2019

Arletta Allen is a dynamic speaker who serves as a great example of perseverance and resilience. Arletta was raised by a single mother, who relocated with all five of her children to escape a highly domestic and abusive relationship. Allen was born and raised in Yazoo City, Mississippi and currently resides in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin with her four sons. Allen is the CEO/founder of the dynamic lifestyle brand Authentically Arletta and promotes Daring to Persevere and Authenticity. Arletta’s academic background is in the fields of leadership development, communication, public speaking, and management. She also serves as a student leader at Marian University. Arletta anticipates graduating in 2019 from Marian University with a bachelor of communication degree with a minor in business. Prior to enrolling at Marian University, she earned an associate’s degree in leadership development at Moraine Park Technical College.

Ms. Allen speaks on the following topics: perseverance, leadership, domestic abuse, motivation, betrayal, empowerment through transparency, teen pregnancy, single parenting, rearing a child with disabilities, and abandonment. Her mission is to accompany her audience in their journey of discovering and developing their authentic self, while inspiring them to make positive transformation. Her vision is for her audience to uphold an optimistic outlook about their future, through perseverance amidst life’s storms.

In addition to speaking on various interesting topics, Arletta is also involved with many local community organizations. She serves on the board of her local church and is a life coach and mentor to many. She is always seeking opportunities to serve the youth and mentor young teen girls especially in an effort to help them develop self-confidence and esteem. Her hobbies include: video blogging, taking long walks, creative hair-styling, makeup artistry, interior design, and baking.

Dr. Ashley Anne is a licensed neurocounselor, educator, and researcher. Her lifelong struggle with physical and mental disease and disorder inspired her as a researcher to translate research findings within the field of Interpersonal Neurobiology into understandable, applicable tools and practices for everyday people.

Through qualitative and quantitative research methods, Dr. Ashley proposed a new framework for mental health diagnosis and treatment, one that veers away from symptom-based conceptualizations and instead ties observable behaviors to the dysregulated neurological mechanisms that correlate to them. Her hope is to push the envelope of how we understand disease and disorder to ultimately transform the manner in which we resolve it.

Dr. Ashley’s research has shown her that the human system has a natural ability to heal itself; we just need to know it works. Now she spends her career educating others about the four dimensions of the human system – body, mind, relationships, and energy, teaching them about what happens to the system when it falls ill, and how to integrate these four dimensions to cultivate a happy, healthy life.

Samuel Bice is currently working as an Assembly Technician at Mercury Marine in Fond du lac. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and Business Economics from Providence Christian College in Pasadena, California. Helping others has become a lifelong goal of Samuel’s by coming alongside people who are hurting, listening to their stories, and sharing his own story of childhood trauma. Samuel hopes to inspire communities to come together to help each other and have difficult conversations about issues that are affecting our neighborhoods, specifically, in the case of sexual abuse.  

When Samuel is not working, he enjoys coffee shops, a beer at local breweries, or a long Netflix binge.

The leader of the NEWaukee team, Angela has spent over a decade developing engagement strategies that work. She helps communities and companies build meaningful connections and attract top talent. Angela is a serial entrepreneur launching four businesses, guest contributor and writer for national publications like Fortune, New Geography and Style Salute, frequent public speaker at economic development symposiums like Future Wisconsin and was a 2016 40 Under 40 Award Winner. She lives by the mantra, “uncompromising momentum forward” – there is no challenge too big that can’t be tackled by simply asking “how”.

Holland Dickirson is a senior at Marian University working toward a bachelor’s degree in Nursing and Psychology. She aims to pursue a career in psychiatric nursing and eventually attain a master’s degree to become a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. In her spare time, Holland enjoys spending time with her 3-year-old daughter, reading, playing guitar, and volunteering. Some of her current and past volunteer activities include: facilitating an art group for juveniles and a bible-based recovery group for women in the FDL jail, teen mentoring with Youth for Christ, and assisting students with emotional and behavioral disorders at Evans Elementary school.

Holland is passionate about mental health advocacy and strives to use her own experiences to encourage and empathize with others. She is excited to use this platform as a way to further break the stigmas and misconceptions that often surround disordered eating.

Jacy Imilkowski (just think “I-milk-cows-on-skis”), PMP, CPCC, ACC, CLL is a mental health advocate, communication nerd, and champion of finding choices. She combines emotional intelligence, stories, and brain science to help people see the choices they didn’t know they had in their communication, relationships, and lives.

An avid learner, Jacy has spent the last 20 years trying out careers to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up. She’s been a store and restaurant manager, customer service representative, massage practitioner, professional trainer, professional artist, project manager, and executive coach. Jacy is currently living her dream as a professional speaker. She’s also the Co-Dean for the National Speakers Association-WI chapter Speakers Academy and a foster home for Greyhound Pets of America-WI. She loves her dog and probably loves your dog too.

