Dr. Elizabeth Doxtader
Leadership Educator
Imposter Syndrome
Feel like a fraud? It just might mean you’re ready!
In this engaging and relatable TEDx talk, Dr. Elizabeth Doxtader explores the hidden experience of imposter syndrome — especially among high-achieving professionals and women leaders. Blending humor, personal storytelling, and research-based insight, her talk reframes imposter syndrome not as a weakness, but as a signal of growth, courage, and readiness for new challenges.
Through vivid real-life examples, she normalizes the inner doubts many successful people quietly carry and offers a more empowering narrative: that feeling like a “fraud” often means you are stretching beyond your comfort zone into meaningful impact.
This talk resonates with educators, leaders, and emerging professionals alike, delivering both inspiration and practical mindset shifts that help audiences move from self-doubt to self-trust.
Dr. Elizabeth Doxtader is a leadership educator who helps people uncover their strengths, challenge self-doubt, and lead with authenticity. With a career spanning higher education, the nonprofit sector, and student development, she has spent over a decade helping individuals and institutions grow through intentional leadership and inclusive excellence.
Dr. Snell is passionate about helping others move from self-doubt to self-trust. Her work is grounded in both research and lived experience, blending evidence-based practice with real stories of resilience, reinvention and growth.
She is also writing a book of The Inner Woman, a reflective work exploring identity, healing and reclaiming one’s voice. Her message is simple but powerful: feeling like a fraud might be a sign you’re stepping into something bigger than you ever imagined.
Dr. Kamal Ghazi
Behavioral health clinician, college instructor & public servant
Trading Certainty for Possibility
Time and reflection help life’s random pieces come together to reveal the whole.
Life has a way of placing pieces into our hands without showing us the final picture on the box. In the moment, the pieces can feel random, unfinished or misplaced. It is only with time and reflection that image begins to emerge, revealing how the experience fits together.
Dr. Kamal Ghazi is a behavioral health clinician, college instructor, and local public servant who earned his Doctorate in Behavioral Health from Arizona State University, his Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan, his Master of Health Administration from the University of Phoenix, and his Bachelor’s from Spring Arbor University. His path and education did not come from a single clear plan, but from repeated exposure to real people in real situations.
For more than a decade, Dr. Ghazi has worked in supervised crisis teams, and conducted research focused on staff burnout and performance. He was an active part of the Adolescent and Young Adults group (AYA) at Michigan Medicine Pediatric Hematology Oncology at Michigan Medicine Pediatric Hematology Oncology.
Today, Dr. Ghazi is a psychology instructor and lead faculty for social work at Jackson College. In his classroom, learning is practical and discussion-based, coaching students to connect theory to real life. He focuses less on perfect answers and more on helping students make sense of what they are learning and how it fits into their own lives.
His work has been recognized at the state and national levels, including by the Michigan Legislature, the United States Congress, the Senate, and the Governor of Michigan. He tends to view these moments less as awards and more as reminders of the responsibility that comes with working in service to others.
Outside of teaching and clinical work, he serves as a City Councilman in Perry, Michigan. He is actively involved in community organizations and local service efforts, and he sees public service as an extension of his education work. He was recognized with a 30 and Under Award in Jackson Magazine.
Sara Anne Tomczak
Equity actress, professor, director and theatre producer
Life Unscripted: The Everyday Power of Yes, And
Improv principles can help us find everyday magic in life’s unscripted moments.
Here’s the truth: Life doesn’t hand us a script. … Tomczak explains how the tools of improvisation: presence, deep listening, uplifting those around you, finding a sense of play, and the shockingly magical power of “yes, and” can reshape the way we live, work, parent, teach, and love.
Improv teaches us what we rarely give ourselves permission to practice: vulnerability and bravery. Tomczak shares specific improv tools, “gift-giving” games that teach listening and help teams communicate with trust instead of fear. These tools work in classrooms, boardrooms, family rooms, and anywhere humans have to decide what to shut down or open up. These skills don’t just make better performers…they make better humans.
Listeners walk away with practical tools, renewed courage and sense of play, and the ability to spot the everyday magic in the unscripted moments of life.
Sara Anne Tomczak is an Equity actress, educator, director and theatre producer whose work spans stage, television, film, sketch comedy and academic theatre. She serves as head of the theatre program at Jackson College, where she teaches theatre courses and directs mainstage productions for students and community performers. Her professional career includes television appearances such as Chicago Fire, working in over 40 national commercials for brands including Zoom, General Motors and Ford. Onstage, she has performed in both classical and contemporary plays, as well as sketch comedy and improv at Chicago’s The Second City.
David Hawley
Business Facilitator for Marketing and Sales
Our Environment Builds Us
A grandfather’s example guides values’ driven career path to success.
