Theme: Showing Up

TEDx Scottsdale Women is brought to you by the collective effort of volunteer team members.

This event is organized by a group of volunteers who are working behind the scenes to bring TED’s “Ideas Worth Spreading” to the Phoenix and Scottsdale community. The team, the volunteers, and sponsors have all given of their time and resources, with no expectation of any financial return, with the simple goal of bringing together a diverse group of amazing, involved people to share ideas. In the TED tradition, these are ideas designed to transcend our personal lives and become bigger through the process.

Sneaky Big
15750 N Northsight Blvd
Scottsdale, Arizona, 85260
United States

Aleena Valdez

Entrepreneur + Philanthropist

Aleena Valdez is a 14 year old entrepreneur. She is the owner of her own business called Aleena’s LemonAid Stand. She spells LemonAid with an “Aid” because she donates a portion of her money to the Phoenix Children’s Hospital to benefit kids with cancer. Aleena has donated over $2,500 to date, and continues to expand her customer base as well as her giving. Aleena lives by the phrase “You are never to young to change the world”. She is passionate about making a difference in her community and helping other girls out along the way. Because of this, she founded a girls empowerment conference she calls Girls For Progress. She wants to change perceptions of what kids and girls are capable of doing.

Bogi Lateiner

Automotive Mechanic +Entrepreneur + Builder

Bogi is a master mechanic and owner of the award-winning auto repair shop, 180 Degrees Automotive in Phoenix, Arizona. A writer, a speaker, industry spokesperson and a teacher, Bogi is passionate about improving the reputation of the automotive industry, empowering women within the industry and changing the way women feel about cars and the automotive repair experience. Bogi teaches automotive basics to women around the country, consults and teaches classes to repair shop owners and other small business owners, and appears as one of three female mechanics on All Girls Garage on Velocity Channel. She is also the creator of the Chevy Montage All Female build and heads up the collaborative industrial work space where it took place. There she continues to host regular classes to introduce women to the trades in a safe and non-threatening environment.

Gina Anala

Awareness Guide+ Collective Curator +Spiritual Explorer

Gina works with people by exploring a deep understanding of the emotional/mental body's impact on awareness. Together we expand your fullness, increase your awareness and explore your wisdom of your field to open and be more attuned and responsive in your communication. Over the last 15 years her learning and sharing has been about how we come together in an increasing complex awareness of structure and flow. Her cultivation of a wide full embodied self has come through deep collective work with conscious dance, network chiropractic, integral theory and STAGES, group embodied psychotherapy, and corporate business.

Joni Stuker

Entrepreneur + Speaker + Author

Joni Stuker is a notable figure in the Automotive Industry, spending the last three decades consulting dealership owners and automotive manufacturers on processes and techniques to maximize their performance. As the president and founder of Owner Connect, which provides automotive dealerships training and resources to grow and improve their businesses, Joni has become a force within the industry. She is also a founding member of Women in Automotive: an organization that aims to empower and develop women in the Automotive Industry. As a female climbing the success ladder in a male-dominated industry, Joni has faced her share of adversity- from overcoming bias to a near-death car accident that threatened to take everything she worked for. Through it all, she has never lost her sense of humor. Joni's mission is to be an example of resilience and determination to women and entrepreneurs everywhere. Joni's autobiography and her TEDx Talk are called, "Eat The Buritto"

June Sharpe

Hospice Chaplain + Author

June Sharpe has been working as an interfaith hospice Chaplain and Grief Recovery specialist since 2007. In this time, she has walked the journey of dying and death with thousands of patients and their families. Her stories have brought hope and joy to many and encouraged them to learn more about the hereafter. A few patients have even helped her to solidify her belief in the hereafter by keeping a “Pinky Promise” and finding ways to let her know they are alive on the other side.

