Theme: Thinking Across Boundaries

On Saturday April 16, 2016 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., the Black School of Business will host TEDxPSUErie in the Samuel P. “Pat” Black III Conference Center located in the Burke Center on the Penn State Behrend campus. TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a non-profit group devoted to ideas worth spreading.

We are looking for a diversity of voices and experiences to make critical additions to the TEDxPSUErie stage. If you have an idea that you would like to share, please complete the online submission form and upload a one minute video clip summarizing your topic at: http://www.tedxpsuerie.com/. The deadline for submissions is Monday February 22, 2016. Additional information can be found at the website.

Penn State Behrend
5101 Jordan Road
Burke 180
Erie, Pennsylvania, 16563
United States

Adam Williams

Attorney

Adam J. Williams is an Erie, PA native, a Penn State Behrend alumnus, and a semi-professional beer drinker. As an attorney, he represents companies of all shapes and sizes. He also represents individuals in a variety of lawsuits and real estate transactions. His TED Talk will take a traditional concept from economics (i.e., the network economy) and apply it to an unlikely industry (i.e., microbreweries). By working together, small brewers are able to compete with multi-national breweries. Adam would like people to consider the idea that collaboration can be a new way to achieve a monopoly. Perhaps cut-throat competition is not the path to growth that the experts have always assumed.

Amanda Pieper

Educator

Amanda Pieper is a thinker, an educator, and a lover of learning. Since graduating from Penn State Behrend in 2001, she has explored a number of roles and challenges across the world including teaching English in South Korea, serving as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in the West Indies, and working at various non-profits across the US. After finishing her MBA at Penn State Behrend in 2006, she started a career as a consultant with one of the country’s leading consulting firms. She has since changed firms and moved from Washington DC to Atlanta, GA.

Arpan Yagnik

Assistant Professor

'Action inspired by creativity’ is Dr. Arpan Yagnik’s mantra. A creative and critical thinker, Dr. Yagnik is a natural teacher and therefore has been a positive influence on professionals and his students. He is a determined professor who believes nothing is out of reach for his students and inspires conversations that enables students to reach their goals. Dr. Yagnik is a native of Ahmedabad, India and currently resides in the United States. He is a recipient of numerous awards and accolades for his contributions in the academia, corporate sector, and community through his scholarship, teaching, consulting and involvement.

Ashley White

Student

Ashley is a psychology major in her second year at Penn State Behrend. She is also an assistant manager for Vector Marketing Corporation, where she will be opening and running an office in Texas this upcoming summer in between school years. Her entire life has been centered around setting and achieving goals and creating a vision to strive for. It's because of this mentality that she's been able to grow so much in her short amount of time here on earth so far. She feels that she is neither the smartest nor the most talented of her peers, and she is certainly not done growing. Her ability to succeed is directly correlated with that of her parents, mentors, colleagues, and her fiancé.

Bobby Audley

Professional Speaker

Bobby Audley has worked with thousands of students and professionals across the country as a speaker, teambuilding facilitator, and trainer. Bobby began his career working in higher education as an Orientation and Leadership Specialist, and spent 3 years working for Project Ascent. In January 2016 Bobby gave his first TEDx talk titled, “Why You Shouldn’t Do Your Best.” He is active in his local business community serving as the coordinator of a non-profit Entrepreneur Center, and he is an active member of his alma mater’s Alumni Board.

Charisse Nixon

Professor

Dr. Charisse Nixon is currently a Professor of Psychology at Penn State Behrend. She trains educators throughout the United States providing a unique integration of empirical research and practical strategies to help caring adults create environments that optimize children and adolescents’ developmental outcomes. Her research interests currently include studying effective prevention and intervention efforts related to reducing peer mistreatment and its associated harm. Building students’ resiliency through mentoring is a core tenet of her work. Charisse has a heart for young people–for young people to actually thrive and not just survive, to be the best that they can be.

Jason LeVasseur

Music Performer

Jason LeVasseur is the most awarded music performer in the history of campus entertainment. He is the winner of 18 performance awards including “Male Performer of The Year”, “Solo Performer of The Year”, and “Music Performer of The Year”. Campus Activities Magazine recently named Jason as one of “top 5 most impressive artists in the last quarter century”. He is a keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, summer camp counselor, husband, father, drummer, guitarist, songwriter, recording artist, and the creator of “The Rock Star Project® - a series of creative student leadership development programs designed for students of all ages.

Joel Hunt

Joel Hunt is a composer and performer of algorithmic computer music and interactive electroacoustic music. His compositions have been performed at electronic music festivals throughout the world, including the International Computer Music Conference (Athens, Greece), New York City Electronic Music Festival, Electronic Music Midwest (Kansas City), Primavera Festival of Contemporary Arts and Digital Media (Santa Barbara), and the California Electronic Music Ex-change Concert Series (Los Angeles). Joel is a Lectur-er in Music and Digital Media, Arts, and Technology at Penn State Behrend. He teaches courses in music theory, electroacoustic music, and digital music production.

Yuanheng (Arthur) Wang

Student

Arthur comes from Kunming, China, and is currently the only international student majoring in English at Penn State Behrend. He serves as the ESL Teaching Assistant at Behrend's English Language Learner’s Program, providing instructional and tutorial support to the College's growing International and New American students in their academic English skills.