A lifelong Jackson County native, David has fond memories of watching his grandpa own and operate many small businesses. These memories, along with the struggles he faced as a young salesperson, instilled the importance of acting with high ethical standards in his career.
This is a story of how your environment can build strong ethics and create the person you will become. As a young boy, I observed and learned from my grandpa Hawley who owned and operated multiple businesses in Jackson. His kind-heartedness and strong moral compass would direct me as a child and later in life.
At 12, delivering the Jackson Citizen Patriot taught David Hawley responsibility and self-reliance. After attending Jackson College and Eastern Michigan University, he began his career in office supply sales but struggled because he did not believe in the products he was selling. That experience reinforced his commitment to ethical business practices.
Hawley later built a successful sales career, which led to an opportunity with Google. There, he developed leadership, communication, and emotional intelligence skills while working on diverse teams and leading multiple projects. Motivated to grow professionally, he earned certifications in marketing, project management, and leadership, pursued Six Sigma credentials, and completed an MBA from Western Governors University in 2025. Throughout his journey, strong ethics—modeled by his grandfather—have guided his decisions and success.
David Hawley is a facilitator who has helped over 1,500 businesses find solutions to their marketing and sales problems. His extensive needs assessment approach has led to historic results for marketing campaigns. They have been featured in Google’s Environmental Impact Awards and gained global recognition among the North American divisions. His emphasis on communication brings teams closer together and builds strong relationships. He earned his master’s in business administration and holds many certifications in marketing and project management.
John Randle Sr.
Certified Executive Level Human Resources Professional
Leadership Without the Ship
How an unexpected encounter propelled a C-student to college and a distinguished career.
Get ready for a powerful, humorous, and deeply human story about how a couple of unexpected “yeses” can change the entire direction of a life.
Raised on Detroit’s east side by a single mother who worked in an auto factory, John Randle Sr. was a self-described C student with no college plans and no clear vision for his future. A simple Career Day encounter with a Navy recruiter set off a chain of small, reluctant decisions that ultimately led—not to boot camp—but to Michigan State University, higher education, leadership roles, and a career he never imagined for himself.
Through storytelling, vulnerability and humor, this talk explores how life-changing opportunities often arrive disguised as interruptions, and how progress doesn’t come from one bold leap, but from a series of uncomfortable, incremental choices. It’s a message about perseverance, possibility, and the transformative power of education — especially for those who never thought college or leadership was meant for them.
This talk inspires audiences to recognize the “nudges” in their own lives, trust the next small step, and believe that their story — no matter where it begins — can become something worth reading.
John Randle Sr. is a Certified Executive Level Human Resources Professional with more than 28 years of HR generalist experience across higher education, P–12 education, municipal government, automotive, consumer goods, risk management, and technology based industries. He has extensive experience managing, developing, and implementing business solutions at multiple organizational levels and currently serves on several boards and commissions. In 2023, he was appointed to the Michigan State Board of Psychology and also serves on the board of Common Ground, a crisis services agency supporting individuals and families across multiple Michigan counties.
A former adjunct professor at Marygrove College and Baker College, he has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Human Resource Management and Labor Relations. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Educational Psychology at the University of Toledo. A frequent conference speaker and dedicated mentor, Randle supports emerging professionals and community learners. He is a Life Member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and resides in Farmington Hills, Michigan.
Dr. Kristen Mudge
Psychologist, Educator
Leadership in Action
Practical, real-life skills pick up where traditional leadership training falls short.
Why does leadership training sound inspiring, yet fail so many people? In this talk, psychologist Kristen Mudge challenges traditional leadership models and reveals why leadership works only when it moves from theory to action, and what real leadership looks like when it finally works.
Dr. Kristen Mudge is a psychologist and educator with over 20 years of professional experience spanning higher education, leadership development, and applied behavioral science, including service in the U.S. military. Her work focuses on turning behavioral science into practical tools for leadership, interpersonal relationships, and everyday life. She teaches and designs psychology courses that challenge learners to move beyond theory and apply evidence-based psychology where it matters most: in real people’s lives.
Roland Anderson
Master Certified Personal Trainer, Life Coach and Motivational Speaker
Leading with Emotional Intelligence
True strength comes not from physical training alone, but from life’s biggest challenges.
In this TEDx talk, I challenge the way we think about leadership by sharing one of the most personal moments of my life, a moment that forced me to stay strong for others while I was falling apart inside. Drawing from years on the front lines of coaching and personal transformation, I reveal how real leadership is forged in pressure, vulnerability, and responsibility, not titles or toughness. Through my story, I invite the audience to rethink what strength truly means and to walk away with the courage to lead with presence, compassion, and heart when it matters most.
Roland Anderson is a Master Certified Personal Trainer, life coach, and motivational speaker specializing in leadership, resilience, and emotional intelligence. His upcoming book, When Leaders Cry, explores how true strength is shaped not only through physical training but through life’s most challenging emotional moments.
