2020 Illinois LEAP Conference

2020 Conference

“Fantastic. Cannot say enough about it.” – Denise Lawrence, Oswego PD
“Great job!!! I enjoyed every minute of the conference!” – Marchell Redmond, Metra PD
“I think the conference was wonderful – you ladies did a great job!” – Allie Guerrero, Wauconda PD
“The virtual conference was a well done program and I enjoyed it immensely!” – Annette Szafran, Retired IL-LEAP Member
“Nice job team for pulling this virtual conference together on such short notice. Awesome content and execution.” – Barbara Lueder-Manetti, Lake Forest PD
“Very nice conference.” – Diane Rhode, Mt. Prospect PD
“Great job conference team!” – Carol Murphy, Forest Preserve District of DuPage County
“Thank you for this experience. Amazing job.” – Laura Bover, Round Lake PD
“Awesome conference…thank you for all that you do!” – Karle Sobenes-Desme, Broward County, FL Sheriff’s Office
“Nice job, some treat take-aways from this morning’s events!” – Heidi Atkinson, Bartlett PD
“Thank you for a great virtual conference!!” – Tina Blankenship, Romeoville PD
“Your conference committee is BRILLIANT!!!!” – Linda Larsen, Keynote Speaker
“Thank you to everyone who coordinated the virtual conference – I thoroughly enjoyed it.” – Kathleen Jendraske, Columbia PD

Speaker Bio's

Rev. Lindsay Bona is the Vice President of Mission and Spiritual Care at Advocate Aurora Health. Rev. Bona was formerly the manager of Spiritual Care at Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor, MI. She was responsibly for managing a spiritual care staff for both an adult and children’s hospital, as well as a cancer care center. Prior to her work in Michigan, Rev. Bona served as staff chaplain at Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies in Orlando, FL. She completed her residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and an internship at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, MI. Rev. Bona is the president of the Pediatric Chaplain Network, a national advisory board to support chaplains and pediatric spiritual care. She was also a dog handler and developed a facility dog program at Michigan Medicine while there. Rev. Bona is a minister in the Reformed Church of America.

Lindsay Bona

Following thirty years in local government including ten as the city manager of Naperville and ten as the village manager in Hoffman Estates, Peter Burchard worked as the chief operating officer at in Ventiv Medical Management in Augusta, Georgia. Since returning to Illinois, Peter has been a faculty member at Northern Illinois University where he teaches graduate level classes in public sector ethics and innovation. Today, Peter is president/CEO of his own multi-sector consulting, coaching, and training firm. For the past five years, Peter has worked with representatives of the Chinese government to teach their high-level visiting delegations’ American local government.

Peter received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from NIU. He has been recognized as a Public Service Education Fellow and member of the National Honor Society for Public Affairs and Administration. Peter attended a semester of studies at Salzburg College in Austria. Peter was the chairperson of a Chicago area hospital, Treasurer of the NIU Foundation and former board member of the Suburban Law Enforcement Academy. As an aside, Peter is a charity event auctioneer and has worked on stage with Ellen DeGeneres and Howie Mandel.

Peter Burchard

Christine Comaford

Bill Gates calls her “super high bandwidth.”

Bill Clinton has thanked her for “fostering American entrepreneurship.”

For over 30 years Leadership and Culture Coach, Serial Entrepreneur, and New York Times bestselling author Christine Comaford has helped leaders navigate growth and change. She specializes in applied neuroscience, which helps her clients achieve tremendous results in record time. An entrepreneur she built and sold five companies with an average ROI of 700%, and she was a software engineer in the early days of Microsoft and Apple. Christine is a human behavior expert, a leadership columnist for Forbes.com, and the New York Times bestselling author of Power Your Tribe, SmartTribes and Rules for Renegades.

Christine is sought after for providing proven strategies to shift executive behavior to create more positive outcomes, enroll and align teams in times of change, profoundly increase sales, product offerings, and company value. Her coaching, consulting and strategies have created hundreds of billions of dollars in new revenue and company value for her clients. The potent neuroscience techniques she teaches are easy to learn and immediately applicable to help leaders see into their blind spots, expand their vision, and more effectively influence outcomes.

