Theme: Stretch

We strongly believe in the power of spreading big ideas, creating events for our local communities, and being part of the conversation. This years theme, "Stretch", calls for ideas that stretch our imagination, current beliefs and hopes for the future.

251 Charles E Young Drive West
Los Angeles, California, 90095
United States

Alireza Shabani

Research Scientist at Google

Andrew Jones

Computer Graphics Programmer and Inventor, USC

Andrew Jones is a computer graphics programmer and inventor at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technology. In 2004, Jones began working in cultural heritage, using 3D scanning techniques to virtually reunite the Parthenon and its sculptures. The resulting depictions of the Parthenon were featured in the 2004 Olympics, PBS’s NOVA, National Geographic, the IMAX film Greece: Secrets of the Past, and The Louvre. However computer generated worlds only truly come alive when combined with interactive human characters.Subsequently, Andrew developed new techniques to record dynamic human facial and full-body performances. These photoreal real-time characters have been used by companies such as ImageMetrics, Activision, Digital Domain and Weta for visual effects and games. As part of his PhD, Jones designed new display devices that can show 3D imagery to multiple viewers without the need for stereo glasses, winning “Best Emerging Technology” at SIGGRAPH 2007.

Dalida Arakelian

Dalida is on a mission to use music & creativity as a solution to positively impact the way we live, think, and behave together.

Erica Wohldmann

Ph.D. Psychology, CSUN Professor

Dr. Erica Wohldmann is a scientist, a passionate environmentalist, and a lover of unfenced country. She earned a joint Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and cognitive science from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 2006, and is currently an Associate Professor at California State University, Northridge where she teaches classes about the psychology of food choices, best practices in sustainability, ecopsychology, and positive psychology. Erica’s research on factors that influence food choices has been generously funded by the National Institutes of Health, and her work has been published in some of the leading peer-reviewed scientific journals as well as featured in Psychology Today and on the National Wildlife Federation website. She has been invited to speak about her research, sustainable agriculture, and best practices at conferences, to the California Neighborhood and City Council Coalitions, as well as in her community and at popular music festivals.

Finian Makepeace

Co-Founder and Policy / Partnerships Director at Kiss the Ground

Finian is a recording artist and lifelong activist, and the Co-Founder and Policy Director at Kiss the Ground. His passion for how people can shape the world led him to study political science at UCLA. Finian strives to make the world a more peaceful and harmonious place for humans and all of nature. Finian resides in Venice, loves to make music, build gardens, and bring people together for common causes.

Isadora Dantas

UCLA MBA Student

Isadora is an expert in being happy. With both a masters in Design & Technology from Parsons and a soon-to-be-completed MBA from UCLA Anderson, she has been through a wide set of careers, but her true talent lies on spreading joy among others. Originally from Brazil, she moved to the US in 2009 and found in the streets of NYC the best stage to perform urban interventions and solve daily problems with kindness. Over the years she was able to inspire people from more than 18 countries to join her on the task of making the world a happier place.

Janet O'Shea

Author, Martial Artist

Author, martial artist, and amateur neuroscientist Janet O’Shea is author of At Home in the World: Bharata Natyam on the Global Stage, co-editor of the Routledge Dance Studies Reader (second edition), and a member of the editorial review board for the Routledge Online Encyclopedia of Modernism. Having recently received a UCLA Transdisciplinary Seed Grant to study martial arts and cognitive function, she is currently working on a project entitled Risk, Failure, Play: What Martial Arts Training Reveals About Proficiency, Competence, and Cooperation. Her essays have been published in three languages and six countries. In addition to academic writing, she has published general non-fiction, dance journalism, and short fiction. She is Professor of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at UCLA.

Jay Phelan

Ph.D. Biology, UCLA Professor

Jay Phelan has been on the faculty of the UCLA Life Sciences Core Program since 1997, specializing in evolutionary biology, human behavior, and genetics. He received a Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard in 1995, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Yale and UCLA. He is co-author of the international bestseller, Mean Genes (Basic Books), and the author of the textbook What is Life? A Guide to Biology (Macmillan), as well as dozens of technical publications in biology and science education. He created the online adaptive testing website www.Prep-U.com. Jay has taught training courses for the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit since 2007. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, and he has appeared on ABC’s Nightline, CNN with Paula Zahn, the BBC, and National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation.

