Theme: Rethinking the Hypothesis

TEDxWrigleyville, producer of award winning and viral TED and TEDx talks, is now accepting speaker applications for its 2022 event, “Rethinking the Hypothesis,” filming August 4 inside the iconic Wrigley Field! This event will explore the various ways in which we as a global community should rethink certain previously held beliefs to achieve true progress. From the ways in which we can inoculate our bodies against diseases, to deeply held racial and gender norm ideals, to traditional educational pedagogy, “Rethinking the Hypothesis” will host talks that challenge us to step out of our dogma and open us up to new possibilities

Wrigley Field
1060 W Addison St, Chicago, IL 60613
Chicago, Illinois, 60613
United States

Amara Kruse

Improv Meditator

Amara Kruse is a 9-year-old who loves to use improvised storytelling to amplify the power of her meditations. Her short meditations are crafted on the spot, based on words given to her by the audience. In this way, her work helps all of us to reach our creative mindful potential.

Angela Ford

Griot | Storyteller

Angela Ford is the Founder and Executive Director of The Obsidian Collection Archives, a national non-profit organization focused on getting the images and articles of African – American newspapers and small archives into the marketplace and on the Internet. Once hidden for decades, she has now made available over 250,000 images and other information to the public. With 25 years experience as an entrepreneur, she has the skills and fortitude to bring this organization to fruition. Angela is an entrepreneur, sustainability expert, licensed real estate broker and property manager. She is also author of the new book Making a Microbusiness. A Bootstrapper’s Checklist of 78 Action Items for your Startup.

Caitlin Adamson

Violist

Caitlin Adamson is a graduate of the University of Michigan and has been performing on both violin and viola throughout Chicago for the last 20 years. She has recorded with such artists as John Legend, PJ Morton, and Jessie J, and has been a supporting member of performance orchestras at the United Center, NPR’s Tiny Desk, and the Allstate Arena. In addition to teaching, most recently she led the viola section at the inaugural Juice WRLD Day concert.

Caitlin Edwards

Violinist

Violinist Caitlin Edwards is a violinist, a 2022 Esteemed Artist Award recipient from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, a 2021 3Arts/Walder Foundation awardee, 2018 Gateways Music Festival Rising Star, a co-curator with the Fulcrum Point New Music Project, and a former fellow with the Chicago Sinfonietta. In addition, she has received Grammy certificates for recordings on Disney’s “The Lion King'' and for albums by John Legend and PJ Morton. She released her debut album, “Exhale,” in 2021. Caitlin is a classically trained violinist, but she’s inspired by gospel, jazz, hip-hop, and neo-soul. She composes original music and intentionally performs the works of Black composers to make sure that these compositions are remembered and spotlighted for aspiring young BIPOC musicians and the world as a whole. Caitlin is a proud member of D-Composed and Ensemble Dal Niente.

Carlo Lamagna

Food Explorer

Chef Carlo is one of Food & Wine magazines Best New Chefs of 2021 and the chef-owner of modern Filipino restaurant, Magna Kusina, located in Portland, Oregon. Lamagna began a pop-up dining series, Twisted Filipino, in 2013 in Chicago and continued them in Portland with great success. While Lamagna cites respected chefs influential in his career, philosophy, and leadership style, the chef he most reveres is his late father, Willie, who, alongside his mother Gloria, serves as a major influence for his modern Filipino restaurant, Magna Kusina.

Chad H. Thomas

School Principal | Education Innovator | Refugee Advocate

Chad H. Thomas served as the principal of Chicago-based Sullivan High, aka "Refugee High," for nearly a decade. Sullivan is one of the most diverse schools in the country with over 35% special education and 65% bilingual students, and over 40 languages spoken in the school. During his time there, Chad dramatically transformed the low-performing school into a flourishing neighborhood high school, increasing the freshmen on track from 65% to over 97% and college enrollment by over 20%. Chad's work at Sullivan is captured in the book “Refugee High – Coming of Age in America,” featured in NPR’s This American Life, and published in the book "Breakthrough Principals."

D-Composed

A Black Chamber Music Collective

Historians of art and culture may not currently take into full account that Black culture and creativity is a part of every musical institution's foundation that we currently see today. D-Composed, a Black chamber music collective, exists to ensure that we never forget it. Led by their mission to uplift and empower society through the power of Black composers, this Chicago-based creative incubator acts as a bridge between the past and present to the future of representation, music-centered experiences, and the communal power of Black composers and their impact. This group of changemakers is creating their own rules around access and reimagining safe, culturally-based spaces that reflect the Black experience. African-Americans make up only 1.8% of American orchestras* and less than 1% of orchestral repertoire is dedicated to composers of color. D-Composed is 100% composed of Black musicians and the D-Composed repertoire exclusively features the works of Black composers.

