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 Florida Theatre
128 East Forsyth Street
Jacksonville, Florida, 32202
United States

Anne Driscoll

Anne Driscoll is an award-winning journalist who has investigated wrongful convictions as senior reporter at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University and as a 2013-2014 US Fulbright scholar. She is a former project manager for the Irish Innocence Project at Griffith College Dublin. Awarded a second Fulbright scholarship in 2018, she is now teaching law and journalism students at the National University of Ireland, Galway about wrongful convictions and investigative techniques, while also conducting research to establish a National Registry of Exonerations in Ireland. Originally trained as a social worker, she remains a licensed certified social worker and is the author of a self-help series of guidebooks for girls called Girl to Girl. As a journalist, she has devoted her career to covering issues of human rights, social justice, and human development and has sought to make a difference in the world, one story at a time. She received the 2016 Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice, and she is a Moth storyteller and the author of Irish You Were Here.

Anunnaki Ray Marquez

Born intersex and assigned the wrong gender at birth, Anunnaki Ray Marquez lived as female for the first 46 years of life before emancipating his authentic male gender in 2014. Anunnaki’s marriage survived, and he remains with his husband of 28 years; the couple have three children, two biological and one adopted. In September 2018, Anunnaki received a birth certificate from the state of Colorado recognizing that his true biological sex is intersex and not a disorder. He became the third person to be recognized as intersex in the U.S. His social activist work focuses on an individual’s right to bodily autonomy, and the right to express their true gender identity. Anunnaki is the Director of Gender/Intersex Education for PFLAG of Jacksonville, as well as an Intersex Advocate for Partnership for Child Health’s Jacksonville Youth Equality. He has become a gender/intersex activist and educator for all intersex, gender variant, and transgender children who have no voice and are being medically and psychiatrically harmed. Anunnaki is also a musician, performer, and artist.

Ash Perrin

In 2007, Ash Perrin was on holiday in Cambodia and found himself performing some magic in an orphanage. The children were comfortable and happy, but it struck him that these were feelings they didn’t usually experience. He realized that as an entertainer and a clown who cares passionately about the health and happiness of children, he should do as much as possible to spread laughter to those who need it most. He launched The Flying Seagull Project three months later. Since then, the group has worked with more than 100,000 children in hospitals, orphanages, deaf/blind schools, refugee camps, and slums around the world.

Benjamin Carlton

Benjamin Carlton is an author, activist, actor, and minister. He received his MBA from Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University before moving to Miami to pursue his career in accounting. While in Miami he co-founded the iconic BMe Community, a national movement of community builders that are led and inspired by Black men. BMe Community was founded on the principles of valuing all members of the human family, recognizing black males as assets, and building more caring and prosperous communities together. Under his leadership, BMe has influenced national policy, and committed millions of dollars to local community leaders around the nation. Benjamin has more than 10 years of experience in social innovation, public relations, social media and as an executive director. His pioneering work in community building earned him a Miami Fellows Fellowship with the Miami Foundation and AT&T Emerging Leaders Fellowship. He was a finalist for Forbes Magazine’s 30 under 30.

Bold City Contemporary Ensemble

Modular in design, the ensemble ranges in size from two to 13 players, accommodating instrumentation for a variety of newly composed works. Our flexibility is an asset as we travel locally within Jacksonville and nationally to serve communities and interests that are drastically under-exposed to the arts. Without the constant, strict formality of a concert hall, we interact with our listeners to create an immersive, all-sensory experience. We are a group of classically trained musicians who believe passionately that our tradition can be successfully continued through the performance of very new music. For all those who say classical music is dying, we vehemently disagree and prove the opposite is true through a series of engaging, outside-the-box performances. Think you know classical music and how we play? Think again!

Brian Wu

Currently a sophomore at the Horace Mann School in New York City, Brian Wu has an unquenchable thirst for anything related to aerospace engineering and astronomy. Over the past year, he has been working on a graduate-level research project at the University of Florida, which led to the tentative discoveries of nine Giant Planets, two Brown Dwarfs, and the first low-mass Circumbinary Planet to be detected using Doppler spectroscopy. His passion for astronomy stems from a desire to sustain the human race should an apocalyptic event render the Earth uninhabitable. In 2017, he was honored as a semifinalist of the SIEMENS Competition in Math, Science, and Technology, and was named an Intel ISEF Finalist as well. In his spare time, Brian enjoys experimenting with homemade rocket engines, basketball, squash, as well as long-distance running. His most passionate athletic interests also cover the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Lakers. Brian will be continuing his research over the next several years, with the ultimate goal of discovering potentially habitable Earth-sized planets. In college, Brian aspires to double major in aerospace engineering and business management.

