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 Commons
1794 East Baxter Lane
Bozeman, Montana, 59718
United States

The Bent Bones

The Bent Bones is an up-and-coming funk band from Bozeman, Montana. Band members Hunter Hessian (drums), Anthony Gaglia (guitar, lyricist), Kurt Binder (bass, backup vocals), and Cody Lindblom (vocals) are music scholars and perfectionists. The Bent Bones met as college students and decided to jam for fun, but soon discovered their musical chemistry was in need of further exploration. The group spent time fine-tuning and crafting the band’s sound in their studio, and then began to play shows. Assured in their sound, the band self-produced a self-titled EP which sparked the interest of Grammy award-winning producer and engineer, Doc Wiley. Together, the Bent Bones and Wiley recorded their latest album Drivin’ to the Rhythm which was released in January 2016. Since then, The Bent Bones has been playing shows and expanding its fan base throughout the Pacific Northwest while continuing to write, create, and progress.

Andrew Nakas

Andrew Nakas received his B.A. in Film from Montana State University in 2015 and applied the visual creative process cultivated in film school to the emerging virtual reality medium. In the past year, Andrew developed several virtual reality apps and games for smartphones that have been downloaded over half a million times. Andrew has also worked in the ad agency world, rapidly building virtual reality experiences for Fortune 500 clients. In addition to development, Andrew has been going back to his film roots shooting and publishing daily 360-degree virtual reality videos on Youtube under the pseudonym "360 Nakas." If Andrew is not playing in the mountains, he can be found either in front of his computer developing the future or consulting with student entrepreneurs to build the future at Montana State University’s Blackstone Launchpad.

Angie Kujala

Angie Kujala grew up in beautiful Ennis, Montana and has called Bozeman home since 1998. Angie is employed as a human resources specialist at Lone Peak Physical Therapy and spends her time as a stay-at-home mom. After nearly two years in an abusive relationship where she felt worthless and stripped of her confidence, Angie found the courage to leave and get help. Since then, she has found purpose in giving back and helping others realize that abuse doesn’t just happen to a certain type of person; it can happen to anyone. She strives to put an end to domestic violence in her community and help those affected by it when they find themselves feeling helpless and alone.

Anne Perkins

Dr. Anne Perkins, Ph.D., has been a professor at Carroll College in Helena, Montana since 1990. She received her Ph.D. in Animal Behavior in 1992 from the University of California, Davis and while chairing the Psychology department at Carroll College, she created the Human-Animal Bond Program. The classes were so popular that the program evolved from a minor to the Anthrozoology major and eventually became its own department in 2014. It is the only undergraduate degree of its kind in the country. Concurrent with her faculty career at Carroll, Dr. Perkins held an appointment as a cooperative research scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture for eight years. Her work resulted in several papers, a book chapter, and a patented drug protocol. Dr. Perkins' love of horses led to five years researching feral horses in the Pryor Mountains and drives her current passion for endurance riding.

Cathy Werner

Cathy Stone Werner is a gymnast turned modern dancer who loves to fly! She earned an M.F.A. in Choreography from the University of Colorado at Boulder and went on to study aerial arts with numerous aerialists around the country. In 2009 Cathy founded Montana's first aerial dance company, Mountain Air Dance, which operates out of The Emerson Center for the Arts and Culture in Bozeman. Through the melding of modern dance, gymnastics, yoga, pilates, and aerial arts, Cathy has created her own choreographic and teaching style that moves people through the vertical space on the stage and creates strong, healthy dancers. Her vision is to bring people together through the shared experience of flight and Cathy strives to pass her knowledge and love for the art on to future generations. Dancers: Melissa Dawn, Jackie Englehart, Suzann Kienast-Brown, Elise McNaughton, Michael O’Reilly

Erin Schattauer

Erin Schattauer was born and raised in Pennsylvania. After graduating from Allegheny College, she landed her first journalism job working for her hometown newspaper. In 2008, feeling drawn to the West, Erin settled in Bozeman, Montana. Since then she has worked as an online producer at KBZK TV, a reporter at The Bozeman Daily Chronicle, and is currently employed as the Digital Managing Editor at Townsquare Media. The heart of her work has always been telling and sharing stories. Erin is now telling her own story of domestic violence with HAVEN’s first-ever survivors speakers bureau, End the Silence, which seeks to give a voice to survivors of domestic violence in the hopes of helping others.

