Education & Literacy Speakers

Fee Range: $8,000–$10,000
Travels From: NY

Fee Range: $6,500–$10,500
Travels From: CO

Erik Wahl is a graffiti artist who is making big waves on the international lecture circuit by challenging organizations to break free from business as usual. His breakthrough thinking has earned praise from the likes of top influencers in both art and business. His sought-after artwork has raised millions of dollars for charity and can be seen hanging prominently in executive offices all over the world.

Fee Range: $35,000–$45,000
Travels From: CA

Vijay Govindarajan, known as VG, is the Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of Int'l Business at the Tuck School and founding director of Tuck's Center for Global Leadership. He is also the faculty co-director for Global Leadership 2020, Tuck's executive education program that focuses on global management. VG's area of expertise is strategy, with particular emphasis on strategic innovation, industry transformation, and global strategy and organization. VG works with CEOs and top management teams in Global Fortune 500 firms to discuss, challenge, and escalate their thinking about strategy. VG received his doctorate from the Harvard Business School and was awarded the Robert Bowne Prize for the best thesis proposal. He also received his MBA with distinction from the Harvard Business School where he was included in the Dean's Honor List. He has published eight books, including Reverse Innovation in Health Care How to Make Value-Based Delivery Work.

Fee Range: Inquire
Travels From: NH

Jon Gordon is one of the most sought-after speakers in the world today. His engaging talks and principles have influenced numerous leaders and teams in professional sports, business, healthcare and education. Jon speaks on a variety of topics (leadership, teamwork, culture, sales and service) based on his best-selling books and his clients include Southwest Airlines, The Atlanta Falcons, The Los Angeles Dodgers, Campbell Soup, Northwestern Mutual, Dell, Ritz Carlton Hotels, Wells Fargo, PGA Tour, Clemson Football, Intermountain Health Care, Denver Public Schools and many more.

Fee Range: $60,000–$80,000
Travels From: FL

Richard Rothstein is a Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Policy Institute and a Senior Fellow (emeritus) at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He is the author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, which recovers a forgotten history of how federal, state, and local policy explicitly segregated metropolitan areas nationwide, creating racially homogenous neighborhoods in patterns that violate the Constitution and require remediation. He is also the author of many other articles and books on race and education. Previous influential books include Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic and Educational Reform to Close the Black–White Achievement Gap and Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right.

Fee Range: $5,000–$14,000
Travels From: DC

Craig Kielburger is a social entrepreneur and the co-founder of a family of organizations dedicated to the power of WE, a movement of people coming together to change the world. Along with his brother Marc Kielburger, Craig co-founded WE Charity, which provides a holistic development model called WE Villages, helping to lift more than one million people out of poverty in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Back at home in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, WE Schools and W corporate social reponsibilityE Day provide comprehensive service learning programs to 10,000 schools, engaging 2.4 million young change-makers. His work has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, 60 Minutes and the BBC. Craig is the youngest ever graduate from the Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA program. He has also received 15 honorary doctorates and degrees for his work in the fields of education and human rights. Craig is a New York Times bestselling author, who has published 12 books, as well as a nationally syndicated columnist. Craig has received the Nelson Mandela Freedom Medal and the World Children’s Prize.

Fee Range: $25,000–$30,000
Travels From: Intl

• CEO of Fearless Positivity and Co-Founder of Digital Wellness Institute •Bestselling author of The Future of Happiness, Ripple’s Effect, and How to Make a Shark Smile • Member of the United Nations Global Happiness Council • Regular contributor for Forbes on Women, Technology, and Leadership • The only person named a Point of Light by two Presidents • Received BA from Harvard and MBA from Yale School of Management • Co-Founder of GoodThink, a positive psychology research and consulting firm • Fellow of the World Innovation Organization • Featured professor in Oprah’s Happiness e-course

Fee Range: $15,000–$25,000
Travels From: TX

•Leland is the first person drafted into the National Football League to have also flown in space. •He was featured on National Geographic's One Strange Rock, hosted by Will Smith, where he explained how his brain repaired itself after an injury that left him deaf and almost stopped him from ever going to space. •Even after being medically disqualified to fly in space by NASA flight surgeons, •Leland completed two Space Shuttle missions to help build the International Space Station. •Leland served as the co-chair of the White House's Federal Coordination in STEM Education Task Force, developing the nation's 5-year plan for STEM education, and as NASA Associate Administrator for Education. •His memoir, Chasing Space, shares his personal journey from the gridiron to the stars. •Leland served as a consultant on National Geographic's second season of Mars..

Fee Range: $25,000–$44,000
Travels From: VA

Reshma Saujani is the Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, the international nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in technology and change the image of what a computer programmer looks like and does.

Fee Range: $50,000–$94,000
Travels From: NY

Sampson Davis, MD, is an infectious, compelling storyteller that all should hear. His true rags-to-riches journey leaves audiences inspired and filled with motivation. Growing up in one of America’s toughest cities, he made the transition from life-threatening quarters to a highly sought-after professional speaker, best-selling author and specially skilled, life-saving physician. Davis spends his time practicing medicine and traveling the country delivering keynote speeches with timely messages. Davis believes it is important to give education a sense of style and fashion. To glorify and glamorize education is the key. A face must be present, a concrete image that all individuals across America can draw inspiration from. Davis considers his 3 D’s, Dedication, Determination and Discipline, as the necessary ingredients to success. Davis’ speeches will detail topics including mental health, substance abuse, diversity in the medical field and his calling to care as an act of reciprocity.

