Meet the Keynotes: COE Summit 2025
In today’s business world, successful organizations understand the critical connection between people and performance. Strong processes start with strong cultures and teams. It’s time to unlock the power of the people.
This year’s 12th annual COE Summit will focus on operational excellence and the power of people. With 4 engaging keynotes, 20 breakout sessions, and opportunities for networking and hands-on learning, this Summit is a chance to equip your team with new tools and tactics to connect, collaborate, and reach your full potential.
The COE Summit 2025 will be held April 8-10 at Ohio State’s Fawcett Center. This year’s Summit will feature the following must-see keynote speakers:
Celeste Headlee, Internationally Recognized Journalist, Radio Host, and Best-Selling Author
Celeste Headlee has had an impressive career in journalism, serving as an Executive Producer of Georgia Public Broadcasting’s On Second Thought and anchoring and co-hosting many other shows and broadcasts. She’s also the author of bestselling books, including We Need To Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter, Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving, and Speaking of Race: Why Everyone Needs to Talk About Racism and How to Do It.
Celeste also hosts “Women Amplified,” a podcast from the Conferences for Women, the largest network of women’s conferences in the nation. In addition, she serves on several boards and works to bring racial justice and equity to media and journalism as the president and CEO of Headway DEI.
Celeste will begin the COE Summit 2025 with a keynote on how to have more meaningful communication in the modern world. She’ll discuss how our species has always survived through communication and collaboration, which she calls “survival skills” instead of soft skills. This keynote will emphasize tactics that allow us to communicate more effectively, embrace difference, and create authentic connection.
You can start learning from Celeste now by watching her ever-popular TEDx Talk, “10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation.”
Sarah Tilkens, Executive Coach, Six Sigma Black Belt, and Founder of the KPI Lab
As the founder and CEO of KPI Lab, Sarah Tilkens operates at the intersection of problem solving and operational excellence. In her coaching and consulting works, she’s spent over 10,000 hours supporting individuals and teams in solving complex problems with a sharp focus on leadership development and lean methodologies.
A Six Sigma Black Belt with a background in GE Healthcare, Sarah continues to encourage high-growth teams to achieve breakthroughs utilizing innovative strategies. Her passion drives and inspires transformative change in corporate and personal environments.
At the COE Summit 2025, Sarah’s keynote will highlight the importance of a “people-first” mindset in problem solving. She’ll question traditional problem-solving methods that fail to empower employees and teams, leading to decreased morale, lack of innovation, and missed growth opportunities. Her session will provide real world applications of this reactive and empowering approach, allowing for attendees to leave with takeaways and strategies they can implement immediately.
To learn more about Sarah, tune into her feature on Mark Graban’s Lean Blog, “From Biologist to Black Belt: Sarah Tilkens’ Lean Journey Into Construction & Manufacturing.”
Mike Doss, An Ohio State Football Legend and Super Bowl Champion Who Translated His Leadership Skills to Sales, Real Estate, and OpEx
During Mike Doss’ time at Ohio State, he became a four-year letterman, three-time All-American, Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, Fiesta Bowl MVP, and again a National Champion. After his senior season, he was drafted into the NFL by the Indianapolis Colts under his former coach and mentor, Tony Dungy, with the opportunity to play alongside Payton Manning. His team went on to win a Super Bowl, which he credits to teamwork and strong communication.
Mike then moved into the medical sales industry, where he became known for his consistency in meeting or exceeding sales goals by building strong relationships with key influencers and decision-makers.
After returning to Ohio State to earn his Master of Business Operational Excellence, Mike decided to apply his championship mindset, work ethic, and passion to a new challenge—real estate. He is currently a commercial real estate broker with The Robert Weiler Company.
In his COE Summit keynote, Mike will speak on what it takes to win at life. Drawing from his unique experiences in football and business, his presentation will focus on motivation, perseverance, sacrifice, leadership, and solving tough problems.
Check out the Columbus Dispatch article, “Former Ohio State All-American Mike Doss scores in commercial real estate market,” to learn more about Mike’s journey from football to business success.
Dr. Brodie Riordan, Industrial/Organizational Psychologist, Executive Coach, Feedback Zealot, and Author
Dr. Brodie Riordan’s career has spanned global leadership roles in talent and learning and development at companies including Procter & Gamble, Corporate Executive Board, and McKinsey & Company. She is a certified executive coach with additional training in positive psychology, well-being, and several psychology and leadership assessments who’s worked with clients across many industries and leadership levels.
Armed with an MA and PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Akron, Brodie is on a personal mission to shift the way people view feedback. She’s published dozens of journal articles and several books, including Feedback Fundamentals and Evidence-Based Best Practices and The Coaching Shift. Brodie lives in Washington, DC, where she also teaches part-time in Georgetown University's HR Master’s program and holds numerous volunteer leadership and board roles in her community.
For the COE Summit 2025 closing keynote, Brodie will present what it means to be a new kind of “CON” artist—a leader who practices Curiosity, Openness, and Non-Judgement. She believes utilizing this framework will lead to more creativity, innovation, and learning in an organization. Through discussion of research-based examples, this keynote will challenge attendees to explore this “CON” mindset and practice tips and tools to use in their work and personal life.
COE members can get a taste of Brodie’s work by watching her previous COE sessions on our Digital Content Archive. In 2020, she presented a webinar titled, “Feedback Fundamentals: Actionable Strategies to Make Giving and Receiving Feedback Less Daunting.” At the COE Summit 2021, she led a breakout session called, “The Secret Formula for Better Communication and Relationships at Work.”
We hope you’ll join us April 8-10 to learn from this phenomenal lineup of leading speakers and industry experts!
Learn more and register for the COE Summit 2025
