ORGANIZING TEAM
Meet The Team
Our Executive Team was hand selected to curate a memorable event. Combining their professional talents and experience with their love of the Magic City, learn more about each member.
D'Vaughn Hayes
Licensee | Sponsorship Director
D’Vaughn Hayes is a man born and raised in Billings who is passionate about his community. As the TEDxBillings Licensee/Curator, he has revived the event and influential platform locally to help to raise others up.
He is the Commercial Sales Director for a national company and Chief Influence Officer of his own brand. He chooses to surround himself with people who have passion for serving others while helping them develop their own talents. In his free time, D’Vaughn serves as Chair of the Billings NextGEN Leadership Team, as a member of the Board of Directors for United Way of Yellowstone County and coaches his children’s sports teams.
When you ask him, “Why revive TEDxBillings?” His answer is:
“Billings may have had a reputation as that scrappy industrial town in the south-central part of Montana. However, there’s an undercurrent of momentum that is shifting, building, and changing Billings – not just the town but it’s people too.” By bringing TEDx to Billings, he aims to harness that momentum and energy, draw out those incredible thinkers in our city, and provide a platform to share their ideas with the community, the country, and the world.
TEDxBillings is a conduit of ideas to stimulate connection, foster community, and ultimately grow the economy while shining a spotlight on the great things we have going on here.
Everyone out there has a powerful imagination.
Everyone has a big dream that is tucked away inside them.
Being a part of the TEDxBillings community is how we find the inspiration to organize them into Ideas Worth Sharing. Because when ideas are shared, that’s when innovation and exploration can happen.
With an eye for details and a lifelong learner, Janese Carstens is dedicated to serving the Billings community as our Executive Producer and Operations Manager.
Janese combines her love of creativity, theater, and education with organizing spreadsheets and schedules. We’re not sure how they exist within the same person but we’re grateful they do as she keeps the processes on task, on budget, and on time.
Even though her extended family has lived in Billings for most of her life and she grew up as a farmer’s daughter in North Dakota, she has had the opportunity to live in multiple US coastal cities, Asia and Australia. And just like a boomerang, she keeps being drawn back to Billings. She has worked in adult education within multiple local industries – healthcare, higher education, nonprofits, and international communications. The opportunities in Billings are as vast as the big sky that surrounds it and bringing the world to Billings through a TEDx event interweaves her life experience thus far together.
Janese Carstens
Executive Producer | Operations Director
Ryann Reeves
Marketing & Communications Director
Combining her professional talents and experience with her love of community, Ryann has joined the TEDxBillings team as our Marketing Director!
Ryann works at Kinetic Marketing & Creative as a Digital Marketing Manager. She has a strong foundation and impressive experience in SEO, email marketing, and website optimization while at the same time having a real eye for design. Ryann also has served on a Mission trip to Manitoba Canada for the past 11 years. When she is outside the office you can find her baking, spending time with her family and friends, and traveling!
She thrives in helping others put their best foot forward and hopes to encourage and bring awareness to the TEDxBillings community while helping to spark conversations in the Billings area.
Sandra’s goal is to see a world in which people are able to confidently use their unique voice, follow their dreams, embrace and monetize their passions and find a way to understand exactly what a toddler is trying to tell you.
As a digital marketer with years of experience, Sandra has worked with 1,000’s of small business owners, trained in high ticket consulting groups, spoken at multiple events including TedX, been featured in two documentaries, ran a top rated Podcast (Binding Authority) all while being a wife and keeping the worlds cutest six year old entertained, happy and from falling off of tall things he climbs.
Sandra is extremely passionate about helping people solve problems they are having in business. She has been described as being “a bit too much” or “a busy body” and voted “most eager to please” by her High School Senior Class. Sandra took these labels and turned into being famous for being a power connector and helping small business owners fix advertising and marketing issues. Known as the “Queen Bee Of Organic Social Media Marketing” Sandra is passionate about teaching small business owners to build their own personal brand. She also runs a group consulting course where she focuses on coaching and helping small business owners build smart marketing plans!
Sandra Gebhardt
Social Media creator
Neil Beyer
Event Manager
Neil Beyer is a REALTOR® and business owner of ELEPHAS Real Estate Group and ELEPHAS Property Management. He is an active member of the Billings community, serving as President of the Billings West End Exchange Club, Co-Chair of the MSU Billings Foundation Wine & Food Festival, Chair of the Family Promise Beach Blizzard Fundraiser, Board Member for Family Promise Yellowstone Valley, Board Member for United Campus Ministries at MSU Billings, and Board Member for Chinook Horses.