Garret Garrels

Garret Garrels is a writer, speaker, poet, and raconteur originally from Anaconda, Montana. He is the founder of an international women’s empowerment movement called Pink Gloves Boxing, which operates in over thirty locations across the United States, Sweden, and Norway. Twice Garret has finished in the semi-finals of the World Championship of Public Speaking, and in 2011, out of 35,000 contestants from 118 different countries, he finished in the top 18. He appears across the US and Europe as a humorous and inspirational speaker. Working in collaboration with artist Tim Holmes, he formed an international social art project called “Random Gifts of Art.”

Jessica Haas

As a lover of wide open wild spaces, Jessica Haas is passionate about creating better solutions for urban development to coexist with the natural world. Currently, Jessica is an ecologist with the Rocky Mountain Research Station where she conducts research on wildfires, natural hazards, and community planning. Her work has been used nationally to support hazard mitigation by major land managers and various state forestry departments and her research is published in both peer-reviewed scientific journals and news media sources from the Wall Street Journal to the Boston Globe. Jessica received her M.S. in Resource Conservation in 2010 from the University of Montana, where she is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Forestry. In a former life Jessica was a ski bum in Big Sky, Montana and in her free time she can still be found skiing and climbing throughout the mountains of the region.

Karin Kirk

Karin Kirk has her M.S. in Earth Sciences from Montana State University, but began studying climate change as a geology undergraduate in 1990 as it was first emerging as an issue of national importance. Since then, she has taught courses about climate change, ran energy conservation projects, worked on national-scale climate education efforts, and measured the effectiveness of NOAA’s Climate.gov website. While a scientist by training, Karin is particularly intrigued by the intersection of science and the human dimension. Lately she has been wading headlong into social media debates and seeing just what it takes to diffuse the heated and polarizing rhetoric. Karin also works as a ski instructor and Ridge Guide at Bridger Bowl and writes about skiing for both local and national publications. She and her husband Dave have lived in Bozeman for 16 years.

Kate Forrest

Kate Forrest is co-founder of INFLUENCE, a company that coaches individuals in delivering captivating messages. She also teaches sales, public speaking, interior design, conflict resolution, and in 2013 gave a three day practicum on rhetoric. Kate is an avid learner and gifted teacher. Her fascination with the memorization process led her to research and develop methods that allow learners to access their brain’s power of memory. She recently taught a class where students learned how to memorize anything, including names. Kate is a native Montanan and resident of Bozeman for the past 14 years. She adores her husband Chris and says raising their four children makes life a crazy, messy, wonderful adventure!

Kira Cassidy

Kira Cassidy was raised in Illinois where she developed a deep respect for wildlife and the outdoors through a childhood of (purposely) getting lost in the forest, raising three baby raccoons, and gardening for subsistence with her family. Kira holds her M.S. degree from the University of Minnesota, with projects focusing on territoriality and aggression between packs of gray wolves. Now working as a Research Associate for the Yellowstone Wolf Project, Kira’s scientific interests include territorial dynamics, the evolution of sociality, and the value of the individual in group-living species. Kira has assisted film crews in Yellowstone National Park and on Ellesmere Island, living with an arctic wolf family during the summer of 2014 in the effort to help communicate science to the public through different forms of media. Kira lives in Gardiner, Montana and can be found painting, reading, flying a kite, or exploring with her two distant wolf-descendants (hound dogs Badger and Wyatt).

LeaAnne Harbour

LeaAnne Harbour was born in Missoula, Montana and moved to Bozeman when she was two. LeaAnne fell in love with humanitarian work during a month-long mission trip to Ghana, West Africa in 1995. After graduating from Bozeman Christian School in 1998, she moved to a small town in Ohio where she helped start a Christian school. In 2007, LeaAnne moved her three children back to Bozeman and volunteered in the school from which she had graduated. Shortly after, she began working part-time for Rocky Mountain Bank where she is still currently employed. LeaAnne is involved with HAVEN and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Gallatin County and enjoys helping people live enriched lives through community connections.

