Monica Hopkins is the executive director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia (ACLU-DC). She took the helm of the D.C. affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union in 2014.

Prior to joining the ACLU-DC Monica served as the executive director of the ACLU of Idaho from 2008–2014 during which time she oversaw sweeping statewide victories, particularly in the areas of criminal justice reform, LGBTQIA equality, immigrants’ rights and upholding the First Amendment. Prior to joining the ACLU, Monica had a held several executive and development positions in the nonprofit sector.

Under Monica’s leadership, the ACLU-DC has grown its capacity and reach allowing the organization to become a resource for all District residents. As executive director, Monica oversees substantive programmatic and advocacy efforts to defend and advance the ACLU-DC’s work on civil rights and civil liberties for the over 700,000 residents of the District of Columbia.

As the organization’s principal spokesperson she helps increase public awareness of the ACLU-DC’s work. Monica has been quoted by national radio, television, and print media outlets, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly, Al-Jazeera, Politico, and NPR.

Monica is a graduate of Boise State University. She is also a 2012–2013 Rockwood Institute LGBT Advocacy Fellow and currently serves on the board of the National Reentry Network for Returning Citizens.

Diana is a two-time Fitness World Champion, WBFF Pro Diva Fitness Model, and trauma-informed fitness coach known as the “Miss Congeniality” of the industry. Featured in Oxygen, Muscle & Fitness Hers, and more, she’s also a published author, speaker, and Kansas City Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business honoree. Diana specializes in empowering women over 40, offering personalized nutrition and workout plans that deliver sustainable results. Her compassionate, holistic approach ensures you’re supported every step of the way, no matter where you’re starting.

Davy Nathan is a Pianist, Songwriter and Producer who’s toured the world as a pianist and musical director with Toni Braxton, Patti Labelle, Christina Aguilera and others. He has written and produced songs for artists such as Josh Groban, Chaka Khan, Usher and Mavis Staples. He also wrote and produced all the songs for the Netflix movie-musical ‘Jingle Jangle: a Christmas Journey’ which came out in 2020

Chao Dou is an experience strategist, designer, and artist whose work bridges wellness, design, and human connection. With over a decade of experience in workplace design and strategy, she consults with global organizations at Steelcase to align culture, processes, tools, and space, creating environments where people and businesses thrive. Through her independent practice, chaos.cura, Chao integrates art, sensory design, and research to craft immersive experiences and biometric studies that foster healing, collective well-being, and transformative connection.

For the Biometric Study, Chao co-creates the experience strategy, qualitative survey design, marketing, and data synthesis to ensure a deeply engaging and insightful event.

Find, Follow, and Feel Into the Offerings of Chao Dou at:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chaodou

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chaos.cura

Emile Borde has introduced the steel drums to a wide audience both in the U.S. and abroad having traveled extensively with his family group “Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band” he has toured and performed with top artists like “Cher”, “Jaco Pastorius”, “David Lubega” of mambo #5 fame, recorded several albums with various artists ranging from Jazz to Hip Hop and Classical styles.

Emile is performing in Los Angeles where he currently resides and will be happy to bring his special magic to your event both as solo or group, which can include fire and limbo dancers for a true Caribbean experience.

Areas of specialization
Live musical entertainment: writer/composer /steel-drummer.
Talent development /Exercise and fitness / Inventor / Video & photographer.

Professional Experience
Musical arranger/singer/instrumentalist/recording artist
Bandleader/solo artist/world tours with Cher and Lou Bega
National tours with Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band, Cultural Ambassador Trinidad & Tobago.

Venues
Casinos: Harrahs, Las Vegas Hilton, Lake Tahoe, Atlantic City’s Boardwalk, Club Med, Disneyland,
Greenfield Village, Broadmoor Hotel, private engagements. nightclubs and restaurants, major conventions and state fairs.

Accomplishments
Detroit Metro Music Award for Best Steel Drummer Stage Presence.
Recorded with Bob Marley’s Wailers band and Francisco Mora’s Latin Jazz band.
Roy Brooks Aboriginal Percussion Choir
Produced documentary for the Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band.
Musical Director, and Band leader for the Tropical Connection Band
Performed at Moers Jazz Festival in Germany with the Detroit All Stars, including world famous
Saxophonist James Carter.
Produce and market original compositions through CD and DVD.
Produced documentary for National Public Radio (NPR) 2003: Lost and Found Sound: Liberace and the
Trinidad Tripoli Steel band.
Published “Sometimes when we dance” Part of the collection at the International Library of Poetry.
Worked with Jazz Legend Othello Molineaux (Warner Bros)
Created and designed the Pan Pal with Rodney Boudreaux Phd.
Performed three times at the annual ZMF Music Festival in Freiburg Germany.

Special projects
Movie scores/scripts, children’s stories, infomercials, product marketing.
Christmas performance for Nickelodeon’s “Game Shakers” show.
Robek’s Juice. Sales and promotions.
Bassist with Los Angeles rock group Grand Rising.
Bottlist. Art of bottle balancing.
Musical consultant and actor for 2025 movie “Pan Gyul” shot in Nevis & St. Kitts

Joan Ranquet is an accomplished animal communicator of over 33 years, an author, TEDx speaker, educator, and animal guardian.  

