Speaker Bios

Meet the industry leaders, innovators, and experts bringing practical insights and new perspectives to this year’s Spirit of Hospitality Summit.

Jessica Bernhardt

Industry Ecosystems: The Impact of Empathy in a Collaborative Operation

Concurrent Session II-C (1:15-2:15 PM) in STEW 206

Jessica Bernhardt is a hospitality professional with over 20 years of immersive experience across some of the industry’s most respected brands. A graduate of Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Resort Recreation and Tourism Management, Jessica built her career with a simple but powerful belief: that exceptional guest experiences are only possible when teams are aligned, empowered, and genuinely invested in one another’s success.

Her hospitality journey has taken her through Marriott, where she was personally facilitated by Steve Marriott at Marriott University and holds the distinction of having a guest complimentary letter stamped “Read” by Bill Marriott himself as well as Starwood and Auberge Resorts. Across every role, her focus remained the same: building the kind of team culture where doing right by the guest isn’t a policy, it’s a shared purpose.

When the hospitality industry was upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, Jessica turned disruption into opportunity. She completed her Digital Marketing and Media certificate from Duke University and went on to serve in a leadership role on the hotel marketing side of the business deepening her expertise in the strategies that drive visibility, reputation, and revenue.

That experience, combined with two decades on the front lines of hospitality, led her to found Elevate Hotel Support a consultancy dedicated to helping hotels, agencies and corporate clients identify their challenges and build solutions in sales, marketing, meetings & events. Whether working with leadership teams or guest experience strategy, Jessica brings the same energy to every engagement: the belief that when teams thrive, guests feel it.

Based in Vermont, when she isn’t immersed in the world of hospitality, you’ll find her on a paddleboard, cross-country skiing through the woods, or on the pickleball court always chasing that same feeling she brings to her work: momentum, connection, and a little friendly competition.

Bobby Dutton

Emotional Logic // Prioritizing Happiness — Systematically

Keynote Session (2:45-3:45 PM) in Fowler Auditorium

Bobby Dutton is a professional speaker, entrepreneur, and “relentless optimist.” He’s also a licensed commercial pilot and flight instructor — for fun.

Thriving at the intersection of engineering and art, Dutton created GrooveBoston in 2004, built on the statement “Music is No Longer a Spectator Sport.” His team (now called GBM6) is about Making People Happy, through Legendary Events.

Bobby’s pioneering work on event design has won him awards internationally, and he was voted one of the “Top 25 Young Event Pros to Watch” by Special Events Magazine.

After 20+ years of navigating high-stress situations as a business owner and event producer, Bobby found calm in an unlikely place: in the sky. He now teaches these aviation-inspired decision-making tools to thousands through events, keynotes, and workshops.

For more info, please visit Bobby’s LinkedIn Profile.

Visesh Goel

Elevating Hospitality Operations Through AI, Cloud Platforms, and Governance-Driven Systems

Concurrent Session II-B (1:15-2:15 PM) in STEW 202

Vishesh Goel is a fintech risk, cloud governance, and enterprise systems professional focused on designing scalable, audit-ready platforms within highly regulated industries. His experience spans enterprise Risk & Compliance ecosystems, where he supports mission-critical financial reporting, production governance, operational resilience, and analytical reporting systems that power large-scale business operations.

With expertise in SOX-aligned governance, incident management, production controls, root cause analysis, and secure access administration, Vishesh specializes in building systems where compliance, operational transparency, and reliability are integrated from the ground up. His work connects technology strategy with business accountability, helping organizations modernize infrastructure while maintaining governance and audit readiness.

Prior to his work in enterprise financial systems, Vishesh led large-scale SaaS implementations and enterprise integrations across the hospitality and real estate sectors. His background includes API modernization, operational analytics, KPI-driven reporting, and cross-functional digital transformation initiatives designed to improve both customer experience and organizational efficiency. This combination of hospitality technology, cloud operations, and governance-focused architecture gives him a practical perspective on how technology can support operational excellence at scale.

