May 28, 2026 | 9:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
David Rubenstein Forum

LSI Capstone Symposium

Join us as we celebrate the meaningful work of the LSI Fellows and initiate the next stage of their living and leading with purpose.

Overview

The Leadership & Society Initiative (LSI) Capstone Symposium serves as both a reflection on the cohort’s collective learning journey and a platform for Fellows to articulate their visions for the next phase of purposeful leadership and living. The program features a series of presentations and discussions centered on themes that advance personal growth and societal contribution, alongside each Fellow’s roadmap for continued enrichment, connection, and impact. As the Fellowship year draws to a close, the symposium marks a meaningful transition, inviting the LSI community to engage with questions of purpose and to consider how leaders, at the height of their experience and insight, can contribute to the broader good.

Agenda

9:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. | Welcoming Remarks

9:45a.m. – 10:15 a.m. | Opening Keynote

Jessyca Dudley, Founder and CEO of Bold Ventures

A Return to Reciprocity

10:15 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. | Bridging Generations

Throughout the Fellowship experience, Fellows were invited to consider what it looks like to live well and pursue purpose at every stage of life. Fellows also examine the resources, services, policies, and systems that are needed to enable wellbeing and a high quality of life from childhood to end of life. This session builds on these themes featuring Fellows focused on empowering individual generations and intergenerational partnership through education, healthcare, and public service. It offers insight into how they are working across caregiving, social service, and two-way mentorship to address unique needs of life stages while creating new innovations that bolster society for all.

Fellow Presentations

Deborah Alexander
The Human Connection: Legacy, Intergenerational Mentorship, and Justice

Rita Sadhvani
A Few Good Seeds

Dev Jain
The Care Mosaic: Navigating Caregiving Transitions across Generations and Geography

Susan Stone
SageCorps: Creating Purpose in Retirement Through Social Service Engagement

Robert Espinoza
The Caregiving Divide – and What It Will Take to Close It

11:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. | Networking Break

11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Reimagining Society & Culture

Around the world, the evolution of civilization often reflects a dynamic interplay between preserving effective traditions and critically examining those that no longer serve the needs of society. LSI Fellows look across time and space for lessons from history that can inform the future of human ingenuity. Through this process they connect dots across disparate domains, practices, and sectors to conceive new social fabrics that address shared needs and societal interests. This session highlights Fellows working to sustain proven practices while integrating new strategies, with applications in the arts, technology, education, and leadership. Their work reflects a commitment to expanding opportunity while also enriching cultural life, fostering creativity, and advancing more inclusive and human-centered approaches to progress and impact.

Fellow Presentations

John Sandwick
Da Capo: Agentic AI for Classical Music

Rénu Kulkarni
The (Film) Sonnets Project

Bob Oros
A New Framework for Achieving Success During College Focused on Creating a Balanced Experience Grounded in Self Care

Warren Whitlock
Expanding and Developing Leadership through Global Collaboration

Jay Mesrobian
The Arts of Leadership: Why the Humanities are Essential for Healthcare Leaders

1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | Lunch

2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | Strengthening Communities

The LSI Fellowship explores how strong communities are built through trust, collaboration, and sustainable investment in local assets, relationships, and quality of life. Topics included place-based strategies, cross-sector partnerships, and addressing structural inequities to improve wellbeing across communities. Fellows examined how institutions influence individual and collective outcomes, and how evidence-driven approaches can shape economic security and mobility. This session extends these insights to a focus on community strength and resilience, highlighting how Fellows are applying their learning to reinforce the social ties and civic institutions that support a just and thriving society. Their work reflects a commitment to building healthier, more connected communities through governance, local engagement, and place-based solutions that advance long-term vitality and shared prosperity.

Fellow Presentations

Elizabeth Higgins-Beard
Regional Government, Supporting the American Dream

John Yerger
Rebuilding Community: It’s Time

Dixie Adams
Table Stakes: Community-led Food Hubs as Foundations for Neighborhood Revitalization

Rich Klawiter
Table Stakes: Community-led Food Hubs as Foundations for Neighborhood Revitalization

Jennifer Vachon
Table Stakes: Community-led Food Hubs as Foundations for Neighborhood Revitalization

3:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. | Networking Break

3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | Rethinking Resilience: Systems, Scale, and Survival

LSI Fellows bring deep experience in systems-thinking, and an ability to approach complex problems as interconnected wholes rather than merely as a collection of parts. The LSI curriculum doubles down on this existing expertise, inviting Fellows to interrogate the interaction and influence across economic, social, and environmental systems. The learning journey positions Fellows to look at complex challenges across business, neighborhoods, education, and planetary health through a lens of dependencies, unpredictability, and tradeoffs, and how inputs now will shape outcomes for generations to come. This session explores systems-based approaches to growing resilience and livelihood at scale. Fellows share myriad strategies to proactively address current risks, while creating stronger foundations, exchanges, collaborations, and environmental conditions that will position society not just to survive, but thrive.

Fellow Presentations