Theme: [i]mpact

This year, TEDxTysons explores how people, ideas, and projects create impact.

To do this, we started with the word impact and broke it down to discover the power behind it.

And so “impact” became [i]mpact.

At its core, “impact” represents a single person with a vision for change, but [i]mpact, is much more than that. It’s the [i]deas that spread; the [i]ndividuals who don’t give up; the [i]deals that guide; the [i]nfluence that drives change; and the [i]mpression that lasts. Together with all of these components, true [i]mpact is born and spreads.

[i]mpact can be small but it never loses its potential to reach unparalleled heights. We see it every day, but where does it come from and how does it grow?

Join us as we discover the most inspiring projects happening around us in Philanthropy, Social Justice, Education, Politics, Urban Development, Health, and Business and how they’re [i]mpacting our people, our communities, our nation, and our world. Come to be [i]nspired, [i]nformed, and [i]nvigorated to make an [i]mpact and find out what the Tysons community can do.

Capital One Bank
1680 Capital One Dr
Tysons, Virginia, 22102
United States

Aanal Sheth

Dancer, choreographer and teacher

Aanal is an accomplished dancer, choreographer and teacher. She is the founder of Studio Dhoom, a thriving dance studio with multiple locations across Northern Virginia. Trained in Indian classical Kuchipudi dance form and in multiple Indian folk and semi-classical dances, Aanal has been dancing all her life. After earning her M.Ed in e-Learning and Instructional design from George Mason University and a career at The Nature Conservancy, she decided to pursue her true passion of teaching dance after the birth of her first son. Aanal's work and contributions have been recognized across the community and Studio Dhoom students have won many competitions and performed at prestigious events such as the NBA Washington Wizards half-time show, several Bollywood concerts at Warner Theater and EagleBank Arena and the National Cherry Blossom festival.

Alan Marco

Chief Economist at the US Patent and Trademark Office

Alan Marco is the Chief Economist at the US Patent and Trademark Office, where his research focuses policy-relevant topics in intellectual property. He is the co-creator of the USPTO’s PatentsView.org, a free and open platform for exploring and accessing high-quality patent data. He has published academic articles on the intellectual property marketplace, uncertainty in intellectual property rights, patent valuation, and high-tech mergers. Dr. Marco obtained his PhD in Economics from U.C. Berkeley, and he has held faculty positions as associate professor in the Williams School of Commerce at Washington and Lee University and associate professor of economics at Vassar College. In the Fall, Dr. Marco will begin a faculty position in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Alan Stillman

Entrepreneur and Adventurer

Having spent 22 years biking through 28 countries, using phrasebooks and picture cut-outs to express needs and convey information, Alan was convinced of the power of pictures for communication. Upon his return to the US in 1989, he started Kwikpoint, a company that publishes picture-based communication tools to overcome language barriers. Kwikpoint publications are used by the US Military in combat zones to communicate with locals to gather intelligence. Troops have used kwikpoints to find IEDs, landmines, bomb-making factories and weapons caches, saving countless lives. In 2004, Kwikpoint became standard issue for all troops going into war zones. Kwikpoints are also used by global health agencies including the Red Cross, CDC, FDA, USAID, UN, Project Hope and Doctors Without Borders in health initiatives pertaining to TB, HIV/AIDS and Diabetes. More than 400 Kwikpoint titles have reached over 10,000,000 people worldwide. Alan’s latest focus is on stroke health education.

Alley Dufour

Traveling Entrepreneurs

As students at Virginia Tech, Alley and Jack took an engineering trip to Uganda in 2012. This trip sparked the idea for their company, Taaluma Totes, which makes backpacks out of traditional fabrics from around the world. These backpacks are made in Virginia by adults with disabilities and a portion of the profits fund micro-loans in the country where the fabric originated…each backpack “Carrying a Country” of its own. After a shot on ABC’s Shark Tank, they have continued their fabric hunt around the world. They spend 9 months of the year overseas in search of the world’s funkiest fabrics. Some of their favorites places include Indonesia for its culture, Thailand for its people, and Ecuador for its nature.

Bryan Gerhart

Songwriter and Performer

Baby Bry Bry is the exaggerated ego of a songwriter and performer from Long Beach, CA based in Washington, DC. Once backed by the “lounge-punk” outfit The Apologists, Baby Bry Bry is now just another sad white man with a guitar. Stylistically-schizophrenic but always melodramatic, Baby Bry Bry has played at the Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, the 9:30 Club, and too many basements to count. He founded the label Odessa Madre Tapes in 2014, is the namesake of a roast of Qualia Coffee, and will release his debut LP “Who’s Got Time For Feelings At A Time Like This?” this fall.

