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).

730 21st Street Northwest
District of Columbia, District of Columbia, 20052
United States

Annie Ray

Annie Ray hails from a family of musical performers and educators in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and began playing piano at the age of three and harp at the age of five. A graduate of the University of North Texas in 2017, Annie holds Bachelor of Music degrees in Music Education and Harp Performance. She currently serves as both the Orchestra Director and Leadership teacher at Annandale High School in the Fairfax County Public School system. Annie is an advocate for providing universal access to quality music education and is known for founding and developing creative opportunities to make music accessible to students of all demographics. Her creation of the FCPS Parent Orchestra helps over 150 parents learn to play their child’s instrument each year and has been featured in the County School news several times. In addition, the program also partners with local music colleges to provide hands-on teaching opportunities for future music educators before and during their student teaching. Annie’s collective efforts both in and out of the classroom have received multiple accolades including being declared “Beginning Teacher of the Year” in 2019 and “Outstanding Teacher of the Year” in 2021. This past year, Annie also created a CAT B Orchestra program to bring the joy of Orchestra to special needs High School students with severe developmental or intellectual disabilities. In January 2022, this program was featured and acclaimed on the cover of the Metro section in The Washington Post. She currently resides in Arlington, Virginia with her husband Irving, their baby girl Eloise, and her two favorite four-legged hiking buddies: dogs Baymax and Roo. She is an adventurer at heart, and her biggest bucket list item is to one day run The Amazing Race.

Delan Ellington

Delan “blue” Ellington (They/he) has worked to catalog the intersectionally-marginalized by bringing the voices from the historically erased into the archives. Delan has always been motivated to protect, preserve, and empower the voices of underrepresented people in already marginalized populations. They are getting a Master of Public History at Howard University, and their research focuses on collecting and preserving Black queer DC history, particularly the spaces that were owned by and mostly patronized by African American LGBTQ people namely the Clubhouse and the Coffeehouse. They serve on the board of directors of the Rainbow History Project, the DMV focused LGBTQ historical society. They appeared in the Coffeehouse Documentary-short: FIERCENESS Served!!! and featured in the 2021 Washington City Paper’s People’s Edition.

Dr. Jesse Meiller

Jesse Meiller is a marine ecologist and environmental toxicologist. She is the Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer in Environmental Science as well as the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Environmental Science Department at American University in Washington, DC. Jesse works with her students and colleagues to investigate microplastics in water, sediment, and biological communities in the Chesapeake Bay and to increase awareness and understanding about the environmental and health effects of pollution. She teaches undergraduate and graduate students and conducts teacher training for middle and high school teachers to investigate microplastics with their students. Jesse regularly conducts outreach to local environmental and community-based organizations on microplastics and connects people to their local waterways and environments. While working at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, she provided expertise in aquatic and invertebrate biology and toxicology as well as on science policy and regulatory issues. Jesse represented the US on several Expert Groups for the Organization for the Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Dr. LaNail Plummer

As a leading professional in the mental health field, Dr. LaNail R. Plummer (she/her/hers) is committed to improving the lifestyles of others through the aspects of mental health and character development. A United States Military Veteran and the CEO of Onyx Therapy Group -- an organization she founded in 2013 -- Dr. Plummer has over 15 years of experience working with a multitude of clients, and specializing in the care of young women; the Black community; and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Grounded in the values of integrity and awareness, Dr. Plummer believes that emotional, spiritual, and cultural healing is attainable for all. As the CEO of Onyx Therapy Group, Dr. Plummer and her team of counselors and consultants, aim to create a company whose mission is centered on addressing mental health issues, disparities, and inequalities in communities, organizations, and individuals in need. Combining her experiences from the military, school/community leadership, parenting, and her work as a university faculty member, Dr. Plummer strives to provide a safe space with the best services available for her clients. As a researcher, Dr. Plummer explores the experiences of Black Women in clinical and supervision settings with the goal of creating a grounded theory that best suits the needs of Black Women in a range of professions. Additionally, Onyx Therapy Group provides direct consultation to local and federal government agencies, while providing models and structures that allow them to support their frontline mental health teams.

