2008 Keynote Speaker: Herman Boone

Herman Boone was head coach of a high school football team that won a state championship in 1971. And while there have been thirty more state championships since then, what makes his so special?

In 1971, racial tensions ran high in Alexandria, VA, as three schools were newly integrated to form the T.C. Williams High School. It was from this union that the Titan football team was created. The former rivalries between the schools coupled with the strain between the black and white players resulted in a team that was far from united.

Tensions only escalated when Boone, assistant coach of the former black T.C. Williams High School, was named head coach of the Titans, passing over Bill Yoast, the local favorite and successful head coach of the former white Hammond High. Yoast's supporters were angered by Boone's appointment, which was seen as a gesture of goodwill to the black community.

Remarkably, the two coaches were able to put aside their prejudices, and in doing so they unified their players to form a team whose common vision was to respect each other and win football games. At the same time, through the game of football, Boone and Yoast were able to help their small Virginian community put aside their intolerance and join together to support their children. The Titans became one of the best teams in Virginia, compiling a 13-0 record and went on to win the state championship.

In 1971, Boone faced the challenge of a lifetime, and his inspirational story was captured in the Disney film "Remember the Titans" starring Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington. "Titans" screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard said in a “Washington Post” interview, “Herman is Shakespearean. The beauty of Herman and what he did was that it was sort of unconscious. If you'd ask Herman when he took over T.C. Williams, ’Were you trying to make a point with these kids?‘ he would have said, ‘No, I just want to win football games.’ He had to get the players to get along to win football games. And it worked for just that reason-because it wasn't self-conscious. He did something quite beyond what even he realized.”

Boone is now retired but continues to motivate and inspire audiences with presentations on respect, teamwork, community involvement and importance of character, among others.

2007 Keynote Speaker: Chad Crittenden

James “Chad” Crittenden was born on a military base in Oceanside, California. Growing up in Half Moon Bay, California, he discovered a love of sports and the outdoors, particularly soccer and fishing. Crittenden attended Half Moon Bay High School, where he participated in many sports (soccer, tennis, bowling, fishing, running, mountain biking) as he pursued a collegiate future.

After two years teaching in San Jose, Crittenden accepted a teaching contract in San Salvador, El Salvador, where he met his wife, Dyann. Upon returning to the US, Crittenden and his family settled in the San Francisco Bay area. They have two children, Clara and Trevor. One day Crittenden went to the doctor to have a lump on the bottom of his foot removed and discovered that it was a cancerous tumor. Synovial Sarcoma, a rare and deadly form of cancer (comprising less than one percent of all cancers) an amputation was necessary just below the knee. His recovery was miraculously quick and he completed a triathlon nine months after the surgery. After many prostheses and much development, he feels that he has almost reached his post-surgery potential. While being cancer free, Crittenden has decided to take a leave of absence to be a full-time dad, which he has been planning for some time.

Crittenden went on the TV show, “Survivor: Vanuatu” to show the general public that people with a disability or a handicap are just as capable as those without. “I wanted to go on ‘Survivor’ to dispel notions that people with disabilities are one step below able-bodied people,” he says. “There is nothing you can do about how others perceive you unless you are doing something to change their mind.”

Crittenden quickly recovered from surgery and completed a triathlon just nine months after the surgery before making it to the final rounds of “Survivor.” Today, he continues to race competitively on a regular basis. His new challenges include taking care of his two young children and authoring a soon-to-be published book about dads and parenting.

2006 Keynote Speaker: Byron V. Garrett

Byron V. Garrett has served Arizona since 1995 when he was appointed by the Mayor of Phoenix to the Human Relations Commission and Central City Village Planning Committee. With a commitment to youth and philanthropy, Garrett held managerial positions with Junior Achievement of Arizona and the A.C. Green Youth Foundation.

With a passion and keen interest in personal development and inner city youth education, Byron founded Life Works International, which provides leadership training and coaching services across the globe. Byron is the former Principal and Co-Founder of two charter schools: Progressive Leadership Academy and Progressive Junior High School. Both schools embrace the motto: “It's Better To Build Children Than To Repair Men and Women.”

In March 2003, Byron served as Special Assistant for School Readiness and Youth Development in the Office of the Governor. Soon he became the Director of the Division for Community and Youth Development in the Governor's Office for Children, Youth and Families; and in January 2005, he was appointed as Governor Janet Napolitano's Policy Advisor on Faith and Community Initiatives. In this capacity, Garrett serves as the liaison to the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives.

Originally from Greensboro, N.C., Garrett obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Human Relations from High Point University.  Byron also holds a Master of Arts in Organizational Management; and is currently a doctoral candidate in the educational leadership, administration and policy program at Pepperdine University.