Vishesh will share insights on how AI, cloud platforms, operational analytics, and governance-driven system design are transforming hospitality operations, guest experience, and enterprise decision-making in an increasingly digital industry.

Susan Gordon

The Alastair Morrison Memorial Lecture – Human–Technology Collaboration in Hospitality Across Cultures: Shaping the Future of Hospitality Work

Concurrent Session I-C (10:45-11:45 AM) in STEW 206

Dr. Susan Gordon is an Associate Professor in the White Lodging-J.W. Marriott, Jr. School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at Purdue University, from where she received her PhD. Dr. Gordon also holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Boston University and a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Administration from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Prior to her faculty appointment at Purdue University, Dr. Gordon was an Assistant Professor in the College of Hospitality & Tourism Leadership at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. Dr. Gordon is the recipient of the 2021 ICHRIE Innovation in Teaching Award and the 2017 Bruce Lazarus Teaching Award, which is her school’s only award for undergraduate teaching.

Dr. Gordon has over ten years of hospitality industry experience. Most recently, she was the Human Resources Manager for an 800-room hotel with Starwood Hotels & Resorts in Boston, MA. Dr. Gordon has also worked for Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL where she was a Labor Manager responsible for the scheduling, payroll, and personnel management processes for a 1900-room resort, a call center, and the catering line of business. Prior to that position, she held the positions of Housekeeping Manager, Bell Services Manager, and Front Desk Manager for four different Disney resorts.

Dr. Gordon’s research area is primarily human resources and she is particularly interested in employee wellbeing and perceived supervisor support. Dr. Gordon also conducts research in lodging operations. Her work has been published in several hospitality journals including the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, International Journal of Hospitality Administration, Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, Tourism Analysis, and the Journal of Foodservice Business Research.

Gally Mayer

Beyond the Buzzword: Sustainability in Practice

Concurrent Session I-D (10:45-11:45 AM) in STEW 214ABC

Groundswell Documentary Premiere and Post Screening Q&A

Special Movie Premiere (4:00-5:30 PM) in Fowler Auditorium

Gally Mayer is a regenerative coffee leader, movement-builder, and one of the industry’s most visible voices for aligning farmer prosperity, soil health, and the future of coffee.

Before coffee, Gally built her career in investment banking and venture capital in New York. In 2008, she co-founded Tutto il Giorno, a hospitality group that today spans three restaurants and two coffee shops across the Hamptons and Palm Beach — and it was there that her relationship with coffee began. Sixteen years ago she relocated to Costa Rica with her husband and four young sons; her daughter was born there a year later. In 2019, she co-founded Buena Vida Specialty Coffee — now recognized as a world-leading movement in specialty regenerative certified coffee, with markets across Costa Rica, the United States, and Europe.

She leads Buena Vida as Founder & CEO, working farm by farm with growers across Central America to rebuild the soil food web, sequester carbon, unlock financing at development bank rates, and pursue both regenerative and regenerative organic certification. Buena Vida has been selected as the world coffee pilot for the Journey to Regenerative Organic Certification initiative, co-creating with leading world organizations a clear path for more farmers to fortify and excel at their regenerative and organic practices.

Gally works at the intersection of soil science, farmer prosperity, and supply chain transparency — partnering with global organizations to build genuinely traceable standards for the industry, in contrast to the greenwashed frameworks in use today. She holds a conviction that guides everything Buena Vida does: soil health is gut health is human health.

She is an associate producer and advisory board member of Kiss the Ground, Common Ground, and Ground Swell documentaries. Beyond the films themselves, she partners with these projects to educate students, profesionales, farming communities, and democratize access to regenerative knowledge. She serves on the Georgetown University Baratta Center for Business for Global Good, and is a member of Daughters for Earth, the Pleiades Network, Les Dames d’Escoffier NY, and the Miller Center Accelerator at Santa Clara University.

Beyond coffee, Gally is the Co-Founder of the Futbol Por Mi Pais Foundation, which uses soccer to teach values and life skills to boys and girls ages 8 to 18 across Costa Rica — empowering the next generation through the game they love.

Gally lives in San José, Costa Rica with her family.

