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).

University City High School
7401 Balson Ave
University City, Missouri, 63130
United States

Amy Hunter

Amy Hunter recently joined the St. Louis Children’s Hospital after being the director of Racial Justice for the St. Louis YWCA. Currently, she is charged with leading diversity and inclusion strategies, implementation and measurement for the hospital. She also owns and operates her own company Lotus Roots Consulting, a diversity and inclusion company. Hunter has more than 20 years of experience in the corporate, education and nonprofit community. She is known for “The Talk,” which was incorporated in her TEDx Talk “Lucky Zip Codes.” She has been published several times in journals, a book, Huffington Post and Essence Magazine to name a few. She has been seen and heard on ABC, CNN, NBC and a host of other networks and heard on NPR and other media outlets. Hunter has three sons and a daughter and currently is working on her Ph.D. in the field of critical race theory.

Emily Luft

Emily Luft earned a bachelor’s degree in Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Missouri- Columbia and a Masters of Social Work from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to joining Alive and Well STL, Luft was a program fellow with the Missouri Foundation for Health. In this role, she supported funding across four programs and helped to lead collaborative funding program design. Luft also served as the project manager for the Missouri Innovation Fund, a project of the National Convergence Partnership, which linked six communities across the state of Missouri in their efforts to promote healthy eating and active living. In her role as program director of Alive and Well STL, Luft oversees the coordination of all of the Alive and Well activities and programs. She has trained thousands of service providers about the impacts of trauma and has helped numerous organizations begin making culture and policy changes to better respond to the impacts of trauma. She also acts as the lead on Alive and Well’s work to support trauma-informed education, training and coaching schools and working with educational leaders to create regional guidance for trauma-informed schools.

Joe Miller

Joe Miller leads Wyman’s Strengthening (School) Systems work and possesses more than 20 years of senior executive experience. A professional in system improvements and partnership building, Miller began his career working for the City of St. Louis and then transitioned to a corporate executive/owner. As a corporate executive, he created more than $150 million of public-private partnerships. He led and grew six companies from $5 million to $50 million in ten years. Miller and his colleagues sold the $50 million company to a $7 billion organization, where he worked for an additional three years. In 2006, Miller decided to take his executive business and government skills into the non-profit sector. Over the past 11 years, he has served on the Wyman Executive Leadership Team leading direct programs and creating a national network of program providers, where he worked with all types of school districts, ranging from New York City and Chicago to suburban and rural districts in Missouri. Most recently, he created and leads Wyman's (school) systems work. Miller has blended his non-profit, government and business expertise as an adjunct professor at St. Louis University and was selected as a 2013-14 Annie E. Casey Children and Family Fellow. He holds a master’s degree in public administration and frequently shares his youth leadership skills with various St. Louis community organizations and schools. He has a particular passion for working with youth and has personally coached more than 70 youth sports teams in the past 15 years. Miller regularly works with school superintendents and school boards to improve their school systems. Currently, he is an elected member of the Clayton School Board where he serves as Board Treasurer.

Katie Kaufmann

Katie Kaufmann is the director of Ready by 21 St. Louis, a collective impact initiative focused on aligning efforts and improving outcomes for children and youth across St. Louis City, St. Louis County and St. Charles County. She is a product of public K-12 education and began her career as a middle school math teacher through Teach for America St. Louis. Prior to Ready by 21 St. Louis, Kaufmann worked in the non-profit sector focused on impacting systemic inequity around access to quality opportunities for youth and young adults. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in American Studies and Math from Wells College in Aurora, NY, and has certificates in 5-9 Math and Nonprofit Leadership and Management from the University of Missouri - St. Louis. Kaufmann is a wife and mother to a two-year-old. She serves as an elected member of the Maplewood-Richmond Heights School Board.

Katie Plax

Dr. Katie Plax focuses on improving health for youth and has engaged in this work as the co-founder of the SPOT, (Supporting Opportunities with Teens), a one-stop, drop-in center for youth ages 13-24 that provides health and social services free of charge. The SPOT team reaches and serves youth who rarely access traditional medical services such as runaway and homeless teens, youth aging out of foster care and youth who are HIV infected. In its first nine years of operation, SPOT served more than 14,000 youth. These clinical efforts have led Plax and her SPOT team to advocate for children and youth at the federal, state, county and city levels to protect Medicaid and CHIP, ease enrollment into Medicaid coverage, advocate for youth in foster care and partner with health departments to combat the spread of STDs and HIV.

