Theme: RE

In anticipation of another sell-out year, TEDxDayton organizers have released the list of speakers for the 2015 event, which will take place on Oct. 16, 2015, at the Victoria Theatre in Dayton.

“This event keeps evolving, and we now have a community interested in engaging with ideas and learning something new in the spirit of TED,” said TEDxDayton co-chair Sean Creighton. “Our region is full of new, challenging ideas and we can bring those to stage to an audience that wants that experience.”

The speakers committee chose candidates from a combination of recruitment methods and from an open call for auditions earlier this year. “We plan to push our audience to new, even unknown places; surprise them; and leave them feeling they have really learned something,” said TEDxDayton co-chair Stephanie Gottschlich. “We want to take a subject the audience thinks it might already know and present it with a new twist. We want TEDxDayton attendees to reimagine, rethink, reconnect — it’s the central theme to our 2015 event.”

138 N Main Street
Dayton, Ohio, 45402
United States

Black Box Improv Theater

The Black Box Improv Theater was founded in downtown Dayton over three years ago and has since performed for thousands of Daytonians, as well as in the famed Del Close Marathon in New York City. Its founder, Justin Howard, spoke at the first TEDx Dayton and is back to perform. What you’ll see is 100 percent improvised, even the music, and will draw inspiration from the morning talks. Performing today are Justin Howard, Trey Stone, Caitlin Bennett, Karn Singh, Errik Hood, Meredith Hollingsworth, Libby Scancarello.

Dayton Contemporary Dance Second Company

Founded in 1975 by Jeraldyne Blunden, the Dayton Contemporary Dance Second Company (DCDC2) is the pre-professional ensemble of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. DCDC2 is committed to arts-integrated education, community outreach, and partnerships, and the professional development of college graduates and undergraduates preparing for professional careers. The second company has performed throughout the Miami Valley and the Midwest, Northeast, and South Central regions of Ohio. DCDC2 has cultivated dance artists for the main ensemble as well as for other national and international dance companies and productions.

Meghna and the Majority

Meghna Mahambrey was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio and performs solo as well as with her band Meghna & the Majority which currently features Aaron Farrier (drums), Eric Contreras (bass), Rem Merry (saxaphone/keys), and Tim Yanney (guitar). Meghna has released three albums of original music, with her latest CD ‘Kind of Friend’ showcasing her pop, rock, singer-songwriter, and R&B style. She also covers a variety of popular music spanning across decades, genres, and artists. Meghna & the Majority’s talent and charisma steal the spotlight, offering a unique musical experience with sultry and haunting vocal melodies, simple yet tasteful instrumentation, endearing personalities, and a touch of humor that win over the hearts of audiences time and time again.

Zoot

ZOOT is a forward-thinking theatrical design company, specializing in puppets and masks. The Zoot Theatre Company was founded in 2006 and was later incorporated as a non-profit organization in 2009. Since its founding, Zoot has prided itself on its ability to blend the visual and performing arts, using the stage as its gallery. Based in Dayton, Zoot’s work has encompassed stories such as HANSEL AND GRETAL, MOBY DICK, CANTERBURY TALES, ANIMAL FARM, AND A CHILD SHALL LEAD and THE HOBBIT to name a few. ZTC tours to local and regional venues and continues to enjoy a number of partnerships with local high schools, colleges, and arts and cultural organizations.

Armaan Ahmed

Armaan Ahmed is a 10th grader at The Miami Valley School in Dayton. He plays three instruments: cello for the Springfield Youth Chamber Orchestra, saxophone for the Miami Valley Jazz Band, and piano. He regularly volunteers at the Second Harvest Food Bank, the Springfield Soup Kitchen, and the Rocking Horse Community Health Center in Springfield. He loves to make Jeni’s inspired ice cream, play tennis, and travel to other countries with his family. Armaan’s main passion is photography. He has been taking photographs since age six. This past summer, he attended a National Geographic Photography Student Expedition at Yellowstone National Park.

Chelley Seibert

Chelley Seibert is a retired Dayton Police Officer. Her assignments included Patrol, Crime Prevention, Media, and Academy Instructor. She has taught Cultural Diversity for 20+ years, and Instructor Skills Development through the State. Chelley was the first female in Dayton to be awarded the Top Firearms Award and was named Dayton’s Officer of the Year in 2011. Chelley has a BA in Music from Miami University and Master of Education from Wright State University. She has presented locally and nationally in universities, academies, and at the International Law Enforcement Educators Trainers Association (ILEETA). Chelley currently plays in the band Frozen Feet of Dayton, a choir director for Cincinnati’s TRU Choir and a singer/songwriter/keynote speaker in the Positive Music industry.

