Theme: Renegades

TEDxWUSTL is a student organization at Washington University in St. Louis. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events, based on the not-for-profit TED foundation, whose mission is to bring people together to share ideas worth spreading. It is our hope that our event sparks deep discussion and fosters connections among the community.

Renegade /ˈrenəˌɡād/ = An idea that goes against the grain and counteracts conventional wisdom

Speakers Include:
Ilyse Hogue - President of NARAL Pro-Choice America
Rick Erwin - Director of City Museum
Erin O’Flaherty - Miss Missouri
Cary Cheng - Senior at WUSTL
Joel Anderson - Freshman at WUSTL

1 Brookings Drive
St. Louis, Missouri, 63130
United States

Cary Cheng

Student

Cary is a senior at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis majoring in Operations/Supply Chain Management with a second major in Philosophy. In his free time, he enjoys watching movies, playing music and buying books that he never ends up reading.

Erin O'Flaherty

Miss Missouri

Erin O'Flaherty is the reigning Miss Missouri 2016. Devoting her time to philanthropic and social causes, she focuses on suicide prevention efforts in conjunction with The Trevor Project and The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Last September, she was heralded as a trailblazer in the LGBTQ community, making history as the first openly lesbian woman to compete on the Miss America stage. She has been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, Entertainment Tonight, and in The New York Times, among others. Erin holds a Bachelor of Science in Legal Studies from the University of Central Florida and currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri.

Ilyse Hogue

President of NARAL Pro-Choice America

Ilyse Hogue is an expert in organizing and mobilizing grassroots support around social-justice issues, including human rights, media reform and representation, and reproductive freedom. She has been president of NARAL Pro-Choice America since 2013 and during her tenure she has pushed the national conversation around abortion access to be one of fundamental human rights and self-determination for women. At the Democratic National Convention in 2016, Ilyse made history by sharing her own abortion story on the national stage, explaining that “it’s not as simple as bad girls get abortions and good girls have families. We are the same women at different times in our lives – each making decisions that are the best for us.”

Joel Anderson

Student

Joel Anderson is a freshman from Tacoma, WA, planning to major in Global Health and the Environment and minor in Spanish at Washington University in St. Louis.

Rick Erwin

Director of City Museum

Rick Erwin is a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago MAAA program. In 2006, Rick became the Executive Director of the St. Louis City Museum, a 600,000-square foot space that is an eclectic mixture of children's playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects after the passing of the late internationally acclaimed artist Bob Cassilly. With an annual attendance over 843,000, the City Museum is consistently ranked a must see attraction both nationally and internationally.