John U. Bacon has worked the better part of two decades as a writer, a public speaker, and a college instructor, winning awards for all three.

Bacon earned an honors degree in history (“pre-unemployment”) from the University of Michigan in 1986, and a Master’s in Education in1994.  In 2005-06, the Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship named him the first recipient of the Benny Friedman Fellowship for Sports Journalism.

He started his journalism career covering high school sports for The Ann Arbor News, then wrote a light-hearted lifestyle column before becoming the Sunday sports feature writer for The Detroit News in 1995.  He earned numerous state and national awards for his work, including “Notable Sports Writing” in The Best American Sports Writing in 1998 and 2000.

After Bacon covered the 1998 Nagano Olympics, he moved from the sports page to the Sunday front page, roaming the Great Lakes State finding fresh features, then left the paper in 1999 to free-lance for some two dozen national publications, including stories on Formula One racing in Australia for The New York Times, on Japanese hockey for ESPN Magazine, and on Hemingway’s Michigan summer home for Time.

He has authored or coauthored six books on sports and business, including Walgreens: America’s Corner Store in 2004, Cirque du Soleil: The Spark in 2006, Bo’s Lasting Lessons: The Legendary Coach Teaches the Timeless Fundamentals of Leadership, which hit The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal’s Business Best Seller lists.

Bacon delivers speeches on the themes in his books — including leadership, creativity and diversity — to corporations, universities and other groups around the country and the world.  In 2011, the Michigan Chapter of Meeting Planners International (MMPI) named him “Speaker of the Year.”

Bacon has also pursued his passions for radio, television, coaching and teaching.  In 2002, he launched a Sunday morning sports talk show on WTKA (1050 AM, wtka.com, in Ann Arbor/Detroit) called “Off the Field,” and in 2007 he was invited to give weekly sports commentary on Michigan Radio every Friday morning, and he still does both.  He has also appeared on HBO, ESPN, and the Big Ten Network, where he is a frequent contributor to both “Icons” series.

Bacon teaches at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and the University of Michigan, where the students selected him for the 2009 Golden Apple award, given annually to the University’s top teacher.

Layla designs and directs strategic engagement and HR branding programs for clients across industries including healthcare, technology, media and financial services. Prior to joining Bonfire, Layla managed key financial services online consumer products, and built digital infrastructure that transformed the bank's social measurement programs into a source of business insight. Some of her current and past clients include Genentech, ConocoPhillips, Nixon Peabody, T. Rowe Price, Quintiles, Wells Fargo and Bank of the West.

Alexis Terry is the Director of Diversity and Inclusion at ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership. Her main responsibility is to develop and facilitate a strategic, organization-wide initiative to ensure that ASAE & The Center represents a diverse and inclusive organizational model for the association community and to support the membership in their efforts to embed such practices into their own organizations. She also supports the work of ASAE & The Center’s diversity committee, a body of ASAE & The Center members who guide the organization’s diversity and inclusion initiative, and work with DELP (Diversity Executive Leadership Program) scholars to assist in their continued professional development and involvement in the organization. 

Prior to joining ASAE & The Center, Alexis held a variety of roles at BoardSource, a national nonprofit dedicated to advancing the public good by building exceptional nonprofit boards and inspiring board service, based in Washington, DC. Alexis is the author of BoardSource’s 2008 Next Generation and Governance Findings Report and served as project manager of BoardSource’s Diversity and Next Generation Initiative, a multiyear effort designed to reach and prepare diverse, next generation leaders for board service. 

A graduate of Pepperdine University, Alexis holds a degree in communication and a certificate in nonprofit management. She is currently pursuing an executive certificate in diversity strategy from Georgetown University.

Deb Dagit is a sought-after consultant and speaker on the topics of diversity and inclusion. She started Deb Dagit Diversity LLC in 2013 to deliver the practical, just-in-time services and products she wished were available when she was a Chief Diversity Officer.

