American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance - AAHPERD
Donate
Now
Email 
Print
Continuing Education
Keynote Speakers/
|
Keynote Speakers and Presenters
Sam Kass
Kass has a long interest in sustainable and nutritious ingredients and helped First Lady Michelle Obama create the first vegetable garden at the White house since Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden. To date, the garden has yielded nearly 3,000 pounds of produce that has been used to feed event guests, staff and the First Family at the White House, with further harvest donated to local food shelters. Christy Halbert
She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology specializing in sociology of sport. She has researched topics such as “Tough Enough and Woman Enough: Stereotypes, Discrimination, and Impression Management among Women Professional Boxers”, which was the first scholarly article to be published on women’s boxing. Her research has shaped the considerable output she has generated including a Coaches Certification Workbook, rules books, collaborations on rule changes, position papers, marketing materials, videos and educational materials, for both a national and international audience. Mark Fenton
Fenton is one of the country's foremost experts on healthy community design, has published on the topic and speaks regularly nationally and internationally. His work ranges from local and regional health and sustainability initiatives to leading the National Physical Activity Plan's Transportation, Land Use and Community Design working group. He has served on the World Health Organization's advisory group for the development of Health Economic Assessment Tools (HEAT) for bicycling and walking. Community work includes workshops to develop corridor redesigns, neighborhood traffic calming plans and community-wide or regional transportation and public health priorities. Mark was a member of the United States national racewalking team from 1986 to 1991 and competed in the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Trials in the 50-kilometer (31-mile) racewalk. Jim Loehr
Dr. Loehr has worked with hundreds of world-class performers from the arenas of sport, business, medicine and law enforcement including Fortune 100 executives, the FBI and FBI Hostage Rescue Teams, military Special Forces, Procter & Gamble, The Estée Lauder Companies, Dell, PepsiCo and Citigroup Smith Barney. A sampling of his elite clients from the world of sport include: golfers Mark O'Meara and Justin Rose; tennis players Jim Courier and Monica Seles; hockey players Eric Lindros and Mike Richter; and Olympic gold medal speed skater Dan Jansen. He has achieved world-wide recognition and has been chronicled in leading national publications including the Harvard Business Review, Business Week, Fortune, Newsweek, Time, US News and World Report, Success and Fast Company. He has appeared on NBC's Today Show, ABC's Nightline with Ted Koppel, The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, CBS Morning News and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Tom Farrey
Farrey is also a two-time Emmy Award-winning journalist and author of the ESPN book, Game On: The All-American Race to Make Champions of Our Children. Farrey's work over the years has explored the connections between sports and key themes in society -education, globalization, technology, race, religion, poverty and ethics, among others. He has reported extensively for ESPN's Outside the Lines, SportsCenter and E:60, ABC's World News Tonight and Good Morning America, and in print for the Seattle Times, Business Week, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. He is a contributing writer for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com. Farrey was one of seven media members selected in 2007 among the "100 Most Influential Sports Educators in America" by the Institute for International Sport at the University of Rhode Island. |
A Chicago native, Kass graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in U.S. History. In 2009, Kass joined the White House Kitchen staff under Executive Chef Cris Comerford's leadership as Assistant Chef and, in 2010, became the Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives. Kass was recently named Executive Director of Let's Move!, which celebrated its third anniversary in February. 
Christy Halbert entered boxing as a professional fighter when women were not allowed to box as amateurs in the US. As a coach she led four boxers to 16 national championships in the 3 most prestigious domestic competitions: US Nationals, National Golden Gloves, and National PAL. Christy is the only US coach and the only woman to be invited by the International Boxing Federation to serve in their development programs called “Road to Dream”. She was the first US woman coach to serve as a head coach for Team USA in a World Boxing Championship. She served as head coach for the 2012 Team USA Women’s Boxing team. At Christy’s gym, all are welcome regardless of SES, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, and skill level, because she did not experience inclusivity in her athletic career she has worked hard to make that a reality for all individuals.
Mark Fenton is a national public health, planning, transportation consultant and former host of the "America's Walking" series on PBS television. His list of books included the best-selling Complete Guide to Walking for Health, Weight Loss, and Fitness. An adjunct associate professor at Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, he combines a public health perspective with engineering expertise (BS and MS degrees from MIT) to provide innovative community level program, design and policy solutions to create more walkable, bicycle and transit friendly settings. He serves on the faculty for the University of South Carolina's annual Physical Activity and Public Health training course, works with the Safe Routes to School national training course and for the National Center for Bicycling and Walking in Washington, D.C., leading sessions in over 200 communities nationwide.
Dr. Jim Loehr is a world-renowned performance psychologist, Co-Founder of the Human Performance Institute and author of 16 books including his most recent, The Only Way to Win. He also co-authored the national bestseller The Power of Full Engagement. The Human Performance Institute has been a pioneer in studying and helping leaders expand their energy and perform at their personal best. From his more than 30 years of experience and applied research, Dr. Loehr believes the single most important factor in successful achievement, personal fulfillment and life satisfaction is the strength of one's character. He strongly contends that character strength can be built in the same way that muscle strength is built through energy investment.
Tom Farrey is Director of the Aspen Institute's Sports & Society Program, the mission of which is to convene leaders, facilitate dialogue and inspire solutions that help sports serve the public interest, with a focus on the development of healthy children and communities. Farrey created the vision for this program when the notion of creating a national sports model based on the principles of "Sport for All, Play for Life" was introduced to sport and thought leaders. Since then, the program has hosted roundtables and other events that have helped advance the national conversation on such topics as youth football safety and low-income girls' access to sports.