Speakers

Meet at New Hope YMCA at 12:15 p.m. for a Culver's lunch and tour of New Hope YMCA.

7601 42nd Ave N, New Hope, MN 55427

The YMCA is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.

Keith Baker is the executive director for ReConnect Rondo, an umbrella advocacy organization committed to addressing racial disparities in Minnesota. Keith is leading the organization’s mission to revitalize the Rondo community of St. Paul with a 21-acre land bridge that reconnects the historic African American community and creates Minnesota’s first African American cultural enterprise district. Keith has more than 35 years of experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. His 18 years with the Minnesota Department of Transportation included oversight of federal and state professional technical contract administration and construction compliance monitoring. Keith served as a member of the Ramsey County Blue Ribbon Commission in 2010, which was in the forefront of elevating Minnesota’s ranking as 50th in the nation for racial disparities. Over the years, he has identified and executed strategies supportive of equitable development, entrepreneurism, ownership, business and workforce development, and opportunity access. As a strategist, connector, and influencer, Keith has a reputation for seeing the big picture, along with the connective links needed for genuine progress. He’s known for skillfully navigating within constrained environments, creating outputs that result in equitable outcomes. These characteristics were instrumental in the successful orchestration of a collective impact approach that ensured equitable inclusion of minority- and women-owned engineering and architect firms on the billion-dollar U.S. Bank Stadium project. https://reconnectrondo.com/

Scott Schwefel works with organizations who want to leverage new communication strategies to increase sales, profits and productivity. As a serial entrepreneur, Scott founded and grew Minnesota’s largest technology training company to over $12MM, and then sold the company in 2003.

His company was named one of the 50 fastest growing private companies in Minnesota in 1997 and 1998, and he was named to Minnesota’s 40 under 40 list of successful top executives. Scott then founded and grew Insights Twin Cities to over $3MM and sold it to Insights in Scotland in 2014.

Scott Schwefel has been speaking and teaching new communication strategies to organizations globally for over a decade. He has presented in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Geneva, Shanghai, and Kuwait, and he has also trained and coached over 1500 CEOs personally.

He is a published author, has lived remotely with the Hadza and Maasai tribes in Tanzania, and is a featured speaker for Vistage, the largest organization of CEOs in the world.

https://discoveryourself.com/

Ethan Kehrberg, Sustainability Specialist, City of Golden Valley

Ethan Kehrberg graduated from St. Olaf College, interned at a renewable energy company, and completed a service year through Minnesota GreenCorps before joining the City of Golden Valley in 2022. He currently works on recycling and waste reduction, energy efficiency, electrification, climate resilience, and a variety of other sustainability initiatives.  Ethan grew up in Golden Valley and is passionate about protecting the planet while making Golden Valley a greener, healthier, and more equitable community for everyone.

Also presenting with Ethan is Andrea Knoll. Knoll is serving a one-year service term with Minnesota GreenCorps, a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency-coordinated program training a new generation of environmental professionals. As a GreenCorps member, Andrea assists City staff with environmental health-related projects and initiatives through community outreach, site assessments, and data collection and analysis. Following her service term, Andrea plans to pursue a graduate degree in environmental science and continue her work preserving and protecting Minnesota’s ecosystems and communities.

Beyond The Yellow Ribbon Quad Communities is a grassroots citizen group that engages the communities of Golden Valley, Crystal, New Hope, and Robbinsdale in support of military members, veterans, and their families. It joins nearly 200 Minnesota cities, counties, and businesses already proclaimed Beyond the Yellow Ribbon.

Beyond the Yellow Ribbon is a comprehensive program that creates awareness for the purpose of connecting military service members and their families with community support, training, services, and resources.

Trey Gladney, originally from Houston, takes pride in his deep integration into Minnesota over the past two decades. Alongside his wife and three children, he has embraced the State of Hockey as his own, immersing himself in its culture, communities, and yes, even its cold.

With degrees from the University of Minnesota and Hamline School of Business, Trey's academic journey paved the way for a successful career in management consulting. For the last 15 years, he's been a leader in simplifying healthcare systems. His expertise in process improvement, technology implementation, and change management led him to work with many of the top consulting firms.

Beyond his professional endeavors, Trey is dedicated to civic engagement. He chairs the PEACE commission in Golden Valley, focusing on police employment, accountability, and community engagement. Additionally, he leads PRIME, striving for racial equity and inclusion in Golden Valley.

Despite his busy schedule, Trey finds solace in movement. Whether cycling through Theodore Park or strolling along Golden Valley Road, he's always exploring and connecting with his surroundings.

In all aspects of his life, Trey is driven by a relentless pursuit of progress and a passion for positive change, aiming to create a more inclusive and equitable world for everyone.

Jeff Molby is from Caro, Michigan. After becoming treasurer of his son's boy scout troop, Jeff went to visit the troop’s sponsor: the Rotary Club of Caro, Michigan. He was blown away by the warm welcome and the values embodied in the Four-Way Test, so a couple weeks later he had his red badge. Around the same time, Jeff attended his first Relay For Life. He loved the way they fight the global scourge of cancer in a profoundly local way. He started small and eventually took on an outsized role to help restart things after Covid. He recently turned his attention to the American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery program. They too needed a post-pandemic boost, so Jeff combined his love of traveling and cycling to his fight against cancer, setting off on a multi-year bike tour around the country in order to raise money and recruit drivers to get patients to their lifesaving treatments. https://chemoriders.org/Rotary/

As Education and Partnerships leader at College Inside Track, Cozy Wittman speaks nationally about college search, educating families, and training financial advisors. College search has become increasingly complex, the nuances hard to understand; Cozy is passionate about dispelling myths that cost families money! She’s been featured in The Journal of Financial Planning on the subject of college planning.

Cozy is excited to connect with organizations and families interested in learning more about the complex college search process. She is a mom of 5 kids with very different goals for college so she is no stranger to the challenges around college search.

Mary Maus Kosir is the Executive Director of Concordia Language Villages, a flagship program of Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. Since assuming this role in October 2020, she has spearheaded all facets of the Language Villages, including enrollment management, building the organization back post-pandemic, fostering donor relationships, and engaging with a vibrant international community.

With a diverse background spanning education administration, international program development, and entrepreneurship, Mary brings a wealth of experience to her leadership. Prior to her tenure at Concordia Language Villages, she excelled as entrepreneurial executive at Log House Foods and founded and led WholeMe, LLC. Her remarkable journey also includes over two decades at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, where she served in pivotal roles such as director of international programs and assistant dean of the undergraduate program.

Hailing from Bemidji, Minnesota, the very locale of Concordia Language Villages' residential site, Mary's deep-rooted connection to the community fuels her passion for language and cultural learning. Her unique blend of higher education expertise and strong business acumen continues to drive the Language Villages forward as the foremost destination for immersive language experiences in the United States.

Mary holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and German from the College of Saint Benedict, as well as a Master of Arts degree in Educational Policy and Administration from the University of Minnesota. Her academic achievements include being awarded a prestigious Fulbright scholarship in Austria and a Bosch Fellowship in Germany.

Mary resides in St. Paul with her husband, Michael, and golden doodle, Bennie. She has two children, Margaret (resides in NYC) and Max, a graduating senior at St. John’s University. In her spare time, Mary enjoys traveling with her family, hiking, and gardening.