Theresa A. Menting, a life-long Fond du Lac resident, holds degrees in theatre and event planning, and is a professional business owner, mentor, educator, life-coach, and a professional performer. Throughout her work in Fond du Lac, Theresa has always been an advocate for marginalized populations and is intentional in fostering relationships with community members and helping those in need. Theresa is passionate about community engagement and using creative modalities in all aspects of her job.

Theresa founded and directs the Women’s Empowerment Series, through the Fond du Lac Department of Social Services. This program provides mentorship, support and education for women in the Fond du Lac community. Since its inception, Theresa has provided direct supervision to members of the committee, as well as direct mentorship to participants involved.

Theresa is also founder and CEO of Sweet ‘N Easy Events, an organization that provides event planning and coordination services in Fond du Lac and throughout the Fox Cities. In addition to Theresa’s numerous volunteer positions, she was nominated as a Young Professional Future 5 Award Winner, and was named one of Fond du Lac’s 2018 People of the Year. Her company, Sweet ‘N Easy Events, was also named the 2018 Best Full-Service Wedding Planning & Decorating Company by Global Wedding Awards. Theresa’s passion for supporting, mentoring and educating others has been a cornerstone to her success in Fond du Lac.

Mr. Pamenter has over 35 years of experience in the field of sleep medicine having developed and managed numerous sleep laboratory facilities, co-founded an institute for the training of physicians and technicians in clinical sleep medicine, and given lectures to groups of all kinds from community organizations and schools to international professional conferences. He currently serves as a volunteer coordinator for a hospice and volunteers himself for several organizations.  And yes, he portrays S. Claus.

Two years ago, Mike became an instrumental part in an ecommerce business startup and he is looking forward to his to the next business challenge.  Before entering the business world, Mike practiced Criminal Defense for several years. He holds a Juris Doctor from Mitchell-Hamline School of Law and a Bachelor’s Degree from UW-Green Bay. During his time in school, Mike discovered his passion for the Constitution and media and its impact on everyday life.  Mike is proud to call Fond du Lac home with his wife, Angie, and their sons, Alex and Aaron.

Craig St. Clair is a 27-year old bindery and mailing assistant from New Berlin, WI. Diagnosed with Autism at age 3, life has been nothing short of unique. He views every day challenges in a positive light, often referring to his creative solutions as “finding the back door”. His hobbies and interests include drawing, painting, writing, movies, videography, traveling, ships, planes, and trains. Craig has hosted a YouTube channel called “Cruiseshipz Studios” since 2008 showcasing these interests; this is also where he has met many of his friends, the majority of which share his diagnosis and interests.

Emily Trusk is an empath, a vivid dreamer, a singer, an artist, but most of all, a poet. She uses words and voice to draw meaning from darkness. Poetry is her way of healing trauma and using those experiences to create art. Emily graduated from UW Oshkosh with a Bachelor of Science in English Literature and is now the Community Engagement Coordinator at Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts in Fond du Lac, WI.

Emily Waisanen is a middle school English teacher at Oakfield Middle School, a wife, and a mother of two daughters.  She promotes kindness wherever she is: work, home, or in the community. She believes that the key to understanding kindness is to think about interpretation rather than the intention of kind acts in order to make an impact.  

Dr. Maggie Wentzell draws from her experience as a woman in science to explore unconscious biases and their biological origins. Tracing contradictory behavioral drives to specific areas of the brain allows us to begin to understand how to correct them. This TEDx talk will describe the reasons why we sometimes unconsciously behave in ways that are not in keeping with our conscious values.

A neurobiologist, Dr. Wentzell is an assistant professor at Carthage College in Kenosha. Her research interests focus on sensorimotor integration and behavior driven by specific neural networks. Maggie is an “Equity Warrior”, a member of the Carthage community devoted to adopting inclusive practices and programs to create opportunity for all. She leads an annual study abroad trip, focused on health care in India. Maggie was born and raised south of Fond du Lac and graduated from St. Mary’s Springs. She earned her PhD in Biology from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Shelley Winner is a Restorative Justice Activist whose goal is to change the world, reduce crime and advocate for justice involved people all while helping companies improve productivity and revenues. 76% of people released from prison will re-offend and return to prison; this is called recidivism and Shelley is working to turn the tide on this statistic. Someone has to challenge the societal stigma that prevents companies from hiring people with criminal records and Shelley has taken up that mantle.

Her fight for this cause has changed the hiring policy and practices for one of the largest tech companies in the world, who also happens to be her employer. Winner, a technology specialist, is very active in the restorative justice movement in San Francisco and wants to educate the public about the benefits of hiring the formerly incarcerated.