Chinonye Chukwu

Chinonye Chukwu is Assistant Professor of Motion Pictures at Wright State University. She is a recipient of the prestigious Princess Grace Award and Princeton Hodder Fellowship. Her debut feature film, AlaskaLand, has been selected to screen globally, including the Chicago International Film Festival and the New York African Festival at Lincoln Center. Chinonye’s most recent film is the short, A Long Walk, an adaptation of the anthologized story, “A Walk Through the Neighborhood.” The film won a Special Jury prize at the USA Festival and has screened at several Academy Award Qualifying festivals. Currently, Chinonye is in development of her next feature film.

David Gasper

David Gasper is a serial software entrepreneur. His first venture was Gasper Corporation, a software company that created availability management software for Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) systems. Gasper Corporation became the world’s leader in ATM Management software. In 1999, David sold Gasper Corporation to NCR Corporation. David’s latest venture, Assisted Patrol, provides unique, specialized electronic bait products for police departments. Law enforcement agencies use Assisted Patrol to arrest and convict electronic thieves. David Gasper has a BA in Quantitative Business Analysis (QBA) from Wright State University and an MBA from the University of Dayton. Ernst and Young named him “1998 Entrepreneur of the Year” (high technology category) in Dayton, Ohio.

Ed Mabrey

Ed Mabrey is the only 3 time Individual World Poetry Slam Champion. He tours the country professionally as a poet, comedian, and motivational speaker. An Emmy winner, Ed has been on Seasons 3 & 5 of Verses and Flow (TV One), ABC, FOX, HBO All Def Digital, and Write About Now Poetry. He has performed for over 100 colleges and universities around the country, teaching workshops and conducting seminars. On the comedy front, Ed has opened for DL Hughley, Ian Bagg, Rob Schneider, Roy Wood Jr., Charlie Murphy and many more. Ed is a two time finalist in The World Series Of Comedy and has been the voice of companies ranging from the Ohio State Medical Center to Lexus.

Gary Klein

Gary Klein, Ph.D., is known for the cognitive models, such as the Recognition- Primed Decision (RPD) model, the Data/Frame model of sensemaking, the Management By Discovery model of planning in complex settings, and the Triple Path model of insight, the methods he developed, including techniques for Cognitive Task Analysis, the PreMortem method of risk assessment, and the ShadowBox training approach, and the movement he helped to found in 1989 — Naturalistic Decision Making. The company he started in 1978, Klein Associates, grew to 37 employees by the time he sold it in 2005. He formed his new company, ShadowBox LLC, in 2014 and is the author of five books.

Harriet Kamakil Brown

Harriet Kamakil Brown works and studies at the University of Dayton. She moved to Dayton 10 years ago and attended Sinclair Community College and Wittenberg University. Having grown up in Kenya’s largest slum, Kibera, she is interested in working with and supporting disadvantaged youth especially in pursuit of an education. Harriet has also worked with refugee resettlement in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Zambia, and more recently at Catholic Social Services of Miami Valley.

Joshua Stucky

Joshua Stucky is a Graduate in Education from Wright State University, with a Masters from the University of Dayton in Children’s Literature. He received his LMT license in Medical Massage in 1999. Joshua is one of three owners of Square One Salons, one of three owners of Agnes and Orson Gifts and Goods and a founding member of the World-Renowned RubiGirls. Joshua works tirelessly for human rights and equality issues. He has been recognized for his years of dedication to ending HIV. You will always find Joshua at area fundraisers helping out as he can, doing as much as possible for others. The love of his life, Brent Johnson and he have shared 26 years together.

Karin VanZant

Karin VanZant is Executive Director of Life Services at CareSource and has been charged with building a new division of CareSource that will transition current Medicaid members off of government subsidies into a high quality life. Prior to joining CareSource, Karin was the co-founder and Executive Director of Think Tank, Inc where she assisted the team to live out the mission of equipping and facilitating collaboration among people seeking ways to promote greater connectedness and a more thriving community. Karin has a MPA in Public Administration and a BA in Social Work from Wright State University.

Katrina Kittle

Katrina is a novelist, with four books for adults and one novel for tweens, her most recent titles being The Kindness of Strangers and The Blessings of the Animals. Katrina teaches creative writing workshops from the third grade to retirement communities, focusing on craft and motivation (and is especially good at jumpstarting stalled writers). She also offers manuscript consultations through Write Sisters Consulting and is a public speaker. She lives near Dayton, Ohio with her wonderful fella, and their sweet beagle and odd cat; has a thing for goats, gardening, and going barefoot; and is totally addicted to coffee, pedicures, and movies.

