Theme: What must be done?

TEDxDePaulUniversity is an independently run, self-organized event. Through the theme “What must be done?” our speakers from across the DePaul community will aim to challenge thoughts and inspire ideas through a series of engaging talks and presentations.

What is TEDx?
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.

This independent TEDx event is operated under license from TED.

Daley Building
14 E. Jackson Blvd.
Room LL105
Chicago, Illinois, 60604
United States

Alyssa Westring

Westring is an associate professor of management at DePaul University with a doctorate in industrial and organizational psychology. Her scholarly work can be found in outlets such as Academic Medicine, The Journal of Vocational Behavior and Human Resource Management. She is a founding member of the Research Partnership for Women in Science Careers and a coach with the National Center for Faculty Diversity and Development. As a 2014 Op-Ed Project Public Voices Fellow, her writing can also regularly be seen in popular media outlets such as the Huffington Post, Harvard Business review, and Chronicle of Higher Education blogs.

Derise Tolliver Atta

Tolliver Atta is a faculty mentor and tenured associate professor in DePaul University’s School for New Learning. She describes herself as a clinical psychologist by training and a healer by nature. Her life’s mission is to help people “re-member” who they truly are, which she facilitates through her teaching, scholarship and service. Tolliver Atta has written and presented on African-centered education and psychology, spirituality and culture in adult learning, competence-based education, international education and program development, happiness, wellness, and healing from racism and oppression. She has been recognized at the university level for excellence in teaching and her commitment to diversity and social justice. Tolliver Atta also takes adult learners on short-term study abroad programs to West Africa and has directed a bachelor’s degree completion program for adult learners in Nairobi, Kenya. She is also a poet.

Dorothy Griggs

Griggs publishes under the imprint of her self-titled indie publishing company. Her work includes a novel called “Sisters-in-Spirit (An Old-School Love Story),” and an upcoming semi-autobiographical book that deals with the journey of self-discovery, self-healing and self-love and is scheduled for release in June 2016. Griggs is a DePaul University alumna, a current graduate student in the School for New Learning, and works in the university’s Division of Student Affairs.

Fr. Edward Udovic

Udovic has served as senior executive for university mission since he joined DePaul University in 1995. His roles at the university include secretary, vice president for teaching and learning resources and senior executive for University Mission where he leads the Office of Mission and Values in coordinating the institution’s ongoing efforts to enhance its Catholic and Vincentian identity. In addition, Udovic is also an associate professor in DePaul’s History Department. He has authored several books, articles, book chapters and translations, and in 2010 he served as executive producer and co-writer for the documentary “Vincent de Paul: Charity’s Saint.” He received his bachelor’s degree in history from DePaul in 1976 and was ordained at DeAndreis Seminary in 1984 where he also earned a Master of Divinity Degree. He received a master’s degree in modern European history at Saint Louis University in 1989 and his doctorate in church history at The Catholic University of America in 1997.

Gabrielle Presbitero

Presbitero was 7 years old when her family immigrated to the north side of Chicago, and has since split her time between the U.S. and her native Philippines. She was 16 years old when she began her college career at DePaul University. The different cultures she was immersed in as a young child provided her with a unique perspective on motivation and self-growth. Her drive to succeed stems greatly from her parents, whose perseverance and work ethic embody the promise of the American Dream. Now a sophomore, Presbitero studies biology and enjoys her work in scientific research.

Jacqueline Martinez

With aspirations to enter the world of diplomacy, foreign policy and constitutional law, Martinez has traveled to and lived in the Middle East, South America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Washington, D.C. and New York while attending DePaul University. Now a fourth-year student, Martinez has spent her undergraduate career researching comparative international educational practices in hopes of one day developing education as a global human right and reversing its modern day commodification. She co-founded NetWings, a nonprofit dedicated to creating international education opportunities for youth while instilling values of global literacy and cross-cultural understanding. Identifying education as an “equalizer,” Martinez views education as the solution to eradicating global injustices, elevating cultural understanding, and a source in protecting the vital voices of those oftentimes left unheard.

Ken Butigan

Butigan teaches in the Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies Program at DePaul University. His doctoral work explores nonviolence in five religious traditions. For three decades, he has been a change-maker in a series of justice and peace movements, including campaigns focused on homelessness, nuclear weapons and the U.S. war in Iraq. Since 1990, he has worked with Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service, a nonprofit aimed at mainstreaming peacemaking, where he has led workshops and trainings for thousands of people. In 2014, he helped launch Pace e Bene’s “Campaign Nonviolence,” a long-term movement to foster a culture free from war, poverty, racism, environmental destruction and the epidemic of violence. He has published a series of books, including “Pilgrimage Through a Burning World: Spiritual Practice and Nonviolent Protest at the Nevada Test Site.” He lives in Chicago with his spouse Cynthia Okayama Dopke and their daughter Leah.

Kinza Khan

Khan is an alumna of DePaul University’s College of Law and currently practices as a domestic violence attorney at a legal services non-profit in the Chicago suburbs. During her studies at DePaul, Khan was involved in the Center for Public Interest Law and was a fellow at the International Human Rights Law Institute where she conducted research on the U.N. Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. Khan received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she studied international studies, political science and Islamic world studies. She is interested in civil rights, international human rights law, and public interest law serving marginalized populations. Khan enjoys traveling, running, reading, and writing.

Laith Saud

Saud is a writer, scholar and activist. He is currently a visiting assistant professor of religious studies at DePaul University, co-author of “An Introduction to Islam in the 21st Century,” and a contributing writer to The New Arab. Saud is also the founder of Laith Saud Media, a firm consulting and guiding on issues pertaining to the greater Muslim world.

Mark McGreevy

For 26 years, McGreevy has worked to bring an end to global homelessness through the UK-based NGO Depaul International, which coordinates the activities of a group of homelessness charities around the world. A native of Middlesbrough, England, McGreevy is a recipient of the Order of the British Empire, which was awarded by Prince Charles for his international contribution to homelessness service. McGreevy will spend the next year and a half in residence in Chicago at DePaul University’s Institute of Global Homelessness – which he founded in 2014 – raising funds to support the organization and developing tools to help address homelessness.

Shailja Sharma

Sharma is an associate professor of international studies and an associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. She also directs the Refugee and Forced Migration Program at DePaul University. Sharma has published on post-colonialism, globalization, South Asia, migration and citizenship. Her books include “New Cosmopolitanisms: South Asians in the United States” and the forthcoming “In the Hyphen of the Nation-State.” She has written for publications including Tehelka, Outlook magazine, Inside Higher Ed and has appeared on WBEZ’s “Worldview.” In her spare time, she records oral history for the organization 1947 Partition Archive, based in Berkeley, California.

Winifred Curran

Curran is an associate professor of geography at DePaul University. Her research focuses on understanding the effects of gentrification on the urban landscape, looking at labor, policing, education, environmental gentrification and the gendering of urban policy in New York, Chicago, London and Mexico City. Her work has appeared in Urban Studies, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Environment and Planning A, Urban Geography and Local Environment. As a Public Voices Fellow with the Op-Ed Project, her op-eds have been published in The New York Times, Daily Beast and Metropolis Magazine. Curran is also currently working on a book about gender and gentrification. She received her doctorate from Clark University and master’s degree from Hunter College, City University of New York.