Charles Marshall is one of the most popular humorous motivational speakers speaking today and has over 20 years experience speaking to audiences all over the United States. Each year, Charles travels 100,000 miles to perform in over 100 corporate and civic venues from New York to California. His animated delivery and original observations have captivated over 1,000 audiences over the past two decades, including many Fortune 500 companies. He is the author of several books including: "The Seven Powers of Success" and "I’m Not Crazy But I Might Be A Carrier". He also has produced and performed two full-length comedy videos, "Fully Animated" and "I’m Just Sayin’"!
Karen McCullough is a nationally known keynote speaker and expert on change, generational opportunities and workforce trends. Karen helps organizations cut through the generational biases and get back to reality by leveraging their team’s strengths, enriching the work environment, and driving better results. Each of her presentations brings a realistic perspective on workplace trends and employee engagement, while offering actionable content. Her engaging and insightful programs will make you think, make you laugh, and spark a lasting positive change in you!
Joel Adour, Director of Foodservice Sales, Branding Iron – Holten/Rochester Meat Company
Joel is an accomplished, customer-focused Foodservice Sales Executive with extensive experience developing and leading high-performance sales teams that exceed organizational goals. He has a proven expertise in the manufacture, distribution, and contract negotiation in the Foodservice Industry. He has been recognized for dynamic sales training and mentoring staff toward outstanding results. Joel has established relationships throughout the industry with decision-makers, and influencers to create sustainable partnerships. He builds and motivates high-performance, cross-functional work teams who respond to changing customer expectations and corporate goals.
DaNesha Allen, Director of Food Service, University of Houston
DaNesha has seven years of experience in retail operations and customer service management experience and currently oversees dining and vending services at the University of Houston. DaNesha has launched innovative solutions and outreach campaigns to enhance the dining experience on campus and serves as a continuous advocate for diversity and inclusion in the dining program. She also works as the immediate past president of Staff Council, an advisory body to the President of the university. In addition, DaNesha is a past recipient of the divisional Propel Award, and has been a member of NACUFS for the last four years. She is passionate about helping others through servant leadership and has led numerous projects.
Ben Anderson, Director, Grubhub Campus
Ben has spent the last decade helping operators understand and implement mobile technology into their dining environments. Working on the forefront of the industry at Tapingo, now Grubhub, Ben partnered with many of the country’s top dining programs to help shape the modern area of retail service. An expert in both the technological and food services sides of the business, Ben is able to foresee and understand trends and how they will impact customers and the restaurants they love. When he’s not in a committee meeting or attending a conference, Ben enjoys live music, basketball, and optimistically rooting for the Minnesota Vikings.
Michael Craig, Co-Founder and Chief Evangelism Officer, Nutrislice
Michael is the Co-Founder and Chief Evangelism Officer at Nutrislice, an Inc 500 SaaS company located in Denver, CO. Michael helps shape the company’s strategy, sales, and marketing functions and now focuses his efforts on evangelizing the importance of providing both exceptional customer and operator experiences that will drive successful food operations!
Houston Freeman, Director Residential Dining, Georgia Institute of Technology
Houston is a driven problem solver that tries to help professionals make their lives more efficient. With over 15 years of food service experience in public and private sector restaurants and dining operations, he has worked every position from dishwasher to Director of Operations. He has received an MBA in Organization Management from Georgia State University.
Bruce McVeagh, Resident District Manager, University of Alabama Dining Services, University of Alabama
Bruce’s hospitality career began early on, inspired by his talent as a chef and love and respect for quality and tradition. For over 38 years he has created a recipe for success. After serving as a cook in the United States Army from 1986 to 1989, he left to attend the prestigious Johns and Whales University in Providence, Rhode Island. After graduating from the Culinary Institute at age 23, McVeagh sought opportunities to further develop his own creativity. His culinary repertoire flourished during the next decade, working for some of the most prestigious restaurants and resorts in the country. Being partial to the south, Bruce has worked for the famed Buckhead Life Restaurant Group in Atlanta, Georgia, The Breakers Hotel in West Palm Beach, Florida, and The Gasparilla Inn’s Pink Elephant restaurant to name a few. McVeagh joined Aramark in 2006 as the District Chef for the University of Southern Mississippi and after 7 years was promoted to Director of Operations for the University of Alabama. And In 2016, Bruce was promoted to Resident District Manager, a position that allows him to use all of his hospitality and culinary expertise, in and around the dining experience.
