Summit Keynote Speakers
Keynote speakers information will be posted as we get closer to the event.
We look forward to seeing them and YOU on Saturday, December 5, 2026, at Napa County Health and Human Services Agency Conference Center.
Michael Liao
Biography
Biography
Biography
Michael is a dynamic speaker, educator, social worker, and mental health advocate who has spent more than 25 years working alongside young people and helping them recognize the power of their own stories.
Through humor, honesty, and real-life experiences, Michael creates conversations about mental health, identity, belonging, substance use prevention, and what it means to show up as your authentic self. As an immigrant, Asian American, queer man, and someone with lived experience navigating mental health challenges, Michael brings together the many parts of his identy to share stories that are relatable, meaningful, and real.
At the heart of Michael's work is a belief in the strength, creativity, and potential of young people. He encourages youth to embrace who they are, find their voice, build connections, and recognize that their experiences can become a source of strength - not only for themselves, but for their communities.
Sarah Lopez
Biography
Biography
Biography
What happens when the world decides who you are before you've had a chance to discover it for yourself?
For author, professional speaker, and award-winning communications strategist Sarah Lopez, that question is deeply personal.
Raised by a con artist who recruited his children into elaborate schemes, Sarah moved nearly 30 times before age eleven, helped sell more than $250,000 in candy for fraudulent causes alongside six other children, and didn't enter public school until seventh grade. Her childhood was anything but ordinary, but it would not determine the person she would become.
Sarah went on to become a first-generation college graduate from San José State University, earning scholarships along the way and building a successful career in communications, public relations, and education. As Director of Communications and Community Engagement for Dublin Unified School District, she advised school superintendents, navigated complex crises, and helped strengthen relationships between schools, students, families, and communities. Her work has earned ten California School Public Relations Association awards and national recognition.
A professional speaker since 2008, Sarah has addressed students, educators, and professional audiences on leadership, resilience, communication, and the power of challenging assumptions. She is also the author of the newly released memoir I Chose to Be Here: Loyalty, Lies, and Leaving the Con, which chronicles her extraordinary childhood and her journey toward reclaiming her own story.
Having spent approximately 17 years living in Solano County, Sarah is especially excited to return to a community that played an important role in her life.
At the Solano Youth Resiliency Summit, Sarah will deliver Don't Write My Story for Me: Youth Voice, Identity, and the Power to Be Heard, an interactive keynote that challenges stereotypes, explores the assumptions we make about others, and empowers young people to recognize the value of their experiences and perspectives.
Through candid storytelling, humor, and audience participation, Sarah encourages students to question the labels they've been given, speak up for themselves and others, and recognize that no one else gets to decide the story of who they will become.
