Keynote Speakers

Timothy Shriver is a husband, father, educator, best-selling author, Chairman of the Special Olympics, Chairman of UNITE, and CEO of Bigger Picture Media.

As Chairman of the Special Olympics, he has driven the largest expansion of the organization in its history, growing the movement from one million athletes to over six million athletes in 193 countries around the world.

Before joining the Special Olympics in 1996, Shriver co-founded and currently chairs the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the leading school reform organization in the field of social and emotional learning.

As Chairman of UNITE, Timothy has helped pioneer the Dignity Index – a new tool to help Americans disagree without conflict – and unite Americans in common purpose to tackle our country’s most intractable challenges.

Dr. Shriver will be delivering his keynote address on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 2 p.m. in the Keynote Theater at Workshop 2026.

Beginning her career as a middle school teacher in Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. Laux has an extensive, diverse background in education spanning nearly two decades. Immediately prior to her appointment, she was a Principal at ILO Group, an education strategy and policy firm, where she partnered with state agencies and districts to develop educational strategies. In addition, she served several roles during her tenure at Teach for America, planning and leading education-based projects in both Atlanta, GA, and the Mississippi Delta.

Her journey eventually led her to the Texas Education Agency, where she served as Deputy Commissioner of School Programs and redesigned the state’s assessment program. During her tenure, Dr. Laux expanded the agency’s College and Career Readiness School Models, which increased associate degree attainment by 13%. She also has experience in higher education, serving as an Assistant Instructor at The University of Texas at Austin, where she lectured in an American Studies course.

She also spent several years as the Executive Director at Economic Mobility Center, a nonprofit that supports underserved students and their families. In that role, she collaborated with K-12 districts, higher education institutions, and workforce organizations, helping to build opportunities for economic advancement.

As commissioner, Dr. Laux will oversee the state’s public education system and lead Governor Sherrill’s education agenda. She will focus on improving student achievement, modernizing and stabilizing the state’s school funding formula to promote long-term fiscal stability for school districts, and enhancing online safety for children. Dr. Laux will also lead the initiative for expanded access to preschool.

Dr. Laux will be delivering her featured speaker address on Wed, Oct. 21, at 10 a.m. in the Keynote Theater at Workshop 2026.

Over 15 years ago, working in public education, Alisha De Lorenzo was charged with helping her failing school district improve culture and performance. A challenge that would pave the way for her to guide industries, organizations and individuals to solve seemingly intractable problems through a deceptively simple approach – Positive Deviance, which stands on one belief, in every organization there are people whose outlier practices are generating remarkable outcomes despite facing the same barriers and obstacles as everyone else. With their innovative ways living outside of the conditioned, cultural norms of the community, their solutions remain hidden in plain sight.

After years of experiencing burnout and the isolation that comes from challenging conventional thinking, De Lorenzo recalls the feelings of hope and aliveness that came from being given the agency to discover and scale the solutions that mattered most. This changed EVERYTHING about how she viewed problems, their solutions and how to engage people in a way that brings them alive.

While De Lorenzo’s efforts went on to transform the system of education across New Jersey, her influence began to spread across industries. In 2019 she was invited to speak to corporate audiences to help address the toxic work cultures, escalating mental health issues, disengagement, siloed innovation, resistance to change, and ineffective leadership strategies plaguing companies. Leaning on more than 20 years of combined experience as a speaker, high-performance coach, educator, and therapist, De Lorenzo shares a proven framework to help leaders uncover and scale positive disruption. Her riveting keynotes and workshops provide the tools to help teams infuse aliveness back into their work, revolutionize culture, and amplify the solutions already alive within their organizations.

Alisha will be delivering her keynote address on Thurs, Oct. 22, at NJSBA’s Women@Workshop in Room 303 at Workshop 2026.