Theme: Boomerang

There is an old saying, what goes around comes around. This simple principle of cause and effect serves as our own personal boomerang. Just as boomerangs return to their originator, we believe that what we give, we receive back in countless dividends. TEDxCSUS is an independently organized TED event that brings together local speakers to discuss how they’ve tossed their own personal boomerang into the world, and the effect it’s had on their local communities. Just as boomerangs come back around, we believe in empowering each other so that this support can “come back around” to our region.

California State University - Sacramento
6000 J Street
Sacramento, California, 95819
United States

Cathy Rodriguez Aguirre

Director of Hispanic Chamber Sacramento

Cathy Rodriguez Aguirre’s career has included leadership roles in community outreach, communications and public relations, event management and marketing. Currently, she is the President & CEO for the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, working with and advocating on behalf of 600 businesses in the greater Sacramento region. Cathy was recognized as one of 2016 Sacramento Business Journal “Women Who Mean Business” and recently in the Spring 2017 UC Davis Alumni Magazine as one of 11 Alumni making an impact in Sacramento. She has been a keynote speaker for the CA State of Biliteracy, Hispanic Heritage featured speaker for Apple-Elk Grove Campus, and has been a panelist for numerous organizations throughout Sacramento and Northern California. She has served on local boards including Roberts Family Development Center, People Reaching Out, Midtown Business Association, and various committees and task forces. Cathy is an alumnus of the Sacramento Metro Chamber Leadership Sacramento, and

Charleton Churchill

Adventure Wedding Photographer

Charleton Churchill is an Adventure wedding photographer who travels the world’s most rugged terrains to capture epic images of couples adventurously. Charleton recently became the first photographer to document a wedding at Mt. Everest base camp with the first couple wearing a wedding dress/Tuxedo, which went viral internationally. Charleton’s work has appeared on TV and in popular magazines, including the Kelly & Ryan show, People magazine, Today show, Vogue, ESPN, and on the covers of popular photography and wedding magazines. Charleton was chosen in Top 100 wedding photographers in the USA/Canada 2016, has won awards including the Sony Impact Award for his humanitarian work in Nepal. He has been a spokesman for Nikon and Profoto, speaking across the country at workshops, conferences, and Universities. While he enjoys hiking and exploring, he enjoys being his wife and three girls in their northern California small town.

Dr. Kit Miyamoto

Earthquake Engineer and CEO

Dr. Miyamoto was the recipient of the National Council of Structural Engineers Association’s Excellence in Structural Engineering Award, ENR Best Global Projects Award and ASCE Humanitarian Award. He is a Fellow of American Society of Civil Engineers. He specializes in high-performance earthquake engineering, disaster mitigation, response and reconstruction. Dr. Miyamoto is an expert consultant to the World Bank projects globally, including a seismic risk mitigation project for 2,000 schools in Istanbul. In the 2010 Haiti earthquake, he worked with the government of Haiti, UN, USAID and various NGOs to conduct damage assessments of more than 430,000 earthquake-damaged structures and rebuild more than 12,000 buildings. He is currently involved with earthquake reconstruction in Nepal, where his team has completed over 1,000 assessments and is retrofitting severely damaged schools, monastries and high-rise buildings using high-performance engineering.

Impulse Anima

Diego Campos and Alexandria Griffi th are performers and founders of ‘Impulse | Anima’, an interdisciplinary project from Sacramento, which combines the curiosity and physicality of the human body with layers of original text and sound. Both dancers have taught internationally in Mexico City, and they currently dance with the Linda Bair Dance Company and Lorelei Bayne Projects. Outside of the stage, they enjoy playing chess, watching fi lms, and make a positive impact in the youth through the performing arts.

Isaac Serwanga

Author and Educational Consultant

A best-selling author, speaker, educational consultant and self-proclaimed “World’s Greatest Uncle”, Isaac Serwanga is an advocate for the personal and professional development of young people ranging from middle school students to college graduates. Isaac graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Sociology in 2013, where he also worked as the co-creator of Profound Ivy, a career mentorship program for Princeton University students which has served as the springboard for his newly released book How to Network in College. Isaac has taken the reins on his passion to teach and to speak by traveling all throughout California and beyond, delivering motivational speeches along with informative workshops under the name Inform & Inspire, his own non-profit organization.

