Theme: Ideas In Action

Started in 2012, TEDxBeaconStreet is one of the most innovative TEDx events in the world. Widely recognized in the TED and TEDx community for our unique vision, multi-generational emphasis, diverse and open audience, Ideas in Action theme, and Adventures throughout the year, it is our aspiration to be a Laboratory / Test Kitchen bringing innovation to the TED world. We value our audience and community as much as we value our speakers, creating a powerful community dedicated to lifelong learning and taking ideas into action.

Lincoln School
19 Kennard Road
Brookline, Massachusetts, 02445
United States

Adam Crellin-Sazama

Adam Crellin-Sazama is a student at Boston Latin School, a lifelong resident of Jamaica Plain, and a dedicated climate activist. Adam’s interest in climate change and other threats to wildlife began early on when he had questions about why animals at the zoo were listed as endangered. He wanted to learn more about the issues facing animals around the world. Eventually, he started raising money through hot chocolate stands to support animal conservation efforts at the nearby Franklin Park Zoo, and he created an informational flyer to hand out to neighbors with things they could do to help animals and the planet. He also began volunteering at the zoo. This work led to his being recognized as Zoo New England’s Youth Hero for 2013. Adam wanted to take this work to the next level, realizing that animals are a great way in for young people to understand climate change, and also that young people are natural leaders of the climate movement. He created a presentation on Animal Conservation and Climate change which he and others have presented to more than 1,200 people. In 2015, he started Youth United for Animals and the Planet (YUAP), created a website to raise awareness about these important issues, and got involved as a leader in several campaigns. These campaigns included getting the City of Boston to divest from fossil fuel companies, stopping gas leaks and idling, and developing a climate change curriculum for the Boston Public Schools. In November of 2015, Adam attended COP21, the United Nations Climate summit in Paris, as a youth representative to the NGO conference. He has also helped organize youth participation in climate marches in Washington DC, New York and Boston. His current focus and the subject of his new presentation is on inspiring other young people to become climate activists, and helping them to identify concrete ways to engage in the struggle for a healthy planet. Adam has been recognized for his work by his school with an award for Outstanding Contribution to Leadership and Service, as the 2016 recipient of the Cox Enterprises Conserves Hero Award, and by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center as the 2016 recipient of the Environmental Champion Award. Adam lives with his parents and his three cats. He is on the cross country and track teams at Boston Latin School, plays ultimate frisbee, runs an artisanal soap company with his friend Alvin, and represents his school on the Boston Student Advisory Council.

Adelisa González-Lugo

Adelisa González-Lugo is the executive director at Fundacion Casa Cortes. Established in 2012, Fundacion Casa Cortes is a 501 c 3 non-profit organization with the mission of educating and inspiring with our passion for the arts of the Caribbean. To date, the organization has served over 4,000 low-income individuals through our cultural and educational programs. Their two contemporary Caribbean and Latin American exhibit halls open free of charge to people from all walks of life, with over 55,000 recorded visits to date. They also offer a summer art workshops program for youth.

Andreas Mershin

Andreas Mershin is a Research Scientist at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms. He leads the Label Free research group ignoring boundaries between physics, biology and materials science. From inexpensive photosynthetic solar panels to quantum effects in molecular biology, and from cytoskeletal memory encoding and machine olfaction to bioenergy harvesting, his research and the technologies it has spawned are used by industry and government, exhibited at the Boston Museum of Science and Designer’s Open Exhibition and globally covered by media including CNN, BBC, NYT, Discovery Channel, Wired, New Scientist, Nature and Science. He is the co-founder and Director of the international Molecular Frontiers Inquiry Prize (MFIP) a.k.a Kid Nobel open to anyone under 18 years old and awarded annually at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm (home of the science Nobels) to the most intriguing scientific questions posed by children. Winners are determined by a jury selected from a panel of eminent scientists including thirteen Nobel laureates. The MFIP is the world's first ever prize awarded for asking good questions. He is a scuba dive master and a private pilot and sometimes teaches the physics class at MIT.

