Keynote Speakers
Morning Keynote Speaker
Soledad O’Brien
Special Correspondent and Anchor for CNN’s Special Investigations Unit
One of the most recognized broadcasters of television news, CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien delivers life-changing stories that impact our communities, our country, and our world. With her detailed reports focused on men, women and families in the Latino and Black communities (Black in America, Black in America 2, and Latino in America), Soledad sheds light on the successes, the struggles, and the complex issues these cultures face in America. A member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Soledad is frequently acknowledged for her work, volunteerism, and philanthropic efforts, having received the NAACP President’s Award and the first ever Soledad O’Brien Freedom’s Voice Award, created in her honor by Community Voices at the Morehouse School of Medicine.
Luncheon Keynote Speakers
Leigh Anne & Collins Tuohy
Real-life mother and daughter from The Blind Side
Leigh Anne and Collins Tuohy, the adoptive mother and sister of Baltimore Ravens’ Michael Oher, will share their inspirational story, made famous by the book and film The Blind Side, during the luncheon. From Leigh Anne's first encounter with Michael sitting at a bus stop on a cold night in the pouring rain, wearing only a t-shirt and shorts, to the family’s decision to adopt Michael. The audience will be transported by their journey. By bringing Michael into their home, they influenced his life, but he positively changed their family and their community.
Afternoon Keynote Speakers
Nicholas Kristof
Two-Time Pulitzer Prize-winning Columnist for the New York Times
Somaly Mam
Cambodian Human Rights Activist and Founder of the Somaly Mam Foundation
Cambodian human rights activist Somaly Mam and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times Nicholas D. Kristof will discuss their work in the global community.
Born in a tribal ethnic minority family in Cambodia, Somaly Mam struggled through poverty and limited opportunities during her childhood. Because of this, she was sold into a life of sexual slavery. Somaly made it her mission to escape and later to find a way to stop this vicious cycle. Her past has fueled her passion and all her efforts to help young children and women who have become victims of sex slavery and human trafficking. Her two organizations seek to save, rehabilitate and socially integrate victims of sexual slavery, and her diligence and perseverance to combat sex slavery and human trafficking has brought Mam enormous international recognition. Time acknowledged her as one of the 100 most influential people of the world in 2009, and she has been named a CNN Hero and Glamour Woman of the Year. She has also received the World Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child and the Roland Berger Award for Human Dignity. Her story is told in her book The Road of Lost Innocence.
Somaly’s organization www.somalymam.org is documented and spoken of by Nicholas Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn in their newly released book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. Nicholas, along with his wife, received a Pulitzer for coverage of China’s Tiananmen Square democracy movement. He has lived on four continents, reported on six, and traveled to 140 countries, plus all 50 states. Haunted by what he has seen in Darfur, Nicholas has traveled to the region four times to provide coverage of the genocide that is unfolding there. In 2006, he won his second Pulitzer Prize for Commentary "for his graphic, deeply reported columns that, at personal risk, focused attention on genocide in Darfur and that gave voice to the voiceless in other parts of the world.” He has received the George Polk Award, the Overseas Press Club award, the Michael Kelly award, the Online News Association award, and the American Society of Newspaper Editors award.
