Theme: Looking Glass into the Future

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

The Club, Citadel
9828 101A Avenue Northwest
Edmonton, Alberta, T5J 3C6
Canada

Arya Sharma

Arya M. Sharma is Professor and Chair in Obesity Research and Management at the University of Alberta as well as Medical Director of the Alberta Health Services Provincial Obesity Strategy. In 2005, he spearheaded the launch of the Canadian Obesity Network, which has remarkably transformed the landscape of obesity research and management in Canada. His research focuses on innovative approach to managing obese patients and includes the development of the Edmonton Obesity Staging System.

Avril Inglis

Avril Inglis is a crown prosecutor and has prosecuted all manner of violent crimes, including countless sexual assaults. She has also developed a specialty in the prosecution of serial attackers and dangerous offenders. She has frequently lectured in the areas of sex crimes, rape shield, similar fact evidence, and other criminal law subjects for the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service, Making a Difference Canada, and the International Association of Prosecutors.

Billy-Ray Belcourt

Billy-Ray Belcourt is from the Driftpile Cree Nation. He is a 2016 Rhodes Scholar-elect and is completing a BA (Hons.) in Comparative Literature at the University of Alberta. He is the President of the Aboriginal Student Council and a founding member of the Indigenous Feminist Collective.

Erik Bisanz

Erik Bisanz was a youth mentor and later the director of the Youth Restorative Action Project (YRAP), an innovative Edmonton-based mentorship and restorative justice group. YRAP offers young offenders a chance to take responsibility for their actions and to grow positively. He has been involved in the creation of several of YRAP's initiatives including the cell phone program, the youth internship program, and the revamped mentoring program. Since stepping down as director at YRAP, Erik he has been involved in different social service and mental health initiatives, and remains a part of YRAP's advisory group.

Irfan Chaudhry

Irfan Chaudhry is a PhD candidate (provisional) in criminology at the University of Alberta. He has conducted research into racism on twitter and is a project manager for race relations with the City of Edmonton’s aboriginal and multiculturalism office. Furthermore, Irfan was a crime analyst with the Edmonton Police Service and remains very active with a number of police/civilian advisory boards.

Jill Robertson

Jill is a registered landscape architect with a special interest in urban design, landscape ecology and participatory processes. Jill manages complex, multi-disciplinary projects across dynamic spatial and temporal scales. For every project that Jill is involved with, she brings a high level of graphic clarity and technical excellence. In 2015, Jill was the recipient of the Iris Prize for her work in participatory design, and was recognized as one of the University of Guelph’s 50 most notable graduates from the School of Landscape Architecture.

Joanne Minaker

An active mother of three and socially conscious academic, her life/work is rooted deeply in her commitment to family, social justice and the power of meaningful connections. She's an award- winning Educator and Author/Editor of Criminalized Mothers, Criminalizing Mothering and Youth, Crime, and Society: Issues of Power and Justice. Dr. Minaker studies care, human connection, and social in/justice, including publications on domestic violence, criminalized girls and women, youth justice, and parenting. Her latest quest is leading Cared Humanity, a care-based community encouraging mutual support for the fundamental human tasks of care.

Julian Faid

Julian Faid is a senior company member with Rapid Fire and has performed in weekly improv shows for over thirteen years. He has taught all levels of improvisational training through Rapid Fire Theaters workshop programs and has taught one-off workshops in Calgary, Vancouver, and Wellington, New Zealand. Julian has traveled to improv festivals across North America in cities such as Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina, Vancouver, Atlanta and Los Angeles. He was also nominated for “Best in Show” at the New Zealand Comedy Festival in Auckland New Zealand.

Kory Mathewson

Kory Mathewson is a polymath and an improvisor. Sharing the stage with top improvisors from across Canada, the United States, and Europe, Kory is a tour de force of improvisational prowess. He has been invited to perform at the Montreal Improv Festival, the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival in Austin, Texas, the Bellingham Improv Festival, Rapid Fire Theatre’s Improvaganza in Edmon- ton, and served as Artist in Residence at the Curious Comedy Theatre in Portland, Oregon. He performs as part of Rapid Fire Theatre’s TEDxRFT, 6 Degrees of Science and Off Book: The Improvised Musical, and Theatresports and Maestro shows.