Botao Hu

Botao Hu is the founder of Amber Garage, a Silicon Valley based creative art & tech studio. Botao is an accomplished landscape photographer, future reality computing and robotics expert. He specialized in aerial robotics, state estimation, sensor fusion, computer vision, localization and mapping. He received a M.S. degree in computer science from Stanford University and B.S. degree in CS from Tsinghua University. Before founding Amber Garage, he worked at Google, Microsoft, HKUST, Pinterest, Twitter and DJI.

Bryan Thomas

Bryan Thomas is currently a sophomore at the Noble and Greenough School in Dedham. He was born in New York City, but moved to Cohasset when he was five years old. He currently lives in Cohasset with his parents, his sister, and his two, loving dogs. In his free time he enjoys playing soccer, jamming on his guitar, and spending time with his good friends.

Casey Nava

Casey Nava is the 22 year old founder and CEO of Navadise Media. Navadise is a digital media marketing company whose mission is to create a new perspective in digital media and change the way companies market themselves in a constantly evolving global economy. They provide video marketing that tell the story of businesses like never before and this creates an incredible relationship between company to customers. What makes Navadise special is their story – Casey started the Navadise Media at 18, built his first drone, and pitched his idea to a local golf course. He later was linked up with a writer for golf magazine, who helped him pitch to two amazing courses in Maine. From there Casey had enough capital to invest in a more advanced drone (top of the line at that time). This is when his company decided on their business model — pride ourselves in staying up to date with the most tech. Advanced equipment and constantly adapt to the most efficient / effective ways of doing things. Anything that’s worth doing is worth over doing. Casey’s team has had some incredible clients including Boston Red Sox, Julian Edelman, Ocean Properties Ltd., Boston Globe, Insurcomm, CNBC Travel, Tuckerman Aviation, and Inspire More and has worked on some incredible projects.

Coral Ortiz

Coral Ortiz is a student leader from New Haven, CT who is currently in her freshman year at Yale University. Growing up in Connecticut’s second largest city, Coral has seen multiple facets of the education system having attended a private school from K-8 before transferring to an urban public high school for grades 9-12. Her first-hand experiences witnessing educational inequalities led her to run for & win an inaugural student position on New Haven Board of Education and subsequently led to her appointment to the State Board of Education. Coral is passionate about giving voice to the student experience in urban education, the experience of underrepresented women & the power of public service to impact social change. Outside of her public service, she enjoys participating in the performing arts.

Daniel McCutchen

Daniel McCutchen is a freshman at Harvard University. He is the founder of a non-profit fundraising organization called Walk For The Water, raising funds for clean accessible water for people in Burundi, Africa through local 5k races in Austin, Texas. He also serves as an advisor to the Aspen Institute’s National Youth Commission on Social Emotional and Academic Development, helping to push legislation on the implementation of social and emotional learning in public education. In high school, Daniel taught a class on social and Emotional learning, teaching at-risk freshman ways to manage relationships, emotions, and goals.

Erling Norrby

Erling Norrby has an M.D. and Ph.D. from the Karolinska Institute, the School of Medicine, Stockholm. He was the professor of virology and chairman at the Institute for 25 years. During that time he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine for 6 years and was deeply involved in the work on Nobel prizes in physiology or medicine for 20 years. After leaving the Institute he became Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for six years. During this time he had overriding responsibility for the Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry and was a member of the Board of the Nobel Foundation. Presently he is at the Center for the History of Sciences at the Academy and in 2010 he published the book Nobel Prizes and Life Sciences, in 2013 by a second book Nobel Prizes and Nature’s Surprises and in 2016 a third book entitled Nobel Prizes and Notable Discoveries. In addition he is currently Vice-Chairman of the Board of the J. Craig Venter Institute. He also has one of the leading functions at the Royal Swedish Court as Lord Chamberlain in Waiting.

John Werner

John Werner is the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Meta, a technology company that is designing a future where augmented reality becomes a healthy, vital extension of who we are and creates deeper understanding, freer expression, and optimal productivity. John combines innovative thinking and collaborative, creative solutions to deliver human and environmental impact. John was most recently at the MIT Media Lab as Head of Innovation and New Ventures at the Camera Culture Group and Founding Managing Director of Emerging Worlds SIG. At MIT, Werner supported developments on new imaging platforms, including hardware and software technologies, to augment human vision. Werner is also the founder of TEDxBeaconStreet.

