Theme: Kindred

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).

McNeil Science and Technology Center
600 S. 43rd St.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104
United States

Barbara Kellar

Associate Director of Clinical Education and Assistant Professor, University of the Sciences

Dr. Kellar, also known as the mother of the Physical Therapy department at USciences, empathizes with those who are not 100% sure where they want to be in the future. Through her career struggle, Dr. Kellar has realized that it’s those around us, no matter how little interaction we have with them, that can help shape our lives.

Christa Hayburn

Sexual Violence Survivor & Advocate

Christa Hayburn, a former Philadelphia police officer, Sexual Assault Survivor, advocate, and the Founder of the Empower HER Voice MovementTM shares her incredible healing journey after sexual assault. She reveals a surprising truth about sexual assault victims - one that can mean the difference between a lifetime of doubt and a lifetime of empowerment.

Jeffrey Hom

Policy Advisor in the Philadelphia Department of Public Health

Jeffrey Hom is a policy advisor in the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, where he provides guidance to the Health Commissioner on programs and policies related to the wellbeing of all Philadelphians. His present focus is on substance use, in particular issues around access to treatment and overdose prevention. He is also a board-certified internist and cares for patients at the Crescenz VA Medical Center in Philadelphia. Jeff has contributed to health care and public health efforts in San Francisco, Boston, and Shiprock, New Mexico, as well as internationally in Lesotho and Cambodia, all of which have deepened his desire to improve community well-being, pursue health equity and advance social justice. For his efforts he was selected as a Zuckerman Fellow at Harvard's Center for Public Leadership and received a 2016 Presidential Scholarship for AcademyHealth's Institute on Advocacy and Public Policy.

Ken Dickinson

Co-Founder of SARPH: Secundum Artem Reaching Pharmacists with Help

Ken Dickinson went to pharmacy school, much like many who attend USciences. Unfortunately, he fell victim to the disease of substance-abuse disorder, and spiraled into thirteen years of a disease that afflicts an increasing number of patients in communities around America. But Ken’s story has a happy ending, and perhaps an ending with a profound message that could help us see the truth, that substance use is a disease and not a choice. In his time with the disease, Ken reached out to resources such as therapists to get better, and despite making that choice to get better, “he did not breathe one sober breath” in all the thirteen years he suffered. It was not he who failed himself, it was the healthcare system, and society that failed him. After recovering, Ken started SARPH, an organization dedicated to helping pharmacists struggling with substance use disorders to recoverl while maintaining their license, and today has a 97% compliance rate.

Kenda Istanbouli

University of the Sciences Class of 2019

After the New Zealand Christchurch Mosque Shootings, muslims and non-muslims around the world united in solidarity to show support for the community hit hardest by this tragedy. It was heartwarming to see unity in such a time of hatred and despair, and it helped many to come to terms with what had happened. But for Kenda, it highlighted something disturbing, and something that she’s seen too often in her lifetime - how as a society, we use acts of hatred and violence as a force to come together. Coming together over hate, instead of using love to further catalyze more love and support. She worries that as a society, we show support when it is most-needed, but falter in a sense of continued support after hard times have passed.

Laura Waite

Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacy, University of the Sciences

When Dr. Waite isn’t doing an incredible job at teaching pharmacy students at USciences kidney disease and hyperlipidemia, she’s spending time with her daughter. An avid music lover, Laura was devastated after discovering her daughter was losing her hearing. As a result of her daughter’s deafness, however, Laura started to observe something extraordinary - something that made her realize that no loss goes uncompensated.

Pablo Garron

International Program Officer, Global Brigades

Pablo Garron is an International Program Officer at Global Brigades, an international volunteer-based global health organization dedicated to lifting communities in poverty around the world in a sustainable fashion. “The Empowered 100” is Global Brigades goal to empower 100 Central American communities to permanently rise above poverty, without the perpetual assistance of Global Brigades. Poverty becomes a more multi-faceted problem as it is analyzed in its entireity, and as a result, it can be daunting to even attempt to solve it. But Global Brigades takes poverty’s most daunting characteristic, being multi-faceted, and turns it into its weakness. In developing a model that holistically breaks poverty down into its subcomponents, and running mission trips that involve volunteers from a wide range of professions (not just healthcare), Global Brigades reveals that we are all part of the solution, and that we all can be a part of that solution

Shubhi Maheshwari

USciences PharmD Candidate, Class of 2021

Shubhi is a first-generation American immigrant, born from an Indian-American family. Often times conservative, south-asian culture is notorious for being at odds with more liberal western cultures that first-generation born south asians grow up in. A universal struggle faced by many first generation south-asian immigrants is reconciling these two often times diametrically opposing cultures. Striking a balance can be difficult at times - growing up in a hyper-liberal environment, it is hard for south asian children to develop an understanding of the more conservative leaning culture that their parents come to the west with. After all, how can South Asian children accept and respect a conservative culture that would otherwise hold south asian children in such contempt for living so liberally?