NASA engineer José Hernández is one of four children born into a migrant farming family from Mexico and spent much of his childhood on what he calls "the California circuit" - traveling from Mexico to northern California each March, picking fruits and vegetables at farms along the route before returning to Mexico for Christmas.
After graduating high school in Stockton, Hernandez enrolled at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering and was awarded a full scholarship to the graduate program at U.C. Santa Barbara. In 1987, he accepted a full-time job with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where he had worked as a co-op in college. During his time there, Hernandez worked on signal and image processing applications in radar imaging, computed tomography, and acoustic imaging. He was selected to begin training as a mission specialist as part of the 2004 astronaut candidate class.
Ashley Rhodes-Courter is the quintessential American success story. Born in 1985 to a single teen mother, by the age of 3 she was in Florida’s foster care system where she spent almost ten years being shuttled between 14 homes—some quite abusive—before being adopted from a Children’s Home at the age of twelve.
Despite her ordeal, she excelled in school and advocated for children in abusive foster homes. Since the age of 14, Ashley has spoke on behalf of the half-million children still in foster care in America by giving speeches throughout the U.S. and abroad. She has spoken on Capitol Hill, has been invited to the White House, and has taught at numerous colleges and conferences for elected officials, judges, social workers, policy makers, and families.
On June 1, 2003, the New York Times Magazine published her grand prize-winning essay about her adoption day. She expanded her essay into a memoir, Three Little Words, which was published by Simon & Schuster in January 2008 and quickly became a New York Times bestseller. Her memoir is currently being made into a major motion picture. The book has been adopted by schools and communities as part of One School, One Book initiatives across the country.
Mel Robbins is best known for delivering one of the most popular TEDxTalk’s in the world: “How To Stop Screwing Yourself Over”. Mel is a powerful keynote speaker who jumps into the audience (literally); creating motivational experiences with unforgettable engagement, surprising research, vivid imagery, original videos, and music. Mel is a third generation entrepreneur who’s launched and sold two companies and currently owns and operates a multi-million-dollar publishing and speaking business. Her provocative and compelling views on leadership, courage and human potential have earned her international attention and invitations to train executive teams at some of the world’s leading brands.
On February 28th, 2017, Mel's new book The 5 Second Rule will be available for purchase.
Patrick Sweeney is the son of a first generation Irish immigrant who paid his way through state college where he took up rowing. With just two years of experience he decided to take on the world and try out for the USA Olympic team. Five years later, he finished second in the Olympic trials and won national and international championships in the process.
After the Olympics, Patrick attended a Top 5 business school where he would earn his MBA and go on to start three technology companies worth millions of dollars, raising over $30 million in the process and successfully selling two of the companies. During the height of his business success he contracted a very rare form of Leukemia. The brush with death launched him on a path to find his genius what he calls the combination of passion and vocation and make friends with fear to discover his adventure within.
From the time the plane crashed on October 13, 1972 until their rescue on December 22, Nando and his fellow Uruguayan rugby teammates were forced to cross both physical and mental boundaries. After waking from a concussion only to learn that his mother had died on impact and his sister was near death, Nando became obsessed with surviving and emerged a hero after he and teammate Roberto Canessa walked for 10 days to find their salvation. Their story of courage, teamwork, determination and leadership, experienced at a level few have known, will leave you with a heightened awareness of the value of human life.
Soon after the rescue of the 16 survivors, Nando worked with Piers Paul Read, the author chosen by the survivors to pen the best-selling bookAlive, which was made into the film of the same name starring Ethan Hawke as Nando.
Nando is the author of the New York Times bestseller Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home. In 2010, Nando was featured in the History Channel documentary I AM ALIVE: Surviving the Andes Plane Crash, which continues to air around the globe.
In the 40 years since the crash, Nando has become a successful businessman and television producer. He is the CEO of four companies and hosts several popular television programs in Uruguay.In his spare time, Nando races motorcycles, sports cars, stock cars and watercraft.
