K-12 Education

We are excited to share that APB's Justin J. Shaifer will be featured on ABC's new series Soul of a Nation on Tuesday, March 9th! A rising star in STEM education and advocacy, Shaifer is a LinkedIn Top Voice in Technology and popular science communicator with a talent for understanding and inspiring GenZ. The series will focus on the black experience in America. “The way we have been talking about the show, internally, was sort of a news variety show,” Robe Imbriano, executive producer along with Eric Johnson, said during the network’s Winter Press Tour panel. “And we are covering real life. We are telling these stories. We are out in the field doing very cinematic, sort of short film documentary features.”

We all want to experience life satisfaction and emotional health. But getting to that place is another matter. From lockdowns to isolation, ongoing racial injustice to political turmoil, lost lives and lost jobs — this past year has tested our minds and bodies in profound ways. During the Addy Hour podcast, APB exclusive speaker Dr. Nii Addy will discuss topics at the intersection of brain science, mental health, faith, culture and social justice. Featuring community leaders, scientists, professional athletes, entertainers, faith leaders, and mental health experts, Addy Hour engages listeners with dynamic conversations and insights.

APB would like to congratulate exclusive speaker, Dr. Eddie S. Glaude, on being named The Stowe Prize 2021 honoree. The Stowe Prize recognizes a distinguished book of general adult fiction or non-fiction that illuminates a critical social justice issue in contemporary society in the United States. Dr. Glaude’s Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own is a New York Times best-seller, shortlisted for the Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice, and was named “One of the Best Books of the Year” by both The Washington Post and TIME.

Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and Harvard professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. has just released his new book, The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song. This book is a companion to a PBS two-part documentary series featuring interviews with Oprah, John Legend, Jennifer Hudson, and many others.

International Women's Day is driven by the goal of bettering gender balance and our future. Many of our speakers have played a vital role in the pursuit of a gender equal world and continue to challenge us to be more alert, informed and become catalysts for change. Check out some of our top inspirational, trailblazing female voices:

On October 19th APB’s Wil Haygood will release his new book Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World. This book examines 100 years of Black movies using the struggles and triumphs of the artists, and the films themselves, as a prism through which to explore Black culture and the civil rights movement in America. 

By Robert P. Walker, CEO & Founder APB Speakers | When the pandemic hit last March, the event business changed forever.  As our clients scrambled to either cancel events featuring our speakers or struggled with how to go virtual,  APB immediately went to work. Our mission: to offer a virtual platform that would be the next-best thing to an in-person event.

Paralympic medalist and APB speaker Blake Leeper was recently at Scott Sabolich Prosthetics in Oklahoma City being fitted for prosthetics when he discovered that a toddler was down the hall, preparing to walk for the first time in his new prosthesis. In a heartwarming video that has now gone viral, Leeper is heard encouraging and supporting the 2-year-old, saying: “I got my legs on now! I am ready! I’m ready for you! You’re doing great! You’re doing awesome! Look…mine look like yours!”

Former NASA Astronaut and New York Times bestselling author Mike Massimino is a veteran of two space shuttle missions and four spacewalks. The first person to tweet from space, he holds the team record for the most spacewalking time on a single space shuttle mission. Recently Mike’s book, Spaceman, was chosen by the National Science Teaching Association as one of the “Best STEM Books 2021." Written especially for young readers, the book tells the incredible story of his arduous journey to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut. 

As a teacher, educational consultant and parent for 40 years, Dr. Michele Borba has never been more worried for young people than she is about this current generation of kids. Across the nation, student mental health is plummeting, depression rates among teens are rising, kids are reporting severe anxiety at ever-younger ages–and the pandemic has only exacerbated this crisis. In her forthcoming book—and new speech topic of the same name—Dr. Borba offers a sharply insightful look into the essential character strengths kids need to flourish in a rapidly changing, digitally-driven and uncertain world.