An accomplished writer, Byron is a former columnist for the Arizona Informant having interviewed celebrities including Vanessa Williams, Samuel Jackson, Jude Law, Rachel Wiesz, and Raven Symone. Byron is the author of four books and co-author of three others, including the popular “The ABC's of Life.”

2005 Keynote Speaker: Paul Rogat Loeb

Paul Loeb has spent over thirty years researching and writing about citizen responsibility and empowerment-asking what makes some people choose lives of social commitment, while others abstain. He is an Affiliate Scholar of the Center for Ethical Leadership, with whom he shares a commitment to fostering hope among those who work in service to the common good.  He has written four widely praised books, lectured to enthusiastic responses at 300 colleges and universities around the country-including Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Chicago, Michigan, MIT, Yale, Cornell, Duke, Wisconsin, and Columbia-and been a leader at numerous conferences.

Loeb’s first book, Nuclear Culture (New Society Publishers) explored the daily world of atomic weapons workers in Hartford, Washington.  Hope in Hard Times (Lexington Books) examined the lives and visions of ordinary Americans involved in grass roots peace activism.  Generation at the Crossroads: Apathy and Action on the American Campus (Rutgers University Press) explored the values and choices of American college students.  Soul of a Citizen: Living with Conviction in a Cynical Time (St. Martin’s Press) looks at what it takes to lead lives of social commitment despite all the obstacles, and now has 85,000 copies in print through ten printings.  His new anthology on political hope, The Impossible Will Take A While, was released in August 2004 by Basic Books.

2004 Keynote Speaker: Craig Kielburger

Craig Kielburger became a spokesperson for children’s rights when he was 12 years old.  Searching for the comics in the local paper, a front-page article caught his attentions.  He read about a young boy from Pakistan who was sold into bondage as a carpet weaver, escaped and was murdered for speaking out against child labor.  Craig gathered a group of friends and founded the organization Free the Children.

Craig, now 21 years of age, has traveled to more than 40 countries visiting street and working children and speaking out in defense of children’s rights.  He frequently addresses business groups, government bodies, educators, unions and students around the world.  He has advocated on behalf of children in meetings with political and religious leaders including Prime Ministers and Presidents, CEO’s of major corporations, Pope John Paul II, the Dalai Lama, Queen Elizabeth II and the late Mother Teresa.  Craig’s work has been featured on major television programs in North and South America and Europe, including CC, the Oprah Winfrey Show, and 60 minutes.

Free the Children has grown into an influential international children’s organization that has involved over 1 million children and youth in its projects.  You members of FTC have raised funds for the construction of more than 400 primary schools in the rural areas of developing nations, providing education every day to over 35,000 children.  They have distributed more than 200,000 school and health kits in 38 countries and in excess of 8 million US dollars worth of medical supplies to needy families in 13 countries.  FTC currently supports potable water projects, health clinics, alternative income cooperatives and primary schools in 21 developing nations.

In 1999, brothers Craig and Mark co-founded Leaders Today.  Teams of trainers travel to schools, communities and religious groups to host academies designed to empower youth with the leadership, teamwork, effective communication and self-confidence skills needed to become active global citizens.  To date, Leaders Today has provided leadership training to over 300,000 young people throughout North America.  In addition to its domestic leadership programs, Leaders Today operates summer and March-break trips for youth interested in volunteering in India, Nicaragua and Thailand; as well as leadership/volunteer retreats to its own centers in Kenya and Arizona.

2003 Keynote Speaker: Naomi Wolf

Naomi Wolf is a best-selling American writer.  She is known for her advocacy of feminism, progressive politics, and Zionism.  Wolf was born in San Francisco in 1962 and studied at Yale and New College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

She became famous because of her first book The Beauty Myth (1990), which became an international bestseller.  In the book, she attacked the exploitation of women by the fashion and beauty industries.  Wolf argued that women deserve “the choice to do whatever we want with our faces and bodies without being punished by an ideology that is using attitudes, economic pressure, and even legal judgements regarding women’s appearance to undermine us psychologically and politically.”

Wolf’s later books are Fire with Fire (1993) on politics and female empowerment, Promiscuities (1997) on adolescence and female sexuality, and Misconceptions (2001) on childbirth.  During Al Gore’s unsuccessful bid for the 2000 U.S. presidency, Wolf was hired as a consultant to help bolster his image.  According to a report in Time Magazine, Wolf was responsible for Gore’s “three-buttoned, earth-toned look” and developed the idea that Gore is “a beta male who needs to take on the alpha male in the Oval Office”.  Wolf’s ideas and participation in the Gore campaign generated media coverage and criticism.  Wolf was also involved in Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election bid where she brainstormed with the Clinton-Gore team about ways to reach “soccer moms” and other female voters.  Wolf is married to a former Clinton speechwriter, David Shipley.