Marvin Washington

Marvin Washington is an associate professor in the Alberta School of Business. Dr. Washington’s research, consulting, and teaching focus is on processes of organizational and institutional change. He has published more than 40 articles, made more than 40 conference presentations, and is the author of two books on leadership and organizational change. Dr. Washington also teaches courses on organizational change and leadership in numerous Executive Education Programs at the University of Alberta, in the Executive MBA program, and the Masters of Finance program. He has worked with a variety of organizations such as Bayer, Core Mark, Stantec, Enbridge, AIMCo, Blue Cross, and the Forzani Group (SportChek).

Michele Fleiger

Michele Fleiger (BFA/MFA) trained as an actor and has performed, across Canada, into the United States, Italy and Japan, for over 30 years. In the mid-eighties she began volunteering as an ESL teacher working with refugees and permanent residents helping them learn the English language and acclimate to their new cultural landscape.What began as a compelling part time job evolved over time to become a vocation. She is in increasing demand as a teacher and workshop facilitator in universities, colleges, conferences and workplaces throughout Alberta, and across the country. In grounding her work in the principles of the theatre she allows people to discover their true potential by encouraging an awareness of what has shaped them which helps them better understand, empathize and collaborate with others.

Navneet Khinda

Navneet Khinda is the President of the University of Alberta Students’ Union, making her the primary spokesperson for 30,000 undergraduate students. From a young age, she has committed herself to various leadership roles, finding even more opportunities to get involved during her undergraduate experience. Her upbringing and cultural background has certainly shaped her perspective on leadership, one that is deeply connected to the values of feminism and active citizenship.

Nisha Patel

Poets in the past have always been the outsiders - they've told the stories that other people don't want to listen to. In this engaging talk, Nisha Patel contrasts the voice spoken word poetry dons to marginalized individuals, and how such poetry revolutionizes the political systems which fail to give equal voice to everyone.

Ray Muzyka

Originally trained as a medical doctor, Dr. Ray Muzyka co-founded BioWare, a video game development studio focusing on story and character, in the early 1990s. He practiced Emergency/Family Medicine for two years full time, with medicine transitioning to part-time over the following decade as he focused on his role as BioWare's CEO. He retired from video games in October 2012, with his third 'career chapter' at ThresholdImpact focused on sustainable, profitable impact investing - mentoring and angel investing in information technology, new media and medical innovations with social entrepreneurs. He is an active angel investor and entrepreneurial mentor.

Ross Lockwood

Ross Lockwood is a graduate from the University of Alberta with a Ph.D. in Condensed Matter Physics. His doctoral research focused on silicon quantum dots. For the last two years, Ross has been exploring the path to becoming an astronaut. In 2014 he participated as a research subject in the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS), a 120-day Mars simulation where he played the role of the systems and communications engineer. In 2015, he trained as an Astronaut-Candidate with the Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere (PoSSUM) research group. He continues to volunteer and train for a future astronaut application with the Canadian Space Agency.

Shawna Pandya

Hang out in 0g? Work at NASA? Finish Scientist‐Astronaut Candidate training? Perform brain surgery? Pilot a plane? Found a company based on a challenge to positively impact 1 billion people? Check, check and check. For Dr. Shawna Pandya​, life has just been one adventure after another, and she is just getting started. Armed with backgrounds in neuroscience,space, entrepreneurship and medicine, Dr. Pandya has led a life devoted to technology, innovation, social development and, of course, adventure! In October 2015, Dr. Pandya successfully completed Scientist‐Astronaut Candidate training with Project PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in theUpper Mesosphere) and was part of the first crew to test a commercial spacesuit in zero‐gravity. In January 2016, Dr. Pandya was named as prime crew for Project Poseidon, which aims to further ocean and space exploration, while setting a world record for “most days spent under the sea.”

Stephen Robinson

A native to Edmonton, Stephen is currently pursuing a degree in psychology from the University of Alberta. In addition to his studies, Stephen has led a variety of entrepreneurial ventures and passion projects to learn from direct experience. 52skillz is a project where he commits himself to learning a new skill every week of the year, for an entire year. The goal of the project is to inspire individuals of all ages to take action in learning and developing new skills in an entertaining and humour filled way.