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).

Earl Hall
2980 Broadway
New York, New York, 10027
United States

Anansa Benbow

Anansa is currently a second-year M.A student studying Applied Linguistics at Teachers College. She graduated from the University of Rochester with a B.A. in Linguistics in 2015. As an undergraduate, she was most interested in the linguistic connections between West African languages and liturgical languages used in African-based religions in Latin America. From 2015-2017, Anansa worked with middle school and high school students in Providence, RI through City Year, an AmeriCorps education non-profit. She used this time to explore the connections between education and linguistics. Her academic interests lie in sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, phonetics & phonology, and psycholinguistics. Anansa is fueled by the power that language has in including and empowering others, particularly multilingual learners and speakers of African American English in the K-12 setting. She believes that nuances in communication are vital in humanizing, affirming, and validating our lives.

Ashley Brown

Ashley Brown is currently performing with The Dynamite Experience (Winston Brown), Dance Into Deliverance (Jessica Ray) and Matia Johnson when she is not creating work of her own, professionally or for her HS students at Brooklyn Prospect High School, where she is the founding HS dance instructor. She is the former resident choreographer for BT Dance, a faith based dance company and a graduate of Florida State University, School of Dance and Spelman College, where she studied dance performance and choreography and child development, respectively. Ashley has additional training in dance movement therapy that has prepared her to worked with Shining Light for the last two years as a dance team leader for their 2-week Impact workshop held in male and female jail and prison facilities in primarily Pennsylvania, and the Tri-state area.

Cocovan

Cocovan, 30, is a French-Iranian performance artist and musician. Whether sitting on the moon on Paris's infamous Pont Des Arts, or covering Venice Beach with petals, or laying down on a bed in the streets of London, Cocovan wants to remind us that poetry can be found anywhere, especially where you wouldn't think to look. One of those public installations, originally meant to last only one day, spontaneously evolved into an ongoing art project, "The World Letter". In the participatory piece, Cocovan invites the whole world to write a collective love letter to the world. A year and a half into founding her project, the artist has now gathered entries from more than 20,000 people, from 128 different countries, and has performed The World Letter in New York, Rome, Bogota, Berlin, Mexico City - among many other places. A 450 meters long scroll, the World Letter is now the longest love letter in the world, and continues to grow everyday.

Jason Friesen

Jason is a paramedic by training and the founder of Trek Medics International, a nonprofit that improves emergency medical systems in communities with limited resources through innovative mobile phone technologies. Jason has been working in international development since 2003 with many years spent in Central America, the Caribbean, and Europe, working for a number of recognized international humanitarian organizations including Project HOPE where he was the Haiti Country Director in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. He received his masters in public health from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, is a contributing author for EMS publications, actively rostered with the federal government's disaster response teams (DMAT-CA4), and provides consulting for a range of global health initiatives in both systems development and disaster response.

Lorén Cox

Dr. Lorén Cox is an advocate for educational equity, believing we owe all students the opportunity to succeed. She currently manages the federal policy and advocacy portfolio for a large national non-profit. Dr. Cox previously served as the Senior Education Policy Advisor for UnidosUS—the nation’s largest Latinx civil rights organization—and as a member of the Obama Administration’s community solutions team and a program examiner at the Office of Management and Budget.

Marquina Iliev-Piselli

Marquina Iliev-Piselli is a Digital Marketer and the Founder of AuthorpreneurLaunch.com. She helps authors feel empowered, not overwhelmed, by marketing. When not promoting books, you can find her curled up on the couch reading with her son. In addition to her book-life, Marquina is an insufferable karaoke singer, electric guitar player, and air guitar enthusiast. Air Guitar? Yep! It's a thing! Click here for an air guitar intro video. On any given evening, you can find her with her husband and son rocking out in the living room. Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan (Go Blue!), she has a Masters from Columbia University in Instructional Technology & Media. After a breast cancer diagnosis in 2015, she created The Glam Chemo project as well as The Women's Empowerment Project at Weill Cornell. She volunteers with ProjectKoru.org and SurvivorNet.com to support others diagnosed with cancer.

Megha Desai

Megha Desai is the President of the Desai Foundation, an organization that empowers women and children through community programming to elevate health and livelihood both in the US and in India. Their work focuses on cultivating dignity so that every woman and girl can dream beyond her circumstances. Previously Megha had an over decade long career in corporate advertising and branding. Megha is a singer and a member of the Resistance Revival Chorus. She is also an impact advisor, writer, speaker, and podcast enthusiast.

Michael Hanegan

Michael Hanegan is a theologian whose research centers on the ways in which communities, particularly Christian communities, can think about the prevention of trauma and suffering as a mechanism of systemic social change. His work especially centers around the trauma experienced by children and the ways in which their protection and the prevention of trauma and suffering can revolutionize societies. An interdisciplinary theologian by training, Michael has also served as an ordained minister, and a senior faith engagement official for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. He lives in New York City.

Noelle Demole

Noelle Demole is a 25 year-old & Swiss-born student at Columbia University doing her Master's degree in Negotiation & Conflict Resolution at the School of Professional Studies. Demole holds a Bachelor degree in International Relations from EU Business School, in Switzerland, with a focus on the issue of human trafficking and the global sex trade through the writing of her thesis. Prior to coming to Columbia, Demole was certified compliance officer as her past professional background was in the financial services industry with a focus in compliance management as she used to work for the anti-money laundering and KYC team for a Swiss private bank. Having a profound motivation for the understanding and solving of injustice and organized crime in the world, Demole has recently founded her own humanitarian association called Shere Khan’s Youth Protection, helping the youth generation in the south of India to study in order to become financially independent in the future. In her free time, Demole practices boxing, krav maga, ballet and is also a certified scuba diver as she enjoys diving around the world to explore wild marine animals. Demole is currently living between New-York City and Geneva, Switzerland.