Theme: Embracing Change

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).

PUMS Library
Ul. Przybyszewskiego 37a
poznan, Wielkopolskie, 60-356
Poland

Aleksandra Jarocka

Anti-Discrimination Trainer

Aleksandra Jarocka - anti-discrimination trainer and facilitator, founder of Alleverse Education - a social enterprise that delivers diversity and inclusion training to schools, companies, universities and NGOs. As a trainer, she has worked with different entities, such as: Polish Migration Forum, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań University od Medical Sciences, Equality Institute Association, Bezlik Foundation, Sempre a Frente Foundation, Poznań Teachers’ Improvement Center (ODN), HochDrei e.V. (Potsdam), Humanity in Action Polska, Youth of European Nationalities (Berlin), JEF Europe, The Council of Europe, Teach for Poland Foundation and Immigration Museum (Sao Paulo). Before creating Alleverse in 2020, she has co-founded MamyGłos [WeHaveAVoice] Foundation in 2014 - the first NGO in Poland which was fighting gender-based discrimination and violence against teenage girls and young women.

Brian Rhinehart

Author/Actor

Brian Rhinehart comes from a background in Psychoanalysis and the arts, and has been a professor of theatre and a practitioner of improvisation and collaborative playmaking for over twenty-five years. As a director of devised theatre, Rhinehart’s productions have been seen in The Czech Republic, Italy, Turkey, Poland, Scotland, Germany and the U.S. He is a critically acclaimed actor (The New York Times, Show Business Weekly), performing in over 50 productions in the U.S. and Germany, and the plays he has written or co-written have been seen in a variety of venues, from Off-Broadway to the site-specific. He is a full-time lecturer at The Actors Studio Drama School in New York City, and has given numerous seminars and workshops on acting, improvisation, and devising in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He holds an MFA in Directing from The Actors Studio Drama School, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Florida.

Dawid Frąckowiak

Assistant Professor

Dr. Dawid Frąckowiak works as an assistant professor at the Center for Advanced Technologies at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań. For three years, he has been leading Sonata 13 research grant from the National Science Center, in which he deals with the use of mechanochemistry in the synthesis of cage compounds of silicon, boron, and phosphorus. Passionate scientist and popularizer of science, he cooperates with student organizations from all over the country. An avid admirer of energetic and accessible didactics, he loves public appearances in which he talks in an accessible way about his scientific interests and the results of his research.

Dorota Maciaszek

Optometrist

Dorota is an optometrist and experimental biologist. A specialist in the field of vision correction, diagnostics of binocular vision disorders and visual therapy. Founder of Oculino Publishing and editor of the Oculino blog devoted to visual disorders in children. Co-author of motivational books and Lulu! Cards for children with visual problems at an early stage of development and rehabilitation. Lead Optometrist and Product Owner in the Polish Medtech startup Remmed. She co-created a research and development team that, under the Fast Track grant of the National Center for Research and Development, develops the possibilities of virtual reality towards a comprehensive tool for vision therapy.

Łukasz Gąsiorowski

Doctor

Dr. Gąsiorowski is a Professor at the Department of Medical Simulation at PUMS. He previously completed both General and Thoracic Surgery residencies. He also is a Director of Center for Invasive Pulmonary Diagnostics at The Wielkopolska Centrum of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery. He was one of the pioneers of implementation of Simulation-based education in Poland, working as an invited expert for the Ministry of Health. He is an authority in designing and constructing Medical Simulations Centers. Although his main passion is teaching in simulation, he also has a deep interest in patient’s safety procedures.

Maria Siemionow

MD, PhD, DSc

Maria Siemionow, MD, PhD, DSc, is a world-renowned scientist and microsurgeon. She earned her medical degree from the Poznan Medical Academy and completed her residency in orthopedics. She earned a PhD, in 1985, for her thesis “Evaluation of different microsurgical techniques of vessel anastomosis of diameter less than one millimeter”. She completed a hand surgery fellowship at the Christine Kleinert Institute for Hand and Microsurgery in Louisville, KY. Dr. Siemionow is currently the Professor of Orthopedics and Director of Microsurgery Research at The University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Siemionow specializes in microsurgery, hand surgery, peripheral nerve surgery and transplantation. She is pioneering development of new technology for tolerance induction in transplantation and enhancement of nerve and muscle regeneration.

Michalina Drejza

OB/GYN Resident

An Obstetrics and Gynaecology Resident and scientist from Poznań with the special focus on sexual and reproductive health and rights and meaningful community and youth engagement in global health spaces. She has been involved in multiple leadership roles within youth global health spaces such as the International Federation of Medical Students' Associations, Adolescent and Youth Constituency of The Partnership of Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, UNAIDS The PACT and many more. She has worked as a consultant in the Human Reproduction Team at the World Health Organization's Department of Reproductive Health and Research on the newly launched WHO Consolidated Guideline on Self-Care Interventions for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). Recently joined Gender Equity Initiative in Global Surgery as European Co-Liaison and co-founded the Polish Women in Surgery Foundation.

Michelle Rose Sanjayan

Student

A second-year medical student, passionate about making a significant change in the world by breaking barriers and disassociating the stigma and taboos linked to the world's ever-growing crisis which harms health, threatens lives, and hurts economies: The Mental Health Crisis. Michelle is a creative individual with hobbies including dance and singing, but she has also helped to set up a charity organization striving to provide women in India with sanitary products and reproductive health education for which she received The Diana Award on behalf of the Royal family of the UK. Furthermore, she has been involved in many Model United Nations (MUN) conferences as well as other debates which have allowed her to discuss social issues in the current society.