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).

Emory University
201 Dowman Drive
Atlanta, Georgia, 30322
United States

Chris Awad

Christopher Awad is graduating in May 2024 with his MD/MBA from Emory University School of Medicine. He is a passionate New Yorker who has been named the "Unsung Hero" of his business school class and an avid promoter of potential of technology in healthcare. His start-up, Pocket-Doc, taught him a lot about what technology could do for patients as he built a product and went through the process of becoming a patient himself. In his free time, he enjoys making bad puns with his friends and exploring hobbies deeply, before switching gears completely to a new hobby: He is currently challenging himself to learn more about mycology!

Courtney Freer

Courtney Freer joins Emory’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion as a Senior Fellow after serving as Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) since 2015. She is also a Visiting Assistant Professor in the MESAS (Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies) Department at Emory University. Her academic work focuses on the domestic politics of the Arab Gulf states, particularly the political role of religion and Islamism, more broadly. She received her DPhil in Politics from the University of Oxford in 2015, having written a thesis examining the socio-political role played by Muslim Brotherhood groups in Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The findings of this work were published by Oxford University Press in 2018 as Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies. She previously worked at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar and the U.S.-Saudi Arabian Business Council in Washington, DC, and holds a BA in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University and an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from George Washington University.

D’Marquis Allen

D'Marquis is an experienced project manager and management consultant with a passion for making organizations run better and be better in the world through innovation. After earning his B.A. in Creative Computation from Southern Methodist University, he spent the first five years of his career leading projects across the utilities, oil and gas, and retail industries with a focus on organizational change management. D’Marquis has also done independent consulting with a small, California-based technology startup focused on business process optimization and data analytics. In 2021, D’Marquis enrolled as a dual-degree student at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology and Goizueta Business School to pursue a Master of Divinity (MDiv) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA). He envisions leveraging the best practices of business leadership and theological formation to build more sustainable, equitable, and innovative institutions. D’Marquis is an ordained Itinerant Deacon in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and shares the denomination’s commitment towards justice, healing, and liberation for Black people.

Dian Dian

Dian Dian, a dedicated advocate for LGBTQ+ and feminist movements, has navigated a life journey from different Chinese cities to the United States. Raised by a single mother who is a feminist, Dian grew up moving across several cities in China, from the southeastern coast to the capital, Beijing. From a young age, Dian began to reflect on what gender means for people, especially those born as females in China, contemplating their/her own gender non-conforming experiences and lesbian sexuality within a broader social framework. Dian has been involved in LGBTQ+ and feminist movements in China since 2009 and was featured as one of the key figures in the 2012 queer documentary Mama Rainbow. From 2013 to 2016, Dian worked as the editor-in-chief of an independent media called Queer Lala Times, focusing on integrating issues of sexuality and gender into the construction of civil society in the Chinese-speaking world. Dian also obtained a Ph.D. in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Emory University between 2016 and 2023. Their/her dissertation was titled 'Translingual, Transgressive, Transnational: Queer Lala Feminism in the Sinophone World.' During/her Ph.D. years in the United States, Dian continued to participate in gender-sexuality movements in the Chinese-speaking regions, as well as local movements in the U.S. opposing discrimination against AAPI and supporting women's rights. Dian is currently working on community building among overseas Chinese women from a queer feminist perspective.

Fayzan Rab

Fayzan is a Muslim-American, future physician, and psychedelic researcher. His passion is bringing together Eastern wisdom with Western science to advance human potential and healing. Fayzan's research focuses on attitudes Muslims have towards new treatment modalities like psychedelic-assisted therapy with a focus on what would be necessary to bridge these innovations with religious and cultural minorities. Fayzan started his career in Silicon Valley as a product leader at Google and Mindstrong Health. He subsequently served as a political organizer for Muslims in the Bay Area. Beyond his research, Fayzan is an executive coach working primarily with minorities looking to improve their leadership and presence. He lives in Atlanta with his fiancée, Shua, and their cat, Bella. They are regulars at the Grant Park farmer's market and love to spend quality time at home, either watching a good movie or hosting game nights with friends.

Imran Nori

Imran Nuri is an artist, storyteller, and motivational speaker based in Chicago, Illinois. He has a background in nonprofits, marketing, and social media management and graduated from The Ohio State University. He is best known for his black-and-white photo series and book "Advice From America" in which he gathered life advice from 1,000 strangers across the lower 48 US states in 2022.

