Authors / Common Read (U)

Authors and Common Read speakers offer unique perspectives on life and the world we share. Poets, journalists and activists bring you inside their writing, challenging each of us to better know ourselves through storytelling.

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Authors / Common Read
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Authors / Common Read

Jill Schlesinger

<p>Jill Schlesinger, a Certified Financial Planner professional (CFP®), is the Emmy and Gracie award-winning business analyst for CBS News, where she translates complicated business and economic news into understandable, relatable topics for everyday people.

Lauren Berger

<p>Lauren Berger is CEO & Founder of both CareerQueen.com and InternQueen.com, reaching over 9 million people and connecting them with their dream careers. </p><p>Her newest book <i>Get It Together; Ditch the Chaos, Do the Work, Design Your Success</i> is a super-practical guide to personal success and is packed with no-nonsense tips that will get anywhere where they want to be in business and in life.</p><p>Berger has been a featured keynote speaker at over 200+ college, leadership, entrepreneurship, and female empowerment events.

Sophia Nelson

<p>Sophia A. Nelson, Esquire is an award-winning author, award winning journalist, and renowned international inspirational speaker. She is also an award-winning corporate Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Trainer. </p><p>Nelson has worked almost exclusively with women corporate ERG groups for the past fifteen years. She is a highly sought after conference keynote speaker on issues of work-life balance, wellness and mental self-care in the workplace, emotional intelligence skill building, collaboration vs. competition, and equity for women of color in the c-suite.

Ijeoma Oluo

<p>Ijeoma Oluo is a writer, speaker, and internet yeller. She is the author of the #1 <i>New York Times</i> Best Seller <i>So You Want to Talk About Race</i>, and most recently, <i>Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America</i>. </p><p>Her work on race has been featured in <i>The Guardian, The New York Times,</i> and <i>The Washington Post</i>, among many other publications. She was named to the 2021 <i>TIME </i>100 Next list and has twice been named to the <i>Root </i>100.

Bob Goff

<p>With years of experience transforming big dreams into reality, Bob Goff is the ultimate guide for getting dreams done. He knows first-hand what it&#39;s like to be on the other side of what you were made to do.</p><p>The ever-dynamic Goff is not only the author of two <i>New York Times</i> bestsellers—<i>Love Does and Everybody Always</i>—he is also a “recovering lawyer.” After practicing law for 25 years, then serving as the Hon.

A'Lelia Bundles

<p>A’Lelia Bundles is an award-winning author and great-great-granddaughter of the entrepreneurial activist and philanthropist, Madam C.J. Walker. A Netflix Original series inspired by Bundles’ book (<i>On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker</i>) stars Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer and Tiffany Haddish, and is produced by LeBron James (March 2020). </p><p>A former network television news executive and producer at ABC News and NBC News, Bundles is also well-versed in American journalism as well as social justice and civil rights issues.

Robert Bilott

<p>Robert Bilott is the tenacious environmental lawyer who became “DuPont’s worst nightmare,” according to <i>The New York Times</i>. The story in his book, <i>Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle Against Dupont</i>, inspired the major motion picture, <i>Dark Waters</i> (November 2019), featuring Academy-Award nominee Mark Ruffalo as Rob Bilott.  </p><p>Bilott was a corporate defense attorney for eight years until he took on an environmental suit that upended his entire career—and exposed a braze

Jesse Holland

<p>Respected internationally as a strategic thinker, inspirational speaker and consummate professional, Jesse J. Holland offers more than 20 years of public success as a nationally known political journalist,</p>

<p>African American historian and creative writing consultant. </p>