As Merck’s CDO for almost 12 years, Deb was responsible for global equal opportunity, employee relations, recruiting and staffing, and diversity and inclusion. Under her leadership, the company was recognized for its exemplary work in diversity and inclusion by a wide range of business publications, government agencies, and professional organizations.  Prior to joining Merck, Deb was the leader of Learning Communications and Diversity at Silicon Graphics and head of Strategic Cultural Initiatives for Sun Microsystems.

She played a key role in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act through her lobbying efforts, and testified before the U.S. Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee in 2011 regarding best practices for improving employment opportunities for people with disabilities. 

Karen Rylander-Davis is an accomplished senior human resource executive with over 35 years of international experience. She specializes in transforming organizations, developing talent, and supporting culture change to achieve business strategies. Her work in management development includes project leadership, instructional design, development and delivery of training programs.

Karen’s consulting focuses on offering strategic organization and leadership development solutions to a wide variety of firms in diverse industries.  Her approach to clients is customized to each situation, culture and team dynamic. She motivates, facilitates, and challenges people to rethink what is possible for themselves and the organization. Recognizing that the organization is a system, she considers potential impacts and contingencies in her work to ensure that recommendations and deliverables are practical, actionable and value-adding.

Of note is Karen’s development of a comprehensive leadership curriculum for a global French wire and cable manufacturer, built on management and functional competency models and company values.   A global course for high potential senior leaders involved building the design around corporate values and competencies, incorporating appropriate action learning, and ensuring strong partnership between internal and external resources.  A course for Plant Managers required integration of design by multiple internal subject matter experts and preparation for delivery by internally trained facilitators. A short-course targeted transversal leaders whose virtual teams did not report directly to them and were located around the world.

Other instructional design and delivery projects include:

• Comprehensive instructional design curriculum, including a variety of training modules, materials and video, to support process transformation in a multinational family-owned food products company

• Redesign of a senior leadership development program for a chemical manufacturing company

• Diversity awareness training for all employees of a regional newspaper
• Local customer team development curriculum for sales and service staffs of a medical imaging equipment manufacturer 

Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Karen held human resource positions of increasing responsibility with Knight Ridder, General Electric Medical Systems, Ryder System, Inc. and Goodyear Aerospace Corporation. Most recently, as Corporate Vice President, Training and Career Management for Nexans, worldwide leader in cables and cabling systems, headquartered in Paris, she engaged senior leadership worldwide in creating and implementing Nexans’ Management Competency Model, followed by the development and delivery of an expanded leadership development curriculum.

Experienced in working effectively in multiple regions and cultures, including North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, Karen has lived and worked in the US,  Canada, and France and is fluent in English and French. She holds dual US and Canadian citizenship.

Karen holds a Ph.D. in Educational Administration and Counselor Education, an M.Ed. in Counseling in Higher Education from Kent State University, and a B.A. in French, with honors, from the College of Wooster.

Kenneth Hunt currently serves as the Associate Director for Diversity and Inclusion at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL. Kenneth is retired Air Force having spent over 10 years as an aircraft maintenance technician and another 10 years and an Inertia Navigation instructor. He worked and taught on three types of military airframes: C-5A/B’s, C-141’s and C130’s. As an aircraft instructor specialist, he performed intermediate maintenance support and training on the aircraft’s guidance and control system-both radar and satellite communication, automatic flight control system, Inertial Navigation Systems (INS), flight instruments, Fuel Savings Advisory System (FSAS), and the Malfunction Analysis Detection and Recording System (MADARS). Before joining, Embry-Riddle, Kenneth coordinated tutoring and additional instructions for four years for the Supplemental Instruction lab for the Division of Academic Enrichment at Delaware State University, Dover, DE. He has a M.B.A. from Wilmington University, Wilmington, DE; a B.S. from Southern Illinois University in Industrial Technology; and a certificate in Lean Six Sigma Black Belt from Villanova University. He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Business Administration from Wilmington University, Wilmington, DE.