Theme: Voices

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).

South Mountain Community Library
7050 S. 24th St.
Phoenix, Arizona, 85042
United States

Beatriz Mendoza

Beatriz Mendoza is an advocate for women in STEM and a female engineer herself. Beatriz currently works in the corporate world but she has also worked in the education and non-profit sectors by the age of twenty-three. She graduated Arizona State University in 2017 with her second degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology with a focus in Human Systems Engineering and Consumer. Prior she graduated from Mohave Community College with a degree in Social and Behavioral Science. Beatriz is known for her work in technology and has spoken on Good Morning Arizona, at non-profit conferences, universities, and other events. Beatriz hopes to inspire the next generation of STEM females to empower them to continue their future within the sector.

catherine lockmiller

catherine lockmiller is a health science librarian at Northern Arizona University's Phoenix Biomedical Campus. She makes the most of her career by promoting critical information literacy and health education that focuses on identifying health and healthcare disparities and social determinants that arise from power imbalances and inequities in underserved populations. She is particularly focused on achieving health equity for transgender and gender non-conforming communities.

Cricket Aldridge

Cricket is a beekeeper and founder of the Arizona Backyard Beekeepers and the Arizona Honeybee Festival. She absolutely loves helping bees and those who keep them. From relocating Africanized hives and re-queening them, to helping beekeepers maintain their own hives, her goal is to make beekeeping seem as doable as it really is. Hang around her long enough and you'll be a beekeeper, too.

Danielle Delgado

Danielle Delgado is a 17-year-old Political Science major at Arizona State University. When she is not doing school work she is also a full-time entrepreneur as she started her first business (3D Printing Girls) when she was 12 years old. She also loves to help coach her high school Speech and Debate team and mentor students in the Guadalupe Teen Court Club. Aside from that, you can catch her wearing a pantsuit almost any day of the week as she is a self-proclaimed pantsuit aficionado. And although her motto may be consistently business casual without the casual, you can most definitely spark up a conversation about Harry Potter with her and she will turn into the 6-year-old girl who fell in love with those books.

Erin Maxson

Erin Maxson was born and raised in the South where she spent her days writing and creating characters to match her adventures. Eventually, she moved to Louisiana where she graduated from Louisiana Tech University with a Marketing degree. Erin now runs her own marketing business and lives out of an Airstream as she and her dog, Rory, travel the country looking for inspiration in every corner.

Hakeem Khaaliq

Operating as both an artist collective and a television/film production company (Nation19), their ambitious projects are frequently anchored in Hip Hop Culture (#bars4justice), Archaeology and Ethnographic research (Invisible Mexico). They have made it their mission to demystify preconceived notions about Indigenous and underserved communities around the globe. Working in innovative ways, Muhammad Ali and Khaaliq have developed a model that merges collaborative conceptual art practices—partially steeped in Activism, Edutainment, and Visual Anthropology. Queen and Hakeem have directed films in 7 countries, and have lectured in universities and organizations around the world, including the Confucius Institute in Beijing China, MoMA (The Museum of Modern Arts) in New York, Tiapapata Art Centre in Apia Samoa, Arizona State University, Glasgow Short Film Festival, Denver Metropolitan College, Glendale Community College, University of Arizona, Wayne State University, andCalifornia State University in Long Beach. Their work has appeared on Univision Television, Radio New Zealand, CNN, BET, MTV, Global Grind, New York Daily News, Samoa News, Associated Press, Ebony Magazine, Jet, Huffington Post, and LA Weekly.

Jenn McKinlay

Jenn McKinlay is the award winning, New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher's Weekly bestselling author of over forty novels, including several mystery and romance series. Her work has been translated into multiple languages in countries all over the world. She lives in sunny Arizona in a house that is overrun with kids, pets, and her husband's guitars.

Larry Sandigo

Larry Sandigo is an attorney with the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, where he specializes in the intersection of child welfare and immigration law. In addition to representing hundreds of children and families, he has lobbied the city, state, and federal government on a broad range of policies related to immigrant access to opportunity. A graduate of Boston College Law School, Larry's experience includes volunteering in the refugee camps of Greece. Larry is a native Arizonan whose family was granted asylum in the United States

Michelle Dumay

Michelle Dumay is the mother of a terminally ill child born with a rare brain abnormality that required nearly half of her brain to be removed when she was less than a day old. Among other medical conditions (cerebral palsy, blindness and quadriplegia) Fatima suffers from four types of seizures. Michelle is no stranger to medical/hospital settings, having taken Fatima to more than 1,400 appointments. As a trained chemist, she first turned to conventional-pharma for the treatment of Fatima's seizures. Then she learned of the medicinal value of cannabis and its efficacy in mitigating seizures. With great success, her daughter has been using cannabis for several years.

