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).

The University of Rhode Island
7 Lippitt Road
Kingston, Rhode Island, 02881
United States

Amy Goto

Celloist

Amy Goto, born in 2004 in South Carolina (USA), is a Japanese-American cellist. She began playing the cello at the age of 3 and has studied with Philippe Muller of the Manhattan School of Music since the age of 12. She made her debut as a soloist with orchestra at age 9 with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and subsequently performed at the opening ceremony for Spoleto Festival USA/Piccolo Spoleto Festival (South Carolina). In 2015, she received the “Hope” Award at the IX International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians (Novosibirsk, Russia). She was a featured performer on NPR’s From the Top (Show 362) in 2018. Most recently, she competed as the youngest contestant at the Mazzacurati Competition (Turin, Italy) in Fall 2019.

Caleb Hawkins

architectural designer and visual artist

Caleb Hawkins is an architectural designer and visual artist. He is currently in his last year pursuing a Masters of Design Studies Degree in Technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he is a researcher at the Responsive Environments and Artifacts Lab. He has worked as an architectural designer and fabricator at many award-winning architecture firms around Boston and is currently a designer at the artist collective, MASARY Studios. With a belief that art has the power to inspire change, and good design can bring about awareness, his work creates conceptual bridges between ideas, topics, and perceptions seemingly in opposition. He uses the communicative power of art and design to operate as a form of mediation to share understanding, gains understanding, and question it. His artistic research practice explores the multilayered relationships between technology, personal experience, and architectural space.

Emily Diamond

Professor

Dr. Emily Diamond is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Communication at The University of Rhode Island. Her research focuses on the intersection between identities, strategic communication, and public opinion on climate change and environmental issues. Specifically, how non-partisan identities — such as parental, place-based, or conservationist identities — influence how individuals form their attitudes on environmental issues. Her research has implications for efforts to overcome partisan divisions on environmental policies through framing and communication. Dr. Diamond has a Ph.D. in Environmental Policy from Duke University.

Ian Lin

Pianist/Composer

Ian Lin is an 11-year-old pianist, composer, violinist. He has won many awards in piano competitions as well as music composition competitions and is the youngest member of the RI Philharmonic Youth Symphony Orchestra. He loves sharing music with others and has been giving annual solo concerts for seniors at a few nursing homes in RI.

Jan Sendzimir

systems ecologist

Jan Sendzimir, originally a native of New England, has lived and studied all over the world: North America, Europe, Africa, and East and Central Asia. As a systems ecologist, he has worked with teams of scientists and laypeople (participatory science) to help local communities and nations to address the risk and uncertainty from unpredictable change arising from extremes of Climate Warming: droughts, floods, fires. He uses conceptual and formal modeling in conjunction with field research within participatory processes, e.g. Action Research or Adaptive Management, to guide scientific research and policy development related to the sustainable development of communities and ecosystems in five river systems: the Narew (Poland), the Oder and Barycz rivers (Poland), the Tisza river (Ukraine, Romania, and Hungary) and the Amudarya river (Uzbekistan). He also works in the Sahel scrub savanna on governance issues of agro-forestry in Niger and reservoir fisheries management in Burkina Faso.

Jason Jaacks

filmmaker and photographer

Jason Jaacks is an award-winning filmmaker and photographer whose work has been featured on National Geographic, PBS Digital Studios, The New York Times, and The Atlantic. His films include Border Nation, In Search of Tztoz, and Silent River. Jason is a National Geographic Explorer and is an Assistant Professor of Journalism at the University of Rhode Island.

Loren Spears

Educator and Tribal Councilwoman of the Narragansett Tribe

Lorén Spears is the Executive Director of Tomaquag Museum. She is also an educator, activist, author, and Indigenous artist. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1989 and her Master’s degree from the University of New England with a focus on elementary education. She founded the Nuweetooun School affiliated with the Tomaquag Museum and was a teacher in Newport public schools for 12 years. A 2017 winner of the Tom Roberts Prize for Creative Achievement in the Humanities from the Rhode Island Council on the Humanities, she was honored for her “compelling work as an advocate of Indigenous People’s history and cultural heritage in preservation, the arts, and education.” In 2010, Spears was named as one of 11 Extraordinary Women honorees for teaching and education.

Mark Barnes

Professor Geography, Climate and Society

Dr. Mark Barnes is an active researcher with a focus on North American geography; climate and society; environmental policy and planning; transportation; and urban studies.

Martine Bide

Professor

Martin Bide grew up in England, and after earning degrees in “Colour Chemistry” spent some years in the UK dyestuff industry before joining the academic world of New England. He is a professor in the Department of Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design at the URI College of Business, where he teaches courses in textile science, color science, and dyeing. His research includes biomedical materials, textile history, and sustainability, and he is the author of more than 100 papers, book chapters, and patents. He is a past president of the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and of the Society of Dyers and Colourists, and a recipient of URI’s scholarly excellence award.

Mary Grace Almandrez

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness

Dr. Almandrez is Associate Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer at the University of Rhode Island. She is an active advocate for diversity, equity, and leads the development and sustenance of a vibrant and diverse community of students, staff, and faculty throughout the University. She joined URI from Brown University where she served as an advocate for all students to thrive in their academic and co-curricular endeavors. She supervised Residential Life, Student and Employee Accessibility Services, Student Conduct & Community Standards, and Student Support Services. She orchestrated several major reorganizations on the divisional and departmental levels. Dr. Almandrez also chaired Brown’s Threat Assessment Team. Prior to serving as associate vice president for Campus Life and dean of students, she was interim assistant vice president for Campus Life, associate dean of the College, and director of the Brown Center for Students of Color.

