Theme: Innovation, Collaboration, Scholarship

The theme of this year’s event is “Innovation, Collaboration, and Scholarship.” At this event, we will share groundbreaking ideas from six different faculty and staff speakers and four different professional speakers from outside of North Carolina. Talks will range from how to get rid of fear, uncertainty, and doubt in your life to the importance of staying vigilant about human trafficking. We hope that this event will create a space that fosters critical and creative thinking.

James A. Thomas Hall
333 Braves Drive
Upchurch Auditorium
Pembroke, North Carolina, 28372
United States

Adam Griffiths

Performer, Educator, Composer

Adam Griffiths is a performer, educator, composer, and arts administrator. With a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance, both from the University of Utah, Adam is a well-rounded musician who actively seeks unique career opportunities. Some favorite performance roles include Anatoly Sergievsky in Chess, King Kaspar in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Bob Cratchit in the world premiere opera A Christmas Carol, and the title role in Bernstein’s Candide. He has soloed in many large choral works including Dan Forrest’s Requiem for the Living, Robert Ray’s Gospel Mass, Saint-Säens’ Christmas Oratorio, and the premiere of Neely Bruce’s oratorio Circular 14: The Apotheosis of Aristides. Adam is also a composer and in 2020 had his choral composition Remember the Songs premiered by the Florida State University Chamber Choir.

Calvina Ellerbe

UNC Pembroke Professor

Dr. Calvina Ellerbe is an award-winning college professor and family scholar, who is motivated by her personal and professional experiences to improve the lives of others. She has earned two Bachelor’s Degrees in Sociology and Psychology, her Master’s and Ph.D degrees in Sociology and a Ph.D minor in Counseling Psychology. Promoting a positive perspective, healthy relationships and healthy families is her specialty. She believes that if we heal families, we can heal the world. Dr. Ellerbe’s drive to help others pushed her to not only inspire her students inside the classroom but to move beyond the classroom to share her message of hope with a variety of audiences. Dr. Ellerbe is a gifted communicator that is talented at making each listener feel personally inspired. She has been blessed to share her gift with large and small audiences as the keynote speaker and she is just getting started.

Charles Beem

UNC Pembroke Professor

As a professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Pembroke, I am totally dedicated to fashioning a literate, thinking, critical society, and I am devoted to the pursuit of social justice, peace, and harmony. As a writer, I have been fascinated with British Monarchy, and the Tudor Dynasty in particular, since I was a kid. My first book, The Lioness Roared (2006) examines the history of female rule in England from the twelfth to the 20th centuries. As I remain intrigued by the possibilities of looking at the 'big picture" of royal history, my second book, The Royal Minorities of Medieval and Early Modern England (2008) examines the history of boy kings from the 13th to the 16th centuries. I am also the co-editor (with Carole Levin) of the book series "Queenship and Power" for publishers Palgrave Macmillan, which has published my third book, The Foreign Relations of Elizabeth I (2011).

Darrell Forte

Education Technology Entrepreneur

I am a former Fortune 500 corporate professional and now a 20-year serial education technology entrepreneur. I am driven by helping learning organizations and my clients facilitate the education process to the benefit all stakeholders involved. I firmly believe that life is nothing more than the sequence of consequences of our decisions and actions. Simply put, albeit that we do not choose the circumstances into which we are born, good or bad, our decisions and actions in life will determine how it plays out. So, to be successful, we must acknowledge and accept the responsibility of our choices and live our lives with intention. Critical to that success is education. Decisions made by an educated mind capable of critical thinking are in essence better decisions that should lead to better consequences. This is what my travels and living in multiple countries have taught me. My goal is to help as many people as possible make the best choices for their future and reimagine what's next.