Keila Wakao

Violinist Keila Wakao, aged 11, began study at the age of three with Mrs. Jan Riggs. Developing rapidly, the late Joseph Silverstein accepted Keila as a student at the age of six. She currently studies with Donald Weilerstein, Soovin Kim, Anait Arutunian, Bela Horvath, and Keisuke Wakao. Despite her young age, Keila has proven herself as a serious, competitive violinist. At the age of seven, she won the Forte International Music Competition (New York, New York). This was followed by 1st place wins at the 8th Yokohama International Music Competition (Japan, 2014), and 1st place at the New York International Competition for Young Artists (New York, 2016). Ms. Wakao performed Mozart’s Concerto in D Major, KV 211 and Meditation from Thais with the Metrowest Symphony Orchestra (2015). Keila appeared with the Waltham Symphony Orchestra as a winner of Young Artist String Competition and also performed with the Ogaki Chamber Orchestra in Japan (2016). She was selected to participate in Julia Fischer’s violin master class and played at the final concert in Tutzing, Germany (January, 2017). Most recently, Keila won the New England Conservatory Prep Concerto Competition and performed as a soloist with the NEC Junior Repertoire Orchestra in the prestigious Jordan Hall in Boston. In her spare time, Keila enjoys reading, drawing, fashion design, and studying the Japanese language.

Laurent Adamowicz

Founder and Chairman of EChO – Eradicate Childhood Obesity Foundation, a not-for-profit health technology and research organization with a mission to improve overall public health of children and reduce the cost of healthcare associated with poor nutrition and childhood obesity. Since 2010, Laurent is also a member of the Nutrition Round Table at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the founder and President of Bon’App, a social enterprise that improves access to, and quality of, nutrition education. Born and raised in Paris, France, Laurent holds a BA in International Affairs from ESCP-Europe, a Master in Business Administration from the Wharton School, a Master of Arts in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from Columbia University in New York, and is a Senior Fellow of the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University.

Lee Dong

From a young age, Lee has been fascinated by the possibilities of biology in curbing some of the most prevalent problems in the world, like hunger, poverty and violence. As a high school senior, she is active in BioBuilders, a synthetic biology competition that encourages students to use synthetic biology to solve the world’s problems. She has presented with and apart from her group to advocate the increased youth involvement in synthetic biology in her school, museums across Boston, and last years TEDxBeaconStreet conference. She plans to stay in the STEM field once in college, hoping to go into medicine.

Marcus Quigley

Marcus Quigley is the CEO and Founder of OptiRTC, a technology company focused on delivering a cloud-based platform for Continuous Monitoring and Adaptive Control (CMAC) of distributed stormwater infrastructure. Mr. Quigley has more than 20 years of experience in solving complex engineering problems as well as leading and managing major projects and running organizations. As a national technical leader, he has extensive experience in passive and active stormwater and green infrastructure design and construction, research and development, modeling, data analysis, integration of information technologies, and environmental field data acquisition. Mr. Quigley has co-authored numerous national guidance manuals for monitoring of stormwater runoff and evaluating and designing stormwater best management practices. Mr. Quigley holds an MS in Civil Engineering from Oregon State University and a BS in Environmental Engineering from Notre Dame.

Megan Smith

Megan Smith was the 3rd Chief Technology Officer of the United States (U.S. CTO) and Assistant to the President, serving under President Barack Obama. She was previously a vice president at Google, leading new business development at Google for nine years, was general manager of Google.org, a vice president at Google[x] and the former CEO of Planet Out. She serves on the boards of MIT and Vital Voices, is a member of the USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Aid and co-founded the Malala Fund. On September 4, 2014, she was named as the third (and first female) U.S. CTO, succeeding Todd Park, and serving until Jan 2017.

