LIFE Lectures & Talks

Mary Zheng ’15, recently a fan favorite on Survivor 48, is a substance abuse counselor, social worker, therapist, artist, and adventurer! In this presentation, Mary will encourage you to be delusional and take a chance! She’ll show you how doing has been better than planning, and she’ll convince you of the need to romanticize the struggle. Mary will share her mantra that “Everything is a win when the goal is experience.” She’ll base all these lessons to both her experience on Survivor and the rest of her life. Q&A will follow. Come meet Grinnell’s Survivor!

Mary Zheng ’15, recently a fan favorite on Survivor 48, is a substance abuse counselor, social worker, therapist, artist, and adventurer! Mary will help you see that you don’t always need to know what you’re doing or where you’re going because sometimes, the plan is that there is no plan. By sharing both her experiences during Grinnell and after (including that time she couch-surfed abroad for almost a year because she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life), she’ll show you that in order to figure out what you want, sometimes you need to figure out who you are first.

From the bestselling author of The Hidden Agenda and the mind behind Mastercard’s iconic ‘Priceless’ campaign comes an engaging perspective on the role of emotional intelligence in storytelling. Kevin Allen takes us on a journey from humanity’s first stories painted on cave walls to the split-second narratives that dominate social media today. Drawing on decades of experience in branding, psychology, and narrative design, this talk reveals how empathy, authenticity, and emotional resonance are the timeless forces that drive influence — in classrooms, communities, and culture at large. Walk away with fresh insight into how to craft stories that don’t just inform, but truly connect.

The Sweet Feminist, a.k.a Becca Rea-Tucker ‘ 15, is an author, baker, and abortion rights advocate who has gathered an online following by creating spaces where people who have abortions feel supported. Her second book will be available fall 2025. Becca will share how she built her personal brand and recount the challenges and joys of getting to where she is now.

This public lecture explores how art can be utilized as a tool to build community and collective power. The conversation will expand on the collaborations in their artistic practice and community organizing with the fronteristxs, a collective of artists and writers fighting for migrant justice and the abolition of the prison industrial complex across the Southwest region. 

In this conversation, hazel batrezchavez shares their experience before, during, and after Grinnell College. Recounting their experience navigating college as a first-generation individual, understanding and overcoming imposter syndrome, applying to graduate school, and building a collaborative network that came to ground their identity as an artist, educator, and community organizer. 

A Rhodes Scholar, David White ’90 is a graduate of Grinnell College and Stanford Law School. His accomplished career includes being the CEO of the Screen Actors Guild, the Chair of a Federal Reserve Bank, and a former Chair of Grinnell College trustees. White currently runs his own executive leadership consulting firm. His convocation will challenge us to expand our ideas about “fighting the world’s fight,” and how to employ our liberal education to positively impact business and society.

David White ’90 is a Rhodes scholar and after Grinnell graduated from Stanford Law School and Oxford University (Queens College). White is the immediate past national executive director and chief negotiator of Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and continues to serve as a strategic advisor to the world’s largest entertainment and media union. He is a Life Trustee and former Chair of our Board of Trustees. Currently, White is a strategy and leadership consultant. He will talk to Tutorial students about embracing challenges, and he is excited to share how his liberal arts education empowered him to face challenges in a variety of roles in the for-profit and non-profit sectors.

Deqa has worked for some of the biggest multilateral organizations and ran small grassroots-level enterprises, where she learned life-changing insights about how to forge an impact-driven career. She wants to share how Grinnell College’s resources and community influenced the trajectory of her career, helped her grapple with complex questions about “positive change”, and made her believe that being an agent of change is bringing your authentic self to the community.

What leadership skills do you already possess? What leadership skills do you need to develop? Hurson will show you how to conduct an intuitive analysis of almost any problem or opportunity you face. Tim Hurson is an innovative thought leader/educator and author of Think Better: An Innovator’s Guide to Productive Thinking (McGraw Hill 2007).

Learn to apply important skills to turn almost any adversity into success, moving from a reactive mindset to a creative mindset that leverages the elements of adversity and turns them into advantages. Tim Hurson is an innovative thought leader/educator and author of Think Better: An Innovator’s Guide to Productive Thinking (McGraw Hill 2007).