Linda Larsen

Linda Larsen, BSW, MFA, CPAE, is one of only 232 people worldwide to be inducted into the Speaker Hall of Fame®, joining such notables as General Colin Powell, President Ronald Reagan and Brian Tracy. She has been a featured presenter for over 1,000 conferences and meetings worldwide for groups such as Jaguar Cars, the Kuwait Women’s Leadership Summit and McDonalds. Linda combines her 20-year experience as a professional actress with her education and training in communications and behavioral sciences to deliver entertaining, memorable, power-packed presentations that help people bring the very best versions of themselves to life and work. Author of the best-selling audio program, 12 Steps to High Self-Esteem, and featured in such publications as Investor’s Business Daily, The Chicago Tribune and Opportunity World, Linda is also a popular guest co-host on the ABC-7 Florida television show, The Suncoast View.

Joan Llewelly-Burns

Desi loves to motivate employees by helping them adjust their attitudes to create a positive work environment. Desi has over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, patient advocate, customer service and leadership trainer, and award-winning entertainer. She is also an international speaker with the John Maxwell Team. She is known as “The Attitude Adjuster” and helps employees reduce negativity and stress in the workplace. She is the author of Do You Work with the Living Dead?

Desi Payne

Insightful … humorous … entertaining … even contagious J … words that are often used to describe Rhonda Scharf. A speaker with the uncanny ability to look at the normal and see something quite different.

Rhonda will share some things she has learned to help you thrive in your work environment, emerging at the end of the day with a smile and a sense of accomplishment. Audiences far and wide sing her praises for her relevant and useful tips on administration, communication, and workplace effectiveness!

Rhonda is an author, speaker, trainer, and grandmother! She has earned her Certified Speaking Professional (less than 7% of all speakers worldwide have earned this designation), is a member of the Canadian Speaking Hall of Fame, and is one of only 35 speakers worldwide who have earned their Global Speaking Fellow (meaning she truly has an international business), and been awarded the Spirit of CAPS award. She is the ONLY speaker in the entire world who has earned all four awards. Her peers consider Rhonda a leader in the speaking industry! Her natural warmth and sincerity are balanced by a healthy sense of the absurd, a combination that is useful in any situation.

Rhonda’s professional speaking career began at age two… when her mother would offer her 25 cents to be quiet for five minutes!

Rhonda Scharf

April M. Stallworth is a Respected Leader, Public Speaker, Executive Administrative Professional, and Visionary. She teaches life strategies that transform. She provides group coaching services, training workshops, and speaks before religious and secular organizations. April has worked extensively with high school students, single and teen parents in low-income and under-served regions, and women all of ages and backgrounds. Her teachings are focused on finding your purpose, maintaining work/life balance, overcoming fear, healthy relationships, winning success principles, and practicing good, holistic self-care.

April Stallworth

Michelle Steinwart

Hi, my name is Michelle Steinwart. I began my journey in the field of food and nutrition by studying Culinary Arts at Robert Morris University and that is also where I received my Associate’s Degree. I knew I wanted to focus on nutrition, which then led me to Illinois State University for my bachelor's and Central Michigan University for my master's, both in nutrition and dietetics. After college, I was still trying to figure out where I wanted to work, and in that search stumbled upon Health Coaching. It is still a fairly new sub-category in the nutrition field, but after some research, I discovered that it fit exactly what I had been searching for - working one on one with people to help them live healthier and happier lives.

I completed a 9-month online Health and Life Coach training program through Health Coach Institute and from there began building my business, Steinwart Health & Life Coaching, which officially opened in May of 2020. I have decided to focus on weight loss since that’s one of the most prevalent reasons people seek out a health coach. I also intend to eventually have a specific focus on autoimmune diseases. I personally have been managing my own autoimmune disease, Hashimotos Thyroiditis, which is why I feel comfortable providing diet and lifestyle advice for how to manage diseases like that. I have successfully put myself into near remission through diet and exercise.

Something else I feel worth noting is my involvement in the fitness world. I ran track and cross-country in high school as well as college. I have participated in many 5/10K races over the years and in the past couple of years, I have gotten involved with obstacle course race training. I believe physical activity has played a big roll in my current positive health condition.