Keynote Speakers

Conference Emcee: Priya David, host of “Keep It Local” KOIN6. She was a CBS News correspondent based in New York since 2008.

 

Learn more about Ms. David here.

  

 

Read or download the pdf press release here.

 

 

 

 

 

Cathy Standiford of Garden Grove, Calif., is serving as president of the board of directors for Soroptimist, www.soroptimist.org an international volunteer organization for business and professional women who work to improve the lives of women and girls, in local communities and throughout the world. As president, Standiford oversees strategic planning and program development for the organization. She will also help Soroptimist meet the goals of its Renaissance Campaign, a plan launched in 2004 to strengthen the organization’s brand.

 

Standiford is a member of Soroptimist International of Garden Grove, Calif., one of 3,100 Soroptimist clubs that exist to improve conditions for local women and girls. A member since 1989, Standiford has held several leadership positions including region governor and club president.

 

Standiford obtained a master’s degree in business and public administration from the University of California at Irvine. She currently works as a senior manager for Management Partners, a government-consulting firm. She has more than 25 years’ experience in the public sector, including serving as city manager and deputy city manager, and is also a credentialed manager for the International City/County Management Association.

 

 

William G. Hillar is a retired Colonel of the U.S. Army Special Forces. He has served in Asia, the Middle East, and Central and South America, where his diverse training and experiences included tactical counter-terrorism, explosive ordnance, emergency medicine and psychological warfare.

His military expertise led him not only to cross-train and serve with Special Forces from allied countries, but to advise governments and military organizations in several foreign nations. He holds a B.A. in Psychology, an M.A. in Education, a Ph.D. in Health Education, and an honorary doctorate in Intercultural Relations.

 

In 1988, while traveling with schoolmates in Southeast Asia, kidnappers pulled Bill Hillar’s 17-year old daughter off a train and forced her into the sex industry. Despite an exhaustive, multi-country search, her father, a Special Forces Colonel, was unable to save his daughter from the fate that ultimately took her life. The recent movie "Taken," with Liam Neeson is partially based on Bill Hillar’s personal story.

Hillar provides training and consultation to law enforcement, firefighters, and other first responder organizations where quick reaction and rapid recovery are essential for survival. Hillar is also an adjunct professor at Monterey Institute of International Studies and the University of Oregon. His courses and workshops include: http://billhillartraining.com

Dallas Jessup  is a CNN Hero an expert martial artist, this 17 year old grew a community service project to fight predators into a Million Girl Revolution across 45 countries with her non-profit Just Yell Fire. At 14 she produced a film to teach teen girls to protect themselves from abduction and sexual assault; it was 1 of the 10 most-downloaded production length films worldwide in 2007. Her book, Young Revolutionaries Who Rock, An Insider’s Guide to Saving the World One Revolution at a Time won the Best Books Award 2009 for Young Adult Non Fiction from USA Books as a Groundbreaking Call to Teen Activism. CNN says she’s a Young Hero, InTouch Weekly calls her a Super Teen, People says she gets Big Results and Suite 101 calls her the Leading Voice of the Next Great Generation. She was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Caring Americans, won the Jefferson Award for Community Service, the Caring Award, the Seventeen Magazine Mission Award and many others. She appears regularly in the national media including Good Morning America, the Today Show, Fox & Friends and elsewhere. She travels an average of 10,000 miles a month including a 12 city rural India speaking tour teaching girls how to avoid slave traders for the sex trafficking industry. Dallas has keynoted at the FBI National Academy, the Mensa national conference, and her program is a for-credit course at MIT. She is a freshman at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee as a McKelvey Scholar for Social Entrepreneurship.

 

To learn more about Dallas and Just Yell Fire: www.dallasjessup.com