Our theme for this year is "Building Bridges", which we find to be such a good explanation of what TEDx represents for all of us: a way to connect with concepts and points of view which might change our outlook on what's around us, while bridging over differences.
Speakers
Speakers may not be confirmed. Check event website for more information.
Alex MacCallion
Co-Founder of Greater Change
Alex MacCallion, co-founder of Greater Change, was struck by the number of homeless people in oxford while he was completing his studies at the University of Oxford. He created Greater Change, a social enterprise helping people who are homeless move on, so that hundreds or thousands of people could leave homelessness behind for good.Alexander Betts
LEOPOLD MULLER PROFESSOR OF FORCED MIGRATION AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, University of Oxford
Alexander Betts is Professor of Forced Migration and International Affairs, and William Golding Senior Fellow in Politics at Brasenose College, at the University of Oxford. He served as Director of the Refugee Studies Centre between 2014 and 2017. His research focuses mainly on refugee assistance, with a focus on Africa. In addition to his ten other books, he is co-author, with Paul Collier, of Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System (Penguin Allen Lane and Oxford University Press, 2017), which was named by the Economist as one of the 'Best Books of 2017'. He is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, was named by Foreign Policy magazine in the top 100 global thinkers of 2016, and his TED talks have been viewed by over 3 million people. He has previously worked for UNHCR and currently serves as a Councillor on the World Refugee Council. He currently leads the IKEA Foundation-funded Refugee Economies Programme.Chris Underhill
Founder of BasicNeeds and co-Founder of citiesRISE
Chris is a leading exponent on global mental health practice, a social entrepreneur, and a mentor. Chris is the founder of BasicNeeds, the mental health charity working in developing countries, and previously founded Action on Disability and Development, and Thrive. He is currently co-founding citiesRISE, which is a multi-stakeholder initiative designed to promote mental health by catalyzing collective actions across sectors within cities. A much sought-after mentor, he is a Senior Fellow of the Ashoka Fellowship, a recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, a Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Salzburg Global Fellow. In 2000 Chris received the MBE from the Queen for his services to disability and development. Chris’ talk looks at the Model for Mental Health and Development, which he created in 2000/2001.Deborah Brown
Head of Enterprise Development
Educate a girl and everything really does change. Deborah leads us on a journey to a basket making collective in rural Ghana where women's lives are being transformed thanks to the education of one young woman. Discover how a movement of rural, educated women are transforming not only their own prospects but also those of their families, communities and nations. Deborah left a ten year career in the City to pursue her doctorate at the University of Cambridge where she still supervises the social and ethical context of health and illness alongside her work with CAMFED, the Campaign for Female Education, and social entrepreneurship as the director of Mmaa Social.Donna Dickenson
Author of 'Me Medicine vs We Medicine'
Professor Donna Dickenson, author of over 25 books, is Emeritus Professor of Medical Ethics and Humanities at the University of London and Research Associate at the HeLEX Centre, University of Oxford. In 2006 she became the first woman to win the international Spinoza Lens award for her contribution to public debate on ethics. In her talk, based on her influential book Me Medicine vs. We Medicine. she debates whether personalised genetic medicine is a beneficial revolution.Elliot Costello
Founder and Former CEO of ygap
Most people listen with the intention of replying, not always with their focus on understanding. Elliot Costello shares a local, national, and global example of why it is important to listen, through someone else's ears. Listening has a profound capacity to create deep and meaningful connections, and, importantly, to facilitate social change. Elliot is a social entrepreneur who has spent ten years supporting innovative solutions to social problems around the world.Liz Parrish
CEO of BioViva
Liz Parrish is the CEO of BioViva USA Inc, a company committed to increasing health span and combatting the biggest diseases of our time, the diseases of aging. Liz's talk introduces us to our species' age-long battle with disease, our successes and achievements, and our new modern enemies to ultimate health. By using the evidence of what science has achieved and what model organisms can tell us about our journey forward, Liz shows us that with the right mentality we can defeat our foes and obtain the "golden sceptre of health". With the current advances in gene therapy, we are on the brink of living very different lives with an unlimited amount of genetic choices. Did you know that your age is the risk factor in mortality? Listen to this talk and prepare yourself for the future.Sam Gandy
Scientific Assistant to the Director of the Beckley Foundation
Dr Sam Gandy works on the cutting edge of psychedelic research, as Scientific Assistant to the Director of the Beckley Foundation, and as a collaborator with the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College London. Having a lifelong love of nature, an academic background in ecological science and a strong interest in psychedelics, his talk will focus on the capacity of psychedelic substances to enhance human-nature connection, and the implications this has for human wellbeing and the biosphere at a time of growing disconnection and ecological destruction.Shahnaz Ahmed
Founder and Co-Director of Knit Aid
Shahnaz Ahmed is Founder and Co-Director of Knit Aid – a simple idea that started off as just one beanie and ended up growing into a global social movement that empowers refugees and brings communities together through purposeful craft. What can one person do to create real change in the world when sometimes the problems can seem so huge and complex? Knit Aid Founder, Shahnaz Ahmed, tells the story of how one action for a cause she cared about ended up activating communities globally into a movement empowering thousands of displaced people. She explains how, at the heart of it, we all have something valuable to offer, no matter how small, and how those small actions have the power to lead to big, big change.Simon Lancaster
Speechwriter and speech coach
Simon Lancaster is a world-renowned public speaker and the author of several books on communication including You Are Not Human: How Words Kill.Tim Ramsey
Chief Executive of Just Like Us
Can a child be too young to learn about being LGBT? The answer: no child is ever too young. In this humorous and moving talk, Tim Ramsey, Founder of award-winning LGBT non-profit Just Like Us, argues that only when every parent explores about LGBT identities with their child from birth will we address the wellbeing crisis facing LGBT young people.Zoe Adjonyoh
Chef
Zoe Adjonyoh is on a mission to bring African food to the masses. Born to a Ghanaian father and Irish mother, the writer and chef from South-East London deepened her understanding of West African cuisine after a trip to visit her extended family in Ghana. Described by the Observer as a "standard bearer for West African food," one of "London's hottest chefs" by Time Out and named by Nigel Slater as 'one to watch' bringing immigrant food to Britain. Since her first sell-out supper clubs at her home in Hackney Wick in 2010, Zoe has taken her fresh interpretation of classic Ghanaian flavours to venues across London, Berlin, Accra, Yekaterinburg, San Francisco and New York, and has become a leading voice in the African food revolution. She recently published her debut cookbook 'Zoe's Ghana Kitchen'.Organizing team
