Theme: Breaking Barriers

Set for April 22nd, 2016, TEDxCSUN "Breaking Barriers" will bring together a talented array of CSUN alumni, students, and faculty to showcase CSUN's most innovative research and ideas. The focus is to look into breaking interdisciplinary, social, communication, and medical barriers within the local community and the Los Angeles County.

Black Box Theater
18111 Nordhoff St
Northridge, California, 91330
United States

Alvaro Castillo

Student

Alvaro Castillo is a senior at California State University, Northridge, majoring in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. Alvaro first migrated to the United States with his parents at the age of three and has lived in Oregon, Utah and California. Currently, Alvaro is an intern at CSUN’s DREAM Center where he contributes to campus outreach initiatives and serves as a peer mentor for undocumented students who seek academic and/or personal guidance. Recently, Alvaro was a participant in a study abroad program exclusively designed for undocumented students. Nearly twenty years later, Alvaro was able to reconnect with his roots and learn, firsthand, about the country of his birth, Mexico. He hopes to see the number of study abroad programs available for undocumented students grow. Graduating in May, Alvaro plans to continue his studies and obtain either an M.F.A. or a Ph.D. in Creative Writing so that he may continue to communicate the undocumented experience.

Ana Kasparian

Host and Producer of The Young Turks

With a sharp sense of humor and pointed wit rivaling anyone in the industry, Ana Kasparian has captivated viewers as host and producer of the online news show “The Young Turks,” (TYT) a show covering politics, pop culture and lifestyle. Her bold and intelligent style has transformed her into a favorite of millions, while playing a vital part to the astronomical rise of TYT, the largest online news show in the world. Kasparian's success in building a new media powerhouse placed her on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2015. While flourishing in her broadcasting career, Kasparian is also a columnist for Raw Story, and a journalism professor. She began teaching broadcast journalism at California State University Northridge in the Fall of 2013, and realized her intense passion for education.

Andrew Lucas

Advocate+Poet

Drew Lucas, U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran has created a new way to serve, finding his voice, performing his words, and journey through Spoken Word poetry. Advocate and artist, sharing his story of holistic healing throughout Southern California veteran’s community, creating platforms of healing since 2013 by way of grassroots event such as Battle Class, a annual Veteran Day tribute concert. Drew created a platform to cope and help others that served; he has since worked closely with organizations including the Wounded Warrior Project, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), Operation Engage America and The Soldiers Project. Continuing his service to the community, linking up with Street Poets Inc., a non-profit poetry-based peace-making organization dedicated to the creative process for individual transformation for at-risk youth in the juvenile detention facilities, schools and streets of Los Angeles County.

Carla Martinez

Student, DREAM Center Intern, Dreams to be Heard Co-Chair

Carla Daniela Martinez is a 19-year-old sophomore attending California State University, Northridge where she is majoring in Deaf Studies with the aspirations of becoming an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter. Carla is undocumented as her family migrated from Lerdo, Durango, Mexico to Boyle Heights in Los Angeles in 1996 when she was 9 months old. She is committed to sharing her experiences as an undocumented student through her work in order to help other students throughout their academic and personal journeys. Serving as an intern at the CSUN DREAM Center, she coordinates outreach initiatives in order to foster a sense of inclusive community across campus. Most recently, Carla has started a research project that focuses on the barriers that exist for undocumented and deaf students locally. She is passionate about sharing knowledge that will benefit the greater good and as such she interested in policy studies and her ultimate goal is to attend law school.

David Alba

Co-founder and CEO, GRID Logistics Inc.

David Alba is Co-founder of GRID Logistics Inc., a Cleantech-Infrastructure development company promoting a triple bottom line business model to benefit people, planet & profit. Born and raised in Boyle Heights just east of Los Angeles, David is the youngest of seven children. David's attributes his unique strategic thinking abilities with his Kindergarten to sixth grade-school experience. There, David won 7 consecutive 1st place Chess Championships at every annual L.A. Unified School District County-wide Tournament. David graduated from USC's School of International Relations. David has 20 years in commercial distribution logistics with 7 years management experience involving ship-to-shore, railroad freight, and Container Yard/Gate operations at the 2nd largest container terminal facility in America. David's life & professional experiences led him to develop an internationally renowned expertise in connecting large port-to-regional inland freight trading networks.

