• Jackson Theater at Sonoma Country Day School
  • March 7, 2026
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Speakers

Get a front-row seat to the diverse minds of the most forward-thinking innovators in Sonoma, and hear how they are learning from the past, refining our present, and looking ahead to the future.

2026 Speaker Lineup

Sonoma Bates

Board of Directors; Dovetail Learning - Communications Manager; Kirby School

tedxsonomacounty

Alyssa DeCaro

Embodied Groove Alchemist

Festus Ezeli

NBA Champion, Media Broadcaster, Content Creator and Community Builder

Chuck Fisher, PhD

Transformational Leader, Author, Senior Consultant; Dovetail Learning

Julie Lythcott-Haims

Author, Speaker

The Joyful Noise Singers

Community Choir

Eric McDermott

Managing Partner & Financial Advisor; Pacific Advisors, Founder; NEXTpectations®, Author, Social Media Influencer

Shelina Moreda

Professional Motorcycle Racer, Mentor and Thrill-seeker

Katrina Roundfield, PhD

Clinical Community Psychologist, CEO & Founder; Tara (withtara.com)

Lindsay Scola

Founder, Scola Strategies and Author: AI for ADHD: A Practical Guide to Starting (and Actually Finishing) What Matters

Rohan Sinha

Student, Entrepreneur

Matthew Spence

Principal; ProjectNext Leadership

Mauricio Umansky

Founder & CEO of The Agency, Entrepreneur and Media Personality

Nichole Warwick

Executive Director; Blue Zones Project Petaluma

Check Out Previous Events

Watch talks from our 2025 Program, "Bridging Together" on You Tube

A Magical Experience
Jay Alexander

Telling on Yourself
Juanita Capri Brown

Bridging Through Dance
Nathan Cottam

Why Resilience is a Team Sport
Kimberly Deterline

Solving for Speed
Maria Fernandez Guajardo

Women’s Health is Human Health
Jennifer Garrison, PhD

Could AI Bring Back Curiosity?
Carla Johnson

Why You Should Give Up on Your Dreams
Miles Levin

Three Tools to Deal with Life’s Curveballs
Sally Srok

The Surprising Cure for Loneliness
Daniel Weinzveg

Why Good People Become Bad Bosses
Jamie Woolf and Dr. Chris Bell

Check Out Previous Events

Watch talks from our 2024 Program, "Reimagine, Reconfigure, Reconnect" on You Tube

Bridging Divides for a More Courageous Democracy
Brooke Deterline

Daniela Fernandez
The Most Important Thing You’ll Ever Do

Cal Fussman
Connecting Through the Greats

Dawn Gross
Ask: The Time is Now

Quinn Halleck
Does Film Survive AI?

Luz Hernandez
Paying It Forward and Back

Guy Kawasaki
How to Murder Your Mediocrity

Alex Lazarow
The Great Diffusion

Jess Nichol
Three Strikes Injustice

Steve Pile AND Jali Bakary Konteh
Griot Music of West Africa

Mark Shapiro
Making Friends as an Adult

Check Out Previous Events

Watch talks from our 2023 Program, "This is Us" on You Tube

The Amazing Power of Awe
Jonah Paquette

Moving Beyond Boundaries
Diana Elizabeth Jordan

Burning Man: Art on Fire
Jennifer Raiser

The Future of AI
Peter Graf

Let Go and Collaborate
Gary Hirsch

Music is US
Santa Rosa Youth Symphony Orchestra

The $200 That Could Save Your Life
Tara Jasper

Protecting Earth: An Astronaut’s Perspective
Rusty Schweickart

Native Hands, Native Lands
Melissa Nelson

Fostering Differences on Common Ground
Larkin O’Leary

The Gaming Connection
Angela Roseboro

Speaker Submission

Do you have an idea worth spreading?

Thank you for your interest in speaking at TEDxSonomaCounty. Speaker submissions are now closed.

