Opening Keynote Speaker: Dr. Kimberly Dickman

Loneliness doesn’t just affect individuals, it harms teams, organizations, and communities. This opening keynote explores the science and practice of connection, showing how relationships shape health, performance, and leadership. Through interactive exercises and real-world insights, participants will learn the principles of High Quality Connections: presence, genuineness, affirmation, and effective listening. Dr. Kimberly Dickman blends humor, energy, and research to reveal how small shifts in behavior can build trust, reduce harm, and strengthen bonds. Attendees leave equipped with practical tools to foster belonging, resilience, and cooperation in both personal and professional settings.
 

Dr. Kimberly Dickman is a dynamic, nationally recognized speaker who brings humor, energy, and science together to captivate audiences and spark action. She is a sought-after voice on emotional intelligence, healthy relationships, human thriving, and sexuality, presenting at colleges, athletic departments, national conferences, and community events. With a gift for making research relatable and relevant, her authenticity and expertise don’t just inform, they transform. Her unique blend of expertise and authenticity leaves audiences not only engaged but motivated to create meaningful change in their lives and communities.

Across the globe, women are courageously dismantling systemic barriers while forging new paths of leadership, innovation, and hope. Drawing from my own personal journey, and my work alongside Tirzah International's global network of women in leadership, we'll explore how cultural courage, faith, and collaboration can transform communities. In this session, participants will discover practical insights on fostering inclusive leadership, shifting paradigms, and building resilient networks that amplify women’s voices. Together, we will envision and equip a future where women lead lasting global change.
 

Suzy Bates is the Executive Director of Tirzah International, a global network advancing women’s economic empowerment and leadership. With over a decade of nonprofit leadership, she has pioneered paradigm-shifting initiatives, including becoming the first female preacher and executive pastor in her church’s history. Suzy has mobilized international partnerships across India, Africa, the Middle East, and beyond, championing women’s voices in faith and leadership. A seasoned communicator and coalition builder, she brings a compelling vision for systemic change that equips women worldwide to thrive and lead.

Our patterns can either limit us or expand us, depending on the stories they hold. Too often, these stories are shaped by culture, family, or systems that do not reflect our full power. In this interactive session, Dr. Barbara Ann Jacques guides participants to uncover limiting narratives, reframe them into empowering truths, and design a personal action plan. Together, women will practice supporting each other’s voices, leaving with tools to embody conscious leadership and bring more equality, choice, and empowerment into every part of life.

Participants will take part in a guided reflection where they identify a story that has limited their leadership, explore how it has shaped their choices, and rewrite it into a more empowering truth. They’ll leave with a clarified personal statement and one practical step they can begin using immediately.
 

Dr. Barbara Ann Jacques is a professor, consultant, and founder of Disrupting Gracefully. With nearly 30 years in criminal justice and the study of human behavior, she has seen firsthand how old systems and stories shape lives. Inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s reminder that we don’t change reality by fighting it but by building new models, she helps women cultivate a deeper inner connection, disrupt the narratives that no longer serve them, and create new models of leadership rooted in clarity, confidence, and conscious choice.

Impact investing is more than a financial strategy‚ it is a transformative force that directly supports women’s rights, advances equality, and fosters empowerment on a global scale. This session will explore how directing capital with purpose can create measurable improvements in the lives of women and girls, from funding women-led enterprises to advancing access to healthcare, education, and sustainable livelihoods.

Drawing on real-world examples and the latest research, I will show how impact investing breaks traditional barriers, channels resources toward inclusive growth, and creates intergenerational wealth opportunities. Attendees will learn how aligning financial decisions with values not only generates returns but also ensures that women and girls‚ often excluded from traditional investment flows‚ are positioned at the center of economic progress.

Kristine brings 25 years experience in financial growth planning and management. She holds an MBA from the University of Denver, Daniels College of Business where she has also served on Adjunct Faculty. As co-founder and past Board President of Smart-Girl, Inc a Colorado 501(c)3 leadership organization she has supported the lives of over ten thousand girls on the Front Range through a partnership with Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Her influence extends globally. She was selected by the US State Department to travel to India, where she worked alongside women entrepreneurs to accelerate their businesses, expand their leadership and amplify their impact. She has a passion for unlocking potential and creating lasting change for girls, women and their communities.

American men are hurting. According to the new State of American Men 2025 report released by Aquimundo Center for Masculinities and Social Justice, American men are anxious about their economic security, have increasingly restrictive views on masculinity, are feeling increasingly isolated, and feel that no one cares about them. This anxiety is fueling their increasingly narrow views of their worth in the world. The good news is that men are increasingly open to family-friendly policies. If we show up for our men, they will show up for all of us. Bob Vines will examine the information from this report and discuss how taking an "inviting men" instead of "indicting men" approach in violence prevention is a far more effective strategy. 

Bob Vines is the Violence Prevention Coordinator at the University of Wyoming where he works with students and staff in reducing power-based and sexual violence on campus. Formerly, he was a prevention specialist at the Wyoming Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, focusing on engaging men in violence prevention, teen dating violence, and childhood trauma. He has also worked as a courtroom advocate, preparing survivors and witnesses for court hearings and trials. He was a 2018 recipient of the NSVRC Visionary Voice Award for his work with Wyoming high school athletics coaches in violence prevention.