Claudia Wilner

Claudia Wilner leads NCLEJ’s work combating unlawful civil and criminal justice debt collection practices. Prior to joining NCLEJ, she launched New Economy Project’s groundbreaking law project, which worked with thousands of low-income New Yorkers and community groups to fight discriminatory economic practices and press for sound community development. While at New Economy Project, she brought impact litigation against financial institutions, supervised the NYC Financial Justice Hotline, and co-led a policy and legal team supporting the formation of community land trusts in NYC. Previously, she worked as a Skadden Fellow at the Mental Health Project of the Urban Justice Center and as a law clerk for Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She graduated from New York University School of Law in 2002, where she was a Root Tilden Kern Scholar. Claudia has received the Legal Services Award from the New York City Bar Association, the Rising Star Award from the Partners Council of the National Consumer Law Center, and the National Association of Consumer Advocates’ Consumer Advocate Award, and she was a finalist for Public Justice’s Trial Lawyer of the Year award.

Douglas Anderson School of the Arts

DA’s Dance Department provides a secure setting for students to develop an understanding of dance as an art form. Challenging technical training in Ballet and Modern Dance is required every semester. In addition, dance majors take a variety of dance electives and theory courses, such as Dance Production, American Musical Theatre, Ballet Variations, etc. Through Composition and Choreography classes, students experience the creation of artwork on their own as well as in groups. Performance skills and artistry are further developed through participation in a minimum of two performances each year. Many master classes with guest artists from colleges and universities, professional dance companies, and internationally renowned choreographers are provided each year to all technique students. Dance majors also have an opportunity to audition for the Dance Theatre performing group and Children’s Dance Ensemble.

Iris Ivana Grant

Iris Ivana Grant, CEO and President of the Genési Group Inc., facilitates dialogue with for-profit and nonprofit entities in developing strategies that expose areas of benefit not readily identified through traditional models in philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, community engagement, fundraising, and brand awareness. Born in New York City and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Iris’s love for the cultural arts led her to pursue her degree in classical music and audio engineering at St. Mary's College of Maryland. Her career path started at University of Maryland Medical Systems in the Radiation Oncology/Physics Division, where she developed her ability to connect with people from all over the world in support of multi-disciplinary research development for cancer patients. Iris moved to Jacksonville in 2006, where she has become a respected and credible voice in philanthropy who develops strategic partnerships within the for-profit and nonprofit arenas. Currently she serves on several business and advisory boards in Jacksonville and abroad.

Jeffreen Hayes

Jeffreen M. Hayes, a trained art historian and curator, merges administrative, curatorial, and academic practices into her cultural practice of supporting artists and community development. As an advocate for racial inclusion, equity, and access, Jeffreen has developed a curatorial and leadership approach that invites community participation, particularly those in marginalized communities. Her curatorial projects include Intimate Interiors (2012), Etched in Collective History (2013), SILOS (2016), Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman (2018), and Process (2019). Additionally, she is a guest curator for Artpace San Antonio’s International Artist-in-Residence program. Jeffreen is the Executive Director of Threewalls, a Chicago-based organization that brings segregated communities, people, and experiences together through art. Under her leadership, Threewalls intentionally develops artistic platforms that encourage connections beyond traditional engagements with art. Jeffreen earned a Ph.D in American Studies from the College of William and Mary, a Masters in Art History from Howard University, and a BA from Florida International University in Humanities. She has worked at several museums and cultural institutions including Birmingham Museum of Art, Hampton University Museum, Library of Congress and the National Gallery of Art. Jeffreen held fellowships at Ithaca College in the Art History department and in the Cartoon and Caricature Division at Library of Congress as a Swann Foundation Fellow. Jeffreen is a Chief Executive Community and Culture Fellow alum, a program facilitated by National Arts Strategies.

John Lumpkin and the Covenant

John Lumpkin II is a producer, arranger, and artist. He obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Jazz Studies from the University of North Florida under the direction of Danny Gottlieb and a Master's Degree from Florida State University under the leadership of Leon Anderson. John grew up in the pentecostal church and still plans to exercise his gifts there as well as other national venues. However, he says "The church is the root of my zeal for music and forever shall be."