Jack DuFour

Traveling Entrepreneurs

As students at Virginia Tech, Alley and Jack took an engineering trip to Uganda in 2012. This trip sparked the idea for their company, Taaluma Totes, which makes backpacks out of traditional fabrics from around the world. These backpacks are made in Virginia by adults with disabilities and a portion of the profits fund micro-loans in the country where the fabric originated…each backpack “Carrying a Country” of its own. After a shot on ABC’s Shark Tank, they have continued their fabric hunt around the world. They spend 9 months of the year overseas in search of the world’s funkiest fabrics. Some of their favorites places include Indonesia for its culture, Thailand for its people, and Ecuador for its nature.

Joel Garreau

Journalist, scholar, and author

Author of “Edge City: Life on the New Frontier,” is the foremost chronicler of the biggest revolution in 150 years in how humans build cities. Most recently, his study of technology’s impact on culture and values has led him to conclude that the future of cities is “Edge City 2.0: The Santa-Fe- ing of the Planet.” Today, accelerating technologies are transforming cities faster and more thoroughly than did the automobile. The gold standard of human interaction remains face-to-face contact, which Garreau argues is the one and only reason for cities in the future. This is especially true of Edge Cities 1.0 like Tysons that were optimized for the automobile, the jet passenger plane and corporate computing. Think Monticello with broadband. A former reporter and editor at The Washington Post, Joel today is the Professor of Law, Culture and Values at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and is Affiliated Faculty in its School for the Future of Innovation in Society.

John Devlin

Cover Conductor, National Symphony Orchestra

John Devlin is the Cover Conductor for the National Symphony Orchestra. Of his recent debut with the NSO and soloist Joshua Bell, Anne Midgette of the Washington Post wrote that Devlin “led the evening with flair … and was visibly in his element.” In addition to his work with the NSO, John is the Assistant Conductor of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, and the Artistic Director and Conductor of Gourmet Symphony With these, and other orchestras, Devlin has conducted at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and at the Music Center at Strathmore. Devlin’s mission as a conductor is to deliver concerts that frame orchestral music in new and innovative ways. His artistic leadership has inspired many forward-thinking concepts such as Gourmet Symphony, Go-Go Symphony, Seamless Symphony, Interactive Symphony and the New Retro Project. Each reflects Devlin’s mission of making classical music attainable and engaging for all audiences.

Kate Germano

Gender Bias Advocate & Combat Veteran

Called too tough for the Marine Corps, Lieutenant Colonel Kate Germano made headlines in June 2015 when she took a stand and confronted systemic problems of gender bias and lowered expectations for women. She fought back and became a national figure by speaking out against discrimination and advocating for higher expectations for women in the military. A 20-year career Marine and combat veteran, Kate has written extensively on the cultural challenges faced by service women, the change to official policy that opened all military jobs and units to women, and the need to de-segregate Marine Corps recruit training.

Len Forkas

Ultra-Endurance Athlete and Hometown Hero

Len Forkas shares team-building lessons such as the power of forgiveness, humility and gratitude, knowing your limits, and honoring roles. It all started years ago, when he learned that his son Matt had leukemia. Forkas immediately began searching for a way to help Matt, now an adult, cope with the debilitating loneliness and isolation that occurs to all children during treatment. At a time when webcam technology was still in its infancy, he pioneered a way for his son to connect digitally to his classmates. In 2003, he founded Hopecam, a non-profit dedicated to providing the same for cancer-stricken children around the world. Len’s unrelenting dedication to Hopecam compelled him to accept a daunting fundraising challenge. In 2012, he competed in one of the world’s toughest endurance events: Race across America, a 3,000-mile, coast-to-coast solo bicycle race that participants must finish in 12 days. Len finished in 11 and is gearing up to do it again on June 13th!

Liam Mckinley

Student & Entrepreneur

Liam McKinley is a sophomore at the Potomac School in McLean, Virginia. Liam has been interested in technology from a young age, working on robotics initially, then moving on to application development. Liam won the first International Botathon, sponsored by VentureBeat, in 2016. Liam’s entry was SkoolBot, a conversational bot front-end to Google Classroom for students and parents. Liam beat over 250 other participants from around the globe to win the event, and was the only student in the competition. Liam has subsequently focused on the build-out of SkoolBot as a full commercial offering, and is now launching SkoolBot to the market in partnership with kik, the popular messaging app with over 300 million users. Liam’s other interests include running and fencing, where he just qualified as a High School First Team All American.

Martin Hellman

Inventor and Authors of A New Map for Relationships Biography

Dorothie Hellman was a CPA at Touche Ross (now Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu), VP for Financial Support at the Beyond War Foundation, and has devoted her life to studying the human condition and how to improve it. Martin Hellman taught Electrical Engineering at MIT and Stanford University and, with his colleague Whit Diffie, won this year’s ACM Turing Award, for their invention of public key cryptography – the technology that underpins electronic commerce. The Hellmans are using Marty’s half of the associated million dollar prize to further their efforts to build a more peaceful, sustainable world, with promotion of the ideas in their recently released book being the initial focus. A New Map for Relationships: Creating True Love at Home & Peace on the Planet, reveals the mistakes that nearly ended their marriage as well as the positive changes that allowed them to build a truly loving relationship.