Misty Hyman

Olympic gold medalist Misty Hyman, M.B.A., won a stunning upset victory at the 2000 Sydney games when she came from behind to break the American record and win the 200-meter butterfly. Recognized as a pioneer in the sport for her innovative underwater dolphin kick, the Stanford graduate is a 28-time All-American who won 13 U.S. and five NCAA national titles including 1998 NCAA Swimmer of the Year. Misty's knowledge of the sport, gained from two decades of competitive swimming for two of America's top swim coaches, coupled with her friendly and encouraging personality, have made her one of the country's leading swim instructors. She served as the senior assistant coach for the Arizona State University swimming program and offers personalized and private coaching. Misty also hosts clinics and camps throughout the United States. As an inspirational speaker, she helps athletes, students and corporations alike set and reach seemingly unattainable goals.

Queen Muhammed Ali

Operating as both an artist collective and a television/film production company (Nation19), their ambitious projects are frequently anchored in Hip Hop Culture (#bars4justice), Archaeology and Ethnographic research (Invisible Mexico). They have made it their mission to demystify preconceived notions about Indigenous and underserved communities around the globe. Working in innovative ways, Muhammad Ali and Khaaliq have developed a model that merges collaborative conceptual art practices—partially steeped in Activism, Edutainment, and Visual Anthropology. Queen and Hakeem have directed films in 7 countries, and have lectured in universities and organizations around the world, including the Confucius Institute in Beijing China, MoMA (The Museum of Modern Arts) in New York, Tiapapata Art Centre in Apia Samoa, Arizona State University, Glasgow Short Film Festival, Denver Metropolitan College, Glendale Community College, University of Arizona, Wayne State University, and California State University in Long Beach. Their work has appeared on Univision Television, Radio New Zealand, CNN, BET, MTV, Global Grind, New York Daily News, Samoa News, Associated Press, Ebony Magazine, Jet, Huffington Post, and LA Weekly.

Russell Horning

Russell Horning was born and grew up in the last frontier, Alaska. He attributes this experience to his ability to see the bigger picture in life situations. Horning joined the Army at 17 years old and served in the National Guard for 13 years as a nurse while attending school and starting his family. He earned his undergraduate nursing degree from East Carolina University in 1999 and his Masters at Arizona State University in 2003. Horning is a board certified Family Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and treat patients of all ages. He has been part of the team at Bayless Integrated Healthcare for the past 4 years as a Psychiatric Supervisor. He has a passion for wellness, nutrition, fitness and raising his children into socially responsible adults.

Shawn Bradford

Shawn is a self-awareness advocate and lover of learning. She is lovingly curious about her reactions, habits and patterns in order to continue on the path of self-study and improvement. She teaches self-exploration strategies through yoga, meditation, coaching and engaging workshops to provide people with tools to live their best lives. Shawn joyfully wears numerous hats each day: mom to three, girlfriend, speaker, teacher, client advocate at her family's technology company and owner of Breathe and Work; and to stay grounded and inspired she practices self-care strategies like meditation and yoga each day. Shawn has spoken on self-awareness and change for Maricopa County, the Scottsdale Resort and at numerous conferences and businesses in Arizona. She is a certified transformational coach, meditation facilitator, Reiki practitioner and 500-hour yoga teacher. Shawn enjoys providing her audience with practical and inspiring self-reflection, breathing and mindfulness tips that are easy to implement into everyday living. Learn more at www.breatheandwork.com.

Sian Proctor

Dr. Sian Proctor is an analog astronaut, geoscientist, and science communicator with a passion for space exploration. She was a finalist for the 2009 NASA Astronaut Program and is the only black female to live in three analog simulations: 2 weeks in the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), 4 months in the Hawai'i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS), and 2 weeks in the LunAres Moon Habitat. She is a 2018 Solar System Ambassador and was a 2016 Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassador (ACEAP). She was also a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 2017 Teacher at Sea and a 2014 PolarTREC Teacher investigating climate change in Barrow, Alaska. She did her 2012-13 sabbatical at the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Emergency Management Institute developing their science of disasters curriculum. She has appeared in multiple international science shows and is currently a science demonstration expert on the Science Channel show Strange Evidence. She is an international speaker who enjoys engaging in educational outreach around the world. Her areas of expertise are STEM education, sustainability, resiliency, faculty development, teaching with technology, disaster science, and diversity. She is a geology, sustainability, and planetary science professor at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, Arizona. She has a B.S. in Environmental Science, an M.S. in Geology, and a Ph.D. in Science Education.

Sue Berliner

Sue Berliner is the founder of b Naked Chocolates. She also co-founded and served as the publisher of SWEAT Magazine, an Arizona based health and fitness magazine, for 22 years. An endurance athlete and fitness enthusiast, she became acutely aware how important eating habits were to feeling good, staying healthy and performance in all aspects of life, not just competing. Ms. Berliner has trained, participated and competed in countless running and endurance events. Highlights include Boston, New York City and Pikes Peaks Marathons, National Road Cycling Championships and the Taipei International Dragon Boat Championships. She was a board member and past president of the Grand Canyon State Games. She hosted radio shows for nearly 20 years and served on the advisory board during her 27-year-tenure volunteering for Sun Sounds Radio Reading Service. She describes theater and performing arts productions for the visually impaired around the Greater Phoenix area and speaks to community groups about health, fitness and nutrition issues.