Theme: Innovation, Service, Leadership

TEDxXavierUniversity will be held at Cintas Center's Schiff Banquet Hall on April 26 2012, running from 1:00pm to 5:00pm. The theme of our TEDx event is "Touching the hearts and minds of others through innovation, service, and leadership. Our audience will consist of mainly Xavier alumni, as well as faculty, students, and hand picked individuals from the surrounding community.

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." At TEDxXavierUniversity live speakers will celebrate the Xavier tradition by sparking deep discussion and connection that will give alumni, students, faculty, and the surrounding community an opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at a local level.

Our desired outcomes for this event are
• Audience of community members walking away inspired and energized by the ideas and dialogue that occurs.
• Connections created among audience members that lead to future relationships and opportunities, more specifically to connect students, faculty, community members, and Alumni from Xavier.
• Audience empowered to nurture and develop their own ideas for change in their companies, their communities and themselves in order to spur growth in the Cincinnati region.

Cintas Center
3800 victory Parkway
Cincinnati, Ohio, 45207
United States

Todd Henry

Todd is the founder and CEO of Accidental Creative, a company that helps creative people and teams generate brilliant ideas. He regularly speaks and consults with companies, both large and small, about how to develop practices and systems that lead to everyday brilliance. Todd’s work has been featured byFast Company, Fortune, Forbes, HBR.org, US News & World Report, and many other major media outlets. Todd’s book, The Accidental Creative: How To Be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice offers strategies for how to thrive in the creative marketplace and has been called “one of the best books to date on how to structure your ideas, and manage the creative process and work that comes out of it” by Jack Covert, author of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time and founder of 1-800-CEO-READ.

Rashmi Assudani PhD.

Rashmi is currently an Associate Professor of Management & Entrepreneurship at Williams College of Business, Xavier University. Her passion on the topic of innovation emanates from her personal experience of living across three continents (Asia, Europe and North America) as also from her academic doctoral degree that she earned at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She brings this richness of experience, and a global perspective to the topic of innovation. She has published extensively on the topic of innovation, and presents her ideas and work at different forums, such as a recent invitation from The London Business School. Her thought leadership is also sought by many publications on the topic of innovation, where she regularly serves on the Editorial Board.

Randy Wilhelm

Randy Wilhelm passionately believes that students must be the ultimate and natural focus of education and learning. A driven leader creating dialogue, opportunity and innovation in education, Wilhelm is the CEO and co-founder of netTrekker, the leader in the delivery of digital K-12 educational content. The company's flagship product, netTrekker, pioneered educational search tools in K-12 schools by delivering safe, relevant, educator-reviewed digital resources and personalized learning tools to support students' individual learning needs. With netTrekker, Wilhelm lead the industry to change how digital curriculum is tagged, sorted and delivered to all stakeholders in K-12 education. Wilhelm believes that student-centered personalizing learning requires creative collaboration of willing, flexible players within the education marketplace. To this end, he fostered collaborative partnerships throughout the education and technology industries with major hardware manufacturers, educational publishers, and software developers. Wilhelm has been a featured speaker at numerous industry events and universities, inspiring others to challenge the norms and innovate in education to make a difference in a student’s life.

Andrew Gibson

Andrew Gibson is a Global Brand Manager at Procter and Gamble leading global marketing on the Old Spice Brand. He currently is leading strategic global development for Old Spice. During his career he has been responsible for designing and delivering new products that have produced more than $200 million in sales by understanding developing market consumer needs. During his time at P&G he has led strategic product and category innovation for Gillette's $800 million shave care division, launched more than 50 new products across beauty and grooming care, developed award-winning holistic marketing plans and commercial executions, and created a breakthrough consumer insight capability, “Funny ‘Cause It’s True” that matches marketers, consumers and comedians. At Xavier University (cum laude 2005), he and two friends founded the 175-year-old university's first student run business and he served as Student Body President. More recently he completed a 2,900-mile, solo, cross-country bike ride in 32 days; in the process he created "Project Levanter" to raise +$5,000 for his close friend's battle with cancer.

