Theme: The TedXCraverRoad Countdown features talks about ways to take action on climate change through SDGs

The TedXCraverRoad Countdown examines the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and discusses how to take action on climate change in relation to raising awareness about the SDGs. The TedXCraverRoad Countdown is a hybrid event primarily on Zoom from 9:30am-12:30pm, on Tuesday, November 16, during International Education Week at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA.

TedXCraverRoad Countdown
Hybrid Event
Charlotte, North Carolina, 28223
United States

Adriana Medina

Dr. Adriana Laza Medina is an associate professor of Reading Education in the Cato College of Education's Reading and Elementary Education Department at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dr. Medina teaches courses in language arts, reading comprehension, reading assessment and intervention, content area literacy, teaching reading to English language learners, mindfulness and education, identity through art, and multicultural and global education. Dr. Medina has experience in school-based educational research and in the evaluation of instructional programs. She leads her department’s teacher education study abroad program to Germany and serves on the executive board of the Mu Chapter of Phi Beta Delta, the Honor Society for International Scholars. Dr. Medina’s research interests include students who struggle with literacy, teacher education, global learning, the impact of study abroad on preservice teachers, how to study world languages, and educational program evaluation. Dr. Medina has contributed to several textbooks and articles with regards to her areas of interest. She has co-authored a book, Studying a World Language.

Ayse Ercumen

Dr. Ayse Ercumen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources at North Carolina State University and core faculty at NC State’s Global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Cluster. Dr. Ercumen’s expertise is in infectious disease and environmental epidemiology. Her research is focused on drinking water and recreational water quality, waterborne infections, environmental disease transmission and antimicrobial resistance. Her research combines tools from multiple disciplines to study the contribution of environmental pathways to infectious disease transmission and to evaluate the health impact of environmental interventions. She has conducted research in Bangladesh, India, Uganda and the US, including large-scale randomized controlled trials and cohort studies. Dr. Ercumen holds a PhD and MPH from University of California, Berkeley in Epidemiology, and an MS from UC Berkeley and a BS from MIT in Environmental Engineering.

Chris Reddy

Dr. Chris Reddy is an Emeritus Professor at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He has played a key role in the the development of environmental education and was awarded a prestigious Chancellor's Awards in 2021 by Stellenbosch University. As a former chair and current professor in the Department of Curriculum Studies, Dr. Reddy's research in the field of Curriculum Studies, Environmental Education and Teacher Education has contributed significantly to the integration of social impact in the curriculum for both secondary and tertiary education.

Erik Byker

Dr. Erik Jon Byker is an associate professor in the Honors College and the Department of Reading and Elementary Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. During the 2019-20 academic year, he was UNC Charlotte’s resident director at Kingston University in London, UK. Erik has a Ph.D. Degree in Curriculum, Teaching, and Educational Policy from Michigan State University and holds a M.Ed. Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Virginia. He is the founder of the annual TedXCraverRoad Countdown event. His fields of specialization include curriculum foundations, educational technology integration, global citizenship education, and the Sustainable Development Goals. Dr. Byker’s research agenda is comparative and international in scope as he has conducted ethnographic field studies on global competencies and uses for ICT in Cuba, England, Germany, India, South Africa, South Korea, and across the United States.

Joël Gallegos

Associate Provost Joël Gallegos is the Associate Provost of the Office of International Programs at UNC Charlotte, USA.

Kaitlyn Holshouser

Dr. Kaitlyn O. Holshouser is a Assistant Professor at Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina. She received her PhD in the Curriculum and Instruction program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is an alumni of the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program and of Western Carolina University, where she was designated as a University Scholar. At Western Carolina University, Kaitlyn obtained both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Elementary Education with a concentration in literacy. As a former fourth and fifth grade teacher turned full-time Ph.D. student, she is passionate about working with teachers in the areas of content-area literacy, global education, and action research. A trip to Oulu International School to work alongside of Finnish teachers, as well as other trips abroad, have continued to drive her research interests in global education. Currently, she is seeking to learn more about how the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals can be integrated across content areas.

Lesley LeGrange

Dr. Lesley Le Grange is Distinguished Professor in the Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He is a former chair of the Department of Curriculum Studies and former Vice-Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Lesley teaches and researches in the fields of environmental education, research methodology, science education, curriculum and assessment. He has 178 publications to his credit and serves on editorial boards of seven peer-reviewed journals. He is a member of the Accreditation Committee of the Council on Higher Education in South Africa and Vice-President of the International Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies (IAACS). In 2015 Lesley was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in the UK. Lesley is a rated social scientist in South Africa and is recipient of several Stellenbosch University and national awards and prizes.

Mackenzie Smart

Mackenzie Smart graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree and Summa Cum Laude Honors from UNC Charlotte in May 2021 with a major in Religious Studies and a minor in Legal Studies. She founded The SDG Club in March of 2021 and is currently focused on growing the club and working with its members on many different projects to bring the SDGs to UNC Charlotte and the larger community.