Josh Ripley

Lead Trainer TITLE Boxing Club Newbury Park, personal Trainer, Fitness/Wellness consultant

With over 30 years of Martial arts experience and a military background Josh Ripley has been involved in the health and Fitness industry for some time. A former CSUN Alumni as well as a former K-1 Fighter He later turned to worked with professional Boxing and MMA alike with such people like Brandon Rios, Mikey Garcia, among others A native Hawaiian, he currently resides in southern california where he is the Lead Trainer For TITLE Boxing, As well as Co-directs their PD Fighters program. A program that helps people with Parkinson's Disease fight their symptoms via boxing and intense forced exercise.

Nicholas Taylor

US Skeleton Team

Nic Taylor was a track and field athlete at CCSF and Cal State Northridge. While at Northridge Taylor majored in Psychology, and earned deans list, and Big West Championship honors in the sport of Track and Field. Taylor proposed to his teammate Elana Meyers Taylor in 2013 at the IBSF World Championships in 2013. They are now happily married. Taylor has coached at UCLA, the Chula Vista Olympic Training Center and Altis, formerly known as the World Athletics Center. He currently consults for various National Governing Bodies and organizations in high performance, speed training and strength and conditioning. This past summer, Taylor assisted Dan Pfaff in coaching the first and second place finishers in the men's long jump at the IAAF World Championships. Taylor is now pursuing a second bachelors degree in engineering from Arizona State University. He also consults in the Strength and Conditioning, and Sports Technology departments at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center.

Roy Salter

Senior Advisor and leader of FTI Consulting, Inc.

Roy Salter is a Senior Advisor and leader of FTI Consulting, Inc. Mr. Salter joined FTI concurrent with the acquisition of The Salter Group (TSG) in Dec 2012. TSG was a leading independent financial and strategic advisory firm founded in Jan 2003, providing forecasting valuation & financial opinions in the entertainment industry. Previous to TSG, Mr. Salter was a managing director at Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, where he established and co-managed the firm's industry group practice, and pioneered the establishment of analytic methods used throughout the world to evaluate entertainment and media businesses, assets and investments. Mr. Salter is a Doctoral candidate at Grenoble E’cole de Management in France; holds an M.B.A. from LMU; and a B.S. in Bus. Admin. from CSUN. He is a founder and member of the board of directors for California United Bank; and a founder and board member of Royalty Review Council, LLC; Crunch Digital, LLC; Apotheosis Media Group, LLC; and Good Films, LLC.

Tom White

Co-Founder, Partner at IG

Tom White is an expert in positioning organizations for market leadership, with a distinguished career centered on design thinking and harnessing human emotion to fuel attraction. A skilled storyteller and consumer experience architect, Tom has developed brand strategies that have helped raise billions for companies like Motorola, Volvo, Philips, Unilever and others. He helped Lockheed-Martin win the $70 billion F-22 fighter jet contract, and he has achieved unprecedented growth for design firms, advertising agencies, academic institutions and entrepreneurial ventures. Today, Tom is a founding partner at Insight-Growth (www.insight-growth.com), a consultancy dedicated to helping brands improve recognition, attachment, reputation and revenues in a fast, hyper-connected world. Tom holds an MBA from Pepperdine University, and a degree in industrial design from CSUN where he earned top honors from the Industrial Design Society of America.

Wendy Yost

Educator

Wendy L. Yost is an educator at heart, who bridges the spiritual and practical to help people reconfigure their thoughts and lives so more of their time, energy and attention is available for what matters most. Whether in class helping students enhance their current lives while paving their futures, partnering with Fortune 500 companies to help employees navigate organizational change, or using storytelling to impart coaching principles in support of the SimpleReminders.com community of five million+ subscribers, Wendy is passionate about exploring topics in ways that leave people inspired to take action. As a member of CSU, Northridge's Adjunct Faculty, Wendy was honored with a Distinguished Teaching Award and the Leadership class she has instructed 20+ times was voted "Best Class on Campus". In addition to her teaching and entrepreneurial pursuits, Wendy infuses her love of nature, ritual and ancient wisdom into monthly events in Los Angeles.