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).

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

Abiodun Durojaye

Executive Director | Servant Leader

As Executive Director of Urban Alliance Chicago, Dr. Abiodun Durojaye continues her career of empowering people, particularly low-income, first-generation, and marginalized young people, to break down barriers and take a seat at the table. Abiodun has lived and dedicated her career to paving the way for young people of color in the world of work. She has formed instrumental relationships that create meaningful impacts in the lives of young people. Her mission is to expose and break down systemic barriers that young people of color face and the role of society in creating meaningful change. Abiodun is so committed to this work that her dissertation focused on ethnic and black-sounding names and how and why using those names can validate people in the space of work. Abiodun is the recipient of the “Indiana INTERNnet IMPACT Award for College Career Development Professional of the Year” award for her unique ways of creating access to internship and work opportunities for students.

Ally Venable

Blues Rock Guitar Player | Singer | Songwriter

lots of tasty guitar solos." - Guitar Player Magazine Ally Venable Texas blues-rock singer/songwriter and guitarist extraordinaire, Ally Venable, entertains wherever she goes. With her signature glitter dresses and black knee-high boots, Venable comes off of the ropes swinging dazzling crowds on tour or throughout the festival circuit. "Venable pulls off a stunner of gritty and/or sultry blues rock tunes embellished with lots of tasty guitar solos." - Guitar Player Magazine. A Kilgore, Texas native, Ally began singing at church at four and picked up the guitar at age 12. By 13, she started her own band and through her early influence of Stevie Ray Vaughan captured the passion and yearning for more in the blues genre. Fans are anticipating Venable’s upcoming spring 2023 release produced by Grammy award-winning producer, Tom Hambridge, which includes a duet with the iconic Buddy Guy and a song featuring powerhouse guitarist Joe Bonamassa.

David Ambroz

National Poverty and Child Welfare Advocate

David Ambroz, Esq. is a best-selling author, Emmy nominated producer, and Amazon’s Head of Community Engagement (Southern California & Western US Region). In that role he is responsible for developing and implementing a strategic, hyper-local approach for Amazon to be present in that geography through partnerships that span the public, private, philanthropic and non-profit sectors. Prior to joining Amazon, Ambroz led Corporate Social Responsibility for Walt Disney Television for more than a decade. David served as the President of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission, where he lead passage of major policies including the regulation of cannabis and home-sharing, and co-authored the Linkage Fee policy to fund affordable housing. He has served on various commissions and non-profit boards, and is currently proud to serve on the board of Equality California. He was recognized by President Obama as American Champion of Change for his work on behalf of children experiencing poverty.

Esteban Batallán

Trumpeter

Esteban Batallán was appointed principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2019 by Zell Music Director Riccardo Muti. He was previously the principal trumpet of the Hong Kong Philharmonic during the 2018-19 season and for the Orchestra of the City of Granada from 2002-18. He also served as guest principal trumpet with the Royal Orchestra of Seville from 2010-14 and with the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala and the Filarmonica della Scala from 2015-18. Batallán has also appeared with distinguished orchestras around the world including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and has worked under esteemed conductors including Jaap van Zweden, Zubin Mehta, Bernard Haitink, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Riccardo Chailly, among others. He has also appeared as soloist with the Orchestral Ensemble of Paris, Spanish Radio-Television Orchestra, Gstaad Festival Orchestra, Geneva Camerata and Symphony Orchestra of India, among others.

Eve Geroulis

Educator

Eve Geroulis is a strategist and educator exploring the synergies and intersection of politics, technology, economics, and culture on a global stage. After a 20+ year career with international advertising agencies, tech start-ups, and co-founding a VC funded lifestyle dot com, Eve joined the faculty of Loyola University Chicago Quinlan School of Business in 2003. She teaches within the Department of Marketing at Loyola. Eve has worked in Europe and the U.S. addressing the role of pedagogy in strategic planning and innovation for universities and corporations. She has commented on mercantile and political realities for news organizations throughout the United States, and delivered a TEDxAcademy Talk in Athens and the opening address of the EU Marie Curie Actions Research & Innovation Conference in Brussels.