Sharonica Hardin-Bartley

Sharonica Hardin-Bartley serves as superintendent in The School District of University City, a role she began on July 1, 2016. Hardin-Bartley is charged with serving 2,800 students and more than 400 teachers and staff. She oversees an operating budget of more than $42 million. Hardin-Bartley brings a hands-on approach to the superintendent’s role. In her short time in the District, she has secured more than $160,000 in partnership resources now presently at work in the District. She created a strategic platform for students success called, “Learning Reimagined,” where she has mobilized her team to educate the “whole” child. Presently, she is integrating that concept into the District’s new Strategic Plan. She is committed to helping teachers and students bring to life their passions for education and learning. Hardin-Bartley has spent the past 20 years relentlessly championing educational excellence and equality for all children. She was an active member of the Ferguson Commission’s Child Well-Being and Education Equity Work Group. She is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., the Gateway (IL) Chapter of the Links; board of directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri and the University City Children’s Center; advisory board member for Cultural Leadership, and Schools of Education for Webster University, UMSL and Harris Stowe State University. She resides in the school district that she leads and her daughter just completed kindergarten at Jackson Park Elementary School in The School District of University City.

Stephen Zwolak

Stephen Zwolak is the founder and CEO of LUME Institute and Executive Director of University City Children’s Center (UCCC), LUME’s lab school. Zwolak has more than 45 years of experience working in the field of early childhood. He is recognized for leading the conversation on the impact and future of early childhood education in St. Louis and beyond. His years as a classroom teacher and a leader in various educational arenas drove him to develop the LUME Approach, for which there is growing evidence of closing the racial and socioeconomic achievement gap. The LUME Approach brings together theoretical, observational, and neuroscientific research that affirms that the emotional development of children is critical to academic success and lifelong positive outcomes. As a young teacher, Zwolak studied at the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute, an educational center for which he now periodically serves as an instructor for others in child- and family-serving professions. In 2015, he received the American Psychoanalytic Association Educational Achievement Award. Today, Zwolak is recognized for his visionary thinking and entrepreneurial ability to create, enhance and expand programs and develop infrastructure. He develops curricula which include understanding the importance of children’s sexual development and addressing angry love with ruthless compassion in the classroom and home. As a speaker and educator known for his warm demeanor, Zwolak skillfully challenges and motivates teachers to develop reflective practices in their daily relationships with children and families and to be prepared to administer therapeutic triage using a multi-disciplinary approach.

Steve Zwolak

Stephen Zwolak is the founder and CEO of LUME Institute and Executive Director of University City Children’s Center (UCCC), LUME’s lab school. Zwolak has more than 45 years of experience working in the field of early childhood. He is recognized for leading the conversation on the impact and future of early childhood education in St. Louis and beyond. His years as a classroom teacher and a leader in various educational arenas drove him to develop the LUME Approach, for which there is growing evidence of closing the racial and socioeconomic achievement gap. The LUME Approach brings together theoretical, observational, and neuroscientific research that affirms that the emotional development of children is critical to academic success and lifelong positive outcomes. As a young teacher, Zwolak studied at the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute, an educational center for which he now periodically serves as an instructor for others in child- and family-serving professions. In 2015, he received the American Psychoanalytic Association Educational Achievement Award. Today, Zwolak is recognized for his visionary thinking and entrepreneurial ability to create, enhance and expand programs and develop infrastructure. He develops curricula which include understanding the importance of children’s sexual development and addressing angry love with ruthless compassion in the classroom and home. As a speaker and educator known for his warm demeanor, Zwolak skillfully challenges and motivates teachers to develop reflective practices in their daily relationships with children and families and to be prepared to administer therapeutic triage using a multi-disciplinary approach.

Terry Harris

Terry Harris currently serves as the executive director of student services for the Rockwood School District. In this role, he is responsible for school counselors, social workers, school safety, educational equity and diversity, residency and student health and well-being. Harris is an adjunct professor teaching courses on equity, diversity and effective programming for students. Recently, he co-organized the St. Louis Restorative Practices Academy for educators. Harris began his educational career with Rockwood School District as a resource teacher. He also co-taught African American history. In 2009, he served as the coordinator of Educational Equity and Diversity and assumed the role of the homeless coordinator for the Rockwood School District that same year. Harris earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Missouri State University, a Master’s degree in Educational Administration from Lindenwood University and a Doctorate of Education – Educational Administration from Maryville University.