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).

Bay Area Discovery Museum
557 McReynolds Rd
Sausalito, California, 94965
United States

ABADÁ Capoeira Marin

ABADÁ-Marin was founded to extend the award-winning youth and adult programs of ABADÁ-San Francisco to the Marin County community. ABADÁ-Capoeira Marin was founded by Helisângela Silva Willoughby, also known as Lisa, a longtime student of one of the top-ranked female capoeiristas in the world, Mestra Márcia “Cigarra” Triedler, at ABADÁ-San Francisco. ABADÁ Capoeira’s mission is to spread the African-Brazilian martial art form of capoeira worldwide, while simultaneously promoting good character, respect, and dignity.

Alan Maskin

Alan Maskin is an owner and principal of Olson Kundig—an award-winning, Seattle-based design firm. For over two decades he has focused on the design of museums, installations, and exhibitions including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Visitor Center, Microsoft’s Cybercrime Center, Noah’s Ark at the Skirball, The Frye Art Museum, Bezos Center for Innovation, Bay Area Discovery Museum, and three rooftop parks in South Korea. Maskin has won two international design competitions this year for the design of a new museum at the Jewish Museum of Berlin, and he was awarded first place for Blank Space Project’s Fairy Tales competition.

Ali Partovi

Described by the San Jose Mercury News as one of “Silicon Valley’s top angel investors,” Ali Partovi has backed Airbnb, Dropbox, Facebook, Uber, and Zappos. In 2013, Partovi helped his twin brother Hadi launch Code.org, which promotes computer science education and has introduced 200 million kids to computer programming via the “Hour of Code.” Early in his career he cofounded LinkExchange and later iLike.

Alison Gopnik

Alison Gopnik is a professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. She is an internationally recognized leader in the study of children’s learning and development and was the first to argue that children’s minds could help us understand deep philosophical questions. Gopnik received her B.A. from McGill University and her Ph.D. from Oxford University. She is the author of more than 100 journal articles and several critically acclaimed books including The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children; The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells us About the Mind; and The Philosophical Baby: What Children’s Minds Tell us About Love, Truth, and the Meaning of Life.

Beth Hennessey

Beth Hennessey is a professor of psychology at Wellesley College, and she studies the powerful link between intrinsic task motivation and creativity performance. Hennessey frequently teaches a seminar on the psychology of creativity, a course on research methods in educational psychology, and a class on the psychology of teaching, learning, and motivation. Teaching is what makes her “tick.” She studies it, writes about it, and does it fueled by her own unending intrinsic motivation.

Blythe Harris

Award-winning entrepreneur, fearless innovator, and trend authority, Blythe Harris is the creative force behind the highly successful accessories brands Stella & Dot and KEEP Collective. Originally inspired by her grandmother Dot’s vintage jewelry box, Harris is passionate about mixing the beauty of vintage design and craftsmanship with a modern sensibility. Her design experience is truly global, ranging from working with local artisans in India and Ecuador to the fashion houses in Paris. A true left brain right brain creative, Harris spent time as a visiting artist at Parsons Paris and also received her M.B.A. from Columbia University. In 2014, Harris and her partner Jessica Herrin co-founded KEEP Collective, a new proprietary charm concept that is one of the world’s fastest growing accessories brands. Harris thrives at the intersection of creativity and business, lending her expertise and vast industry knowledge to mentor the next generation of creative leaders.

Daniel Kaufman

Daniel Kaufman is cofounder and principal of Third Plateau Social Impact Strategies. He has worked with a diverse array of clients, including large, national foundations, emerging social enterprises, pioneering nonprofit collaboratives, and impact-driven corporations. Kaufman leads Third Plateau’s innovation initiative, an effort to think critically about and better serve the social sector in a rapidly changing landscape. Through this work, Kaufman has developed an interest and commitment to design thinking and network building. He is a firm believer that people are the key to social change. Across all of his engagements, he prioritizes listening to stories, building enduring relationships, and cultivating partnerships.

Elizabeth Rood

Elizabeth Rood serves as director of the Center for Childhood Creativity, as well as vice president of education strategy for the Bay Area Discovery Museum. With more than 15 years of experience in formal education, Rood has worked as a teacher, principal, and executive director in small urban schools focused on personalization, equity, and progressive education. Rood holds a B.A. from Brown University, teaching and administrative credentials from Mills College, and a doctorate in educational leadership from Mills College. Her doctoral research, drawing heavily from psychological constructs such as learning mindset, self-efficacy, and stereotype threat, focuses on the role of “care” in teachers’ relationships with Latino male students entering high school substantially behind in academic skills.

