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).

George School
1690 Newton Langhorne Road
Newtown, Pennsylvania, 18940
United States

Alison Grantham

Alison Grantham followed her passion for soils to a career in sustainable agriculture. Beginning in 2006 with research in soil carbon in forests at Harvard’s Long-Term Ecological Research station, Alison went on to lead research on organic and sustainable agriculture at the Rodale Institute. She managed Penn State Extension’s beginning farmer training program and completed a dual-title PhD in ecology and biogeochemistry, focusing on improving nitrogen management in agriculture at Penn State prior to joining Blue Apron in 2015. At Blue Apron, Alison is building a new precision planning approach to manage their specialty produce sourcing along with a suite of technical tools (i.e. soil testing, climate data reports, on-farm sensor technology) to enhance Blue Apron’s farm partners’ growing practices.

Andrea Barthello

Andrea Barthello, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of ThinkFun Inc., took a dream to change the world through play, and made it a reality. ThinkFun Inc. is working hard to make sure that STEM is accessible to children in a way that is entertaining and engaging. From engineering toys and coding games to open-ended construction kits, ThinkFun aims to help children develop their STEM and logical thinking skills. In doing so, children can become the creative beings that they are meant to be. With every passing year, Andrea and the company strive to lead the world in creating games that make learning fun. Today, ThinkFun is one of the largest manufacturers of educational puzzles and games in the United States. Andrea has had a hand in nearly every aspect of the company, from directing sales, marketing, and accounting to mapping the blueprint for its growth. Andrea has overseen the operations and expansion of the company to more than 50 countries and 5,500 retailers worldwide.

Christine Cox

Christine Cox began her training with the Pennsylvania Ballet School and continued at the Philadelphia High School for the Performing Arts, spending summer sessions at the Joffrey and San Francisco Ballet schools. During her career as a professional dancer, she performed with such prestigious companies as BalletMet, Ballet Hispanico, American Repertory Ballet, and Pennsylvania Ballet. Along with fellow Pennsylvania Ballet dancer Matthew Neenan, in 2005 Christine formed BalletX with a mission to expand the vocabulary of classical dance for all audiences through the creation of new work. Upon the company’s celebration of its 10th Anniversary in 2015, The New York Times wrote, “Ms. Cox has good grounds for pride: In ten years, BalletX has presented more than 50 world premieres, many other works by living choreographers, and collaborated with more than 200 artists…few companies can match such a record…”

Joseph Ravenell

Joseph Ravenell MD is associate professor of Population Health and Medicine at the NYU School of Medicine. He is a core member of the NYU Center for Healthful Behavior, a board-certified internist and disparities researcher with a strong track record of NIH funding to improve cardiovascular disease and cancer prevention in diverse populations. Joseph has been the principal investigator for multiple NIH and CDC grant-funded projects to test community-based strategies to improve colon cancer screening among black men throughout New York City. This work has led to a community-based research network of over 200 community-based sites including churches, barbershops, mosques and social service agencies throughout New York City. Joseph is the Director of Diversity in Cancer Research for the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, and the founding Director of the Center to Eliminate Cancer Disparities at NYU School of Medicine.

Kanani Titchen

Kanani Titchen MD, is an Adolescent Medicine fellow at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, Bronx, New York. She encountered human sex trafficking for the first time during a gynecologic rotation while in medical school at Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Kanani served as the 2013-2014 President of the American Medical Women’s Association National Resident Division. During her tenure as President, she trained with Girls’ Educational & Mentoring Services in New York City and created an online video tutorial to educate doctors about human sex trafficking. She has authored numerous articles for medical journals and for the lay press about US child sex trafficking and physician education, and she has advocated for sex trafficking survivors at the United Nations and at the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Kevin Lewis

Dr. Kevin Lewis is an assistant professor of planetary science at Johns Hopkins University, where he has been a member of the faculty since 2014. His research focuses on the formation and evolution of the terrestrial planets in our solar system, and in particular, the climate history of Mars. His work draws on a variety of tools and data to explore the surfaces of these planets, including observations from both orbital and landed NASA spacecraft missions. Central research questions of his work include the past habitability of Mars, the transition to its modern cold and arid climate, and the origin of our own planet’s uniquely habitable conditions within the solar system today. Kevin received BS degrees in physics and mathematics from Tufts University in 2003, and a PhD in planetary science from the California Institute of Technology in 2009. He was a Harry Hess postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University.

