Nexus Summit 2024 Speakers
Adrian Tirtanadi
Adrian was inspired from an early age to think systemically about poverty and was moved to find solutions. This calling eventually led him to conclude that universal access to legal help was the most effective way of addressing poverty in America and brought him to law school. Immediately after graduating, he founded Open Door Legal, which has grown almost 200x in 10 years. Adrian is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Maryland and magnum cum laude graduate of the University of San Francisco, School of Law.
Dr. Cheryl Ho
Dr. Cheryl Ho is deeply aware of socioeconomic and racial disparities in the "Land of Promise." In 2004, she co-founded the Valley Homeless Healthcare Program in Santa Clara County to offer person-centered healthcare for those facing homelessness and substance use disorders. She provides medical care in unconventional settings and now focuses on changing local government policies. Dr. Ho teaches Social Medicine and Advocacy to medical students, holds a Clinical Assistant Professor position at Stanford University School of Medicine, and serves as the Medical Director of the Hope Clinic, as well as the Medical Director and CEO of Healing Grove Health Center. Her research interests encompass health outcomes for individuals in permanent supportive housing and shared medical appointments for opioid use disorder treatment. Currently, her passion project is creating low-barrier medical treatment options for drug users in Santa Clara County.
Dr. Jo Vitale
Dr. Jo Vitale co-founded Kardia, a nonprofit that engages with people’s most profound questions about life, purpose, culture, and faith. As a public speaker, Jo has presented internationally in a variety of contexts including businesses, schools, radio shows, on university campuses (including UC Berkeley, Stanford, West Point, Princeton, Yale, Oxford, LSE, Aberdeen, ASU, and Georgia Tech), and for numerous church conferences.
Jo has three degrees from the University of Oxford: a bachelor’s degree in theology, a master’s degree in biblical interpretation, and a DPhil (PhD) in Old Testament studies. Her doctoral research centered on issues pertaining to the Old Testament’s depiction of women (specifically, female beauty and blame culture), and she speaks often on cultural misconceptions of Christianity and the Bible.
Jo with her husband Dr. Vince Vitale enjoy teaming up for their Ask Away podcast, giving talks together, and trying (largely unsuccessfully!) to keep up with their young children, Raphael and Jonathan.
Sandy Kang
My role as the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Nexus Mentoring converges my passions, skills, education, and life experiences. Prior to this new initiative, I served as the Staff Director at Healing Grove Health Center and as the Founding Director of Gateway Preschool Academy. From decades of educating young minds and empowering adults to raise children with joy and effectiveness, I am excited to guide individuals in embracing their unique identities, purpose, and potential and empowering the strength of their leadership.
Outside of work, I actively engage with nonprofit organizations, strategically developing people and programs that benefit local and global communities. I enjoy white water rafting, camping, fishing, and hiking with my husband and four daughters. I also enjoy a good cup of coffee with friends or a new book.
Ted Hahs
Ted is a social entrepreneur, throughout his 30-year career he has a long track record of launching various initiatives and collaborative efforts to serve the local community. He is an ordained minister and consults with leaders in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors including government leaders on proactive ethics—how to maximize positive social impact. He is also an accomplished oil painter as well as a former professional basketball player. One of his favorite places to be is inside San Quentin prison playing basketball with our incarcerated brothers as part of the Prison Sports Ministry's Green Team. You can learn more about the Green Team and the San Quentin Warriors in the award-winning documentary, Q Ball.
Dr. Ted Kang
Dr. Ted Kang is the lead pastor of San Jose Christian Alliance Church, a vibrant faith community of 1000+ people from different linguistic, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. He has taught personal and team leadership development at various gatherings around the world. His passion is to develop healthy leaders who will ‘lead’ and ‘love’ with courage and strength to bring about changes that will impact families, communities, and society for generations to come. Ted is married to his beloved wife, Sandy, and is a proud father of four beautiful daughters.
Vanessa Russell
Vanessa Russell has nurtured hundreds of young dancers since 2000. In 2010, one of her 15-year-old students fell victim to human trafficking. Witnessing this tragedy, Vanessa founded Love Never Fails, a nonprofit committed to restoring, educating, and safeguarding those affected by domestic human trafficking. She believes love, expressed through prayer, safe housing, mentoring, job training, outreach, and education, can combat this issue.
With 23 years of experience in leading technology and sales roles in the IT industry, Vanessa retired from Cisco Systems in January 2019 to devote herself full-time to Love Never Fails. Her professional goal is to inspire people to develop both themselves and their businesses.
Vanessa holds a B.S. in Information Systems Management from the University of San Francisco and is pursuing a Master's/Doctorate in Psychology at California Southern University. She is a sought-after keynote speaker, a Computer Science and Information Systems Professor, and a Pastor. She co-leads the National Anti-Trafficking Causes Network and serves on several boards, including the Contra Costa County Family Justice Center, East Bay Interagency Council, and Thrivent Financial Pacific Sierra. Vanessa also chairs Oakland's Violence Prevention Coalition.
She and her husband, Pastor Timothy Russell, are blessed to have seven children and five grandchildren.
Vincent Mo
Vincent Mo is a senior engineering manager at Google. He has worked on Google Maps, Google+, Google WiFi, and Google Home and was a founding member of Google Photos and YouTube Create. Even as he is focused on building technology products, he is even more interested in building healthy teams where people feel safe and do their best work. His proudest accomplishment is not building billion-user products. Instead, it is building team cultures with positive cultures that last long after he has moved on, from 6 people to 70+. Vincent is a big believer in the importance of mentorship for building strong teams and has mentored many individual contributors and managers in both 1-on-1 and group settings.