Dr. Tamara Henry

Dr.Tamara A. Henry comes from a diverse background in public health across a variety of fields. Additionally, Dr.Henry has consulted for the local government, nonprofit and community-based organizations not limited to the District of Columbia Department of Corrections, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), ANne Arundel County Department of Health, and Health HIV on matters related to HIV/AIDS education, substance use disorder, and messaging for a wide range of constituents.

Dr.David Karpf

Dave Karpf is an associate professor in The George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs. He teaches and conducts research on the internet and politics. For the past few years, his research has been focused on the history of the digital future. In the summer of 2018, he read the entire back catalog of WIRED magazine, and wrote about it for the magazine's 25th-year anniversary issue.

Harris Mylonas

Harris Mylonas is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University and Editor-in-Chief of Nationalities Papers. His work contributes to our understanding of states’ management of diversity that may originate from national minorities, immigrants, diasporas, or refugees. Mylonas is particularly interested in the role of decision makers’ perceptions about foreign involvement in their domestic affairs and the impact these perceptions have on the planning and implementation of state policies. Mylonas is the author of the award-winning The Politics of Nation-Building (Cambridge University Press), and co-editor of Enemies Within: Fifth Column Politics in Comparative Perspective (Oxford University Press; w/Scott Radnitz) and The Microfoundations of Diaspora Politics (Routledge; w/Alexandra Délano Alonso). He is currently co-authoring a book on nationalism with Maya Tudor and working on another single-authored book tentatively entitled Diaspora Management Logics—analyzing why some states develop policies to cultivate links with certain diasporic communities while others do not.

Lindley Johnson

Lindley Johnson is NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer and Program Executive of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO). Mr. Johnson graduated from the University of Kansas in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in astronomy and a commission from the U.S. Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps. He served 23 years active duty in the Air Force, obtaining the rank of lieutenant colonel and numerous awards and decorations while working on national security space systems. He also earned a master’s degree in engineering management from the University of Southern California. After coming to NASA in 2003, he served as Program Executive for NASA’s Deep Impact mission. He was then Lead Program Executive for NASA’s Discovery Program of mid-class planetary missions for eight years. Mr. Johnson became Program Executive for NASA’s Near Earth Object (NEO) Observations Program in 2003. Since then, efforts of the Program have discovered nearly 17,000 near-Earth asteroids, about 90 percent of the total known. Mr. Johnson has received NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Medal. Asteroid 5905 (1989 CJ1) is named “Johnson” to recognize his efforts in detecting NEOs. Mr. Johnson is a private pilot and owns a Cessna Cardinal.

Nicole Bibbins Sedaca

Nicole Bibbins Sedaca serves as the Executive Vice President of Freedom House, where she oversees the organization's strategy and programs. Prior to joining Freedom House, Ms. Bibbins Sedaca served as the Deputy Director of Georgetown University’s Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) program, the Co-Chair for the Global Politics and Security Concentration, and a Professor in the Practice of International Affairs in MSFS. She is also the Kelly and David Pfeil Fellow at the George W. Bush Institute. Ms. Bibbins Sedaca has held numerous positions in the public and non-governmental sectors in the United States and Ecuador. She served for ten years in the United States Department of State, working on democracy promotion, human rights, human trafficking, religious freedom, refugees, and counterterrorism. Following her governmental service, she opened and directed the International Republican Institute’s local governance program in Ecuador. She also taught at the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador) on democratization and conflict resolution. She served as the Director of the Washington Office for the advisory group Independent Diplomat.

Omar Negron Ocasio

Born in Puerto Rico, Omar Negron Ocasio is an MPA student at the George Washington University and is the CEO & Founder of Remora. After , Omar spent 5 months without potable running water, motivating him to create Remora; a social enterprise dedicated to providing clean and potable water to communities in need through an off-grid triple filtration water system. He is a first-generation college student and worked with two social enterprises before Remora focused on empowering homeless people, local farmers, and high school students. Omar has led Remora to win over 20 awards due to their impact on local communities in Puerto Rico; he represented Puerto Rico in the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards in 2020, obtaining third place worldwide along with the “People’s Choice Award”. In 2021, Omar won first place in the George Washington New Venture Competition, received the Puerto Rico’s Governor Medal of Social Impact, and was named one of DC’s 25 under 25 list by the Washington Business Journal. Omar is passionate about social entrepreneurship, community-focused initiatives, and helping other entrepreneurs to transform their ideas into reality.