Jagdish Sheth

Dr. Jagdish N. Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Business, Goizueta Business School, Emory University. He is globally known for his scholarly contributions to consumer behavior, relationship marketing, competitive strategy, and geopolitical analysis. Over 50 years of experience in teaching and research at the University of Southern California, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Columbia University, MIT, and Emory. Dr. Sheth receives the 2020 Padma Bhushan Award for literature and education, one of the highest civilian awards given by the Government of India. He is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business (AIB), the Association of Consumer Research (ACR), the American Psychological Association (APA), and the American Marketing Association (AMA). He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) and the International Engineering Consortium. He is the recipient of all four top awards given by the American Marketing Association (AMA). Additionally, he received the Global Innovation Award and Marion Creekmore Award, both from Emory University. Dr. Sheth has been an advisor to numerous corporations all over the world. He has authored or co-authored more than 350 papers and numerous books. He is the Founder of the Center for Telecommunications Management (CTM) at the University of Southern California (USC), Founder and Chairman of the India, China, and America (ICA) Institute, which analyzes the trilateral relationship and its impact on geopolitics, security, trade, and investment, and the Founder and Chairman of the Academy of Indian Marketing (AIM) which supports research and scholarship among Indian scholars in marketing and management.

Mari Ismail

Marwah (Mari) Ismail is a first-generation Somali-American hailing from the great state of Minnesota. As a senior at Emory University, she is studying Religion and Italian Studies while on the pre-law track. Mari is currently a research assistant at Emory's Candler School of Theology, researching data on data on a psychological-historical study of religious exemplars. She is also completing a senior honors thesis titled "Shaping Somali Society: The Impact of the Somali Civil War on Religious Adherence and Identity." At Emory, Mari serves as the communication chair for Emory's Black and Latinx Pre-Law Society (BPLS) and Emory's Uplifting Marginalized Mothers & Individuals (UMMI). She also served as the Internal Vice-President and public chair for Emory's Black Student Alliance (BSA). Mari is also a part of Emory's Student Government Association, Kappa Alpha Pi Pre-Law Fraternity, Theta Alpha Kappa Religious Studies Honors Society, and Omicron Delta Kappa Honors Society Chapter. After graduation, Mari plans to attend law school to continue her mission to serve marginalized and disadvantaged communities as their voice of advocacy. In her free time, you will find Mari spending time with her kittens, Kola and Snow, trying out a new coffee shop, or playing the ukulele!

Marina Cooley

Marina Cooley is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Goizueta Business School. Prior to joining Goizueta, Marina spent more than 15 years in strategic marketing roles at Coca-Cola and Lavva and worked as a management consultant at IBM. A storyteller at heart, she has been featured in the New York Times and Yahoo Finance and honored as one of Poets & Quants 40-under-40 Best MBA professors. In addition to teaching marketing, Marina researches the topic of leisure, specifically focusing on how to approach life design and work/life balance in a way that makes space for discretionary time. She shares these learnings in an undergraduate course titled "Personal Development" and with graduate students via "Life Design for the Modern MBA."

Sateesh Nori

Sateesh Nori is currently a Clinical Adjunct Professor at NYU School of Law. He was a Commissioner for the 2019 New York City Charter Revision Commission. He has served as Chair of the Housing Court Committee of the New York City Bar Association. He was a member of the Housing Court Advisory Council, which screens judicial candidates for the Housing Court. He is a member of the Mayor's Commission of City Marshals. He is also a Clinical Adjunct Professor at New York University School of Law, where he co-teaches the Housing Rights Clinic. He sits on the boards of Housing Court Answers and Justfix. Nyc, and Chhaya CDC. Sateesh is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and New York University School of Law. He recently ran his fifth marathon. Sateesh was named a "Rising Star" by the New York Law Journal and one of "Queens' Power 50." He is working on a book about his twenty years as a housing attorney.

Stella Lourenco

Stella F. Lourenco is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Emory University and serves as the Director of Graduate Studies. Dr. Lourenco has published extensively on visual perception, cognition, and development. She has received awards from the John Merck Foundation and American Psychological Association. Recognized as an expert in cognitive development, her research informs theories about knowledge's origins and early development. Her studies on how young children recognize objects, estimate quantities and infer dominance in others have contributed to our understanding of young children's physical and social worlds. With her students, Dr. Lourenco's mission is to promote scientific rigor in developmental psychology and help parents and caregivers better appreciate the mental capacities of their young children.