General Sessions
This is where the full group comes together — for conversations that challenge how you think, sharpen how you lead, and send you back to your team with something real. Every Inspire Stage speaker comes with hard-won perspective and no interest in giving you anything generic. You won’t just leave inspired. You’ll leave feeling reenergized.
Amira Barger
Author, The Price of Nice
Author, The Price of Nice
Amira Barger is an award-winning Executive Vice President of Communications and Change Management, advising clients worldwide on reputation management and strategic communications. She is the author of The Price of Nice: Why Comfort Keeps Us Stuck—And 4 Actions for Real Change. With more than 20 years of experience spanning healthcare, pharma, crisis communications, and DEI, she has advised organizations including CVS Health, Pfizer, Genentech, and the CDC. Barger is a Professor of Marketing, Communications, and Change Management at California State University East Bay and has been named a 2024 Woman of the Year by Women Health Care Executives.
Carla Harris
Author, The Price of Nice
Senior Client Advisor, Morgan Stanley
Carla Harris is a Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley, where she previously served as Vice Chairman focused on client connectivity and revenue generation firmwide. She founded the award-winning Multicultural Innovation Lab and the podcast Access and Opportunity, and formerly led the Emerging Manager Platform and equity capital markets for consumer and retail. In 2013, President Obama appointed her to chair the National Women’s Business Council. Harris is a three-time bestselling author (Expect to Win, Strategize to Win, Lead to Win) and a celebrated public speaker. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and serves on the boards of Walmart, Cummins, and MetLife.
Michael C. Hyter
Author, The Price of Nice
President & CEO, The Executive Leadership Council
Michael C. Hyter is President and CEO of The Executive Leadership Council (The ELC), an independent non-profit founded in 1986 that opens channels of opportunity for the development of global executives to positively impact business and communities. An accomplished senior executive, leadership consultant, author, and thought leader, Hyter is widely recognized for his success developing enterprise leaders and their next-generation successors. For more than 25 years, he has served as a trusted advisor to senior leaders across industries, bringing deep expertise in CEO succession, executive leadership development, and strategic Diversity and Inclusion consulting to The ELC.
Shelley Stewart Jr.
Author, The Price of Nice
Managing Partner, Bottom Line Advisory and Board Chair, The Executive Leadership Council
Shelley Stewart, Jr. is managing partner of Bottom Line Advisory LLC. He previously served as Chief Procurement Officer at E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company and held the role of Senior Vice President of Operational Excellence and Chief Procurement Officer at Tyco International plc. Stewart also held leadership roles at Invensys Ltd., Raytheon Corporation and United Technologies Corporation. He serves on the Board Directors of Clean Harbors, Inc. and Kontoor Brands, Inc.
Rodney Williams
Author, The Price of Nice
Co-Founder of SoLo Funds
Rodney Williams is the Co-Founder of SoLo Funds, the largest community finance platform in the US, which has surpassed 1.5 million loans funded and served 2 million users since 2018. Prior to SoLo, he founded LISNR, leading the company to over $40 million in funding and partnerships across retail and financial services. His career began at Procter & Gamble in brand management, where he was an early catalyst in the company’s digital strategy. Williams has been recognized by Ad Age’s 40 Under 40, a Cannes Gold Lion, and the CNBC Disruptor 50 List five times.
Roy Wood Jr.
Author, The Price of Nice
Author, Comedian, & Cultural Commentator
Roy Wood Jr. is a comedian, Emmy-nominated documentary producer, and WGA-nominated writer who spent eight years as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show (2015–2023), guest-hosting the show and headlining the 2023 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. He hosts CNN’s Have I Got News for You, now in its fourth season, and released his fourth stand-up special, Lonely Flowers, on Hulu in 2025. Wood Jr. will join the Barbershop TV adaptation on Prime Video, with additional credits including Confess, Fletch and the upcoming film Outcome. His memoir, The Man of Many Fathers, released via Crown Publishing in October 2025.
Xavier Williams
Author, The Price of Nice
Former CEO, Network Wireless Solutions, LLC
Xavier D. Williams is an independent director and senior strategic advisor with more than 35 years of executive leadership experience in telecommunications, digital infrastructure, and enterprise technology. He serves on the board of Array Digital Infrastructure (NYSE: AD) and as Senior Advisor at Alvarez & Marsal, guiding Fortune 500 telecom and infrastructure companies on transformation and capital deployment. During his 30-year tenure at AT&T, he held multiple President and EVP roles overseeing $10–15 billion businesses, including President of Public Sector & FirstNet. He later served as CEO of AVC Technologies and NWS, leading acquisitions and driving significant growth.
featured speaker and host
L. Michelle Smith
Author, The Price of Nice
Best-selling Leadership Author, Fortune 100 Advisor, Certified Executive & Personal Coach
L. Michelle Smith changes organizations for the better by transforming the lives and leadership of executives with the power of science + culture. Seen on local, national and international media outlets, she is a bestselling, award-winning author, Fortune 100 C-Suite advisor, ICF-certified global executive and life coach and the CEO/founder of no silos communications llc. NSC is a media and consulting company that develops high-performing executive leaders with a specialty in women and women of color. Positive psychology and neuroscience-informed and credentialed by the International Coaching Federation, she runs an international coaching and consulting practice where she works with professionals and organizations to create learning and coaching experiences that inspire exceptional lives and leadership. A certified DISC practitioner, she is also an adjunct faculty member (facilitator and executive coach) of the Executive Leadership Council Institute and an instructor and curriculum developer for The Coaching and Applied Positive Psychology Institute. She is also a Facilitator for Forum, a platform for peer groups for senior leaders in corporate. She is the EP, creator and host of the global podcast, The Culture Soup, a renown speaker and facilitator and is currently working on her fourth book, Call & Response: 10 Leadership Lessons from the Black Church (Amistad/HarperCollins/JVL Media). She is the only Black woman author creating leadership books that combine culture with applied sciences, including her latest, Yes Please! 7 Ways to Say I’m Entitled to the C-Suite–listed by BLAVITY as one of “15 books by a Black woman that you should not miss.” She is also a contributor for HuffPost VOICES.
