The Leader in Residence Speaker Series is designed to engage Centennial Center alumni with current HWS students, and to use the trajectory of each speaker’s career as a model for how to leverage the Leadership Certificate degree.
Leaders in Residence are invited to spend two days on campus where they will have the opportunity to present to students in an intimate group setting, as well as in one-on-one sessions. Speakers will present on a range of topics including but not limited to building your brand, leading across cultures, growing community, as well as leading high-performing and affective teams. The following morning, speakers will meet one-on-one with approximately 10 students who have demonstrated exemplary leadership skills in various settings.
With this program we aim to foster meaningful engagement across our remarkable alumni community.
Spring 2026 speakers
Megan Soule ‘15 is the Founding Head of Product at GovSkills, where she is building the company's vision, strategy, and market fit in the civic tech space. Under her leadership, GovSkills successfully closed its pre-seed funding round and is on track for a new product launch in Q1 2026.Previously, Megan served as VP of Product Operations at Sayari, a risk intelligence company, where she joined early stage and helped scale the organization through the launch of three new SaaS products and contributed to successful Series B, C, and D funding rounds. Earlier in her career, Megan led design teams at Fjord (Accenture) on federal government projects and worked as a Visual Designer at the U.S. Department of State. Megan holds dual master's degrees from Syracuse University in Public Relations and International Relations, and earned her B.A. in Public Policy from Hobart and William Smith in 2015.
Mac Benson '18 is an Emmy-winning Associate Producer for ESPN. Joining the company after graduation in 2018 as a production assistant, he focuses mainly on college football, golf, college basketball and augmented-reality/animated (Toy Story, Simpsons, Monsters, Inc. Funday Football, Dunk the Halls, Big City Greens Classic) live event productions. Day-to-day tasks include producing graphics, conceptualizing segment ideas, writing scripts/lead-ins, producing highlights, promos, essays, thematics, features, interviews/sound-full elements, working directly with talent to craft specialized segments, graphics, “telestrations,” and engaging content for both television and social media. He is the lead tape producer for the main broadcast of the PGA Championship, working in conjunction with CBS Sports, and the lead graphics producer for The Masters Par 3 Contest, tape producer for “SportsCenter at The Masters.” In 2024, Mac was the graphics producer for the Australian Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open. He oversaw the complete redesign of the graphic look and development for boxing on ESPN in 2023, working with the show’s producers and graphics support team. Previously, he spent 2+ years on the studio side working on everything from SportsCenter to volleyball shows.
Mac has also been a volunteer firefighter since he was 16, completing New York State's "Firefighter-1" 86 hour course in 2014 to be fully certified as an interior fireman. Mac has served in multiple departments, including the Geneva Fire Department (Nester Hose Company) during his time at HWS. He most recently was awarded the 2025 Chief's Award for "outstanding service and dedication to the West Harrison Fire Department."
Sara Kittle '13 is the Founder and CEO of One Bead, a non-profit that is building pathways to post-secondary success for Boston Public School students. The name “One Bead” stems from an experience founder, Sara Kittle, had in college, collaborating with a Kenyan artisan to raise money for students in Nairobi through the sale of recycled glass beads. The experience sparked Sara’s passion for entrepreneurship. After college, she moved to Boston and created an after-school program that gave students a similar opportunity to explore their interests, meet local leaders, and practice skills that might not be exercised in a traditional classroom setting. Over time, the program evolved, but Sara kept the name “One Bead”—symbolic of both the organization’s origins and the idea that one meaningful experience can transform a young person’s sense of what’s possible.
Today, Sara is focused on scaling One Bead’s impact by embedding culturally affirming, career-connected learning into the middle grade experience citywide. One Bead’s work has been recognized by local media outlets, including the Boston Business Journal and WBZ Boston, as well as larger institutional and philanthropic partners.
