Chicago’s inaugural Poet Laureate and American Poet Laureate Fellow, interdisciplinary artist avery r. young is also a co-director of The Floating Museum. Also a Walder’s Foundation Platform awardee, his art practice spans film, curation, to written and performance works featured in national and international exhibitions, theater, festivals and anthologies. He has scored Lise Haller Baggeson’s Hatorgrade Retrograde: The Musical, scoring Red Clay Dance’s Rest.Restore.Nourinsh.Move.Heal, and produced two albums, booker t soltreyne: a race rekkid and tubman. The latter is the soundtrack to his volume of poetry titled, neckbone: visual verses [Northerwestern].

Maisaa N. Taleb has dedicated 23 years to ACG and currently serves as an Associate Product Owner within the Telematics Department, where she supports initiatives that enhance product experiences through thoughtful collaboration, clear communication, and operational alignment.

Maisaa is a founding member of the ACG MENA Employee Resource Group, helping establish the ERG during the COVID19 pandemic when all engagement was fully remote. Despite early challenges with visibility and membership growth, she remained persistent, contributing to the ERG’s expansion to nearly 100 members and helping solidify its presence within both the organization and the broader community. The success of ACG’s MENA ERG later served as a model for the ACE Club’s MENA ERG, reflecting the strong foundation and impact of the group.

Through the ERG, Maisaa played a key role in building meaningful community partnerships, including collaborations with the Arab American Civil Rights League (ACRL) and Zaman International, an organization focused on breaking the cycle of poverty by empowering marginalized women and children to become selfsufficient entrepreneurs.

Additionally, Maisaa served as the MENA ERG Student Forum Ambassador between ACG and Dearborn Public Schools, partnering to support the Young Women Multicultural Student Enrichment Forum. This initiative helped educate students on diverse career pathways and included organizing a holiday food drive that provided over 1,000 meal packages to students in need during winter break.

Maisaa also acts as a cultural point of contact during company events, helping ensure cultural awareness and inclusivity are thoughtfully considered. She remains deeply committed to fostering belonging, representation, and meaningful community impact within ACG and beyond.

Fadoua Nabih is a Research Analyst on the Research Discovery and Design (RD2) team at EAB. Before joining EAB, Fadoua was a Fulbright English Teaching Fellow Grant Recipient in Taiwan, educating junior high and elementary students in English. She also gained experience in international development as a Program Associate for the Political Parties team at the National Democratic Institute. Fadoua holds a Master of Arts in North African and Middle Eastern Studies from Al Akhawayn University and a Bachelor of Arts in History and French with an Arabic Studies Minor from Franklin & Marshall College. In her free time, Fadoua enjoys aerial yoga and spending time with her cat.

Dylan Schuler is a Director of Relationships at Seramount, where he works closely with corporate, nonprofit, and government organizations to implement data-driven inclusion strategies. He partners with DEI and HR leaders to align enterprise goals with actionable outcomes, leveraging Seramount’s best practices and subject-matter expertise.

Dylan’s career began in higher education, where he served as an on-campus recruiter and application reviewer for two different universities. Prior to joining Seramount, he spent time working in the EdTech department of EAB, where he advised institutions on technology strategy and student success initiatives. In this role, he managed complex contractual reviews and guided executive-level decision-making.

Dylan holds a BS in biology and minor in music from William & Mary. He lives in Washington, DC, where he also coaches group fitness classes at a local gym. Outside of that, he enjoys good food, walking his dog around the city, and bread baking.

Dr. Julian Saporiti is a renowned scholar and musician whose “hybrid scholarship” project, No-No Boy, has reimagined how academic research can reach public audiences. Through a series of critically acclaimed albums released on the Smithsonian Folkways label, Saporiti’s work on Asian American history has engaged millions of listeners beyond the academy, earning praise from National Public Radio as “one of the most insurgent pieces of music you’ll ever hear”.