With more than 15 years of coaching experience, Roland has guided people through injuries, competitions, and personal obstacles, learning that leadership is forged where emotion meets action—not in perfection. These lessons influence how he coaches, leads, and serves others every day.
Born and raised in Michigan, Roland witnessed the power of community during struggle and experienced a defining moment watching his mother fight for her life — a moment that reshaped his understanding of strength, faith, and leadership.
Now a fitness manager, coach, and mentor, he returns to Jackson College as a proud graduate, sharing a message that blends fitness, vulnerability, and courageous leadership.
Jasmine Isaac Ofori, LPC
Community Engagement Specialist
Flip the Narrative, Foster Potential
Explore how a trusted adult mentor can help youth become the fullest versions of themselves.
Trusted adults have the power to change the trajectory of a young person’s life. Through encouragement, consistency and genuine connection, they help youth discover confidence, purpose, and leadership within themselves. In Jackson, Michigan, the teen leadership group D.R.I.P. (Developing Responsibility in Our Peers) became a living example of this impact. What began as a small mentorship initiative grew into a movement where teens found their voices, supported one another and became leaders in their schools and community.
This talk explores how intentional mentorship can transform not only individual young people but entire communities. By challenging negative narratives about youth and creating spaces where they feel seen and valued, any adult can become a catalyst for change. Listeners are invited to recognize their own potential to serve as trusted mentors and to help build a future where every young person has someone who believes in them.
Jasmine Isaac Ofori is the Community Engagement Specialist for the City of Ann Arbor, where she coordinates engagement initiatives for infrastructure-related projects and policies.
Originally from North Carolina, she holds a Master of Clinical Therapy from Liberty University and dual bachelor’s degrees in Spanish Linguistics and Translation, and Biology from UNC Charlotte. In 2022, she moved to Jackson to work with the Jackson County Health Department, leading school and community-based programs focused on social, emotional, and sexual health education. During this time, she founded the D.R.I.P. Teen Council, deepening her passion for public health and highlighting the transformative role of trusted adult mentors in youth development. Her leadership earned her the 30 and Under Top Young Professional Award in 2023.
Outside of work, Ofori enjoys global travel, has visited over 35 countries, lived in South Korea as an ESL instructor, and authors La Aventura, a travel blog aimed at inspiring more Black Americans to explore the world.
Chris Gorton
Founder of the Words Matter movement
One Voice Wasn’t My Verdict
The world and its language doesn’t define us… we can rewrite our story.
We grow up believing that family is where love surrounds us, and often it is. But as we move through the world, it’s our communities, our classrooms, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, that shape us through the beliefs they speak over us.
In this talk, Gorton explores how the words spoken outside our homes can carve pathways into our identity, influence our confidence, and quietly script the stories we come to live by. Drawing from personal experience and years of mentoring others, she will share how the language we inherit from the world doesn’t have to define us — and how we can reclaim the power to rewrite the words that stay.
Christine Gorton’s first job was counting night crawlers at a bait shop — a fitting start for a life shaped by curiosity, courage, and unexpected turns. Gorton’s had many roles across media, communications, and community leadership, but the work that influenced her most wasn’t paid. Through years of volunteer leadership mentoring women as they learned to trust their voices and step into their potential, Christine discovered the lasting power of belief and encouragement. A proud alumna of Jackson College and Michigan State University, she now speaks about how words — spoken in passing or spoken with intention — can shape identity, belief, and the stories we carry.
Ariel Maturine
CMA (AAMA), B.A.S., A.A.S
Accommodation and Student Resources Coordinator
Accessibility: The Connection Blueprint
Inclusion is human-centered and most powerful when built by design, not by exception.
Accessibility isn’t a burden, it’s a blueprint. Rooted in Michigan’s spirit of community, connection, and thoughtful design, this talk reframes accessibility as a human-first practice that transforms systems, restores choice, and creates spaces where everyone can belong from the start by intention, not by exception.
As the Accommodations and Student Resources Coordinator at Jackson College, Ariel Maturine leads initiatives that make higher education more equitable, intentional and human-centered. Her work spans from classroom design to supporting students who often navigate systems not built for them.
Whether working with faculty, student-athletes, incarcerated learners, or students with disabilities, Maturine’s philosophy remains the same: inclusion is most powerful when built by design, not by exception. She is driven by a desire to make a difference as she continues to inspire and empower the next generation of professionals through innovative and compassionate mentorship focusing on creating engaging learning environments and integrating technology into the classroom.
Beyond the classroom, she continues her work advocating in the community by sitting on advisory boards, supporting local events, and participating in statewide initiatives. Rooted in Michigan’s spirit of resilience and community, Ariel brings policy expertise, compassion, and creativity to every space she serves.