Theme: TEDxCharlottesville 2017 (no theme)

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

The Paramount Theatre
215 East Main Street
Charlottesville, Virginia, 22902
United States

Ladama

virtuosic musicians, and educators

Minds In Motion

Richmond Ballet Youth Performers

Abigail Kayser

Ph.D. student, Curry School of Education

Ami Vitale

National Geographic photographer

Amiel Harper

Entrepreneur, Brand Builder, Storyteller, Artisan

Andrew Block

Director, Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice

Bob Moje

VMDO Architects, Founding Partner

Bradford & Bryan Manning

Social entrepreneurs on a mission to cure blindness

Brothers, Bradford and Bryan Manning, are social entrepreneurs on a mission to cure blindness. At the age of 7, they were both diagnosed with an eye disease that destroys central vision over time. To fight back, they left their former careers in finance to propel a small charitable clothing company, Two Blind Brothers, into one of the fastest growing charitable brands in the country with endorsements from Ellen DeGeneres, Ashton Kutcher, Richard Branson, NBC Nightly News, and many others.

Bradford and Bryan Manning

Social Entrepreneurs on a Mission to Cure Blindness

Social Entrepreneurs on a Mission to Cure Blindness

Chic Thompson

Chemist, Cartoonist, Dyslexic, Educator

Christian Howard

Christian Howard is a current PhD Candidate in English literature at the University of Virginia, where she is specializing in contemporary global fiction and digital humanities. Born and raised in Austin, Texas, Christian received her BA in English and Comparative Literature from the University of Dallas in 2012. In 2014, she received her MA in English from the University of Tulsa, where she specialized in modern literature and began working on digital humanities. As a PhD candidate at UVA, Christian has worked as a Makerspace Technologist in the Scholars' Lab and as a graduate student assistant for Alison Booth's digital project, The Collective Biographies of Women. Christian is currently a Praxis Scholar, and she is one of the Principle Investigators for the podcast series, Circulating Spaces: Literary and Language Worlds in a Global Age. In her spare time, Christian enjoys fencing, playing the piano, and frequenting art museums. She lives in Charlottesville.

Daryl Davis

Daryl Davis is an American R&B and Blues musician, author, actor and bandleader, known for his energetic style of Boogie Woogie piano. Davis has played with such musicians as Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, Bruce Hornsby, and Bill Clinton. His efforts to improve race relations, in which as an African-American he engaged with members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), have been reported on by media such as CNN, Newsweek Magazine, and the Washington Post. Davis summed up his advice as: "Establish dialogue. When two enemies are talking, they're not fighting." Daryl received rave reviews for his stage roles in William Saroyan’s The Time Of Your Life with a famed cast of Marcia Gay Harden, Brigid Cleary, Richard Bauer, Dion Anderson, and Henry Strozier. Davis was a key player in Elvis Mania which was extended by two months due to popular demand in New York City at an off-Broadway theatre. He appeared in two episodes of the critically acclaimed HBO series, The Wire. Davis is the author of the nonfiction book Klan-Destine Relationshipsand he is the subject of the documentary Accidental Courtesy.

David Swanson

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is the director of World Beyond War, a global nonviolent movement to end war and establish a just and sustainable peace. David's books on the theme of his talk include War Is A Lie (a catalog of the types of falsehoods regularly told about wars), War Is Never Just (a refutation of just war theory), and When the World Outlawed War (an account of the 1920s peace movement and the creation of the Kellogg Briand Pact), as well as (co-author) A Global Security System: An Alternative to War (a vision of a world of nonviolent institutions). David blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts a weekly radio show called Talk Nation Radio. He speaks frequently on the topic of war and peace, and engages in all kinds of nonviolent activism. He recently drafted a resolution urging Congress to move money from the military to human and environmental needs, rather than the reverse. Versions of the resolution were passed by several cities, including Charlottesville, and by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. David also recently organized a flotilla of 50 kayaks that held banners on the Potomac River in front of the Pentagon reading "No more wars for oil / No more oil for wars." David is a 2015, 2016, 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee. David holds a Master's degree in philosophy from UVA and has long lived and worked in Charlottesville -- on the Downtown Mall when the weather's nice.