Alexcis Mendoza, District Marketing Director, University of Houston System Dining
Alexcis has been shaping her career in the higher education food service industry for over a decade. She has served at multiple universities, across the state of Texas, and is proud to be a part of the University of Houston team. During her tenure at the University of Houston, the dining program introduced many innovations including a fleet of food delivery robots, a salad vending machine, a mobile associate engagement app known as Nudge, and the world’s first retrofitted, completely frictionless retail location. Alexcis has a passion for working with students and improving the guest and partner experience one positive encounter at a time.
Dee Nguyen, Unit Manager of Recruitment, Texas Tech University Hospitality Services, Texas Tech University
Dee started as a Student Assistant in 2010, at 1923, a Dining Location created to represent the founding of Texas Tech University, which is celebrating its centennial year. She oversees student employment, employee retention programs, and presents Dining Plan information at over a hundred events to thousands of students across Texas. In addition to her work with Hospitality Services, she is currently serving on the NACUFS Learning Committee, Mobile Conference Planning Committee, and panel moderator.
Kristina Patridge, Director of Dining Services, University of Alabama
Kristina has administered the food service contract at UA for more than 22 years and is committed to delivering a dining program that is collaborative, inspires community building, and promotes student success. During her time at UA she has effectively worked through all aspects of dining program management including the RFP process, oversight of revenue, policy development, contract compliance, capital construction, and implementing mandatory meal plans.
Kristina is an active member of the National Association of College and University Food Services (NACUFS) and served on the 2011 advisory committee for the Second Edition of Administering Food Service Contracts, A Handbook for Contract Administrators in College and University Food Services. She currently serves as Immediate Past President on the NACUFS Board of Trustees.
Kristina received her B.A. degree in Sociology from The University of Alabama at Birmingham and her M.S. degree in Restaurant & Hospitality Management from The University of Alabama.
Tanya L. Rodriguez, PhD MSW, Cultural Anthropologist, Hormel Foods Corporation
Tanya is a cultural anthropologist with Hormel Foods Corporation, where she uses cultural intelligence to solve modern food problems, drive insights and innovation, and showcase diverse consumer voices. She uses ethnographic techniques to explore and tell stories from the front lines of food. An advocate for food equity and sovereignty, Tanya champions efforts to eradicate food deserts and ensure access to high quality, nutritionally dense and culturally congruent food for all. She is eternally curious about the future of food including emerging food technologies, ingredients, and consumer desires. A daughter of the SouthTexas borderlands, she is passionate about her Tejano culinary diaspora. Tanya received her B.A. in anthropology and sociology from the University of Notre Dame, her M.S.W. from Our Lady of the Lake University, and her doctorate in cultural anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Zac Rogers, Co-founder, Blenz Bowls
Zac is an Alabama native and former University of Alabama student-athlete. Zac co-founded Blenz Bowls with Riley Voce in Tuscaloosa in 2018 months after graduating from The University of Alabama. After four years at the Capstone spending time in classes, internships, and leadership roles, Zac fell in love with entrepreneurship. Over the years of expanding Blenz, Zac has gained experience in branding, marketing, and operations. Zac looks forward to growing and developing Blenz into the best dining experience on college campuses.
Aimee Sales, Unit Manager – Marketing & Merchandising, Texas Tech University
As a Marketing & Merchandising unit manager for Hospitality Services at Texas Tech, Aimee is responsible for producing and maintaining all menu content, department info and advertising space on 105 digital TVs in 12 different buildings including the Student Union Building. She works closely with managers and supervisors at 20+ locations to coordinate all digital and printed signage. She is a graduate of Texas Tech with a degree in Advertising and a minor in Marketing. Aimee has worked in Hospitality Services for 12 years. She is married with two sons and two cats.
Riley Voce, Co-Owner, Blenz Bowls
Riley Voce is co-owner of Blenz. Riley and his best friend, Zac Rogers, started the company in 2018. Since then, Riley has been committed to serving the campus community and encouraging positivity, healthy choices and to be a good human. As a grassroots startup, Riley has played every role within the company from marketing to finance to IT. Partnering with campus dining programs for the past 5 years has been a huge aide in business and personal growth and development.
Riley is an active member of the National Association of College and University Food Services.
Riley received his B.S. degree in Marketing with a specialization in Computer Science from The University of Alabama in 2019.
Evan Wilson, Content Manager for Hospitality Services, Texas Tech University
As the Content Manager for Hospitality Services at Texas Tech, Evan is responsible for photographing, filming, and coordinating all content creation for the department. These duties include providing content for print, web, digital menus, TV advertisements, training collateral and managing social media platforms. Outside of Texas Tech Evan runs a production company and enjoys time with his wife and animals.