Theme: Origins

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

Alexandra Solomon

Dr. Alexandra H. Solomon is an unapologetic love nerd. She is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University and a licensed clinical psychologist at The Family Institute at Northwestern University. She writes articles and chapters for leading academic journals and books in the field of marriage and family and is the author of the book Loving Bravely: Twenty Lessons of Self-Discovery to Help You Get the Love You Want. Her second book, Taking Sexy Back: How to Own Your Sexuality and Create the Relationships You Want, is about sexual self-awareness and will be published in February 2020. Alexandra maintains a psychotherapy practice for individual adults and couples, teaches and trains marriage and family therapy graduate students She teaches the internationally renowned undergraduate course, “Building Loving and Lasting Relationships: Marriage 101.” She works with groups like United States Military Academy at West Point, Microsoft, and the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy, and frequently appears in media outlets including The Today Show, O Magazine, The Atlantic, Vogue, and Scientific American.

Andrew Bennet

Andrew Bennett has been studying, practicing and performing magic for over 50 years. His adventure began when his grandparents gave him a magic set for Christmas. When he was 12 years old, he started his first business, Andy Bennett and Company: Unusual Entertainment for All Occasions, with his grandfather as agent, writer, and chauffeur. Andrew paid his way through college performing magic. After graduating, he went to work for former US presidential candidate, H. Ross Perot, who encouraged Andrew to use magic in a presentation to the General Motors Board of Directors. The board was so impressed that he began using magic in every business presentation. For the past 35 years, Andrew has been using magic in his speaking, consulting, and coaching business, helping leaders revitalize the human spirit at work. He uses magic to enable organizational leaders to ignite the spirit of people, free their minds, and build a culture where people can thrive. Andrew is a member of the Magic Circle of London, the International Brotherhood of Magicians, and The Chicago Magic Round Table. He is the founder of Magic On Purpose, a group of magicians who are using magic to make the world a better place.

Annika Sörensen

Dr. Annika Sorensen is a Swedish Medical Doctor with 30+ years of experience in the medical field. With specializations in family medicine, environmental health, and stress management, she has a unique perspective that has helped thousands of patients learn how to manage stress in a healthy way. Dr. Annika has also had her own share of devastating private tragedies so she has seen stress from all sides. Today she runs her own company, AskDrAnnika, where she has changed her daily mission from treating disease to prevention and promoting health by working with stress management, health, wealth and a happy work life. Dr. Annika is an international speaker and she has also published the top-rated stress management book Take Stress from Chaos to Calm and its follow up companion My De-Stress Diary.

David Giuliani

David Giuliani is a Northwest serial entrepreneur, electrical engineer and inventor. David grew up in the semiconductor industry, designing some of the world’s first LED products. He then pivoted to medical applications, resulting in over a dozen US patents and multiple business successes. David co-invented the Sonicare(R) toothbrush, and as CEO it became the fastest growing private company in the US, before selling it to Philips Electronics. David also co-invented the Clarisonic(R) face brush, and sold that business to L’Oreal. He was the national Small Business Person of the Year, and the national Entrepreneur of the Year for manufacturing. Best of all he and his teams had fun doing it. David now applies his talents to improving society. He and Howard Behar, former Starbucks president, founded the Washington Business Alliance to solve the state’s most critical problems. The Alliance launched the Low Carbon Prosperity Institute last year, sensing the need to reframe climate issues from “win-lose” to “win-win.” David lives in Friday Harbor and in the Seattle area, and enjoys his family, nature, photography, music, and the human spirit.

Jake Thompson

Jake Thompson is an entrepreneur fueled by his passion for family and the pursuit of living a life of meaning. When his daughter came home stressed and anxious from tests and grades, he shifted from day-to-day work in his growing financial education company to find the best education model for his family. He now leads Idaho's most most innovative school, Heroes Academy, and is on a mission is to inspire each child to find a calling and change the world.

Jonathan Field

Jonathan Field is a gifted teacher, author, presenter and horseman with a driving passion to share his message that a better understanding of the horse leads to greater self awareness in the human. Jonathan has coached, mentored and shared his knowledge with thousands of people in clinics, expos and presentations both in the US and internationally, and the Field Horsemanship Program has been adopted in England, Ireland, Europe, Australia and all over North America. Jonathan has contributed articles for and appeared on the cover of major publications in North America. In addition, CBS television aired a special about Jonathan’s life with horses in the US and Canada, and Red Bull Media House shot and produced a documentary for their European network. At his participation in Road to the Horse International 2014, Jonathan was the proud recipient of the Jack Brainard Horsemanship Award for his overall performance during the competition. A published author, Jonathan penned his debut book The Art of Liberty Training for Horses. More recently, Jonathan has produced his own international horsemanship education conference, Jonathan Field and Friends, which brings some of the top horsemen in the world together for two days of education and entertainment.

Laura Mattia

Laura Mattia is an educator, author, researcher and wealth manager. She is the author of Gender On Wall Street: Uncovering Opportunities for Women in Financial Services and her research interest is in supporting diversity and inclusion in the financial profession. With over 30 years of financial leadership experience, holding CFO/controller positions at M&M/Mars, Telcordia Technologies and Cendant Corp, Geller and Company, and as a partner of a fee-only wealth management firm, she has hired, mentored and trained hundreds of financial professionals. With a true understanding of what it takes to create a successful career in finance, she has developed a new Personal Financial Planning degree at University of South Florida (USF) and also provides programs for women seeking advancement in the finance profession. Mattia earned a PhD in personal financial planning from Texas Tech University, an MBA with a concentration in accounting/finance and a bachelor's degree in psychology both from Montclair State University. She has been a CFP® for over fifteen years, is on the board of the FPA Suncoast Chapter and has been engaged in various leadership/pro-bono efforts with the Financial Planning Association and National Association of Personal Financial Advisors.

