Andrea Akins is the Founder of Akins Strategic Growth Solutions, LLC and a strategic marketing and growth leader with 20 years of experience helping organizations build meaningful connections, generate demand, and drive measurable growth through innovative marketing strategy and purposeful storytelling.
In July 2026, Andrea took the next step in her professional journey and launched Akins Strategic Growth Solutions, where she partners with organizations as a fractional marketing consultant, providing both strategic leadership and hands-on marketing support. Today, she works with clients across education, financial services, and professional services, helping organizations strengthen their demand generation strategies, marketing operations, customer engagement, and overall approach to growth.
Recognized as a 2025 Woman of Distinction for creativity and innovation, Andrea is passionate about the intersection of strategy, creativity, and human connection. She believes great marketing is about more than generating leads it is about understanding people, telling meaningful stories, building trust, and creating strategies that make a lasting impact.

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SAM GHANEM

• Founder, branding expert, executive strategist, thought leader, TEDx Speaker, and Stand-up Comedian
• 25 years in the printing, branding, marketing, and messaging industries - obsessed with the human OS (operating system)
• TEDx Talk “It’s Contagious | The Way You Treat Yourself Spreads” - live this week - explores congruence, brand embodiment, and the human cost of living out of alignment with one’s authentic self
• Master of International Business Administration (MIBA) and Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA)
• Specializes in brand embodiment, congruence, and helping high performers close the gap between external success and internal fulfillment
• Has worked with brands including Lockheed Martin, Danaher, IBM, Carrier, Thermo Fisher, and the likes
• 100+ stages in the last year as a keynote speaker, comedian, emcee, and TEDx speaker
• Founder of SG INK, a printing, branding, and marketing agency, and IASG, his personal brand serving as a Fractional CMO, speaker, comedian, and emcee
• Based in South Florida

SPEAKING HIGHLIGHTS

• TEDx Talk “It’s Contagious | The Way You Treat Yourself Spreads” - live this week
• 100+ stages in the last year spanning keynotes, comedy, and emcee engagements
• Branding and executive strategy engagements with Lockheed Martin, Danaher, IBM, Carrier, Thermo Fisher, and the likes
• Active thought leader on LinkedIn and in the South Florida business community

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Nicole Bradham, MBA is a Professor of Marketing at Southeastern University, founder of HotMod Influencer Marketing Agency, and co-founder of The Influencer Academy. She helped launch one of the nation's first Influencer Marketing Minors within Southeastern University's College of Business & Leadership, bridging the gap between higher education and the rapidly growing creator economy. Nicole has led influencer campaigns for brands including NASCAR, Camping World, and Sun Outdoors, while helping businesses, entrepreneurs, and content creators build authentic partnerships that drive measurable results. A sought-after speaker and educator, she combines her background in technology, business, and marketing to help organizations leverage influencer marketing, AI, and digital strategy to grow their brands.

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Jessica is an educator turned enthusiastic product creator. After five years of teaching Physical Education and nurturing young minds through recreation and health education, she embarked on a new journey to channel her creativity into tangible products that improve people's lives. She is dedicated to crafting products that blend form and function. Armed with her teaching experience and a passion for innovation, she now designs and develop products that aim to make learning and daily life more engaging and efficient.

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Dr. Treshonda Baucom is a licensed mental health counselor, professor, and founder/CEO of Enriched Life Counseling & Consulting, providing services for children, teens, adults, and parents. She helps young clients manage ADHD, anxiety, and depression while equipping parents with tools to support their children’s social and emotional development.

Before opening her practice in 2018, Dr. Baucom taught Pre-K through third grade and served as an administrative dean and school counselor. Her practice quickly grew to a team of four clinicians, conducting over 80 sessions weekly.

A recognized thought leader, Dr. Baucom has appeared on WKMG News 6, WESH 2, podcasts, and radio shows, and has spoken at Valencia College and Orlando Sentinel events. She was named to Orlando Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 and Orlando Magazine’s 2025 Women of the Year. She also won the University of South Florida's Fast 50 award. She lives in Orlando with her husband and three children.

