Theme: What Makes Me Special?

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).

Grand Sierra Resort
2500 E 2nd St
Reno, Nevada, 89595
United States

Cam

Country music singer/songwriter

Cam is a Grammy nominated, platinum selling, Sony music recording artist from Nashville, Tennessee. She released her first major label studio album, Untamed in December 2015. A song from that album, "Burning House" has since received widespread acclaim.

Adam Kramer

EVP Of Strategy

Adam Kramer is the Executive Vice President of Strategy for Switch headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. His organization portfolio of influence includes Switch, SUPERNAP and Rob Roy’s Innevation Center. Adam champions communications surrounding environment, education, economic development and policy for the company. He manages all aspects of Switch’s community and government relations throughout the company’s global markets in an effort to create transformative change. Adam and his team are located at Rob Roy’s Innevation Center where their support of collaboration, colocation and event coordination is the foundation for moving the state of Nevada forward. Prior to joining Switch, Adam was the Director of Entrepreneurship for the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce and before that an award-winning journalist in California and Florida.

Albert Lee

Professor Of Voice

Originally from New Haven, CT, Albert R. Lee is Assistant Professor of Voice and Opera at the University of Nevada, Reno. With degrees from the University of Connecticut, The Juilliard School, and Florida State University, he has made a career as a classical vocalist in opera, oratorio, recital, and liturgical music. Dr. Lee is a featured soloist on a recently released recording of works by composer, George Walker on Albany Records singing musical settings of the Walt Whitman poem “When lilacs last in dooryard bloomed,” a poem written as an elegy to Abraham Lincoln after his assassination.

Alexis Jones

Author/ProtectHer

Alexis Jones is an author, activist, media personality and the Founder of I AM THAT GIRL and ProtectHer. Alexis has been featured on Oprah’s #SuperSoul100, MAKERS, DELL’s #Inspire100 and #CreateCultivate100. She has also spoken at The White House, The United Nations, Harvard, Stanford, NIKE, Pepsi and ESPN.

Ashley Clift-Jennings

Entrepreneur

Ashley is the rare combination of big ideas and big action. With an innate ability to see the larger picture and connect seemingly unrelated dots, Ashley has advised dozens of small businesses from startup into growth. She believes strongly in community and is a powerhouse in her hometown of Reno, organizing meetups and events like Reno Maker Faire and Startup Weekend Reno. She is the founder and former CEO of Girlmade, an accelerator program for women to encourage a new, positive narrative that girls can run their own startups. Now with Parlor, Ashley is combining all her natural talents as a super-connector, problem-solver and music lover to push back on the “starving artist” myth. Ashley graduated from Columbia University and is a member of Nevada Lieutenant Governor Mark Hutchison’s Northern Nevada Entrepreneurship Task Force (EFT).

Ashley Evdokimo

MBA Student

Ashley Evdokimo is an MBA student at UNR working for St. Mary's Hospice. She strives to inspire the people around her everyday and has certainly inspired us with her talk on death and dying, Advance Directives and honoring choices. Ashley encourages each and every one of us to have the courage to ask one another - do you know how you want to die?

Ashley Greenwald Tragash

Doula

Ashley Greenwald Tragash, Ph.D., BCBA-D, CD(DONA) is a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and Certified Doula. Dr. Greenwald's research focuses on the emotional and behavioral aspects of childbirth and improvement of birth practices.

Bill Eckstrom

Business Coach

Bill Eckstrom is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, outdoorsman and father of three. With a passion deeply rooted in growth and development, Bill has always been fascinated by the role a coach has on the performance of individuals and teams. As a result, he founded the EcSell Institute whose sole focus is to educate, track and measure coaching effectiveness for leaders within organizations around the world. This has led to hundreds of keynotes, published articles and e-books created from the research and documentation of coaching interactions and outcomes. You can learn more about the EcSell Institute here: https://www.ecsellinstitute.com/

Ebonee Davis

Model

After being discovered at the age of 18, Ebonee Davis left Seattle for New York City to pursue her modeling dream. Throughout her fast-track career, she’s graced the pages of some of the most coveted publications in fashion, from Teen Vogue to Sports Illustrated. Davis was one of six finalists in the Sports Illustrated Model Search and she appeared in two of Calvin Klein’s new campaigns.

Iskra Lawrence

Body Diversity Champion

Iskra is a British model represented by JAG models in the Americas and Models1 in Europe. A champion of body diversity, Iskra has long been committed to improving the image of women in the media, having been told she was both “too big” for straight-size modeling and “not big enough” for plus-modeling. Iskra is committed to posting unretouched images on her social media channels and has launched her #IskrasArmy campaign to introduce compulsory self-care education for boys and girls in UK schools.

Jocko Willink

Author

JOCKO WILLINK is a decorated retired Navy SEAL officer, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling book Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, host of the top-rated Jocko Podcast, and co-founder of Echelon Front, where he is a leadership instructor, speaker, and executive coach. Jocko spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy SEAL Teams, starting as an enlisted SEAL and rising through the ranks to become a SEAL officer. As commander of SEAL Team Three’s Task Unit Bruiser during the battle of Ramadi, he orchestrated SEAL operations that helped the “Ready First” Brigade of the US Army’s First Armored Division bring stability to the violent, war-torn city. Task Unit Bruiser became the most highly decorated Special Operations Unit of the Iraq War. Jocko returned from Iraq to serve as Officer-in-Charge of training for all West Coast SEAL Teams.