Gregg Hallinan

Assistant Professor of Astronomy, CalTech

Kat Imhoff

President and CEO of The Montpelier Foundation

Kirsten Martin

Business Ethics Professor at George Washington University

Michael F. Suarez, S.J.

Director of Rare Book School at UVA

Minds in Motion & Baaba Seth

Minds In Motion is the cornerstone of Richmond Ballet's education program, reaching fourth grade students across Virginia. Professional teaching artists and musicians bring their love and experience of movement and music to each Minds In Motion student in weekly classes. Richmond Ballet’s Minds In Motion Team XXL is a group of youthful, diverse, high- energy dancers that combine pedestrian movement and rhythmic patterning into exciting and intricate choreography. This group of 32 5th - 8th grade advanced Minds In Motion students are the ambassadors of the MIM program and perform at events around Charlottesville. Baaba Seth got their start in 1991, soon after the birth of lead singer, song writer, and guitarist Dirk Lind’s son (and the soon to be band’s namesake), Seth. It all started on original guitarist Kevin Lynch’s front porch on Virginia Avenue, with casual jam sessions that included Lynch, Boyd Tinsley, current member Len Wishart (percussion), and others. As fans of African music, they decided to create a sound that incorporated the positive mood and infectious grooves of modern African music into distinctly American songwriting. The band’s first album, Crazy Wheel, was released in February of 1996. The album was greeted eagerly by fans and the media alike, garnering positive reviews in local papers as well as major publications such as the Washington Post and New York’s Village Voice. MTV picked up a song from the album for one of its early reality shows. Since its inception, Baaba Seth’s various iterations contained some of the area’s top musicians. The current lineup (which many fans consider to be the band’s strongest) consists of Dirk Lind-vocals and rhythm guitar, hugs and tickles; Hope Clayburn-vocals and sax, flute and dance madness; Mike Chang-lead guitar, vocals, minister of propaganda; Dylan Locke-bass, Floyd County crackalaka; Jim Ralston-drums, master illusionist/dancer; Len Wishart-congas, djembe, percussion, and DNA cloning technology; Tim Lett-trumpet and the original Jazzneck; Mark Maynard-trombone and official story teller, will travel for peanut butter.

Nick George

Nicholas Steven George is a published author and poet. While he works in the mental health field as a Day Treatment clinician, he has been writing since his youth in Newark, NJ. First born to his Trinidadian parents, Nicholas began performing his poetry at local open mics and slam competitions in Newark, crafting his skill and delivering his story. In 2013, Nicholas started a platform called "The Listening", an organization that exists to challenge the perception of the performing arts being strictly for entertainment purposes, and connect it to mentoring and social impact.

Pete Johnson

Cave Explorer

Pete Myers

founder and Chief Scientist of Environmental Health Sciences

Rafe Furst

Impact investor, writer, producer and poker player

Rob Jackson

Research Lecturer

Sanjiv Singh

Dr. Sanjiv Singh is an educator, innovator, and entrepreneur. He is currently a Research Professor at the Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University and the CEO of Near Earth Autonomy, a startup that develops autonomy for next generation aircraft that will inspect infrastructure, deliver cargo, and, transport people. Dr. Singh started his career working on self-driving cars in 1985 and led a project to demonstrate “fast navigation” for autonomous mining trucks, almost two decades before such capability was common. He went on to work on the automation for earth moving and in 2000, he demonstrated an autonomous 25-ton excavator. In 2006, he led the first team to fly a drone at high speeds between wires, trees and buildings. In 2010, he led the first effort to automate a full-scale helicopter for a Medevac mission and currently leads key technology developments for a military program to develop autonomous cargo delivery using full scale rotorcraft. He received a B.S in Computer Science (1983) from the University of Denver, M.S in Electrical Engineering (1985) from Lehigh University and a PhD in Robotics (1995) from Carnegie Mellon University.