Emma McKee

The Experience Behind the Experience: Leadership, Culture, and the Moments That Define Organizations

Concurrent Session I-B (10:45-11:45 AM) in STEW 202

Emma McKee is an Organizational Effectiveness & Culture Strategist specializing in organizational culture, leadership, employee experience, and organizational transformation. Her work focuses on helping organizations close the gap between intended culture and lived employee experience, recognizing culture as a critical driver of trust, engagement, innovation, and business performance.

Emma brings a cross-functional perspective shaped by experience in finance, operations, people strategy, and organizational psychology. She began her career in finance and insurance after earning her undergraduate degree from Michigan State University and later earned a Master’s degree in Organizational Psychology from the University of Hartford. She has since led enterprise-level culture, belonging, leadership, and employee experience initiatives across both corporate and nonprofit organizations, with a particular focus on aligning leadership behaviors, organizational systems, and employee experience to drive stronger organizational outcomes.

In addition to her consulting and strategic work, Emma serves as an adjunct professor at Iona University, teaching graduate-level coursework in organizational psychology and leadership. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Clay Art Center, a nonprofit community arts organization based in New York.

Emma frequently speaks on topics related to organizational culture, leadership, organizational effectiveness, and the evolving employee experience.

Sarah Mullins

Next Gen Leadership: From Performance Culture to Energy Culture

Keynote Session (9:15-10:00 AM) in Fowler Auditorium

Sarah Mullins spent nearly two decades in the Destination Management Company world, where she led teams through high-pressure challenges and helped create extraordinary experiences.

Today, she is a speaker and author focused on bringing humanity back to leadership and life. Her upcoming book, Own Your Wave: A New Framework for Energetic Leadership and a Meaningful Life, explores how leadership begins within us, becomes visible in how we show up, shapes our relationships, and ultimately influences the cultures and systems we create together.

Through her work, Sarah helps high-performing leaders create healthier ways of working, stronger human connection, and environments where both people and performance can thrive.

For more info, please visit Sarah’s LinkedIn Profile.

Crystal Shi

The Alastair Morrison Memorial Lecture – Human–Technology Collaboration in Hospitality Across Cultures: Shaping the Future of Hospitality Work

Concurrent Session I-C (10:45-11:45 AM) in STEW 206

Prof. Crystal Shi joined the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2020, after earning her PhD from Purdue University in the United States. Prior to her academic career, she gained nearly four years of management experience with the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle, USA, and the Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai, China.

Prof. Shi’s research expertise lies in organizational behavior and human resource management in the hospitality industry, with particular interests in employee well-being, ethical leadership, and, more recently, human–AI collaboration and optimization. Methodologically, she specializes in advanced approaches such as experience sampling, longitudinal data analytics, dyadic data analysis, and computational social science techniques.

As the Principal Investigator, her research has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC), and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her work has been published in major tourism and hospitality journals such as Tourism Management, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Annals of Tourism Research, and International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

Mickey Swortzel

Signals from Startups: What Future Leaders Need to Know About People, AI, and Customer Experience

Concurrent Session I-D (10:45-11:45 AM) in STEW 214ABC

Mickey is a serial entrepreneur with experience building and scaling technology companies in advanced manufacturing, mobility, embedded systems, and B2B software. Over the course of her career, she co-founded two technology companies, both of which were successfully acquired. She currently works as an Investment Strategist at Bounce Innovation Hub, where she helps founders prepare for investment and cultivates relationships with investors to accelerate access to capital.

Mickey co-founded New Eagle, serving as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, where she helped grow the company into a leading provider of embedded software solutions prior to its acquisition. After successfully exiting New Eagle, Mickey joined a venture capital firm, where she leveraged her operating experience to source, evaluate, and support investments in high-growth Series A and B technology companies.

A longtime supporter of innovation and entrepreneurship, Mickey serves as a Business Fellow for the Mitch Daniels School of Business at Purdue University, mentors founders through NSF I-Corps, TechStars and the University of Michigan Desai Accelerator. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Miami University and an MBA from the University of Dayton.