Tenth Annual
Quest for Community: A Call to Action
"Innovation through Diversity: Creating Innovative Methods for Teaching Multicultural Competency Across the Curriculum"

Conference Speakers: Greg Mortenson | Frans Johansson

Greg Mortenson

Co-author of Three Cups of Tea
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
7:00 p.m
Apollo Room, Student Union

Co-author of the number-one bestseller Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time, Greg Mortenson is a humanitarian, international peacemaker, former mountaineer, and co-founder of the nonprofit Central Asia Institute, which promotes education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Mortenson's phenomenal story began in 1993 when he climbed Pakistan's K2, the world's second highest mountain, to honor the memory of his late sister, Christa. His rescue of another climber prevented his reaching the summit of K2, and on his descent, the exhausted Mortenson got lost and recovered in a village called Korphe. There Mortenson saw a group of children sitting in the dirt writing with sticks in the sand. In gratitude for the hospitality extended to him, he promised village elders he would return and build a school for the children. From that rash promise grew a remarkable humanitarian campaign in which Mortenson has dedicated his life to promote education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. After fulfilling his promise in Korphe, he went on to establish more than 90 schools in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Through his Central Asia Institute and the nonprofit Pennies for Peace, which empowers school children to change the world one penny at a time, Mortenson has built schools that provide education to more than 38,000 children, including 27,000 girls, where few education opportunities existed before.

Three Cups of Tea has sold more than three million copies, has been published in 34 countries. It has been used in more than 90 colleges and universities as a freshman, honors or campus-wide read, including as Wright State's common text for incoming freshmen for the 2009–2010 academic year.

Frans Johansson

Keynote Speaker
Author of The Medici Effect
Friday, April 9, 2010
9:00 a.m.

Frans Johansson is an author, speaker, and entrepreneur. His bestselling book The Medici Effect was selected as one of the top 10 best business books by Amazon.com and named one of the best innovation books of the year by several organizations. It has been translated into 17 languages. 

The Medici Effect explores the concept of cross-field and cross-cultural combinations and offers clear guidance on how to make such an approach work effectively. Johansson spent three years talking to individuals and teams at the intersection of different disciplines and cultures. He combined the results from those interviews with decades of existing research in psychology, economics, and management of creativity and innovation. Johansson explains that three driving forces—the movement of people, the convergence of scientific disciplines, and the leap in computational power—are increasing the number and types of intersections we can access. From CEOs, derivative traders, scientists, fashion designers, authors, and public health administrators, Johansson shows audiences how to find the intersection and unleash the Medici Effect. 

Johansson has been living in the intersection most of his life. He was raised in Sweden by his African American and Cherokee mother and Swedish father. Johansson earned his B.S. in environmental science at Brown University and his M.B.A. at Harvard Business School. Johansson founded both a Boston-based software company and a medical device company operating out of Baltimore, Maryland, and Stockholm, Sweden. He has written articles on health care, information technology, and the science of sport fishing. He has been featured on CNN’s AC360, ABC's Early Morning Show, and CNBC’s The Business of Innovation series along with Jack Welch and Muhammad Yunus.