With just two months to go until #HealthyTeen24, excitement is building! We can’t wait to reconnect with familiar faces and welcome new ones. We’d like to introduce you to our featured speakers, so you can get to know a little more about them and the journey they plan to take us on.

Monday, November 18

We’ll open #HealthyTeen24 Monday afternoon with Rising Youth Theatre, a youth leadership organization working at the intersection of art and social justice, with an interactive theatre performance showcasing the organization’s commitment to shared power where young people work in leadership spaces across all levels of the organization, including the staff, board, and creative spaces.

Founded in 2011, Rising Youth Theatre’s mission is to imagine and build the world we want to live in through youth-driven, multigenerational collaboration, and justice-centered artistic process and performance that generates reflection, connection, and action.

Rising Youth Theatre produces original plays around topics that matter to the Phoenix community including, race, mental health, student push-out, and more.

Rising Youth Theatre produces original plays around topics that matter to the Phoenix community including, race, mental health, student push-out, and more. Their school residency program brings social-emotional learning through the arts to hundreds of kids each year.

Wondering how do they do it? Grab a seat before the lights go down at Monday’s Opening Session to hear, see, and immerse yourself in our experiences. Through presentation, discussion, and performance using improv and storytelling, Rising Youth Theatre will spotlight successes, challenges, and transformations from their intergenerational work, leaving you wondering how you can do it, too!

Tuesday, November 19

Tuesday morning, we will share space with Dr. Lexx Brown-James, who will examine systemic, societal, and personal biases about young people to raise awareness of how those perceptions impact the work that young people do. She’ll provide tools to understand youth behavior, assess how your own experiences as a young person affect working with today’s young people, and help you center youth leadership without tokenism.

Dr. Lexx Brown-James, LMFT, CSE, CSES, is a premiere sexologist leading the field of sexuality with shame-free sex education and innovative sex therapy skills.

Dr. Lexx Brown-James, LMFT, CSE, CSES, is a premiere sexologist leading the field of sexuality with shame-free sex education and innovative sex therapy skills. 

As an AASECT-certified sexuality educator and supervisor, Dr. Lexx provides education and therapy from womb to tomb through her practice, The Institute for Sexuality and Intimacy, LLC, keynotes, panels, and curriculum design.  She is a multiple-time best seller and creator of Dr. Lexx’s Relationship Tune Up Cards, and she is featured in prominent media such as CNN, Essence, It Gets Better, The New York Times, Scary Mommy, and NPR. Dr. Lexx breaks down the most complicated and taboo topics to create easily digestible and actionable change.

Before you leave this session, Dr. Lexx will not only have you examining your and your organization’s work with young people, but she’ll also have you implementing new ways of doing the work. And don’t worry, you won’t have to do the Dougie, unless you want to!

Wednesday, November 20

Innovation is more than just developing apps and never-before-seen programs: It’s about rising to the challenge when others tell you “No,” and reimagining the way you think about and do your work.

Innovation is more than just developing apps and never-before-seen programs: It’s about rising to the challenge when others tell you “No,” and reimagining the way you think about and do your work.

It also means reinventing tried-and-true strategies, theories, and programs while seeking new ones.

You’ll get to hear from colleagues who have started reimagining the world of adolescent sexual and reproductive health and discover what they have learned from other models, practices, and industries. You can be sure you will walk out of the #HealthyTeen24 Closing Session ready to rethink what innovation is and what it means for your innovation journey.

Join us on Wednesday afternoon to hear a panel discussion moderated by Laura Lloyd, who has over 25 years of experience in public health research and digital innovation, primarily applied in the areas of sexual and reproductive health and HIV/STI prevention.

Get to know the rest of the panelists:

Jaclyn Ruiz is the Director of the Division of Adolescent Health Programs in the Office of Population Affairs. In her role, she oversees the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, a national, evidence-based grant program that funds diverse organizations working to prevent unintended teen pregnancy across the United States.

Brittany Wearing is a dedicated public health professional committed to making a meaningful impact in every environment she engages with. With over a decade of experience across K-12 and higher education institutions, healthcare systems, and state-level non-profit organizations, Brittany brings extensive knowledge in adolescent reproductive and sexual health, curriculum development, program implementation, and human-centered design.

Heather Yazzie Campbell (Apache/Navajo) is an outdoor leadership program director for Project Venture. She oversees experiential and adventure-based education programs at several Indigenous schools across New Mexico. Additionally, she leads Project Venture implementation workshops for a plethora of Indigenous communities throughout the United States, Canada, and Jamaica.

Tylia Lundberg is a University of California, Berkeley graduate with a BA in Psychology. Currently, they work as a Clinical Research Coordinator at the University of California, San Francisco under the Juvenile inJustice Behavioral Health (JJBH) Lab. They have two years of experience in the field of behavioral health research for systems-impacted youth as well as prior experience in community-based work.

Are you ready to join us in Phoenix for #HealthyTeen24?

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to engage with inspiring keynote speakers, participate in thought-provoking panel discussions, and learn actionable strategies for reimagining your work.