Theme: Invisible Adversity

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).

Uptown Theater
1300 Jadwin Ave
Richland, Washington, 99352
United States

Adam Brault

Adam is a firestarter. He's passionate about building community and improving the Tri­Cities. He is the founder of &yet, a people­first software company. He started Doctype Society (our area's first meetup for design/tech/software) and organized the first TriConf in 2011. Adam is also co­creator of Talky, a video chat service requiring no downloads or plugins. He’s also co­founder of Fuse Coworking, ^Lift Security, and WholeStory, a startup whose mission is to change hiring culture. He played a role in reopening Uptown Theatre as a community space, and since 2015 has been leading an effort to bring a Public Market to the Tri­Cities.

Alice Schlegel

Alice Schlegel wanted to bring balance to her life, so she started practicing yin yoga and adopted two bee hives. These two actions had two important similarities – observation and patience. It was through these two actions that she was able to pause into stillness and find balance. Without the resolve that patience brings, we cannot develop, grow, or nurture creativity. We become stuck in our own busyness ­ our own carousel of detail completion ­ without vision or philosophy. The only way to step off the carousel is to commit to pausing, observing, and just being. Alice affectionately calls this stepping into the “yinsense.” Alice Schlegel is an educator and administrator at Columbia Basin College. Alice is committed to helping others find their yoga – their own method of self­realization.

Becca Lingley

Becca Lingley is Director of Operations at Flex Rental Solutions, an online instructor at Liberty University, and a co­founder of Fuse SPC. Her career includes experience in human resources, nuclear power, tourism, economic development, management and sales. She holds an MBA and a PhD (ABD) in Marketing. She moved to the Tri­Cities in 2010 from Virginia, has served on the City of Richland’s Economic Development Committee, and has worked with various organizations in a volunteer capacity.

Doug McKinley

Douglas McKinley (MBA, University of Utah; JD, Willamette University) is an attorney in Richland, Washington where he handles a variety of cases ranging from complex civil litigation in federal courts across the United States to simple misdemeanor matters locally. He is also a co­founder of NHThree LLC, a high tech start up developing new technology for the green manufacture of ammonia. Prior to co­founding NHThree, McKinley served as Director of Administration and General Counsel for Integrated Environmental Technology, LLC, a high­tech startup spun out from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Prior to joining IET, McKinley was Senior Intellectual Property Counsel with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Eric Johnson

Eric Johnson earned his Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology from Arizona State University. He is currently an associate professor of Bilingual/ESL Education at Washington State University Tri­Cities. His research focus involves ethnographic approaches to language­minority programs and policies in public schools. His journal publications span a variety of topics involving language policy and planning, immigrant communities, parent and community engagement, bilingual education, and Hispanic Serving Institutions. Dr. Johnson teaches undergraduate and graduate courses related to teacher preparation, including the theoretical foundations of bilingual and ESL education, teaching methods for bilingual/ESL education, sociolinguistics, and diversity in education. He lives in Pasco with his beautiful wife Angela and adorable baby daughter Giulia.

Justin Jones

Justin Jones is currently employed as a Consulting Architect at VMware. His previous work history includes positions at Accenture, Lockheed Martin, E­mu Systems, Creative Labs, and Keen Energy Services. Justin frequently presents at technical conferences, including VMworld, Puppet Labs conferences, RADIO, and TechSummit. He is an active member of the Fuse Coworking space in Richland, WA and winner of the 2016 Tri Cities Launch University for his team's software idea, Compass DMS. His personal interests include board games, music, brewing, and tennis.

Kim Kessler

Kimberly Kessler didn’t finish college. When she was twenty­ years­ old she landed an entry level job at a local credit union which served as her on the job education. She grew up there, even met her husband there. And it’s where she learned to write and speak and teach. After climbing the corporate ladder for ten years, she felt a quiet unrest that grew into something much more. She realized time is truly our most precious commodity and needed to spend hers differently. In October 2014, she quit to be a stay­at­home­mom and pursue passionate projects. It has been the best decision of her life. Since that day she gained a son through open adoption, wrote her first novel, and her husband went full­time as a stand­up comedian. Together they are stepping out in faith to live lives of purpose, on purpose—and desire to help others to do the same.

Marie Noorani

A native of Buffalo, New York, Marie Noorani has lived with her children in the Northwest for two decades and considers it home. Although past jobs include tour director, telemarketer, and bartender, she currently teaches English and History at Christ the King School. She is an internationally exhibited paper artist and lead singer/songwriter for the band Zilliox. Marie is excited to be speaking at TEDx Richland.

Michael Rastovich

Michael Rastovich became self­aware at a very young age and set upon the journey of an artist even before the age of five. Living in a rural area as a teen, at a time when information and instruction was scarce, he sent away and waited weeks for supplies and instruction. In his twenties, he studied with master artist Siegfred Hans & Howard Wexler in New Mexico and lived in an adobe hut in the middle of the desert while learning his craft. Being a Renaissance man, he gathered together from varied sources all of the materials to build his own etching press and proceeded to create beautiful and compelling etchings. He eventually worked for a museum design company in Portland, Oregon, and using his exceptional drawing skills, he created conceptual drawings for museums around the U.S. His animations he creates for training companies rival those in quality of Disney. He has spent his entire life celebrating art and being fully immersed in the artists’ craft and way of life.

Paul Stansbury

Paul graduated from Georgia Tech with a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering. In the early '80s, he got a job with GE in Wilmington NC, manufacturing nuclear fuel for commercial power reactors running the radiation protection department at the plant. In 1990, Paul moved to the Tri­Cities to be a section manager for Battelle, managing about 40 scientists and engineers doing applied research in radiation protection in the workplace, in the environment, and inside the human body. After the company reorganized, Paul became an individual contributor doing applied radiation protection projects around the country and around the world. In 2012, he retired from Battelle, and started working for Dade Moeller, Inc., a small radiation safety and environmental consulting company, while pursuing his passion in developing the graduate certificate program in radiation protection within WSU's School of the Environment.

Scott Butner

Recently retired from a 29 year career as an environmental research scientist, Scott Butner now spends his days (and many of his nights) working as a professional photographer here in the Tri Cities. Though interested in the night sky since he was a child, Scott found himself wandering into the night with a camera about 10 years ago. His quest for dark skies has taken him throughout the western US, to mountain tops and deserts.