Theme: Through the Looking Glass

Coming soon

Salem Convention Center
200 Commercial St SE
Salem, Oregon, 97301
United States

Anna Nixon

17 year old Anna Nixon is currently a senior in high school. She has grown up with an avid interest in STEM because her parents used to bring home the latest gadgets for her and her siblings to play with. The first time she worked with robots was in elementary school and she has been competing in robotics competitions since she was 7 years old. Nixon’s passion for science and technology led her to co-found STEM4Girls, a non-profit organization that works to get more girls involved in STEM activities. She is also currently working at Autodesk on the Synthesis team to create a simulator so that robotics teams can test their code and their designs in a virtual environment.

Brad Burge

Brad Burge is the Director of Strategic Communications for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Brad earned his B.A. in Communication and Psychology from Stanford University in 2005 and his M.A. in Communication from the University of California, San Diego in 2009. He began working with MAPS in 2009, where he engages daily with journalists and media producers around the world to enhance public knowledge about psychedelic research, while also helping develop and evolve MAPS' brand and outreach strategy. Brad is passionate about finding better ways for humans to work with the pharmaceutical and digital communications technologies of the 21st century. When he’s not plugged in, you’ll find him in the mountains, carrying a backpack, somewhere down a long trail.

Cayla Skillin-Brauchle

Cayla Skillin-Brauchle believes art has the capacity to allow us to envision and practice life meaningfully. She exhibits drawings, installations and performance art internationally and lives and works in Salem, where she is Assistant Professor of Art at Willamette University.

Evelin Dacker

Dr. Evelin Dacker has been practicing medicine in Salem since 1996. Her interests are in women’s health, holistic and integrative medicine and sexual health. In 2005 she opened up Salem’s first holistic medicine clinic, VIDA Integrative Medicine. While not practicing medicine, Evelin enjoys being in nature, travel, dance and spending time with her family and friends.

Jackson Rayne

A headlining illusionist, TV personality, and highly sought after corporate speaker, Jackson Rayne walks through walls, defies death, and lives life to its fullest! Jackson’s magic and world record escapes have been featured on national television in several countries around the world. Touring Asia and North America with his own 90 minute production Jackson’s shows continue to be featured at resort showrooms, performance arts centers, colleges, and arenas everywhere. Jackson’s multiple Guinness world records have provided a platform for speaking to Fortune 500 companies and universities about success and leadership topics. Combining visual magic with motivational words, Jackson has an uncanny talent for inspiring and connecting with an audience in the most unforgettable ways. Jackson’s engaging charm, high-energy magical performances, and obsession for pushing the boundaries is exactly why the Manila Bulletin hails him “Spellbinding!”

Kaydee Kreitlow

Kaydee grew up in a geodesic dome in Beaverton, OR. From there she moved to NYC to study architecture, traveled and dabbled in construction. She works as an architect in Salem and spends most of her time trying to wear out her energetic dog.

Larura Mack

Laura Mack lives in Salem, Oregon with her husband and two boys. Laura is an artist, educator, and art education advocate. She makes mixed media collages and drawings, teaches art and creativity at Chemeketa Community College, and coordinates the volunteer-driven Art Literacy program at Salem Heights Elementary School.

Marie Greene

Marie Greene is a knitwear designer, writer, knitting instructor and international speaker with emphasis on fiber arts and slow fashion. Having been interested in traditional arts since her early teens, Marie has spent her life embracing time-honored processes and making them more accessible with today’s technology. As a community organizer, non-profit leader and champion of creative entrepreneurs, Marie works to bring awareness and opportunities to artisans and makers in her community and beyond. Marie is the leader of the Salem, Oregon chapter for Rising Tide Society, a community for creative entrepreneurs, and is the owner of Olive Knits, knitwear design. Marie lives in Salem, Oregon with her husband and together they are the parents of three grown sons.

Mas Subramanian

Mas Subramanian is the Milton Harris Chair Professor of Materials Science in Chemistry Department at Oregon State University. He previously held research positions at DuPont Central R&D (1984-2006). Subramanian has authored 330 research publications and holds 58 US patents. Subramanian received his PhD in Materials Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. Subsequently, he was a NSF postdoctoral fellow at Texas A&M University. Professor Subramanian’s research focuses on designing new inorganic solid state functional materials for emerging applications in electronics, energy conversion and environment. He is internationally recognized for several scientific breakthrough discoveries in the field of superconductors, dielectrics, magnetism, catalysis, thermoelectrics and inorganic pigments. Recently his discovery of an intense blue pigment, a first in 200 years, received widespread international attention and has been featured in several leading international press including NY Times, National Geographic, Time, NPR, BBC News, Times of India and others. Professor Subramanian has received several awards and honors for his outstanding contributions to science including Charles Pedersen Medal awarded by DuPont Company for Excellence in Scientific and Technical Achievement (2004), F.A. Gilfillan Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Science from Oregon State University (2014) and 2016 Outstanding Scientist Award from Oregon Academy of Science.

Noah Strycker

It all started with the bird feeder. Specifically, the bird feeder that Judy Kappler attached to her fifth grade classroom’s window at Oak Hill Elementary School in Eugene. Every time a new bird came to visit that feeder, she paused the class to observe it. One of her students, Noah Strycker, was riveted. So much so that he built his career on birds, writing books about them and pursuing them all over the world. Strycker has just published his third book, Birding Without Borders, about what’s known in the birding community as “The Big Year” – a competition to travel far and wide to identify as many bird species as possible, whether by sight or by sound. His first exposure to the Big Year was at the age of 12, when he picked up Kingbird Highway, Kenn Kaufman’s memoir of dropping out of high school to do his own Big Year in the 1970s. Strycker says he “read that book over and over,” but the goal to embark on a Big Year of his own coalesced when he was a student at Oregon State University, writing for Birding magazine alongside his coursework. When Strycker finally started his Big Year in January 2015, he’d hoped to identify at least 5,000 birds around the world. Watch his video to see if he made it.

Rose Barker

Rose Barker, Certified Risk Management Consultant, is an expert on identity theft. She speaks at businesses and human resource organizations along the West Coast, sharing information on how to protect companies, employees, and their families from the threat of identity theft and data breaches. Rose is a Salem, Oregon native and avidly supports fostering local community. She is both an entrepreneur herself and Board President of MERIT, a non-profit that empowers people to lift themselves out of poverty through financial education and entrepreneurship. Though based out of Salem, Rose also loves serving the international community. She has spent several years in Latin America on more than 20 international trips. When she's not helping businesses and employees, you can find Rose gardening, cycling, swimming across the Willamette River, volunteering, and playing with her adorable dog, Foxy.

Seth Tichenor

Seth Tichenor is a teacher, scholar, public lecturer, and evangelist for the transformative power of philosophical discourse and reflection. He has been teaching philosophy and leading philosophical discussion groups at colleges and universities as well as to the general public for over 20 years. Seth believes that the general practice and appreciation of philosophy has been marginalized and maligned in much of society, and much to the detriment of everyone. Further, he believes that philosophy is not just an intellectual discipline, or a way of life, but a rather basic part of the human experience that everyone is entitled to encounter. Consequently he, and his partner Gad Perez, established “’Philosofarian’ – a guerrilla philosophy project” in 2009 as a way of bringing philosophical inquiry, reflection, and discourse to their everyone in their community and beyond. He lives in Astoria Oregon.