Joy Wolfram

Dr. Joy Wolfram is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Florida, where she leads the Nanomedicine and Extracellular Vesicles Laboratory. She also holds affiliate faculty positions in the Department of Nanomedicine at the Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas, the Department of Biology at the University of North Florida in Florida, and the Wenzhou Institute of Biomaterials and Engineering at the Ningbo Institute of Industrial Technology in China. Joy received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from the University of Helsinki in Finland. In 2016, she completed her Ph.D in nanoscience and technology at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in China. In the past five years, she has authored more than 40 publications and received more than 25 scientific awards from seven different countries. She was included in the Amgen Scholars Ten to Watch List, which highlights the best and brightest up-and-comers in science and medicine across 42 countries. She has developed several nanoparticles for the treatment of various diseases, including cancer. Her goal is to bring new nanomedicines with increased therapeutic efficacy and safety to the clinic. Her mission is also to inspire and support underrepresented minorities in science.

Kristin Keen

Kristin Keen has spent her career creating opportunities through business for women caught in human trafficking to have access to a new life. While living in Kolkata, India, Kristin witnessed the life-stealing effects of human trafficking on a daily basis. In 2005, she helped co-found Sari Bari, a thriving business that now employs more than 120 Kolkota residents who create handmade blankets and other products from traditional fabrics. Upon her return to Jacksonville, Kristin felt called to fight human trafficking on a local level. Rethreaded was created from the recognition that, for the victims of human trafficking, the biggest need was for a safe, supportive work environment where they could earn money while learning a skill and experiencing continued healing through community. Since its inception in 2012, Rethreaded has employed more than 35 women and provided more than 55,000 hours of work for survivors of human trafficking in Jacksonville. In 2015, Kristin was honored as a "40 Under 40" award winner by the Jacksonville Business Journal and was chosen as one of Girls Inc.’s "Women of Vision.” In 2016, she was recognized by the Florida Retailer Federation as Outstanding Retail Leader of the Year. Kristin was a member of the Leadership Jacksonville Class of 2016. When she’s not at Rethreaded, Kristin is usually biking, doing yoga, or swimming in the ocean at sunrise.

Mark Woods

Mark Woods has been a columnist for The Florida Times-Union since 2001. In 2011, he won the Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship, an award given to one writer in America each year. The fellowship allowed him to take a sabbatical and spend one year working on a project about the future of the national parks. During that year, Mark’s mother died, turning the project and a subsequent book into something much more personal. Lassoing the Sun: A Year in America’s National Parks was published by Thomas Dunne Books in June 2016, a month before the centennial of the National Park Service, and it won the Florida Book Awards gold medal for nonfiction.

Mx. Anunnaki Ray Marquez

Born intersex and assigned the wrong gender at birth, Anunnaki Ray Marquez lived as female for the first 46 years of life before emancipating his authentic male gender in 2014. Anunnaki’s marriage survived, and he remains with his husband of 28 years; the couple have three children, two biological and one adopted. In September 2018, Anunnaki received a birth certificate from the state of Colorado recognizing that his true biological sex is intersex and not a disorder. He became the third person to be recognized as intersex in the U.S. His social activist work focuses on an individual’s right to bodily autonomy, and the right to express their true gender identity. Anunnaki is the Director of Gender/Intersex Education for PFLAG of Jacksonville, as well as an Intersex Advocate for Partnership for Child Health’s Jacksonville Youth Equality. He has become a gender/intersex activist and educator for all intersex, gender variant, and transgender children who have no voice and are being medically and psychiatrically harmed. Anunnaki is also a musician, performer, and artist.

Philip Robbie

Philip Robbie is the National Design Director for RS&H, a national engineering, architecture, and consulting firm based in Jacksonville. Philip has 30 years of international experience in all areas of architectural practice. These services include master planning, programming, space planning, interior design, and architectural design. He has specialized in the collaborative process and is a graphics facilitator. These skills have become the basis of RS&H’s pre-design and design services. Developing internal studios, NXT GEN studios, mentoring staff, facilitating design charrettes, along with public presentations of major commissions are frequent responsibilities. His work has gained recognition in the profession through numerous American Institute of Architects design awards and as a visiting guest lecturer; he also has been featured in several professional publications. Philip has a diverse background in the demanding markets of higher education, aviation, healthcare, and corporate clients, and has provided these services in both the U.S. and Canada.