Keynotes
Storytelling and research from the stage, for convocations, conferences, and leadership gatherings. Every keynote is shaped around your audience and what you need them to leave with.
Three keynotes he is asked for most
Each one is built on the Be The Messenger Framework and tailored to the room. They are examples, not the whole list. Tell us who will be there and what they are up against, and Dr. Starks builds the keynote from there.
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Be The Messenger
The Framework keynoteIntroduces the four constructs, Identity, Culture, Diversity, and Respect, and how each one shows up in the way people behave and the way institutions respond. Audiences learn how to apply the Framework to their own classrooms, teams, and decisions so they can lead with clarity and respect.
Best for all-staff convocations, back-to-school kickoffs, retreats, and conferences where the audience serves or leads other people.
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From Survival to The Messenger: Turning Pain Into Purpose
His storyDr. Starks shares his own path, from seven moves by age 17 and a mother who told him real men work with their hands, to a scholarship, a Master's, and a PhD in criminology. He gives audiences a way to turn their own life experiences into a foundation for leadership and service, and a new way to see the students who aren't supposed to make it either.
Best for student athletes, first-generation students, youth programs, and any room that needs to hear that survival is not the end of the story.
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Transform 4Ever: A New Paradigm for Social Change
Healing First. Justice Always. Reform 4Ever.This talk argues that lasting justice begins with self-development and healing. Dr. Starks walks audiences through the connection between the work you do on yourself and the change you can make in a system, and what shifts when leaders do it in that order.
Best for leadership teams, equity and belonging gatherings, and organizations that have tried policy change and want the people side to catch up.
What he speaks on
The Framework applies wherever people lead other people. Keynotes and talks are built around these subjects, alone or in combination, and shaped to your audience.
Leadership
What it takes to lead when the rules keep changing: leading from who you are, and the decisions that follow.
Identity
The lens through which people see themselves and the lens through which they are seen, and why that is where every other conversation starts.
Organizational culture
How a staff, a campus, or a company decides what is normal, and how to change it without blaming the people in it.
Trust and accountability
Building the kind of trust that survives hard conversations, and holding people accountable without losing them.
Justice
Bail and pretrial justice, policing and community, race in the courts, and the structural inequality behind the numbers, from a criminologist who has worked on every side of it.
Institutional change
Healing first, then reform: why the work on people comes before the work on systems, and what shifts when leaders do it in that order.
Why rooms ask him back
Research and lived experience in the same person
A PhD in criminology, a framework published in peer-reviewed journals, and a story that started in a home where survival mattered more than school. He brings both into every room.
Shaped to your audience
Every keynote is tailored to your audience's goals and challenges. A room of superintendents and a room of student athletes do not get the same talk.
A storyteller who makes people talk
His style gets audiences talking about difficult subjects in a way that is inclusive and productive, and then doing something with what they heard.
A keynote that can become a training
When an organization wants more than one morning, the keynote becomes the first step toward a full training, delivered by Dr. Starks or, in schools and districts, by facilitators he certifies.
Facilitated conversations
Some rooms need a conversation more than a speech. Dr. Starks facilitates dialogue for associations, faculties, and leadership teams, often right after a keynote.
American Geophysical Union
AGU's president brought him in to facilitate conversations on sustainability with scientists from around the world.
University of Connecticut
A keynote for the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, followed by a facilitated dialogue with graduate students and faculty.
From the people who booked him
"As a keynote speaker for several of AAC&U's STEM institutes and conferences, Chad has always been well-received, offering attendees a provocative look into their motivations and desires for a more diverse and competitive STEM workforce and challenging them to confront not only the systems and structures of oppression in STEM but also themselves."
"Dr. Starks has been gracious enough over the past several years to speak and consult with our football team. He has a great story, one that really connected with our student athletes. His story is from the heart, a real life success story of overcoming the odds."
"Dr. Starks analogized social justice work to participating in a high-caliber sports game: without continued and proper training, how can you expect to do well? How many cultures have you played with?"
He has spoken for
School districts, universities, companies, city governments, STEM consortia, and professional associations, including Edward Jones, the American Geophysical Union, the American Counseling Association, the NAACP, the City of Lynchburg, the American Association of Colleges and Universities, the Virginia Space Grant Consortium, Wake Technical Community College, the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, and Lynchburg City Schools.
Book a keynote
Tell us about your event, your audience, and your dates. We will come back to you with availability and next steps.