Speakers

Brian A. M. Green is an award-winning event planner with over two decades of transformative experience in the international events industry. As the chief event architect and creative visionary of By BrianGreen LLC (Atlanta) and Crown Events (Barbados), he has pioneered exceptional social and corporate event experiences across four continents.

As a motivational speaker, he emphasizes leading with empathy and the importance of emotional intelligence in transforming leadership.

A distinguished former Diplomat for Barbados, Brian brings a unique international perspective and diplomatic finesse to event design and execution. His expertise garnered national recognition when he was featured as the expert guest on The Steve Harvey Show's annual Wedding Hour, and he has been prominently published in premier industry publications.

Recognized as a thought leader, Brian is a distinguished WeddingPro Educator and Advisor for The Knot/Wedding Wire's Fellowship for Change Program. In 2024, he was nominated for Speaker of the Year at the NACE One Awards.


Committed to advancing industry representation, Brian is the Immediate Past Chairman of the Board for the National Society of Black Wedding & Event Professionals, championing Diversity, Equity, and inclusion initiatives that transform professional landscapes.

Join us for a special celebration of a longtime Rotarian, Bedros Sharian Jr., on the occasion of his 100th birthday. Walt Drake will give a presentation about the history of Sharian Rugs and Mr. Sharian's involvement with Decatur Rotary over the years.

Edie Weintraub is the founder of Terra Alma, a community-centric commercial real estate collective. She transforms empty storefronts into thriving community anchors. As a retail real estate strategist, food and beverage curator, and relentless champion for walkable places, she helps brands scale from pop-up to anchor tenant, developers craft magnetic tenant mixes, and cities activate overlooked spaces for lasting economic and cultural impact. A Globe St. influencer and CREI Top Woman in Real Estate, she brings more than  20 years of hospitality and placemaking expertise to stages nationwide, sharing proven strategies that create places people can’t wait to come back to.

In his position as the inaugural James T. and Berta R. Laney Chair in Moral Leadership at Emory’s Candler School of Theology, The Rev. Dr. Robert M. Franklin Jr. challenges students to explore the concept of moral leadership in the 21st century in different cultures and contexts in the United States and around the world. Franklin is a former Presidential Distinguished Professor of Social Ethics and a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion, both at Emory, and was also the founding director of Candler’s Black Church Studies program from 1989 to 1995.

In addition to his role at Candler, which he began in 2014, Franklin is a senior advisor to the Emory University president. He was director of the religion department at The Chautauqua Institution from 2014 to 2017, president of Morehouse College from 2007 to 2012, and president of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta from 1997 to 2002. In 2016, Franklin was named to the Human Rights Campaign’s project council on expanding LGBTQ equality and inclusion efforts at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He is on the board of Demos and on the Council of Past HBCU Presidents, and a member of several professional organizations, including the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics.

One of the nation’s foremost public theologians, Franklin has authored four books: Moral Leadership: Integrity, Courage, Imagination (Orbis, 2020); Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities (Fortress, 2007); Another Day’s Journey: Black Churches Confronting the American Crisis (Fortress, 1997); and Liberating Visions: Human Fulfillment and Social Justice in African American Thought (Fortress, 1990). He co-authored From Culture Wars to Common Ground: Religion and the American Family Debate (Westminster John Knox, 2001). He also penned the foreword to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, reprinted by Trinity Forum in 2012.

Franklin is an ordained minister in both the American Baptist Churches USA and the Church of God in Christ.