Theme: Greater Than

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).

321 Mercer Street
Seattle, Washington, 98109
United States

Alexis Kaushansky

Assistant Professor at the Center for Infectious Disease Research in Seattle

Alexis received her Bachelors of Science in Chemistry from Harvey Mudd College in 2004, and her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2010. During her Ph.D., she trained with Gavin MacBeath, where she was fortunate to work as part of an interdisciplinary team that included chemists, computer scientists, and biologists to develop protein array technology, and apply this approach to understanding the molecular changes that occur in cancer. She joined Stefan Kappe’s group as a postdoctoral fellow in 2010 to use similar technologies to uncover changes that occur in the liver in response to malaria infection. In 2015, she started a lab at the Center which is focused on discovering how pathogens, such as malaria, interact with their human host and using this knowledge to eliminate the infection. Outside of work, Alexis enjoys running, cooking, traveling and debating current events.

Andrew Russell

Producing Artistic Director, Intiman Theatre Festival

Andrew is the Producing Artistic Director of the Tony Award-winning Intiman Theatre and directs extensively in Seattle, New York City, and regionally. With a focus on directing stage productions celebrating outsiders and those on the fringe, he conceived and directed Stu for Silverton, a new musical about America’s first transgender mayor heralded as “groundbreaking” and the “best of 2013” by The Seattle Times. Stu for Silverton has been developed further, under Andrew’s direction, at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, National Alliance for Musical Theatre, and Theatre Latte Da in Minneapolis. In addition to his work as a producer, writer, and director, he is also a Vice President of Storytelling with Edelman and has done many workshops and lectures on the power of storytelling and the usefulness of theatre skills within the workplace for the company. He’s also done corporate training, consulting, or lecturing for companies such as Juniper Networks, ISES and Microsoft.

Celeste Headlee

Award-winning journalist, host and executive producer of "On Second Thought" on Georgia Public Broadcasting

Celeste has appeared on NPR, PBS World, PRI, CNN, BBC and other international networks. She was formerly a host at National Public Radio, anchoring shows like Tell Me More, Talk of the Nation, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. Until September 2012, Celeste was co-host of the national morning news show, The Takeaway from PRI and WNYC. She has been a journalist for public radio since 1999. Her first book is "Heard Mentality: An A-Z Guide to Taking Your Radio Show or Podcast from Idea to Hit”. Celeste graduated from the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts in 1987. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona and her Master’s of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Michigan in 1998. She appears on the CD “Classically Blue” from gospel artist Lea Gilmore. She has given performances for the National Gallery of Art, the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Colorado College and Detroit Institute of Arts.

Eliaichi Kimaro

Filmmaker, Artist, Activist, Writer and mama who believes in the power of story

Eliaichi Kimaro uses art and video to bring stories of struggle, resistance, and survival to a broader audience. She brings a lifetime of personal and professional experience exploring issues of culture, identity, race, class, gender and trauma to her Award-winning directorial debut, A Lot Like You. She is currently on the campus/conference lecture circuit, engaging with communities around the world about gender-based violence, global mixed race/multicultural issues, cultural identity and the power of personal storytelling. Through her production company, 9elephants productions, she has produced over 80 videos for local and national non-profits working within underserved communities to address social and economic justice issues. Following her 5 year term as President of the Board at the NW Network of Bisexual, Trans, Lesbian and Gay Survivors of Abuse, Kimaro joined the Board of the Seattle Globalist, a daily online publication dedicated to elevating diverse voices through media.

Elizabeth Arnold

Elizabeth Arnold is an award-winning journalist and Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Alaska, Anchorage.

After twenty plus years as a national and international correspondent for National Public Radio, the US Congress, and the White House, Elizabeth returned to the far north where her career began and is currently an Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Alaska Anchorage. A well-known voice on NPR’s All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition, Arnold was also a regular presence on the PBS Newshour and Washington Week in Review. Among other notable awards, she was honored with the Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Silver Baton, the broadcast journalism equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. Arnold has extensive reporting experience in the North. She has produced a multitude of stories about the people who live and work in the Arctic, including two expeditions to the North Pole. Her most recent project is arcticprofiles.com, a series of intimate multimedia portraits aimed at putting a face on the Arctic during a time of extraordinary change.