Julia Picetti

Recovery Advocate

Julia Picetti was born and raised in Northern Nevada and loves Reno! She is married to Dan Tilzey, and they have a blended family of 5 children, including Jane Aubrey who passed away in March of 2015. Julia loves hiking in the Sierras and on local trails, loves her friends and is very active at Grace Church. Since the passing of Julia’s daughter Jane, Julia led the charge to remodel and open the Jane Aubrey House. This recovery home helps and guides young women ages 18-25 as they move toward recovery from opiate addiction. Her hope is to continue supporting other families struggling with this addiction.

Marc Roberge

Songwriter/Producer/Vocalist

MARC ROBERGE is a songwriter/producer and lead vocalist for the American rock band O.A.R. What began as a group of childhood friends making songs in the drummer’s basement after school, O.A.R. became widely accepted as one of the most successful independent bands of all-time. With 13 albums, a string of Madison Square Garden sellouts, USO trips to Iraq and Kuwait, millions of albums sold, and shows around the world, Roberge and O.A.R. continue to cover new ground creatively. Their 2014 release “The Rockville LP” followed the band back home to Rockville, Maryland, where it all began, a journey that was triggered by the writing of their hit song, “Peace”. In 2016, O.A.R. released XX, a celebration of their first 20 years in music.

Mariana Atencio

Journalist

Mariana Atencio is a Peabody Award-winning journalist, currently a national correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC. The Huffington Post called her ‘our Latina Christiane Amanpour’ and Jorge Ramos wrote: ‘Mariana is the next-gen voice for Latinos breaking all barriers.’ Mariana is known for combining in-studio work and high profile interviews like Pope Francis, with tenacious field reporting all over the world, covering youth-led protests in places like Ferguson, Mexico, Haiti and Hong Kong.

Michael Jr.

Comedian

Once in a generation, a comedian comes along who speaks to everyone. Today, that comedian is known simply as Michael Jr. Watch him onstage and you’ll see a man at ease…with himself, his audience, and his message. Listen to his voice and you’ll detect a comfortable, conversational style that hides a sly sense of mischief. Hear his words and you’ll laugh at the universal themes that connect us all.

Ming Li Wu

Student

Ming Li Wu is a spoken word poet who has been living in Reno since 2012. Originally from Huntsville, Alabama, she is now a high school senior at The Davidson Academy of Nevada and upon graduation will be pursuing a dual degree in English and mathematics. Spoken word poetry, also known as slam poetry or performance poetry, is a raw, accessible art form rooted in interpersonal connection and social activism. Although Ming Li has been writing other types of poetry since kindergarten, she is particularly captivated by spoken word as a mutual exchange of soul between poet and audience. This summer, Ming Li competed in the international slam poetry festival Brave New Voices as a member of Reno’s inaugural team, the Spoken Views Youth Collective. She was a finalist in the Brave New Voices #iTooAmAmerica competition.

Samina Ali

Author

Samina Ali is an award-winning author, activist and cultural commentator. Her debut novel, Madras on Rainy Days, won France’s prestigious Prix Premier Roman Etranger Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award in Fiction. Ali’s work is driven by her belief in personal narrative as a force for achieving women’s individual and political freedom and in harnessing the power of media for social transformation. She is the curator of the groundbreaking, critically acclaimed virtual exhibition, Muslima: Muslim Women’s Art & Voices.

Tara Conner

Recovery Advocate

Tara Conner is a Television Personality and Recovery Advocate. Through her work, she shares her experience, strength and hope with audiences throughout the United States. Conner was crowned Miss USA in 2006. During December of that year, she entered the Caron Treatment Center and completed 30 days of treatment for alcohol and drug addiction. She has since celebrated 10 years of sobriety.

The Warning

Mexican Rock Band

The Warning are three young sisters from Mexico trying to win a place in the world of Rock music. They started playing music at a very young age, inspired by the video game Rock Band, and now they are creating their own music. They are still developing their musical knowledge, studying and practicing every day. Despite all the difficulties on their way they have managed to independently record their first full album without signing with any label. Their fans helped them raise the money they needed to produce their album via Gofundme.com. They hope to inspire other young musicians not to sacrifice the essence of their true sound just to become part of the music business.

Tyler Glenn

Rocker

Tyler Glenn is a solo artist and lead vocalist/keyboardist for the band Neon Trees. Glenn, who had been a Mormon since childhood, came out as gay in a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone. “Excommunication”, Glenn's debut 2016 release, takes fans inside the crisis of faith he was thrown into last fall when the church announced a new policy that identifies those in a same-sex marriage as apostates and prohibits their children from being blessed or baptized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) until they turn 18 and disavow their parents’ lifestyle.

Vanessa Vancour

Journalist

Vanessa is a former TV anchor with a passion for bilingual storytelling. She loves journalism, culture, and believes in living an integrated life.