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).

Ferguson Library
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Stamford, Connecticut, 06904
United States

Alfonsina Betancourt

Artist / Writer

Alfonsina is a multi-faceted artist, storyteller, mindfulness practitioner, teacher, and Life Coach. She holds a BA in Visual Arts and has worked as a painter, photographer, and writer, among other creative disciplines. After embracing mindfulness as a lifestyle, Alfonsina has become passionate about inspiring individuals to live authentically by discovering what makes them spark, aligning with their purpose, and achieving fulfillment. Drawing from her experience as an artist and writer, Alfonsina encourages people to unleash their creativity and intuition, as they both become their compass to let them steer their ways towards authenticity.

Chris James

Poet / Writer / Speaker

Chris James is a national award winning spoken word poet, TED Talks speaker, playwright, educator, screenwriter and published author. As a screenwriter, Chris most recently wrote the film DEVON'S DAY which premiered June 19th on BET NETWORKS. In June 2019, he was the keynote speaker at the United States Capitol for the 39th Annual Congressional Arts Competition. Also in 2019, his stage play Dear Black People won Best Original play at the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival. He is the author of Joe Got Flow, Black Boy Blues and The Odds Against US. In 2016 he was featured on the front cover of Arkansas Times Newspaper for being one of Arkansas' top visionaries. Chris is a member of Foreign Tongues poetry slam team who ranked 2nd place in the world's second largest poetry competition in 2014. Through his work, he educates on racial barriers and socio-economic challenges and how we can overcome them.

Haydee Acebo

Activist / Swimmer

Haydeé is a mom, wife, daughter, sister and accomplished professional in human resources. She started her career as a news anchor, reporter, and producer where she learned the power of connecting with others. She cares deeply about making the world a better place and using her passion for swimming as a way to give back. Haydeé swam competitively in high school/college. She has been an open water swimmer since 2014, conquering the Viking swim in Lake Tahoe (11 miles), Alcatraz, and Donner Lake. Since 2020, Haydeé has dedicated her swims to 21 social causes, including, cancer, mental health, addiction, rare diseases, sexual abuse, and human trafficking.

Helena Escalante

Marketing Strategist

Helena is a bilingual marketing strategist whose copy and content–in English or Spanish–can sell practically anything. She has a vast experience in a lot of different fields and industries, from cheddar cheese to construction cranes, and everything in between. And her client base covers a wide spectrum too: from the president of a tiny non-profit in Mexico to a U.S. presidential candidate. So, whether you have a product or service, or you are a one-person brand or a huge organization, Helena’s insights and creativity can help you communicate, promote, and sell to your clientele. Her blog has readers in 180+ countries and American Express considers it “a resource for women-owned businesses.” Her book The Quickest Guide to Content Creation: How to Consistently Create Content that is Uniquely Yours, Engages Your Audience, and Aligns with your Goals became the #1 international Amazon bestseller in web marketing, media, and communications.

Jia Ng

Professor of Medicine

Dr. Jia Ng, MD MSCE is a Board-certified Nephrologist and Assistant Professor at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/ Northwell, New York. She is also the founder of PublishedMD, where she helps clinicians publish research papers. Since 2020, she has been giving Academic Writing Workshops and Seminars to Medical Departments that want to increase the scholarly productivity of their students and faculty members. Now that she is offering services outside of her own institution, she has been invited to speak at institutions around the US and internationally. She received her Nephrology Fellowship training and Masters of Science in Clinical Epidemiology from University of Pennsylvania, US. Currently, she is an active clinical researcher, and has received close to $1 Million Dollars of grant funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Peggy S. Bud

Virtual Communications Expert

As a teacher, administrator and educational consultant, my goal is to bring about change in how parents and educators communicate with each other when developing the education plan for children with special needs. Sharing my idea as a TEDx speaker would provide me with a vehicle for "spreading the word." I am someone who speaks with passion and connects with an audience. TEDx would be my platform for sharing my idea of how to renew the IEP team by having parents and educators become partners in the process. My idea is both novel and important! I want as many people as possible to hear about it. Once they do, they will understand how easy it is to avoid IEP meetings turning adversarial by forming parent-educator partnerships. A much-needed change will occur!

Rebecca Rolland

Writer / Speech Pathologist

Rebecca Rolland is the author of The Art of Talking with Children. She is a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and serves on the faculty at Harvard Medical School. She is also an oral and written language specialist in the Neurology Department of Boston Children's Hospital. As a nationally certified speech-language pathologist, she has worked clinically with populations ranging from early childhood through high school and has provided teacher professional development. She has an Ed.D. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, an M.S. in Speech-Language Pathology from the MGH Institute of Health Professions, an M.A. in English from Boston University, and a B.A. in English from Yale.

Suzanne Malloy Zaleski

Insurance

TBD

Whitney Isola

Digital Health Entrepreneur

Whitney Isola is a digital health entrepreneur and Registered Dietitian. Whitney co-founded Witty Health, a company that focuses on building smart digital health tools. Witty Health's first product, OncoPower, is a platform for supportive oncology care and clinical trial mapping. Whitney has a passion for intuitive workflows, building in social support mechanisms for navigating one's health care experiences, and stripping away the silos in traditional healthcare. Whitney's previous experiences include directing Food and Clinical Nutrition operations within NYC Health + Hospitals, launching ambulatory care nutrition services for multi-specialty groups, and delivering clinical nutrition care. Whitney has an MBA from Haslam School of Business (University of Tennessee) and both an MS and BS from Boston University. When she's not driving strategy and operations for Witty Health, Whitney can be found cooking, hiking, doing a DIY project at home, or traveling with her husband, son, and dog.