Melissa Omand

Professor and Physical Oceanography Scientist

As an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Oceanography, Melissa studies transport and sequestration of carbon in the ocean. She focuses on a process called the ‘biological pump’ – determining the fate of carbon that derives from biological sources such as phytoplankton. Hailing from Toronto, Canada, Melissa received her Bachelors of Science degree in Physics from the University of Guelph in 2004. She completed her Doctorate in Oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of San Diego (2011), and her postdoctoral work at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She joined the faculty at URI in January 2015.

Nitin Damle

MD MS MACP

Dr. Damle is the past president of the American College of Physicians (the largest specialty organization in the U.S.), Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and Founding Partner of South County Internal Medicine in Wakefield Rhode Island. He was a co-author on a seminal position paper of the American College of Physicians in 2015 and has for the past five years has been speaking to both professional and lay audiences around the world on the Human Health Effects of Climate Change. He is a founding member of the Medical Societies Consortium on Climate Change and sits on the Board of Advisors. He has advocated for mitigation of factors leading to climate change and their adverse effects on health to the House of Representatives and the Senate and locally with the Rhode Island Department of Health.

Paula Bontempi

Dean and Professor

An alumna of the URI Graduate School of Oceanography (Ph.D. ’01) and a biological oceanographer for more than 25 years, Dr. Paula Bontempi became Dean of GSO in September 2020. Previous to her current position, Bontempi served as acting deputy director at NASA’s Earth Science Division, Science Mission Directorate of NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. She provided leadership, strategic direction, and overall management for the agency’s entire Earth science portfolio, from technology development, applied science, and research to mission implementation and operation. Prior to her appointment as acting deputy director, Bontempi spent more than 16 years as the physical scientist and program manager for ocean biology and biogeochemistry at NASA Headquarters. Before joining NASA, Bontempi was an assistant professor of oceanography in the University of Southern Mississippi’s Department of Marine Sciences. She grew up in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Rebecca Millsop

Lecturer in Ethics

Rebecca Millsop is a Lecturer in Ethics at the University of Rhode Island and a co-founder of the organization Philosophers for Sustainability. As a teaching philosopher, her goal is to empower her students to utilize philosophical tools outside the classroom in their everyday lives. She helps her students come to see how critical thinking and ethical reasoning can lead to growth and positive change at both individual and societal levels. As a professional philosopher, her goal is to organize with her colleagues across the world to envision, and fight for, a more sustainable future.

Ryan Campos

Musician/Composer

The performance is conducted using modular synthesizers, where sounds are generated in real-time using analog control voltages to create a patch. Alongside this analog, sounds are a range of 8mm projections from the 1960s and 1970s. The projections invoke a sense of nostalgia that coexists with the analog sound.

Sean Rogers

Executive Director of Inclusive Excellence and The Spachman Professor of Human Resources and Labor Relations, The University of Rhode Island

Professor Sean Edmund Rogers (Ph.D., SPHR, and SHRM-SCP) is the Spachman Professor of Human Resources and Labor Relations and is the Executive Director of Inclusive Excellence in the College of Business at the University of Rhode Island. He also serves as the Director of the M.S. in Healthcare Management program. His current research interests include unions and labor-management relations, employment discrimination and workplace diversity, and volunteerism. Dr. Rogers worked in the airline and logistics industries such as US Airways, America West Airlines, ATA Airlines, AirTran Airways, and UPS. Additionally. He served in the US Army Reserve as an enlisted soldier and non-commissioned officer, including an active-duty combat tour in 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He currently serves as a Medical Service Corps (healthcare administration) officer in the US Air Force Reserve.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

US Senator, Climate Advocate

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is fighting to reduce carbon pollution, protect our air and water, and position America as a leader in the clean energy economy. As a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) and Finance Committees, he plays a key role in crafting policies to address climate change and strengthen environmental protections.

Veronique Oldham

Professor and Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry Scientist

Vero began her scientific career as a student of chemistry, in Toronto, Ontario Canada. After working in and around lakes and forests, Vero took to the seas in Bermuda, working as a research technician on the chemistry of metals in seawater. There, Vero cemented a desire to pursue academic research in the field of Chemical Oceanography. Vero completed her PhD in oceanography at the University of Delaware, then a Post-Doctoral Scholarship at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, before starting as an Assistant Professor of Oceanography at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography. Today, Vero researches reactions at zones of intense redox chemistry like the coastal ocean, hydrothermal vents, and polar systems. When she’s not out snooping for cool chemistry, Vero is out at the beach with her corgi Mortadella trying to learn to surf, or having a beer somewhere new!

Vinka Oyanedel-Craver

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Dr. Vinka Oyanedel-Craver is a Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Rhode Island. Her current research interests in the area of emerging contaminants of drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater treatment, as well as the development of novel water technologies. Her current research focus is on environmental nanotechnology, specifically on the behavior and application of nanomaterials in different ecological compartments and their use as antimicrobial compounds in point of use water/wastewater treatment in rural developing communities. Her research team has authored more than 45 peer-review publications.