Theme: TEDxYale: Mind the Gap

On October 15th, TEDxYale will present its fifth annual flagship conference. Guided by the theme, Mind the Gap, audience members will explore solutions to the barriers, disparities, and incongruities within themselves, among communities, and across the world.

Speakers range from economists, musicians, and health-journalists to engineers, crime-fighting philosophers and tech CEOs. Our mission is to connect the world's best ideas with the Yale-New Haven community.

Levinson Auditorium at the Yale Law School
127 Wall St
New Haven, Connecticut, 06511
United States

Mixed Company of Yale University

Coed undergraduate a cappella group

Mixed Company is a coed undergraduate a cappella group from Yale University that has thrilled audiences across five continents with its exciting performance and intricate harmony. The group's diverse repertoire unites all genres of music, including R&B, jazz, rock, pop, musical theater, oldies, traditional Yale songs, and everything in between!

Caitlin Molina

Executive Director of Providence Talks

Caitlin Molina is the Executive Director of Providence Talks, an early childhood initiative designed to close the 30 million word gap at a city-wide scale and ensure all Providence children enter Kindergarten ready to achieve. Providence Talks was the Grand Prize winner of the 2012-2013 Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge and as such, is funded with a $5 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Providence Talks has enrolled more than 1,0000 families since its start. Caitlin has led the program’s approach to curriculum development, quality improvement and the development and roll-out of new and sustainable models.

Christine Gross-Loh

Journalist, Author of The Path

Christine Gross-Loh is a journalist and author. Her most recent book is The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life, coauthored with Professor Michael Puett. The Path, a New York Times and international bestseller, is being published in more than 25 countries, including the US (Simon & Schuster) and the UK (Viking). Christine is also the author of Parenting Without Borders: Surprising Things Parents Around the World Can Teach Us. She writes on history, education, philosophy, and global parenting and has been published in the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, and the Guardian, among others. She has a BA from Bryn Mawr College and a PhD from Harvard University in East Asian history.

Daniel Johnson

Schlessman Chair of Economics at Colorado College

Daniel K.N. Johnson is the Schlessman Chair of Economics at Colorado College. He has a PhD in Economics from Yale, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a BSocSci Honors from the University of Ottawa, Canada. He is the author of over sixty refereed journal articles, commissioned papers, and book chapters that explore policy questions regarding the economics of innovation and technological change but also applies economic models to more unusual questions. He founded and runs three startup companies serving higher education, and acts as a senior advisor to three more that address environmental sustainability issues.

Don C Sawyer III

Assistant Professor of Sociology, Criminal Justice, and Anthropology at Quinnipiac University

Don C. Sawyer III, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of sociology at Quinnipiac University. He teaches the university’s first sociology course dedicated to hip-hop culture. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology and M.S. in Education from Syracuse University and a B.A. in Psychology from Hartwick College. His scholarly interests include race, urban education, hip-hop culture/pedagogy, and visual sociology. He is the founder of a hip-hop program created to reengage Black and Latino high school males with school. His research adds to the work of scholars interested in finding solutions to the plight of students of color in the educational system.

Eduardo Salcedo-Albarán

Director at the Scientific Vortex Foundation

Profiled by OZY and Philosophy Now Magazine as “The Crime-Fighting Philosopher”, Eduardo is the Founder and CEO of Vortex Foundation (www.scivortex.org), a non-profit research group that provides inputs for policymaking under integrative science principles. He has contributed for books and magazines published in several languages, as a researcher on corruption and Transnational Criminal Networks, as well as an activist on science and empirical knowledge. Eduardo currently serves as consultant for FUSION on stories related to global trafficking and crime. Prestigious publishers and galleries have also featured his visual work on criminal networks.

Gaelynn Lea

Songwriter, Violinist

Gaelynn Lea is a musician from Duluth, MN. She has been playing violin for over twenty years. First classically trained, she began learning traditional Celtic and American fiddle tunes at the age of 18. During her college years Gaelynn started sitting in with various folk/rock musicians and developed an improvisational style all her own. Eventually she also began singing and dabbling in songwriting. Gaelynn has played alongside many notable Minnesota musicians over the years, including Alan Sparhawk, Charlie Parr, and Billy McLaughlin. Gaelynn Lea has been actively performing throughout Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin since 2006, contributing to a number of musical projects in the Twin Ports. Currently her most active collaboration is The Murder of Crows, an atmospheric alternative duo with Alan Sparhawk. Together they recorded an EP titled “Imperfecta” in 2012. Their original song “When We Were Young” was featured on the Sundance Channel’s acclaimed drama “Rectify” in June 2014.

Jake Boshernitzan

Founder and CEO of Knocki

Recognized by Upstart Business Journal as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs of 2016, Jake Boshernitzan reveals how opportunities to disrupt markets often hinge upon the presence of specific conditions, without which seemingly promising ideas may falter. Along his entrepreneurial journey, Jake founded Ridester, the first online marketplace for ridesharing (years before Uber & Lyft), founded Linkable, a popular online bookmarking tool, and most recently founded Knocki, a small WiFi-enabled device that transforms regular surfaces into remote controls.

