Best-selling author and empowerment speaker Sheri Riley delivered the 40th annual Schacht Lecture on Feb. 27 when 41 Athens Academy students were inducted into the National Honor Society.

Those inducted in the society were Butler Adams, Kamara Adogu, Betul Arpinar, Eden Avolio, Anna Barkley, Graham Blanks, Kate Branch, Jack Byrnes, John Chester, Emma Clarke, Taylor Clementz, Eleanor Connolly, Celeste Covington, Anannya Das, Caroline Edwards, Catie Elder, Joseph Frierson, Alexa Hill, Anna Hollis, Gabby Knapp, Emily LaBoon, Moira Lockwood, Charlotte Luke, Jackson McKillip, Hayes Miller, Paul Mullinax, Georgia Parris, Anjali Patel, A. J. Peppers, Samuel Pittard, Storey Prescott-Reynard, Cole Reynolds, Mary Palmer Roberts, Leila Rosenberg, Gabby Schlossberg, Eden Sears, Wyatt Smith, Nicholas Stachura, Alexa Whitmore, Elliot Williamson and Logan Williamson.

Sheri Riley is a wife, mother and entrepreneur. As a trendsetter in the entertainment industry, she spent 20 years creating marketing strategies for celebrities and corporations including Usher, TLC, Toni Braxton, Converse, NBA, TNT and many more.

As an empowerment speaker, life strategist and best-selling author, Riley speaks around the world, sharing her message of “Peace is the New Success.” Her award-winning book, “Exponential Living — Stop Spending 100% of Your Time on 10% of Who You Are,” was published by Penguin Random House. The book was a 2018 NAACP Image Award nominee and has won several self-help, book-of-the-year awards.

Riley has been a speaker for Delta Airlines, Steve Harvey’s “Act Like A Success” Conference, Prudential, The Coca-Cola Company, the NBA Wives Behind the Bench Conference and the NAACP Leadership 500 Summit. She serves on the alumni board of directors for the University of Louisville and is a founding member of the global John Maxwell Team.