Theme: Exhale

This year, TEDxEmory invites you to go back to basics. Let's engage in the powerful simplicity of breathing, and collectively cultivate awareness of our experiences. In being mindful and present, we set aside the things that distract us in an era of change, and connect with our surroundings: focusing on the here and now. We hope the ideas presented by our professional and student speakers resonate with your human nature as you tap into this release. As we finally return to a full-scale in-person format, TEDxEmory is excited to present our newest conference: Exhale.

Emory Student Center
605 Asbury Circle
Multipurpose Rooms
Atlanta, Georgia, 30322
United States

Cathy Carlisi

Managing Director at BCG Brighthouse

Cathy has gone piranha fishing in the Amazon, survived a 150km two-day bike race with a night camping at a whiskey distillery, and gotten married in Rome with a Papal Blessing. But she considers helping to pioneer the Purpose movement her most thrilling challenge. Cathy joined BrightHouse shortly after its founding and has invested 24 years growing its processes, products, and staff into the premier Purpose consultancy. She has led seminal work across industries from financial to consumer to industrial goods. Cathy began her career in advertising, winning awards at top-tier agencies. She received a B.A. from The University of the South, where she was a member of the Society of Wilkins’ Scholars and received Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa Distinction. She attended The Portfolio Center for writing and art direction and spent two years studying poetry. Cathy is a nationally published poet and a painter, and she shares her love with family and friends through Italian cooking.

Chelsea A. Jackson

Political Scientist, Abolitionist, and Equity Expert

Chelsea A. Jackson is a political scientist, abolitionist, and equity expert, who works with multinational organizations, businesses, charities, and activist groups in the US, UK, and globally. As a member of the feminist collective Cradle Community, Chelsea is a co-author of Brick by Brick: How we Build a World Without Prisons (Hajar Press, 2021). Her research on racial and ethnic politics has been presented at the American Political Science Association and National Conference of Black Political Scientists and she has been featured on .Chelsea holds a BA/MA in Political Science & African American Studies from Emory University, and a MSc in Criminology and M Public Policy from the University of Oxford where she was a 2018 Rhodes and 2017 Harry S. Truman Scholar.

Gregory Catellier

Dancer, Choreographer, Lighting Designer, and Professor at Emory University

Gregory Catellier is a dancer, choreographer, lighting designer, and teacher. Catellier is active in the Atlanta dance scene as both a choreographer and as a lighting designer. Catellier has created several collaborative evening-length works that explore broad themes to reveal the personal and political. His choreography has been selected for American College Dance Festival gala concert, the Modern Atlanta Dance Festival, the Florida Dance Festival, and the Bates Dance Festival. The award-winning dance films he has created with Seattle based media artist Jeff Curtis have been screened internationally. Catellier is the resident dance lighting designer for Emory University Dance At Emory, he teaches modern dance technique, choreography, lighting design for dance, principles of design, movement improvisation and contact improvisation.

Jewel Okoronkwo

Student at Emory University

Jewel is currently a senior studying Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University. She is engaged in multiple clubs and associations at Emory including the Stem Pathways Program, Emory Grey Matters, and Black Mental Health Ambassadors. She has passion for mentorship and assisting younger students at Emory. Jewel does research at The Marcus Autism Center with the Education Sciences Research Core, where she tries to better understand how children with autism engage with peers, teachers, and materials so educational strategies may be developed to provide more inclusive learning opportunities. Her goal is to attend medical school and become a pediatric physician.

John Blake

Senior Writer and Producer at CNN, Author

John Blake is the senior writer and producer at CNN and author of "More Than I Imagined: What a Black Man Discovered About The White Mother He Never Knew."

Kristin O'Neal

Performer, Choreographer, and Professor at Emory University

Kristin O’Neal is a performer, teacher and choreographer residing in Atlanta, GA. She teaches varying levels of contemporary modern technique, movement improvisation and contact improvisation at Emory University and leads classes at Core Dance in Decatur for the professional Atlanta dance community. Kristin’s technique classes include a deep investigation into how one’s body operates within a movement framework that invites curiosity, discovery and always one’s relationship to space and time. She earned her MFA in Dance from Hollins University/ADF where she began her research of solo performance and character creation. These solos have been shared in varying venues in FL, GA, ME, and OH. Kristin is the Outreach Coordinator for National Water Dance (since 2011) and has been a proud affiliate of the Bates Dance Festival since 2007.

Pamela Rae Schuller

Comedian, Keynote Speaker, and Disability Advocate

Pamela Rae Schuller is a New York City-based performer and keynote speaker, known for her ability to weave comedy and storytelling into a compelling narrative on disability inclusion and mental health. She works with companies and leaders worldwide to envision creative possibilities for a more inclusive culture. Pamela holds a Masters in Child Advocacy and has been featured in the New York Times, the Dr. Mike Youtube Channel, and SiriusXM. She is currently working on a YA novel about learning to love herself in detention at boarding school, where she still holds the record for most detention hours served.

Rachel Hall-Clifford

Assistant Professor in the Center for the Study of Human Health and the Department of Sociology at Emory University.

Rachel Hall-Clifford, PhD, MPH, MSc, is an Assistant Professor in the Center for the Study of Human Health and the Department of Sociology at Emory University. She is a medical anthropologist who applies social science approaches to global health research and implementation. Dr. Hall-Clifford has conducted fieldwork in the central highlands of Guatemala on the delivery of health services for 15 years. Dr. Hall-Clifford is co-founder of safe+natal, a co-designed perinatal monitoring toolkit.

Rahul Garabadu

Senior Voting Rights Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Georgia

Rahul Garabadu is the Senior Voting Rights Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Georgia. A native Georgian, Rahul is passionate about protecting the right to vote and ensuring that elections across the state are free and fair. In his current role, Rahul is litigating cases challenging Georgia’s new election law, SB 202, as well as state and local redistricting maps passed after the 2020 Census. Rahul’s involvement in democracy and voting rights spans the globe. He has participated in election observation missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and supported local activists in pursuing constitutional reforms in Myanmar. Rahul also frequently provides commentary on voting rights and election law issues in the media; he has been quoted in publications including NBC News, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Public Broadcasting, Mother Jones, and Axios. Rahul received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his B.A. in Economics and Government from Georgetown University.

Siufung Law

PhD Student at Emory University

Siufung is a pioneer and activist in advocating gender fluidity in Hong Kong and Asia, and a professional athlete who has won multiple championships in bodybuilding. As the first visible professional nonbinary bodybuilder in the world, Siufung is the ambassador of Emory Diversifying Graduate Education, Athletes Ally, and Gay Games Hong Kong. They have founded transgender training workshops to provide a safe space for trans and nonbinary folks to work out in 2019. Siufung was the 2022 bodybuilding judge of the International Association of Trans Bodybuilders and Powerlifters in Atlanta, the first and transgender-only bodybuilding contest in the world. They are currently a Ph.D. student at the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Emory University.

Taryn Salako

Student at Emory University

I am a third-year at Emory University, majoring in Biology and minoring in Anthropology. Also, I am a student-athlete on the Emory Track and Field Team. I am involved in many campus organizations across campus, such as Black and LatinX in STEM and Minority Pre-medical Society. My biggest passion project is being one of the founders for Uplifting Marginalized Mothers and Individuals, a campus organization focused on providing support for mothers and families who experience incarceration and/or refugee sanctioning.

Victoria Lemos

Podcaster

Victoria Lemos is the voice, sweat and tears behind Archive Atlanta. A weekly history podcast sharing the stories of the people, places and events that have made Atlanta what it is.