Please note that due to TED policies and regulations, personal growth coaches will not be considered.

Sonoma Bates

Sonoma Bates’ connection to resilience isn’t just professional; it’s a personal journey that began in kindergarten with the Toolbox™ curriculum. This early exposure to Dovetail Learning’s core principles profoundly shaped her, and today, as a Dovetail Learning board member, she brings a first-hand understanding of the organization’s impact and mission to the table.

 

Today, as a young adult, she finds the program’s We Are Resilient™ approach to be a foundational anchor in her life and career. This framework, rooted in the mindsets of curiosity, choice, and courage, has guided her in navigating challenges and informed her work as a communications professional, brand strategist and storyteller in the education and non-profit sectors.

dovetaillearning.org

tedxsonomacounty

Alyssa DeCaro

Alyssa DeCaro invites you to tune into the wisdom of your body and awaken your inner groove through rhythm, movement, and voice! She is the founder of Body of Sound, Core Groove Method, and Voice Your Impact training. For over 25 years, Alyssa has led thousands in immersive embodiment experiences across the globe – from retreats at Esalen Institute and off-sites for Fortune 500 companies, and opening the TED Conference in Long Beach, to main-stage festival activations at Burning Man, Lightning in a Bottle, and Joshua Tree Music Festival. Her work fuses somatic practices and creative expression to help people build core confidence and step into embodied leadership. Whether on stage or in intimate circles, Alyssa invites us to groove with life, with each other, and with our own inner rhythm.

bodyofsound.com

Festus Ezeli

Originating from a modest village in Nigeria, Festus Ezeli harbored aspirations for a better life, embarking on an arduous path to the United States to pursue his dreams. His dedication led him to Vanderbilt University on a sports scholarship, where he not only excelled in athletics but also earned a degree in economics.

 

In 2012, the Golden State Warriors selected him in the first round of the NBA draft. There he achieved remarkable milestones, including winning an NBA Championship in 2015. However, a debilitating knee injury prematurely ended his playing career, catalyzing a journey of introspection and resilience.

Festus continues to actively engage in initiatives empowering

communities, particularly youth and underserved populations. He serves as a media personality with his food account “Festus Feasts”, a sports analyst for NBC Sports Bay Area, is a community ambassador for both the Golden State Warriors and NBA Africa, and has launched the “Rebuilding the Beast” podcast.

Chuck Fisher, PhD

Dr. Chuck Fisher is a senior consultant, human development trainer, and the former executive director of Dovetail Learning. His life’s work is helping others see our common humanity to create a world that works for everyone.  He is co-developer of the We Are Resilient™ approach used by families, educators, healthcare professionals and workplace providers to support stress management, centering, communication and collaboration skills. His work at Dovetail Learning included taking Toolbox™, a social-emotional learning program for children, to schools across the US.

 

Chuck is passionate about human development. He has worked as an Outward Bound instructor with troubled teens, a school counselor for 25 years, a trainer for the Heartmath Institute on Neurocardiology, the PassageWorks Institute on Engaged Teaching and as mentor and adjunct research faculty at Sofia University.

dovetaillearning.org

Julie Lythcott-Haims

Julie Lythcott-Haims believes in humans and is interested in what holds us back. She’s a writer, speaker, teacher, mentor, activist and New York Times bestselling author of How to Raise an Adult, which inspired a widely viewed TED Talk. Her award-winning memoir, Real American, explores her experience as a Black and biracial person in white spaces. Her third book, Your Turn: How to Be an Adult, is a “groundbreakingly frank” guide to navigating adulthood.

Julie earned a B.A. from Stanford, a J.D. from Harvard Law, and an M.F.A. in Writing from California College of the Arts. She also holds an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Puget Sound. She lives in Palo Alto, where she serves on the City Council, advocating for housing, equity, climate, and youth mental health. Julie and her lifelong partner Dan are parents to two twentysomethings. They share a home with their eldest.

julielythcotthaims.com

The Joyful Noise Singers

The Joyful Noise Singers is a community choir and non-profit organization, founded by director, Benjamin “Benja” Mertz. The group sings spiritual and Civil Rights ballads, in four-part harmony, to uplift and inspire. They welcome singers of all experience levels.

