Speakers
2025 SPEAKER LINEUP
This distinguished group, recognized as trailblazers, innovators, and leaders across a range of disciplines, contribute valuable perspectives and extensive expertise. Through the sharing of their stories, strategies, and insights, they will embody the theme of Turning Vision into Action: Stories and Strategies for Impact, inspiring summit attendees to translate their own aspirations into meaningful change within their communities and professions.
Jennifer Huffman - opening keynote
Jennifer Huffman is an accomplished American businesswoman and the Senior Vice President of Solutions Banking at Atlantic Union Bank, the largest regional bank in Virginia. With a strong focus on delivering financial wellness solutions, she is committed to empowering employees to build financial confidence through workplace financial benefits.
Recognized as a "POWER BROKER," Jennifer's influence extends beyond banking; she is a highly sought-after speaker and a thought leader in her field. Her accolades include being named one of the "Top 20 under 40" by Lynchburg Business Magazine in 2022, receiving the 2023 Emerging Leader Award from the American Bankers Association, and being honored as the “Citizen of the Year” by the Salem Roanoke Chamber of Commerce in 2024, among other distinctions.
Jennifer actively contributes to her community and the banking industry through various leadership roles, including Program Chair for Atlantic Union Bank's Women’s Inclusion Network, Board Chair for HumanKind, and Board Member for Goodwill Industries of the Valleys.
Through her involvement in multiple executive boards, including the Virginia Centers of Inclusive Communities and the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance, as well as her role as President of the Virginia Bankers School Class of 2026, Jennifer is dedicated to fostering the next generation of leaders and making a significant impact both locally and nationally.
Cathie Vick - closing keynote
Cathie J. Vick assumed the role of President and Chief Executive Officer of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce on April 1, 2025. Before joining the Chamber, Cathie served as Vice President of Corporate and Government Affairs at Transurban, one of the world’s leading toll-road operators. Prior to that, she served as Chief Development and Public Affairs Officer for the Port of Virginia – one of the nation’s largest ports – for a decade.
Cathie takes an active role in political and civic life. She serves on various boards, such as the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, TowneBank Virginia Beach, and Virginia Clean Cities, among others. Cathie was named as one of the region’s Top 40 under 40 in 2005, Top Women in Business in 2010, was awarded the Julian Hirst Alumni Leader Award by Lead Hampton Roads in 2014, received a Virginia Business Women in Leadership Award in 2022, was named the Women’s Transportation Seminar Hampton Roads Woman of the Year in 2022, and was named the Women’s Transportation Seminar Central Chapter Woman of the Year in 2023.
Vick holds bachelor’s degrees, magna cum laude, in both communications and political science from James Madison University; a juris doctor, with honors, from Georgia State University College of Law; and a master’s degree in business administration, with honors, from William & Mary Raymond A. Mason School of Business.
Thank you to our 2025 Keynote Speaker sponsor, Letterpress Communications!
2024 HOKIE HIGHLIGHT
Victoria Persinger Ferguson
Persinger Ferguson is an enrolled citizen of the Monacan Indian Nation of Virginia and is a graduate of Marshall University. Ferguson has a background in researching science methodologies to support historical information. She has spent 30 years seeking first-person documentation and archaeological information to help explain and support theories on the daily living habits of the Eastern Siouan populations up through the early European colonization period which includes building historic structures from the woodland period. She has written and presented work at various universities and is a proponent of protecting and preserving her Indigenous history and culture. She currently serves as program director for Solitude on the campus of Virginia Tech.
Mikaela David-John
David-John serves as an associate director of the Student Opportunities and Achievement Resources (SOAR) program at Virginia Tech. David-John was born and raised in Syracuse, New York. Mikaela completed her undergraduate degree at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Advertising and Public Relations and holds a master’s degree in Family, Youth and Community Sciences with a concentration in Nonprofit Organizational Development from the University of Florida (UF). In the fall of 2024, she will officially start in the Ph.D. program in Higher Education at Virginia Tech. David-John is a co-founder and now a co-advisor of the UF student chapter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES). At Virginia Tech, David-John serves as co-advisor for the Hokie chapter of AISES.
Mackenzie Locklear
Locklear is from Virginia Beach, Virginia, and is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. She is a junior at Virginia Tech majoring in Environmental Science with minors in Wetland Science and American Indian Studies. Inspired by a tour of her tribal lands in high school, Locklear decided to pursue this major with hopes to work with her tribal government upon graduation. Locklear is the current president of the Virginia Tech chapter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) and the current vice president of Native@VT, a cultural and social organization at Virginia Tech dedicated to advancing the visibility of Native American and Indigenous peoples on campus. She has assisted with the planning and coordination of the 2023 and 2024 Powwows at Virginia Tech.