David Gonzalez

Community Leader

David Hommy Gonzalez is Executive Director of Port Ministries, a 501(c)3 non-profit located in south side Chicago “Back of the Yards” neighborhood. As Director, David developed seven programs and services that holistically work together to address the ongoing needs of southside Chicago communities. Before Chicago, David held the position of Program Director at AS220, a non-profit arts organization in Providence, RI. While there, David worked on the Broad Street Studio program which used various art forms to aid adjudicated young people transition back to their communities. He coordinated a dozen multidisciplinary Artist to mentor while leading his own youth-led Hip-Hop performance troupe. Heavily influenced by his love of art, David Hommy Gonzalez is always trying to create out-of-the-box projects that aim to educate, inspire, engage and empower.

Dion Dawson

Hunger Disruptor

Dion Dawson is a philanthropic leader who founded Dion’s Chicago Dream, a nonprofit with a mission focused on food insecurity and inequality through an innovative and transformative lens. Dawson’s goal is to challenge the traditional idea of solving food insecurity through the stabilization of quality and access. With transparent operations, consistent quality, and a deep commitment to a resident-informed process that meets residents and recipients where they are, he prioritizes the end-user experience. Dawson is an award-winning military journalist, communications specialist, philanthropist, and son of Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. His philanthropic achievements include being named an Echoing Green Fellow and American Express NGen Fellow.

Dr. Alberto Espay

Neurologist | Physician Leader

Dr. Espay is the Endowed Chair of the James J. and Joan A. Gardner Center for Parkinson’s disease at the University of Cincinnati. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed research articles and 8 books, including Common Movement Disorders Pitfalls, which received the Highly Commended BMA Medical Book Award in 2013 and Brain Fables, the Hidden History of Neurodegenerative Diseases and a Blueprint to Conquer them, coauthored with Parkinson patient and advocate Benjamin Stecher, selected by the Association of American Publishers for the PROSE Award honoring the best scholarly work in Neuroscience published in 2020.

Dr. Courtney Wells

Psychologist | Pivoting Expert

Dr. Courtney Wells received their BS in Psychology at John Carroll University, their MA in Community Counseling at John Carroll University, and their Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology at Texas Woman’s University. They completed their predoctoral internship at the Dallas Veteran’s Affairs and their postdoctoral fellowship at the Jesse Brown Veteran’s Affairs, specializing in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, chronic pain, and substance use. Courtney was also the creator and Director of the Trauma Program at one of the largest Partial Hospitalization and Outpatient Programs in Chicago.

Dr. Eli Lebowitz

Psychologist | Author

Dr. Lebowitz studies and treats childhood and adolescent anxiety at the Yale Child Study Center. His research focuses on the development, neurobiology, and treatment of anxiety and related disorders, with special emphasis on family dynamics and the role of parents in these problems. Dr. Lebowitz is the lead investigator on multiple funded research projects, and is the author of research papers, books and chapters on childhood and adolescent anxiety including the bestselling ‘Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD’.

Dr. Jessica Esquivel

Particle Physicist | Equality in Science Activist

Dr. Jessica Esquivel is an Associate Scientist at Fermilab where she works on the Muon g-2 Experiment which recently announced its exciting Run 1 results, increasing the experiment/theory tension from 3.7σ to 4.2σ. She is one of ~100 Black women with a Ph.D. in physics in the country, the 2nd black woman to graduate with a Ph.D. in physics from Syracuse University, and the 3rd Black woman to hold an Associate Scientist position at Fermilab. Her graduate research focused on studying ghostly particles called neutrinos interacting in the MicroBooNE Experiment using innovative machine learning techniques like those used in facial recognition software.

Ivo Daalder

Former Ambassador to NATO | Global Thinker

Ambassador Ivo H. Daalder is President of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and host of World Review with Ivo Daalder. He served as the US ambassador to NATO from 2009 to 2013. Prior to his appointment as Ambassador to NATO by President Obama, Daalder was a senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, specializing in American foreign policy, European security and transatlantic relations, and national security affairs. Before joining Brookings in 1998, he was an associate professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy and director of research at its Center for International and Security Studies. He also served as director for European affairs on President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council staff from 1995 to 1997. Ambassador Daalder is the author and editor of 10 books, a frequent contributor to the opinion pages of the world’s leading newspapers, and a regular commentator on international affairs on television and radio.

Jesse Ilhardt

Community Educator | Play Specialist

Jesse Ilhardt co-founded VOCEL, a nationally recognized, research-informed, and community-driven early learning organization for parents, children, and educators, in 2013, and was named the Executive Director in 2021. Prior to co-founding VOCEL, she worked for six years as a pre-K teacher and teacher coach at Teach For America. Across these roles, she has combined intellectual horsepower, creativity, and business acumen to develop innovative early education programs, lead high-impact teams, and cultivate champions. She is a member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and has presented at Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child, the Austin Early Childhood Symposium, the Collaboration for Early Childhood Symposium, and the Illinois Association for Infant Mental Health Spring Seminar Series.

Jui Khankari

Artificial Intelligence Visionary

Jui Khankari, a teen high school student and winner of the prestigious Diana Award for her work in building an artificial intelligence platform for youth, discusses how to combat the biases in AI algorithms. Jui is the founder of AInspire, an organization that increases diversity in AI by making AI education accessible to learners of all ages and backgrounds. AInspire has served over 26,000 students across more than 91 countries and 49 U.S. States. In addition to her studies and her work at AInspire, Jui is an AI and neurotechnology research intern with the Shirley Ryan AbilityLabShirley Ryan AbilityLab (utilizing AI to optimize medication timing for Parkinson's patients) and at Stanford University School of Medicine (1st author on paper published in the Journal of Neurointerventional Surgery).

