Lead Where You Stand Speakers
In June 2026, an extraordinary array of speakers will represent leadership, human flourishing and insights into artificial intelligence. Check back as we add speaker details.
Gayle D. Beebe, Ph.D.
Westmont president since 2007, Beebe has spent more than a quarter century in higher education. He has authored or edited more than 40 articles and 11 books including, “The Shaping of an Effective Leader: Eight Formative Principles of Leadership” and "The Crucibles That Shape Us: Navigating the Defining Challenges of Leadership." Leading unprecedented growth at Westmont while facing significant challenges, he has loved attracting new resources to build out the campus, developing new academic and co-curricular programs, and pursuing the next horizon. Under Beebe’s leadership the college has raised nearly $500 million dollars for various projects and new academic programs and added 390,000 square feet in new or renovated facilities on campus and in downtown Santa Barbara.
New York Times Columnist & Author
Brooks is a New York Times columnist and author of several books, including the #1 New York Times Bestsellers, "The Road to Character" and "The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life." Brooks is one of America’s most prominent political and social commentators. He writes a bi-weekly, op-ed column for the New York Times and regularly appears on PBS News Hour and National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. His most recent book, "How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen," reflects on the topic of human connection and its importance in today's society.
“Westmont has become my home away from home…and the kind of conversations that we have here, the kind of people I’ve gotten a chance to be with year after year have become valuable to me.” - David Brooks
Director of The Human Flourishing Program
VanderWeele is the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Director of the Human Flourishing Program and Co-Director of the Initiative on Health, Spirituality, and Religion at Harvard University. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford, University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University in mathematics, philosophy, theology, finance, and biostatistics. His methodological research is focused on theory and methods for distinguishing between association and causation in the biomedical and social sciences and, more recently, on psychosocial measurement theory. His empirical research spans psychiatric and social epidemiology; the science of happiness and flourishing; and the study of religion and health. He is the recipient of the 2017 Presidents’ Award from the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS). Dr. VanderWeele has published over 500 papers in peer-reviewed journals; is author of the books Explanation in Causal Inference (2015), Modern Epidemiology (2021), Measuring Well-Being (2021), Handbook of Religion and Health (2023), and A Theology of Health (2024); and writes a monthly blog posting on topics related to human flourishing for Psychology Today.