Kim Vesey

Kim Vesey believes she was put on this earth to care for the dying and their families. She has been a hospice nurse for 30 years, providing care to over 1,000 patients and being present during the death of over 100 patients. She is currently Vice President of Mission Support at Ohio’s Hospice of Dayton. Her professional and personal experiences have taught her to be present and live in the current moment. She has a BS in Nursing and a Master’s degree in Health Administration. Kim is also a certified spiritual director.

Lennard Moses

Dr. Lennard V. Moses, Associate Professor of Music, is the Director of Percussion and World Music Studies at Central State University. At an early age Dr. Moses began touring with the Desperados Steel Orchestra of Trinidad and Tobago as a drummer and percussionist. He is one of the founders of Mound Street Academies Steel Band in Dayton, Ohio. His invitations include serving as a guest artist, composer, clinician, and master class facilitator with percussion and world music ensembles and steel bands throughout the United States, Canada, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and England. His performance and research interests include the connection between African, African-American, Latin American, and Caribbean Music, as well as the thread that links music with other disciplines.

Matt Coatney

Matt Coatney is an Artificial Intelligence software executive, inventor, entrepreneur, author and speaker. He improves how people interact with AI by making software smarter and teaching people how to work and cope with advanced technology. He has built successful AI systems for healthcare, finance, law and government policy. Matt holds an MS in Computer and Information Science and a BS in Biochemistry from Ohio State University. He is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) including AI, bioinformatics, and knowledge discovery special interest groups.

Matthew Purkey

Matthew Purkey is Vice President of Resource Development at United Way of the Greater Dayton Area, PhD candidate, and United States Marine Corps veteran. Along with his wife Amanda, daughter Micah, and son Ezekiel; Matthew is a proud resident and community activist in East Dayton. He is an alumnus of the City of Dayton’s Neighborhood Leadership Institute, and a current member of Leadership Dayton, Dayton Business Journal 40 under 40. He serves on countless boards and committees including The Victory Project, AXUS, PowerNet of Dayton, and the recently implemented Miami Valley Young Professionals Alliance.

Patrick Flynn

Patrick Flynn is the Group Leader, Sustainability at IO, a data center services company that plays a key role in the Dayton tech economy by utilizing the latest data center technology to deliver colocation and cloud services to businesses and governments – locally and around the world. He and his team work to optimize mankind’s largest machine through data analysis.Patrick studied sustainable business strategy at MIT and engineering at Stanford and is a Professional Engineer.

Rebecca Benná

Becky Benná, the Executive Director of Five Rivers MetroParks, is a proud public servant who has over 25 years’ experience working for various communities ranging in population size from 20,000 to over one million. Becky is President-Elect of the prestigious American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration whose members are distinguished leaders in the field of parks and recreation. She is a member of the National Recreation and Park Association Board of Directors, which serves over 40,000 professional and citizen members. Locally, Becky serves on several Boards, such as Bike Miami Valley and the Dayton Convention & Visitors Bureau. Becky holds an MBA and a BS in Education.

Sarah Hippensteel Hall

Sarah believes that water is a critical element for community health and prosperity and communities who enjoy their rivers are more likely to protect their water. She currently serves as the Manager of Watershed Partnerships for the Miami Conservancy District, a 100-year old watershed agency. She has raised more than $12 million to protect and restore healthy rivers and aquifers, and improve and promote river access and recreation. She graduated from Antioch University in 2010 with a PhD in Leadership and Change. She also teaches undergraduate courses in leadership studies, and resource scarcity and conflict. In 2012 she was presented with a Distinguished Service Award by the Water Management Association of Ohio.

Shannon Isom

Shannon TL Isom is CEO of the YWCA Dayton and is responsible for the executive and administrative leadership of the YWCA Dayton, which strives to eliminate racism and empower women. Shannon is responsible to ensure high quality outcomes, financial sustainability, organizational viability, and exceptional client service delivery. Before joining the staff, she served as a YWCA Dayton board member for four years, with the last year and half as Chair of the Board. With over 15 years in the health industry, she has worked for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Women’s Health Division, Miami Valley Hospital, Premier Health Partners and CareSource in areas of Sales, Business Development, Systems Integration and Business and Clinical Integration, respectively.