Recent NCYLS Speakers

Our roster of amazing speakers changes every year, but here is a list of some of our speakers form 2009 and 2010, who were all outstanding.

2009, 2010 Keynote: Scott Backovich
Scott Backovich is an up-and-coming youth motivational speaker who has spoken to thousands of individuals across California., and is currently a student at Cal State Long Beach. After discovering his passion for helping others at a young age, Scott began speaking to schools and organizations around the state. Scott is a member of the NCYLS class of 2005, and continues to moderate the seminar, which was his inspiration to become a speaker.

2010 Keynote: Anthony Rapp
Anthony Rapp is an American stage and film actor and singer best known for originating the role of Mark Cohen in the Broadway production of Rent, for which he shared an OBIE Award with the rest of the cast. He's appeared in films such as Dazed and Confused, Road Trip and A Beautiful Mind. A writer as well, Anthony wrote a book entitled Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent about his struggle to balance the demands of life in the theatre with his responsibility to his family during his mother's battle with cancer. Rapp also supports Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and serves on the board of the non-profit organization Friends In Deed, which provides emotional support for anyone with a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS, cancer or other life-threatening physical illnesses.

2010 Keynote: Congresswoman Jackie Speier
Congresswoman Jackie Speier represents California's 12th Congressional District, encompassing the southwest quarter of San Francisco and most of adjacent San Mateo County. She was first elected in April of 2008 after eighteen years in the California Legislature, where she authored more than 300 bills that were signed into law by both Democratic and Republican governors. Before that, she served six years on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and worked as Legislative Counsel to Congressman Leo J. Ryan. She now serves on three influential committees in the House of Representatives: the Committee on Financial Services, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
http://speier.house.gov/

2009 Panelist: Greg Baldwin
President & Member, Board of Directors, VolunteerMatch
Greg Baldwin joined what is now VolunteerMatch in the spring of 1998 as its Chief Imagination Officer to finish hot-wiring the Internet to help everybody find a great place to volunteer. He began his career at the Leo Burnett advertising agency, where many big ideas were born, and he later tested his own ideas as a co-founder of 2d Interactive, Inc. -- a Boston-based technology start-up. Greg is a life-long volunteer and regularly speaks at nonprofit events and conferences on the subjects of volunteering, communication, and the Internet.
www.volunteermatch.org

2009 Panelist: Kathy Blackburn
Board Member, Northern California Coro Center for Civic Leadership
Kathy spent her career in Public Affairs, leading internal/external communications, community relations, and philanthropy, before retiring in 2005. In her last position, she served as Vice President, Public Affairs, for Kaiser Permanente in California. Prior to Kaiser Permanente, she served as Director, Public Affairs for Mervyn’s, a department store company; Community Affairs Officer for the City of Cupertino, CA; Manager of Volunteer Programs for the City of Sunnyvale, CA; and Volunteer Program Coordinator for the Mid-peninsula Regional Open Space District. Since her retirement, Kathy has actively pursued an avocation in music, worked part-time in public relations, sales and marketing, and volunteered for community organizations.
www.coro.org

2009, 2010 Panelist: Carol Lopez
Vice President, Western States Region, GFWC
Carol Lopez is a member of the GFWC Dublin/San Ramon Women’s Club, which is part of the California Federation of Women’s Clubs, which is affiliated with the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, International. Carol has been a member of the GFWC for 40 years. She is a past California State President and currently serves as Vice President of the Western States Region of GFWC. As a Legal Assistant, she currently works part-time in a law office in San Ramon. She is active in her local United Methodist Church, which has the “Joyful Noise Preschool” and is presently the Chairman of the Board. She also serves as a Commissioner for the Parks and Community Services in the City of San Ramon, and is a member of the San Ramon Historic Foundation where she serves as Secretary.
www.gfwc.org

2009 Panelist: Ockemia Kates
Director of Human Resources and Accounting, Challenge Day
Ockemia Kates has served as the Director of Human Resources and Accounting for Challenge Day since August of 2007. She’s an active member of the Peniel Full Gospel Church Transition Team, Finance Team, and she also serves as a Youth and Teen discussion facilitator for Teen Summits. She offers free classes and consultations in several Contra Costa County Communities to encourage literacy on the impact of credit, proper business management, and critical /strategical thinking. Her goal is to raise awareness of our financial choices and our overall goals.
www.challengeday.org

