2022 Keynote Speakers

Meet Our Keynotes

4 April Keynote | 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PT

Ken Cloke

Kenneth Cloke is a mediator, arbitrator, facilitator, coach, consultant, and trainer, specializing in resolving complex multi-party disputes, including transnational, marital, divorce, family, grievance, and workplace disputes; organizational, public policy, and school conflicts; and designing preventative conflict resolution systems.  He has worked in over 25 countries and is the founder and first President of Mediators Beyond Borders.  He has published numerous articles and 20 books on conflict resolution, including Mediating Dangerously, The Dance of Opposites, The Crossroads of Conflict, Politics, Dialogue and the Evolution of Democracy, and most recently, Resolving Organizational Conflicts and Mediation in a Time of Crisis.

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5 April Keynote | 4:00 AM – 5:00 AM PT 

Victoria B. Mars

Victoria Mars built her career based on creating trusting relationships that yield mutual, impactful results. Her career experience spans everything from operations to governance.

Victoria designed and built the global Mars Ombudsman program, which, for more than 20 years, has provided Mars Associates at every level of the organization with a service that addresses workplace challenges in a neutral, confidential, and informal manner. Victoria is a steward of Mars’ principle-led culture and a champion of inclusive environments where everyone can achieve their full potential.

Victoria is a former chairwoman and director of the Mars board and continues to serve on the Remuneration and Talent Committee. 

6 April Keynote 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM PT

Resmaa Menakem

Resmaa Menakem, New York Times bestselling author of My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, is a visionary Justice Leadership coach, organizational strategist, and master trainer. Resmaa is a leading voice in today’s conversation on racialized trauma. As described by On Being with Krista Tippett, Resmaa “activates the wisdom of ancestors and a very new science, about how all of us carry the history and traumas behind everything we collapse into the word “race” in our bodies. He illuminates why all of the best laws and diversity training have not gotten us anywhere near healing.” Resmaa created Cultural Somatics, which utilizes the body and resilience as mechanisms for growth.


As a therapist, trauma specialist, and the founder of Justice Leadership Solutions, a leadership consultancy firm, Resmaa Menakem dedicates his expertise to coaching leaders through civil unrest, organizational change, and community building. He helps “Justice Leaders realize their potential in the areas of Equity and Race.” Resmaa’s embodied approach which he calls Somatic Abolitionism is a living, embodied philosophy that requires endurance, stamina, and discernment. These can be built, day by day, through reps. These reps will temper and condition your body, your mind, and your soul.

Resmaa successfully coaches, trains, and speaks to a diversified array of Justice Leaders who are community activists, police leaders, non-profit executives, CEOs, collegiate and professional athletic directors/managers, healthcare professionals, educators, government and judicial leaders, and the list goes on. Resmaa helps leaders examine and begin to heal the trauma of racialization that thwarts emergence. He coaches leaders on how to do the embodied work to gain the cultural maturity to lead and build community within themselves, their groups, organizations, and movements.

Resmaa is a highly sought-after keynote and public speaker, radio, television, and social media personality, author, international trainer, and effective communicator among diverse ethnic populations. Resmaa has hosted his own radio talk show as well as appeared on programs ranging from The Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Phil shows as an expert on conflict mediation, self-care, and healing to Minnesota Public Radio as an expert on racialized trauma during civil unrest. Resmaa has instructed and trained personnel extensively in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) police departments, as well as provided years of experience as a trauma counselor and trainer to military and US contractors in Afghanistan. Resmaa is also the author of two additional books 101 Tips for Emerging Justice Leaders, and a powerful book on conflict in relationships titled Rock the Boat: How to Use Conflict to Heal and Deepen Relationships. Resmaa has served as an executive directing behavioral health for several nonprofits and a business owner for over 28 years. 

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