Katie Carmer

Educator + Musician

Katie has worked as an educator and administrator in Phoenix for the last six years. She earned a BA in liberal studies and cello performance from the University of Notre Dame, and an MA in education policy from Stanford University. Katie grew up in Michigan and still considers herself a Midwesterner at heart. You can hear her play with her bluegrass band, Cisco and the Racecars, at performance halls and beverage dispensaries around Arizona and on tours around the world.

Miriam Schildkret

Opera Singer + Educator + Musical Artist

Miriam Schildkret is an professional opera singer dedicated to bringing classical music to broad audiences. As a Teaching Artist with Arizona Opera, she has performed abridged versions of Hansel and Gretel and Rusalka for about 40,000 students across the state of Arizona. She joins Arizona Opera's "OperaTunity" troupe for the touring production of The Mini Magic Flute. She will also perform in Cherubino and Le nozze di Figaro. Other favorite roles include Dorabella in Così fan tutte, the title role in Dido and Aeneas, Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, and Third Lady in The Magic Flute In her talk" Finding Your Voice" she encourages young people to find and display their own unique talents. Miriam teaches voice and beginning piano at Music Maker Workshops in Ahwatukee and Prestige Music Academy in Phoenix. She works with a wide variety of students, ranging from 4 to 60 years old, and helps her students harbor a love for music while honing their craft.

Miss Krystle

Entertainer + Attorney + Musician

Miss Krystle has almost 20 years of experience as an entertainer and musician and dedicates every aspect of her life to her passion for music, art, and entertainment. A self-defined AggroPop (aggressive pop) singer and songwriter, Miss Krystle founded her own record label, Dukes Up Records, as well as owning and running her own law firm Delgado Entertainment Law, PLLC and her charitable foundation, Young Ones United. Miss Krystle unequivocally states today that she is forever an artist. As an independent pop artist, Miss Krystle has achieved several #1 releases on Beatport, and topping over a million YouTube and Spotify plays. Her music has been added to 72 radio stations across the United States, and her last full-length record earned her over 500,000 plays in its first 3 months on Pandora. As an attorney she represents musicians, artists, filmmakers, writers, labels, and a diversity of other entertainers and entrepreneurs.

Natasha Castles

Journalist + DJ + Philanthropist

Natasha Castles is becoming a pillar in the Phoenix community as a part of The Morning Mess on Live 101.5 on air weekday mornings 5:30 to 10am & weekday afternoons 3 to 7pm. With a motto like - Create Your Own Gangster "It's important for me to fuel others passion with an emphasis on building consciousness and purpose. People who create their own lane gives others permission to build theirs." Natasha is also the founder & CEO of "From Castles, With Love" a foundation that produces charity events to benefit women & children who have suffered from domestic violence.

Sadhna Bokhiria

Professor + Gelotologist

Sadhna Bokhiria is a professor and gelotologist fascinated with the correlation between humor and intelligence. Dr. Bokhiria believes it takes great courage and incredible intelligence to be authentic in today’s world and stand-up comedians exemplify this through their art. In this talk, she discusses how laughter benefits the body and how stand-up comedians exemplify a creative process that is both highly intellectual and incredibly liberating. She discusses how stand-up comedy changed her life, and what you can learn from comedians.

Sharon Lechter

Author + Entrepreneur +Financial Education Advocate

Sharon Lechter is an entrepreneur, NY Times bestselling author, and international speaker who has grown three global brands. Sharon is the founder and CEO of Pay Your Family First, a financial and entrepreneurial education company. Regarded as a global expert on financial literacy, she served on the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, for Presidents Bush and Obama. She is a national spokesperson for the National CPA Financial Literacy Commission and is a Junior Achievement University of Success Founding Chancellor. Sharon is the co-author of the international bestseller Rich Dad Poor Dad and 14 other books in the series led the Rich Dad Company for over 10 years as co-founder and CEO. She currently works in cooperation with the Napoleon Hill Foundation to help re-energize the teachings of Napoleon Hill and has three bestselling books with the Foundation, including Three Feet from Gold, Outwitting the Devil and Think and Grow Rich for Women.