Megan Bloomer

Dr. Megan Bloomer is the founder of RAMSHEAD Inc, a leadership consultancy that specializes in teaching and developing consent frameworks within corporate environments. Megan demonstrates how we violate consent everyday on the smallest levels. Megan successfully combines over a decade of corporate leadership with a deep academic and practical understanding of the nuances of explicit consent. Academically, Megan applied these two aspects in her doctorate dissertation, Exploring the Framework of Consent and Negotiation in the BDSM Community for Broader Application within Corporate Environments. In practice, Megan has spent more than 15 years in the BDSM, kink, and leather communities as a practitioner, facilitator, and educator. This unique blend of experiences allows Megan to transcend the taboo reputations of BDSM and illustrate exactly how consent can work for executives in traditional corporate settings. Megan has made her career in social justice and sustainability. She has worked across various industries from Fortune 500 companies to NGOs and governmental agencies, both domestically and internationally. Megan has a BS in Environmental Studies, an MS in Environmental Policy, an MBA in Sustainable Marketing, and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies.

Rahul Sood

Rahul Sood is the CEO of Unikrn, a global Esports company built on cutting-edge blockchain and gaming technologies. Prior to Unikrn, Rahul created the first incubation fund for startups at Microsoft, and eventually he consolidated their global startup activities. In June 2013, he launched Microsoft Ventures. A serial entrepreneur, Rahul spent 18 years in multiple startups prior to joining Microsoft. He founded luxury and gaming computer manufacturer VoodooPC, which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard. Voodoo brought the ENVY and OMEN product lines to HP, contributing advanced technologies such as commercial liquid cooling and an increased focus on design. Rahul is a co-founder of BrightSquid Medical and BullsOnWallStreet, and he is an active angel investor in a number of Startups. Rahul is an early shareholder and advisor to Maingear, Razer, and Vrvana, which was recently acquired by Apple. Unikrn’s mission is to heighten the experience of watching and participating in esports. Unikrn is venture-backed and raised a total of 10 million dollars with investors such as Ashton Kutcher, Mark Cuban, Liz Murdoch, and Shari Redstone. Unikrn signed an exclusive global partnership with one of the largest wagering companies in the world and has opened their doors to multiple international markets. Unikrn has been featured on Forbes, Fortune, ESPN, CNBC and countless publications around the world. In his spare time, Rahul enjoys wake surfing & wake boarding, standup paddle boarding, cycling, racing cars and spending time with his family. He is a native of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. You can find him on Twitter @rahulsood.

Richard Lackey

Richard Lackey is a serial entrepreneur with a unique background that includes several years in emergency medical response and medical missions as well as almost three decades as an active trader and fund manager. He has appeared as an expert in the field in magazines, on radio and television, and is the bestselling author of Radical Response: Free Market Solutions to Global Crises. Richard has held eight different securities licenses spanning equity, options and futures markets. He has served as the Managing Director for five private funds. His expertise in emergency response management as well as the inefficiencies of markets led him, along with a world-class team of experts, to create the World Food Bank, an innovative platform that brings together stakeholders in an integrated value chain that is efficient and scalable. Mr. Lackey believes the World Food Bank may be the catalyst for creating global food security, while lifting more than a billion people from poverty. Mr. Lackey has authored three books on technical analysis and investment management and is a co-developer of the market prediction software, PTI. In addition to leading the World Food Bank, he regularly consults for startup companies needing innovative solutions, marketing direction, or board leadership.

Stephen Tower

Fifteen years into a successful career as an arthroprosthetic surgeon, Dr. Stephen Tower chose a J&J ASR Metal-on-Metal hip for his hip replacement surgery. Eighteen months later, he experienced an existential crisis, trashing a hotel room rock-star-style with a rainbow of highlighters, shaving cream and pen and pencil. Why? He had cobalt poisoning. Dr. Tower describes his self-diagnosis, recovery, and the consequences of being a 21st century Cassandra tilting at a $100 billion dollar syndicate. Schooled by personal experience, and later by research, he finds cobaltism to be common in his patients with hip, shoulder, or knee replacements. Together with Radiologist-Nuclear-Medicine physician Robert Bridges, he confirmed the diagnosis of Arthroplasty-Cobalt-Encephalopathy, utilizing brain scans in 80 patients. Extrapolated from Tower & Bridge’s work is the finding that 10 million Americans are at risk for cobalt toxicity.

Teri Fisher

Dr. Teri Fisher is a Sport & Exercise Physician and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He has a particular interest in e-health innovation and the intersection of voice technology and healthcare. He is the Founder and host of “Voice First Health”, a website and podcast that highlights the rapidly expanding intersection of Healthcare and Voice-First technologies. Dr. Fisher is also the founder of Alexa in Canada, the leading Amazon Alexa resource for Canadians; and Briefcast.FM, the premier Flash Briefing network. He is the host of the weekly “Alexa in Canada” Podcast and the daily "Voice in Canada" Flash Briefing, the #1 rated Amazon Alexa Briefing and News Skill in Canada, where he helps to facilitate voice-first technology literacy and helps others to discover how artificial intelligence and voice-first technology is revolutionizing our lives. Dr. Fisher holds a Bachelor of Science degree from McGill University, and Bachelor of Education, Master of Science, and Medical Doctor degrees from UBC. When he's not conversing with his AI smart speakers, he can be found trying to keep up with his active wife and coaching his two children on the ice rink or baseball diamond.