K. F. Jacques

Composer | Singer | Producer

Khary "K. F. Jacques" Laurent is a classical singer and hip hop producer. He has been featured on the Rosie Show aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network, various television and radio networks, and has toured the U.S. and Europe. Jacques was born and raised in Chicago Illinois. He holds a Master of Music degree in Voice Performance from the Chicago College of the Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

Kori Coleman

Founder & Executive Director of D-Composed

Kori Coleman is the founder & executive Director of D-Composed, a chamber music experience that celebrates & honors Black creativity and culture through the music of Black composers. Since founding D-Composed in 2017, she has crafted the organization’s artistic & programmatic vision with the development of conceptual programming that fosters collaboration with Black artists across mediums and disciplines. To date, D-Composed has gained national recognition with appearances on The Colbert Show alongside Jamila Woods and has collaborated with notable institutions and highly recognized brands such as Apple, The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, & The Rebuild Foundation. In addition to being the Executive Director and founder of D-Composed, Kori is a brand strategist working in marketing & advertising. She is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia with a B.A. in Philosophy.

Landon Campbell

GenZ Podcaster

Landon Campbell is a 24-year-old Podcaster and Media Executive based in Chicago, IL. He’s the Co-Founder and Host of two popular podcasts: inTheir20s and Venturing in VC. Upon graduating from DePaul University during the pandemic, Landon created the popular inTheir20s podcast as a way to share the best advice with fellow twenty-somethings. On the show, he interviews top business leaders and influencers to explore what they did in their 20s. His notable past guests include Steve Wozniak, the Mayor of Miami, Eve Williams, Dr. Meg Jay, Guy Kawasaki, and Kat Cole.

Marisa Buchheit

Operatic Soprano | Producer

Marisa Buchheit is an operatic soprano who has performed in critically acclaimed productions around the world. She sings in ten languages, including those of her own ethnic heritage: Thai, Chinese, and German. She studied vocal performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music where she graduated with Academic Honors and served as President of Mu Phi Epsilon Music Fraternity. She recently completed her Master's Degree in opera at DePaul University with Academic Distinction. In 2014 Marisa won the title of Miss Illinois and represented the state with a year of extensive travel, performances, and presentations at major events in her native Chicago and around the state. In the Miss Illinois competition, she won the Grand Talent Award and the top scholarship award before later competing in ABC’s nationally televised Miss America broadcast.

Mia Saini Duchnowski

Entrepreneur | Journalist | Women Advocate

Mia is the founder of VC-backed Oars + Alps which she sold to SC Johnson less than 3 years after launch, and an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, where she teaches workshops on entrepreneurship, serves as a mentor to start-ups, and judges for the New Venture Competitions. Previously, Mia was a TV reporter and anchor with Bloomberg TV and Forbes TV where she was responsible for global economic, political and business coverage. As a journalist, she interviewed hundreds of CEOs and heads of states including Warren Buffett and Sir Richard Branson, and routinely covered significant global events such as World Economic Forum in Davos and Nelson Mandela and Steve Job’s deaths.

Tahirah Whittington

Cellist

Grammy-nominated cellist, Tahirah Whittington, is a founding member of D-Composed and the Ritz Chamber Players. She is currently the cellist for the Broadway show Dear Evan Hansen National Tour. Previously, Ms. Whittington was the cellist for Hamilton: An American Musical in Chicago. Studio recordings include The Lion King (2019), Beyoncé’s The Lion King: The Gift, and albums by John Legend and PJ Morton. Television and film appearances include the movie, “Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” and episodes of “Empire”. Tahirah remotely recorded the cello solo for Rhiannon Giddens’ “Cry No More” arranged by composer Michael Abels. She received her Bachelor’s Degree from New England Conservatory and her Master’s Degree in Cello Performance from The Juilliard School. Tahirah has studied with Laurence Lesser, Joel Krosnick, and Hans Jørgen Jensen.

Will Liverman

Baritone

Called “a voice for this historic moment” (Washington Post), GRAMMY-nominated baritone Will Liverman is the recipient of the 2022 Beverly Sills Artist Award by The Metropolitan Opera. He opened the Met’s 2021-22 season in a celebrated “breakout performance” (New York Times) as Charles in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Following Fire’s success, the Met announced that Liverman will star in Anthony Davis’ X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, which will be the second opera by a Black composer in the company’s history, premiering Fall 2023. Liverman’s 2022-23 season opens at the Kennedy Center’s 50th Anniversary Celebration as the Celebrant in Bernstein’s Mass. Recent achievements include receiving a 2022 Sphinx MPower Artist Grant, the 2020 Marian Anderson Vocal Award, a 2019 Richard Tucker Career Grant, and a 2019 Sphinx Medal of Excellence.