Jonathan Massachi

UCLA Undergraduate student, FuturizeX winner

Jonathan Massachi is a second year undergraduate student at UCLA studying Bioengineering with a focus on Medical Device Development. He currently conducting research in the UCLA Integrated Bioelectronics Research Laboratory with the hopes of developing an implantable system to help paralyzed patients with spinal cord injuries walk again. His passion for bio-inspired design and engineering led him to the idea of developing a solar panel that mimics nature’s original solar panel— grass. His idea utilizing a novel turf conformation of flexible solar cells recently won the grand prize in the XPRIZE and UCLA FuturizeX Student Innovation Challenge.

Kazandra Santana

Actress, Creator of Golden Shoes Project

Kazandra Santana was born in Puerto Rico and currently lives in Los Angeles California. She is an actress and creator of Golden Shoes Project. The inspiration for the Golden Shoes Project came about due to a series of personal loses unrelated to violence, her love for Puerto Rico and a desire to contribute to society in a meaningful way. She has worked closely with organizations such as G-8, Purpose Over Pain, Chicago Survivors and Parents for Peace & Justice. In 2016 she will be making The Golden Shoes Project a non for profit organization and mentor Golden Shoes Project-Jacksonville. The intention is to make #goldenshoesproject a nationwide movement.

Kristen Paglia

CEO P.S. ARTS

Dr. Kristen Paglia is the CEO of P.S. ARTS, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization dedicated to improving children’s lives by providing arts education to underserved public schools and communities. In addition to overseeing the quality, content, and evaluation of P.S. ARTS’ education programs, Dr. Paglia has led the organization through two strategic planning processes and works to keep educational equity and excellence for all children at the center of P.S. ARTS’ mission. Dr. Paglia is an active member of the state and national discourse around public education reform and has a seat at the table in numerous policy, advocacy, and planning groups, including the Los Angeles County Arts Commission Arts for All Community Arts Team in multiple school districts and the CA Alliance for Arts Education Policy Council. Dr. Paglia holds Masters’ Degrees in World Arts and Cultures from UCLA and Arts Education from Harvard University as well as a Doctorate from Harvard in cognitive psychology.

Laura Berg

Dancer

Laura Berg studied the Royal Academy of Dance curriculum at Los Angeles Ballet Academy until receiving her BFA in Dance from California Institute of the Arts. While also studying at London Contemporary Dance School, Laura had had the opportunity to collaborate with international designers and choreographers based in London, including company Dot2Dot. She is a member of Los Angeles-based company Acts of Matter as well as co-creator of WHYTEBERG, a platform for her collaborative work with Gracie Whyte. WHYTEBERG has performed at numerous events throughout the US and teaches their groovy and sweat-inducing floorwork and release class to professionals.

Mikael Jorgensen

Musician

Born in suburban New Jersey to Scandinavian immigrant parents, Mikael Jorgensen developed a fascination with music and its production while accompanying his father Joe, an accomplished New York recording engineer, to recording studios in NYC at age 7. From this technology-rich childhood, Mikael went on to gain formal education ranging from fine arts and video to electronics and computer science, a combination that now forms the core of his creative endeavors as a master of modern-digital and retro-analog production. Working at SOMA Studios in Chicago, owned by John McEntire of Tortoise, Mikael worked on records with artists like Stereolab, Rob Mazurek and The Aluminum Group. This period culminated with Mikael engineering Wilco‘s Grammy winning album “A Ghost Is Born,” during which he transcended his engineering role and began playing keyboards in the group, where he has been for over a decade.