James Hamblin

Senior Editor at The Atlantic

James Hamblin is a writer and senior editor at the Atlantic magazine. He hosts the video series If Our Bodies Could Talk, for which he was a finalist in the Webby awards for Best Web Personality. His writing and videos have been featured in/on the New York Times, Politico magazine, Bon Appétit, Comedy Central, NPR, BBC, MSNBC, New York, and The Awl, among others.

Jenni Buckley

Executive Director of The Perry Initiative, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Delaware

Jenni M. Buckley is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at University of Delaware (UD) and the Co-Founder of The Perry Initiative, a national non-profit organization that encourages women to pursue careers in engineering and medicine. She received her BME (2001) in Mechanical Engineering from UD, and her Masters (2004) and PhD (2006) in Mechanical Engineering from University of California, Berkeley. She has over 10 years of engineering experience in medical device design and biomechanical evaluation, both in academic and industry settings; and she is also active in engineering education research focused on effective teaching practices as well as student diversity issues. Dr. Buckley teaches a range of engineering classes, including design, mechanics, and biomechanics. Dr. Buckley has won numerous awards for her teaching, advising, and service, including the University Excellence in Teaching Award and the Arthur A. Trabant Award for Women’s Equity.

Karen Leland

Founder of Sterling Marketing Group

Karen Tiber Leland is the president of Sterling Marketing Group, a branding and marketing strategy and implementation firm helping CEOs, executives and entrepreneurs develop stronger personal, business and team brands. Her clients include: Cisco, American Express, Marriott Hotels, Apple Computer, LinkedIn and Twitter. She is also the best-selling author of nine traditionally published business books which have sold over 400,000 copies and been translated into 10 languages. Her most recent book is The Brand Mapping Strategy: Design, Build and Accelerate Your Brand. She regularly writes for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com and has had articles published in Self, The Los Angeles Times, American Way, The Boston Globe, and many others. Karen has spoken for Harvard, TEDxYale, YPO, The AMA, Direct Marketing Association and Stanford, among others. She has been interviewed on The Today Show, CNN, CNBC and Oprah.

Lucas Boyd

Architect, Designer

Lucas Boyd was born and raised on the Canadian Prairies. He holds a Bachelor's degree from Carleton University's Azrieli School of Architecture where he was awarded both the OAA Silver Guild Medal and the University Medal for Architecture. Lucas is currently in his final year of graduate studies at Yale University's School of Architecture and has been the recipient of numerous awards for both his research and design work, including the Fulbright Scholarship and the 2016 Michael Cunningham Fellowship. Throughout his time in both professional and academic settings, Lucas has developed a deep interest in the issues surrounding affordable housing, and he believes that in them there is tremendous opportunity for designers around the world.

Richard Kissel

Director of Public Programs at Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History

Dr. Richard Kissel is Director of Public Programs at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, where he oversees public education and the design and production of exhibitions. He is a vertebrate paleontologist, science educator, and author with more than 20 years of experience within the museum field. From the deserts of Texas to the forests of Germany, he has traveled the globe to excavate and study the remains of dinosaurs and other ancient beasts. Richard is a featured scientist online at NOVA’s scienceNOW, and he was the lead scientific advisor for Evolving Planet—The Field Museum’s 27,000-square- foot exhibition on the history of life on Earth. Richard has authored scientific articles, popular pieces, and children’s books on paleontology and the nature of science, and coauthored the book Dinosaurs and Dioramas: Creating Natural History Exhibitions. He is also an instructor for the Museum Studies Graduate Program at Johns Hopkins University.

Ryder Carroll

Inventor of the Bullet Journal, Lead Designer at Idean

Ryder Carroll is a digital product designer and inventor of the Bullet Journal. He was born and raised in Vienna, Austria, but now lives in Brooklyn, NY. He enjoys serving as the Lead Designer at Idean in New York City. He's been featured by the LA Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Bloomberg, Vogue, and Mashable.

Shannon Prince

Law Student, African American and Native American Literature Scholar

Shannon Prince graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College where she was a Senior Fellow and Presidential Scholar. After her tenures as a Lombard Fellow in Mongolia and Reynolds Scholar in Australia, she earned her AM in English from Harvard University. She is currently a JD/PhD (African American Studies) student at Yale Law School and Harvard. As a law student, she has served as part of the legal team that won the landmark education adequacy case CCJEF vs. Rell, conducted research into body-worn cameras on behalf of the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice, been a Fellow at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics, helped design restorative justice programs in South Africa, and served on the board of the Native America Law Students Association. Her work in the humanities lies at the intersection of law and ecocritical readings of African American and Native American literature. Her writing has been featured in Journal Letral, among others.

Shelley Carson

Psychologist, Lecturer at Harvard University, Author of Your Creative Brain

Shelley Carson, PhD. holds several appoints at Harvard University, where she teaches and conducts research in the areas of creativity, psychopathology, and psychological resilience. Her work has published widely in national and international scientific journals, and has also been featured on the Discovery Channel, CNN, NPR and in outlets around the world. An avid explorer of the inner universe, Dr. Carson is the author of the award-winning book Your Creative Brain: Seven Steps to Maximize Imagination, Productivity, and Innovation in Your Life (Jossey-Bass), and co-author of the critically-acclaimed book Almost Depressed (Hazelden).