Forever Buffs Career Conference

Keynote Speakers

John Guydon

John Guydon is a leading motivational speaker on the connection between mindset and performance. He comes from a sales career where he set multiple records that still hold today. He鈥檚 helped thousands of people consistently increase performance without the stress that usually comes with it.

Through his experience coaching nearly 200 entrepreneurs from all around the world; John discovered that many of the things holding people back (not just entrepreneurs) are 100% within their control. Family, finances, tragedy, even racism, don't stand a chance against your mindset.

His passion is evident, and his delivery is intellectual, humorous, touching and chock full of 鈥渨ow鈥� moments. This was put on full-display when John took the TED stage to speak about the controversial topic of race, which was met with praise from all walks of life. The Dark Dollar started with a little boy鈥檚 experience, and has turned into one man鈥檚 passion, and John is ready to share it with the world.

Merna Jacobsen

Dr. Merna Jacobsen serves as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Organization and Employee Development and Deputy Chief Human Resources Officer for the University of Colorado Boulder. Dr. Jacobsen has been a leader in higher education for three decades. She serves as an internal consultant, specializing in assisting departments with strategic planning, team building, and conflict resolution. She is a facilitator and trainer. She has a PhD. from Texas A&M in Human Resource Management and conducts research on and is published in the field of crisis leadership. 听

Breakout Speakers

Carol Fishman Cohen

Carol Fishman Cohen, builder of corporate career re-entry programs and leader of the iRelaunch #returntowork community, now over 100,000 strong, is a pioneer in the career re-entry space. Her viral TED talk "How to get back to work after a career break," has over 3.7 million views and is translated into 30 languages.

Carol is the host of the popular 3,2,1 iRelaunch! podcast and is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review on career reentry topics. She is well known for her seminal article "The 40-Year-Old Intern, which was selected as an "HBR article that changed the way I think" as part of HBR's 90th anniversary recognition of HBR articles that made the biggest difference in readers鈥� and contributors鈥� lives. Her latest article "Return to Work Programs Come of Age" talks about the evolution of and innovation in career reentry programs over nearly two decades, and is accompanied by an HBR Ideacast interview.

Carol speaks around the world on career re-entry topics and has addressed over 1,000 audiences.

Michael Gutman

Mike Gutman has been leading remote teams for 15 years. As the former marketing director for FlexJobs, Mike helped connect the value of work flexibility to employer strategy and job seekers, including running corporate conferences on remote work strategy for fortune 100 companies. 听He is a Linkedin Learning author on topics such as remote work policy, remote work management, and day-to-day best practices and has reached over 1 Million learners. He currently works on remote workforce development projects and consults corporate leadership teams about their remote and hybrid work models.

Kendra Prospero

Kendra鈥檚 one of the most passionate people around when it comes to work. She is adamant that no one should suffer at work and she鈥檚 not afraid to have the difficult conversations around what we all need to do to make work better. She鈥檚 a dynamic, caring, and driven speaker who will give you many tips for being a better worker, leader, or CEO. Known as a speaker who provides hope and is also very knowledgeable about her topic because she is the CEO and Founder of Turning the Corner, one of the only businesses in the country with a mission to 鈥渆nd suffering in the workplace.鈥� Her talks are not just inspirational, but they are also full of useful information that you can start using the minute you leave the room. Whether you love or hate your job, you鈥檒l benefit from hearing her speak. Join her if you want to live full out and enjoy 40 more hours a week of your life.

Kristi Wasson

Kristi helps lead Career Services鈥� Comprehensive Career team by overseeing outreach efforts and the graduate and alumni career programs. In her role, she also supports campus-wide strategic initiatives and facilitates the Career Community of Practice. When not wearing her leadership hat, Kristi works as a strengths-based career advisor who loves helping students and alumni build awareness of who they are, where they want to go and how to get there. Kristi earned her MA in communication from CU Boulder (Go Buffs!) and her BA in communication and education from Augustana College. Over the course of her career, Kristi has held a variety of professions; the thread that weaves them all together is her love of helping others to discover their purpose and maximize their potential through meaningful work. In her free time, Kristi loves exploring the mountains, endurance sports, singing and travel.

Employer Panel

Lori Thompson

Senior Vice President, Strategy & Business Development

Lori Thompson is a strategy, marketing, and business development professional with extensive experience in the aerospace defense industry. She is passionate about helping companies unlock strategic growth through the integration of strategic planning, new product development and market expansion efforts.

Lori is currently Senior Vice President for Strategy and Business Development for the Intelligence & Communications division of Ultra and based in Austin, TX. She is responsible for setting the strategic planning and execution priorities for the Cyber, Communications, and C2I business units and leads the business development and marketing efforts to grow new business opportunities with defense organizations worldwide.

Katie Binswanger

Campus Recruiting Manager, LaSalle Network

Katie Binswanger is the Campus Recruiting Manager at LaSalle Network, an award-winning national staffing, recruiting and culture firm. With 7 years of experience in recruiting, over her tenure, Katie has led recruiting teams that have helped thousands of college graduates find employment. In her current role, Katie partners with colleges and universities across the country to help students find employment post-graduation. While a Chicago native, Katie received her bachelor鈥檚 degree in International Relations from the University of Colorado Boulder and roots for the Buffs any chance she gets.

Dr. Ashley Grice

CU Boulder Senior DEI Consultant

Dr. Ashley R. Grice (she/her/hers) serves as a senior diversity, equity and inclusion consultant at the University of Colorado 鈥� Boulder. She provides support, tools and researched best practices to administrative units and executive leaders in operationalizing a systemic approach to the implementation of university-wide diversity, equity and inclusion goals and initiatives. She received her doctorate of education in social and comparative analysis in education from the University of Pittsburgh, centering her professional work around the interrogation of systems of oppression within and beyond educational contexts. Ashley is inspired by a Black Feminist and intersectional praxis, pulling especially from her lived and professional experiences. Her ultimate goal in any endeavor is to inspire and achieve collective liberation.

Tim Stelzer

Chief Technology Officer, LineVision

Tim Stelzer is recognized for leading digital transformations and building high-performing global technology teams to successfully deliver world-class new IoT measurement and cloud SaaS offerings to market serving a diverse range of industries such as energy, industrial, automotive and semiconductor. Throughout his over 20-year technology and business career, he has held several leadership positions spanning software and hardware R&D, applications engineering, technical sales & services, and product management.

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