Theme: Momentum

TEDxNorthwesternU is hosting our annual conference on May 15th, 2022. This year's theme is Momentum, and we are so excited to be returning to an in-person conference after two virtual years! Come listen to seven speakers share their inspiring stories about human rights issues, better paths for education, adjusting to society as a disabled veteran, and more. Register for a ticket here: bit.ly/momentum-tickets.

Ryan Auditorium
2415 Sheridan Road
Evanston, Illinois, 60201
United States

Alice Kim

Director of Human Rights Practice at University of Chicago

Alice Kim (she/her) is Director of Human Rights Practice at the University of Chicago's Pozen Family Center for Human Rights where she directs a Human Rights Lab focused on mass incarceration. Centered on narratives of incarceration, Alice's work addresses building practices of solidarity across the prison wall, creating platforms for truth-telling about the carceral system, and increasing access to education in prison. Alice co-leads the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project’s (PNAP) Think Tank at Stateville Prison. Alice is also a co-founder of the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials (CTJM), the collective that spearheaded the campaign for reparations for Chicago police torture survivors. She was a leader in the movement to end capital punishment in Illinois and nationwide, working closely with the Death Row 10, a group of Black men who were tortured by Jon Burge’s forces and sentenced to death.

Cynthia Wang

Executive Director of DRRC, Professor at Northwestern University

Cynthia Wang is the Executive Director of the Dispute Resolution and Research Center and a Clinical Professor of Management and Organizations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from Yale University and a M.S. and Ph.D in Management and Organizations from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She has taught classes in negotiations, organizational behavior, group decision-making, and cross-cultural communications at the undergraduate, MBA, and executive levels. She has examined how perspective-taking reduces prejudice, encourages the coordination of social behavior, and bolsters social bonds in diverse settings. Complimenting her interest in perspective-taking as a means to reduce bias, she has also demonstrated how stigmatized groups can reduce the social biases that they experience. She explores how individuals employ social creativity to diminish the pernicious impact of stigmatizing labels by self-labeling.

Dan Cnossen

United States Navy SEAL, Officer-in-Charge

Raised on the farmlands of Kansas, early on Dan knew he wanted to serve his country. He was accepted at the U.S. Naval Academy after high school and spent the next four years relentlessly pursuing selection for SEAL training. Dan was deployed multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan, and became the officer-in-charge of an 18-man SEAL platoon. In 2009, Dan was deployed to Afghanistan where, on a night mission in the mountains, he stepped on an IED, losing both legs in the blast. He would later be awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star with Valor. For the next two years Dan fought for his life, enduring over 40 different surgeries. It was during this time that he was introduced to the sports of cross-country skiing and biathlon. He earned a spot on the 2014 U.S. Paralympic Team. In 2015, Dan returned to graduate school, earning two degrees from Harvard University. At the 2022 Paralympic Games Dan won gold for mixed relay cross-country, and in 2018, he won Best Male Athlete of The Games.

Jason Hamera

Health and Fitness professional at Gray Institute

A firm believer that every choice is a chance to make the world a better place, Jason Hamera has chosen to dedicate his life to the service of others. As a health and fitness professional for 17 years, Jason managed several major gym chains, was head trainer at a boutique fitness studio in NYC, and obtained myriad certifications. 5 years ago, Jason discovered his true passion: teaching. Completing a MSc. in educational psychology, and a specialization certificate in positive psychology Jason shifted his focus from training bodies to training minds. Positioned as a mindset guide writing for his blog, Words Create Worlds, Jason is focused on using his platform to uplift and inspire the upcoming generation, by using language to change mindsets. He is a faculty member at Gray Institute for Functional Movement, the director of education for Procedos exercise systems, and a motivational speaker with teaching experience in over 15 countries.

Leona Ba

Senior Change Management Specialist. Social Impact

Dr. Leona Ba is an organizational development and human resource development consultant with more than 20 years of experience in improving the performance and effectiveness of organizations, teams, and individuals. Her extensive experience working in a wide variety of cultural contexts developed her ability to integrate cultural responsiveness throughout her work and specifically in areas related to diversity, inclusion, and equity; culturally responsive program design and evaluation; and cross-cultural communication. She has been teaching her Culture and Evaluation course at the Evaluators’ Institute of Claremont Graduate University since 2012. She is currently working with Social Impact as Senior Change Management Specialist. In this role, she works with leaders at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and provides technical leadership and guidance for the development and implementation of change management interventions in support of USAID’s change efforts.

Mark Vondracek

Research Adviser at Evanston Township High School

Mark Vondracek has been a physics teacher and research adviser at Evanston Township High School for the past twenty-four years. Prior to teaching high school, he earned his Ph.D. in high-energy particle physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, using data from the Collider Detector Facility collaboration at Fermilab. While research was fascinating, Mark’s true passion involved helping and working with young people. He believes every student is capable of doing great things, and looks to get them working on personal interests whenever possible, in local, state, national, and international projects. He has been honored by being recognized as one of the world’s top 50 teachers in the Global Teacher Prize, as well as a Claes Nobel National Top 10 Teacher of the Year, the Contemporary Physics Education Project’s National Teacher of the Year, the Illinois State Board of Education’s Award of Excellence winner, Northwestern’s Distinguished Secondary Teacher Award, etc.

Vinayak Dravid

Northwestern University Professor, Director of NUANCE

Vinayak received his B.Tech. from IIT Bombay in 1984 and joined Northwestern soon after his PhD from Lehigh University in 1990. Vinayak’s scholarly interests revolve broadly around nanoscience and nanotechnology for energy, health and environment. He has a diverse research portfolio covering advanced microscopy, nanotechnology, energy policy and emerging educational paradigms. His Google analytics include over 625+ archival journal publications, H-index of more than ~110, over two dozen issued patents licensed to start-up companies related to nanotechnology for environment and sensor/diagnostic systems. Vinayak has co-founded MFNS-Tech, a start-up company that is commercializing his Northwestern research group’s innovations in environmental remediation with sponge/foam-based platform called: Oleophilic, Hydrophobic and Multifunctional (OHM) technology.