2020 Main Conference Speakers

Equal and Opposite.

Tim Schwab

Tim Schwab is a freelance journalist based in Washington DC whose writing frequently examines conflicts of interest in academic research.  As an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellow in 2019, he investigated how billionaires use private foundations to influence public policy----with little outside scrutiny, regulation or democratic controls. He'll be speaking on competing interests in academic research.

Andrew Spence

Andrew Spence is Manager of Visitor Experience at the Kentucky Science Center where he has worked in the Education Department for 10 1/2 years. With an undergraduate degree in English, Geology, and Art History from the University of Kentucky and a Masters in Museum Studies from the University of Toronto, Andrew brings an object-oriented museum perspective to the high-energy experience-based world of the Science Center. Andrew's responsibilities include the daily floor experience as well as various signature events throughout the year.

Jon Carloftis

After graduating from UK in 1988, Jon moved to New York City and started a garden business before the rooftop garden craze really got going and made a successful business for 25 years, later moving to Bucks County, PA closer to the nurseries and still traveling to New York City for work.  In 2012, he purchased Botherum, the house of his dreams since college, winning the highest honor in the state for preservation. Jon sold his Bucks County home and NYC business and moved back full-time to Kentucky. With projects such as Maker’s Mark, Castle & Key Distillery, the Apiary, and many other private clients, his work is helping Kentucky become known as a “Garden” state as well as the "Bourbon, Basketball, and Horse Capital of the World”.

Rollin Johnson Jr.

Rollin G. Johnson, Jr.’s career and work has focused on deepening the impact of people, program operations, universities, and other organizations within their communities. He brings over 12 years of experience in program management, community relations, and strategic planning. As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, he served in Nepal and Burkina Faso. He is also a former AmeriCorps VISTA member. In 2012, the Peace Corps honored Rollin with the Franklin H. Williams award for his continued commitment to service and fostering understanding among people with diverse backgrounds. His talk will discuss the manner in which volunteers and others in civic engagement and community-based engagement should effectively, and respectfully, enter and exit communities.

Emily Hartka

Emily Hartka fell in love with ballet at the age of five and began dance classes at Roanoke Ballet Theatre in her hometown of Roanoke, VA. She attended summer intensives at the American Ballet Theatre and on scholarship with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Emily spent her senior year of high school at the Virginia School of the Arts in Lynchburg, VA and danced with the Richmond Ballet. In 2008, she relocated to Charlottesville to found the Charlottesville Ballet and to attend the University of Virginia, where she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Nonprofit Management & Arts Administration. Emily serves as Co-Director and leads the marketing and development efforts of Charlottesville Ballet. In 2019, she completed training in the Dance for PD® program by the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, NY and is excited to grow the CB’s Movement for Parkinson’s program. Emily is thankful to all who have made this journey possible and looks forward to her first TEDx talk about her experience with ballet and how she worked to challenge the norms in the industry.

Anna Cuddeback

Anna Cuddeback is a second-year from Medford, MA studying computer engineering and physics. She spends her time at UVA working as a Resident Advisor and has recently begun training to be a guide. Her talk is on the emergence of the internet meme and why it's important for us to understand.

Bruce Mongtomery

Bruce is the General Manager of East Coast operations for Customer Marketing Group (CMG).  CMG is an analytics firm focused on helping consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies optimize their go to market strategies with the major retailers in the USA.  This includes optimizing trade spending, pricing, and distribution. Bruce has spent the majority of his career in the healthcare space, initially rising through the brand management ranks at Bayer Consumer Care and later running most of the commercial operations (sales, marketing, business development, and new product development) functions at Fleet Laboratories.  He was part of the Executive Team that led the successful sale of Fleet Laboratories to private equity in 2014.

Tsega Fisseha

What’s really in a name? Sometimes names are hard to say or to understand, and sometimes people, like Tsega, go by different names in different contexts. But names are really all about treating other people considerately and rightfully. What a person wants to be called at any given time, for whatever reason, should be respected, and that is what matters.