UNICON TDC 2025
November 5 - 7, 2025 | Hopkins Bloomberg Center
555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW | Washington, D.C.
Doing Good: Collaborating for Positive Change and Meaningful Work
For the 2025 UNICON Team Development Conference, the team in the Office of Executive Education at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School will focus on our place at this moment in time, exploring themes like service, purpose, community, humanitarianism, and progress.
The conference will feature speakers from the JHU community as well as voices from the UNICON membership who inspire us with their efforts to advance humankind through policy, dialogue, research, arts, advocacy, and more. Our hope is that attendees leave the conference with a renewed sense of purpose and practical solutions to implement in their institutions, supporting stakeholders and advancing learners worldwide.
Schedule & Agenda
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Susan Magsamen
Founder and Executive Director, Johns Hopkins University International Arts + Mind Lab
Susan is the founder of the groundbreaking neuroaesthetics initiative at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine working at the intersection of brain sciences and the arts, examining how our unique response to aesthetic experiences can amplify human potential. She is also an award-winning author and an assistant professor of neurology. Learn more.
Joseph Victor Sakran, MD, MPH, MPA
Executive Vice Chair of Surgery, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Dr. Joseph V. Sakran is a trauma surgeon, coalition builder, policy advisor, public health expert, and nationally recognized advocate for gun violence prevention. He is currently Director of Emergency General Surgery, Associate Professor of Surgery, and Associate Chief of the Division of Acute Care Surgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Learn more.
Anthony Watters
Interim Social Innovation Lab Director, Johns Hopkins University Pava Center
Anthony is a Carey Business School alum and the founder of More Watter co., a health and wellness company that uses exercise and community to improve health outcomes for people with chronic conditions. He is also the co- founder of It Takes One inc, a non-profit organization that provides scholarships for Baltimore City high school graduates. Learn more.
Planning Your Trip
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center
This year's conference will be held at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center, located at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, DC. Featuring soaring views of the United States Capitol and a light-filled atrium, our 10-story steel-and-glass location sits on one of the world’s most iconic avenues. Our nation’s capital city is a hub of innovation, collaboration, and influence, making it the perfect backdrop for a conference focused on meaningful change. The Hopkins Bloomberg Center is a state-of-the-art facility designed for cutting-edge discussions and centrally located with easy access to local transportation, accommodations, and world-class cultural activities.
About the Carey Business School
Grounded in the Johns Hopkins legacy of excellence and research, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School shapes business leaders who seize opportunity, inspire change, and create lasting value. We bring a modern business perspective to Johns Hopkins by shaping leaders who build for what’s next®.
With locations in Baltimore, MD, and Washington, D.C., Carey offers full-time, part-time, and online MBA and MS degree programs, and executive education programs for the global marketplace that are data-driven and built to compete in an everchanging business world. Carey’s faculty are thought-leaders, trailblazing what’s next in the business world and in the classroom. And at Carey, we learn by doing. For more information, visit carey.jhu.edu.
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Michelle Barton, PhD
Associate Professor of Practice, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
Dr. Michelle Barton is an Associate Professor of Practice at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School with expertise in organizational and team resilience, managing uncertainty, and interpersonal effectiveness during adversity. Dr. Barton’s work examines how groups manage dynamic and uncertain situations as they are unfolding. Drawing from wildland firefighting, high tech entrepreneurship, expedition racing and military operations, her research considers how groups make sense of ambiguous situations, how they coordinate, learn and share knowledge in the midst of confusion and how they mitigate and recover from adversity. She is especially focused on the relational dynamics that enable these practices. Learn more.
Alexa S. Chilcutt, PhD
Executive Education Faculty, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
Dr. Alexa Chilcutt delivers executive education courses on the topics of interpersonal and team communication, presentation skills, and impression management and executive presence. Alexa is the co-author of, "Engineered to Speak: Helping You Create and Deliver Engaging Technical Presentations" published by Wiley IEEE PCS Professional Engineering Communication Series. She has also published in MedEdPORTAL, Journal of American Dental Association (JADA), Association of General Dentist's Impact magazine, Public Relations Journal, and Georgia Academy of General Dentistry's Explorer magazine. Dr. Chilcutt was an Associate Professor and Director of The Public Speaking Program at The University of Alabama from 2010 - 2021 and has served as the Communication Instructor for UA's aeronautical and mechanical engineering NSF funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program since 2011. Learn more.
Carl DuPont, DMA
Executive Education Faculty, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
Carl DuPont is an artist, innovator, and educator with a creative approach to improving peak performance for individuals, organizations, and communities. He leverages his expertise to implement strategic initiatives at the intersections of communications, diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and sustainability. This includes training, programming, talent acquisition, executive presence, and utilizing holistic evidence-based solutions for organizations. His scalable strategies have been tailored to clients ranging from small cultural institutions to Fortune 100 companies. DuPont’s unique approach draws on his experience as an international performer and published author, as well as his curiosity as a life-long learner to make the aspirational actionable. Learn more.
Erik Helzer, PhD
Associate Professor of Practice, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
Dr. Erik Helzer is an Associate Professor of Management and Organization at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and the Executive Education Faculty Director for Leadership Curriculum. His research focuses on three facets of practical wisdom: ethical behavior and moral judgment, self-knowledge, and personal agency and adjustment. He develops and applies psychological, organizational, and behavioral science insights to understand the cultivation of practical wisdom for leading in organizations. He has worked with both public and private organizations to offer custom programs for employees on these and other topics, providing knowledge and practical skills that are grounded in behavioral science. Learn more.
Christopher G. Myers, PhD
Associate Professor and Faculty Director of the Center for Innovative Leadership, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
Dr. Christopher Myers is an Associate Professor of Management & Organization and the founding Faculty Director of the Center for Innovative Leadership at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, and holds joint faculty appointments in Anesthesiology & Critical Care Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and in Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research and teaching focus on individual learning, leadership development, and innovation, with particular attention to how people learn vicariously and share knowledge in health care organizations and other knowledge-intensive work environments. Learn more.
Adriano Pianesi, MBA
Adjunct Professor, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
Adriano Pianesi has 20 years of leadership development, team coaching, and change management experience built on capacity development, possibility thinking, and sound strategy. An ICF-certified coach, Pianesi holds an MBA in Communication and Group Dynamics from the University of Milan. He has trained at Harvard Business School, Harvard Kennedy School, and the Art of Hosting, where he refined his repertoire of experiential and innovative facilitation and teaching practices. He is also a faculty member of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences in the MA in Non-Profit Management where he supports students becoming agents of change through mission-based work. Learn more.
Anna Fitzgibbon, MBA
Executive Education Faculty, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
Anna Fitzgibbon is the Founder and Owner of OutGrowth. As an experiential education expert, Anna is a die-hard advocate for immersive programming and a re-imagined approach to professional development. With experience traveling and working in over 25 countries, she earned her MBA from The Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, and has a professional background in program development and facilitation (design thinking, corporate team-building and wellness, project-based learning, higher education), sustainable community development and co-creation, event management, and outdoor education.
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Julia Schreck
Senior Director of Executive Education
Amy Kuebler
Director of Learning Solutions, Executive Education
Nicole Marris
Associate Director, Executive Education
Registrations Are Now Open
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