Joan’s hands-on animal communication and energy healing processes troubleshoot behavioral and medical issues, stimulate healing (in conjunction with conventional treatment), and deepen her clients’ abilities to care for and understand their animals. Joan believes the capacity to attune to animals and work with them energetically is not a gift for a select few, but an innate ability we can all access with guidance. She teaches down-to-earth skills that enable her students to communicate consistently and confidently with animals. Clients include hundreds of thousands of animal guardians, animal trainers, barn managers, veterinarians, sanctuaries, wildlife rehab, and therapeutic riding centers, as well as everyday pet owners.

In 2008, Joan founded Communication with All Life University, an experiential learning platform that offers beginning through advanced training and coaching in animal communication, energy healing, nature, and wildlife. This can be self-paced, online and/or in person.

Her TEDx talk, “The Rainbow Bridge, Animals in Transition,” has 377,000 plus views, and she has been featured in dozens of media outlets, including “The Hollywood Reporter”, “Pet Nation”, “Dateline NBC”, “The Today Show”, “Good Morning America”, “Animal Planet,” and more.

Joan’s newest book, Animal Chakra Healing: Bringing Balance, Health, and Joy to Our Animal Companions (Findhorn Press/Inner Traditions), 2025. She is also the author of Emotional Freedom Technique for Animals and their Humans, Creating a Harmonious Relationship through Tapping (Findhorn Press, 2023), Energy Healing for Animals: A Hands-On Guide for Enhancing the Health, Longevity, and Happiness of Your Pets (Sounds True, 2015) and Communication with All Life: Revelations of an Animal Communicator (Hay House, 2007). She contributed to: The Dharma of Dogs: Our Best Friends as Spiritual Teachers (Sounds True, 2017) and The Karma of Cats: Spiritual Wisdom from our Feline Friends (Sounds True, 2019).

Today, Joan lives on her ranchette in the gorgeous hills of southern California with her devoted animal family: four horses, three dogs, and three cats. She donates her time to animal rescue missions, sanctuaries, and therapeutic riding centers, and is an avid fundraiser for organizations focused on the rescue, recovery, and rehabilitation of compromised animals and endangered species. She has served as Star-Lioness, an advisory/sounding board for the Global White Lion Protection Trust, and on the Spiritual Council for The Gentle Barn.

Norman Seeff graduated with honors in Science and Art at King Edward School in Johannesburg, South Africa. At the age of 17, he was drafted by Highland Park, a leading division one team, into the South African National Soccer League.

Norman enrolled in Medical School and qualified as a medical doctor in 1966 at the age of 26 and following graduation practiced for 3 years as an emergency medical doctor in Soweto.

In December1968, desiring to explore his passion for creative expression in all its disciplines, he relocated to New York and switched careers to the arts.

Under the mentorship of renowned art director, Bob Cato, Seeff was engaged as a graphic designer of album cover art by Columbia Records producing hundreds of album covers of major musical acts. Subsequently he refocused disciplines as a freelance photographer and in a year and a half established himself as a successful ‘rock’ photographer in New York.

In 1971, Norman was offered the position of Creative Director of United Artists Records and relocated to Los Angeles. Normans approach to collaborative art-direction and design resulted in mltiple Grammy Nominations for album cover design for United Artists..

Two years later Norman opened his first studio on the Sunset Strip as an independent artist.

During this time Seeff evolved a unique process of creative interaction with artists focused on building authentic emotional experiences as a means to capture the vitality of imagery that became his creative signature.

Seeff brought a film crew into a photo-session for the first time in 1975.. With the success of that first session, Seeff committed to documenting his Sessions. To date, he has filmed over 500 sessions with creators and innovators of all disciplines including musicians, actors, writers, directors, scientists, entrepreneurs, athletes, politicians and the documentation continues unabated.

Seeff’s interaction with renowned artists and innovators includes such luminaries as Ray Charles, Joni Mitchell, Steve Jobs, The Rolling Stones, Steve Martin, Michael Jackson, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, John Huston, Martin Scorsese, Billy Wilder, Bob Fosse, will.i.am, Tina Turner, Alicia Keys, Sir Francis Crick, Nobel laureates and hundreds of renowned public figures

Seeff’s first photography book Hot Shots, won the New York Directors Club award for best photographic book of the year and his second book, Sessions!  has now become a collector’s item. The award winning book, Joni documenting his 17 Sessions with Joni Mitchell was published in 2018.

From 1985 to the end of 2000, Norman shifted disciplines and achieved immediate prominence as a successful director of high-end television commercials for leading advertising agencies and major corporations on a global scale.

In 2000, he returned to his personal ‘Sessions Project’, now focusing on documentary projects.

In his ongoing exploration of creativity in all its forms, Seeff has identified the fundamental archetypal structures of the creative process that has practical applications to the arts, business and educational institutions.

Currently this body of work in the production phase of a multipart documentary series produced in-house at Norman Seeff Productions.

He is currently building the creative curriculum for the envisioned ‘Institute of Innovation’ focused on empowering human creativity, applicable to arts and business.

Lawrence Ellyard is the founder and Chairman of the IICT with over 25 years experience in the natural health industry. Lawrence has been instrumental in developing the IICT's operations both within Australia and Internationally. In 2009 Lawrence was awarded a Masters of Transpersonal Studies (IKON Institute). Since the early 1990's, Lawrence has been an active member and facilitator of several educational organisations and spiritual traditions and has supported their growth with many innovations in natural therapies since this time. He has travelled extensively throughout the world both lecturing and training and draws on his extensive background in natural therapies in the running and future direction of the IICT. Lawrence is also the author of nine books in natural therapies. For more about Lawrence and his books visit his author's website at: www.lawrenceellyard.com