Theme: Through the Eye

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).

Shalala Student Center
1330 Miller Drive
Coral Gables, Florida, 33146
United States

Alana Grajewski, M.D.

Alana L. Grajewski, M.D. is professor of clinical ophthalmology at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. She is the director of The Samuel & Ethel Balkan International Pediatric Glaucoma Center and founder and president of the Childhood Glaucoma Research Network (CGRN), a network dedicated to the physicians and scientists who care for children with glaucoma worldwide. Grajewski received her undergraduate education at Stanford University where she graduated with Honors and attended the Chicago Medical School, graduating summa cum laude. She completed her ophthalmology training at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia followed by a two-year fellowship in glaucoma at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. Grajewski is a recipient of the Honor and Senior Honor Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and the President’s Award from the American Glaucoma Society. She has been recognized nationally and internationally for her work in childhood glaucoma. In 2014 she received the Noel Rice Lectureship from the United Kingdom Pediatric Glaucoma Society, an international association of physicians sub-specialized in pediatric glaucoma. Since 1995, Grajewski has been selected as one of the Best Doctors in America each year. She is the recipient of the Woman of Vision award by the Weitzmann Institute of Science in Israel. While Grajewski has been a leader in the care of adults with glaucoma, she is a pioneer in the field of childhood glaucoma. She established The GL Foundation for Children with Glaucoma in 1996 and in 2003, along with Elizabeth Hodapp, M.D., she created the Pediatric Glaucoma Clinic at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. In 2012, the World Glaucoma Association recruited Grajewski to organize and edit the World Consensus on the treatment of childhood glaucoma. This is the first international text of glaucoma in children. As a part of her vision for the care of infants and children with glaucoma, Grajewski has created the Ocular Genetics and Eye Syndrome Clinic at the Balkan Center, and Global Eye Site, an innovative program for training physicians from underserved regions. Grajewski’s vision to provide an integrated care model for the treatment of childhood glaucoma, and a comprehensive center to coordinate research and train young physicians at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, has resulted in saving the vision of thousands of children in South Florida, the United States, and throughout the world.

Alessandra Maggioni

Alessandra Maggioni’s dream of becoming a professional tennis player was shattered when she underwent posterior spinal fusion surgery to correct her scoliosis. After losing her sense of being and falling into depression, she found hope in helping others. She returned to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital as a mentor and ambassador, sharing her story at hospital events and lending support to spinal fusion patients and their families. With this, she founded a non for profit foundation called James Will Not Die where she works with orphaned children in Latin America. Alessandra is the recipient of the Miami Herald Silver Knight Award and of three Presidential Volunteer Service Awards. On her journey, Alessandra has learned how to heal herself by helping others.

Alexandra Babowice

Alexandra Babowice graduated from the University Of Miami: School Of Architecture in June of 2016. In 2017 she completed and published her first visual narrative titled: Consumption [The Human Condition]. She continues to strive forward and push her skills towards aspiring levels of excellence. Her research and time is spent trying to “enhance the human experience”. You can find her work at alexandraaa.com.

Alison Sanchez

Alison Sanchez was born in Miramar, Florida and later went on to earn her Bachelors in Science in Business Administration and Minor in Dance from the University of Florida. Upon graduation, Alison became a Teach for America Miami- Dade Corp Member and was placed at Charles R. Drew K-8 Center in the heart of Liberty City, one of the most impoverished areas of Miami. While there, she taught secondary English, served on the Educational Excellence School Advisory Council, Parent-Teacher Association, and was recognized as one of the top 30% of Miami-Dade County Reading/ Language Arts Teachers. Since then, Alison has worked to bring greater awareness to the education inequality that exists right in our backyard and is pursuing her Masters of Science in Higher Education at the University of Miami and is the current Graduate Assistant in the Office of Student Affairs & Student Organizations.

Catalina von Wrangell

Catalina von Wrangell works encompass both installation arts and more traditional contemporary genres. She uses multiple disciplines and medias in order to create works that provide unique experiences whose core function is to facilitate different modes of communication with her audiences. Her pieces are sound-marks of thoughts, memories and emotions and have said to feature parts that are so exposed yet interwoven, they demand sharp focus from the performers, and constant awareness from the ensemble as a whole. She is currently working on doctoral studies in Music Composition from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.