For twelve years, The Joyful Noise choir has created a non-judgmental, non-denominational space for rich harmonies and community building. They perform benefit concerts and raise money for local and international organizations focused on food security, housing, human rights, and more. Rehearsals are open to the community and all are welcome.

Benja, founder and director of The Joyful Noise Gospel Singers, is professional musician, educator, jazz pianist, composer and song leader who studied with Dr. Ysaye Barnwell (a founding member of Sweet Honey in the Rock) and vocalist, Bobby McFerrin’s Circlesong School. Benja is also the board chair of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, an immigrant rights and anti-incarceration non-profit.

joyfulnoisesingers.org

benjasoul.com

Eric McDermott

By day, Eric McDermott is an equity partner at a financial services firm with more than 60,000 clients. He and his team focus on helping business leaders make their financial strategies as successful as their career.  Eric holds multiple advanced and accredited financial designations including Certified Financial Planner®.

In his other company, NEXTpectations®, Eric’s live keynotes help audiences prepare for what comes next in career, teams and business. With a unique brand of visual story telling, he converts complex concepts into easy-to-understand frameworks. Eric has amassed over half-a-million online followers and been named “Best Business Influencer of the Year”, winning two Stevies (the Oscars of the business world) for his social media channels. Eric is also a three-time best-selling author (USA Today and Amazon), and has numerous published Forbes articles.

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nextpectations

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/setnextpectations

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emcdermott/

Forbes articles

Shelina Moreda

Shelina Moreda is shaking things up! Whether she’s racing, coaching, speaking or rescuing animals from Northern California fires, this Petaluma native, decorated professional motorcycle racer and CoverGirl (yes – as in the global makeup brand) is strong, confident and taking on the world.  Shelina grew up riding motorcycles on her family’s dairy farm. Now she races at the PRO level around the world on courses in the USA, China, Qatar, Japan and Europe. She is the first female to race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on a motorcycle and the first female to race the Zhuhai International Circuit in China. She also finished first in the Women’s Championship in Qatar in 2016 and was part of the first female team to compete at the grueling Suzuka 8 Hour race in Japan. Shelina operates She’z Moto Camp, an all-female-oriented motorcycle skills school that inspires girls and women to pursue their dreams. She also helped develop and produce the NBC Sports television show, Motorcycle Startup, and has hosted NBC Sports Bay Area.

shezracing.com

Katrina Roundfield, PhD

Katrina Roundfield, PhD, is a licensed clinical-community psychologist and CEO and Founder of Tara, an AI-powered family wellness app that supports women through common challenges of motherhood.

Katrina has over 15 years of experience as a child and family mental health researcher. In the past 8 years, she’s used her expertise to build startups. Katrina was the founding clinical leader of one of Silicon Valley’s most successful mental health startups, Two Chairs. 

Katrina completed her M.A. and Ph.D. in Clinical-Community Psychology at DePaul University and her predoctoral residency at Yale University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry in 2014. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry in 2016 and maintained a faculty position at UCSF for 7 years. Katrina is a wife, mother of two boys, and she lives in Oakland, California.

withtara.com

Lindsay Scola

Lindsay Scola is on a mission to dismantle hustle culture and prove that sleep is the ultimate power move.

For over two decades, she worked alongside high-powered leaders across entertainment and politics—including President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama—while unknowingly battling narcolepsy and ADHD. That lived experience fuels her work today.

Lindsay is a nationally recognized sleep expert and the creator of the online course, Sleep Is The Power Move. She also delivers The Power of Sleep keynote and workshops for corporate teams. 

As a leading sleep disorder advocate, Lindsay has spoken at the White House and Congress, and advises scripted television writers on accurate portrayals of sleep disorders.