Fee Range: $15,000–$30,000
Travels From: NJ

Gabrielle is currently the star of BET’s “Being Mary Jane”, which will air its second season in 2015. She plays ‘Mary Jane Paul,’ a successful talk show host searching for “Mr. Right,” while balancing her professional and private life. Gabrielle was also recently seen on the big screen in “Think Like a Man, Think Like a Man Too” and “Top Five”. Gabrielle’s passion for acting is rivaled by her involvement as an Ambassador for the Susan G. Komen Foundation as well as her support for the Young Survivor Coalition (YSC) and the Rape Treatment Center (RTC) at UCLA. In her free time, Gabrielle often travels on behalf of Susan G. Komen and the YSC to share her story of losing a friend to Breast Cancer and inspires others as well as visits the RTC to talk to young women. She also helped found a program called “A Step for Success” in 2004 which helps to raise funds for the economically challenged Kelso Elementary School in Los Angeles.

Fee Range: $100,000–$250,000
Travels From: CA

Hill Harper is an award-winning actor, best-selling author and philanthropist. Harper starred on the hit CBS drama CSI: NY, HLN’s How It Really Happened with Hill Harper, Showtime's award-winning series Homeland, and a leading role as Dr. Marcus Andrews on the highly-acclaimed new show The Good Doctor on ABC. In theaters, he can be seen in the movie Concussion and the Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez on Me.

Fee Range: $50,000–$94,000
Travels From: WA

Fee Range: $22,000–$37,000
Travels From: CA

Erin Gruwell is a teacher, an author, and the founder of the Freedom Writers Foundation. By fostering an educational philosophy that values and promotes diversity, Erin transformed her students’ lives. She encouraged them to re-think rigid beliefs about themselves and others, reconsider daily decisions, and ultimately re-chart their futures. Erin and her students captured their collective journey in The Freedom Writers Diary.

Fee Range: $7,000–$16,000
Travels From: CA

Chris Gardner is the author of the autobiography, The Pursuit of Happyness, a New York Times and Washington Post #1 best-seller. Gardner is also the inspiration for the acclaimed movie "The Pursuit of Happiness", for which Will Smith, starring as Gardner, received Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Academy Award nominations for his performance. A series of adverse circumstances in the early 1980's left Gardner homeless in San Francisco and the sole guardian of his toddler son. Unwilling to give up Chris Jr. or his dreams of success, Gardner climbed the financial industry ladder from the very bottom. Surmounting acute obstacles throughout his life, Gardner is an avid motivational speaker, addressing the keys to self-empowerment, beating odds, and breaking cycles. Gardner is also a passionate philanthropist committed to many charitable organizations.

Fee Range: $50,000–$94,000
Travels From: IL

Jamie Lee Curtis began her Hollywood career in 1977 when she signed on as a contract player with Universal Studios. She was a regular on the television series Operation Petticoat when she was cast in "Halloween." She has demonstrated her versatility as a film actress with starring roles in such acclaimed films as the blockbuster True Lies, for which she earned a Golden Globe Award. Other memorable leading film role performances include A Fish Called Wanda and My Girl. Jamie also co-starred opposite Richard Lewis in the acclaimed sitcom "Anything but Love," which earned her both a Golden Globe and People's Choice Award. She is an AIDS activist and has an active connection to many children's charities.

Fee Range: Inquire
Travels From: CA

Fee Range: $125,000–$250,000
Travels From: Intl

Fee Range: $5,000–$13,000
Travels From: TX

Ice T not only invented gangster rap, he has lived it. Ice T is the original embodiment of L.A. Hip-Hop. Through his music, his book The Ice Opinion, and his lecture tours of America’s prisons, high schools, and colleges, Ice T has become an influential spokesman for America’s youth. Born in New Jersey, Ice T learned the art of survival pretty fast. An only child whose parents died when he was very young, Ice T became involved in Los Angeles gangs before spending four years in the army. His first break came when the producers of the film Breakin' asked him to rap in the movie. He went on to become rap music's original gangster. Ice T formed Rhyme Syndicate Records in 1989 and released a string of groundbreaking West Coast rap records. He is an accomplished movie actor. Cast if such movies as "New Jack City", "Ricochet" and "Johnny Mnemonic". He also is part of the cast of "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit".

Fee Range: $50,000–$125,000
Travels From: NJ

Fee Range: $50,000–$63,000
Travels From: CA

Melody Barnes is co-director for policy and public affairs for the Democracy Initiative, an interdisciplinary teaching, research, and engagement effort led by the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia. She is the Dorothy Danforth Compton Professor and a professor of practice at the Miller Center and is also a distinguished fellow at the UVA School of Law. A co-founder of the domestic strategy firm MB2 Solutions LLC, Barnes has spent more than 25 years crafting public policy on a wide range of domestic issues.

Fee Range: $15,000–$20,000
Travels From: VA

Fee Range: $14,000–$25,000
Travels From: NY

Recognized in the hip hop world, the fashion scene and as a pop culture figure, Fonzworth Bentley is making his mark in some of the hardest industries in the world. Whether he’s assisting P.Diddy or touring with BET’s College Tour, Fonzworth is known for his class, etiquette, respect and remarkable style. His MTV show, “From Gs to Gents”, and his best-selling book Advance your Swagger: How to use Manners, Confidence and Style to Get Ahead have boosted him to success. His trademark comes from the simplest of ideas: politeness, respect and gratitude. His real world etiquette message comes at a great time, as we are in the Golden Age of Disrespect. Fonzworth’s message is simple but necessary: using the foundation of the basic building blocks we all been taught is the pathway to success. Fonzworth’s presentation, Take Your Swagger from College to Corporate, teaches today’s youth the strength in respecting themselves, their colleagues and how to take life’s seemingly simple lessons to the next level.

Fee Range: Inquire
Travels From: CA