Jerry Radich

Medical oncologist and researcher in chronic myeloid leukemia at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle

Jerry Radich is a medical oncologist who specializes in the molecular genetics of leukemia and world-recognized expert in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center where he leads the Molecular Oncology Lab. He and his team study why patients do or don’t respond after therapy. As he calls it, “the genetics of luck.” He serves on the CML Guidelines Panels for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and European LeukemiaNet, which synthesize the best available evidence, including findings from state-of-the-art molecular monitoring, to support optimal decision-making in the medical management of CML patients. He is also Chair of National Cancer Institute (NCI) Leukemia Steering Committee of the National Clinical Trials Network. Jerry is a serious cyclist and a dedicated participant in the Fred Hutch “Obliteride,” its annual cycling fundraising event.

Lesley Hazleton

Writer, psychologist and former Middle East reporter

Lesley Hazleton has traced the roots of conflict in several books, including compelling 'flesh-and-blood' biographies of Muhammad and Mary, and casts "an agnostic eye on politics, religion, and existence" on her blog, AccidentalTheologist.com. Her newest book, Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto, celebrates the agnostic stance as "rising above the flat two-dimensional line of belief/unbelief, creating new possibilities for how we think about being in the world." In it, she explores what we mean by the search for meaning, invokes the humbling perspective of infinity and reconsiders what we talk about when we talk about soul.

Nathan Kundtz

Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kymeta Corporation

Nathan is the CEO of Kymeta which has been recognized for its disruptive technology that will make mobile communications more accessible and secure the world over by developing a thinner, flatter, lighter satellite antenna technology. Such technology makes it feasible to connect anything that moves to high speed, high bandwidth satellite networks like never before. Nathan has a Masters in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Physics from Duke University. His work has covered topics in low-temperature condensed matter physics as well as metamaterials and microwave devices; areas in which he has amassed more than 40 patents and patent applications as well as over 30 peer-reviewed publications. His award-winning doctoral research at Duke provided the basis upon which Kymeta would later be founded. He is currently an adjunct assistant professor of Electrical Engineering at Duke University as well as a member of the Graduate School Board of Visitors.

Nikkita Oliver

Teaching artist, three-time Poetry Slam national team member and anti-racist organizer

Nikkita Oliver is a Seattle-based creative, teaching artist, and anti-racist organizer. She is also an attorney and holds a Masters of Education from the University of Washington where she studied racial disproportionality and disparate impact in school exclusion. She is a writer-in-residence with Writers in the Schools at Washington Middle School, leads writing workshops with Arts Corp and is a teaching artist and case manager with Creative Justice, an arts-based youth diversion program that provides alternatives to incarceration for youth who are in court. Nikkita is the 2015 recipient of the Seattle Office of Civil Rights Artist Human Rights Leader Award, the 2014 Seattle Poetry Slam (SPS) Grand Slam Champion, the 2013, 2014 and 2016 Seattle Poetry Slam Women of the World Poetry Slam representative, and coached the Seattle Poetry Slam national slam team twice. She has opened for Cornel West and Chuck D of Public Enemy and performed on The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert.

Oren Etzioni

CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence

Oren Etzioni is Chief Executive Officer of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. He has been a Professor at the University of Washington’s Computer Science department since 1991, receiving several awards including GeekWire’s Hire of the Year (2014), Seattle’s Geek of the Year (2013), the Robert Engelmore Memorial Award (2007), the IJCAI Distinguished Paper Award (2005), AAAI Fellow (2003), and a National Young Investigator Award (1993). He was also the founder or co-founder of several companies including Farecast (sold to Microsoft in 2008) and Decide (sold to eBay in 2013), and the author of over 100 technical papers that have garnered over 25,000 citations. The goal of Oren’s research is to solve fundamental problems in AI, particularly the automatic learning of knowledge from text. Oren received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 1991, and his B.A. from Harvard in 1986.

