WITH KEYNOTES FROM
☀
John Sommers-Flanagan
aka the happiness guy ✦
John Sommers-Flanagan is a professor of counseling at the University of Montana and one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in the US and Canada. He holds a doctorate in psychology and has spent his career specializing in working with children, parents, and families. Author or co-author of more than 100 professional publications and eight books — covering suicide assessment, counseling theories, and working with tough kids — John is widely known for making complex psychological concepts feel human, practical, and joyful. When he's not on stage, you'll find him running (slowly), dancing (poorly), and laughing loudly — usually at himself.
🌸
Dr. Kim Schonert-Reichl
the kindness scientist 🌸
Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl is the NoVo Foundation Endowed Chair in Social and Emotional Learning and Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois Chicago — one of the world's leading SEL researchers. Her work focuses on building empathy, compassion, optimism, and resilience in children and adolescents. She has authored over 170 publications, presented at 300+ conferences globally, and been featured in The New York Times, Time Magazine, and Scientific American Mind. A CASEL board member and advisor to UNESCO and the OECD, she has also joined the Dalai Lama in dialogues on compassion in education. Before her academic career, she was a classroom teacher — which is exactly why her work never loses sight of what educators actually need.