Marita Cheng
Founder of Robogals, Aipoly, and Aubot; Technology Speaker; Author
12:15 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 21
Forbes 30 Under 30 roboticist and entrepreneur, Marita Cheng inspires people to lead through technology. While studying engineering at university, Marita founded Robogals, a global organization that inspires girls into engineering careers and tertiary studies through teaching girls robotics. For her work with Robogals, she was named the 2012 Young Australian of the Year and received an Asia Society Game Changer Award at the United Nations! Through attending Singularity University’s 10-week Graduate Studies Program, Marita founded Aipoly, using AI to recognize objects in real time to help the visually impaired navigate the world, winning a CES Best of Innovation Award two years in a row! And then Aubot, where she currently serves as CEO, making telepresence robots and robotics arms that care and enable. Named one of Forbes World’s Top 50 Women in Tech and the youngest Member of the Order of Australia, Marita shows there are no limits.
John Quiñones
ABC News Veteran, Creator & Host, "What Would You Do?"
9:15 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 22
A lifetime of “never taking no for an answer” took Quiñones from migrant farm work and poverty to more than 30 years at ABC News, the anchor desk at 20/20 and Primetime and seven national Emmy awards for his reporting over the years. Along the way, he broke through barriers, won the highest accolades and became a role model for many.
As host and creator of “What Would You Do?”, the highly-rated, hidden camera ethical dilemma news show, Quiñones has literally become “the face of doing the right thing” to millions of fans.
Kevin Dehmer
Acting Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Education
2 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 22
Kevin Dehmer, Acting Commissioner for the New Jersey Department of Education, has brought to the position a long working history in New Jersey public education.
Prior to becoming Acting Commissioner, Mr. Dehmer served as Executive Director and Senior Researcher at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. The Heldrich Center is a nationally renowned research organization that uses cutting-edge approaches and analysis that focuses on improving all aspects of the nation’s education, training, and workforce programs and policies. A key component of this research is determining strategies to improve the preschool-12 public education system and learning more about how educators and policymakers can advance career opportunities, equity, and long-term success of students.
Acting Commissioner Dehmer also spent more than 15 years in public service with the New Jersey Department of Education, directing numerous offices and twice serving as Interim Commissioner. Most recently, Acting Commissioner Dehmer was the Assistant Commissioner of Finance and Chief Financial Officer at the Department where he oversaw all aspects of public-school funding in New Jersey, including allocating more than $11 billion in state aid annually and over $1 billion in federal grants.
Over this period, Acting Commissioner Dehmer also played a key role in navigating major events that impacted New Jersey’s public schools such as the Great Recession, Superstorm Sandy, and served as Interim Commissioner for the re-opening of schools in the fall of 2020 during the recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Additionally, Acting Commissioner Dehmer has served on numerous councils and advisory groups in New Jersey and nationally, such as the State Employment and Training Commission, the Council on the Green Economy, the Commission on Science, Innovation, and Technology, Governor Phil Murphy’s Coronavirus Task Force, and the Council of Chief State School Officers.
Sonia Manzano
"Maria” on Sesame Street & Best-Selling Author
2:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 23
A first-generation mainland Puerto Rican, Sonia was raised in the South Bronx. She is best known for performing the role of “Maria” on Sesame Street for 44 seasons. Her work affected the lives of millions of parents and children and garnered her two Emmy Award nominations in addition to the National Academy of Arts and Science’s Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy in 2016. As a writer for the show, she took home 15 Emmys and recently received the 2022 Beacon Award from PBS.