NAFSA 2025 Featured Speakers
On May 27 and May 29, international educators from across the world gather for two unforgettable plenaries that celebrate purpose, place, and partnership. For more than 75 years, NAFSA has convened the most notable and relevant voices at its annual conferences, and this year is no exception. Attend the 2025 plenaries, where speakers share new insights and perspectives, connect diverse topics to the mission of international education, and inspire a renewed vision for the years ahead.
NAFSA 2025 Plenary Speakers
May 27 Plenary Speaker
Pico Iyer
Born to Indian parents in England; educated at Eton College and Oxford and Harvard Universities; and a resident of Japan and California for much of his life, Iyer has a personal story that touches many cultures and an intellectual curiosity that has taken him all over the world.
Iyer's writings include two novels and more than a dozen works of nonfiction, including the recent bestseller The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise, which examines how to live more peacefully in an increasingly divided and distracted age. His forthcoming book, Aflame: Learning from Silence, explores the clarity and calm that can be found in silent meditation.
Iyer's four TED Talks on longing and belonging, wisdom, and our place in the modern world have been viewed more than 11 million times, and his books have been translated into 23 languages. Iyer has spoken to audiences at Google, Coca-Cola, Fox Broadcasting, and the World Economic Forum in Davos, and The Utne Reader named him “one of 100 visionaries worldwide who could change your life.”
Sponsor of the NAFSA 2025 Opening Plenary
May 29 Plenary Speakers
Andrew Leon Hanna, Kyaw Moe Tun, Raihana Sattari
Andrew Leon Hanna, Dr. Kyaw Moe Tun, Raihana Sattari are each committed to empowering the next generation of leaders by championing innovation, entrepreneurship, and increased access to educational opportunities for refugees and displaced students.
Hanna is a distinguished American lawyer, entrepreneur, author, and international human rights advocate. He is co-founder of Mona, a global social venture that highlights and invests in small-business entrepreneurs, including by connecting low-income, women, refugee, and other underserved communities to zero-interest microloans. He is also the author of the award-winning book 25 Million Sparks: The Untold Story of Refugee Entrepreneurs.
After receiving multiple degrees abroad, Dr. Tun returned to his native Myanmar to establish the Parami Institute in 2017. The university provides high-quality education programs to displaced students in Myanmar and other areas under authoritarian control, including online degrees licensed by the Higher Education Licensure Commission in Washington, D.C.
Sattari is the first Afghan student at Texas A&M University at Qatar, currently studying mechanical engineering. Her experience spans global and local platforms, including being a recipient of the Qatar Scholarship for Afghans Project and represented Afghanistan in LDC5 hosted by the United Nations and participated in the FIRST Global Challenge as a member of the Afghan Girls Robotics team. She is committed to driving innovation, advocating for human rights, and positively impacting the world.
NAFSA 2025 Spotlight Presenters
Join these inspiring speakers as they share their perspectives on making an impact in the world. This year's Spotlight Presenters speak on topics related to this year's conference theme, "Purpose, Place, and Partnership."
Samantha Ramirez-Herrera
Borderless Dreams “Sueños Sin Limites”
Tuesday, May 27, 4:15 to 5:05 pm
Samantha “Sam” Ramirez-Herrera is an entrepreneur, filmmaker, creative director, writer, mother, feminist, and civil rights activist. Storytelling is the heartbeat of her company, OffThaRecord.com (OTR), a creative content agency and digital magazine headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. At OTR, Sam has built a network of creative multicultural millennials who use their talents and technology to tell raw, uncensored and authentic stories to uplift marginalized communities and promote purpose-driven brands, nonprofits and change-makers. Sam’s unorthodox path to becoming a digital media maverick is rooted in her own story of drive and determination. She was 7 years old when her parents decided to move the family from Mexico City to the United States, seeking a better life. As an undocumented immigrant, she grew up in the shadows, working hard to get ahead while at the same time fearing the possibility of discovery and deportation. After graduating high school, she waited tables and worked other jobs to make ends meet before becoming a DREAMer, thanks to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Kipp Colvin
Courageous Leadership
Wednesday, May 28, 3:30 to 4:20 pm
Kipp Colvin is an empowerment coach and founder of Colvin Coaching, a client-centered space that allows people to discover their values, purpose, and dreams. He envisions a community (especially the most marginalized) having access to human development resources to become their most authentic selves. Kipp also currently serves as the Assistant Dean of Student Success at Oberlin College. Previously, Kipp Colvin served as the Director of Communities and Volunteer Relations at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). As Director, he created an inclusive volunteer experience for over 6,000 volunteer leaders for the most and was influential in establishing the HRC as the most prominent LGBTQ+ organization in the country.
Eylem Atakav, PhD
Lights, Camera, Action: Storytelling as Activism and International Educators as Agents of Social Change
Thursday, May 29, 8:30 to 9:20 am
Eylem Atakav, PhD, is a professor of film, gender and public engagement at the University of East Anglia where she teaches courses on women, Islam and media; and Middle Eastern media. She also serves as the associate dean, international for the faculty of arts and humanities. She is the recipient of 2016 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Outstanding Contribution to Pedagogy Award and is a HEA National Teaching Fellow (2016). Atakav is the author of Women and Turkish Cinema: Gender Politics, Cultural Identity and Representation (2012) and editor of Directory of World Cinema: Turkey (Intellect, 2013). She recently completed an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project entitled British [Muslim] Values. She is the director of Growing Up Married (2016) – an internationally acclaimed and award-winning documentary about forced marriage and child brides in Turkey. She received her BA in film, television and radio studies from Ankara University; MA in media studies from Southampton Solent University; and her PhD in film and cultural studies from Nottingham Trent University.
David G. Victor, PhD
Climate and Energy Under the Second Trump Administration
Friday, May 30, 8:30 to 9:20 am
David G. Victor, Ph.D. is a professor of innovation and public policy at UC San Diego, where he co-directs the campus-wide Deep Decarbonization Initiative (D21), tackling the challenges of reaching zero global carbon emissions. In 2020, Victor was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the one of the oldest and most esteemed honorary societies in the nation. his book Global Warming Gridlock was named one of the best books of 2011 by The Economist. Victor has served as a convening lead author for the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He held leadership roles, including Co-Chair of The Brookings Institution's Initiative on Energy and Climate and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Energy. Victor also holds appointments at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the School of Engineering at UC San Diego.
Conference Sponsorships
NAFSA, the world’s largest association dedicated to international education and exchange, invites you to partner with us as a future NAFSA Annual Conference & Expo sponsor.
As a NAFSA plenary sponsor, gain the opportunity to showcase your message and the power of your brand to conference attendees through NAFSA’s plenary marketing and promotions for this important event. Acknowledgment will include recognition on the conference website, mobile app, online planner, and conference signage. Sponsors may also meet the distinguished speaker, share the plenary stage, and welcome attendees.