Mike Dukakis

Michael Dukakis, three-term governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts who served longer in that post than any other person in history, is best remembered in history as the 1988 Democratic candidate for President in an election in which Ronald Reagan’s vice president, George Bush, effectively used “Swift Boat” tactics to undermine Dukakis’ candidacy. Dukakis won his party’s nomination for Governor in 1974 and beat Sargent decisively in November of that year. He inherited a record deficit and record high unemployment and is generally credited with digging Massachusetts out of one of its worst financial and economic crises in history. But the effort took its toll, and Dukakis was defeated in the Democratic primary in 1978 by Edward King. Dukakis came back to defeat King in 1982 and was reelected to an unprecedented third four-year term in 1986 by one of the largest margins in history. In 1986, his colleagues in the National Governors’ Association voted him the most effective governor in the nation. Dukakis won the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States in 1988 but was defeated by George Bush. Soon thereafter, he announced that he would not be a candidate for reelection as governor. After leaving office in January 1991, Dukakis and his wife, Kitty, spent three months at the University of Hawaii where Dukakis was a visiting professor in the Department of Political Science and the School of Public Health. While at the University of Hawaii, he taught courses in political leadership and health policy and led a series of public forums on the reform of the nation’s health-care system. There has been increasing public interest in Hawaii’s first-in-the-nation universal health insurance system and the lessons that can be learned from it as the nation debates the future of health care in America. Since June 1991, Dukakis has been a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Northeastern University and Visiting Professor at the School of Public Policy at UCLA. His research has focused on national health care policy reform and the lessons that national policy makers can learn from state reform efforts. Recently, he and former U.S. Senator Paul Simon authored a book entitled How to Get Into Politics-and Why which is designed to encourage young people to think seriously about politics and public service as a career.

Mike Platco

Mike Platco is a vertical filmmaker and social media influencer with an audience of over half a million. Although originally gaining notoriety for his elaborate Snapchat drawings, Mike has become one of the platforms leading advocates for storytelling. His branded and personal projects focus on illustrating the versatility and power of storytelling in social media and are frequently supplemented with behind the scenes content that shares his process and encourages the audience to be creators as well.

Nick Schwartz

Nick Schwartz is a Mechanical Engineer Senior at MIT. Having worked on projects from energy to transportation to medicine, he’s led a typical busy lifestyle of an undergraduate at MIT. However, he has found the key to maintaining a positive and introspective attitude through an organization called Camp Kesem. Camp Kesem is a student-run organization, of which he has been part of since his first year. It serves children who have a parent that has been affected by cancer with a summer camp, where Nick is a counselor. He has been on the coordinating board for the organization for 2 years, and during this time has learned a lot about hardship, love, and gratitude.

Nik Walker

Nik Walker is a current member of the Broadway ensemble of Hamilton and understudies the roles of Aaron Burr, George Washington, and Hercules Mulligan/James Madison. Before booking Hamilton, he auditioned at least 4 times for roles including ensemble, Lafayette/Jefferson, and King George. He made his broadway debut in 2013 as an ensemblist in Motown the Musical. Other credits include RENT, Into the Woods, and Miss Saigon; Nik Walker is also a trained Shakespearean actor. He insists that he cannot dance. In addition to being an immensely talented actor, Nik Walker is also a writer. Most recently, his musical Whiskeyland!, which tells the tale of Beantown’s struggle for redemption and vengeance in the last 24 hours of existence. Angels, anarchists and alcohol, baby,“ enjoyed a concert production in 2014. Nik is currently working on a follow up. Nik Walker is also a HUGE NERD. The Dark Knight film change his life and Nik is also a huge fan of Tarantino and the MCU. Don’t talk to him about Matt Damon. In addition to Broadway, Nik is also a rock musician. He also has a cute cat and we should all appreciate this mans devotion to his cat, Ferris. He is married and very in love with his wife, Sarah Joyce.

Noah Shamus

Noah Shamus is currently a seventeen-year-old senior at Avenues: The World School. Noah first got involved in social justice his freshman year of high school by attending an event about white privilege. Noah is presently the co-president of the Committee for Social Justice, which he has grown to become the largest club at his school. He is also the president of the Student Ambassadors Club, the World Science Club, and an active member or the student newspaper and Model UN. Noah enjoys discussing politics, physics, and building rockets with his friends.

