Are you planning an event for students or faculty?

Do you need to hire a trusted expert for a virtual meeting, conference, seminar,  convention, or workshop?

Here is a list of the best student leadership speakers to consider for your event that can deliver a memorable speech and presentation that will inspire, educate, and entertain your audience.

These are the best student leadership event speakers who can cover such topics as education, conflict management, college preparation, diversity, creating inclusive and safe environments, goal setting, bullying, mental health, substance abuse, teamwork, emotional intelligence, and more.

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Wendy Kopp

Wendy Kopp is the CEO and Co-Founder of Teach For All, a global network of independent organizations that cultivates many of the worlds most promising future leaders.

Teach For All was founded in 1989 to lead the future leaders of her generation against educational inequity in the United States where their mission is to teach students leadership skills.

She is also the author of “A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesn’t in Providing an Excellent Education for All”, and “One Day, All Children”.

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Marcus Buckingham

Marcus Buckingham is on a mission to teach students the importance of leadership skills.

After nearly two decades of experience as a senior researcher at the world famous Gallup Organization, he is the founder of the Marcus Buckingham Company in 2006.

He now tries to get people to work at what they like best. This way, while the individual achieves inner satisfaction and fulfillment, the organization that employs Marcus, gains maximum benefit from his efforts.

As the author of the book, “Now, Discover Your Strengths”, he is on a mission to help people to tap into their gifts and put them to use so that they can live an extraordinary life.

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Eric Thomas

In 2003, Eric Thomas worked as an academic adviser to disadvantaged students in Michigan State University (MSU). During his time there he developed an undergraduate retention program called Advantage, specifically meant for academically high-risk minority students.

Eric’s credentials include a master’s degree from MSU in 2005, a PhD in Education Administration, and he has served as senior pastor at A Place of Change Ministries in Lansing, Michigan.

His company ETA offers educational consulting, executive coaching, and athletic development for those who are committed to being great leaders and achievers where he is passionate about helping people to stop procrastinating and work hard for their dreams.

He is the author of several books including Secret to Success and Greatness Is Upon You: Laying the Foundation.

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William Parett

William H. Parrett has dedicated his career to improving public schools that serve children and adolescents who live in poverty.

He has co-authored nine books, the past three being best-sellers. His award-winning book: Turning High-Poverty Schools Into High-Performing Schools, co-authored with Kathleen Budge, has been implemented all through the United States and overseas to lead sustainable improvement and student success in high-poverty schools.

Bill and Kathleen’s newest book, Disrupting Poverty: 5 Powerful Classroom Practices, was viewed as an ASCD Member book of the year.

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Josh Shipp

Josh Shipp’s life is an inspiration when you consider what he had to overcome. A foster kid with a troubled childhood, Shipp credits his success to adults who supported and encouraged him.

A postgraduate student at Harvard, Shipp advocates the importance of understanding parents and teachers, and their roles in shaping the lives of young students.

His work for youth in the foster system has been featured in a documentary on A&E, and he has been invited on various talk shows on channels like CNN, Fox and Oprah.

As a student leadership speaker, Josh travels the world speaking to students at schools as well as major conferences where he talks about the importance of determination and perseverance.

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Jonathan Mooney

Jonathan Mooney graduated from Brown University’s class of 2000 with an honors degree in English Literature. In 1997, while he was still an undergraduate at Brown University, Mooney co-founded Project Eye-To-Eye, a non-profit advocacy organization for students with learning differences.

In 2002, he received the Golden Advocacy Award from the LD Access Foundation because of his outstanding work with students with learning disabilities where his mission is to empower these students with the opportunity to become great leaders in their community and the world.

He has been featured and quoted in/on The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, HBO, NPR, ABC News, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe.

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Dr. John Hodge

Dr. John W. Hodge is the president and co-founder of Urban Learning and Leadership Center (ULLC), a company focused on student achievement and lowering of the achievement gap.

During his teaching career, he has served as a reading teacher, English teacher, AVID teacher, Assistant Principal and Associate Director of AVID Center Eastern Division.

He also served as Director of “An Achievable Dream Academy”, an inner city school that guided many of the interventions used by Urban Learning and Leadership Center.

He has served as an inspirational student speaker across the United States and has been a guest lecturer at Christopher Newport University, Hampton University, North Carolina A&T State University and The George Washington University.

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Josh Sundquist

Josh Sundquist is a Paralympian turned student speaker who inspires, amuses, and educates his audiences in a powerful way.

Traveling the globe, Sundquist mixes humor with wisdom and leaves audiences with much to ponder. He uses his own experiences as well as those of others to urge people to look within and discover their strengths.

His published work includes two memoirs and a novel entitled Just Don’t Fall: How I Grew Up, Conquered Illness, and Made it Down the Mountain. The memoirs are a look into Sundquist’s life and assess the importance of staying positive.

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Linda Darling-Hammond

Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University.

She is the founding president of the Learning Policy Institute, created to provide high-quality research for policies that enable equitable and empowering education for every child.

While she was at Stanford she founded the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education and served as faculty sponsor for the Stanford Teacher Education Program, which she helped to redesign.

She was executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, whose 1996 report What Matters Most: Teaching for America’s Future was named one of the most influential reports affecting U.S. education in as at that time.

In 2006, Darling-Hammond was named one of the nation’s ten most influential people affecting educational policy.

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