KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Dr. Sian Beilock
President, Dartmouth
Dr. Sian Leah Beilock is the 19th President of Dartmouth, and Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
A distinguished cognitive scientist, President Beilock is one of the world’s foremost experts on performance under pressure. She explores the brain and body factors that influence skill learning and performance, as well as how simple psychological strategies can be used to ensure success in high-stakes situations ranging from test-taking and public speaking to athletics. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the highest honors in her field, and received the 2017 Troland Award from the National Academy of Sciences.
She is the author of 120 peer-reviewed papers and two critically-acclaimed books — Choke and How The Body Knows Its Mind — published in more than a dozen languages. Her 2017 TED talk on performing under pressure has been viewed more than 2.7 million times.​
Meg Bolger
Facilitator and Co-Founder
Meg Bolger is an expert facilitator, social justice educator, and participatory educator.
Meg has been facilitating for over a decade and is currently the head of Facilitator Cards and POP Facilitation. Meg has co-founded numerous projects and businesses focused on facilitation including The Safe Zone Project, FacilitatingXYZ, Unlocking the Magic of Facilitation, and Facilitator Cards and spent much of the last decade training trainers from around the country (and world) on the art of facilitation.
Meg’s foundations in facilitation came from her work in social justice education and Gender & Sexuality workshops. She believes that facilitation is one of the key skills of educators, leaders, organizers, and facilitators who are trying to bring about meaningful change in the world. Her work in social justice spaces also gave her years of navigating hot topics, challenging conversations, and loaded disagreements in group settings.
Meg is passionate about the subtleties of what helps groups work, learn, collaborate, and connect with each other. She loves to break down the art of facilitation into skills that people can use to help humans collaborate, communicate, and connect better together.
Meg believes that as leaders, educators, trainers, and facilitators, we can make our spaces places that people feel good and want to be in. Her mission is to share everything she knows about facilitation to support everyone who is doing meaningful change work in the world.
Dr. Candice Storey Lee
Vice Chancellor for Athletics and University Affairs and Athletic Director, Vanderbilt University
Candice Storey Lee is Vanderbilt’s vice chancellor for athletics and university affairs and athletic director.
Named to the position on May 21, 2020, Lee is Vanderbilt’s first female athletic director and the first Black woman to head an SEC athletics program.
During her tenure as Athletic Director, she has successfully led the most ambitious fundraising project in the history of Vanderbilt Athletics, the Vandy United campaign that has raised more than $300 million to dramatically upgrade programming and facilities for every Commodore program and student-athlete. She has also added a new varsity sport (women’s volleyball, debuting in 2025) and made head coaching hires in football, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s tennis, track and field/cross country, and women’s volleyball.
A team captain, four-year letter winner, and five-time SEC Academic Honor Roll selection as a member of the Vanderbilt’s women’s basketball team, Lee earned undergraduate, masters, and doctorate degrees from Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of education and human development.
She began her athletics administration career at Vanderbilt in 2002, serving first as an academic adviser and then compliance director. Working under the late athletic director David Williams, Lee was named the department’s senior woman administrator in 2004, a responsibility she held until 2020. She also assumed the title of deputy athletic director in 2016, overseeing the day-to-day operations of the athletic department.
Beyond her duties at Vanderbilt, Lee is a leader in college athletics at a national level. She has served on the Southeastern Conference’s Council on Racial Equity and Social Justice and on the executive committee of the Black Athletic Directors Alliance. She also formerly served as a member of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Rules Committee and as chair of the NCAA Division I Women’s Lacrosse Committee. Lee has been recognized by peers and media as one of the leading administrators in college athletics. In 2022, she was named Athletic Director of the Year at the Black Student-Athlete Summit. The Sports Business Journal named her to its college sports “Power Players” list in 2019, and Adidas named her to its “NEXT UP” class in 2018.
She currently serves or has served on the boards of directors for the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, Nashville Sports Council, YWCA of Middle Tennessee, Harpeth Hall School, and The Family Center.
During Lee’s time at Vanderbilt, Commodore teams have won six national championships in baseball (two), bowling (three) and women’s tennis. Vanderbilt teams have also won more than 20 conference championships and tournament titles, including baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, bowling, women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, women’s lacrosse, women’s soccer, and women’s tennis. Additionally, the football team has played in six bowl games since breaking a 26-year bowl drought in 2008.
Vanderbilt student-athletes continue to succeed in the classroom under Lee’s leadership. The Spring 2024 semester marked the 29th consecutive semester Vanderbilt student-athletes posted a cumulative GPA above 3.0 (3.44).
Lee is married to Sean Lee, the executive director of a Middle Tennessee housing authority. They have an adult son, Andrew.