2009 Panelist: Ciara Wade
Program Director for New Door Ventures
Ciara Wade is the Program Director for New Door Ventures, a community-based youth development organization that provides jobs, work readiness training, and supportive case management to at-risk youth. Previous to her work at New Door, Ciara worked in a specialized high school program where she led therapeutic skill-building groups and provided intensive case management for dual diagnosis youth ejected from the public school system. This year, she was accepted to the San Francisco Youth Council, a body that advocates for the needs of youth. She also leads a subcommittee on workforce legislation and policy for the San Francisco Youth Employment Coalition.
www.newdoor.org

2009 KEYNOTE: Pete Ballew
Lieutenant, San Leandro Police
Pete Ballew has lived in San Leandro all of his life. He became a full time police officer in 1984, and has served in various roles. He is currently the Commander of the Criminal Investigations Division in San Leandro. Pete is on the faculty of Chabot College, and is a consultant for the State of California’s Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training, where he teaches in an intensive leadership development program for Police Sergeants called the Supervisory Leadership Institute. He is a past president of The San Leandro Kiwanis Club, and currently serves on the San Leandro Scholarship Foundation Board of Trustees, and the San Leandro Boys and Girls Club Board of Directors.

2009 KEYNOTE: Dr. Renato Almanzor
Director of Programs, LeaderSpring
Dr. Renato Almanzor is a professor at Argosy University, and has also taught at CSU East Bay, Alliant International University and the University of San Francisco. Renato also runs a two-year fellowship program for nonprofit executive directors in the bay area for LeaderSpring. He provides executive coaching to leaders in support of organizational development efforts - strategic planning, program development and team capacity building. Dr. Almanzor has served as Chair of the School Site Council for his son’s school, the Planning & Oversight Committee for the Oakland Fund for Children & Youth, President on the Board of Directors for the Oakland Asian Student Educational Services (OASES), Board of Directors for the San Francisco Coalition of Essential Small Schools, and actively supports many community and multicultural groups, especially Asian Pacific and Pilipino organizations, student groups, and community-based agencies.
www.leaderspring.org

2009, 2010 Panelist: Janet Craddock
Professor of Communications Studies, Sonoma State University
Janet Watson Craddock has consulted for AT&T, Bank of America, Apple Computer, Hewlett Packard, Citibank and UC Berkeley, to name just a few. Janet is recognized for being a purist, creating original custom-tailored programs for each client and carrying the philosophy of “keeping current” into her teaching. Passionate about education she has been an Adjunct Professor at SSU since 1995, combining her undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Communications with her graduate work in Multicultural Communications. She recently launched MySpeak Coaching to enhance the interview skills of students from middle school through grad school.

2009, 2010 Panelist: Patricia Hyland
Dean of Faculty and Staff at Foothill College
As the Dean of Faculty and Staff at Foothill College, Pat Hyland is responsible for the professional development needs of over 500 employees. Pat is passionate about making a difference in the lives of disadvantaged youth which led her to develop an innovative partnership between the college and the Mountain View Whisman School District. The program brought underachieving, disadvantaged youth to the college for a summer program focused on improving achievement in mathematics. Over 80% of the students participating in the program improved their math scores. When not working at the college or with students, Pat can be found speaking to groups about surviving breast cancer, working out at the gym or riding her motorcycle.
www.foothill.edu

2009, 2010 Panelist: Nyla Rodgers
Founding director of Mama Hope
Nyla Rodgers is the founding director of Mama Hope. In 2007, Nyla was the Africa Program Coordinator for the UN Environment Program’s San Francisco Delegation to Kenya. It was during this trip that Nyla decided to create her own organization to provide resources to community based organizations in the developing world. Nyla is a member of Transcend, an association of international peace researchers, dedicated to creating a world that handles conflicts nonviolently. With the founding of Mama Hope, she has taken another small step toward birthing that world.
www.mamahope.org

