Above The Noise

Austin J. Franklin is a renowned keynote speaker, author, and leadership expert. He is also the CEO and Co-founder of Good-Natured Life. The company was established in 2015 when he was 20 years old and a junior at Hampden-Sydney College. The mission of the company is to spread kindness, friendliness, and patience (KFP) and to uplift minds across the world.

Franklin completed Harvard Business School's prestigious pre-MBA program. Also, he received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Rollins College's Crummer Graduate School of Business.
 At 29, Austin was the keynote speaker for the Billion Dollar Roundtable (BDR) Summit Induction Ceremony. This is a prestigious group that includes many of the biggest Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies in the world. 

After 17 years of service with MAF in Indonesia, David and Natalie Holsten have transitioned to the U.S. where David now serves as MAF's President and CEO. Looking back on their time in Indonesia, David and Natalie are grateful for the relationships they had with both nationals and teammates, and the opportunities they had to show God's love to others, especially those living in isolated areas. Their first 10 years in Indonesia were in the province of Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo, and for the last 7 years they lived in the province of Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya. Throughout this time David served in a variety of roles within the organization.

Ijeoma Oluo is a writer, speaker and internet yeller. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race, Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America and, coming in January 2024, BE A REVOLUTION: How Everyday People are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World - and How You Can, Too. Her work on race has been featured in The Guardian, The New York Times and The Washington Post, among many other publications. She was named to the 2021 TIME 100 Next list and has twice been named to the Root 100. She received the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award and the 2020 Harvard Humanist of the Year Award from the American Humanist Association. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

Phillip A. Washington is an exceptional leader and mentor. He is currently CEO of Denver International Airport. He was previously CEO of the Los Angeles Metro, and served as the head of President Joe Biden's transportation transition team. Phil is also an Army Veteran, a husband and a father. Phil is a co-founder of the Equity in Infrastructure Project (EIP) with former US Deputy Secretary of Transportation John D. Porcari and others in anticipation of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act pledging to increase by 2026 the share of federal contracts that go to small and disadvantaged businesses.

Chief Rafael “Raf” Padilla has served with the Kent Police Department since 1997. He began his law enforcement career as a police officer with the Honolulu Police Department in 1992. He subscribes to the servant leader philosophy and considers it his duty and honor to serve and protect the people of Kent.

Rafael is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, Northwest Law Enforcement Command College, the International Association of Chiefs of Police - Leadership in Police Organization and holds an Executive Level Career Level certification through the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission.

Rafael is engaged on both state and national levels, holding several professional affiliations, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), Federal FBI National Academy Associates, Inc. (FBINAA) – former Executive Board Member, and Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) and the King County Police Chiefs Association.

Temeko Richardson grew up in New York. She is a writer, producer, engineer, consultant, and sports consultant. After securing a project in Southern California, she studied filmmaking and writing at New York Film Academy. However she most often writes in tranquil settings of East Hampton, and Manhattan Beach.

She has produced a video documentary called Forth Down and a feature film, At The Cross available on Amazon Prime and Tubi.