TEDxABQ 2015 will showcase 20 of New Mexico’s most captivating speakers in science, healthcare, policy, technology, art, and the way we see the world. Live talks, stirring performances, fascinating audience members, interactive experiences, and short videos will inspire you to think in new ways and take action in our community. Join us for a day of inspiration, connection, and action!
Speakers
Speakers may not be confirmed. Check event website for more information.
Don McIver & The ABQ Slam Team
ABQ Slam Team Coach
Don McIver is the coach of the 2015 Slam Team (Khalid Binsunni, Matthew Brown, Damien Flores, and Mercedez Holtry). Albuquerque has been sending teams to the National Poetry Slam since 1995. Teams from ABQ are known for their collaborative spirit, sportsmanship, and general feeling of familia.Jonathan & Julia Wolfe
Father-Daughter Dynamic Duo
Jonathan Wolfe is the founder and executive director of the Fractal Foundation, an educational nonprofit that uses the beauty of fractals to inspire interest in science, math and art. He is also the co-founder and Chief Scientist of MeWe, a next-generation social network and communication platform. In his free time he designs, builds and flies tie-dyed hot air balloons. His daughter, Julia Wolfe, is a TEDxABQ alum, an avid Burning Man participant, a budding soccer star, and co-host of the KUNM Children’s Hour every Saturday morning.Polyphony Marimba
Marimba Band
Polyphony Marimba was founded in 2010 with the mission to get an acoustic ensemble of ten players together who wanted to make a life out of the roots music of southern Africa. Founder Peter Swing has taught the marimba music of Zimbabwe for 25 years and led four previous ensembles. Polyphony Marimba has played over 300 concerts around North America and has sold over 5,000 copies of its two albums. Over the last five years, Polyphony has established a steady circuit of gigs, particularly in the eastern United States. A third CD is presently in the works which was recorded with a stellar group of musicians right after a 33 date tour.The Handsome Family
Alternative Country and Americana Duo
The Handsome Family is a 20-year songwriting collaboration between husband and wife, Brett (music) and Rennie Sparks (words). Their lyrics and music are very intense, highly descriptive and full of meticulously-researched narrative and exhilarating musical re-imaginings of everything from Appalachian holler, psychedelic rock, Tin Pan Alley and medieval ballad. Of course you don’t have to be a music historian to love these songs. They are full of romantic longing for nature’s mysterious beauty and the tiny wonders of everyday life. They pair sweet melody with sad harmony, love poetry with dark beats. This is music that makes you shiver and cry, but also makes you happy to be alive.Alexandra Barr
Molecular Biologist
Alexandra Barr is a molecular biologist working in the field of clinical diagnostics. In graduate school, she developed a molecular test for determining the species of two hybridizing macaques - rhesus and long-tailed macaques. These are the two most commonly used non-human primate model for studying human diseases. Barr and her team at the University of California, Davis developed a rapid and accurate molecular test for determining the species of a biological macaque sample before downstream analysis. This assay improves analytical reliability and saves time and money. Barr's current research is aimed at improving the methods by which bloodstream infections are diagnosed. In her talk, she describes how this new, novel technology will save lives and revolutionize one of the most inefficient parts of our healthcare system.Cazandra Campos-MacDonald
Patient Advocate
Cazandra Campos-MacDonald is an educator by choice and an advocate by chance. She speaks across the country at events directed to families with bleeding disorders. Her writing includes a personal blog, a second blog specifically chronicling the journey of her two sons with hemophilia and inhibitors, and articles and blog posts written for various other publications. She is passionate about sharing her life, from the joys and fortunate experiences to the sorrow and heartbreak. She also shares from the depths of her heart to families of children with chronic illnesses to live in hope and not fear. Cazandra’s older brother died from complications to the same disorder as an infant. Her family lives in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. She serves as a patient advocate and holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Houston Baptist University.Chloe Nixon
Musician and Songwriter
Chloe Nixon is a 12-year-old singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She has performed at various Albuquerque venues including festivals, coffee houses, cafes, street concerts, and fundraising events. She is currently working on recording several of her original songs.Chris Clavio
Electronic Artist
Chris Clavio is an Electronic Artist and Entrepreneur who is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico. He is a senior and expects to graduate in May 2016. His artwork explores the sublime using light, sound, and interactive environments. As this year’s Artist in Residence, Clavio produced the stage design for TEDxABQ 2015. Clavio has shown work across the United States, most recently at Art Basel Miami where he presented his interactive Full Dome piece, Mind Chimes, that uses a brainwave headset to visualize and sonify a viewer’s brainwaves in real time on a full dome theater. Clavio’s next endeavor is working with Santa Fe based art collective, Meow Wolf, on their upcoming exhibition, The House of Eternal Return. Scheduled to open in January 2016, He has been participating in the design and installation of the LED lighting infrastructure as well as other interactive elements of the exhibition.Daniella Carter
LGBTQIA Youth Advocate
