Dr. Colleen Georges

Rescripting the Stories We Tell Ourselves

A recovering catastrophizer, Georges took off her gray-colored glasses 15 years ago and began re-scripting her once dreary, disempowered self-story. Her own perspective shifting journey from anxiety to gratitude ignited her work teaching and coaching others in how to rewrite negatives into positives. Through her teaching, coaching, community wellness groups, speaking, and writing, Georges shares a core message—we control how we view and act in our worlds. We can choose to leave behind shame-fueled, worry-driven, auto-piloted narratives, and instead script self-compassionate, hopeful, purpose-directed adventures. Georges is a Rutgers University Lecturer in counseling and women’s leadership, as well as a three-time Rutgers alum, earning her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in Psychology. She runs a Positive Psychology life and career coaching practice, blogs for Huffington Post, is co-author of eight self-help books, and is currently writing her first solely authored book, Seeing All The Good.

Anand Patel

Power of Untapped Potential

Keeping true to his dreams, Anand decided to open Hidden Grounds in 2013 as a way of breaking the state of constant. After three years of operating a successful business, Anand is in the constant chase of discovering untapped potential personally and professionally. As an undying passion, he dreams of starting a non-profit organization to facilitate homelessness in securing the basic necessities of life. What he hopes to achieve through his business is the ability to constantly make his passion into a reality. Raised in india, Anand moved to United States when he was 14. He earned degrees in computer information systems and knowledge strategy from University of Houston and Columbia University.

Liz Wessel

As a student at UPenn, Liz had observed peers who struggled to find relevant work during the school year. Later, as a Google employee, she saw that even the largest, most well-known companies struggle to find key hires. Liz wanted to fix this problem through tech. With smarter filtering and a focus on quality over quantity, the two sides of the marketplace would finally match up. So, 18 months ago, Liz quit her job at Google to start WayUp, recently named by CNN as one of the 30 most innovative companies changing the world in 2015, with her co-founder, JJ Fliegelman. Today, they’ve got 35+ employees and the site is currently getting 1 out of 3 users hired. Liz hopes that one day WayUp will land every student their first job.

Tara Kousha

Tara Kousha is a storyteller and life coach bringing mindfulness and balance back to the work place, schools and communities. Previously a graduate of Rutgers University and Douglass College (where she studied English Literature and Economics),Tara currently works at Google on their International Education team. Five years ago she founded Your Voice, a non-profit designed to provide world class training, coaching and life design resources to underserved communities. Her passion lies in studying mindfulness, balance and the impact both have on creativity, results and happiness.

Aaron Keifets

Aaron Kheifets is a comedian, writer and director. Credits include Comedy Central, Night of the Living with Kurt Braunohler, the Onion News Network, Bonnaroo, SXSW, and the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. He’s also written for McSweeney’s, the Wall Street Journal, MTV, College Humor TV, and the cult phenomenon Mortified. Still, his finest moment was becoming a finalist for Playboy’s Mustache of the Year. He also got a PhD in Cognitive Science from Rutgers University.