DisruptRVA 2025

2025 SPONSORS

MOST RECENT SPONSORS...

DisruptRVA 2025 produced in partnership with the Institute for Transformative Leadership (ITL) at the VCU School of Business.

Proceeds beyond event costs are donated to the Institute for Transformative Leadership in support of their vision to develop leaders with the courage and capacity to care.

DisruptRVA 2025 Talks

Michelle Caryn Paul | Dream Bigger as You Redesign Work and Life with AI

Marcelle Fowler | Metaphorically Peaking

Ellen Raynor | Making a Difference Through Purpose and Pleasure

Tom Anderson | Engineering a Life Well-Lived

Letitia Cherry | The ROI of Joy

Thank you to our 2025

Speaker Coaches!

Suzanne Burns

CEO, Humble Haven Yoga

See Suzanne's Talk here

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Kimberley Lewis Parsons

CEO, Bamboo Teaming

See Kimberley's Talk here

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April Palmer

Account Executive, Duckbill

See April's Talk here

Stacy Dunbar

Principle Consultant, Avaap

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James Wasilewski

Executive Director of Leadership Annual Giving, Virginia Commonwealth University

See James' Talk here

Keonna Knight

Courage & Burnout Coach, Heal with Keonna

See Keonna's Talk here

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Sara James Shelton

Coach and HR Executive, PassionFruit

See Sara's Talk here

DisruptRVA 2025 Talks

Katie Taylor | What the Grotesque can Teach us about Decision-making

Christian Markow | Happy Brain, Better Work.

Todd Waldo | Emcee

Ed Cook & Roxanne Brown | DisruptRVA Champions

Our Speakers

Our hope for Disrupt in RVA is that the inspiration ripple-effect makes work better for people in Richmond.

Better for employees and leaders. Better for companies and their customers. Better for their families and friends!

Making work part of a life well-lived.

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Roxanne Brown and Ed Cook

RVA Co-Owners & Champions for DisruptRVA

Want to be part of DisruptRVA?

Tell us about your interest!

Metaphorically Peaking | Marcelle Fowler

See Marcelle's Talk!

Meet our Emcee:

Todd Waldo

Todd does it again!! Our perfect emcee for DisruptRVA, Todd creates an atmosphere for everyone that’s uniquely Disrupt.

Speakers have a big task: Deliver a powerful message inside a challenging format (5 minutes, 20 slides advancing automatically every 20 seconds) and energize, inform and empower the audience. Speakers mess up! Perfection is not the point.

Success is when an audience member takes something away and tries something new the very next day.

Todd makes sure everyone understands this. He keeps the energy up -- the audience encouraging the speakers, the speakers inspired by the audience. A complete uplift for everyone!