Destiny James

Destiny James is a University of Miami junior from Denmark, SC, majoring in Public Health. Upon graduating, she plans to attend graduate school to receive a Master of Public Health degree, soon after returning to South Carolina to implement disease prevention programming in the low country, the area in which she was born and raised. Destiny is the founder of the Live 2 Win Fighters initiative, a cancer awareness initiative founded in honor of her father who passed from Stage 4 lung cancer May 2016. She has devoted a lot of her time at University of Miami to poetry and spoken word, joining the Speak What You Feel Poetry Club, performing duties as Secretary before becoming Vice President of the organization. She is also a member of UM’s Sunshine State of Mind slam team in which she has competed with the team at CUPSI (College Union Poetry Slam Invitationals) 2017 in Chicago and will be competing at CUPSI 2018 in Philadelphia against 72 colleges from across the world. Destiny devotes her weekends to mentoring in the INSPIRE U Academy, a program in which UM students are paired with students from Booker T. Washington High School. She is a 2017-2018 recipient of the Dr. Robert Moore Scholarship and the UM Black Alumni Society Woodson Williams Marshall Association Scholarship. In February 2018, Destiny was surprised with a $50,000 scholarship from rapper Drake, and since has appeared on MTV’s Total Request Live and founded her own mentoring program along with one of her high school classmates, Moses Washington, titled: Dreamers to Dreamers: Mentoring from Morehouse to Miami. Destiny’s main goal in life is inspire people and show those that are from small, underserved towns that they can be all they desire to be. Life won’t always be perfect, as she has experienced several hardships financially and emotionally, but through it all, she continued to work hard and stay true to herself. She believes that when you put positivity out, it will come back full circle. That’s how blessings work.

Dr. Panagiota Caralis

Dr. Panagiota Caralis is a triple graduate of the University of Miami, receiving her BS, MD and JD degrees from there. She is a Professor of Medicine and served as Chief of the General Medicine Section of the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Her current appointment is as the Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff and Medical Director of the Women Veterans’ Health Program at the Miami VAHS. She is also the Integrated Ethics program officer for the Miami Veterans Medical Center and former chair of the Bioethics Committees at the VA and JMH. She has taught courses at both the medical and law school in ethics and health law and has published research which spans both disciplines. Currently she directs a Medical Legal clinic serving veterans and a Health Law Pathway Program which integrates the legal education for medical students throughout their medical school careers. She received the Department of Veterans Affairs National Award for Academic Excellence in recognition of outstanding contributions and achievement in the education of health care professionals. Recently she was awarded a Faculty Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Miami. She has served as a member of the Dade County Domestic Violence Fatality review board and was a member of the Domestic violence and Sexual assault Council of Greater Miami. She helped to establish and is the Medical Director of the T.H.R.I.V.E. clinic which is an interdisciplinary clinic at JMH/UM which provides medical care for survivors of Human Trafficking. She and Dr. JoNell Potter received the Innovators Award for their efforts from the State Attorney’s Office.

Emmanuel Gorrin

Emmanuel Gorrin is a junior student of neuroscience with a penchant for the arts — drawing, painting, and piano have been among his passions since childhood. Now, his interests lie in the role of art, music and technology in neural functioning and the advancement of medicine. He is the founder and President of Neuromission, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people with neurological disorders by integrating art, music and innovative technology. Emmanuel also hosts Get Smart! On WVUM 90.5 fm and can be heard discussing all things science each Tuesday at 7pm.

Hounsh Munshi

Hounsh Munshi spent five years in India getting her undergraduate degree in physical therapy at the Ahmedabad Institute of Medical Sciences at Gujarat University. She is currently completing her Master of Science in Clinical and Translational Research at the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the University of Miami.

Junior Pena

Junior currently serves as the Assistant Director for Multicultural Student Affairs at the University of Miami. A self-proclaimed higher ed geek, he earned his B.A. in Psychology and Communication from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, along with a Master’s of Science degree in Higher Education Student Affairs at Florida State University. Currently, his research interests focuses on student’s navigating multiple cultures on college campuses, and men of color success. Junior has a deep admiration for supporting students with marginalized identities, co-creating intentional learning spaces, and reimagining professionalism through authenticity. Junior is committed to learning and engaging professionally, and welcomes any opportunity for continued growth.

Michele Marenus

Michele, a Miami-native, is a senior at the University of Miami, studying Sports Administration and Psychology. She played varsity volleyball for two years and then consequently joined the club volleyball team. Michele is part of the Honors Research Program at the School of Education and Human Development where she conducted her research on emotional intelligence and sport. She will be graduating Summa Cum Laude in May and will continue her education in graduate school.

Ren Campbell

Ren Campbell is a UM grad with a BFA, Theatre. She attended F.A.U. in Boca Raton for her MFA then moved to New York where she wrote and performed, appearing in plays, commercials, and improvisation groups, bartended for Broadway shows and worked as a temp before becoming a stuntwoman for TV, movies and soap operas. She went to Los Angeles where she acted in Hollywood theater companies and worked as an executive assistant at MGM and Universal Studios. Moving to Vermont to raise her children, she began writing screenplays and directing children’s theater. Ren currently works at UM in Alumni Relations, is a scenic artist for local theaters and is writing a high school musical about math.

Sophia von Wrangell

Sophia von Wrangell is an artist and a scholar whose works span across mediums and styles. Years of solitude and spiritual growth were the catalyst for her most recent art-works, the Moving Painting. Moving Paintings have come to be an abstract synergy between photography, film, painting, sound, and music. Her command in the fields of visual arts and communication have joined forces under her guidance to create pieces that are free of cultural, racial and linguistic misunderstandings. At the heart of her work lies the conviction that anyone has the capacity to analyze, create and enjoy art if they allow themselves the freedom to believe it, and that the interpretation of art truly lies in the eye of the beholder.