Harry Lennix

Actor | Activist

Harry Lennix is an accomplished film, television and stage actor and producer who was born and raised in Chicago. For the past 10 seasons, he has starred as Harold Cooper, on NBC’s The Blacklist. Moviegoers know Lennix as General Calvin Swanwick from The Justice League, Man of Steel, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Commander Lock in The Matrix: Reloaded and The Matrix: Revolutions, Joe Adams in the Oscar® winning Ray, and recurrences on the Showtime series Billions. Lennix made his Broadway debut in Pulitzer Prize winning playwright August Wilson’s Tony nominated Radio Gold. For the stage, he directed A Small Oak Tree Runs Red and The Five Heartbeats, both winning multiple awards. In July 2014, Lennix created Exponent Media Group, a movie production company. Harry’s most recent endeavor is the foundation of the Bronzeville Renaissance Project, a performance arts-based land development company dedicated to revitalizng the cultural prominence of Chicago’s Southside.

Inna Kanevsky

Psychology Professor | TikTok Educator

Dr. Inna Kanevsky is a Ukrainian-American professor of psychology at San Diego Mesa College. She was born in the Soviet Ukraine, and came to the U.S. in 1994 as a refugee. While classrooms were closed during Covid, she created a popular TikTok channel @dr_inna. It began as a way to make short content videos for her online classes, but became a go-to resource for debunking psychology-related misinformation and fact-checking with over 1M followers. She is known for always “bringing her receipts” - that is providing research sources relevant to her posts - which is why she is often contacted by various news media sources to discuss social media psychology-related content. Dr. Kanevsky earned her M.S. in Applied Behavior Analysis from CSU LA and her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from UCSD.

Jason Johnson

Director | Educator | Hip-Hop Artist

Jason William Johnson, also known as Notorious B.I.Z., is an economic development leader, professor, entrepreneur, and Ph.D. candidate with over 15 years of experience training and coaching entrepreneurs. He is also a hip-hop recording artist and producer who uses music to educate and inspire entrepreneurs. Jason served as Director of the Chicago Urban League Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation from 2017-2021, where the business startup program he designed helped over 500 entrepreneurs successfully start businesses. He's been a featured subject matter expert and contributor for Forbes, is a doctoral candidate in Organizational Leadership, and previously served as an adjunct professor at Illinois Institute of Technology from 2019-2021. Currently, Jason is a Director at Next Street (providing governments, philanthropy, and corporations with solutions) and a faculty member for Experiential Classroom (a premier entrepreneur teaching clinic).

Madison Mohns

AI Product Manager and Ethics Enthusiast

Madison is a Product Manager at Indeed.com who specializes in developing machine learning approaches to enhance metadata generation for candidate job matching in 19 global markets. A passionate advocate for AI ethics, she takes an optimistic yet conscientious approach to the use of AI solutions. Her expert-in-the-loop approach to scaling taxonomy coverage was recognized and featured in a published paper at RecSys Conference 2022. She manages a team of 120+ taxonomists, data scientists, and engineers, and has pioneered her team's ability to drive innovation by augmenting her teams' work with AI solutions.

Whitney Reynolds

Journalist | Producer

Whitney Reynolds believes in more seats at the table, inspiration in the hard moments and hope for all. This mindset for unique programming originally bucked the trend when The Whitney Reynolds Show launched in 2012 on PBS, with Whitney as the host, executive producer, and Chief Inspiration Officer. The show's inspirational mission developed from Whit's firsthand experience with a challenging childhood. Whitney’s “safe space” mission doesn’t stop with her TV program. Since 2013 she has hosted a motivational “give back” segment on iHeart Radio and in 2021 launched a national iHeart Podcast, Pop and Positivity. She also authored Beyond The Interview and has a column in Cancer Wellness Magazine. Born and raised in Oklahoma, Whitney’s learned how to combine southern charm with big city hustle. Her motto is: “If the door closes, find the darn window.”

Yao Huang

Board Director | Climate Activist

Yao Huang is on the board of Carbon Optimum, a carbon sequestering company removing carbon dioxide from polluting plants while producing biomass for carbon-negative fuel, fertilizer, food, and methane-reducing animal feed. As an investor and tech veteran, she is on a mission to amplify green investment initiatives, particularly those using algae to combat climate change. She has a particular passion for scalable, executable and female-led climate solutions. Yao was named by Forbes as one of eleven women at the center of New York’s digital scene and TechWeek’s 100 most influential people in tech. Her efforts have been featured in World Economic Forum, Fortune, INC Magazine, Reuters, Daily News, Red Herring, Crains, American Venture, and TED. She leads a 17 year network of 10,000 women across 30 cities touching every corporation.