Elizabeth Edwards

Elizabeth Edwards is the founder of Metro Innovation, Founder in Residence at West Capital, and author of the award winning book, Startup: The Complete Handbook for Launching a Company for Less. Edwards launched Metro Innovation, a catalyst for innovation and entrepreneurship, in 2009 after seven years in venture capital, private equity, and strategy and innovation consulting. As a venture capital investor at Neyer Holdings, Edwards built winning strategies for start-up and growth companies in a variety of sectors, including clean tech, life sciences, consumer products, and technology. She has evaluated hundreds of business plans, and actively participated in the funding, launch, and management of five early stage portfolio companies. Edwards started her career at Deloitte Consulting, where she was a strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies, deployed over a broad range of industries. At Deloitte, Edwards' work focused on strategic marketing, disruptive innovation, and growth strategies. Edwards holds a B.S. in Economics and Cognitive Psychology from the University of Michigan, where she graduated with honors and distinction, and a MBA from the University of Cincinnati. She is a resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, where she serves on the board of the Greater Cincinnati Venture Association and teaches entrepreneurial finance at Xavier University. She has been featured in more than 50 local and national media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and BoingBoing, and has been a popular guest lecturer at universities and conferences since 2007, where she presents entrepreneurship as an imperative for economic stability.

Kate Hanisian

Kate has over ten years of professional experience in various non-profit positions. Before founding Design Impact, she led strategic planning and non-profit capacity building as the Development Director for the Ohio Justice & Policy Center, a non-profit law firm that works for criminal justice reform. After earning her Master’s degree in Education in 2005, she spent four years as a high school Language Arts teacher for students in a low-income, under-performing district. She has lived and worked internationally, leading youth development and program management initiatives in India, Jamaica, and New Zealand. In addition to leading Design Impact, she currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Cincinnati Honors College, working with an interdisciplinary team of students on development projects in India. Her experience working with communities affected by poverty in multiple areas of the world drives her passion for positive social change.

Sunnie Southern

A seasoned healthcare industry professional with expertise in market preparation and new product launches, Sunnie has worked in a wide range of healthcare environments from primary care to the Department of Defense and with pharmaceutical, medical supply and HITECH companies. As a Registered Dietitian with a Master’s degree in Human Nutrition and Foods, she has a passion for health and wellness and is dedicated to finding new ways to improve healthcare delivery by leveraging technology. Sunnie is committed to improving health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities while building viable and sustainable business solutions. Her areas of expertise include developing new channels to reach customers, creating and improving usage of health care products, bridging online and in-person marketing, and maximizing community resources for growth. Sunnie's objective is to work with great people who share her passion for using innovative approaches to empower people to improve their health, the health of their families and of their communities ultimately making the world a healthier place for all.

Dan Meyer

Dan has over 30 years of Consumer Packaged Goods experience with both large, multi-national companies and over the past 17 years as an entrepreneurial co-founder of two start-up companies. In 2009, Dan co-founded Nehemiah Manufacturing, whose mission is to build brands, create jobs, and help change lives through employment and whole life coaching in the inner city of Cincinnati. With the support of P&G, Nehemiah licensed the Pampers Kandoo business, and within year one, was successful in regaining upward sales momentum on a brand that was experiencing a severe downward spiral due to a lack of attention and focus. Most recently, Nehemiah has moved into it's new facility in Queensgate where the employ 15 people with the plan to create an additional 50-75 jobs in the next 2 years. Dan received his bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School in 1978. Dan' resides in Cincinnati with his wife of 31 years and is the proud father of 3 girls and a 3 year old granddaughter.

Sherman Bradley

Sherman Bradley, a former US Air Force Sergeant and ordained minister, serves as Vice President of City Gospel Mission for addicted, disenfranchised, and homeless men. Sherman has endeavored to provide hurting men a holistic approach to healing and restoration in Cincinnati, Ohio and the surrounding Tri-State area. Sherman recently founded and is President of Green Recycling Works, a recycling social enterprise for graduates of the Exodus recovery program providing meaningful transitional employment while helping the environment. He is also founder and President of "Consider the Poor", an advocacy, consulting and training ministry educating the public in understanding the conditions of generational poverty in America. He host a weekly radio show of the same name challenging the community to "Consider the Poor". Sherman is a dynamic motivational speaker who strives to be "a light to the soul and spirit of humanity." Sherman has been through several leadership courses and trainings including "Leadership Cincinnati" of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce. He is a certified trainer of "Bridges Out of Poverty" via Aha Process Inc. a program by Dr. Ruby Payne that presents strategies and solutions toward the eradication of poverty. Sherman is married to his lovely wife, Sadell, who is also involved in ministry, and is the proud father of two daughters, Whitney and Shaniqua, and one grandson Jaxon Kyle. He and his wife Sadell are founders and owners of Creative Grace Productions, LLC, a ministry that seeks to help individuals experience God, build bridges to understanding and open doors to the imagination and are soon to plant a new church called, "New City Cincinnati" in historic downtown Over-The-Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio. Their vision is a "multi-ethnic, inter-generational and multi-class community, thriving in the heart of the city".