Speaker · Strategist · Innovator

Takkeem
Morgan

Senior Communications Executive · Board Member, Foster America · 2026 Outstanding Alumni, Penn State College of the Liberal Arts

Takkeem Morgan speaking at the podium

A communications leader translating lived experience into a new vision of systems change for children and families.

Takkeem Morgan is a senior communications leader who directs national campaigns, executive communications, and impact storytelling for the country's oldest child-abuse prevention organization. He is a board member of Foster America, contributing to cross-sector systems modeling work with Casey Family Programs, Washington DCYF, and the University of Washington.

A former foster youth who arrived at Penn State University with limited resources and left as a founding student of the Africana Research Center, Takkeem has spent two decades turning personal testimony into public strategy. His work spans international plenary keynotes on the practical use of AI in human services, congressional briefings on permanency, university lectures livestreamed nationally, and closed-door convenings with foundation, provider, and government leaders.

In 2026, Penn State's College of the Liberal Arts named him the recipient of its Outstanding Alumni Award, and he returned to guest-lecture SOC 119 — a course reaching more than 700 students and a national livestream audience. He is currently writing a memoir on family, foster care, and the systems that shape both.

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Three signature conversations at the intersection of technology, strategy, and human impact.

i.

Tech for Impact: Turning AI and Emerging Technology Into Mission Advantage

AI is moving faster than most organizations can make sense of it. The opportunity isn't simply to adopt more technology — it's to make better decisions about where technology can advance mission, strengthen organizations, improve communications, and create measurable human impact.

Drawing on his work across technology, communications, human services, and national social-impact organizations, Takkeem gives leaders a practical framework for moving from experimentation to strategy. He explores where AI can create meaningful value, where human judgment must remain central, and how organizations can build the capacity to lead through the next era of technological change.

  • Ideal for: Nonprofit and foundation leaders · Corporate social-impact teams · Associations · Human-services organizations · Executive teams
  • Formats: Keynote · Executive briefing · Strategy workshop
ii.

From Giving to Transformation: Technology as a Strategy for Impact

What if technology were treated not simply as organizational overhead, but as an investment in impact?

This conversation challenges funders, corporate giving leaders, and mission-driven organizations to rethink how capital can help organizations build the technological capacity required for the future. Takkeem explores how philanthropy, corporate social impact, and cross-sector partnerships can move beyond funding programs alone to investing in the data, technology, communications, and organizational capabilities that allow promising ideas to scale.

The result is a different conversation about giving: one focused not only on what organizations deliver today, but on building their capacity to create greater impact tomorrow.

  • Ideal for: Foundations · Corporate philanthropy and CSR leaders · Social-impact investors · Nonprofit executives · Cross-sector collaboratives
  • Formats: Keynote · Fireside conversation · Executive briefing · Working session
iii.

The Human Side of AI: Leading Organizations Through Technological Change

The hardest part of adopting AI isn't the technology. It's people.

As organizations race to understand artificial intelligence, leaders face deeper questions about trust, culture, jobs, communication, ethics, and what should remain distinctly human. Drawing from lived experience, communications leadership, human-services transformation, and his work helping leaders navigate emerging technology, Takkeem makes the case that successful AI adoption begins with people — not platforms.

This conversation helps audiences move beyond fear and hype toward a more useful question: How do we use technology to expand human capacity without losing the human relationships, judgment, and purpose that make impact possible?

  • Ideal for: Executive teams · Nonprofit and association leaders · Human-services professionals · Communications leaders · Boards and leadership convenings
  • Formats: Keynote · Plenary · Fireside conversation · Executive workshop

Where Takkeem has recently taken the stage.

  1. 2026

    Outstanding Alumni Award & SOC 119 Guest Lecture

    Penn State College of the Liberal Arts · University Park, PA · 700+ students plus national livestream

    Keynote
  2. 2026

    Foster Youth Internship Program® Congressional Briefing — "Anchored in Permanency"

    Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute · U.S. Senate Dirksen Building, Washington, DC

    Policy
  3. 2026

    "What Happens When We Fail to Center Families? A Personal Testimony"

    PCA Iowa · CAP Month Virtual Keynote

    Keynote
  4. 2026

    Africana Research Center 25th Anniversary Symposium

    Penn State University · Invited panelist

    Panel
  5. 2026

    Child Welfare Systems Briefing — Exploring a Dynamic Simulation Model

    Foster America · Featured contributor · Washington ecosystem modeling ongoing

    Briefing
  6. 2024

    ACRC 68th Annual Conference — Closing Plenary on AI in Human Services

    Association of Children's Residential & Community Services · Phoenix, AZ · Leaders from 12 countries

    Plenary
  7. 2024

    28th Annual Indiana GAL/CASA Conference — Keynote, "Change a Child's Story"

    Indiana GAL/CASA · Fort Wayne, IN · September 14, 2024 · Shared the stage with author and advocate Andrew Bridge

    Keynote
  8. 2023

    NCSL Legislative Summit — "Transforming Child Welfare Systems for Children and Families"

    National Conference of State Legislatures · Indianapolis, IN · Panel with Dr. William Bell (Casey Family Programs) and Dr. Bart Klika (Prevent Child Abuse America) · ~5,000 legislators, staff, policymakers, funders, and partners

    Panel
  9. 2022 · 2026

    Every Child Symposium — Breakout Speaker

    Hands of Hope Indiana · Indianapolis, IN · Faith-community foster and child-welfare audience

    Session

Don't judge a family by where they are — judge them by how far they've come.

