Theme: PAUSE

Pause encourages the audience to relinquish the tension, priorities and pressures of a busy, hustling society in favor of the enrichment that knowledge can offer. We hope our audience can take this time to truly connect with speakers, understanding a diversified lens of concepts they wouldn’t have encountered otherwise.

Oates Theater, Collegiate School
103 N Mooreland Road
Richmond, Virginia, 23229
United States

Carolyn Hawley

President, Virginia Council on Problem Gambling

Carolyn E. Hawley, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling Program, Department of Rehabilitation Counseling, College of Health Professions, at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is also the Director of the Virginia Partnership for Gaming and Health, and President of the Virginia Council on Problem Gambling. She has served on the Board of the National Council on Problem Gambling.

Cory Paradis

Chief Operating Officer, VisitAble

Cory Paradis is a wheelchair-enabled urban planner, designer, accessibility advocate, and certified Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Coordinator with substantial personal and technical experience related to ADA regulations and accessibility challenges. Cory graduated from the University of Virginia (UVA) with a degree in Urban and Environmental Planning and has since worked in the Building Official’s Office at UVA, as a project coordinator within the Facilities Management division at UVA, and currently works for a disability inclusion firm called VisitAble whose mission involves helping businesses, government agencies, and educational institutions attract and serve individuals of all abilities through disability inclusion training and certifications.

Dale Brumfield

Author, Journalist, Criminal Justice Reform Advocate

Dale M. Brumfield is an author, journalist, cultural archaeologist, and anti-death penalty advocate in central Virginia. In 2021, as field director for Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, he helped lead the charge to abolish capital punishment in Virginia. He chronicled this victory in his 2022 book, Closing the Slaughterhouse: The Inside Story of Death Penalty Abolition in Virginia. In addition to his 12 published books, his stories on criminal justice reform have appeared in numerous media, including USA Today, Richmond Magazine, Style Weekly, Medium, and many others. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2015.

DJ DX

Musical Artist, DJ

Robert Van Liew, better known as DJ DX, is a Richmond-based, multi-talented musical artist and DJ who provides a one-of-a-kind soulful nostalgic sound. DJ DX’s music hearkens back to the age when beats were produced by spinning and looping sections of records, with classic, authentic scratching, and lyrics focusing on personal experiences. He is supported in this performance by Mike Boyd, Mac Friddell, and David Robinson.

Ellery Lundy

Founder and President, Broken Men Foundation

Ellery is a Richmond, Virginia native and a retired Deputy Sheriff (25 years of service). He created Broken Men Foundation, a non-profit that aims to raise boys to become men, in 2014 as a way to give back to his community. Through the Virginia Department of State Social Services, he has been certified in the Fatherhood Initiative program for fragile families. He was also recently certified in crisis intervention. In his personal life, he has coached various sports in the community, from basketball to little league football, and has also officiated little league, high school, and semi-pro.

Guadalupe Ramírez

Small Business Owner and Founder of Highlands Project

Guadalupe Ramírez was born in the town of Tejutla, San Marcos, in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. After escaping poverty through the help of others, Guadalupe learned that people could change their lives for the better by working together. From this, she founded the Highland Support Project, which aims to empower indigenous communities by providing educational opportunities, community organization, and support. Guadalupe is also the owner of AlterNatives, a store that carries fairly and directly traded handmade gifts and jewelry.

Jack Singal

Physicist

Jack Singal is a professor in the Physics Department at the University of Richmond and has had previous appointments at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Stanford University. His research spans several areas of astrophysics, including new measurements and interpretations of diffuse radio emission, multiwavelength population studies of active galaxy systems to constrain the evolution of supermassive black holes in the universe, and applications of new machine learning strategies to photometric redshift determination.

Janelle Peifer

Psychologist

Janelle S. Peifer, Ph.D., LCP, is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Richmond. She leads Peifer Psychology as a speaker and consultant for higher education institutions and organizations committed to equity and inclusion. In addition, as a licensed clinical psychologist, she founded and leads The Center for Inclusive Therapy + Wellness. Dr. Peifer earned her Ph.D. in Clinical and School Psychology at the University of Virginia and is an alumna of Wake Forest University. Her research examines college student development centering on questions of identity, culture, and mental health, focusing on complex trauma.

Landon Elliott

Singer-Songwriter

Landon Elliott is a Richmond, VA-based singer-songwriter and guitarist. His new music is an inside look at the fallout from coming out as gay later in life, with no regrets but an honest acceptance of the price that had to be paid to live his truth. It’s about taking an honest inventory of potential relationships lost and the inevitable life changes, weighing the decision to live pinned by shame or to find freedom in authenticity.

Matt Siegel

Author

Matt Siegel is the author of The Secret History of Food: Strange but True Stories About the Origins of Everything We Eat. A former English professor, he has written about food and culture for publications including The Atlantic, Eater, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, The Paris Review, and Highlights. He lives in Richmond, Virginia, with his wife and their dog, Waffles.