Saporiti earned his PhD in American Studies from Brown University and has held teaching positions at Colorado College and the University of Wyoming. He bridges the gap between rigorous historical inquiry and immersive storytelling, having held prestigious artist and research residencies at dozens of universities. His multimedia installations have recently been featured at the Wing Luke Museum and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

As Vice President, Corporate Citizenship & Inclusion, Matt Blakely leads RGA’s global philanthropic, volunteerism, inclusion, and sustainability efforts, advancing initiatives that directly contribute to RGA’s business strategy by fostering inclusive workplaces, strengthening communities, and promoting long-term environmental responsibility.

Since joining RGA in 2020 as Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability, Matt and his team have developed and executed enterprise strategies that have enhanced the RGA’s corporate citizenship. As of 2024, more than 60% of RGA employees participate in volunteerism, philanthropy, inclusion, or sustainability efforts.

Matt has over 30 years of experience working with private foundations and corporations in social responsibility, sustainability, and inclusion roles.

He serves on the executive advisory committee of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and on the board of directors of Focus St. Louis, a leadership-development nonprofit. He is also an emeritus board member for both Project Exploration and the Chicago History Museum.

Matt Sigelman is President of the Burning Glass Institute. He has dedicated his career to unlocking new avenues for mobility, opportunity, and equity through skills.

Matt and his team created the field of real-time labor market data, a breakthrough innovation that has transformed the way that policy makers, researchers, employers, education institutions, and workers understand, plan for, and connect with the world of work. By mining billions of job openings and career histories, Matt led the company that has become Lightcast to become a leading authority on the global market for talent, harnessing advanced AI and natural language processing to render data that provide unprecedented granularity on the changing landscape of opportunity for workers.

By tracking demand for tens of thousands of skills across over 30 countries, Matt’s work has cracked the genetic code of an increasingly dynamic market, with deep insights that not only chart how work is being redefined but also identify the skills that bridge the gap between people and opportunity. This intelligence is critical in protecting the workforce from obsolescence and in highlighting routes to social mobility even amidst the threat of massive automation-driven displacement.

Matt has served as a Visiting Fellow and now Senior Advisor at The Harvard Project on the Workforce. Before launching the Burning Glass Institute, Matt served as CEO, and then Chairman, of Lightcast for over twenty years. Previously, Matt worked at McKinsey & Company and at Capital One. He is also Founder of the Main Line Classical Academy, an elementary school bringing the classical liberal arts curriculum and rigorous study in math and science to the kindergarten level on up and dedicated to the idea that children are never too young to learn great things.

He writes widely on the job market and is consulted frequently by public officials and the global media. Matt holds an AB from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard.

Experienced cultivator of community partnerships. Dedicated advocate for career and technical education, inclusive workforce development initiatives and experiential learning. Strategic thinker, working at the intersection of education and industry. Project manager with significant experience planning and managing major events.

Todd Baker (he/him) is an Associate Director on the Advisory team at Seramount, where he partners with organizations to translate culture and inclusion strategy into practical, business-aligned action. As an inclusion strategist, he brings a dual perspective—both advising leaders at the enterprise level and building programs from the inside—that helps organizations move from intention to sustainable impact.

Todd has led and scaled global employee resource group (ERG) ecosystems, leadership development experiences, and data-informed talent initiatives that strengthen engagement, retention, and representation. His cross-sector background spanning nonprofit, education, and corporate environments informs his thoughtful, people-centered approach to culture change.

Todd holds a B.A. in Education Studies from Morehouse College and an M.S. in Nonprofit Management from Columbia University. Based in Atlanta, he enjoys storytelling, continuous learning, and exploring creative projects outside of work.

Noor Pervez is the Community Engagement Manager for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. Noor has written for the Disability Visibility Project, Rooted in Rights, and NEDA, among others. He has presented at a number of conferences regarding intersections around accessibility, disability, religion and LGBT+ rights. He is on the board for New Disabled South.