Theme: Thrive

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDxHarrisburg is a locally organized event to inspire attendees to thrive in, and alongside, Harrisburg. Please visit TEDxHarrisburg.com, or email Ashleigh at TEDxHarrisburg@gmail.com for more information. Tickets go on sale August 19 at Noon.We are no longer accepting speaker applications for this event.

The Midtown Cinema
250 Reily Street
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, PA
United States

Al Chiaradonna

Al Chiaradonna is a self-proclaimed “Minister of Integration”. While he is not an actual minister, he is a husband, a dad, a coach, a friend and a business executive who has spent the last two decades trying to make his way in the world by “marrying” life and work. To him, it’s not a balance of one over the other, but rather a limitless set of experiences that have afforded him a career designed to enable the life he is blessed to lead.

Bailey Richert

Bailey Richert is a business coach who helps individuals launch profitable online enterprises as “infopreneurs”: respected experts in their fields creating value and generating income by sharing their life experience, knowledge and passions with others in a manner that supports their ideal lifestyles.

Brant Hansen

Brant Hansen is a nationally-syndicated radio host, does extensive work for CURE International, and he is author of Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better. He's @branthansen on Twitter.

Bryan Speece

Bryan Speece holds a Degree in Electrical Technology from Harrisburg Area Community College. He has a passion for art and startups. In his most recent venture Speece combined these passions to create Murality, an app to find and share public art.

Chuck Russell

Chuck Russell is a Central Pennsylvania entrepreneur passionate about technology startups and entrepreneurship. He is a co-Founder of Collective Intelligence Inc, an information technology consulting firm. Chuck also serves as the president of the Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania.

Dr. Melissa Vayda

Dr. Vayda has dedicated much of her career to higher education and the study of social constructions that limit individual potential. Currently serving as an Education Strategist for Penn State University College of Medicine, she is helping to develop and implement an innovative approach to medical education.

Eric Waters

Dr Eric Waters is a lifelong educator whose vocation exists as a hybrid of business and the ongoing provision of educational opportunities for underserved populations. As an edupreneur, Dr Waters continues to establish inroads towards the creation of uniquely framed and broadly diverse early childhood educational programming.

Josh Crain

Josh Crain is the Senior Pastor of The Meeting House, a flourishing multisite church in south-central Pennsylvania. He is a frequent speaker for businesses, churches, retreats, and conferences. He and his wife, Emily, have been married for 13 years and live in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with their sons, Jack and William.

Lynn Shiner

Lynn Shiner is an award-winning author of "Stabbed in the Heart" who dedicated most of her career to crime victims. As the Director of the Pennsylvania Office of Victims' Services, she oversaw the distribution of more than $100 million dollars in state and federal funding to meet the needs of crime victims throughout the Commonwealth. She's the recipient of countless awards including the National Crime Victim Service Award presented by John Ashcroft and the Visionary Voice Award by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

Pedro Cortés

Pedro Cortés, a native of Carolina, Puerto Rico, is Pennsylvania Secretary of State. He is the first confirmed Latino Cabinet official and longest serving Secretary of State in the Commonwealth history. Among other duties, Cortés oversees elections in Pennsylvania and is a former President of the National Association of Secretaries of State.

Stephanie Jirard

Stephanie Jirard is a former Navy Judge Advocate, trial lawyer at the US Department of Justice, and death-penalty defense lawyer for the state of Missouri. She now teaches criminal justice at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.

Tika Dhungana

Tika Ram Dhungana is a former refugee from Bhutan. He spent 18 years of his young life in the refugee camp in Nepal, Resettled to USA is n 2010. In USA , he became the author of "Satisfaction and Service: A Grand Source of Success." He is the founding President of "Bhutanese Community in Harrisburg" and police advisory council member of Swatara Township Police. He currently works as a Area Manager for Intranational Home Care LLC.