Speakers

San José 26 was created as an initiative to ensure that San José didn’t simply host major sporting events in 2026, but used them to create a lasting impact for our community. Led by the San Jose Sports Authority in partnership with the City of San José and an incredible coalition of corporate, civic, sports and community partners, SJ26 brought together sports, technology and culture to maximize the opportunities surrounding Super Bowl LX, NCAA March Madness and the FIFA World Cup. 

John Poch has been involved with the San Jose Sports Authority (SJSA) since 1998, first as a volunteer, then as a board member, and now as Executive Director. Since taking the helm in 2016-17, John has helped position San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley as a world-class sports destination, using sports to drive economic development, visibility and civic pride. Under John’s leadership, SJSA has hosted more than 125 events, generated over 150,000 hotel room nights and delivered more than $300 million in economic impact to San Jose and the region. Major events have included the Super Bowl, NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, NHL All-Star Game, U.S. Figure Skating Championships, USA Gymnastics Olympic Trials, FIFA Women’s World Cup and numerous NCAA championships.

In 2025, John helped launch SJ26, an ambitious citywide initiative built around an unprecedented year of major sporting events, including the NWSL Championship, Super Bowl LX Opening Night, NCAA Men’s Basketball Regionals, U.S. Table Tennis National Championships, CrossFit Games and the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The initiative welcomed more than 2.5 million visitors and featured concerts, drone shows, fan festivals and FIFA World Cup Soccer Celebrations that attracted more than one million attendees.

SJSA also manages the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame, Dwight Clark Legacy Series and REACH Youth Scholarship Program.

Previously, John spent 15 years at San Jose State University in leadership, fundraising and coaching roles and served as Executive Director of the After-School All-Stars, providing programs to thousands of underserved youth. John’s honors include inductions into the San Jose State Athletics and Pioneer High School Hall of Fames and receiving SJSU’s Presidential Medal for Distinguished Service. Away from the office, John enjoys spending time with his family, whether on the bocce court, in the vineyard or in the kitchen.

Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer is an internationally recognized physician executive who currently serves as a Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of California Davis School of Medicine, and a Senior Scholar, Clinical Excellence Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine. He also is an Executive-in-Residence for Mission Mobile Medical and a senior advisor to several other entities. He has the rare distinction of being an elected member of both the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and National Academy of Public Administration.

Dr. Kizer previously has held senior leadership positions in state and federal government, the private sector, academia, and philanthropy, including serving a record tenure as Director of the former California Department of Health Services and California’s top health official, and as Under Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, where he engineered the internationally acclaimed transformation of the Veterans Healthcare System in the late 1990s.

Dr. Kizer is board certified in six medical specialties and/or subspecialties and is a fellow or distinguished fellow of 12 professional societies. He has authored more than 500 professional publications and is the recipient of numerous national awards. He is an honors graduate of Stanford University and the UCLA Schools of Medicine and Public Health, and a veteran of the U.S. Navy. He chaired NAM’s recent expert committee that made multiple recommendations for reforming the U.S. organ transplantation system.

Julie Dominguez, of the Marine Sanchez lineage, represents the ninth generation of an unbroken Ohlone Indian matrilineage going back to the 1760s of her Native ancestors’ villages. She is a Muwekma Ohlone Tribal Member and Community Education Co-Chair of the Muwekma Ohlone Preservation Foundation. Julie leads initiatives promoting Ohlone history, heritage, language, and culture through programs in schools, libraries, and communities. She is a traditional Ohlone dancer and passionate protector of her ancestral homeland of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Viruses are unique biological entities that resemble both living and inanimate objects. Despite their simple structure, they include some of the most devastating and ubiquitous causes of human disease. Dr. Robert Siegel will explore the essential nature of viruses and what makes them unique.

Dr. Robert Siegel is a professor in the Stanford Department of Microbiology and Immunology with secondary appointments in the Center for African Studies, the Master of Liberal Arts Program, the Program in Human Biology, and the Woods Institute for the Environment. His recent courses focus on virology and infectious disease, genetics and molecular biology, biogeography and ecology, Darwin and evolution, and nature photography. Twenty years ago, Dr. Siegel worked with Los Altos Rotary on the Rotary AIDS Project

Lynda Martinez del Campo is a cultural historian, university professor, professional speaker and a certified professional tour guide in Mexico City.  With a particular interest in fostering international understanding, Lynda expanded her work beyond the walls of academia to focus on sharing Mexico with an international audience.  She delights in introducing visitors and residents alike to the many dimensions of Mexico—its language, history, art, traditions and rich cultural traditions. 

Lynda was just eighteen years old when she first set foot on Mexican soil.  Over the more than four decades she has lived in and out of Mexico City, her fascination with the country has only deepened.  She has participated in numerous national and international conferences and, during the lockdown years, successfully transitioned to the virtual world, sharing her love and knowledge of Mexico with audiences around the globe through Zoom presentations. 

Patrick Henry has inspired Americans for centuries with his fiery speech demanding liberty, but his vision was more complex than modern Americans might realize. Henry asserted liberty not just as individual freedom but as a collective right of states to govern themselves without being swallowed by a “great consolidated government.” 

David Kennedy is an American historian specializing in American history. He is the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History Emeritus at Stanford University and the former director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West. Kennedy's scholarship is notable for its integration of economic analysis and cultural analysis with social history and political history.

Kennedy is responsible for the recent editions of the popular history textbook, The American Pageant. He is also the current editor of the Oxford History of the United States series. Earlier in his career, Kennedy won the Bancroft Prize for his first book Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger (1970), and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his book World War I, Over Here: The First World War and American Society (1980). He was the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History from 1995 to 1996. He won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for History for Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945 (1999).