Fall 2026 Speakers

For almost 20 years, Matt Wallaert has been applying behavioral science to practical problems.  After leaving academia, his career as an executive lead from startups to the Fortune 500 and back again, including founding BeSci.io (Behavioral Science in organizations), where he and the world’s most experienced behavioral science leaders help companies grow applied behavioral science capabilities within their organizations. These days, he is the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) at Oceans, helping to bring high-quality job opportunities to international markets so that talented people don’t have to emigrate to grow.  He is author of Start at the End: How to Build Products That Create Change 

Dr. Katelyn Jetelina is an epidemiologist and scientific communicator. Dr. Jetelina is the founder and CEO of Your Local Epidemiologist - a public health newsletter that “translates” ever-evolving science to the public, reaching over 500 million views in over 133 countries. In addition, she is the co-founder of Healthier Together, an adjunct professor at Yale School of Public Health, and former Senior Advisor to the White House and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Jetelina has received numerous national awards, including recently being named a TIME100 Most Influential Person in Health. She has her Masters of Public Health and PhD in epidemiology and biostatistics from the University of Texas Health Science Center and an honorary doctorate from SUNY.

Lisa Fitzpatrick, MD, MPH, MPA, is a board-certified infectious diseases physician and a medical epidemiologist. She began her public health career in 1998 as a member of the CDC’s elite Epidemic Intelligence Service. She has served as a foreign diplomat in the Caribbean, an academic researcher, and the former chief medical officer for the DC Medicaid program. Dr. Fitzpatrick is a member of the Institute of Medicine/ National Academy of Sciences Roundtable on Health Literacy and an Aspen Institute Health Innovator Fellow. She is the founder and CEO of Grapevine Health, a digital health media company she established to build trust and improve patient engagement among Medicaid patients through delivering culturally appropriate and relatable health information.

Dr. Beasley is a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist at Baylor College of Medicine, with a focus on management of early pregnancy loss, contraception counseling in the medically complex patient, and family planning. She is a graduate of Baylor College of Medicine, where she earned her medical degree and completed residency training. Following residency, she completed a Family Planning Fellowship and obtained a Master of Public Health at Columbia University. Her research interests include access to contraception and family planning services, bias in medical care, and reduction of health disparities.

Amira Barger is an award-winning Executive Vice President of Communications and Change Management, offering senior counsel on reputation management and strategic communications to clients worldwide. She is also the author of The Price of Nice: Why Comfort Keeps Us Stuck—And 4 Actions for Real Change, a bold examination of “niceness” as a harmful social construct that upholds inequity—and a rallying call for those ready to create real, lasting change.

Varun Soni is the Dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California, where he also served as the inaugural vice provost of campus wellness and crisis intervention, and where he currently teaches courses in the Marshall School of Business, the Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupation Therapy, and the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. He is the first and only Hindu in American history to serve as the chief spiritual leader of a college or university. Prior to his role at the University of Southern California, he spent four years teaching courses in the Law and Society Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

A prolific public speaker and scholar of religions, Dean Soni is a national interfaith leader and advocate for religious reconciliation. He is the author of Natural Mystics: The Prophetic Lives of Bob Marley and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and his work has been featured in the Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, NPR, Huffington Post, Jewish Journal, and Harvard Divinity Bulletin. He is senior advisor for the multimedia production company Religion of Sports, which was founded by Tom Brady, Michael Strahan, and Gotham Chopra, and he also advises the video game company Naughty Dog, where he contributed to the Uncharted and The Last of Us franchises. He served as a consultant for HBO, ESPN, Showtime, A&E, History Channel, Live Nation, and the Oprah Winfrey Network, and produced the graphic novel Tina’s Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary. He also hosted his own radio show on 90.7FM Los Angeles (Pacifica / KPFK), which showcased diverse musical traditions from South Asia and its diaspora. For his work at the intersection of spirituality and popular culture, LA Weekly named him “one of the most interesting people in Los Angeles.”

Board President, Alumni Network