Theme: One Step Beyond

Every idea starts as a journey to an uncharted place - either to the center of ourselves or the edges of possibility. The journey is winding, with flashpoints of insight and strife, but an idea that inspires action can propel us to new and astonishing discoveries.

This year, we're taking you on that journey. With surprising and original thinkers sharing visionary ideas, we'll amplify the next great movement, right from our stage. Our goal is simple: to move one mind, to excite one person, to ignite one passion, and to take one step beyond.

Yellow Box
1635 Emerson Ln
Naperville, Illinois, 60540
United States

Anirudha Sumant

Superlubricity Materials Scientist

Dr. Anirudha Sumant is a materials scientist at the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy facility. He is a leading expert on energy-efficient systems based on nanocarbon materials. His work on superlubricity—near zero friction—has opened a new era in solid lubrication technology. Sumant is an award-winning inventor of more than 20 leading-edge technologies and has authored more than 120 peer-reviewed publications. He has helped form several technology-based start-up companies, and has developed a nanotechnology kit, available to high schools across the nation, that gives students first-hand nanofabrication experience in their classrooms.

Benny Lee

Incarceration Reentry Specialist

Benny Lee spent the late 60s through early 80s as a gang leader of the Conservative Vice Lord Nation, eventually spending three years on death row. He is now a community liaison and reentry specialist for TASC, preparing individuals to make successful transitions from incarceration into the community. He also works with communities to help them build their capacity to effectively receive individuals returning home following incarceration. He is a nonviolence trainer for the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago.

Col. Jill Morgenthaler

Leadership Expert

Retired Colonel Jill Morgenthaler is a woman of many firsts. She was in the Army's experimental class to test if women could lead men into combat. She was the first female company commander in the Army Security Agency Group Korea on the North Korea border. She was the first woman battalion commander in the 88th Division and the first woman brigade commander in the 84th Division. Morgenthaler was also the first woman to run homeland security for Illinois. In 1980, she spoiled a Soviet plot to kidnap a satellite engineer. For her distinguished military service, Morgenthaler received the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star. Morgenthaler is now an expert and speaker on leadership. Her book, The Courage to Take Command: Leadership Lessons from a Military Trailblazer, provides radical leadership insights from her three decades of military service, from her first days in ROTC to some of the world's most dangerous war zones, including Bosnia and Iraq.

Don Pettit

NASA Astronaut

Donald R. Pettit, Ph.D., a Silverton, Oregon native, holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Oregon State University and a Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arizona. Prior to becoming an astronaut, he worked as a staff scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico. Selected by NASA to be an astronaut in April 1996, Dr. Pettit reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996. A veteran of three spaceflights, Dr. Pettit has logged more than 370 days in space and over 13 spacewalk hours. He lived aboard the International Space Station for 5 1/2 months during Expedition 6, was a member of the STS-126 crew, and again lived aboard the station for 6 1/2 months as part of the Expedition 30/31 crew.

Dr. Alison Escalante

Pediatrician

As a pediatrician and writer, Dr. Alison Escalante is on a mission to help parents step out of the culture of anxiety to reconnect with themselves and their kids. She is a recovering worried mother herself, as she raises two rambunctious boys. She did her undergraduate work at Princeton University in Medieval and Renaissance History with a focus in cultural interpretation. She went on to medical school at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson. She did her residency in Pediatrics at Duke and University of Chicago. She is practicing pediatrician in Naperville with DuPage Medical Group and writes a column for Psychology Today called Shouldstorm: How Parents can Find Their Power in a World that Won’t Stop Pushing.

Eric Bischoff

Reality TV Producer

In 1991, Turner Broadcasting’s World Championship Wrestling (WCW) recruited Eric as an on-camera talent. His entrepreneurial instincts and interests quickly propelled him from talent through the corporate ranks to become WCW's President in 1998. Before leaving Turner Broadcasting in 1999, Eric had established WCW as the leader in the sports/entertainment category and is largely credited for re-inventing the professional wrestling genre. Eric also created the New World Order (nWo) brand for the TNT Network and was responsible for growing licensing, merchandising, pay-per-view, and live event business units by more than $325M. In 2002, he joined long time competitor Vince McMahon to be an on-air character on the highly successful USA Network Series “RAW”. Eric Bischoff can be heard on his weekly podcast 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff exclusively on Westwood OnePodcast Network.

Ian Maksin

Cellist, Composer & Multilingual Vocalist

Russian-born, Chicago-based cellist, composer, and multilingual vocalist Ian Maksin has gained international recognition for his beautiful tone, his own unique innovative playing style, and for taking the cello well outside its conventional role. He kicked off his 2018 tour with a sold-out performance at one of New York City's most prestigious venues, Le Poisson Rouge. By the end of the year, Maksin will have played over 200 concerts in more than 30 countries on four continents. His latest album, Zaria, was released in April of 2017 and features original compositions and folk music from Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Belarus, and Macedonia.