— Takkeem Morgan, PCA Iowa CAP Month keynote, 2026
Takkeem Morgan delivering the keynote address at the 28th Annual Indiana GAL/CASA Conference in Fort Wayne, standing behind large illuminated CASA marquee letters
Fort Wayne · September 2024 Keynote at the 28th Annual Indiana GAL/CASA Conference — “Change a Child's Story” — sharing the stage with author and child-welfare advocate Andrew Bridge.
Takkeem Morgan on stage with Dr. William Bell of Casey Family Programs and Dr. Bart Klika of Prevent Child Abuse America at the NCSL 2023 Legislative Summit in Indianapolis Takkeem Morgan speaking from the NCSL podium in Indianapolis during the 2023 Legislative Summit
Indianapolis · August 2023 NCSL Legislative Summit — sharing the stage with Dr. William Bell (Casey Family Programs) and Dr. Bart Klika (Prevent Child Abuse America) to talk about transforming child welfare systems for children and families.
Takkeem Morgan at the podium during the 2024 ACRC 68th Annual Conference in Phoenix, with the Doing the Right Thing, Right banner behind him ACRC 2024 keynote promotional graphic — Embracing AI: The Tools of Tomorrow Are Here Today, featuring Takkeem Morgan
Phoenix · May 2024 Closing plenary at the ACRC 68th Annual Conference — "Embracing AI: The Tools of Tomorrow Are Here Today" — to provider leaders from twelve countries.
Takkeem Morgan on a New Mexico legislative panel, with a slide reading My story of family began here — The City of Philadelphia, projected behind the dais Panel dais with the New Mexico Legislative Health and Human Services Committee agenda projected behind, listing Takkeem Morgan among the invited speakers on the lived experience of people in the child welfare system
Santa Fe · August 2023 Invited speaker before the New Mexico Legislative Health & Human Services Committee — "The Lived Experience of People in the Child Welfare System."
Takkeem Morgan on stage in a hard hat and reflective vest during a Mosaic conference keynote, orange lounge seating behind him
Mosaic Conference A keynote built around the metaphor of construction — the scaffolding, the crews, and the codes it takes to actually build family-serving systems, not just talk about them.

Outstanding Alumni Award — Acceptance Speech

Delivered at the Penn State College of the Liberal Arts Awards Ceremony, Hintz Alumni Center, April 2026. Reflections on the journey from foster care to national impact — and the people, teachers, and institutions that made the walk back to the podium possible.

  • Event Penn State CAS Awards Ceremony
  • Honor 2026 Outstanding Alumni Award
  • Venue Hintz Alumni Center, University Park, PA
Watch on YouTube
Acceptance remarks · Penn State College of the Liberal Arts · April 2026
Takkeem Morgan live on FOX 59 Indianapolis discussing Improving Indiana Foster Care
2021 FOX 59 Indianapolis

Improving Indiana Foster Care

Broadcast segment on Foster Together Indiana — a collaborative, multi-sector approach to recruiting and retaining foster families with an equity lens and a wrap-around support network.

Watch the segment
Takkeem Morgan interviewed by WRTV ABC Indianapolis on foster parent support
2021 WRTV ABC Indianapolis

Rethinking Foster Parent Support

National Foster Care Month broadcast interview calling for better compensation, wrap-around support, and world-class professional development for foster parents — addressing the 50% first-year attrition rate head on.

Watch the segment
01

Language they can use Monday morning

Prevention framing that actually holds up in a board meeting, a budget hearing, or a hallway conversation with a skeptical colleague — not just applause lines that fade by the parking lot.

02

Cover to make the harder call

Room to shift dollars upstream, trust families, and tell the truth about how child-serving systems got here. Audiences leave with the confidence — and the receipts — to defend the choice out loud.

03

Tools their team can pick up on Tuesday

The actual AI, communications, and modeling practices Takkeem uses in his national prevention communications work and around the Foster America table. Not slideware — the workflows.

04

A story that sticks

A throughline that connects policy to a specific child, a specific porch step, a specific parent doing their best. Earned from lived experience — never performed.

Bring Takkeem to your stage, boardroom, or briefing.

Takkeem accepts a limited number of keynote, panel, workshop, podcast, and university engagements each year. Requests typically receive a response within two business days. Fees vary by event type, location, and audience; nonprofit and university rates are available.