2025 Keynote Speakers 

Bridget Burns - Monday, April 14  |  Brandon Fleming - Tuesday, April 15

Bridget Burns
Innovation and Change Expert, Higher Education Evangelist & CEO of the University Innovation Alliance

Named one of the “Most Innovative People in Higher Education” by Washington Monthly magazine, Dr. Bridget Burns is an innovation, collaboration and student success expert, presidential advisor, and CEO. Her work has been highlighted in national outlets like The New York Times, Fast Company, 60 Minutes, and she was featured in the documentary Unlikely.

From growing up with humble origins in a low-income family in rural Montana, to serving as a trusted advisor to more than 40 college presidents, Bridget is on a mission to transform the way higher education thinks about innovation and change, and takes action to serve low-income, first generation, and students of color.
She is the founding CEO of the award-winning University Innovation Alliance, is a multi-campus laboratory for student success innovation focused on dramatically increasing the number and diversity of college graduates through testing, scaling and implementing innovative practices. Founded in 2014, the UIA campuses have achieved massive change for their nearly half a million students, including increasing the number of low-income graduates by 46%, and graduates of color by 85% along the way.

Her conversational style melds storytelling, stand up comedy, practical tools, and candid insights leaving audiences inspired and motivated to drive change regardless of where they sit on the org chart. Based in Portland, Oregon, Bridget received her Doctorate of Education from Vanderbilt University in Higher Education, Leadership & Policy.

Brandon Fleming
Educator, Entrepreneur, Author, and Speaker

Over the past decade, Brandon P. Fleming has become one of the most highly awarded and sought-after educators, entrepreneurs, authors, and speakers in the world.  Fleming’s miraculous story of transformation, captured in his book Miseducated, has become such a national hit that it is currently being optioned for television and film, and it is in the process of becoming a major theater production.

An at-risk youth and college dropout turned award-winning educator, Fleming is a former debate coach at Harvard University and Founder & CEO of the Veritas School of Social Sciences, a prestigious private school in Atlanta, GA.

In 2017, Fleming was recruited to become Harvard University’s assistant debate coach at the age of 26.  Fleming soon made history at Harvard as the founder of the first pipeline program called the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project, which was designed to increase Black and brown enrollment at Harvard’s residential debate program where hundreds of gifted young scholars from over 25 different countries study and compete in an international academic debate competition.  

Over seven years, Fleming has raised millions of dollars to enroll more than 250 students of color into Harvard’s summer debate residency on full scholarship.  But there was one challenge that Fleming faced: How would he take Black and brown youth from mostly under-resourced schools in Atlanta, who had never been exposed to the rigors of academic debate, and prepare them in just one year to compete against some of the most elite debaters from across the globe?  Fleming created a transformative curriculum that is designed to level the playing field for underserved students.  And it did.  For seven consecutive years, since the program’s inception in 2017, every cohort trained by Fleming has won the international competition as seven-time consecutive champions. News of the achievement has gone viral and broke national headlines, being featured on CNN, Good Morning America, the Steve Harvey Show and many more. Fleming’s school has gained the financial backing of Fortune 100 companies such as The Coca-Cola Company, UPS, Chick-fil-A, and many more. 

As a renowned speaker, Fleming has keynoted for international governmental organizations such as the United Nations.  Fleming has spoken at the nation’s most prestigious colleges, universities, and K-12 conferences.  Fleming has also keynoted conventions for corporate executives at the nation’s largest brands such as Walmart, Bank of America, FedEx, and many more.  At the age of 29, Forbes Magazine named Fleming to the Forbes 30 under 30 list.  In 2020, The Root Magazine named Fleming one of the top 100 most influential African Americans in the United States.  And in May 2021, North Carolina Wesleyan College bestowed upon Fleming the honorary Doctor of Humanities degree.