Speaker Bios
2:00 pm - The Misplaced Hero: When “Woke” Goes Wrong
Sam Obeid, Moderator, Inclusivity
Sam(ira) Obeid is the Founder/CEO of Samira Obeid LLC, a performance and education endeavor that uses poetry, theory, and experience to engage people in conversations about humanity and resistance. Formerly, Sam served as Program Director of Community Tampa Bay, an anti-discrimination organization whose vision is a community free from discrimination. While at Community Tampa Bay, Sam found her calling in life - working to remove barriers so young humans can lead through truth and power, not tomorrow but today. Her skillset lies in creating a curriculum that challenges every binary, structure, system, and power, managing a team through a culture of circular leadership, and using her lived experience to explore conversations around collective accountability that centers action over empathy.
In her personal life, Sam loves to hike with her canine offspring, Sherlock. She takes every opportunity to travel, cook and train in hand-to-hand combat.
Matt Armstrong, Panelist, Director of Planning & Development, St. Pete Distillery
Matt is a Colorado native who married into Florida, his phenomenal wife from right here in the Tampa Bay area. Having lived from the west coast to the east coast, mountains to the shore, big cities to small towns, we’ve found a home in Tampa Bay and the warmth of St. Petersburg.
That same warmth and strong community brought us the opportunity to be involved in building something with St Petersburg Distillery from the ground up – doing it right, believing in the difference it will make – and of course, having a crazy fun time along the way!
Trained as an architect and urban planner, Matt worked for the past 20 years on projects for NASA at Kennedy Space Center, the U.S. Air Force in Japan, Korea, and Colorado, large-scale community master planning, hospitals, schools, commercial projects, land use policy and regulation both for the private and public sectors. He cares about the community and believes that our greatest strength and cause must be how we treat others – respecting individuals, listening, and learning. We are building something here in St. Petersburg based on these foundations.
Mo Cowan, Panelist, Chief Legal & External Affairs Officer, Devoted Health, Inc.
U.S. Senator William “Mo" Cowan (retired) serves as Chief Legal and External Affairs Officer for
Devoted Health, Inc. A member of Devoted Health’s executive leadership team, Mo is
responsible for all legal, corporate governance, regulatory, and public affairs functions for this
next generation, tech-enabled, vertically integrated payor and provider of healthcare services.
Before joining the Devoted team, Mo led global government affairs and policy; and, previously
global litigation for General Electric Co. Earlier in his career, Mo was a partner at a national law
firm and served as chief executive officer of a government relations consulting firm.
In 2013, Mo served as the interim U.S. Senator representing Massachusetts. From 2009-2013, Mo held senior leadership roles – Chief Legal Counsel, Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor – in the
administration of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick
Mo serves on governance and advisory boards for several nationally recognized institutions
including the Massachusetts General Hospital, Duke University, Goldfinch Bio, Edward M.
Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, Eastern Bank Corporation, MassChallenge,
Stackwell Capital, and Mass General Brigham.
Mo is a graduate of Duke University and Northeastern University School of Law. He holds
honorary degrees from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business,
Bridgewater State College and Newbury College.
Jennifer Yeagley, Panelist, CEO, St. Pete Free Clinic
Jennifer (Jenn) Yeagley, M.A., is the CEO of the St. Petersburg Free Clinic, having joined the organization in March 2020. Before stepping into this role, she was Vice President for Administrative & Strategic Operations for Gulf Coast Jewish Family & Community Services.
Jenn currently serves as a founding Board member for the Plus Projec+, a foundation focused on funding organizations serving individuals who are LGBTQ+, and on the Stewardship Committee for Bon Secours Mercy Health Foundation.
She was recognized with a 2016 Florida Diversity Council LGBT Ally Award, was a recipient of Community Tampa Bay’s 2020 Silver Medallion Award for her work in promoting inclusion and equity, and was profiled by the Tampa Bay Business Journal as one of "52 Tampa Bay executives who should be on your virtual meeting calendar."
Jenn has a Master’s degree in Literature from Texas State University and is a graduate of the Leadership Tampa class of 2018. A transplant from California, Jenn lives in St. Petersburg with her husband and young son.