Olivia Greenspan

20-year-old Olivia Greenspan is co-founder of TILL, a carbon-negative community-based development company. Olivia is also the 2017 Fairfield County, Connecticut, Farm Bureau Lyman Wells Scholar and the 2017-18 Real Estate Innovation Fellow at the Fordham Social Innovation Collaboratory in the Bronx. Olivia regularly presents on social innovation and entrepreneurship, including at the 2017 Ashoka U Conference in Miami, Florida, the largest network of social entrepreneurs globally. Olivia is a rising junior at Fordham University, NYC, majoring in Economics, with a focus on environmental sustainability and ecological psychology. Olivia is currently focused on leveraging environmental and motivational psychology to build commitment to sustainability, especially at the local level. She is curious about the persistence of ingrained behaviors and attitudes, even amongst those who are informed and alarmed about climate change. Are economics and policy really the largest barriers to sustainable systemic transformation? Or are there other seemingly innocuous yet more insidious forces at play? Olivia uses case studies to consider how forces seemingly unrelated to climate change –– including identity politics, social capital, and cognitive capture –– can sometimes prove the largest barriers to change.

Robert Carlson

Robert Carlson is a filmmaker and YouTuber living in California. He plays with toys professionally by building and filming toy roller coasters out of LEGO, K’nex, and Hot Wheels. Over the past 7 years, his YouTube channel 5MadMovieMakers has amassed 130 million views across 118 different videos. Robert started up the 5MadMovieMakers channel with his brothers and now makes videos to pay for groceries and car insurance. In 2015 he graduated from Biola University with a degree in film production.

Sammi Janower

My name is Sammi Janower. I am 16 years old and currently a rising Junior at the Noble and Greenough School. When I was 3, I was diagnosed with a pediatric brain tumor. I spent much of my childhood feeling nauseous and tired as the result of my treatments, some of which have had undesirable long term side effects. For my TEDx talk, I would want to focus on the idea that everything happens for a reason. Although I went through a terrible experience, I am now able to help others in the same situation and try to use the story of my cancer journey to inspire others. I have spent years helping to raise money for research into less toxic and more effective treatments for brain tumors. In addition, I have trained for two years to ride the Pan Mass Challenge on a tandem with my dad. As a result of our efforts over the past decade, this formerly orphan disease is much closer to a cure, helping many children and their families find hope for a better future. I believe that I am making a positive impact in the world by advocating for an orphaned disease and for the support of cancer research. Speaking at the Pan Mass Challenge Heavy Hitter’s dinner in May, I helped raise awareness for such a great organization and raise more money for the cause. Similarly, by working with our family’s foundation, A Kids Brain Tumor Cure, I have helped to raise money in order to find non-toxic cures for pediatric brain tumors, some of which are being by patients today. I want to share my story now because I believe that the sooner we raise awareness, the sooner we can find a cure. Additionally, in this point in my life, I am a 16 year old girl, just starting Junior year of high school, a place where my parents never thought I would get to. For me, to be able to stand here and tell my story, is amazing. I am far enough away from the experience to reflect upon its impact on my life but still young enough and close enough to the experience to be able to feel the long-lasting effects that cancer has had on my life and my future.

Sharon Lin

Sharon Lin is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School in New York City. Her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the New York Times, the White House, the Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, and the Huffington Post. Her poetry appears in the Voices of the East Coast anthology, The Feminist Press, and the New York Public Library. Currently, she serves as the NYC Youth Poet Laureate. She is an editor for KidSpirit Magazine and a poetry reader for Polyphony HS. She currently attends the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and works as a researcher for the MIT Media Lab.

Tito Kuol

Tito is a 22 year old freshman at Harvard University from South Sudan. He was born in a village with no school, and with no means of access to education. Under his older brothers’ influence, he because a refugee at age 9 as a means to get an education in Kenya. Through a winding road he has found his way to Harvard. Tito’s story is inspiring, but as he succinctly put, he does not need his story to help himself, but he does need his story to help him do what it is he wants to do – start a school in his own village in South Sudan. Tito wants to make sure that no youth in South Sudan need to leave their home to get educated, and he is currently on a mission to find out how he can make that a reality.

Zach Fischer

Hardware oriented , film maker, hacker, musician.