Speaker Bios

Keith Wann-performing Friday evening
Keith Wann, a child of deaf adults, is one of America’s funniest ASL comedians, known widely for his "Ice Ice Baby" interpreting skit. Keith tours around the ASL Nation performing his one man show “Watching Two Worlds Collide” rated G to Adult Humor, and as a Storyteller for Festivals featuring family and children stories in ASL. Keith has gone Hollywood and been on a few TV shows as an extra, including Law and Order and Court TV and also appeared in Mosdeux's Resonare as the Demented Apple Farmer...and just finished filming another film playing a deranged prison convict in the film How I Killed My GIrlfriend's Cat. Keith has worked solo and in collaboration with other great ASL artists bringing to stage Coda stories, Deaf culture, Improv, Sketch comedy, and ASL student bashing.

Keith lives in Brooklyn, NY and works part-time as an interpreter certified CI CT and NIC:Master. Keith completed a program at Julliard on interpreting Broadway plays and plans to continue exploring more options in the performing arts as an interpreter and artist.

Dion Jordan-opening Saturday's conference
A native of Palm Springs, California, Dion is regarded as one of the most powerful and engaging professional speakers on the speaking circuit today. He has appeared in USA Today, local and national broadcasting around the nation, and has even appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Dion has been the recipient of many awards including Educator of the Year by Blooming Board of Educators. In addition Dion received the Alpha Kappa Alpha Emerald Award for his outstanding community and youth services.

In 1999, Dion launched Dion Jordan Enterprises, a company that provides personal and professional development programs and presentations aimed at individuals, companies, and organizations to help them reach their goals and improve their performance. In addtion, Dion is the founder of the Young Speaker's Society. The Young Speaker's Society is an organization that helps youth and adults to build confidence through public speaking.

Dion is also a highly acclaimed author of four books, including his best seller All That It Takes Is All That You’ve Got (And All That You've Got Is All It Takes. A book that motivates and educates people to realize their own potential and achieve greatness. Quite simply, Dion Jordan is that best at what he does and is regarded by meeting planners and coordinators nationwide to be their Speaker of the Year.

Judson Laipply-closing Saturday's conference
Judson Laipply burst onto the speaking scene and has quickly become a breath of fresh air in a sometimes-suffocating world. Combining an amazing ability to make people laugh and think, his presentations are down to earth and highly motivational, creative and appealing, humorous and thought provoking, lively and enriching.

Imagine infusing laughter with merit, combining side-splitting bits with thought provoking moments, synergizing humor with inspiration and what would you have? Judson Laipply. A one-of-a-kind performer who has the audience engaged from the moment he steps on stage till he dances off. Yes, dances – Judson is the creator and performer of “The Evolution of Dance” the Internet video that has taken the world by storm amassing over 10 millions views in under two weeks and featured on CNN, MSN.com, E! Entertainment, USA Today, Good Morning America, The Today Show, AOL.com, Google, and countless others.

Malik Evans-Leadership in the Community session
Mr. Evans’ dedication to community service began while he was a student at Wilson Magnet High School. He served on the New York State Youth Advisory Council and was a founder of the City/County Youth Council, which he chaired for five years. The Council developed more than 20 workshops around leadership development and team building for youth, including the annual “Steppin’ Up To Solutions” youth conference, which has spread to communities across the country.

“The importance of community service cannot be over-emphasized. It was a lesson I learned at a young age and it is a personal ethic I continue to embrace,” Mr. Evans said.

Mr. Evans currently is the Rochester Board of Education's President and also board liason to: Wilson Commencement Academy, Wilson Foundation Academy, Preschool-Parent Program, and Schools 4,8, 20, 42, 43. He is a University of Rochester graduate and currently an Assistant Vice President with M&T Bank. He manages two branches and has been with M&T since 2002.