Theme: In Motion

This year’s theme of “In Motion” hopes to showcase the ever-changing nature of human activity in the Seattle community. To be in motion means to constantly evolve, and what we, TEDxUofW, strive to show is our devotion to the progress that is so evident within our local and global sphere in a University setting.

4069 Spokane Ln
Seattle, Washington, 98105
United States

Angela Popplewell

Angela Francine Popplewell is a founder and the Chief Storyteller for 100cameras, a non-profit organization that teaches kids around the world that their stories matter and helps them explore their narratives in the context of a global world. Students share their perspectives through photography and then sell their images, empowering them to become change makers. Popplewell has worked abroad with educational and community development programs in places such as Romania and India. These experiences along with others redirected her passion to working with kids, the power of storytelling, and local community development initiatives worldwide. Prior to 100cameras, she was one of charity:water's first interns and was Director of Development at New Life of NYC, an inner-city community center located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Popplewell lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, Ty, and their newborn son, Theodore Brooks.

Derek Sutherland

Derek Sutherland is a graduate research associate at the University of Washington (UW), and is also the CEO of CTFusion, a spin-off company dedicated to the development of economical, compact toroidal fusion reactors. Derek, a native of Orlando, Florida, performed his undergraduate work at MIT, and graduated 2012 with a double major in Nuclear Engineering and Physics, with a focus on plasma physics and fusion. Professor Jarboe (PI), Derek, and the HIT-SI team at the UW issued a press release concerning the Dynomak, a full-scale reactor concept estimated to cost less than a coal-fired power plant at the same output. Derek was recognized as one of Forbes' 30 under 30 in Energy in 2015 for his work on the dynomak reactor concept. He has considerable experience working with fusion ventures, from mainline tokamak devices at MIT and General Atomics to alternative concepts of spheromaks and field-reversed configurations at the UW, General Fusion Inc., and Los Alamos National Laboratories.

Elizabeth Nance

Elizabeth Nance is the Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington, with an adjunct appointment in Radiology. Elizabeth was named as a Forbes 30 under 30 in Science and Medicine in 2015, as one of the “most disruptive, game-changing and innovating young personalities in science.” Her passion finding ways to more efficiently connect resources and information across multiple scientific and engineering disciplines. Elizabeth's research focuses on using nanotechnology platforms to understand the movement of molecules in the brain. She is particularly interested in characterizing how common disease hallmarks impact our ability to treat brain diseases like autism, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and epilepsy. Her long term goal is to utilize nanotechnology in patients to give real-time information about the brain, and take advantage of those disease hallmarks to improve diagnosis and direct therapy.

James D. Long

James D. Long is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington and an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. He is a faculty affiliate at the University of Washington's Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences (CSSS), Technology and Social Change Group (TASCHA), Near and Middle East Studies Program, and UC-Berkeley's Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA). James's research in sub-Saharan Africa and Afghanistan focuses on elections in developing countries, including the determinants of voting behavior, the dynamics of electoral fraud, the impact of ICT on corruption monitoring, and the effects of civil war and insurgency on state-building. In 2010, James served as Democracy International's Research Director for their Election Observation mission for Afghanistan, and has observed elections in South Africa (2014), Kenya (2013, 2007), Egypt (2011), Uganda (2011), Afghanistan (2014, 2010, 2009), and Ghana (2008).

John Eklof

John Eklof is a poet, educator and community organizer from Lakewood, Washington. He is a graduate student at the University of Washington studying Multicultural Education. He’s dedicated his life to personal improvement and uplifting his community economically and politically. John recently released his first full length spoken word album entitled The End of the Beginning. It's part spoken word poetry, part hip-hop album, part oratory, part science-fiction, and fully political. John has traveled throughout the country speaking on subjects such as social justice, building personal success, and unifying the millennial generation into changing our world. He's guest lectured on many college campuses from the University of Washington all the way to South Seattle College. John is part of the political group the Organization of Revolutionary Ideas Operating in the Now which has the aim of demonstrating unity through collaborative action and self-education.

Lara Zarowsky

Lara Zarowsky serves as the Policy Director for Innocence Project Northwest (IPNW), a clinical law program at the University of Washington School of Law committed to freeing innocent prisoners in Washington State. Her work promotes systemic reforms to prevent wrongful convictions in Washington State, and to support the wrongly convicted following release. Lara is a faculty member at the University of Washington School of Law, where she founded IPNW's Legislative Advocacy Clinic. A graduate of the Evergreen State College and University of Washington School of Law, Lara has held previous positions as a policy attorney for the Integrity of Justice Project, and as non-partisan staff to the Judiciary and Public Safety committees of the Washington State House of Representatives. Lara lectures nationally on innocence-related public policy reform and leads IPNW efforts to improve statewide practices.

Lynette Johnson

Lynette Johnson is a Seattle based photographer, wife, mother of two and the founder of the non-profit Soulumination. A Northwest native, Lynette has taken a passion for photographing people and followed it through a successful career and into the world of legacy photography. Through Soulumination and with the talent of 60 local photographers, families facing devastating loss have the opportunity to receive photo services free of charge. Lynette's diagnosis of lymphoma and its minefield of treatments and emotional issues has added a depth of compassion and understanding leading to new resolve and bolder leadership skills.

Pedro Domingos

Pedro Domingos is a professor of computer science at the University of Washington and the author of "The Master Algorithm". He is a winner of the SIGKDD Innovation Award, the highest honor in data science. He is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and has received a Fulbright Scholarship, a Sloan Fellowship, the National Science Foundation's CAREER Award, and numerous best paper awards. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Irvine and is the author or co-author of over 200 technical publications. He has held visiting positions at Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and MIT. He co-founded the International Machine Learning Society in 2001. His research spans a wide variety of topics in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data science, including scaling learning algorithms to big data, maximizing word of mouth in social networks, unifying logic and probability, and deep learning.