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).

Lisner Auditorium
730 21st Street NW
Washington, District of Columbia, 20052
United States

Alex Dehgan

Dr. Alex Dehgan has worked on wildlife conservation and foreign policy in settings as diverse as Saddam Hussein's pool house in Iraq, in the western reaches of the Himalayans in post-conflict Afghanistan, the leech and predator-filled rainforests of southeastern Madagascar, Central & South America, and in the chaos of Post Soviet Russia and Central Asia. He tends to run to places in the midst of change and takes on problems are thought to be too difficult to solve. Dr. Dehgan is the CEO and co-founder of Conservation X Labs, an innovation and technology startup focused ending the Sixth Mass Extinction. Conservation X Labs both builds new technologies for addressing the underlying drivers of extinction, and harnesses open innovation & mass collaboration to attract new solvers and new solutions. Alex raised over $17 million of funding, and built a team of 30 people working across both coasts, and two continents. Alex is also a Professor of the Practice of Sustainability at Arizona State University. Alex previously served as the Chief Scientist at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), with rank of Assistant Administrator. Alex found and led the Office of Science and Technology (OST), and creating the vision for and helped stand up the Global Development Lab, the Agency’s DARPA for Development. Alex was also part of the founding team of USAID’s Policy Bureau. Prior to USAID, Alex worked in multiple positions at the Dept. of State, including on the Policy Planning Staff and through overseas service under the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, using science to support bilateral diplomacy, including Arab-Israeli relations, engagement with Iran, through leading the science aspects of President Obama’s Cairo Initiative. Alex was the founding country director of the Wildlife Conservation Society Afghanistan Program and helped create Afghanistan’s first national park. Alex is the author of the book, The Snow Leopard Project, which describes the effort, which was selected by the journal Nature’s book editor as one of the top five science books of 2019. Alex holds a Ph.D in Evolutionary Biology from The University of Chicago and a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Alex has won multiple awards from the Departments of State and Defense, was named an Icon of Science, the World Technology Award, and in 2020, was given the University of Chicago’s Medical and Biological Alumni Association’s highest honor.

Alexandria Holder

Alexandria Holder is an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, with a specific focus on the military transgender population. She utilizes her own experiences as an active duty service member to mentor and educate various groups regarding difficulties facing LGBTQ+ members of the United States military and to advocate for their equal treatment to senior leaders, elected officials, and to the public. She has been featured as one of the 150 most powerful women in Washington, D.C., in Washingtonian magazine, praised by Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois during Department of Defense Pride 2019, and was chosen as the inaugural winner of SPART*A’s Albert Cashier Award for service to the military transgender community.

Babak Bahador

Babak Bahador is a Research Professor at the School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA) at George Washington University and a Senior Fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics. His research focuses on the overlap of media and politics/international relations, with primary focus on peacebuilding. At GW, Babak directs the Media and Peacebuilding Project, which aims to bridge the gap between academic research and peacebuilding practice. He is also a faculty member at GW’s Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics. Babak also leads a peace journalism initiative called Peace News Network, which produces stories about peace builders and peacebuilding from conflict fragile environments.

Catherine Flowers

Catherine Coleman Flowers is an internationally recognized environmental activist, MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, and author. She has spent her career advocating for equal access to water and sanitation for all communities — particularly those who are marginalized. Flowers engages with and informs audiences on environmental justice and climate change. Founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice (CREEJ), Flowers has spent her career advocating for equal access to clean water, air, sanitation, and soil in marginalized rural communities in order to reduce health and economic disparities in marginalized rural communities. In addition, she serves as Rural Development Manager for the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), is a Senior Fellow for the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, and sits on the Board of Directors for the Climate Reality Project and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Flowers uses her lens of leadership in environmental justice and climate change advocacy to inspire attendees with her innovation and experience. As the author of Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret, Flowers shares her inspiring story of advocacy, from childhood to environmental justice champion. She discusses sanitation and its correlation with systemic class, racial, and geographic prejudice that affects people across the United States. Whether addressing equal access to water, the effects of climate change on different communities, or the role history has played in the inequities we see today, Flowers leaves listeners with tangible solutions and shares how audience members can take action. Thought-provoking and informative, Flowers’ talks have left lasting impressions at Duke University, St. John the Divine, and more.

Ian Urbina

Ian Urbina is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of the bestselling work, The Outlaw Ocean. He runs The Outlaw Ocean Project, a non-profit journalism organization that focuses on environmental, human rights and labor abuses at sea.

Mark Bucher

Mark Bucher is co-owner of Medium Rare, the iconic, highly-acclaimed D.C. area steak and frites restaurant with locations in Bethesda, Cleveland Park, and Arlington. His mission is to make meal security a reality — first for his Washington, D.C. metro community, and then across the nation. Bucher created Feed the Fridge to combat hunger while helping pandemic-batter restaurants stay in business. Through the program, Bucher places refrigerators at recreation centers and schools across the region and pays local restaurants to stock them with up to 100 fresh meals per day. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Bucher has provided more than 30,000 free meals to those dealing with food insecurity in the nation’s capital, distributed weekdays, weekends, and especially during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. His efforts have been profiled by numerous national and regional media outlets including The Washington Post, MSNBC, and FOX News. Before co-founding Medium Rare in 2011, Mark owned a chain of burger restaurants, BGR: The Burger Joint. Prior to working in the restaurant industry, he pursued a commercial real estate career, specializing in retail. This led him to restaurant real estate, working for or representing retail heavyweights like Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Wolfgang Puck Restaurants, PF Chang’s, and Outback Steakhouse – just to name a few.