2024 KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Soledad O’Brien

Award-Winning Journalist, Entrepreneur & Host of the Weekly Syndicated Political Show Matter of Fact

Through the transformative power of storytelling, Soledad O’Brien brings a fresh perspective on diverse and contemporary issues to foster change in your own community or organization.

Soledad O’Brien anchors and produces Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien, a Hearst political magazine program seen in 95% of the country. She is a correspondent for HBO Real Sports and was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of fame in May 2023.

She is an award-winning documentarian, journalist, speaker, author, and philanthropist, and founder of Soledad O’Brien Productions, a media production company dedicated to telling empowering and authentic stories on a range of social issues.

Soledad has a national impact through her speeches and books, including her critically acclaimed memoir The Next Big Story and Latino in America, and her 1.3 million Twitter followers.

Soledad O’Brien Productions’ most recent projects include the Peabody-Award winning documentary, The Rebellious Life of Rosa Parks, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and streams on Peacock, and the multi-part series Black and Missing, which won the Independent Spirit and NAACP awards, and streams on HBO. Other productions have appeared on DiscoveryPlus, CNN, BET, PBS, and others. She also works with major foundations, like Ford, to produce impactful documentaries on topics like hunger, race and public health.

She has a presence on the op-ed pages of places like the New York Times and Huffington Post, and gave Congressional testimony on media disinformation. She has anchored shows on CNN, MSNBC, and NBC, and CBS.

O’Brien’s work has been recognized with four Emmy awards, three times with the George Foster Peabody Award, four times with the Gracie Award, which honors women in media, twice with Cine Awards for her work in documentary films and with an Alfred I. DuPont Award.

She founded the PowHerful foundation in 2011 which has helped dozens of young women get to and through college and connects with thousands of others through regional mentoring conferences.