Daniella Carter is an advocate for LGBT youth. She has appeared on MSNBC, ABC, Daily News, People Magazine and in the Wall Street Journal. Carter was recognized on the 2015 Trans 100 list. She has worked with her mentor, Laverne Cox, and was featured in the Emmy award winning MTV & Logo TV documentary "Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word". In addition, Carter works to raise awareness of LGBTQIA youth homelessness. She recently shared her experience at the Humans Rights Campaign "Time to Thrive Conference" for LGBTQIA youth and attended the White House's Annual Emerging Leaders Day, highlighting 100 black leaders. Carter is a Human Rights Foundation Youth Ambassador and began working at Equality New Mexico in 2015 as their Policy and Program Coordinator.Dennis Ramirez
Educational Game Designer
Videogame researcher and designer Dennis Ramirez believes games are perfect for creating immersive and effective learning environments. Ramirez has been making games professionally, and independently, for over 10 years. His work on educational video games and failure has resulted in award-winning educational games, and invitations to speak at universities and companies internationally including Arhus University Denmark, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and LEGO.Divana Olivas
Food Justice Advocate
At 20 years old, Divana Olivas lost her mom to cancer. Her process of healing involves the Ruth Olivas Community Garden--a school-based garden that was dedicated to her mother, a loving teacher in the community. Olivas is a Chicana Studies graduate from the University of New Mexico, who hopes to continue healing alongside her community through spaces of empowering activism.Dora Wang
Psychiatrist
Dora Wang, M.D., is an award-winning psychiatrist, author, and blogger for the Huffington Post and Psychology Today. For more than a decade, she trained psychiatrists at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in the use drug-free, evidence-based, brief therapies for the treatment of anxiety and mood disorders. A graduate of the Yale School of Medicine and a former UCLA Anxiety Disorders Program chief resident, she has received the prestigious Milton Rosenbaum Research Award, and was listed as one of Albuquerque’s top doctors by Albuquerque Magazine. Her memoir, “The Kitchen Shrink: A Psychiatrist’s Reflections on Healing in a Changing World” was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She is the recipient of a Lannan Foundation Writer’s Residency and is an alumnus of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.Erica Elliott
Physician
Erica Elliott is a medical doctor with a busy private practice in Santa Fe, NM. Before settling in New Mexico, Elliott led an adventuresome life, living and working in unusual places around the world, including the Andes Mountains while in the Peace Corps, and on the Navajo Reservation as a school teacher at Canyon de Chelly in Arizona. She taught rock climbing and mountaineering for the Colorado Outward Bound School, and then led an all women’s expedition to the top of Denali in Alaska after her first year of medical school. Almost 25 years ago, Elliott joined a co-housing group in Santa Fe. At last, she found the antidote to feelings of isolation and disconnection. She raised her son in this community in a safe and happy environment. She chose to practice medicine in her clinic within the co-housing community, wanting to take advantage of the peaceful and uplifting setting. Being part of her co-housing community turned out to be one of the best decisions she’s ever made.Gail Rubin
Death Educator
Gail Rubin is a pioneering Certified Thanatologist – a death educator who uses humor and funny films to help teach about serious subjects. She was one of the first people to hold a Death Café in the United States. Known as The Doyenne of Death, she’s the author of A GOOD GOODBYE: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die. Gail’s motto is: Talking about sex won’t make you pregnant, and talking about funerals won’t make you dead.Gary Gonzales
Telemedicine Healthcare Provider
Gary Gonzales is a Registered Nurse in the State of New Mexico. Gary’s medical career began with a near death experience associated with his lifestyle of violence, drugs and incarcerations. This experience brought the entire complexity of Gary’s life to head for him; a choice had to be made to live or die. With the help of mentors and family Gary became a practicing Paramedic and Nurse in New Mexico for over 25 years. Gary created a robust and effective health care model that places the medicine in the hands of the clinicians and enures that patients receive the most focused health care possible. This model decreases government, insurance, hospital and, most importantly, patient costs; meanwhile taking health care to the most rural and needed locations in the state. Telemedicine Technology is a great tool. However medicine needs our greatest tool: the human clinician. Gonzales has never forgotten his past and uses it to better the human condition.Jessie Brown
Urban Beekeeper
It took the collapse of Jessie Brown's first hive for her to realize that the landscape we create around us lacks what nature needs to thrive. By doing the things that create better environments for the bees - growing flowering plants, providing water sources, and using pesticides and herbicides judiciously - we also create an urban landscape that's better for not only our honeybees, but for the food chain and for us. This vision leads Brown's work. She is the President of the New Mexico Beekeepers Association and proudly sits on the Board of Directors of the American Beekeeping Federation and Western Apicultural Society.Jessika Brown
Dietitian and Health Coach
