Theme: Ditching Dogma

Dogma is embedded into the human condition. We are taught what processes worked for our ancestors and we observe those same processes being utilized by others around us. Accordingly, more often than not, we follow suit. Ditching Dogma is about creativity, innovation, and thinking differently: not accepting the notion that we should do things simply because "that's how they've always been done," rewarding those who take risks while casting away notions of traditionalism.

National WWI Museum at Liberty Memorial
100 W 26th Street
kansas city, Missouri
United States

Alex Gorosh

Alex Gorosh is a filmmaker and adventurer. Although each project may take him in a different direction, his compass is always pointed toward the intersection of economic, environmental and social justice. Alex has created film content for global non-profit organizations as well as large brands such as FedEx, GAP Inc, Ben & Jerry's and Starbucks. Primarily focused on commercial and documentary projects, Alex uses the power of film to tell the stories of people and organizations who are moving the world forward. You can see Alex's recent work here - www.AlexGorosh.com

Gina Kaufmann

Gina Kaufmann is the host of Central Standard, a daily public radio talk show emphasizing arts and ideas. Early in her career she served as an editor and art writer for The Pitch, and she also worked as a contributing editor of Heeb magazine out of New York, assisting with the Heeb Storytelling series and ultimately starting her own live storytelling event series in Kansas City. Gina got her public radio chops working first as an intern for KC Currents then as a co-host of The Walt Bodine Show; Bodine, a veteran broadcaster, served as a friend and mentor. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Columbia University, where she studied a broad range of subjects and wrote for the Columbia Daily Spectator. She later earned her Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. Somewhere along the way, she did a stint as a sheep farmer and worked a handful of barista jobs. She has found that being a barista is excellent training to become a talk show host.

Huy Dao

I was born and raised in Wichita, KS with an older brother and sister (4 and 1 year older respectively). I learned how to fit in with the cool kids early on when I joined a chess team in the 6th grade – roughly when I peaked in life. I knew I couldn’t rely on chess to carry me through life so I started doing more important things, like reading Batman comics and playing Smash Bros. My parents told me I couldn’t fight crime for a living so I ended up in KC for my undergrad. I’ll receive both my BS and MS in Civil Engineering in May 2015. I’m currently working as an intern at Burns & McDonnell where I’ve become phenomenally skilled at bringing people coffee – sometimes they let me design stuff. Huy looks forward to his bright future, where he switches from a first-person to third-person narrative. He also hopes to design roller coasters and carnival rides, fall in love with and marry Anna Kendrick, and afford Chipotle with guacamole without worrying about his bank account every time.

Judy Mills

Judy Mills opened an indie record store in Kansas City in 2013. Prior to that she worked in corporate retail, taught English, and once fancied herself a poet. Her main goal in life is to steal Amazon's market share, one record at a time.

Mark Brodwin

Mark Brodwin uses the largest telescopes on Earth and in space to discover and study rare, distant galaxy clusters to understand the underlying physics that drives the growth of the most massive galaxies and the evolution of the Universe. After discovering his interest during undergrad at McGill, he immersed himself in astrophysics and cosmology during his PhD at the University of Toronto. During postdoctoral fellowships at JPL/Caltech, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, his research focused on the infrared discovery and study of distant galaxy clusters. He leads some of the most successful galaxy cluster surveys to date, including the IRAC Shallow and Distant Cluster Surveys and the Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey. He is also a NASA member of the European Space Agency project that is building the Euclid telescope for launch in 2020, to measure dark energy, general relativity, and sample galaxy clusters.

Mike Anderson

Mike Anderson received his master’s degree and doctorate in communication studies at the University of Kansas. Mike’s thesis and dissertation both examined the taboo topic of sex in romantic relationships. He has been published in magazines, newspapers, academic books, and academic journals including the Journal of Sex Research. In graduate school he hosted a radio show on KJHK that featured sex and relationship advice. The show was called “Kansas in Heat.” Currently Mike is the host and principle writer of a late night television talk show in Kansas called the Not So Late Show. Since it began in 2011 the show has won several awards. In 2012 Mike was named by Reader’s Digest as the “Most Interesting Character in Small Town America.”

Nicholas Comninellis

Nicholas Comninellis is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Community & Family Medicine at the UMKC School of Medicine, and founder of the Institute for International Medicine. He served inner city citizens for a year at Shanghai Charity Hospital during the pre-prosperity era, and over two years initiated a healthcare ministry in the war-besieged city of Huambo, Angola. He's served one-month medical assignments in Honduras, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, Niger and Kunming, China. After working in the KC hospital , before launching INMED in 2003. He attended the UMKC School of Medicine, the SLU School of Public Health, and was a family medicine resident at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center/John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. Dr. Comninellis has a diploma in tropical medicine from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He is board certified in both preventive medicine and family medicine, and is author of INMED International Medicine & Public Health.