revenue so they can impact people.

Kevin has had the opportunity to serve influencers such as Tony Robbins, Dave Ramsey, and Oprah Winfrey. Whether he’s working with best-selling authors or Inc. 5000 organizations, Kevin’s mission is to help people maximize the potential of their ideas, their careers, and their positive impact on others. When he’s not helping businesses grow, Kevin can be found deejaying weddings and parties on the weekends.

He’s been married to his amazing wife and childhood friend, Leah, since 2011, and they have a five-year-old daughter, Arden, and a five-month-old son, Justus (pronounced Justice).

Ken Black

Chief Creative Officer at GMR Marketing + Former VP of Design Future at Nike

In 1994, Ken and three others started the Team Sports Division, and were the first at Nike to work with NCAA basketball and football, the NFL and the NBA. They were the first to create uniforms and design new identities for teams at all levels. By the year 2000, Ken became Nike’s first Olympic Creative Director, long before anyone knew it needed to happen. A year later, he had helped start the very first Advanced Concepts Innovation Team, launching products and concepts like Nike Free, Nike 6.0, Presto 2, and ultimately the first proposal for Nike+.

After leaving his mark as a Senior Creative Director at one of the most iconic brands of our time, he left to help tell new stories by igniting a start-up called SPARQ, going on to build the brand and business from 2 people to 20. Through his work bringing stories to life through events, magazine, and marketing campaigns, Ken led SPARQ to an acquisition 5 short years later. The company who acquired them? Nike. That meant his second stint at Nike was spent serving as the VP of Digital Design Future. His body of work as a Nike VP consists of a long list of Nike design success stories.

The long and diverse list of Ken’s accomplishments with both Nike and the Olympics is rooted in his understanding of story. He sees things from a different perspective, and his unique skillset as a Designer, Creative Director, Brand Strategist, and Entrepreneur gives him more perspective than he could ever share during a single appearance on the STORY stage.

Ben Rabner

Customer Experience & Innovation Leader, Former Experience Designer for Adobe

Ben is a fire-starter in helping companies and leaders become disruptors and change agents in building strategies and tactics that ignite, excite and motivate profitable customer behaviors. He spent over nine years as the Experiential Marketing Director at Adobe stretching the boundary of the physical and virtual experience which has completely transformed the way Adobe connects with their customers and employees.

Ben’s superpower is that he brings together both Systems + Human-Centered Innovation. He excels at this by uniquely understanding systems holistically (marketing systems, culture systems, campaign systems, product or services systems, etc) PLUS bringing novel and useful ideas based on human needs to solve the problems of the system and find new growth opportunities.

Ben guides teams and organizations that are daring to reimagine their path forward into this wild landscape of disruption and change, by leading firms in marketing, customer experience, or innovation. Yes, there are some nuanced differences between these functions, but at their core – and the core of any business – are the same essential skills: deeply understand your customer’s needs, create new ideas that matter, test those ideas fast, and get them to market.

Jeremy Cowart

Renowned Photographer, Multi-disciplinary Artist, & Entrepreneur

Jeremy Cowart is a photographer, artist, and entrepreneur whose goal in life is to use his creative platform to inspire and help others. He’s also one of the most brilliant solopreneurs we know. Jeremy is a sought-after speaker, having presented at TEDx, the United Nations and creative conferences across the country. His latest endeavor is The Purpose Hotel, a planned global for-profit hotel chain designed to fuel the work of not-for-profit organizations. He’s also the founder of a global photography movement, Help-Portrait and an online idea-community called Liminal Society. The story of all of these projects is told in his brand new book “I’m Possible: Jumping into Fear and Discovering a Life of Purpose. He lives in Franklin, TN with his wife and four children. Don’t miss Jeremy’s main stage talk! It will leave you inspired and ready to create with purpose!

Janelle Traister

Content and Brand Messaging Strategy Expert

Janelle Traister has a passion for elevating the heartbeat and the stories woven into the fabric of every brand. She collaborates with visionary leaders and forward-thinkers to help them connect their message with the right people, so they can build meaningful brands that positively impact the world.

David Hutchens

Author and Leadership Development Expert

David Hutchens has been exploring the intersection of narrative, leadership, and complex systems change for more than 20 years. A bestselling author, business writer and learning designer, he creates solutions for Accenture, Harvard Business Review, L’Oreal, Pay Pal, The Coca-Cola Company, Wal-Mart, IBM, The US Olympic Committee, and many others. His partnerships include a recurring instructor position with the globally renowned INSEAD School of Business in Fontainebleau, France.

David speaks to organizations and leadership teams all around the world on the topic of storytelling as an organizational capacity. His new book is “Story Sprint”, due Winter, 2021, and will be his tenth book. He is the author of “Circle of the 9 Muses: A Storytelling Field Guide for Innovators and Meaning Makers, (Wiley & Sons 2015). He is also the creator of the Leadership Story Deck an innovative, card-based resource for developing narrative driven communications.

David has served as an executive speechwriter or ghostwriter for global thought leaders such as Stephen M.R. Covey, and the CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. In partnership with Experience To Lead, he develops or facilitates immersive story driven leadership programs such as The Team USA Leadership Experience at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado springs; and The Apollo Leadership Experience at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Ben Stewart

Co-Founder of Louder Agency

Ben Stewart is co-founder of Louder Agency, a proud partner of STORY. He’s spent over a decade helping brands make a great first impression online with intentional, customer centric marketing and web strategies. Today he’s on a mission to help purposeful leaders increase their impact on the world by telling better stories.

Diana Wei Fang

Social Media & Systems Strategist

Diana is the Founder of The Finer Points and is a Social Media & Systems Strategist. She believes that by empowering the creative economy to pursue their passion, the world changes for the better. Diana has supported over 2,000 business owners in streamlining their systems. 

As a HoneyBook Pro, she loves helping her clients get their systems in place, so they can focus on what matters most, the world hearing their stories.

Michael McRay

Award-winning Author, Facilitator, Mediator & Storytelling Consultant

Michael McRay’s extensive work in story has taken him around the world—to places like the Middle East, South Africa, Rwanda, Northern Ireland, and U.S. prisons. Michael’s the author of three books, and his newest one is the award-winning I Am Not Your Enemy: Stories to Transform a Divided World. A seasoned facilitator, trained mediator, and storytelling consultant, Michael spent seven years producing and hosting Tenx9 Nashville, a long-running live community storytelling event. He holds executive certification in Public Narrative from the Harvard Kennedy School, Conflict Coaching from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, and a Master’s in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation from Trinity College Dublin. 

Jeremy Casper

Award-Winning Director, Writer, and Producer

Jeremy Casper is a noted speaker, author, story consultant, virtual reality animator, and illustrator. Through his production company, Cornfed Pictures, Jeremy wrote, directed, and animated Lightning: A VR Story, the world’s first 360˚, 3D animated narrative film, created entirely IN virtual reality FOR virtual reality. In partnership with The Global Short Film Network, Jeremy leads screenwriting and directing seminars all over the world. He co-authored two books on writing for short films – The Inside Out Story: Discovering Structure for Short Films, and, Master of the Cinematic Universe: The Secret Code to Writing in the New World of Media, and is currently working on his third book about the human mind and the deceptive nature of story. He is the former Co-Director of the Los Angeles Film Studies Center where he taught Narrative Storytelling and Professional Screenwriting for fourteen years.

Favorite quotation: 
“I need to believe that something extraordinary is possible.” – Alicia Nash from A Beautiful Mind