Molly Fletcher
CEO and Founder
The Molly Fletcher Company
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Michael Beschloss
Presidential Historian, NBC News and PBS NewsHour, New York Times Columnist and #1 Best-Selling Author
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The New York Times Book Review has called Beschloss "easily the most widely recognized Presidential historian in the United States." Albert Hunt of Bloomberg News has called him "a national treasure." The Charlotte Observer has said, "Michael Beschloss knows more about America's 44 presidents than perhaps anyone on earth." Beschloss is currently working on a major history of American Presidents and wars from 1812 to the present, which will be published by Crown Publishers in 2017.
Beschloss serves as the NBC News presidential historian—the first time any major TV network created such a position; he appears on all NBC programs. In 2005, he won an “Emmy Award” for his role in creating the Discovery Channel series Decisions that Shook the World, of which he was the host.
For TheNew York Times, Beschloss writes a monthly business history column on Sundays and a weekly sports history column on Saturdays—the first time TheNew York Timeshas ever published a regular columnist on either of those subjects.
Beschloss was born in Chicago in 1955. An alumnus of Phillips Academy (Andover) and Williams College, he also earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the Harvard Business School, where he studied leadership and business history. He has served as an historian at the Smithsonian Institution, a resident scholar at Oxford University and a senior fellow of the Annenberg Foundation.
His 2007 book Presidential Courage—which covers nine Presidents from George Washington to Ronald Reagan—was a No. 1 Washington Postbest seller, and a three-month New York Times best seller. President George W. Bush quoted from Beschloss’s book in his 2010 memoir Decision Points, in which Bush wrote, “I told Laura, if they’re still assessing George Washington’s legacy more than two centuries after he left office, this George W. doesn’t have to worry about today’s headlines.”
Beschloss’s book The Conquerors was Amazon’s best-selling history book of 2002. His book Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations, which he co-authored with Caroline Kennedy in 2011, was No. 1 on The New York Times best seller list and in many countries around the world.
Beschloss's books Taking Charge (1997) and Reaching for Glory(2001) were the first two volumes of his projected trilogy on President Lyndon Johnson’s secret White House tapes. President Bill Clinton has told People magazine that the audio version of Taking Charge was the first book on tape he ever listened to. Actor Bryan Cranston told The New York Times that he used Beschloss’s books to prepare for his Tony-winning role as Lyndon Johnson on Broadway.
Beschloss also wrote Kennedy and Roosevelt, which started as his senior honors thesis at Williams College, Mayday: Eisenhower, Khrushchev and the U-2 Affair (1986) and The Crisis Years (1991), which The New Yorker called the "definitive" history of President John F. Kennedy and the Cold War.
Beschloss holds honorary doctorates from Williams College, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Lafayette College, St. Peter's College and Governors State University. He has also been awarded the State of Illinois’s “Order of Lincoln”, the “Ambassador Book Prize”, the “Harry S. Truman Public Service Award”, the “Founders Award” of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the New York State “Archives Award” and the Rutgers University “Living History Award”.
Beschloss is a trustee of the White House Historical Association and the National Archives Foundation, and is a former trustee of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and their two sons.
Candace Osunsade, SHRM-SCP
SVP/chief administrative officer
National Aquarium
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For over 25 years, Candace has been a strategic business partner and human resources leader, helping organizations and professionals maximize their potential while driving business results. She is experienced in innovative and transformational change with expertise in talent management, organizational development, compensation, talent acquisition, employee engagement, project management, and HR system design and implementation.
By implementing structure and managing transformational change through incremental and digestible steps, Candace has led the transition of the National Aquarium’s HR department from a tactical internal service function to one that is a true strategic partner Examples of her accomplishments include the implementation of a fully functional human resource information system; strategic workforce planning based on talent assessment; nine-box succession planning; goals-based performance assessment; a competitive compensation program with data-driven decision making around merit and incentive awards, promotions and equity; and a best-in-class benefits program that includes a virtual wellness program and a financially stable self-funded medical and prescription plan.
In 2015, Candace was honored with the Chief HR Officer of the Year award by HRO Today magazine, a recognition celebrating the chief human resource officers that help drive workforce initiatives through innovation, with measurable excellence in employee engagement and retention to prove it. Candace believes in “investing in our future” and is heavily involved in a number of efforts around working with young people from underserved and poorly represented communities.
She is leading a groundbreaking fundraising effort to grow the College Success Scholars Program at University of Maryland, College Park; leading the Carver Foundation Board to launch a mentoring program for first-generation college-bound students; launching a mentoring program to enhance the Cornell University experience for women of color; and is involved in the YouthWorks program in Baltimore City.
Candace is a graduate of Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and a Greater Baltimore Committee Leadership alum, is Myers Briggs Qualified and is Six Sigma trained.
Reb Rebele
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