2026 Keynote speakers

 Opening Keynote 

Creating Capacity in Times of Change: Understanding the Brain and Moving Forward

Why does change feel so hard? Change is constant, and yet it’s one of the greatest challenges for individuals and organizations. Dr. Jessica Lorenz examines how the brain responds to uncertainty, why resistance is a biological reaction, and how we can build the capacity needed to move forward with clarity, care, and intention. 

Informed by neuroscience, change management, and trauma informed care, this presentation provides practical, accessible strategies for building resilience. Attendees will learn how to strengthen personal capacity during times of transition and how to support others with greater empathy.  

By connecting brain science with leadership practices, Dr. Jessica Lorenz offers an actionable path forward to navigate change more effectively, support well-being and build adaptive, thriving teams. 

Dr. Jessica Lorenz brings over 18 years of experience helping individuals and teams strengthen organizational capacity through people-centered approaches. As a Change Manager and Workforce Development Analyst at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, she collaborates across the agency to support change, deepen employee engagement and cultivate a values-aligned culture. She holds a Doctorate in Education with an emphasis in organizational leadership, grounding her work in research-based practices that drive sustainable organizational change.

Spatial Storytelling: Making the Case for an Essential (Vulnerable) Service

Public transit is an essential service, but one that is perennially under threat. Like many public institutions, these systems have been faced with a series of major challenges over the past twenty years, including a great recession, major changes in travel patterns, and outright hostility from some corners of the political spectrum. This keynote will discuss the central role of GIS and cartography practitioners in analyzing, explaining, visualizing and communicating the complex spatial, temporal and political process that is public transit, drawing from experience in bus network transformation projects in major US cities that grapple with the messy yet rewarding work of improving vulnerable public services in a time of great uncertainty. 

Evan Landman is a principal at Jarrett Walker + Associates, a leading public transit planning firm responsible for major transformations in the bus networks of US cities like Houston, Portland, Dallas, San Jose, Miami, and Cleveland. In this work, Evan focuses on using the rich data ecosystem of the transit industry to create compelling visual and narrative explanations that help people understand how transit works and the choices it presents. Evan leads development of JWA’s spatial analysis, cartography and visualization methods, and is a passionate advocate for open-source GIS and spatial analysis. Evan holds a BA in Human Geography from the University of British Columbia.