Lead Where You Stand Speakers
In June 2026, an extraordinary array of speakers will represent leadership, human flourishing and insights into artificial intelligence. Check back as we add speaker details.
Gayle D. Beebe, Ph.D.
四虎影院 president since 2007, Beebe has spent more than a quarter century in higher education. He has authored or edited more than 40 articles and 11 books including, 鈥淭he Shaping of an Effective Leader: Eight Formative Principles of Leadership鈥 and "The Crucibles That Shape Us: Navigating the Defining Challenges of Leadership." Leading unprecedented growth at 四虎影院 while facing significant challenges, he has loved attracting new resources to build out the campus, developing new academic and co-curricular programs, and pursuing the next horizon. Under Beebe鈥檚 leadership the college has raised nearly $500 million dollars for various projects and new academic programs and added more than 400,000 square feet in new or renovated facilities on campus and in downtown Santa Barbara.
New York Times Columnist & Author
Brooks is a New York Times columnist and author of several books, including the #1 New York Times Bestsellers, "The Road to Character" and "The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life." Brooks is one of America鈥檚 most prominent political and social commentators. He writes a bi-weekly, op-ed column for the New York Times and regularly appears on PBS News Hour and National Public Radio鈥檚 All Things Considered. His most recent book, "How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen," reflects on the topic of human connection and its importance in today's society.
鈥溗幕⒂霸 has become my home away from home鈥nd the kind of conversations that we have here, the kind of people I鈥檝e gotten a chance to be with year after year have become valuable to me.鈥 - David Brooks
Global AI Advisor and Former Head of Go-To-Market at OpenAI
Zack Kass is an advisor, researcher, keynote speaker, and the former Head of Go-To-Market at OpenAI. At OpenAI, Zack led the teams responsible for sales, partnerships, and customer success, turning the company鈥檚 cutting-edge research into real-world business solutions. He has personally advised executives across dozens of industries on deploying AI at scale. As an executive business advisor, Zack now works with Fortune 1,000 boardrooms and leadership teams鈥攊ncluding Coca-Cola, Morgan Stanley, and Amgen鈥攖o help leaders navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape. Zack鈥檚 mission is to ensure individuals, businesses, and governments are active participants in the AI-powered future by making the technology both understandable and actionable. He is recognized as one of the foremost thinkers in applied AI, with his insights featured in Fortune, Newsweek, Entrepreneur, AdAge, and Business Insider. Beyond his advisory work, Zack also supports AI education and research at the University of Virginia. He holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and currently resides in Santa Barbara, California.
Director of The Human Flourishing Program
VanderWeele is the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Director of the and Co-Director of the at Harvard University. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford, University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University in mathematics, philosophy, theology, finance, and biostatistics. His methodological research is focused on theory and methods for distinguishing between association and causation in the biomedical and social sciences and, more recently, on psychosocial measurement theory. His empirical research spans psychiatric and social epidemiology; the science of happiness and flourishing; and the study of religion and health. He is the recipient of the 2017 from the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS).
Dr. VanderWeele has published over 500 papers in peer-reviewed journals; is author of the books (2015), (2021), (2021), (2023), and (2024); and writes a monthly blog posting on topics related to human flourishing for .