Fumiko Hoeft

A professor of child and adolescent psychiatry, Fumiko Hoeft’s current research program focuses on brain development, and brain mechanisms underlying skill acquisition such as language and reading, and educationally relevant concepts such as motivation, mindset, grit, and stereotype threat. She is particularly passionate about her research in dyslexia and autism. Hoeft trained in clinical medicine in Tokyo, Japan (Keio University) and received neuroscience research training at Harvard University; University of California, Los Angeles; and Stanford University. She has published more than 100 articles in journals such as Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences and Journal of Neuroscience.

Kendra Shimmell

Kendra Shimmell is the new head of service design at AP/Capital One. She was formerly managing director at Cooper, an award-winning design and business strategy consultancy, where she nurtured and empowered designers, educated businesses on the value of design, and provided the tools to integrate design at the core of business innovation, process, and decision-making. As an educator, speaker, and designer, Shimmell has brought product strategy, service design, and business guidance to companies ranging from Fortune 500s to startups in a range of categories, from healthcare systems and medical devices to retail environments, consumer electronics, financial services, enterprise management, and more. As the creator of Cooper’s groundbreaking UX Boot Camp, Shimmell’s vision of pairing real-world design training with meaningful projects has led to student-designed solutions for nonprofit organizations such as Fair Trade USA, Kiva, and Wikipedia.

Khafre Jay

Khafre Jay has been a pillar of the hip hop community in San Francisco for a decade, working with San Francisco’s B-Pos. His experience in merging activism and expressive cultural arts led him to found Hip Hop For Change. Jay worked in the nonprofit sector for small, local justice groups to huge, international environmental organizations. He has spent many years doing work with disadvantaged young people, using his hip hop roots to bridge social gaps, and help kids find identity through their culture.

Nishtha Bhatia

Nishtha Bhatia is currently a sophomore at Stanford University, and considers herself a STEMinist. She is passionate about achieving gender parity in the tech sector, as evidenced by her involvement with Girls Who Code, she++, and the National Center for Women in Technology (NCWIT). Bhatia is interested in exploring the connection between human psychology and computer science and this intersection has served as a catalyst for her own self-transformation.

Patrick Remer

Patrick Remer is a Bay Area librarian with a passion for storytelling and selfdirected learning. He currently runs the Pleasant Hill Community Library in Contra Costa County, where his team sparks curiosity and lifelong exploration through activities ranging from musical storytimes to Lego robotics. Remer has worked in educational settings from preschool to high school, and has served families for nearly a decade in public libraries. He is currently active in the California State Library’s Early Learning with Families Initiative.

Paul Kocher

Paul Kocher founded the Cryptography Research Division at Rambus and leads the company as its president and chief scientist. Kocher has gained an international reputation for his research and innovative designs in cryptography. An active contributor to major conferences and leading security initiatives, Kocher has designed numerous cryptographic applications and protocols, which are successfully deployed in real world systems. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2009, and inducted into the National Cyber Security Hall of Fame in 2014.

Randy Swearer

Randy Swearer is the vice president of Autodesk Education Experiences, where he works to empower students on a journey of lifelong learning through problem-solving, collaboration, and design thinking. Prior to Autodesk, Swearer was dean of Parsons School of Design and provost at Philadelphia University. He also served as the deputy director of the design program of the National Endowment for the Arts and was the Design Division head in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas. There, he was awarded a Texas Excellence Teaching Prize.

Stephan Turnipseed

Stephan Turnipseed is the executive vice president and chief strategy officer of Destination Imagination, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching students the creative process through solving open-ended science, technology, engineering, visual arts, and mathematics (STEAM), as well as social entrepreneurship challenges. He is an advocate for hands-on learning, which he sees as instrumental for 21st century success. Throughout his career, Turnipseed has led companies and organizations to transformative success. As the former president of LEGO® Education North America, he led the team responsible for transforming LEGO® Education in North America from a product sales company to an educational resource leader, working with educators, industry experts, and academia to help inspire all children to be creative problem solvers.