Keynote Presentations

Opening Keynote: Melissa Majors

Melissa Majors is a captivating storyteller who brilliantly enlightens with talks that spark inspiration, insight, smiles, and wisdom that empower all to thrive. 

She is a leading advisor, coach, and advocate for human-centered leadership. Her expertise is curated from leading thriving teams across various industries, including investments, insurance, ed-tech, associations, and business consulting. Her practical experience is enhanced by her formal education, which she gained by studying strategy and innovation at Harvard University.

Melissa authored two books — Help Them Thrive: Leadership Coaching for Humans Leading Humans and The 7 Simple Habits of Inclusive Leaders.

Melissa is featured in publications such as Forbes Magazine and is loved by audiences at Google, the National Association of Realtors, 7-Eleven, RTX (formerly Raytheon), Catalyst, Lantheus, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and many more. She is endearing, authentic, and fun!

Prepare to be glued to Melissa when she takes the stage. You’ll be immersed in an endearing and authentic experience filled with mesmerizing stories that blend psychology, neuroscience, common sense, and wisdom that will inspire and prepare you to thrive.

Melissa is originally from Columbus, Ohio, so naturally, she’s a die-hard Ohio State Buckeye fan. She now lives with her husband, Terrance, in Cedar Hill, Texas. They have two children, Terrance and Luke, and her “Chief Wellness Officer,” a sheep-a-doodle named Ziggy.

Hayden Vanguard Lectureship: Mary Fey, PhD, RN, CHSE-A, ANEF

Mary Fey, PhD, RN, CHSE-A, ANEF, invites you to rethink where the true power of education lives. Models can provide the structure — but they can’t provide the spark. That spark is found in the human connections educators create every day.

In this thought-provoking keynote, Dr. Fey draws on more than 20 years of experience in nursing education to explore the critical leverage points where competency-based education (CBE) becomes transformational. Centered on the learning environment, the teacher–learner relationship, and the coaching conversation, this session reveals how educators move beyond frameworks and into meaningful impact.

As Associate Director in the Division of Applied Learning for Performance and Safety at the Harvard Center for Medical Simulation, Dr. Fey is internationally recognized for her work in faculty development, simulation-based education, and debriefing. Her scholarship and global collaborations have shaped how educators design curriculum, deliver feedback, and foster deeper learning across health professions education.

Blending evidence-based strategies with practical insight, Dr. Fey will illuminate how shifting from instructor to coach reframes the educator’s role — building trust, strengthening dialogue, and unlocking learner growth. Attendees will leave inspired to rethink where the real power of teaching resides: not in the curriculum documents we write, but in the relationships we cultivate.

Join this session to discover how connection fuels competency — and how the most powerful learning experiences are created, moment by moment, through the conversations that matter most.