Speakers

Dawanna S. Witt was elected as the Hennepin County Sheriff on November 8, 2022 and she was sworn in on January 3, 2023. She is the first woman and person of color to hold the office.

Born in Chicago and raised in Minneapolis, Sheriff Witt became a mother at 15 but nevertheless excelled at school. She earned several scholarships to college, including the Justice Alan Page Scholarship. As a condition of that scholarship, she volunteered in several community organizations in various roles and saw firsthand how her actions could make a positive difference in the lives of young people. Her passion for working with kids remains to this day.

In college, Sheriff Witt studied chemical dependency and family therapy and her first jobs were in the nonprofit field. When she heard that the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office was looking for female detention deputies, specifically women of color, she decided to apply, and was hired in 2000. Working as a detention deputy opened her eyes to the people and possibilities in law enforcement.

In 2004, after returning to school to become a licensed peace officer, Sheriff Witt was hired by the Dakota County Sheriff's Office. During her career at Dakota County, she worked in a variety of roles, including bailiff, transport, school resource officer, detective, crisis negotiator, recruitment coordinator, diversity and inclusion coordinator, and more. Ultimately, she became the first woman in the agency’s history to reach the rank of captain. Through it all, she focused on reaching out to young people and communities that have historically had poor relationships with the police. During her time as a school resource officer, working with children with mental health and behavioral difficulties, the school experienced a noticeable drop in kids entering the juvenile justice system.

While working at Dakota County, Sheriff Witt earned a police science degree, and then a dual master's degrees in public safety administration and management, which included an internship with the Northamptonshire Police in the UK.

Sheriff Witt returned to the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office in September 2019 to take charge of the agency’s largest bureau, Adult Detention and Court Services. In her role as a major, she oversaw court security for two of the most high-profile trials in modern history. She also dealt successfully with the pandemic in Minnesota’s largest jail, leading the development of new protocols to help limit institutional and community spread of COVID-19.

In 2022, Hennepin County voters overwhelming selected her to be the next Hennepin County Sheriff. She campaigned on her years of experience and a platform of safer communities, improved law enforcement recruitment and retention, reform, collaboration, and transparency.

Sheriff Witt is the Vice Chair of the North Central High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) and the Region three representative of the Major County Sheriffs of America. Sheriff Witt serves seasonally as a Minnesota State Fair Police Officer and is a board member of the MN Crisis Intervention Team, MN 100 Club, Northern Star Scouting, the Boys & Girls Club – Twin Cities, and Secretary of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement – Northstar Chapter. She also serves on the MN Youth Intervention Working Group, Jewish Community Relations Council Steering Committee, and the Major County Sheriffs of America (MCSA) Nomination and Award Committee, which recognizes outstanding employees and units from MCSA member Sheriff’s Offices. Sheriff Witt has served on advisory panels including the State of Minnesota Legislative Task Force on Child Protection and the State of Minnesota Task Force on Law Enforcement Education Reform.

Sheriff Witt also works as an adjunct professor at Inver Hills Community College, teaching Juvenile Justice and American Corrections.

Sheriff Witt is married with two adult daughters and three grandchildren.

Tyler Williams enters his fourth season with the Minnesota Vikings and third as vice president of player health and performance in 2025.

Introduced as the executive director of player health and performance in 2022, he helped the Vikings achieve a 34-17 (.667) regular-season record over the past three seasons (2022-24), including a 14-3 mark and playoff appearance in 2024, the second-most wins in team history. The team's nine-game win streak from Week 9 to Week 17 tied the third-longest win streak in club history.

In 2022, his first season in Minnesota, Williams was a key element in the Vikings winning the NFC North for the first time since 2017 and tying for the third-most wins (13) in a single season in team history.

Under Williams' leadership, Minnesota's training staff received a resounding stamp of approval when the NFL Players Association released the results of its "free agency report cards" for all 32 teams during the 2025 offseason. The Vikings training staff, which earned an "A", ranked second out of 32 teams, as the report cited "94% of Vikings players report that they receive enough one-on-one training treatment" and "the players feel that their training staff significantly contributes to their overall success."

Prior to joining the Vikings, Williams spent 15 seasons with the Rams in both St. Louis and Los Angeles, serving as the team's director of sports science/assistant athletic trainer during their Super Bowl LVI victory.

Williams, who worked with Head Coach Kevin O'Connell from 2020-21, was named the NFC recipient of the Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society's (PFATS) Tim Davey Assistant Athletic Trainer of the Year after the 2020 season. Named after longtime New York Jets assistant athletic trainer and team/NFL game operations employee Tim Davey, the award is "emblematic of the commitment, dedication and high level of integrity that Davey brought to the profession of athletic training and is representative of his level of service which he dedicated to his surrounding community."

In 2015, Williams was a member of the Rams athletic training staff that won PFATS' Ed Block NFL Athletic Training Staff of the Year, an award that is voted on by the PFATS membership and recognizes one NFL athletic training staff annually for their distinguished service to their club, community, and athletic training profession.

Besides his involvement in PFATS and serving as their foundation president since 2021, Williams is also a member of the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA), certified in Functional Movement Screen (FMS-C) and Chairs the Sports Science Task Force on the NFL Research and Innovation Committee.

Prior to joining the Rams in 2007, Williams was the assistant athletic trainer at Fontbonne University in St. Louis from 2006-07. Williams holds a master's degree from California University of Pennsylvania, earning a performance enhancement specialist certification. He completed his bachelor's degree in exercise science with an emphasis in athletic training at Truman State. He and his wife, Katie, have a daughter.

 

Daniel Green, Internationally known Chef, Host, International Television Personality and Award Winning Author is a Healthy Eating Expert and world renowned Television Celebrity Cook in England, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai and the USA.

In addition to being an expert in the culinary world, he is a nationally known host/personality on ShopHQ as he has been selling multiple products LIVE for the past 18 years achieving prime time host status and securing over a billion dollars in sales.