Robert Killen is the executive director of the City Club of Central Oregon.  In this role he creates opportunity for communities to come together and share vibrant discussion on meaningful and, at times, divisive topics.  He has an extraordinarily broad range of professional experience in fields as diverse as finance and fine art, military service and music composition.  No matter the arena, he attributes his many successes throughout all fields to “authentic and compassionate communication.”

Beginning more than two decades ago with his music studies, Killen has diligently studied the many varied ways we tell stories and how those stories relate to the human experience.  Beginning in 2005 he began studying Appreciative Inquiry and Narrative Psychology and has turned his attention to the power words have to both connect and divide.  Killen is a highly accomplished speaker, an award-winning storyteller and a passionate advocate for constructive dialog.

Killen lives in Bend, OR with his wife and three boys.  He is an insatiable student, an artist, a writer and fly fisher (when he finds the time).

Stephen Abram, MLS, is Past-President 2008 of SLA and the past-President of the Ontario (2002) and Canadian Library Associations (2004/5). He received the 2011 CLA Outstanding Service to Librarianship Award in June.

He is the Vice President for Strategic Partnerships and Markets for Cengage Learning (Gale). He was Vice President Innovation for SirsiDynix and Chief Strategist for the SirsiDynix Institute. He was Publisher Electronic Information at Thomson after managing several libraries. Stephen was awarded the AIIP 2010 Roger Summit Award. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Information where he received the 2011 Outstanding Teaching Award from the iSchool Institute. Stephen was listed by Library Journal as one of the top 50 people influencing the future of libraries.

He has received numerous honours and speaks regularly internationally. His columns appear in Information Outlook and Internet @Schools. He is the author of ALA Editions' bestselling Out Front with Stephen Abram. His blog, Stephen's Lighthouse, is a popular blog in the library sector.