Jacyara de Oliveira

Mixoligist

Jacyara de Oliveira has been involved in the beverage industry of Chicago for the last 7 years. She started as a bar-back and server at the esteemed cocktail lounge and restaurant, The Drawing Room, where she learned the world of spirits and cocktails from the best in the business. She later moved on to bar tend at several locations throughout the city including Perennial Virant, Belly Q, and Folklore. She was on the opening teams at Nico Osteria and Sportsman's Club, where her responsibilities were elevated to managing the bar and leading additional programming over the next two years.

Jodi Swanson

Artist

Jodi Swanson is a photographer most known for her Women of Strength project. She has exhibited this project internationally, but prefers to post her work online in the hopes it will reach someone who truly needs it. With a Facebook following of 75,000, her haunting work not only tells the stories of inspirational women, but documents her own journey through the darkness of a relationship and coming out of it. Her camera was her form of healing and setting herself free from the silent tears so many cry but never speak of. By day, Jodi works in corporate technology. She is a single mom to a 10-year-old boy who is a Waveland Ballhawk and chicken connoisseur. The two of them travel once a month from Wrigley to her parent's small farm in Wisconsin to visit the fainting goats and to be a little bit “country.”

Mark LaPenna

pace Communications Pioneer

Since attending Space Camp at the age of 9, Mark LaPenna has had a passion for space. For the first 20 years of his professional career, he worked in the aviation and aerospace industries, mostly in how data could be utilized in a variety of applications. 6 years ago, he was recruited to digitize and commercialize live aviation data, but shortly into his contract, he discovered the shocking fact that of the 100,000 commercial flights daily, nearly 20% of them went untracked during flight operations. He conceived a plan to track these assets from space and, over the following years, built a business on solving this problem. But a new, larger problem was emerging - the cost of transmitting the massive amount of data generated per day from satellites to the Earth was nearly $100M per year. So, Mark pivoted his company to solve this problem and Xenesis was born.

Michelle Furlow

Emergency Preparedness Expert

Michelle Furlow has worked in the criminal justice field since 2001 and has a Master's in Criminal Justice from the University of Alabama and an upcoming Ph.D. from Indiana University. A former patrol officer for the City of Bloomington, Indiana, she is currently a professor in Moraine Valley Community College's Criminal Justice Department and the college's program coordinator for the Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness & Continuity Certificate (EPCC). She is also an adjunct faculty member in Aurora University's Criminal Justice Department and a training instructor for the Cook County Sheriff’s Department. Michelle grew up in Naperville, but has lived in Iowa, Alabama, and studied for a short time in France. At home, she enjoys time with her son and daughter, two dogs, and cat. Her significant other lives in Colorado, so she escapes to the Rocky Mountains as often as possible.

Monica Genta

educator

Monica is a middle school science teacher, nationwide educational consultant, and motivational speaker. She’s the author of two books, Game Changers and 180 Days of Awesome. She has earned a Masters in Curriculum & Instruction and a Masters in Educational Leadership & Administration and is a National Board Certified teacher. Her goal is to transform teachers, leaders, and schools from seeing education as an ordinary job into an extraordinary adventure. Genta feels that every person who walks into a school deserves to love their experience. She is a believer in finding awesome and celebrating life every day! Genta is full of energy, passion, and love for helping others on their journey in life and learning.

Moran Cerf

Neuroscientist

Dr. Moran Cerf is a professor of neuroscience and business at the Kellogg School of Management and the neuroscience program at Northwestern university. His research uses methods from neuroscience to understand the underlying mechanisms of our psychology, behavior, emotion, decision making, and dreams. His works address questions such as: "How are conscious percepts formed in our brain?", "How can we control our emotions?", and "Which brain mechanisms determine if we find content engaging?"

Sarah Ware

Biohacker

Dr. Sarah Blossom Ware is the founder of Bioblaze Labs in South Elgin, IL. Bioblaze Labs is a fully-functional biology lab with centrifuges, PCR machines, beakers and chemicals that members of the general public can use to perform original biological experiments. Sarah grew up in rural Arkansas with no electricity or running water. She is now a biology professor at Benedictine University and College of DuPage and is on the advisory board of Hub88, a new tech innovation hub in Naperville. Sarah strongly advocates for open source sharing of scientific information and for the democratization of science.

Vernon LaVia

Birder Superlister

A bird watcher (or "birder") for 47 years, Vernon LaVia has adventured to 6 continents, 48 countries, and all 50 U.S. states in the pursuit of listing bird species. Since the age of 7, he has recorded over 3,600 species, joining a rare group of "superlisters" who have compiled massive "life lists" of birds they've identified. In North America, he's identified 740 (81%) of the 914 known bird species. He is also on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Audubon Society. LaVia has a B.A in Economics from Duke University (where he was also part of the Navy ROTC) and has spent the last 15 years at Fortune 100 companies, opening over a dozen businesses himself. He is currently the CEO of Defibrillators, Inc., a company that distributes and sells portable defibrillators throughout the U.S. He has been married to his wife, Linda, for 26 years and has 2 daughters, Veronica and Jacqueline. He's always willing to lead anyone on a nature hike.