Speakers

This lineup is subject to change. Check back soon for additional speakers!

General Session Speakers

Cassie Holmes

Opening General Session Keynote, 9:15 AM PT, Thursday, February 26 

Renowned happiness expert Cassie Holmes shares the secret to increasing our creativity, happiness, and ability to pay attention. She says it’s not about making time—it’s about protecting the time we already have. The award-winning professor of marketing and behavioral decision-making at the UCLA Anderson School of Management examines how focusing on time (rather than money) increases happiness, how the meaning of happiness changes over the course of your lifetime, and how much happiness people enjoy from extraordinary versus ordinary experiences.  

The bestselling author of Happier Hour, a practical guide to taking control of time and finding fulfillment, says time isn’t only a challenge—it’s the solution. When we’re able to see our days, weeks, months, years, and careers broken down into the quality of our time, we can use that information to reconstruct our schedules and lives based on what we need.  

Psychological Science, the Journal of Consumer Research, NPR, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Scientific American, and The Washington Post have featured Holmes. The New York Times Magazine included her research in its “32 Innovations That Will Change Your Tomorrow.” Poets & Quants called her one of the Best 40 Business Professors Under 40. She received the Early Career Award for her distinguished scholarly contributions to her field from both the Association of Consumer Research and the Society of Consumer Psychology.  

Previously, Holmes served as a tenured faculty member at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and a B.A. from Columbia. She’s also a faculty affiliate with the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute—an interdisciplinary organization dedicated to the research, education, and practice of kindness. 

Bryan Stevenson

General Session Keynote, 9:00 AM PT, Friday, February 27 

Bryan Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama. Under his leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults.

Stevenson has argued and won multiple cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, including a 2019 ruling protecting condemned prisoners who suffer from dementia and a landmark 2012 ruling that banned mandatory life-imprisonment-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger. He and his staff have won reversals, relief, or release from prison for over 140 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row and won relief for hundreds of others wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced. 

Stevenson has initiated major new anti-poverty and anti-discrimination efforts that challenge inequality in America. He led the creation of EJI’s highly acclaimed Legacy Sites, including the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. These new national landmark institutions chronicle the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation and their connection to mass incarceration and contemporary issues of racial bias. 

His work has won Stevenson numerous awards, from the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Prize to the National Humanities Medal awarded by President Biden. 

Stevenson is the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller Just Mercy, which was adapted as a major motion picture. He is also the subject of the Emmy Award-winning HBO documentary True Justice.  

Stevenson is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and the Harvard School of Government. 

Featured Session Speakers

Jason Craige Harris 

Featured Session, 11:15 AM PT, Thursday, February 26

Jason Craige Harris is a writer, observer, and strategist working at the intersection of culture, leadership, and social impact.

Through essays, talks, and advisory work, he examines the forces that shape human connection and institutional life — power, identity, dignity, and repair. 

Drawing on ethics, psychology, and systems thinking, Harris helps individuals and organizations navigate complexity, confront harm, and cultivate cultures of care. 

A trusted facilitator, coach, and mediator, he is known for using storytelling and humor to spark reflection, deepen humility, and catalyze transformation. He is currently writing a book of essays on dignity, relationships, leadership — and the shadow work required of us all.  

Independent Insights: Leading into the Future

Featured Panel Session, 1:30 PM PT, Thursday, February 26

In today’s rapidly evolving educational landscape, independent school leaders across the nation are facing a growing set of complex and often polarizing challenges. No matter the size, mission, or location of the school, the consensus is clear—the demands of leadership have never been more ambiguous or multifaceted.

Join us for the second annual Independent Insights conversation as NAIS brings together leaders from the country’s top independent school organizations to address these pressing issues head-on. Delve into the most critical challenges facing independent schools today, while also exploring the opportunities for innovation and long-term success.

Through a unique collaboration with NBOA, E3N, ATLIS, CASE, and TABS, NAIS is harnessing the power of school data from NAIS Data and Analysis for School Leadership (DASL) to illuminate the key factors driving success. While data can guide us, it’s the experience and wisdom of these organizational leaders—rooted in their deep understanding and firsthand conversations with schools—that truly inform the future of independent schools. Expect valuable insights, thought-provoking questions, and a dynamic discussion on what lies ahead for independent education.

Panelists

• Debra P. Wilson, president, NAIS
• Susan Baldridge, executive director, The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS)
• Mike Flanagan, CEO, E3N
• Crickett Kasper, senior director of schools, Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE)
• Christina Lewellen, president, The Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools (ATLIS)
• Jeffrey Shields, president and CEO, NBOA: Business Leadership for Independent Schools

Dan Lerner

Featured Session, 11:15 AM PT, Friday, February 27

A psychology professor, strengths-based performance coach, and expert on all things positivity, Dan Lerner studies how high performers use their passions to achieve more and avoid burnout. His two decades as a talent agent prepared him for his current vocation as a sought-after coach. Today Lerner works with everyone from Fortune 500 executives to Metropolitan Opera singers, helping them manage stress, rediscover their strengths, and realize their individual potential. With true joy, charisma, and wit, he reveals the secrets to increasing performance and fulfilling your goals.  

With his teaching partner Alan Schlechter, a leading child and adolescent psychologist, Lerner co-authored the book U Thrive: How to Succeed in College (and Life), a comprehensive guide through the often unforeseen demands of college life.  

Lerner consults for companies including Deutsche Bank, Oppenheimer Funds, UBS Switzerland, and Jet.com, where he works with staff ranging from new hires to high potentials to senior executives, optimizing opportunities for them as individuals and for the firm as a whole. Following a decade at International Creative Management and at 21C Media Group, where he was a co-founder and the director of artist development, he studied with renowned sports psychologist Nathaniel Zinsser, a director of The Center for Enhanced Performance at the United States Military Academy at West Point, focusing on coaching and performance enhancement techniques employed by professional and Olympic athletes.  

He serves on the teaching staff for and holds a master’s degree from the graduate program in applied positive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.