Don Shelby
Don Shelby is widely considered the most decorated and honored local television journalist in the country. He has won three national Emmys, the Columbia-duPont, the Scripps-Howard, the National Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists and he has been honored twice with the Pulitzer Prize of broadcasting, the George Foster Peabody.
Don continues his 45 year career in reporting after retiring from daily journalism in November of 2010. He continues to write for MinnPost, on the online daily, and is often read in Salon and dozens of other internet news aggregators.
Don was inducted into the Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2008 and into the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle. He was named the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian of the Year, and honored by B’nai Brith with the Great American Traditions award. In 2010 he was named Distinguished Minnesotan, an honor he shares with other luminaries such as Sigurd Olson and Will Steger.
Don’s reporting has taken him around the globe from Romania to Egypt, Venezuela, Australia and the Arctic Circle. He originated the I-team concept of investigative reporting and served on the board of directors of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), the county’s preeminent investigative journalism organization.
He has served as a war correspondent covering conflicts ranging from the Yom Kippur War in 1973 to the war in Iraq in 2009. Major General Richard Nash, commander of forces in the southern half of Iraq called Don, “…our Ernie Pyle,” referring to the noted combat correspondent of World War II.
Don is the author of The Season Never Ends, a collection of stories about teamwork. It is currently ranked as the #2 best seller in the coaching section of Amazon.com. He is in the middle of writing his second book on the developing failure of American journalism to meet the needs of voting citizens in a democracy.
Don is an avid outdoorsman and primitive survival specialists. He spends much of his free time climbing ice falls, mountains, hiking and canoeing his beloved BWCAW. He has a wife and three grown daughters.
Elizabeth Ries
Elizabeth Ries is a television and radio personality in the Twin Cities. She spent years as a news anchor/reporter, but is now the co-host of Twin Cities Live weekdays at 3 pm on 5 Eyewitness News (KSTP). She chats about pop culture, celebrity gossip and manages to get a few pro-kale statements on the air when she co-hosts the Margery & Elizabeth show on myTalk 107.1. Elizabeth also frequently contributes articles on food and urban farming to Edible Twin Cities magazine.
Elizabeth is an uplifting speaker who inspires attendees and she is an excellent Emcee as well!
Paul Douglas
Paul Douglas is Penn State meteorologist with over 45 years of television and radio experience. A serial entrepreneur, Douglas has launched 7 businesses. Founder and Chief Meteorologist at Praedictix, providing weather services, consulting and briefings for media and corporate interests. Developers and engineers create unique streams of weather data, imagery and API’s for corporations via AerisWeather. The latest science and models are leveraged to provide insight for corporations factoring climate trends into investment, resilience and sustainability via ClimaTrends. Douglas is a member of the Climate Science Rapid Response Team. In 2017 he co-authored a book on climate, focused on matters of faith and science: “Caring for Creation, the Evangelical’s Guide to Climate Change and a Healthy Environment”. A frequent contributor to MSNBC, Douglas was featured in NOVA’s “Decoding the Weather Machine”, Douglas has spent the last 25 years connecting the dots between climate volatility and weather disruption.
Paul uses weather as a metaphor to track the “storms of business”, telling his unique story, and the lessons he’s learned from starting up 6 companies – often the hard way. He is also the perfect Emcee for your next event.