Former Raleigh Police Chief

Estella Patterson retired from the Raleigh (NC) Police Department in March 2025, after
serving as the Top Cop for 3 ½ years. Before this appointment she served 25 years with the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg (NC) Police Department, elevating through the ranks from officer to
deputy chief. Chief Patterson served as a member of the North Carolina Executives
Association from 2019-2025, and as president from 2023-2024. Chief Patterson currently
serves as a commissioner for the Commission on Law Enforcement Accreditation (CALEA).

She is also a member of several professional associations, to include the National
Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), the International Association
of Chiefs of Police (IACP), and Police Executive Research Forum (PERF). Chief Patterson
holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, a Master of
Science in Criminal Justice from the University of Oklahoma, and is an alumnus of the FBI
National Academy. Chief Patterson is a woman of faith and serves as the superintendent of
Christian Education department at her church, the ARC Ministries, Inc. in Charlotte, NC

Secretary, North Carolina Department of Military & Veteran Affairs

Jocelyn Mitnaul Mallette is the Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Military and Veteran Affairs. As Secretary, Jocelyn leads the Department in its mission to support the military community in North Carolina, including the active-duty personnel and their families, installations and adjacent communities; and to support the State's Veterans and their families. The Department provides access to a full spectrum of resources that further enhance North Carolina's military and Veteran friendly environment - from collaborative opportunities for business development to access to healthcare.

After graduating from the Air Force Academy, Jocelyn served for ten years in the United States Air Force. After serving as an Admissions Officer at the Air Force Academy, her academic coursework in Arabic helped her secure a mission critical assignment as an intelligence officer, during which she briefed pilots in South Carolina and in Germany. Jocelyn cross-trained into the Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps after graduating from the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Jocelyn served as a prosecutor and general practice attorney in the JAG Corps at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. After her ten years of active-duty military service, Jocelyn started her civilian career as an attorney by clerking for the Honorable Barbara A. Jackson of the North Carolina Supreme Court. Following her clerkship, Jocelyn spent six years at the international law firm of McGuireWoods, where she represented Fortune 500 companies in complex commercial litigation and became partner.

As an active member of her community, Jocelyn currently serves as the Chair of the Advisory Board of the Southeast Raleigh YMCA. She also is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated and the Junior League of Raleigh.

Senior Director, SAS State & Local Government and Education Division 

She leads SAS’s state government and education strategy and drives initiatives that utilize analytics and artificial intelligence to help leaders better use data to make their states the best places to live, learn, work, and thrive. With over 20 years of experience in Government and EdTech, she has successfully delivered multiple projects that bridge the gaps between analysts, practitioners, and policy makers in the public sector. She collaborates with educators, policymakers, and technology experts to enhance governing and citizen services through large scale data, AI, and analytics initiatives.

CEO and Innovator

After nearly 20 years of PsychoGeometrics® being her #1 requested psychometric tool, Susan Hite,
President of the soft-skills training company, Hite Resources, Inc., and creator of Susan’s Train Your
Brain Series™, purchased the PsychoGeometrics communication system (circa 1978, Susan Dellinger,
Ph.D.) in June 2020. Hite now serves as the CEO and Innovator of PsychoGeometrics®.

Susan Hite first learned of PsychoGeometrics as the Science of Behavior and the Art of Communication
at GlaxoSmithKline in RTP where Hite was the keynote speaker on the topic of change in the early
2000’s.

When the UNC School of Journalism graduate and mother of two young children arrived, Hite
discovered a group of employees watching a VHS tape of Dr. Dellinger delivering a keynote on her
five geometric shapes. Shortly thereafter, Hite traveled to meet Dr. Dellinger and became one of
her first licensed PsychoGeometrics consultants and served on her advisory board until Hite purchased the company just months into the pandemic (June 2020)

Since then, Hite has developed and launched a new PsychoGeometrics website featuring the online
Shapes Assessment, the Shapes Online Learning Series, and new content and applications for using
the Shapes Assessment as an onboarding, team building, leadership, and communication tool

Her latest developed curriculum is Shapes for Effective Communication, which features customized
versions, Shapes for Teams, Shapes for Leaders, Shapes for Singles, Shapes for Couples, and Shapes
for Families

A North Carolina native, who previously lived in Cary, then Apex, NC for 25 years and hosted the
Susan Hite Radio Show, Hite now resides in Wilmington, NC, with her husband Marty, and their
two dogs, Bailey, and Airlie, where she loves all things coastal with family and friends

Olympian & Canadian National Champion

Sarah Wells, an Olympian and dynamic keynote speaker, is a leader in the field of cultivating excellence. With more than a decade of competition at the highest level, along with a master’s degree in leadership & innovation from the Smith School of Business, Sarah delivers powerful, research-backed insights that unlock potential both personally and professionally.

Sarah’s philosophy centers on the idea that excellence isn’t about perfection—it’s about breaking free from limiting beliefs and constantly striving to outperform who you were yesterday. She believes that when you dare to break the blueprint, chase crazy ideas, and focus on doing the small things exceptionally well, excellence becomes contagious, elevating not just your life but those around you.

Renowned for her practical strategies and compelling storytelling, Sarah empowers audiences to find their own excellence, transform challenges into opportunities for growth, and achieve lasting success.