Gordon Byrd

UNC Pembroke Staff Member

Hi! I am M. Gordon Byrd. I grew up in DC, joined the Army, got saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, and then I came to UNCP. Now, I work here full-time, part-time PhD student at ECU, full-time husband and father, part-time journalist, full-time lover of coffee. When I am not making coffee in the office, I am working on Public Records Requests. When we are not with our Church, my kids and I keep working on Public Records Request, but for a side project that I started in December of 2021. The side project is called International Recruiting Agents Performance Evaluation Project (IRAPEP). The original aim was to create a “Yelp!” for international recruiters, but what I learned made this project much more interesting and informative.

Ivna Curi

Coach and Podcast Host

Everyone deserves to be respected and heard. That’s why Ivna Curi helps people confidently speak up at work to be heard, understood, and taken seriously with assertive communication skills without coming across as aggressive. She provides workshops, coaching, and talks. She also helps companies create a respectful speaking up culture that drives engagement, productivity, DEI, and innovation. She is the host of the “Speak Your Mind Unapologetically” podcast show, has more than 17 thousand students, an international MBA from INSEAD, is a Forbes contributor and a former corporate leader. Get her free trainings on speaking up to get promoted, respected, how to be both assertive and likable, and how to overcome fear of confrontation on her website at https://assertiveway.com/free. Ivna is also a nature enthusiast, an advocate for DEI, an independent critical thinker and loves to dance, hike, and study interior design in her free time.

Kerri Garbis

CEO and founder of Ovation

CEO and founder of Ovation, a twenty-five-person global training firm, Kerri has trained thousands of executives globally in Professional Presence and Speaker Development. She is certified as a Business Etiquette Expert, an Emotional Intelligence Expert, and a Professional Speechwriter. McGraw-Hill is the publisher of her book, Presentation Skills for Managers. A professional actress since childhood, Kerri began her studies in voice and theatre at The Baltimore School For The Arts before earning her BFA in Musical Theatre from Syracuse University. Kerri is a proud member of EO Boston, WPO, and the founder of Be Ready., a non-profit initiative offering Ovation’s professional presence training to young People of Color.

Kim Essendrup

CEO and co-founder of RAIDLOG.com

Kim Essendrup's experience and knowledge come from over 20 years of managing critical project initiatives and delivery teams. He is the CEO and co-founder of RAIDLOG.com, a founder of project management consultancy, The Kolme Group, and co-host of the Project Management Happy Hour podcast. He also recently published his second book, “The Ultimate Guide to RAID Log.” Kim’s professional focus is on coaching and mentoring new leaders to successfully deliver challenging, high value initiatives. He not only enjoys the challenge of project delivery, but also the challenge of endurance sports, having completed several Ironman triathlons and ultra-marathons https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-essendrup/

Mecca Terry

UNC Pembroke Professor

Mecca K. Terry is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Mecca is a native of North Carolina and was raised and educated in New Jersey. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law & Society, two Master degrees in Criminal Justice and Human Services respectively and is currently pursuing her PhD in Criminal Justice. Passionate about empowering minority girls and women, Mecca founded Embracing My Natural, Inc. – a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging natural hair care by providing workshops, events, and information to the community on natural hair care, as well as providing Natural Hair Blessing Bags (the organizations signature community program). The motivation for Mecca’s talk is from her life experiences and successes in manifesting the life she wants. Her talk focuses on steps you can take to visualize what you want and how to make it happen in face of obstacles and adversities.

Xinyan Shi

UNC Pembroke Professor

Dr. Xinyan Shi is a professor of economics in the Department of Economics and Decision Sciences. Dr. Shi received her Ph.D. in economics from UNC Chapel Hill and has been working at UNC Pembroke since 2008. Dr. Shi is passionate about mindfulness practice and conducting research related to mindfulness. She has incorporated mindfulness in her research projects in economics, management, psychology and decision science, and published the very first economics paper that incorporates mindfulness in the field of public goods game. In addition, her most recent work involves the combination of research and services to help local communities and Native Americans. Recently, Dr. Shi was awarded $1.8 Million by National Institute of Health on a grant project over two-year period. The project studies how people’s knowledge level and potential cognitive biases affect their behaviors towards COVID-19 testing and vaccination.