Meet the Speakers!

We are happy to confirm the first set of speakers for TEDxSarasota 2026.

Applications are still open, and we are planning to finalize the speaker roster by mid-January 2026. We are anticipating a total number of 8-10 speakers.

Check back soon for the full speaker list, or apply to speak today!

Betsy Golden Kellem

Shaquem Griffin

Martha LaGuardia-Kotite

Betsy Golden Kellem is a scholar of the unusual. She is the author of Jumping Through Hoops: Performing Gender in the Nineteenth Century Circus, and her entertainment history work has appeared in venues including The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, The Public Domain Review, Smithsonian, Atlas Obscura, and Slate.
Betsy is an Emmy and Telly award winner for her Showman’s Shorts video series on P. T. Barnum and writes on pop culture for JSTOR Daily and history.com.
If you ask nicely, she will juggle knives for you.

Shaquem Griffin, the first one-handed former NFL linebacker in history, played four seasons with the Seattle Seahawks and Miami Dolphins before retiring in 2022. Now a sought-after motivational speaker, he has inspired D1 Power 4 programs, pro teams, Fortune 500 companies, and more, around the world. He serves as an Advisor for a Venture Capitol, BIG12 Alumni Counsel Member, and startup advisor. Co-founder of Consumer Launch Pad and Y.O.U. Adapt, he is also an award-winning athlete, author of Inseparable, and creator of The Locker Room Playbook Curriculum.

Captain Martha LaGuardia-Kotite US Coast Guard (retired) spent her life in, on or near the ocean. She is one of the first female officers to serve aboard two Coast Guard cutters, patrolling the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and the Caribbean Sea, leading all-male crews and teams through numerous disasters during her decades long military career. Her awards include the Meritorious Service Medal, six Commendation Medals, three Achievement Medals, and numerous service and team accolades.
An award-winning author of So Others May Live: Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers Saving Lives Defying Death (used by Kevin Costner for his role in the movie The Guardian) and two other books. She built a robust second career as a keynote speaker and coach, inspiring current and future leaders on how to be bold, first and authentic to achieve their biggest dreams.

Dr. Rene Roberts is a Castle Connolly Top Doctor, board-certified Family Medicine physician, and keynote speaker on a mission to reform who gets to heal. Rejected 50 times from medical schools during the application process, Dr. Roberts knows what it means to be a "medical misfit." Rather than accepting defeat, she used rejection to fuel her advocacy for changing the rigid, test-score-driven admissions system that overlooks empathy, resilience, and lived experience.
With nearly 14 years of clinical experience, Dr. Roberts currently serves underserved communities on Chicago’s south side and has become a trusted voice featured on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, WGN, the Chicago Tribune, and the Chicago Sun-Times. She mentors aspiring physicians and champions a more inclusive approach to medical education. We will all need a healer at some point in our lives - and that reality makes Dr. Roberts' question all the more critical. In "Who Gets to Heal?", she challenges us to rethink how we select the next generation of doctors - because who gets to heal determines who gets healed.

Marsha Wulff is a serial entrepreneur, early-stage investor, and advisor who has helped build seven multi-billion-dollar companies - three American-led and four African-led - across multiple sectors and continents. Having lived and worked on six continents, she brings a deeply global perspective shaped by decades of building businesses and mentoring leaders worldwide.
Her life experiences - spanning scarcity and abundance, mobility and physical limitation - have informed her belief in collaborative leadership, passionate teams, and investment strategies that balance profit with long-term impact. Since the late 1990s, Marsha has worked alongside African entrepreneurs driving large-scale economic transformation and now supports the next generation of founders through her partners and growing team. She discusses her findings and lessons learned in her book African Ngenuity: An Investor’s Guide to a Vital Tech Ecosystem, helping funders gain confidence to adopt more effective strategies.

Dr. Rene Roberts

Marsha Wulff

Kostya Kimlat

Kostya Kimlat is a magician, speaker, and entrepreneur who studies how people perceive and interpret the world around them. Known professionally as The Business Magician, he draws on principles from the art of magic to reveal how perception and personality shape the way people experience the same moment.
Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Kostya immigrated to the United States as a Soviet refugee in 1992. What began with his father’s $160 investment in magic books grew into an international career exploring human behavior through live performance. He gained global recognition after fooling Penn & Teller on national television.
His work spans over 200 cities across five continents and includes collaborations with organizations ranging from NASA to NASCAR. In his talks, Kostya shows how magicians read people in real time, offering insight into how attention, interpretation, and trust form between individuals, and why people can witness the same experience yet walk away with entirely different conclusions.

Kristen Cusato

Kristen Cusato is a storyteller, communicator, and advocate who believes that sharing our stories can change lives.
Kristen spent more than two decades in television news as an anchor/reporter in Connecticut, San Diego, Texas, and upstate New York. Her career took a profound turn more than 15 years ago when her mother was diagnosed with Lewy Body dementia. A new purpose and profession was born: teaching caregivers the language of dementia.
Today, Kristen collaborates with researchers, caregivers, and people living with all forms of the disease to help them feel empowered. She has authored chapters in two Chicken Soup for the Soul caregiving books and hosts an award-winning podcast.
Kristen is equally passionate about helping others find and use their voice, by coaching TEDx speakers in San Diego and Connecticut, and guiding others in shaping their personal stories.
She is honored to step onto the TEDxSarasota red dot to unite dementia advocacy and powerful communication—and to remind us that when we share our stories, we create connection, understanding, and hope.