2009, 2010 Panelist: Michael Smith
English Teacher, Mountain View Los Altos District
Michael Smith is in his 9th year of teaching English and AVID at his alma mater Los Altos High School. He is a graduate of UCLA and earned his teaching credentials from Notre Dame de Namur University. He is passionate about teaching, and in his spare time, writes song lyrics.
www.mvla.net

2009, 2010 KEYNOTE: Patrick Maurer
PMaurer Communication LLC
Take Mary Poppins, add in some Dane Cook, and one part Mr. Rogers and you can begin to describe Patrick Maurer, a dynamic speaker, who empowers audiences of all ages throughout the United States and Canada. Whether facilitating a team-building session in a classroom or keynoting an event for thousands in venues as large as Six Flags Magic Mountain, Patrick keeps audiences engaged, combining his experience as a high school English teacher and his improvisational performance background with Comedy Sportz. His passion and his unique blend of humor, heartfelt stories, insightful observation, and pop culture lingers with audiences long after the presentation ends. Patrick graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University and is a proud member of the National Speakers Association.
www.pmaurer.com

2009 Panelist: Matthew Dean
Former Mayor, Campbell City Council
Matthew Dean has held a number of management positions over the past 25 years at IBM, Siemens, Compuware, ROLM, Borland, Macrovision and others. Currently, he is focused on the development of a new, and up to 80% more energy efficient, product that’s present in most American homes. Matthew is also an inventor with 7 U.S. Patents and he also built the home in which his family lives. From 1996 to 2004 Matthew served on the Campbell City Council and has been Campbell’s Mayor and Vice Mayor. As a Council member he served the community in a number of roles on numerous committees covering everything from housing, to transportation, to flood control, to waste, recycling and water. Matthew currently is serving on the Campbell Union High School Board and is the board clerk.

2009 Panelist: Dan Faustina
Associate Vice President, Intercare Solutions
Dan Faustina is currently the Associate Vice President at Intercare Insurance Solutions. Prior to joining Intercare, he was an area vice president for Gallagher Benefit Services in Pleasanton, California. Dan earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California where he also captained the men’s rowing team and served as president of the Psi Upsilon fraternity. He is very active in the community and currently serves as consumer affairs commissioner for Alameda County and as a coach for the Pleasanton Junior Football League. Dan also serves as a member of the economic development and government relations committees for the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce.

2009, 2010 KEYNOTE: Barak Ben-Gal
Former Budget Director, Oakland Unified School District
Born and raised in Israel, Barak moved to the United States when he was ten years old, and has lived in the United States ever since. Barak is currently the Vice President of Finance for SupportSoft, Inc. He came to SupportSoft after serving as Senior Director of Change Management for Yahoo’s Finance Transformation Office. Previously, he served as the Budget Director for Oakland Unified School District, where he helped bring the District back to fiscal solvency. Barak has been extensively involved with social sector organizations, including serving as a Board Fellow with the Full Circle Fund Bay Area social venture network, spending a summer as a Project Entrepreneur at Ashoka global social venture organization, and currently serving as a Board Member and Treasurer for the Gay-Straight Alliance in California. He was selected for the prestigious Broad Residency in Urban Education, is a founding member of Temple Emanu-El’s Young Adult Leadership Committee, and served on the Israel Commission of the Jewish Community Federation.

2009 KEYNOTE: David P. Faustina, PNLP, PHT
DavidPatrickLeadership, LLC
David Faustina is the lead trainer and motivational speaker with his company, DavidPatrickLeadership, LLC. A highly respected speaker and life stylist, David is a qualified Practitioner of Clinical Hypnotherapy, NLP and Time Empowerment®. For the past year David has been a student of Dr. Matthew James at the American Pacific University and is a member of the Association of Integrative Psychology. As a keynote speaker, David challenges audiences to release limiting decisions to live a more authentic life. David studied Political Science at Pepperdine University and went on to earn certifications in Nonprofit Management from the California State University, East Bay and advanced communications from American Pacific University. Before pursuing his full-time speaking career, David served as a youth minister for five years to a large congregation in the San Francisco Bay Area. He resides in Pleasanton. California and recently completed a Half Ironman Triathlon.
www.leadwithpower.com

 

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