Mario Capecchi

Mario R. Capecchi is best known for his pioneering work on the development of gene targeting in mouse embryo-derived stem cells. This technology allows scientists to create mutations in any desired gene, giving them virtually complete freedom to manipulate the DNA sequence in the genome of living mice. In 2007, he received the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. His current research interests include the molecular genetic analysis of early mouse development, neural development in mammals, production of mouse models of human genetic diseases, gene therapy, homologous recombination and programmed genomic rearrangements in the mouse. A distinguished professor of human genetics and biology, Mario belongs to the National Academy of Sciences and the European Academy of Sciences and most recently, the National Academy of Medicine. The Nobel Prize tops a long list of worldwide awards and recognition he has received for his scientific achievements.

Matthew Morris

Matt Morris founded VisibleHand, Inc. in 2014 to help optimize behavioral healthcare in long term and acute care settings. Before VisibleHand, Matt was living in Italy where he had a data science software and consulting company. Matt has been involved in digital health and data science since completing a graduate fellowship program in behavioral psychology at Emory University. The Foresight app from VisibleHand provides real-time collaborative intelligence for behavioral care facilities. Empowering the frontline caregiver with an easy-to-use, app-powered platform that helps them document, share and implement resident data faster than it takes to send a tweet.

Radhika Thekkath

Dr. Radhika Thekkath has always followed her passion. She started working towards her PhD in computer science at the age of thirty and has been a prolific inventor ever since and holds forty-three US patents. She is the co-founder and CEO of AgiVox, a startup funded by the National Science Foundation, whose goal is to bring “eyes-free” and “hands-free” access to topical information from the internet, serving anyone who cannot read from a screen, including someone who is visually impaired, sick, or driving a car. Radhika was a research associate at Stanford University and then worked at Equator Technologies, a multi-media processor start-up. Next, Radhika became the director of architecture at MIPS Technologies Inc., where she managed innovation in the MIPS architecture and became a key member of the strategic planning team.

Sarah Dohle

Sarah Dohle is an assistant professor in the Plant Science Department at Delaware Valley University teaching crop science classes to the next generation of growers, researchers and eaters. She is interested in broadening the genetic base of agriculture to increase diversity in our food systems as a way to help improve agriculture and mitigate the effects of climate change. Sarah earned a BS in biology at Emory University. After graduation, she worked for a startup ag-biotech company, Agrivida, developing genetically engineered plants with improved post-harvest value. As a PhD student at the University of California Davis, Sarah worked to develop insect resistant varieties of Lima beans (butter beans) through classical breeding techniques. During grad school Sarah worked part time at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Cali, Colombia which maintains the world’s largest Lima bean collection of over 3,000 varieties.

Sigrid Adriaenssens

Sigrid Adriaenssens is a structural engineer and associate professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, where she directs the Form Finding Lab. She has a PhD in lightweight structures from the University of Bath, United Kingdom. She worked as a project engineer for Jane Wernick Associates, London, United Kingdom and Ney + Partners, Brussels, Belgium, where she found the form for the courtyard roof of the Dutch National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam (2011). At Princeton, she co-curated the exhibition ‘German Shells: Efficiency in Form’ which examined a number of landmark German shell projects. She is first author of Laurent Ney: Shaping Forces (2010) and Shells for Architecture: Form Finding and Optimization (2014). The pursuit of better structural urban forms runs as a Leitmotif through her research and teaching.

Timothy Block

Dr. Timothy Block is president and co-founder of the Hepatitis B Foundation (HBF), which created the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute in 2003 (formerly the Institute for Hepatitis and Virus Research) to fulfill its research mission. The Institute was renamed to honor the late Dr. Baruch S. Blumberg who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the hepatitis B virus and helped establish the HBF. In 2006, the HBF established the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center of Bucks County to expand its research capabilities and it is owned in partnership with Del Val University. In April 2007, he was awarded the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Humanitarian Award by the Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce for his work with the Hepatitis B Foundation. Tim received his PhD in biochemistry from the University at Buffalo–SUNY and completed his post-doctoral training at Princeton University.

Victor Khodadad

Victor Khodadad helped create New Camerata Opera (NCO) to broaden the reach of opera to current and future generations. The group offers a wide range of repertoire through both live performance and digital media channels including filmed opera, social media, and other distribution websites. In addition to offering standard operas, NCO is committed to the innovative presentation of all forms of classical vocal music, opera pastiche, adaptations of rare operatic works and commissioned, new and adapted operas for children. Victor has performed in regional houses such as Mississippi Opera, Connecticut Lyric Opera, Natchez Festival of Music and Amarillo Opera. His roles include Alfredo in La Traviata, Rodolfo in La Bohème, Roméo in Roméo et Juliette, Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Nanki-poo in The Mikado.