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Johannys Irizarry

I was born in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Puerto Rico in 2000, followed by a Master’s degree from Metropolitan University in 2002. Later that year, I relocated to Florida, where I began a career in consumer lending that spans more than 20 years.

Throughout my professional journey, I have held leadership roles including Branch Manager and Assistant Vice President in the Central Florida region, as well as Loan Officer Supervisor in the Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) department. Six years ago, I transitioned into the credit union industry as a Business Development Officer, where I successfully created and launched the Merchant Lending Department.

Currently, I serve as a Microenterprise Development Specialist at Suncoast Credit Union. In this role, I am dedicated to helping entrepreneurs access the capital they need to start and grow their businesses, fostering economic development and supporting small business success in our community.

Johannys Irizarry
Microenterprise Development Specialist
Suncoast Credit Union

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1. Blake Emery

Research Driven Strategy

Blake Emery is the President of BlakeEmeryAssociates. BlakeEmeryAssociates helps clients develop their strategies through research leading to deep customer insights. Blake is the research consultant to Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Panasonic Avionics, D2Bridge, and others. Blake is also a Board Member of All Wheels Up, which advocates for dedicated wheelchair spots on commercial aircraft.

Blake was the director of differentiation strategy for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, where he conducted research leading to many of the innovations on the 787 Dreamliner. He is associated with the popular “Boeing Sky Interior”, the direct beneficiary of that research. He is named on multiple patents for commercial jet exterior design, seats, and even jewelry design.

He is featured in several documentaries, including “The Age of Aerospace” (PBS), “City in the Sky” (BBC), “The Magic of Flight” (For Air Canada) and “The Beauty of Flying” (for LATAM).

His career has included extensive cultural and empirical research as well as behavioral, consumer, and organizational psychology.

In 2026 he authored the book Wings Toward the Sun: The Culture Clash Behind Boeing Fall From Grace and the Flight Path to Redemption.

Blake is a avid practitioner and instructor of taijiquan. He occasionally sings and plays guitar with local musicians. He Llves outside Seattle, Washington.

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Dr. Latoya Wells is a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner, healthcare leader, nurse educator, entrepreneur, and founder of Wells Legacy Health & Wellness in Altamonte Springs, Florida.

With more than 30 years of healthcare experience, Dr. Wells has built a diverse career spanning primary care, hospital medicine, population health, value-based care, clinical leadership, nursing education, and advanced practice nursing. Throughout her career, she has led healthcare teams, mentored clinicians, educated future nurses, and developed strategies to improve clinical quality, provider performance, documentation accuracy, preventive care, and patient outcomes.

Her professional journey ultimately led her to entrepreneurship and the creation of Wells Legacy Health & Wellness, an independent primary care and wellness practice founded on the belief that healthcare should be accessible, personalized, preventive, and centered around the needs of the patient. The practice provides primary care, women's and men's health, hormone health, preventive services, weight management, wellness care, and Direct Primary Care options, with flexible scheduling and innovative approaches to healthcare access.

Dr. Wells is especially passionate about women's health and is expanding conversations surrounding perimenopause and menopause through clinical care, education, and her Hey Sis platform, where she helps women better understand their changing bodies and become stronger advocates for their health.

Her commitment to education extends beyond her practice. As a nursing professor and longtime educator, Dr. Wells has helped prepare the next generation of nurses and advanced practice clinicians, emphasizing evidence-based practice, clinical reasoning, leadership, and compassionate patient care. Her expertise has also expanded into veteran medical evaluations and medical-legal consulting.

Dr. Wells' professional accomplishments are rooted in a personal story of perseverance. Born extremely premature and raised in circumstances that required resilience from an early age, she became a young mother before ultimately building a career that would take her from nursing to advanced practice, healthcare leadership, doctoral education, academia, and business ownership.

Today, she brings those experiences together as a clinician and entrepreneur committed to improving access to quality care, empowering patients through education and advocacy, mentoring future healthcare professionals, and demonstrating what is possible when experience, purpose, and entrepreneurship intersect.

For Dr. Wells, success is ultimately about legacy - using more than three decades of healthcare experience to build healthier patients, stronger communities, future healthcare leaders, and opportunities for the generations that follow.

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