DES MOINES, Iowa — Top 10 Rising Speaker of 2026, Vanessa McNeal is a resilience and well-being expert with a Master’s in Social Work — at the intersection of human performance, and trauma-informed leadership and burnout.
McNeal addressed the experience of loneliness in today’s world, filled with social media and information overload, and spoke about the reality of feeling increasingly alone despite many people having more access to endless social media outlets.
McNeal explains how to identify loneliness, the problems it can create, and actionable conversation starters to begin asking for help…