Publish the Quest

Seattle based band

Publish the Quest, has traveled to the four corners of the world to inform its musical style. While the African rhythms set the pulse for the band’s eclectic hip-hop sound, Southeast Asia has shaped many of their lyrics and perspectives. Band members have traveled to West Africa and Zimbabwe five times to date, performing, teaching, and sharing donated instruments and soccer balls to orphaned children, many who have been born with HIV. Band lead Jacob Bain says, “Sharing songs and ideas about music with new people is one of the most intimate experiences…language barrier or not, music outweighs words.” The band is been working on a documentary “The Truth about 99 Cents” as well as traveling to Zimbabwe to work closely with women’s groups, and children living in orphanages. They are using music to break down cultural barriers and to restore trust and hope in a country that has suffered systemic corruption and the brutality of women.

Ranae Holland

Research Biologist and co-host of the Animal Planet show “Finding Bigfoot”.

Research Biologist Ranae Holland was first introduced to the Bigfoot craze in the 1970’s by her father. In 2011, after years of work as a field biologist, Ranae became a co-host of the Animal Planet show “Finding Bigfoot”. For over a decade, Ranae conducted fisheries research throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. She received her degree from the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington, where she was selected for the distinguished Alaska Salmon Program. Along with her television schedule, Ranae continues her efforts as a dedicated field biologist. She regularly collaborates with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as well as other public and private entities in the field of restoration ecology. In keeping with her enjoyment of the outdoors, Ranae spends her free time fly fishing, hiking, camping, and kayaking. She also enjoys teaching and lecturing to students about conservation, critical thinking, and science.

Scott Wyatt

Partner, NBBJ

Scott Wyatt is a partner at NBBJ, an architecture firm named one of the most innovative businesses in the world by Fast Company and firm of choice for tech companies by Wired. As leader of the firm’s workplace design practice, Scott oversees the creation of new corporate office projects for companies including Samsung, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Alibaba, Starbucks, Tencent and Boeing. He has served on the board of directors of many organizations, including the Seattle Opera, the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies at the University of Washington and the Nature Conservancy’s Washington State Chapter. Scott’s expertise and work have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Wired, Bloomberg Businessweek, Fast Company, Inc., Architectural Record, CNBC and NPR.

Suzanne Simard

Professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia's Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences in Vancouver

Suzanne Simard studies the surprising and delicate complexity in nature. Her main focus is on the below-ground fungal networks that connect trees and facilitate underground inter-tree communication and interaction. Her team's analysis revealed that the fungi networks move water, carbon and nutrients such as nitrogen between and among trees as well as across species. The research has demonstrated that these complex, symbiotic networks in our forests -- at the hub of which stand what she calls the "mother trees" -- mimic our own neural and social networks. This groundbreaking work on symbiotic plant communication has far-reaching implications in both the forestry and agricultural industries, in particular concerning sustainable stewardship of forests and the plant’s resistance to pathogens. She works primarily in forests, but also grasslands, wetlands, tundra and alpine ecosystems.

Tim Dawes

Author, trainer, speaker, consultant and expert on using the power of compassion

Tim Dawes is an author, trainer, speaker, and consultant specializing in turning compassion and empathy into teachable, repeatable skills. Tim teaches professionals to use empathy to forge alliances, avoid conflict, broker deals, and make sales. As the Executive Director of two training organizations, Tim has led teams to teach emotional intelligence and negotiation skills to teams in high tech corporations and healthcare from across the U.S., as well as China, Latin America, and Africa. His award-winning book has been called “an important contribution to the humanization of healthcare” and “the antidote to what’s missing in nursing education.” Best-selling author Daniel Pink calls Tim “a pioneer of the Conceptual Age”.

Wesley Saint Clair

Chief Juvenile Judge, King County Superior Court

After 40 years of working in the justice system, Judge Wesley Saint Clair has pretty much seen it all and he’s looking at new ways to keep kids out of the system. Today, our justice system is more effective at sentencing than it is at reducing crime. As a presiding Chief Justice, he meets many young offenders entering the system for crimes that many would consider youthful indiscretions and hormone-fueled mistakes. Wesley believes Restorative Practices are designed to keep youth out of jail and take responsibility for their impact on their victims while restoring the youth’s connection with their community. He asks that we rely more on human connection, and less on the power of the justice system.