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).

Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
3680 Walnut St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104
United States

Christina Ellis

Christina Ellis is a 17-year-old African-Caribbean American high schooler and activist. She is the Vice-President of a club called the Panther Anti-Racist Union, better known as PARU. Herself, Edha Gupta, and others worked together to reverse a book ban that the Central York School District in York, Pennsylvania placed upon books/resources that promoted diversity and inclusion. At Christina's high school, Central York High School, she helped to organize a peaceful protest that advocated to reverse the ban. Christina and others now work to continue to educate others on the importance of diversity education and inclusion within her community. Upon graduating high school, Christina plans to attend college to receive a degree in science, to then go onto medical school. She hopes to dual specialize and become an Emergency Medicine Physician and OB/GYN. When she is a doctor she hopes to also advocate for human rights within the medical field.

Edha Gupta

Edha Gupta is a 17-year-old student at Central York High School in York PA. In September 2021, she and her peers became aware of a school board-instated ban on a Diversity Resource List created by teachers for the classroom. Edha and her peers, including Christina Ellis, immediately decided to advocate for voices of color in the classroom. Over the span of a few months, Edha and her peers organized protests before school and in the community and consistently spoke at biweekly board meetings to protest this decision. From then, their movement skyrocketed. At just the start of book banning across the country, Edha and her peers in protest were interviewed by countless news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, and The Washington Post. She has spoken at the PA State Capitol regarding this issue and talked with notable legislators like Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. Most notably, Edha and her peers have been able to make a change in their community.

Ellen Yin

Ellen Yin is Co-founder and Owner of High Street Hospitality Group which operates some of the country’s most celebrated dining establishments including a.kitchen + bar, Fork, High Street Philly, The Wonton Project and High Street Provisions in Philadelphia and High Street on Hudson, in Manhattan. She is a multi-year nominee for “Outstanding Restaurateur” by the James Beard Foundation Awards and is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Yin is involved in a number of community-centric organizations including the Sisterly Love Collective, Independent Restaurant Coalition and sits on the Board of “The Philadelphia Award,” among others.

Jeehae Lee

Jeehae Lee is a golf industry executive who has worked to create and build transformational sports technology businesses. As the Co-Founder & CEO of Sportsbox AI, Jeehae is currently developing products using AI-enabled 3D motion analysis technology that will help participants of various sports and fitness activities learn and improve their skills. Before founding Sportsbox, she spent five years between 2015 and 2020 at Topgolf Entertainment Group, leading strategy and new business development for various divisions including Toptracer. Between 2012 and 2013, she was at global sports and entertainment marketing agency, IMG, representing professional golfer icon Michelle Wie. Prior to her career in sports business, she played professional golf at the highest level in the sport, ultimately competing on the LPGA tour for three years. Jeehae is passionate about skill development and learning in all areas, particularly in golf. Nothing gives her greater joy than sharing the gift of golf with her friends and teaching beginners how to play the game. She also serves on several golf industry leadership committees along with executives from the PGA TOUR, LPGA, PGA of America and USGA to share and invest in ideas for growing the game in the US and globally, especially among traditionally underrepresented groups. When she is not teaching or playing golf, she spends her time learning how to play musical instruments and singing. Jeehae has a BA in Economics from Yale and an MBA from The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania.

Roberto Lugo

Roberto Lugo is a Philadelphia-based artist, social activist, poet, and educator. Lugo utilizes traditional ceramic techniques in conjunction with portraiture and surface design reminiscent of his Kensington upbringing and Hip Hop culture to highlight themes of poverty, inequality, and racial injustice. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2019 Pew Fellowship, a Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize, and a US Artist Award. Lugo's work is found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The High Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Brooklyn Museum, Walters Art Museum, and more. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia, PA.

Rosalind Pichardo

Rosalind Pichardo is a mother, grandmother, activist, educator, and survivor whose life has been deeply and irrevocably touched by gun violence. In response to personal tragedies and the rising homicide rates in her community, Rosalind founded Operation Save Our City in 2012. She provides support groups for families of homicide victims advocates for justice and for the legislation of stronger gun control laws. Rosalind also works at Temple University Hospital in the Emergency Department as a Trauma Victims Advocate and at Prevention Point Philadelphia as the Community Engagement Team's Lead Educator. Through this work, she has reversed more than 922 opioid overdoses on the trains and streets of Philadelphia and has distributed over 3000 Gunlocks in 2000 community kits. Alongside this, Rosalind works with the DEA as a Facilitator of Art and Programming for at-risk youth suffering from trauma and living in communities that are underserved. Rosalind also works at Temple University Hospital in the Emergency Department as a Trauma Victims Advocate. She has been featured in numerous press pieces and documentaries including “Hello SUNSHINE”, “Kensington Crisis”, “Tipping The Pain Scale”, and “Woke Philadelphia”.

Santosh Venkatesh

Probability weaves an intricate thread through life, never more tragically visible than in times of catastrophe like wars, hurricanes, financial collapses, and pandemics. An accidental discovery in the mathematical theory of chance dating to the immediate aftermath of the French Revolution remarkably provides a skein connecting all these apparently disparate, chance-driven events, and provides a startling clarity of vision. We explore the ramifications of this discovery in realms apparently far apart, starting from the sad story of a birthday cake and proceeding to a once-in-a-century pandemic which has changed the lives of all the world's inhabitants — with a detour through mishaps in trials by jury and a side-helping of war and devastation — and discover an elegant commonality and simplicity of understanding of the progress of these complex events.

Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz

Yoland Sealey-Ruiz, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research has appeared in several top-tier academic journals. She is co-editor of four books and is co-author of Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces where she examines her concept of Archeology of Self in education. At Teachers College, she is the founder of the Racial Literacy Roundtables Series where for twelve years, national scholars, teachers, and students facilitate conversations around race and other issues involving diversity. Yolanda appeared in Spike Lee’s “2 Fists Up: We Gon’ Be Alright” (2016), a documentary about the Black Lives Matter movement and the campus protests at Mizzou. Her first full-length collection of poetry, Love from the Vortex & Other Poems, was published in March 2020. Her sophomore book of poetry, The Peace Chronicles, was published in July 2021.