She is the author of AI for ADHD: A Practical Guide to Starting (and Actually Finishing) What Matters—an Amazon #1 New Release. Her writing has appeared in SELF magazine and she delivers actionable strategies for improving sleep quality in her popular newsletter, Rest Assured.

lindsayscola.com

Rohan Sinha

Rohan Sinha, a rising senior at Woodside Priory, is using his passions for math, AI and social impact to build a more purposeful world. 

Over the past few years, Rohan explored advanced mathematics and its real world applications through courses like AP Calculus BC; Stanford’s Math 51 and Harvard’s Math and Social Justice. He also co-founded MathPremierLeague.com, a gamified learning platform that turns math into a sport.

Recently, Rohan discovered he has ADHD and Misophonia, a condition that greatly intensifies sensitivity to certain sounds. Navigating these challenges led Rohan to conduct research in Kalman Filtering, a method for separating useful information from “noisy” data. His research is under review for scientific publications.

For Rohan, filtering noise isn’t just about math or AI—it’s about living in a world where we can focus on the right signals, the right ideas, and what matters the most.

mathpremierleague.com

Matthew Spence

A Principal at ProjectNext Leadership, Matthew Spence is a human-centric systems thinker who has spent his career helping leaders and teams navigate change at some of the world’s most successful global organizations: Meta, Gap Inc., Nike, and Levi Strauss & Co. He’s led teams, both large and small, in unique cultures and highly complex, high-growth global businesses. Matthew was also an executive at Collibra, a software platform for enterprise data governance and management.

Matthew began his career as a stage actor, touring California with educational theater companies and performing in improvisational theater in Chicago. He’s leveraged the skills honed through those experiences to connect with people in keynote addresses, classrooms, boardrooms and in one-on-one settings. 

Mathew is an ultra-endurance athlete who recently completed his third 29029 Everesting Challenge – an event in which you have 36 hours to climb 29,029 vertical feet – the equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest.

projectnextleadership.com

Mauricio Umansky

Mauricio Umansky is a world-renowned entrepreneur, luxury real-estate visionary, and CEO and Founder of The Agency, one of the fastest-growing boutique brokerages in the world, with over 150 offices in 15 countries.

Beyond the boardroom, Mauricio has become a familiar face to millions through his appearances on multiple hit reality TV shows, including Buying Beverly Hills (Netflix) and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (Bravo). He is the bestselling author of The Dealmaker and a regular contributor to Fox Business, Bloomberg, MSNBC, and other major media outlets on the topics of leadership, entrepreneurship, and luxury market trends. 

As cofounder of the American Real Estate Association—a first-of-its-kind trade association created for agents and led by agents—Mauricio is helping reshape the industry by elevating agent advocacy, professional standards, and economic opportunity. 

Through his experiences, Mauricio has seen, firsthand, the blurred lines between authenticity and performance, and how storytelling through media and reality television can both shape and reframe the public’s perception of success, family, and ambition.

theagencyre.com

 

Nichole Warwick

Nichole Warwick has decades of successful experience leading environmental and social justice movements. Currently she is driving the exciting rollout and implementation of Blue Zones Project in Petaluma, CA. Blue Zones Project is a community-led initiative which promotes better, longer lives with lower rates of chronic disease by implementing changes to policies, systems, surroundings, and social networks and making it easier for residents to eat wisely, move naturally and connect more with others. 

Originating from principles developed by National Geographic Fellow and New York Times bestselling author, Dan Buettner, the initiative aims to create a healthier and more vibrant community. A hit docuseries about the Blue Zones Project model named Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones was recently released on Netflix. 

Blue Zones Project was brought to Petaluma by Healthy Petaluma District and Foundation in April 2023 through an innovative partnership between Blue Zones, Healthy Petaluma, the City of Petaluma, and Providence Petaluma Valley Hospital.

bluezonespetalumaproject.com