Thursday Morning Keynote:
Mai Ling Chan
Mai Ling is a speech-language pathologist, industry historian, global connector, and technology entrepreneur. Building on 16 years of clinical experience and a lifetime of entrepreneurship, she focuses on supporting disability-focused thought leaders and creating digital products that make a difference in the global special education ecosystem.
In her role as co-founder and Chief of Partnerships of XceptionalLearning, she facilitates national and international partnerships with disability experts to support the creation of professional development courses, digital services, and virtual therapy. In addition, after publishing three Amazon best-selling books in 18 months, Mai Ling continues to spotlight industry leaders on her Xceptional Leaders podcast, now in its 4th year reaching over 25K global listeners.
Mai Ling is passionate about helping parents, educators, therapists, and people with disabilities to expand on their creative ideas and achieve success in their disability-focused offerings.
Thursday Afternoon Keynote:
Liz Warren
Liz Warren, a fourth-generation Arizonan, is the faculty director and one of the founders of the South Mountain Community College Storytelling Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. The Institute received the Maricopa Community Colleges 2016 Diversity Award, and the 2014 New Times Best of Phoenix award for “Best Place to Learn to Tell Tales.” Her textbook, The Oral Tradition Today: An Introduction to the Art of Storytelling is used at colleges around the nation. Her recorded version of The Story of the Grail received a Parents’ Choice Recommended Award and a Storytelling World Award. She served as an advisor for Gannett’s nationwide Storytellers Project from 2011 to 2022. In July 2014 she received the Oracle Award for Service and Leadership from the National Storytelling Network. In September 2014 she was named to the New Times list of 100 Creatives in Phoenix. The Arizona Humanities Council awarded her the Dan Schilling Award as the 2018 Humanities Public Scholar. In 2019, the American Association of Community Colleges awarded her the Dale Parnell Distinguished Faculty Award. She is the author of two recent publications from the Vitalyst Health Foundation: A policy brief, Storytelling as a Catalyst for Systems Change, and a workbook, Storytelling for Resident Leaders. In 2020-21, she coordinated two series of public storytelling workshops sponsored by Mayor Kate Gallego’s office: Phoenix Herstories and LGBTQ Storytelling and Story Circles. Recent work includes curriculum for the University of Phoenix and the Nature Conservancy, webinars for TRIO programs around the country, and in-person workshops for Senator Mark Kelly’s staff and the Governor Ducey’s cabinet.
Friday Morning Keynote:
Adrienne Fairwell
Adrienne Fairwell, APR was recently named general manager of Arizona PBS. Arizona PBS is a member-supported community service of ASU and is operated by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. It is one of the nation’s leading public media organizations
with four broadcast channels, a radio station and a growing array of digital platforms.
A trusted community resource for six decades, Arizona PBS is one of the country’s largest public television stations, reaching 80 percent of Arizona homes and 1.9 million households each week.
Prior to joining Arizona PBS, Fairwell served as the assistant general manager of South Carolina ETV (SCETV) and Public Radio (SC Public Radio) and the vice president of marketing, communications and development, respectively. Fairwell was responsible for SCETV’s brand management, promotional
and advertising efforts, public relations, audience engagement, revenue activities, partnership development, multi-platform content generation, studio and field production, local and national programming, broadcast programming, traffic and government transparency work.
Fairwell has been a communications professional for more than two decades, but her recent work at SCETV and SC Public Radio gave her the best of both worlds: the overwhelming opportunity and responsibility to oversee content development, integration and implementation for the television, digital and radio audiences.
Recognizing the power of maximizing the use of content on all platforms, Fairwell has overseen the deployment of strategies and tactics allowing the network to connect with the viewers and listeners in ways not imagined just a few short years ago: creating long- and short-form stories, using
pre-packaged content from other platforms and integrating specific keywords for high search engine optimization.
Prior to joining SCETV, Fairwell served as the division director of Marketing and Communications at the S.C. Department of Commerce where she oversaw the ramp up of the agency’s social media efforts and the development and execution of a long-range strategic marketing and communications plan aimed at creating awareness of agency topics, generating public support and promoting South Carolina as an ideal location for business, both new and existing.
Fairwell holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications from the University of South Carolina and a master’s degree in human resources development from Webster University; has earned the internationally recognized Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) designation; and the Certified Public Manager professional designation. Fairwell is civically
engaged, and she and her husband–Michael–share two children.