Rikki Nathanson

Rikki Nathanson (she/her) is a fierce activist for the rights of trans and gender-diverse persons globally. Originally from Southern Africa, she formed the first trans-specific and trans-led organization in Zimbabwe in 2015, after being unlawfully arrested for using a female restroom at a local hotel. She then was instrumental in the formation of the Southern Africa Trans Forum [SATF], the strongest trans movement in Africa. Her dedication to the cause saw the SATF grow from 5 to 19 organizations over 3 years. She moved to the U.S. for her own safety, after challenging and subsequently prevailing against the Zimbabwe police for her unlawful arrest. The ground-breaking judgment handed down in her civil suit against the government of Zimbabwe has positively changed the legal landscape for trans and gender-diverse persons not only in that country but further abroad. She continues her bid to combat the plight of LGBTIQ persons globally in her work with OutRight Action International, GATE (Global Action for Trans Equality), IRGT (International Reference Group of Trans Women), SHE (Social Health Empowerment), South Africa, and Trans Bantu Association, Zambia.

Ronald Young Jr

Ronald is an audio producer and storyteller based in Alexandria, VA. As an avid pop culture enthusiast, Ronald is the host of the HBO Docs club podcasts, which discusses documentary projects from HBO as well as interviews the creators. He is a frequent contributor to NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour as a guest panelist, as well as WAMU’s 1A. He is also the host of the Pushkin podcast Solvable. He is the Senior Producer and owner of ohitsBigRon studios, which produces such shows as the critically acclaimed and award-winning Time Well Spent and movie review podcast Leaving the Theater, both of which he also hosts. He is passionate about social justice and equity and is excited to tell the untold stories of black folks who used their agency to take their freedom as associate producer on Seizing Freedom.

Shiwali Patel

Previously, she was at the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR), where she worked on civil rights policy and legal guidance interpreting Title IX’s anti-discrimination protections, including schools’ responsibilities in responding to sexual harassment. Before joining OCR, Shiwali was an Administrative Judge and investigator at the U.S. Department of Energy, a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia in the Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Unit, a judicial law clerk in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia, and a community educator at the D.C. Rape Crisis Center. Shiwali has been featured on National Public Radio, and in the New York Times, USA Today, Boston Globe, LA Times and more.

Tamara Henry

Dr.Tamara A. Henry comes from a diverse background in public health across a variety of fields. Additionally, Dr.Henry has consulted for the local government, nonprofit and community-based organizations not limited to the District of Columbia Department of Corrections, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), ANne Arundel County Department of Health, and Health HIV on matters related to HIV/AIDS education, substance use disorder, and messaging for a wide range of constituents.

Tambra Raye Stevenson

Tambra Raye Stevenson has over 15 years of experience in policy, research, and communication in addressing social determinants of nutrition. She is the visionary leader behind WANDA: Women Advancing Nutrition Dietetics and Agriculture. Through education, advocacy, and innovative approaches, WANDA is on a mission to create a pipeline and digital platform for women and girls of African descent to lead in building healthy sustainable communities from farm to health. Prior to WANDA, she began NativSol Kitchen, which provides Pan African nutrition and food empowerment programs based on her finding her roots through food. Appointed by Mayor Muriel Bowser to the D.C. Food Policy Council, Tambra serves as the Council’s first public health nutritionist and fierce champion for nutrition equity. As a health and food security advocate, she testifies and advises on funding and legislation along with engaging stakeholders and community leaders at the nexus of public health, food security, and sustainability. In 2021, she was appointed by USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to serve as the Executive Committee Member for the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics Advisory Board. Currently, she is completing her Ph.D. at the American University School of Communication in Washington, DC.

Yeganeh Rezaian

Yeganeh (Yegi) Rezaian is an Iranian journalist living in Washington, D.C. She previously worked as the communications director at the World Affairs Council-Washington, D.C. and has written pieces for The Washington Post and The Lily. While living in Iran, Rezaian covered Iranian political, social, and economic news for Bloomberg News and The National until she and her husband, the former Washington Post Tehran bureau chief Jason Rezaian, were detained by Iranian authorities in 2014. Rezaian was jailed for 72 days, and then fought for her husband’s freedom, which was not granted until January 2016.