Phillip Auerswald

Writer and Economist

Philip Auerswald is a writer and economist based in Washington DC. He has most recently authored The Code Economy: A Forty-Thousand-Year History, a book about how human creativity and algorithms have coevolved over the span of millennia. He is an associate professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at GMU. He currently serves as the co-chair and executive director of the Global Entrepreneurship Research Network, an initiative of the Kauffman Foundation. He is also the cofounder of Zilla Global LLC, a venture dedicated to nurturing ecosystems opportunity around digital land records (Zilla.Land), and the cofounder and coeditor of Innovations, a quarterly journal about entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges published by MIT Press. In June 2013 he led the launch of the National Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (NCEI.US), an organization dedicated to using the National Mall in Washington DC as a platform to support entrepreneurship.

Ridwan Adhami

Photographer and Activist

Born in Queens, NY to Syrian immigrant parents, Ridwan Adhami grew up being heavily influenced by the city’s diverse and urban culture. Like many children of immigrants who try to build bridges between the old and new world, he was highly creative and passionate about telling stories. Ridwan has worked in the music and film industry as a director, editor, photographer and cinematographer. Ridwan’s artistic flair, which combines all-American appeal with raw, gripping, urban imagery, has catapulted him to work with internationally renowned artists and brands. Ultimately, his work sheds light on individuality. Today, Ridwan Adhami is inspired to be the voice of the voiceless. Using his lens, he wants to put a face on the pain and suffering that plague so many. Ridwan plans to work with all aspects of multimedia to humanize the struggle and to dispel to the world a message of peace, acceptance, and understanding.

Robert Raben

Public Policy Innovator

Robert founded The March on Washington Film Festival in 2013. The March on Washington Film Festival, a production of The Raben Group, increases awareness of the events and heroes of the Civil Rights Era and inspires renewed passion for activism. The festival uses the power of film, music, and the arts to share these important stories. Robert’s aggressively bipartisan approach was honed during a highly respected legislative career that began on Congressman Barney Frank’s (D-MA) staff and culminated in House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde’s (R-IL) endorsement of his appointment to the Justice Department as Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs. Robert built a reputation for collegiality and effectiveness through his collaboration with Republican members and staff on issues including the omnibus patent reform bill, database protection standards, and copyright liability for Internet service providers. In 1999, Mr. Raben’s reputation and effectiveness caught the attention of the White House, earning him an appointment as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General and, subsequently, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legislative Affairs. In 2002 Robert founded The Raben Group and serves as President.

Samah Safi Bayazid

Filmmaker and Writer

Samah Safi, a 28-year-old award-winning filmmaker who lives in Washington DC. She studied filmmaking and screenwriting at New York Film Academy. She became a filmmaker since she was 22 years old to be one of the first professional Muslim women filmmakers in the industry. Samah brought her Middle Eastern understanding to the west to produce unique humanitarian and bridge-building entertainment for audiences in the West and East, such as Short films, PSAs, TV Campaigns, TV programs, and Documentaries. Samah hopes that her work and productions will help bridging between audience from different cultures and backgrounds. Some of her work reached millions of views on social media platforms and reached millions of people around the world. Her latest film “Orshena”, a short film that addresses the refugees issue around the world and the hardship of losing their beloved ones has been selected for many international film festivals and won the Award of Excellence in Indie Film Festival in CA.

Sara Minkara

Founder and CEO of Empowerment Through Integration (ETI)

Sara Minkara is the Founder and CEO of Empowerment Through Integration (ETI), a nonprofit that focused on the empowerment and inclusion of youth with visual impairment in the MENA region. Sara, herself, is a Blind, Lebanese American who lost her sight at the age of seven. She founded ETI out of her own personal experience and passion for empowering blind youth to be the catalyst for change in their communities. She is an internationally recognized advocate in the areas of disability inclusion and social entrepreneurship. Her personal and professional commitment to disability rights and youth empowerment began while she was an undergrad at Wellesley College and continued throughout her time at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. Since starting ETI, Sara has continued her work in the social sector while also growing ETI from a summer camp to an organization that today reaches more than 3,000 people across Lebanon and the United States.

Stephanie Summerville

Actress, Singer and Storyteller

Stephanie Summerville is an actress, singer and storyteller. She is most known for her work with The Moth, a Peabody Award-winning, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. Her stories have been featured in several of The Moth’s Main Stage productions, a documentary, CDs, podcasts and the Peabody Award-winning “The Moth Radio Hour”, which airs weekly on public radio stations worldwide. (TheMoth.org) Stephanie appeared in the national storytelling tour of A More Perfect Union: Stories of Prejudice and Power, as part of “Characters Unite” — the USA Network’s award-winning public service program, created to address the social injustices and cultural divides still prevalent in our society, to encourage more productive dialogue, and foster greater tolerance and acceptance. (charactersunite.com) One of her stories was featured in the 2013 New York Times’ Best Seller, The Moth: 50 True Stories. She also narrates clean romance novellas for Audible.com.