Mahita Sadula

Mahita Sadula is a junior at UNC Charlotte majoring in Biology and Sociology with a concentration in Medical Sociology. She is a member of the University Honors Program and Sociology Honors Program. She has presented her research on Sustainable Development Goal #13: Climate action at several different research conferences, including the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR). As a pre-medical student, Mahita has been accepted into the Still Scholars Early Acceptance Program and has received conditional acceptance into medical school.

Meg Fencil

Meg Fencil works at Sustain Charlotte as the Director of Engagement and Impact. She educates, engages, and unites the community through programs and is actively involved in fostering partnerships within the community and assessing program outcomes. Prior to her work with Sustain Charlotte, Meg designed and implemented original research programs as a U.S. Fulbright grant recipient in Croatia and a National Science Foundation East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute Fellow in Japan. Meg holds a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Connecticut and a Ph.D. in Marine Sciences from The University of Texas at Austin.

Melati Wijsen

Melati Wijsen is an Alumni Member of the World’s Ocean Day Youth Advisory Council and Youth Activist, Bali, Indonesia. Her video comes courtesy of the TedX Countdown program.

PH Ludwigsburg

Dr. Sonja Schaal is lecturer at the Institute of Biology at the Ludwigsburg University of Education, Germany. Her work involves digital game-based learning, human biology, health promotion, sex education and education for sustainable development. Thereby the focus is on culturally and diversity sensitive approaches and reflexive teacher education. Her research work follows the Educational Design research approach. Dr. Steffen Schaal is professor at the Institute of Biology at the Ludwigsburg University of Education, Germany. Prof. Schaal is an educational scientist and his expertise lies mainly in the design and evaluation of effective teaching-learning environments with digital technologies in science education, environmental education/ESD and Health Promotion. Furthermore, he researches and teaches in the field of reflexive pre- and in-service science teacher education. He is particularly interested in science communication and application-related scientific research. Dr. Benjamin J. Tempel is scientist and lecturer at the Institute of Biology at the Ludwigsburg University of Education, Germany. He is working on education for sustainable development, test development for elementary school, systematic literature reviews, model competence, vignette tests and eye tracking. He is doing this with a special consideration of the validation and triangulation of results.

Ritimoni Bordoloi

Dr. Ritimoni Bordoloi is an Assistant Professor in the Discipline of Education at Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University, Assam, India. Her research interests are in the areas of Gender Studies, Economics of Education, Political Sociology, open and distance education and so on. She has written a number of research papers and articles in national and international journals and books and has also presented her works in several National and International seminars and conferences. She has received the prestigious 2019 Emerald Literati Award, and received an international project grant from the Asian Association of Open University (Indonesia). Besides, she also visited Korea National Open University (KNOU) as Visiting Scholar in 2019 under the International Staff Exchange Programme of AAOU.

Ron Nober

Ron Nober is a technology/STEAM teacher from Southampton Township Schools in Southampton, New Jersey, USA. He is interested in design thinking, solutionary thinking, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), social entrepreneurship, and creativity in the classroom. He believes today’s students have the ability to be “game-changers” who learn to use technology and positive social media for global good. Ron is also the co-host of the Teachernerdz Podcast.

Shreyan Mitra

Shreyan Mitra is a Junior at Adrian C Wilcox High School at Santa Clara, California, where he is the founder-president of the Geography Club. Shreyan placed second in the National Geographic Society’s 2017 California State Geography Bee Competition and was the National Champion in the NSF Geography Bee 2018. C-SPAN awarded Shreyan's documentary 'Plastic – Fantastic?' as a top student movie nationwide in 2021. He is the editor of the book 'Geography Bee Simplified' and regularly writes on plastic pollution and other environment issues, with many of his articles syndicated. When he is not thinking about environmental issues, you may catch Shreyan playing his classical Indian drum Tabla in the local Jazz bands.

Surasya Guduru

Surasya Guduru is a junior majoring in Psychology and International Studies and minoring in Political Science. She is a member of the Levine Scholar Program and Psychology Honor Society. Surasya is the president of UNC Charlotte’s American Mock World Health Organization (AMWHO) and a student body representative for the Undergraduate Research Council at UNC Charlotte. She is currently a Climate for Health Ambassador and a Global Immunizations Advocate for the United Nations Foundation.

Sustainable Development Goals Club at UNC Charlotte

Mackenzie Smart graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree and Summa Cum Laude Honors from UNC Charlotte in May 2021 with a major in Religious Studies and a minor in Legal Studies. She founded The SDG Club in March of 2021 and is currently focused on growing the club and working with its members on many different projects to bring the SDGs to UNC Charlotte and the larger community. Eliana Nunez-Dominguez is a senior at UNC Charlotte majoring in Elementary Education and double minoring in Children’s Literature/Studies and Applied Understandings in Global Education. She holds the position of Media Officer with The SDG Club. After she graduates, she wants to teach 5th grade reading and language arts. Jade Martin is a junior at UNC Charlotte majoring in Biology and minoring in Spanish with an Ecology concentration. She is a student athlete, running for cross country and track and field. She also holds the position of Membership Officer for The SDG Club. Sach Denuwara is a freshman double majoring in Computer Science and Math at UNC Charlotte. He is the Vice President of The SDG Club. After he graduates, he hopes to find a career that combines computer science and sustainability.