Jessika Brown has worked in the healthcare industry for 12 years. As a dietitian and health coach, she works with clients on a daily basis who struggle to make health behavior changes. In her countless hours of sitting down and really listening to her clients and through her personal struggles, she has found what she believes to be the secret to success. Brown is a registered dietitian that specializes in sports dietetics and eating disorders. She loves to teach fitness classes and help others reach their full health potential so they can lead energetic and influential lives.Jodie Martinez
Property Manager with Ohkay Owingeh Housing Authority
Jodie Martinez is Native to the tribes of Ohkay Owingeh and Zuni. She started working for the Ohkay Owingeh Housing Authority seven years ago when she was twenty-two years old. Martinez immediately started participating in the Owe’neh Bupingeh Rehabilitation Project. She worked to qualify families to receive the assistance needed for the rehabilitation of their homes. In addition, she attended most construction meetings and was out on site during construction. She not only learned the paperwork for the compliance side of the projects but also the process of rehabilitation and restoration. Jodie was privileged to learn about her ancestors and how they lived. Being that she is a member of Ohkay Owingeh this project wasn’t just part of her job; it impacted her life, the lives of her family, and the lives of the community. Jodie Martinez is a full time college student with a family of her own. She is currently serving as the President of Moving Arts Espanola.Lauren Lewis
Personal Trainer
Lauren Lewis is the Social Media Manager for the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center. Lewis earned a bachelor’s in communications and journalism with an emphasis in public relations from the University of New Mexico in 2004. She is also a National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer and an experienced group fitness instructor.Lauren Poole
Comedian and Actress
Lauren Poole is a Performer based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was born and raised in Santa Fe, and moved to Albuquerque in 2004 to study Theatre at the University of New Mexico. At UNM she met other students who she would go on to work with as they formed Blackout Theatre Company- which began as a group of students producing sketch comedy shows and soliciting community members to teach workshops to fill the comedy gaps in their theatre training- and has grown into a multi-faceted non-profit ensemble company that produces mostly new works and runs a playwriting program in partnership with Albuquerque Public Schools. Lauren is also a member of the Screen Actors Guild, and an ensemble member of "The Show", a weekly improv show in downtown Albuquerque.Loren Fletcher Nickerson
Choreographer and Teacher
Loren Fletcher Nickerson has spent much of his life thinking in analogies and metaphors, discovering parallels that connect everything. While performing, teaching, and choreographing in over 100 cities in the United States and Canada, Nickerson has acquired mental encyclopedias filled with unique associations for many aspects of life. He has applied, honed and refined learning techniques taught in classrooms, corporate America, and five universities. Through examining teachings of master instructors and his professional journey, he has experienced and realized the power and importance of the apprenticeship. He believes that viewing education and life from this perspective will lead to highly useful learning, the awareness of our interconnectedness, and deeper, richer living. Over the years, Nickerson has been encouraged to “feel lighter, curious, empowered and realigned”. He invites you to join him.Max Baptiste
Adventure Capitalist
For over seven years, Max Baptiste has focused on business development, gamification, and hybrid billing in the video game industry. This work has shaped his unique outlook on life, keeping him passionate about how humans engage with art, music, technology, payments, psychology, data, and marketing.Nyika Allen
Technology Expert
Nyika Allen is the Executive Director of the New Mexico Technology Council. She is passionate about technology, startups, women's issues and the economic health of New Mexico. Along with her position at the NMTC, Allen is also the Tech Expert on 2KASA Fox, Director of Business Development at Volante Software and President of Nyika Media (www.nyika.tv).Steven Brumby
Computer Scientist
Growing up in Melbourne, Australia, Steven Brumby dreamed of taking part in the exploration of space. After studying theoretical physics for his PhD, Brumby was recruited by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to work on space-based astronomy and planetary exploration missions, including remote sensing of the Earth. At LANL he had the opportunity to invent machine-learning technology for satellite image analysis, and was involved in real-time analysis of catastrophic wildfires in New Mexico and in mapping the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. For the last 7 years Brumby led a team of researchers developing deep learning technology for exotic types of scientific imagery and video. As of December 2014, Brumby became the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Descartes Labs, a venture-backed start-up based in Los Alamos, New Mexico, applying machine learning and remote sensing technology to understanding the whole Earth from space.Vince Kadlubek
Art Collective Co-Founder
Vince Kadlubek is the co-founder and CEO of Meow Wolf, an arts collective that has transformed into an unprecedented arts production company. Kadlubek speaks about connecting with George RR Martin, author of Game of Thrones, and how this radical group of artists are now on the forefront of contemporary art. Meow Wolf is not just a production company. Meow Wolf is a set of philosophies rooted in collaboration, communication, and alternative business practices. Kadlubek explains how this unorthodox approach has produced more than just a successful company, but more importantly a deeply passionate and active community.Organizing team
