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).

Reynolds Auditorium
Science Drive
Durham, North Carolina, 27708
United States

Aashna Aggarwal

Aashna is a senior from New Delhi, India majoring in Economics with a certificate in Sustainability Engagement. As a global citizen, she is passionate about sustainability, international development and economic impact. She has worked on Climate Change and Energy projects in India, Peru, United States, Switzerland and Sub Saharan Africa. She is accredited as a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Associate, is a delegate at the 23rd Youth Assembly and a Duke Global Policy fellow. At Duke she is the Co-president of the Global Energy Access Network (Glean) and has participated in an Independent Duke Engage and four Bass Connections projects. She hopes to rehumanize economics and development through her endeavors.

Arthi Kozhumam

Arthi Kozhumam is a sophomore undergraduate from Austin, Texas. At Duke, she is studying Global Health and Biology, and is involved with music organizations such as Duke Music Tutors and Arts and Health at Duke. She has played percussion for the past decade, and uses music tutoring as a form of sustainable mentorship and empowerment. As a pre-med student, she is also involved with work and research through Duke Global Health Institute, and strives to find deeper connections between drumming and health in order to empower women and students of color to break gender and racial stereotypes.

Axel Ramos

Axel Ramos is a DACA recipient from Honduras who came to the United States in 2005. Last year, he founded the Duke Define American Chapter on campus that brings together undocumented immigrants and allies in order to provide support and provide a platform for organizing. In Fall 2018, he was part of the planning committee which brought over 100 documented and undocumented young individuals to the Define American Chapters Summit. I have lived in North Carolina for over 13 years, and been in Durham for six of those, and graduated from Riverside High School, where I was heavily involved in advocacy and organizing movements in the community. This included fighting for the release of a fellow classmate who was detained for 6 months in Georgia. He is a Junior majoring in Economics and Sociology, a Golden Door Scholar, North Carolina Latinx 20 under 20 list maker and community leader.

Elise Wang

Elise Wang has been teaching at Duke since January 2018, after receiving her PhD at Princeton and master's degree at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. She believes that teaching is a transformative act. In settings from prisons to university lecture halls to ESL classrooms, Dr. Wang strives to bring all students - but especially those who feel themselves at the margins of the classroom - to the center of scholarly debate. She feels strongly that such attention helps students connect deeply to their education, because it allows them to see it not as a measure of their value, but as a supporting character in the story of their lives.

Franklin Boampong

Franklin Sarpong Boampong is a young technology enthusiast who comes from Accra, Ghana. Franklin's love for technology is what drives his passion. His drive to become a pioneer in technological advancement in Ghana and Africa at large is that which made him become a lead technological research engineer for Hexohub, a start-up in Ghana which uses open-source technology to solve agricultural, educational and technological issues in Ghana. Franklin is interested in how his minor contributions to technology in Africa could ripple into a huge impact on the continent.

Jen Fry

Jen Fry, is a Program Coordinator at Duke University for the Undergraduate Research Support Office and the new Undergraduate Research Publication, Visible Thinking. Jen is also the owner of JenFryTalks LLC., and has almost 20 years of combined collegiate coaching and higher education experience. JenFryTalks is a social justice firm who uses conversation to educate and empower those within athletics through an antiracist lens. She consults, facilitates, and works with affinity and identity groups on issues of race, inclusion, diversity, antiracism, and equity. She has had coaching stints at Elon University, University of Illinois - 2011 National Runner-up, Washington State University, and Norfolk State University. During her time at Elon, she served on the LBGT Employee Resource Leadership Team, Elon University Presidential Task Force for Black Student, Faculty, and Staff Experiences, and the Elon University Implementation and Assessment Team for Black Student, Faculty, and Staff Experiences.

