Theme: In Transit

TEDxConnecticut College presents: "In Transit"

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxConnecticutCollege, where x = independently organized TED event. At our TEDx ConnecticutCollege event, Connecticut College students, faculty, staff, and outside professionals will come together to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.

EVANS HALL
Connecticut College
New London, Connecticut, 06320
United States

Alison Joyce

Student

Alison Joyce is a psychology and sociology double major from Wellesley MA. She is the chair of honor council, ILC of Winches, a member of N2O short form improv, and a director in the Womxn’s Empowerment Initiative. Alison hopes to someday live on a farm with lots of pigs and cows.

Chad Jones

Associate Professor at Connecticut College

Chad Jones is an Associate Professor of Botany and Environmental Studies and the Suzi Oppenheimer Director of Sustainability at Connecticut College. Dr. Jones is broadly interested in how plants move to new areas, both naturally and through human intervention. He has conducted research on plant colonization following volcanic eruptions and glacier melting as well as seeking to understand how invasive species colonize new areas.

Chris George

Executive Director of IRIS

Chris George has worked in international development, human rights, and refugee assistance for more than 30 years. He began his international experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer and served close to 20 years in the Middle East managing programs for Save the Children, American Friends Service Committee, Human Rights Watch, and USAID. He has worked extensively with refugee populations, directed a legislative strengthening project in the Palestinian territories, and was Executive Director of Human Rights Watch - Middle East. Since 2005 he has served as the Executive Director of IRIS.

Leah Juliett

Activist & Political Organizer

Leah Juliett (they/them) is a nonbinary writer, speaker, and political organizer from Connecticut. Leah is the Founder and Executive Director of the March Against Revenge Porn, an international cyber civil rights organization dedicated to eradicating nonconsensual image sharing through national protest marches. Last year, Leah worked with the Sentencing Commission of the State of Connecticut to amend Connecticut's current revenge porn legislation. Leah’s work has been featured on CNN, MTV, BBC, Teen Vogue, and Seventeen Magazine. Most recently, Leah was named College Woman of the Year by Glamour Magazine and Rising Star by GLAAD and Delta Airlines.

Max Whisnant

Student

Max is in his second year at Connecticut College, traveling up north from Washington, DC. He intends to double major in Government and English. On campus, he plays on the club baseball team and writes for The College Voice. In high school, Max was awarded a travel fellowship where he flew to Vietnam to study the legacy of war and especially the lasting effect of unexploded ordinance and Agent Orange.

Natasha Bowman

CEO of Performance ReNEW

Natasha is an award winning, modern day pioneer of workplace equality, inspiring organizations to not just pay lip service to workplace rights but craft highly-engaged cultures where every employee is truly dignified and valued for their contribution. She accomplishes her mission through her work as an attorney, professor, CEO of Performance ReNEW a leadership development consulting firm and as the author of the best-selling book You Can’t Do That at Work!

Oliver O'Neil

Student

Oliver was born in Providence and raised in Cumberland, Rhode Island. He is a History Major with a regional concentration in Africa, and will be taking a minor in Italian Studies. He is involved in multiple musical pursuits on campus, takes voice lessons, sings in The Williams Street Mix, and above all plays rock n’ roll in MOBROC’s barn.

Rob Snyder

Professor at Rutgers-University-Newark, Writer

Robert W. Snyder is a professor of Journalism and American Studies at Rutgers-University-Newark. He is the grandson of a transit worker and the author of Transit Talk: New York Bus and Subway Workers Tell their Stories (Rutgers University Press, 1998.) His most recent books are Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York City (Cornell University Press, 2015) and a revised edition, with David M. Reimers and Frederick M. Binder, of All the Nations Under Heaven: Immigrants, Migrants and the Making of New York (Columbia University Press, 2019.)

Ronald Bastine

Campus Safety Officer

Currently and for the past fifteen years, Ronald C. Bastine has been working as a Security Guard & Campus Safety Officer at Connecticut College. Previously he enjoyed a 35-year dance career, Dancing on stages all across the globe. Broadway, National & European Tours include Riverdance, Miss Saigon, Play On! Kiss of the Spider Woman, Dreamgirls, My One & Only & The Tap Dance Kid. He gives honor to God and to his childhood dance teacher Ruth Wakefield who shared with him the gift of dance.

Sage Skyler

Student

Sage Skyler is a first year here at Connecticut College, where they are double majoring in English and East Asian Studies. They are out and proud, and spend a lot of their free time figuring out how to make interdisciplinary connections to queer studies. They are hoping to eventually use their knowledge of creative writing and passion for representation to create works of Young Adult fiction that include the full spectrum of queer identities.

Vanessa Roth

Executive Producer/ Director/Writer

Executive Producer, Writer and Director of the Emmy Honors Award Winning Netflix Original Documentary series, Daughters of Destiny and Academy Award winning filmmaker for Freeheld (HBO), Vanessa has created and overseen dozens of international documentary features, shorts, and series for over 20 years. She is the recipient of the Oscar, the Alfred I DuPont-Columbia Award, Sundance Special Jury Prizes, The Television Academy Award for Social Impact, Cine Golden Eagles, Casey Medals, Impact Doc Awards, multiple IDA nominations, as well as honors for work in social justice, youth empowerment and women’s rights around the world.