Philly Tech Week 2019

Michael O’Bryan is widely recognized as an expert practitioner and thought leader in the fields of community development, organizational culture, and trauma-informed practices. Since 2015, O’Bryan has served as the Director of Youth and Young Adult Initiatives at the Village of Arts and Humanities, a nonprofit headquartered in North Philadelphia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of the Arts and a certificate in Childhood Trauma Studies from Jefferson University. O’Bryan is currently a Corzo Fellow at The Corzo Center for The Creative Economy at The University of the Arts, and an Innovation Fellow at Drexel University’s Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation, in support of a startup venture focused on the advancement of behavioral skills and equity in the field of workforce development. Prior to that, O’Bryan spent more than a decade working directly with underserved populations — including veterans, adults in recovery, returning citizens, and families experiencing homelessness — and as a consultant and advisor for multiple nonprofits, businesses, and local government agencies. O’Bryan speaks to audiences nationwide about his work, including convenings hosted by Cornell University, The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, NeighborWorks America, and the famed Apollo Theatre in New York. His commitment to service has also helped him amplify his contributions to the Philadelphia region by serving on the boards of two philanthropic institutions: The Samuel S. Fels Fund and The Philadelphia Cultural Fund.

Michael Stauffer is a long-time software developer with experience in technical and artistic projects including medical imaging, neural systems modeling, and tools for music production and visualization. The Sculptor and Groove Catcher projects come from a long-burning interest in music visualization, fueled by Michael’s passions as a musician, dancer and all-around geek. He’s recently found Vizmoo to develop and commercialize the VR rhythm-and-groove game Groove Catcher, and the dynamic music sculpture system Sculptor. Michael works and creates in Philadelphia, PA.

Alex Cohen is the founder of TwentyTables, a mobile platform that empowers marginalized consumers to rediscover the convenience of professionally prepared food, while also helping to feed communities’ neighbors in need. TwentyTables won SXSW Pitch 2019’s ‘Best Bootstrap’ award for cost-effectively creating a socially conscious marketplace that reduces food waste and benefits the hungry. Prior to founding TwentyTables, Alex was a lawyer, carpenter, humanitarian and teacher.

Lauren Capone is the Marketing Communications Coordinator for the Philadelphia Flyers. Now in her second full season, Capone serves as a main contact for all off-ice public relations efforts and helps shape messaging for all major marketing campaigns. She also assists the Flyers social media team, providing live content for home games and other special events. Previously, Capone spent two years as an Athletic Communications Assistant with Temple University Athletics while she earned her Master’s Degree in Sports Business from Temple’s School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management. In 2015, Capone graduated from Temple University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Strategic Communication where she was a four-year letter winner and First-Team USAG All-American on their Division I women’s gymnastics team.

Michael is a recognized expert in the field, with over 20 years’ experience in information security and investigations. Michael’s professional experience includes several leadership positions in the medical, public accounting, technology, finance, and pharmaceutical industries. During his time with AIG he designed the IT Risk Management group for the Personal Lines Division. At Clifton Gunderson, Michael created and led the Information Security Solutions group under the assurance umbrella. Building from his experience Michael created a Risk Organization with over 20 employees and targeted, high profile clients. In September 2012 ionRISK had been acquired by Essex technology Group, one of IBM’S few premier partners. He was asked to join Essextec as Vice President of Business Risk Services and CISO to lead a strategic initiative for the future placement of the company, their clients and partners. He has led and worked numerous fraud and other investigations some very notable. While in the corporate world, he developed and implemented security policies, compliance programs, disaster recovery, business continuity, digital forensics and technical security assessments. Currently, Michael holds a Global Information Security and Compliance position with Amber Road, a leader in global trade compliance. Additionally, Michael has been working with several organizations around Artificial Intelligence and its impacts on security and risk through deep learning and predictive modeling.

Founder and CEO of The Ladipo Group, Tonya Ladipo, LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker), is the visionary behind the region’s only counseling and consulting practice specializing in serving Black and African-American communities. Tonya has a Master’s degree in Clinical Social Work from Widener University (2004). She is also a graduate of the Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses program (2016).

Using her unique perspective as a clinician, Tonya understands what motivates people and organizations to change. She is driven to help individuals and organizations develop healthy and sustainable relationships that fosters growth and opportunities for all. With a commitment to making workplaces more inclusive so people of all backgrounds can succeed, Tonya applies her clinical knowledge and expertise to the consulting and training services The Ladipo Group conducts with organizations.

Our motto of Knowledge is Good, Behavior is Better underscores the approach to creating and maintaining an inclusive and welcoming workplace that is free of bullying with opportunities for advancement for all.

As an engaging speaker on inclusive workplace cultures, emotional intelligence, and women’s wellness Tonya speaks to large audiences (500+) as well more intimate gatherings.

Recent speaking events include Black Enterprise’s Women of Power Summit (Feb. 2019), Philadelphia SHRM Conference (March 2019) and PHL’s Diversity and Inclusion Conference (March 2019).

Tonya was the keynote speaker at the Philadelphia Works’ Workforce Development Conference in 2017, as well as the keynote speaker for Villanova University’s Women of Color luncheon in May 2015. She was a speaker at the Black Women Talk Tech conference in 2018. In 2015 she was also awarded the Advena World Most Outstanding Speaker award.

Alex leads the Grubhub big data infrastructure and platform teams. He has over 10 years of experience building and scaling big data and machine learning platforms. Prior to joining Grubhub, he worked as principal architect for Intelligent Mining where he worked on a number of big data and machine learning projects. Alex is a subject matter expert of all things data at Grubhub and he's passionate about building data solutions that help the business excel.