Joshua Berg

Joshua Berg was raised in Rockland County, New York, 35 miles northwest of New York City. His love for the outdoors began as a child at his grandparent’s house in the woods of Western Massachusetts. During summers in high school he participated in two National Outdoor Leadership School Alaska Backpacking courses in the Talkeetna and Alaska Mountain Ranges – the latter of which ended in an unprecedented and life-threatening grizzly bear attack. Joshua went on to attend Duke University where he majored in Environmental Science and Policy and minored in history. During his time at Duke, he participated in the Duke Engage Program at the Crag Law Center, a non-profit environmental law firm, in Portland, Oregon, and was a Stanback Fellow at The Earth Partners, an environmental consulting firm in Washington, D.C. He also served as a Congressional Intern for the Honorable Nita Lowey of New York’s 17th District. While at Duke, Joshua was a member of the Jewish Student’s Union Executive Board, the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, and studied abroad in Florence, Italy. Joshua is currently a third-year student at The George Washington University Law School where he is a Thurgood Marshall Scholar and an associate for the Journal of Energy and Environmental Law. While in law school, Joshua served as a clerk in the Solicitor’s Office at Department of the Interior in the Division of Mineral Resources, and Department of Justice in the Environment and Natural Resources Division. Upon graduating this May, he will clerk for the Honorable Josie Garton of Alaska’s Third Judicial District in Anchorage for the 2019-2020 term.

Lina Colucci

Lina Colucci is a Ph.D. student at the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) Program. Her research focuses on developing a novel, portable sensor for non-invasive assessment of a person’s hydration state. She is an engineer and inventor who works to shape the future of healthcare.

Marion Quirici

Dr. Marion Quirici is Lecturing Fellow in the Thompson Writing Program, Faculty Advisor of Duke Disability Alliance, and Co-director of the Health Humanities Lab at Duke. She is active in the independent living movement, serving on the board of directors for the Alliance of Disability Advocates, and the labor movement as a proud member of Duke Faculty Union and the Durham Workers Assembly. She is committed to building opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaborations at Duke centering on disability justice, and collaborations with the community.

Steve Miller Laverne Berry

Laverne Berry and Steve Miller have worked as volunteer Voter Protection lawyers in each of the past three presidential elections (2008 and 2016 in North Carolina, 2012 in Virginia) and in last year’s midterm election in North Carolina. Their work during the 2016 election was featured in the documentary Capturing the Flag, which highlights the various forms that voter suppression takes in the US today and how individuals can help fight it. Laverne is an entertainment and media business affairs attorney representing independent film and television producers, directors, production companies, distribution companies, authors and media companies. Drawing on eighteen years as a television producer and distribution executive before becoming a lawyer, Laverne understands both the business and legal sides of the media marketplace. She was Executive Producer for Perfectly Normal For Me and The Silent Truth and Co-Executive Producer for Emmy-nominated Chely Wright: Wish Me Away, and The Lady in Question is Charles Busch. Laverne also has been involved in Alternative Dispute Resolution for 20 years. She is a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Dispute Panel, American Arbitration Association (AAA) Commercial Arbitration Panel and Mediation Panel. Laverne has been named a New York Metro Area Super Lawyer for seven years, including for 2018, by Thompson Reuters; and was included in the New York Metro Super Lawyers supplement to The New York Times newspaper, The Top Women Attorneys in New York, 2014- 2018. Steve is an international business executive, based in the US and Europe, with over 25 years of experience developing and managing a broad range of businesses and educational and social justice projects. He has served as Senior Vice President, Government and Corporate Relations and Business Development for the UK-based Study Group, an international education company. Prior to that he spent seven years as a member of the senior management team that ran the Walt Disney Company’s global publishing business with responsibility for strategic planning and business development. And before Disney, he spent ten years at Sesame Workshop, the producer of Sesame Street, where he ran their international division. Currently, he works as a consultant advising clients on a wide range of international projects and partnerships. Steve was a member of the Board of Cambodian Living Arts, an NGO in Cambodia, from 2012 through 2016 and continues to serve as a member of CLA’s Vision Committee. He is a former Board member and current voting member of BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) and has served on the Boards of Lambda Legal Defense and The Hetrick-Martin Institute.