Paul McCarthy

Martial Artist

Paul “The British Ninja” McCarthy has been studying movement and martial arts for over 20 years. He holds black belts in various martial arts including Filipino Martial Arts (FMA), Hapkido (4th degree) and Taekwondo (1st degree) and is an instructor of Savate, Muay Thai and Jeet Kune Do. With an MS from Indiana University in Kinesiology and through his experience coaching, teaching and managing various movement practices, Paul is fascinated by what makes the body ‘tick’. He is currently working with Neuroscience Professors at UCLA, University of Victoria and University of Illinois to study how martial arts movement patterns improve cognitive function. Paul’s philosophy is that movement is vital to a happy and healthy life and that training and opening your mind to multiple arts, whether combative or healing, is the true path to maximizing your learning potential.

Peter Abraham

President at Abraham | Content Marketing & Branding Expert

Peter Abraham helps purpose-driven organizations tell their stories. Through his experience with entrepreneurship, content creation, and technology, Peter’s developed a unique point of view that encourages business to be a force for positive change in the community.

Raphael Landovitz

MD / MSc HIV and Aids Prevention and Treatment, UCLA

Raphael Landovitz’s clinical research career focuses on optimizing the use of HIV antiretroviral therapy for both HIV treatment and HIV prevention. Dr. Landovitz was trained at Princeton University and Harvard Medical School. He completed post-graduate training in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (1996-1999) and Infectious Diseases and HIV Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital (1999-2001). He works in the DAIDS-funded AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) and the NICHD-funded Adolescent Trials Network (ATN), and serves as the Clinical Research Site leader of the UCLA CARE Center Clinical Research Site for the DAIDS-funded networks. He is the principal investigator of a multisite PrEP demonstration project in Los Angeles County, and the protocol chair of Phase 2a and Phase 2b/3 studies of long-acting injectable PrEP using GSK1265744 (cabotegravir).

Ryland Engelhart

Co-Owner / Chief Inspiration Officer of Cafe Gratitude, Co-Founder of Kiss The Ground

Ryland Engelhart is a Co-Owner and Chief Inspiration Officer of Cafe Gratitude, and the Co-Founder of Kiss The Ground, a non-profit that inspires and educates the public about the connection between soil, human and planetary health. Ryland was the co-creator of an award-winning, transformational documentary film, called “May I Be Frank.” He is is an activist, inspirational speaker and life coach, dedicated to culture, love, building community and demonstrating sustainability in business. He leads workshops in California on sacred commerce, relationship and communication.

Tara Prescott

UCLA Faculty, Writing

Dr. Tara Prescott is a Lecturer in Writing Programs and Faculty in Residence at UCLA. She is the editor of Neil Gaiman in the 21st Century and her research interests include poetry, comics, popular culture, modernism, and James Joyce. Dr. Prescott serves as a Volunteer Exhibit Diver at the Aquarium of the Pacific and is currently planning her second solo backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail.

Tom Weisner

UCLA, Professor of Anthropology and Psychiatry

Tom Weisner is an emeritus professor of anthropology and psychiatry at UCLA. He studies and teaches about culture and human development; families and children at risk; and evidence-informed policies to improve the lives of children and families. He has done research in Kenya on the effects on children and parents of rural-urban migration; in Delhi, India on families and children with autism; supports for working poor families in Wisconsin; families with children with disabilities in Los Angeles; hippie and countercultural families and children in California; sibling caretaking and education in Hawaii; non-parental and sibling caretaking around the world; and gratitude and school achievement among Latino adolescents and families in Los Angeles. He has served on the Board of the NGO ChildFund International. He went to Reed College (BA) and Harvard (PhD). He is married to Susan Meade Weisner, and has two sons and four beautiful grandchildren.

Victoria Young

Uber | KPCB Product Fellow | MIT Sloan MBA

Fascinated by how technology can shape culture by accelerating the spread of ideas and changing of attitudes and behaviors, Victoria tracks patterns in how people think, respond, and interact with new technology-driven experiences. Victoria studied mass media communications and business at UCLA and technology and entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan / Media Lab. At the intersection of data and creativity, Victoria integrates methods from behavioral economics, social psychology, business, and design, using multi-disciplined thinking to tease out nuances in technology that shape human behavior and define the spread of ideas through connection. A KPCB Product Fellow, Victoria currently works at Uber where she helps drive the growth of ideas, teams, and products that scale exponentially to transform the cultural landscape of cities by using bits to move atoms.