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).

Gunn High School Little Theatre
780 Arastradero Road
Palo Alto, California, 94306
United States

Adrit Rao

Adrit is a 15-year-old Sophomore at Palo Alto High School and a research intern at Stanford University. He is conducting AI research to solve healthcare problems at the point-of-care through accessible innovations and mobile apps. Adrit is part of various research initiatives and has authored over 10 scientific research publications. He is a passionate app developer with 5 apps on the App Store which aim to solve real-world problems. In his free time, Adrit enjoys teaching app development to kids, competitive fencing, and traveling around the world.

Irene Tsen

Irene Tsen is a junior at Gunn. She leads The Prose Train, a collaborative writing nonprofit redefining high school writing. Irene is also a Features Editor for The Oracle, Gunn’s student newspaper, and the Editor-in-Chief of Scribere, an online youth literary journal. Irene will be speaking about the power and joy of group storytelling.

Jill Johnson

Jill Kauffman Johnson is Managing Director of the Erol Foundation. With decades of experience in the environmental movement, Kauffman Johnson led Sustainability and Policy for the Algae Ingredients business at Corbion, a Netherlands-based global leader in food, algae and bio-based ingredients. She was formerly Principal and Managing Director of CEA Consulting, a leading firm working at the intersection of policy, philanthropy and the private sector to address some of today’s most serious environmental challenges. She also served as the founding Director of the Pacific Coast Regional Office of the Ocean Conservancy. Kauffman Johnson holds a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University and a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University.

John Beatty

John Beatty is an engineer and entrepreneur exploring prosocial Internet communication systems. He previously co-founded and was CEO of Clover, a payments and commerce platform for small businesses.

Josh Paley

Josh Paley is in his 21st year as a Computer Science and Mathematics teacher at Henry M. Gunn HS in Palo Alto, CA where he is fortunate to have lots of smart, hard-working students. He has helped to grow the computer science program there from 50-60 students in 2002—2003 to over 350 in each of the past four years. Josh remains frustrated that the percentage of female and minority students taking computer science is still appallingly low (still around 30%). He thinks that a year of Computer Science should be mandatory to graduate from high school: after all, either you can use a computer to solve problems or you can't, and we are well into the 21st century. Josh was one of the pilot instructors for UC-Berkeley's Beauty and Joy of Computing AP CS Principles course. He also served as an instructor for Google's CAPE program in 2010 and 2011. Josh won a national fantasy baseball contest in Y2K and has written about baseball on the side for BaseballHQ.com and Ron Shander's Baseball Forecaster. He is an avid indoorsman as he is allergic to things such as plants, dirt, and probably fresh air. He enjoys board games and poker and is a ferocious Boggle player. Josh has an awesome wife, Suzanne, who does bioinformatics at SRI International, and three amazing kids: Allison, Karen, and Trevor, all of whom are Gunn graduates. He thinks he is very lucky.

Julie Lythcott-Haims

Julie Lythcott-Haims believes in humans and is deeply interested in what gets in our way. Her work encompasses writing, speaking, public service, and activism. She is a New York Times bestselling author of books on human development, a TED speaker, a former Stanford dean, and a lawyer, and she holds degrees from Stanford University (BA), Harvard Law (JD), and California College of the Arts (MFA). Julie lives in Palo Alto, California where she serves on the Council, and she lives with her partner of over thirty years, their itinerant young adults, and her mother.

Katie Rueff

Katie Rueff is a senior at Gunn and a self-proclaimed environmentalist. She got her start in sustainability in Green Team through planting trees and cleaning beaches. Now, she's a community organizer and lobbyist who helps empower fellow youth as they confront climate change with unique, creative, and unifying strategies. In her free time, she stage manages and loves hanging out with her friends in the Best Buddies club.

Patricia Zurita

Dr. Zurita Ona, Dr. Z, is a Licensed Psychologist in California. Her work is dedicated to helping all her clients to get “unstuck from fear-based reactions” and live the life they want to live. A key question to her work is “how can we get unstuck from any other form of fear-based reactions so we can live a meaningful, fulfilling, and purposeful life?” Dr. Z. has significant experience - over 18 years - working with individuals dealing with fear-based struggles such as perfectionism, procrastination, uncertainty, decision-making, phobias, OCD, panic, and any other anxiety-related difficulties. Dr. Z is the founder of the East Bay Behavior Therapy Center, a boutique therapy practice, where she offers therapy, coaching, and focused interventions based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and contextual-behavioral science. Dr. Z is the author of 6 books and has been nominated as a Fellow of the Association of Contextual Behavioral Science.

Sahar Farooq

Sahar Farooq is a gymnast, yoga instructor, and rollerblading coach. She is the Founder and Executive Director at Holistix Leadership and Sports Academy, an organization dedicated to empowering youth to become the leaders of tomorrow. Sahar is passionate about improving education and healthcare in third-world countries, and has funded schools, orphanages, and clinics to provide free services in the past four years. Her next goal is to launch a school in a village in Pakistan where she will provide free education to all children. Currently, Sahar is a high school senior at Connecting Waters Charter School and a student at Mission College.