Russ Chapman

Russ Chapman is an award-winning songwriter and performer with a penchant for writing smart songs that convey deep humor and a light heart. Born outside of Buffalo, NY and schooled in the Adirondack Mountains with a degree in wildlife ecology, the career transition from itinerant field biologist to traveling musician was fairly natural. Russ has recorded with two-time Grammy winners Riders in the Sky and collaborated with Earth, Wind and Fire co-founder Ronnie Laws. While in Nashville, Russ signed to Artistree Management and toured the southeast performing an original one-man musical for kids. After relocating to Colorado, Russ wrote and performed the folk musical, A Miner Life, and created a children’s radio drama entitled The North Fork Mountain Rangers. He also collaborated and performed with author Craig Childs at the annual Dark Night series and the author’s Literary Burlesque. Russ currently lives in Bozeman with his wife (a librarian), and teenage son (an aspiring ski-bum).

Sean Dudley

Sean P. Dudley is a native of Butte and enjoys hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, and photography. He has owned a consulting business, worked for an engineering firm, and for various resource corporations. He is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Materials Science at Montana Tech of the University of Montana and has accepted a job with the Naval Sea Systems Command. He holds a B.S. in Environmental Engineering and an M.S. in Metallurgical and Mineral Process Engineering. In his academic career, Sean has focused on responsible resource development. His Ph.D. work centers around economic and efficient rare earth element recovery under research programs for both the Office of Naval Research and the Army Research Laboratory. Sean’s research in the quantum mechanics of rare earth elements has uncovered an area for increased focus. The support of his family and two long-time advisors has been crucial for Sean’s development.

Sky Jones

Sky Jones is a natural resources and civil litigation attorney in Bozeman, Montana. When he is not in his office you can find him fly fishing on, or rowing his boat down, one of the many blue-ribbon trout fisheries in southwest Montana. Sky grew up on the plains of eastern New Mexico and west Texas before attending Baylor University on a track scholarship. After graduation, Sky chose Missoula and the University of Montana School of Law for many reasons, one of which was its proximity to good fishing, skiing, hunting, and hiking. Sky now runs the small law firm of Jones Law, P.C., focusing on civil litigation and oil and gas title examination. When not practicing law or fishing, Sky is volunteering as the President of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, Bozeman Aerie #326, and assisting with its various charities.

Thomas Jensen

Thomas Jensen is pioneering the bridging of good science, effective laboratory techniques, and bioinformatics to advance the biology of cancer. He founded and leads the MPI laboratories in Denmark and in the USA. Amongst Thomas' accolades are his inventions of molecular biological guidelines and techniques for high-quality RNA processing. This allows for high resolution analysis of cancer patients' biopsies. His inventions are an important foundation of MPI's Drug Response Prediction platform – a high resolution bioinformatics tool that predicts the sensitivity and resistance of anticancer drugs. Bozeman, Montana is Thomas’ sanctuary, where he enters his mental laboratory to hear himself think and concoct big ideas to help solve one of the 21st century's biggest problems – cancer. He basks in Bozeman's natural serenity equipped with fly rods and cameras. Montana is where he has discovered remarkable parallels between the art and science of fly fishing, photography, and solving cancer.

Tiara Trevino

Tiara Trevino was born in Colorado and moved around throughout her youth to hide from her mother's abuser. The abuse started when Tiara was 10 years old and as the oldest of four younger siblings, she felt the need not only to protect them, but to protect her mother as well. Tiara and her mother endured years of sexual abuse before finally finding the courage to leave. They secretly moved first to Washington and then to Montana, where Tiara attended high school while living in hiding. Due to therapy and HAVEN’s support group, Tiara was able to move on with her life and is now a student at Montana State University.

Tim Holmes

Tim Holmes is the first American artist ever invited to give a solo exhibit at Russia's Hermitage Museum. He has created many awards for international projects such as the U.N. Millennium Women's Peace Prize, PeaceLinks Award and others. Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and the late Coretta Scott King are among Tim’s best-known collectors. Though he is best known for his sculpture, Tim works in a variety of media and styles inspired by the human struggle, all pointing toward a more responsive, cooperative and sustainable future. Tim, who now lives in Helena, Montana believes that art will save the world.

Tom Stenzel

Tom Stenzel is a teacher, speaking coach, Aikido martial artist, and Bozeman business owner. He founded High Country Speakers where he coaches public speaking and was the owner and operator of the Western Heritage Inn for over thirty years. Between these roles and being an adjunct professor at Montana State University, his alma mater, Tom has trained thousands of people in customer service and communication skills. He has hundreds of stories dealing with the successes and failures from his time in the hospitality industry and he believes failure is one of the most powerful teachers. He applies the art of Aikido to his everyday philosophy of enticing the very best out of each individual through peace and respect.