Theme: Outliers

The word outliers may bring to mind people, movements, concepts, or ideas. We are all outliers in some way — in our thinking, our communities, our passions, our values. Think of this theme as a celebration of all the ways we can be and are outliers. We believe there are ideas in our community that have not been given the light or focus they deserve, and this year’s theme is dedicated to giving a stage to those ideas.

Crossroads Uptown
42 Calhoun St
Cincinnati, Ohio, 45219
United States

Allen Woods

Gladiator, Co-Founder

Allen Woods is a devoted husband, father & entrepreneur – in that order. The “Branding Gladiator” has assisted directly in the growth of hundreds of small businesses and personal brands across the globe and serves as the creative force behind MORTAR, earning him a spot on Cincinnati Business Courier’s 40 under 40 list.

Ayesha Haq

JD Candidate

Ayesha Haq is a J.D candidate at the UC College of Law. Currently, she is involved with the Human Rights Quarterly and Asian Pacific American Law Students’ Association. Ayesha’s goal is to create an American society where people from different cultures, backgrounds, and ethnicities are celebrated for their unique differences.

Caitlin Taylor

Teacher

Caitlin Taylor is a 2016 graduate of the University of Cincinnati and a Presidential Leadership Medal of Excellence recipient. Caitlin is a 2016 Teach For America Corps Member in Southwest Ohio, and a special educator at Woodward Career Technical High School. In addition, Caitlin is a Master's candidate at Johns Hopkins University School of Education.

Danilo Palazzo

Director, University of Cincinnati DAAP School of Planning

Danilo Palazzo, educated as architect and planner, is director of the School of Planning at the University of Cincinnati. Previously he was at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy. He has authored books, books chapters, and papers on ecological planning, urbanism, urban ecological design, sustainable planning, and design processes and pedagogy.

Jack FitzGerald

Student

Jack is a senior at the University of Cincinnati graduating in April with a B.A. in Communication and a minor in Psychology. His passions lie in leadership and organizational behavior, long distance running, and western films. Jack dedicates his talk to the UC Department of Communication and his Cincinnati and Cleveland family. Go Bearcats!

Jeff Alt

Author

Jeff Alt walked the entire Appalachian Trail in tribute to his brother who has cerebral palsy and inspired the annual Sunshine Walk for people with disabilities. He lectures about his trail lessons and how nature can help organizations and individuals. He’s the award-winning author of, A Walk for Sunshine.

Levi Bethune

Co-Founder, Cloverleaf

Levi Bethune is a creative director with proficiency in identity discovery. He has communicated hundreds of organization's brand promises. He is Chief Creative Officer at Cladwell--a clothing recommendation app--and co-founder of Cloverleaf--a culture identity tool for teams. He lives in Cincinnati, OH, with no regrets.

Mark Godsey

Director, Ohio Innocence Project

Professor Mark Godsey directs the Ohio Innocence Project at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, and is a leading activist globally in the innocence movement. He is the author of Blind Injustice: A Former Prosecutor Exposes the the Psychology and Politics of Wrongful Convictions, forthcoming September 2017.

MaryBeth Privatera

Professor

Dr. Mary Beth Privitera, Mdesign., PhD, FIDSA is currently the Principal, HFE/Research for HS- Design, Inc.; Co-Chair & Faculty, Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation Human Engineering Committee; and is an Associate Professor, Director, Medical Device Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program for Biomedical Engineering at the University of Cincinnati.

Melinda Butsch Kovacic

Professor + Researcher

Melinda Butsch Kovacic, MPH, PhD is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Research for UC’s College of Allied Health. She’s also a researcher at Cincinnati Children’s. Co-founder of Ignite Partnerships, she uses Polarity ThinkingTM to support organizations in identifying action steps to overcome chronic obstacles and strategically measure outcomes.

Rebekah Michael

Researcher

Rebekah Michael works in the School of Information Technology to educate and promote IT to students of all ages and improve diversity in IT. She utilizes her 14 years of experience in aerospace and defense manufacturing software engineering to teach innovative classes on database management and coordinate the graduate programs.

Smrithi Ram

Student

Smrithi Ram is a current senior at the University of Cincinnati studying psychology. She will be sharing her experience growing up as a first generation Indian-American woman and how that has affected her relationship with both cultures she is apart of. The topic she is focusing on is cultural detachment.