Inspirational Speakers | Ultimate Women's Expo

Inspiring, Motivating, Empowering Keynote Speakers on the GEICO Main Stage

Presented By:

At the teen age of 14, Abby founded the Abby Lee Dance Company. With a penchant for creativity and a drive to succeed, Abby recognized that her 15 original company members age 7 to 9, needed to be strong, fearless and technically trained to be able to execute her innovative choreography. This is when Abby’s zeal for teaching was established. At the age of 22, Ms. Miller took over the reins at her mother’s esteemed dance studio. Under Abby’s direction, the ALDC Competition Team grew to 148 members. She soon built her own state of the art facility in her hometown to house over 400 students. She not only produced professional, employable dancers but also created Stars! Year after year countless trophies, banners, crowns and titles, both regional and national, were won. Abby’s creation, the ALDC, forged a legacy of champions!

Today, Abby Lee Miller has had students perform in 34 different Broadway shows (most recently the original cast of Funny Girl), graduates sign 17 consecutive contracts to perform at Tokyo Disney, the Dance Captain of Disney World’s Beauty and the Beast for 23 years running, along with numerous Radio City Rockettes, featured ensemble dancers and, of course, her protégés dancing the role of Clara in the Christmas Spectacular-while countless other alum have traveled the world with their dance training from the ALDC in Pittsburgh, PA.

In 2011, Abby Lee burst onto the reality TV scene and into your homes on screen when Lifetime Television followed a group of her students and their overzealous stage mothers to dance competitions. The rest, as they say, was history! Abby appeared on Jimmy Fallen, The Talk, Doctor’s, Dr Oz, co-hosted The View and served as a guest judge on Dancing With The Stars! Dance Moms, became a pop-culture phenomenon which consistently drew 2.8 million viewers weekly, sold to international outlets, aired in 134 countries and in 11 different languages. A spin off, Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition came next, followed by Abby’s Studio Rescue! The show is currently streaming on HULU to a whole new audience! While Ms. Miller works on several new TV projects, she continues to entertain audiences on her YouTube channel and teaches the art of Dance & Acrobatics to thousands of children worldwide on Zoom.

Emily Simpson is a small-town Midwest girl who found herself living in the opulence of Orange County. Star of BRAVO TV’s The Real Housewives of Orange County. Emily grew up in a small town in Ohio and comes from humble beginnings. She was raised by a single mother who emphasized the importance of education. Emily graduated from Miami University in Ohio and was a High School Spanish Teacher for four years. She then graduated from Thomas Jefferson School of Law. She also passed the California and Utah Bar Exams and currently practices Copyright Law at a law firm in Santa Ana. Emily also enjoys party planning, and she and her sister-in-law Shireen (who lives directly across the street from her) plan parties as a fun and creative outlet. Emily loves living in Orange County, but feels that she maintains her small town Mid-West values. She values her marriage and children above all else. She has been married to Shane for almost 10 years, and they have five children total. Shane is half Persian, and marrying into the Simpson family means learning a lot about the Persian culture and celebrating Persian holidays. Emily has two step-daughters ages 17 and 12 from Shane’s first marriage, and they have three biological children together: Annabelle age 5, and twin boys Luke and Keller, age 3. Emily’s journey to motherhood was no easy feat. Over a five year period, she suffered several miscarriages and a failed IVF in which she lost twins at 4 months pregnant. After suffering such traumatic losses , Emily’s younger sister Sara, stepped up to the plate and offered to be her surrogate. Emily and her sister Sara went on a surrogacy journey together which resulted in a daughter in 2013 and then twin boys in 2015. Emily chooses to help other women by sharing her struggles to become a mother. She wants to bring light and normalcy to such a common issue which so many women struggle with. She believes talking about her journey will help other women feel less alone. Emily is also passionate about inspiring women to love themselves, be confident and encourages women to be strong role models for our children and the next generation of women.