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).

Terry Theater
300 Water Street
Jacksonville, Florida, 32202
United States

Bronero n/a

Musician, keyboardist and producer Bronero is a solo, electronic music artist combining the energy and sophistication of hip-hop and jazz, performed live with an array of analog synthesizers, drum machines, samplers and keyboards. By spontaneously mixing technology with instrumental prowess, Bronero is able to create, in real time, a complete musical narrative of rhythm and melody akin to both DJ sets and jazz improvisation. Combine pianistic elements with deep synth bass, blazing leads and thoughtful, historically aware lyrical samples, and you get the powerful mixture at the heart of the Bronero sound.

Dawn Emerick

Dr. Dawn Emerick delivers trauma-informed leadership and change management training to small and medium-sized, public and private organizations. Over a span of 25 years, she has crafted her leadership, organizational development and engagement skills at various private, government, and non-profit organizations in Florida, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, and Texas. She is a former nonprofit CEO and county/city government executive who has successfully planned, managed and executed several enterprise-wide, complex organizational restructuring efforts using organizational design and change management theory, employee engagement, and qualitative and quantitative data analysis. Additionally, she is the host of the “Leadership Uncensored” podcast, a public policy researcher for the Jacksonville Civic Council, a founding member of the AttaGirl Giving Circle, a national speaker on organizational design and change management, and a proven transformational leader who works to find innovative solutions to problems, placing people at the center of the process. Originally from the D.C. / Maryland metropolitan area, Dawn Emerick is a graduate of Frostburg State University and holds a degree in Health Education; she also is a two-time alumnus of the University of North Florida where she received her Masters in Public Administration and Doctor of Education Leadership. In 2018, she was accepted into the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Population Health Management graduate program. More recently, she became a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner and certified in Mental Health First Aid. She is a member of the Association of Change Management Professionals, Association of Consultants to Nonprofits, International City/County Managers Association, and Engaging Local Government Leaders.

Delaney Liskey

Delaney Liskey strives to empower patients to be research scientists of their own disease through the establishment of training initiatives. Since early childhood, she has battled with multiple sclerosis (MS), a neurodegenerative disorder of the brain and spinal cord, and has since applied her personal experiences with the disease towards research in uncovering the underlying cellular mechanisms to develop strategies for tissue repair. Delaney is a PhD student in Regenerative Sciences at the Mayo Clinic, ranked the best hospital in the world by U.S. News, and holds a bachelor's degree in Cognitive Science from the University of Virginia. She was previously awarded the National Institutes of Health Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program fellowship at the Mayo Clinic.

Deyona Burton

Deyona Burton is a first-year student at Florida State University, where she is majoring in Environmental Science and Policy and minoring in Urban and Regional Planning. Deyona is the Founder of SPEAR: Showing Political Engagement and Responsibility, a Jacksonville-based initiative dedicated to increasing youth civic engagement and youth voter turnout. After FSU, Deyona aspires to go to law school and return to Jacksonville to better her community.

Goodpluck Trio

In 2020, Good Pluck Trio was formed by Millie Hudson, Joe Henderson, and Alex Downs. The group performs an array of genres ranging from classical to jazz to pop. Currently, GPT performs throughout Jacksonville at various venues. GPT released its first original single “You Got That Sunshine” in August 2021, available on multiple platforms.

LaTonya Summers

Dr. LaTonya Summers is an award-winning assistant professor of clinical mental health counseling at Jacksonville University. There, she brings 26 years of clinical mental health and addictions counseling experience, and conducts research on multicultural issues in counseling and supervision. She has examined the impact of power, race, and gender on cross-racial interactions; natural hair bias and upward mobility in the workplace; clinical mental health needs of Black clients; and culturally specific professional development and service delivery to Black clients. Her work is featured in scholarly journals and at international and national professional conferences. She is the author of Multicultural Counseling: Responding with Cultural Humility, Empathy, and Advocacy, a textbook that will be released in 2022. Summers founded the national annual Black Mental Health Symposium, a conference aimed to equip mental health professionals with culturally-specific skills to improve mental wellness in Black communities. She serves as the Immediate Past President of the Florida Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development. She serves the American Counseling Association as an appointee to its Black Male Experience Task Force, and the Research and Knowledge Task Force. Dr. Summers has been featured in O Magazine on the subject of authenticity in the workplace.

Michelle Ramos

Dr. Michelle Ramos brings a diversity of experience to her role as Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS and founder of Ramos Coaching. Her most recent experience includes working in criminal justice reform at the Vera Institute of Justice, philanthropic work as Program Officer for the Women’s Foundation of California, and service organization leadership on the boards of Dance/USA and Performing Arts Alliance. A licensed attorney with a PhD in Psychology, she has significant organizing experience and has committed her career to serving communities and individuals adversely impacted by issues of race, gender, disability, class, socioeconomics, inequitable laws, and systemic oppression. She has consulted for over 20 years nationally. She is the proud mother of Broadway choreographer, Ellenore Scott, and since retiring from her own dance career, Ramos has continued to teach ballet locally, performs with Ritmeaux Krewe (New Orleans’s first Latinx Mardi Gras Krewe), is a competitive triathlete and Ironman finisher, and enjoys her Southern New Orleans lifestyle.

Nicol Headley

Nicol Headley is a mom, CEO of H3 and author living in Florida. H3 (Haven, Healing and Hope) is a nonprofit organization aimed at aggregating local resources for both victims and abusers alike. Her personal passion is focused on elevating the collective consciousness on the societal burden of domestic violence. With a goal to de-stigmatize and a focus on ending the cycle of domestic violence.

Sara Ting

founder and president of World Unity, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to making a continuing and lasting contribution towards the elimination of all forms of racial, ethnic, religious and cultural bigotry, prejudices, discrimination and biases. Sara’s knowledge and understanding of diversity comes from her rich experience growing up in America at a time when there were very few Asian Americans. Throughout her life she has confronted the issue of diversity. Her activism to advance equality came alive through the Sun poem she wrote in a personal journal in 1978, a poem that then became the cornerstone of city-wide multi-media public service campaigns promoting racial and ethnic harmony in Boston, New York City and Providence, Rhode Island. She designed a diversity and inclusion workshop that uses poetry and has presented it to organizations across the U.S. She also served 20 years as a poet-in-residence, teaching students at the elementary grade level the art of writing poetry, and developed a workshop with the “Sun” poem to teach students equality.

Vishavjit Singh

Vishavjit Singh is a New York City-based illustrator, writer, performance artist, diversity speaker and creator of www.Sikhtoons.com. With a professional background in public health and technology, he got his spark for cartooning in the post 9/11 tragedy when Americans with turbaned and bearded countenance became targets of hate/bias crimes. He uses storytelling as a tool to create a space for challenging conversations around identity, race, bias and being agents for change. He hosts talks and keynotes in schools, universities, government agencies and companies including Google, Apple, NASA, the NYC Department of Health and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. He is the subject of widely acclaimed documentary films, “Red, White & Beard” and “Drawn Together: Comics, Diversity and Stereotypes.” His message and work has been covered by a number of news outlets, including the New York Times, NPR, BBC, The Atlantic, Huffington Post, The Guardian and Time Magazine.