Theme: What's Next?

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).

San Juan Community Theatre
100 2nd St. N.
Friday Harbor, Washington, 98250
United States

Adam Summers

Adam Summers began his biological career with a master’s degree from New York University, followed by a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst working on new tissues from sharks, skates and rays. His research areas of comparative biomechanics and biomaterials allow him to capitalize on engineering and quantitative backgrounds while exploiting interests in natural history. Adam worked at UC Irvine for eight years, where he was awarded the George Bartholomew Prize from the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. In 2009, he moved to the Friday Harbor Laboratories at the University of Washington. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and has written nearly as many articles for the popular press and advised on the movie “Finding Nemo”.

Edward Wang

Edward Wang graduated from Harvey Mudd College with a BS in Engineering where he developed his interest in the cross section of medicine and engineering. He is now a 5th year Ph.D. student in the Electrical Engineering department at the University of Washington as a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow. His work on using smartphone cameras to perform noninvasive blood tests to screen for anemia aims to help communities far away from hospitals to be able to test for malnutrition, something that usually requires a blood draw. Edward ultimately wants to provide a bridge between real users, medical providers, and technology developers to identify the most pressing issues in medical care.

Eliana Gilad

Eliana Gilad, author of Miriam’s Secret, reveals the ancient wisdom of feminine leadership and alternative medicine techniques of the ancient near east, where she lived for 20+ years. Founder of voicesofeden.com, Eliana's ground-breaking medical research project in a 50/50% Israeli-Palestinian hospital has been featured in the worldwide press from CBS, BBC, to the Hindustan Times. Voices of Eden is endorsed by physicians, scientists and thought leaders. Voices of Eden has served people from the Chopra Center to the United Nations to the Easeland Music Spa in Beijing, China.

Eric Rasmussen

Dr. Rasmussen is a medical doctor and the CEO for Infinitum Humanitarian Systems (IHS), a multinational consulting group built on a profit-for-purpose model. He is an internal medicine physician with both undergraduate and medical degrees from Stanford University and a European Master’s degree in disaster medicine from the UN World Health Organization’s affiliate CEMEC (Centre European pour la Medecin des Catastrophes) in Italy. In addition, Eric is a member of the core faculty at Singularity University within the NASA Ames Research Center, teaching in both the Exponential Medicine and Global Grand Challenges tracks. He also serves pro bono as medical director for two biotech startups, and as Permanent Advisor to the UN Secretary-General’s High Level Expert Panel on Water Disasters. He has been a member of the US National Academy of Science’s Committee on Grand Challenges in Global Development since 2012.

Jenni Flinders

Jenni Flinders is a global business warrior and former Microsoft executive, conquering the IT industry for nearly three decades and recognized consecutively as “Top 50 most influential” and “Top 100 most powerful” women in the IT channel. Flinders joined WINNINGfotos in 2017 working on breakthrough technology in the mobile photographic field. She is also the creator of People For Innovation in partnership with Dr. Mark Adams, cultivating people capability, capacity, and commitment for organizational growth and wellness. In addition to serving on the board of the Bellevue Boys & Girls Club and Tateuchi Center, she founded le Pont vers la Vie Académie, a modern day finishing school for youth, and the Ellie Rose Foundation, focused on performance, placement, and prosperity for both beneficiaries, and partners.

Joe Landon

Joe Landon serves as Chief Financial Officer of Planetary Resources, Inc., a company that seeks to expand the economy of humanity into the Solar System through the development and use of resources found on near-Earth asteroids. Joe also serves as Chairman of the Board of Space Angels, the world’s most active investor in early-stage space companies. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Space Technologies and a Trustee of the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle. In 2016, he was named one of Seattle’s ‘40 Under 40’ by the Puget Sound Business Journal. Joe holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering-Physics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

John Moalli

John Moalli is an MIT trained materials scientist, and consults worldwide with companies on issues related to product design, forensic science, and risk analysis. John has published a book and several book chapters on polymeric materials, including medical devices. He has an academic appointment at Stanford University where he teaches through the Department of Chemical Engineering, and has been recognized with Stanford’s highest award for excellence in teaching. John’s latest course at Stanford, “Dare to Care: Compassionate Design”, teaches the concepts of engineering design by challenging students to address the needs of the differently abled. Prior to his change to part-time status, a move driven by his desire to focus on teaching and other volunteer activities, John was a Vice-President at Exponent, Inc., a NASDAQ traded engineering and scientific consulting firm.

John Nance

John Nance is an internationally recognized air safety advocate, and is best known to North American TV audiences as the longtime Aviation Analyst for ABC World News and Good Morning America. A pioneering advocate of Crew Resource Management, John wrote the landmark work "Blind Trust", widely credited with helping spark a total revolution in aviation safety. John is a New York Times Bestselling author of 21 major best selling fiction and non-fiction works. He holds BA and JD (Juris Doctor) degrees from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and an honorary PsD degree from the University of North Texas Health Science Center. A decorated Air Force pilot veteran of Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm, John is a Lt. Colonel in the USAF Reserve, and has piloted a wide variety of aircraft logging over 16,000 hours in a flight career spanning 50 years.

Josh Lovejoy

Josh Lovejoy is a Staff User Experience Designer in the Experimental Design Group at Google, where he works at the intersection of product design, ethics, and artificial intelligence. He believes that human-centered design thinking can change the world for the better; that by seeking to address the unmet needs of people—instead of just technological opportunity—we can build tools that nourish, restore, and augment human capability. Josh leads UX for the People + AI Research initiative, and most recently before that, led AI UX for the Google Clips camera, and co-founded a cross-company program dedicated to machine learning fairness. Prior to Google, he worked at Amazon and co-founded a startup.

Todd Myers

With more than two decades in public policy, government environmental agencies, and the private sector, Todd Myers serves as Environmental Director at the Washington Policy Center in Seattle where he develops market-based environmental solutions. His work has been featured in dozens of media outlets around the world, including the Wall Street Journal, and the BBC. Previously, Mr. Myers served on the executive team at the Washington state Department of Natural Resources from 2001-4, working on issues ranging from spotted owl habitat, salmon protection and protection of old-growth forests.

Tom Vogt

Dr. Vogt is a piano playing physician-epidemiologist with extensive experience in health behavior change, health services research, collaborative clinical trials, and cardiovascular and cancer epidemiology. He has served on the faculties of UCLA, the Oregon Health and Sciences University, and the University of Hawaii, but preferred the collaborative, population, and multidisciplinary approach of Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research (CHR) where he was employed for 29 years - 19 in Portland and 10 in Hawaii. His research focused on improving disease management and preventive care and reducing health care costs through innovative uses of electronic medical records. Since retiring in 2010 he has joined a band, and drafted a book on our dysfunctional health care system.

Vicki Abadesco

Vicki Abadesco is the co-founder of Soul Shoppe, an award winning organization that teaches strategies for social-emotional awareness, bullying prevention and empathy building. She reaches school communities, touching the hearts and minds of close to 100,000 students every school year. She’s an author, program creator and product designer who was awarded the Building Vibrant Communities: Activating Empathy to Create Change Award by the Ashoka and Packard Foundations in 2014. Vicki is a fellow for the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT. More important than her credentials is her uncanny ability to see into people’s hearts, and help them see each other with dignity and inherent value.