2026 Keynote speakers

 Opening Keynote 

Creating Capacity in Times of Change: Understanding the Brain and Moving Forward

Dr. Jessica Lorenz brings over 18 years of experience helping individuals and teams strengthen organizational capacity through people-centered approaches. As a Change Manager and Workforce Development Analyst at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, she collaborates across the agency to support change, deepen employee engagement and cultivate a values-aligned culture. She holds a Doctorate in Education with an emphasis in organizational leadership, grounding her work in research-based practices that drive sustainable organizational change.

Evan Landman is a principal at Jarrett Walker + Associates, a leading public transit planning firm responsible for major transformations in the bus networks of US cities like Houston, Portland, Dallas, San Jose, Miami, and Cleveland. In this work, Evan focuses on using the rich data ecosystem of the transit industry to create compelling visual and narrative explanations that help people understand how transit works and the choices it presents. Evan leads development of JWA’s spatial analysis, cartography and visualization methods, and is a passionate advocate for open-source GIS and spatial analysis. Evan holds a BA in Human Geography from the University of British Columbia.