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication from San Diego State University and a Master’s in Education from the University of Montana. Neil is happily married to his best friend and biggest supporter, and together they have two amazing young children. In his free time, he enjoys mountain biking, working out, traveling, and connecting with people from all walks of life.
Known for being a volunteer superstar, Akvilina Rieger loves a Billings community event and she’s the perfect person to be the Salon Event Coordinator.
Akvilina is a strong supporter of the Billings community. Whether it’s through her position as Marketing Executive for CB1 Inc. or as a contributor to Simply Billings magazine, Akvilina loves being part of what makes Billings great – its people. Although she is originally from Lithuania, Billings has been home ever since she came here through an International Business scholarship.
As a strong believer in bettering lives as a community, Akvilina has been hosting people and parties in Billings for the past 20 years. She is a member of the Junior League of Billings and the founder of the “United Nations of Billings” which is a gathering of women who are from around the world who all call Billings their home. When she’s not involved with events in Billings, she is an avid international traveler with her family and speaks at conferences covering subjects such as healthy finances and living the American dream.
Akvilina Rieger
Salon Events Coordinator
Cathy Cullen-Kuhr
Volunteer Director
A community champion, Cathy contributes her vast experience and connections in fundraising for local charity events to the team.
An SEO and tech whiz, Gary is an expert in all things internet based, designing our website and devoting his skills to grow our brand online.
Gary Carson
Website Manager
Scott Sery
Copywriter & Fact checker
We’ve got to give Scott a chance to write all the new words for the website. Check back to see what he has to say. Scott does good words. You will be impressed.
Sarah Gunn was born and raised in Billings, MT. She attended Billings Central Catholic High School, graduating in 2013. After high school, Sarah pursued higher education at MSU-Billings, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management with minors in Accounting and Finance, driven by a love for numbers. Upon graduating, she began her career as an Administrative Assistant at Avitus Group, where she gained invaluable experience and eagerly embraced every challenge along the way. Sarah is currently employed as a Sales Operations Manager at Vensure Employer Solutions (formerly Avitus Group).
Over the last few years, Sarah has been actively involved in Billings NextGEN and currently serves as the President of the Alumni Advisory Committee through the MSUB Foundation. Additionally, she teaches group fitness classes at Granite Health & Fitness, where she has had the opportunity to meet and work with many amazing and strong individuals.
Outside of work and fitness classes, Sarah enjoys spending time with her family. She is incredibly grateful for her wonderful husband, parents, brother, and, of course, her dog, Clark. 😊
Sarah Gunn
Logistics Manager
MIchelle Williams & Karen Baumgart-Miller
Masters of Ceremonies
When it comes to guiding a TEDx audience through a day of big ideas and bold conversations, Michelle Williams and Karen Miller are the perfect duo to light up the stage.
Michelle brings a powerhouse background in strategy, communications, and brand management, sharpened through years leading creative initiatives at AD Creative Group and now at the historic Billings Depot. Since arriving in Billings in 2009, she’s made it her mission to blend preservation with innovation — launching new community spaces, educational events, and experiential gatherings that bring people together in unforgettable ways.
Karen is equally passionate about sparking great conversations. As a partner at Kaleidoscope Group, she’s a master of Strategic Advancement, Conversation Design, and Facilitation Services. Armed with a love for neuroscience, a certification in brain-based coaching, and years of experience guiding groups like the City of Billings, St. John’s United, and the Billings Symphony, Karen knows exactly how to get people thinking (and laughing) together.
Together, Michelle and Karen are your spirited guides for the day — blending insight, humor, and heart to keep the energy high and the conversations flowing. Get ready for a TEDx experience that’s as vibrant as the ideas on stage!
Niko Cordero Gallegos & Kayla Cordero
You will be hard pressed to find another couple who are this fun, expressive and passionate about what they do together as a team. They are an explosion of joy! We love having them as our event photography team.
Niko was born in Ecuador and moved to America when he was 15. Before he met his fun loving wife, he knew from his first photography class in high school that photography was what he was born to do and since then he hasn’t put his camera down. As a soccer fanatic, he loves to annoy his wife by watching soccer highlights and pretending to commentate them…so the recent World Cup tournament was fun for her!
Kayla started doing photography about 4 years ago when she met her husband! Everything she knows in the photography world is because of him, and now it’s her passion in life too! Another huge passion of hers is to be a huge cheerleader in all women’s lives, by helping them on their journey of empowerment. Life is just too short to not love who you are…there is only one you, so love who you are!
Together, they are a memory-makin’, taco-lovin’, family-focused, music-jammin’, fun loving couple that makes the TEDxBillings team better by capturing impactful moments in the Billings community through their lens.
