Stephanie Preston

Stephanie D. Preston is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan. She has an MA and PhD in behavioral neuroscience from the University of California at Berkeley, where she studied mechanisms of decision making in food-storing animals. Subsequent to this, she held a post-doctoral fellowship at the Department of Neurology at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, where she used functional neuroimaging, psychophysiology, and behavioral research to understand the role of emotions on decision making.

Dr. Preston’s research is highly interdisciplinary, looking across model systems and levels of analysis with a variety of tools to investigate evolved, proximate mechanisms for complex behaviors. One line of her research looks at the mechanisms of empathy and altruism, focusing on perception-action mechanisms for feeling others’ state and the impact of evolved caregiving mechanisms on altruism. Another line of work examines mechanisms for making decisions about
resources, particularly how people decide to acquire and discard material goods, including issues of consumption, consumerism, compulsive hoarding and proenvironmental behavior. All research aims to develop a model of the ultimate and proximate mechanism for complex human behaviors grounded in research from comparative and biological models in animals.

Mike Dilbeck

As a filmmaker and video producer for over 30 years, Mike produced a film in 2008 that would change the course of his career — and his life. RESPONSE ABILITY, the award-winning educational film on bystander intervention for 40 organizations and over 250 college campuses, immediately became a distinct and special project. This one struck a chord. This one caused a demand. This one sparked a movement.

The reasons why have showed up in each of the nearly 4,000 stories he has accumulated from his keynote audiences. Each story is heartbreaking. Each story is filled with the shame and regret from not intervening in a moment of need. Each story points to the pain we carry with us for the rest of our lives…pain that determines whether we will ever stick our neck out again and show courage. Pain that impacts our own confidence and self-esteem.

Now, as a filmmaker-turned-advocate, Mike delivers hope for a new world through this movement. He speaks frequently for organizations, campuses, companies and communities — delivering his powerful, yet challenging, keynote to audiences of all sizes. When not speaking, he is writing, training others, or creating the next big thing.

In 2015, Mike was designated a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) by the National Speakers Association. The CSP is the speaking profession’s international measure of professional platform competence.

Cady & Benjamin Crosby: Heroes of the Titanic

Coleen Rowley: Whistleblowers

Coleen Rowley blew the whistle on FBI mistakes leading up to the events of September 11th. Here she discusses the factors involved in standing up or not.