John Davidson

Marketer and Skateboarder

John Davidson is a CSUS alum with a diverse professional background spanning from skateboarding, door-to-door sales and now the Head of Partnerships, eSports and Influencer Marketing for GameStop, the world's largest specialty gaming retailer.

John Grant

Author and Business Humanifier

John's new book: Better (The Wellbeing Revolution and Human Friendly Business) comes out later in 2017. John is also the author of Made With (2013), Co-opportunity (2010), the award winning Green Marketing Manifesto (2007) and three other books. His first book the New Marketing Manifesto (1999) was named one of the 10 Best Business Books of 1999 by Books Online. John started his communications strategy career at agencies JWT and then BMP-DDB where he won the coveted IPA Effectiveness Grand Prix. He went on to become co-founder and head of strategy at creative agency St Luke's (as featured in the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company Magazine and Campaign Agency of the Year) in the mid 1990s. Since then John has advised clients on brands, marketing, behaviour change, strategy and innovation. John's past clients have included the BBC, Cisco, Ernst & Young, IBM, IKEA, ING, innocent, LEGO, Microsoft, Unilever, various departments of the UK and Swedish governments, and many more.

Morgan Glover

Student Speaker & Future Cognitive Psychologist

Morgan Glover is a 23-year-old passionate graduate of California State University, Sacramento. Her friends describe her as dedicated, vivacious, a feminist, an intellectual, and a positive role model personifying self-empowerment. She spends her free time loving cats, fighting for women’s rights, and crushing the stigma around mental health conditions. Morgan is currently searching for the perfect fit in graduate school and program in Neuroscience with a focus in memory, learning, and/or cognition. She someday hopes to aide in solving memory problems, both for herself, and for millions of others affected by the diseases.

Paul Coccovillo

Virtual Reality Controller

Paul Coccovillo is the Controller of the Consumer Hardware group at Facebook, Inc. based in Menlo Park, CA. Paul joined Facebook in 2014 from Microsoft shortly after Facebook acquired virtual reality company Oculus, Inc. His primary responsibilities at Facebook include helping the company develop and position the hardware manufacturing function, which supports production of the Oculus product line as well as the new Facebook "Building 8" innovation efforts. Prior to working at Facebook Paul was the Inventory Controller at Microsoft in Redmond, WA where he was responsible for managing the team overseeing accounting, reporting, and controls for the Microsoft hardware manufacturing division that produced Xbox and Surface product lines. Paul has also held roles at San Jose based Verifone, Inc., Annie's Inc (makers of natural and organic foods), Cadbury Schwepps, and started his career in the Accounts Payable department at Nantucket Nectars, a beverage manufacturer then based in Cambridge,

Sac State Vocal Jazz

The vocal jazz program at Sacramento State is under the direction of Gaw Vang Williams. The program consists of C-Sus Voices, Sac State Jazz Singers and Vox Now, all of which are formed by audition and are under the direction of Gaw Vang Williams. The program recently started a beginning ensemble call Vocal Jazz and Acapella lab. This beginning ensemble introduces new students to vocal jazz concepts and repertoire and directed by Sac State graduate students. The advance ensembles tour, perform at jazz festivals, and records annually. The sounds of Sac State vocal jazz groups are infl uenced by the great vocal jazz groups of the past and present: The Hi-Lo’s, Singers Unlimited, Take 6, New York Voices, The Real Group, Manhattan Transfer and others. Additionally, the program strives to explore new, innovative approaches to contemporary vocal jazz and features student compositions and arrangements. Vox Now took fi rst at the Reno Jazz Festival 2017 and was awarded the 2017 Downbeat Magazine Student Music Awards for Best Vocal Jazz Ensemble. The Sac State School of Music vocal jazz program has been awarded over 20 Downbeat Magazine Student Music Awards and the program placed fi rst in 2016 and 2017 at Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival in the collegiate vocal jazz division.

Stephen Ozoigbo

Venture Catalyst

Stephen Ozoigbo, serial investor and advisor to multiple startups, is the CEO of the African Technology Foundation, and the Managing Partner for the Lions@frica initiative of the US State Department. Prior to these roles, he was the Foreign Direct Investment Manager for the Government of Catalonia, and was responsible for a diverse array of international project management and advisory services that increased investment, innovation and bilateral trade relations between Catalonia and the West Coast of the United States. Stephen previously held roles at Smith Barney and Citigroup.