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).

Schwab Auditorium
E Pollock Rd & Pattee Mall
University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802
United States

Bernice Hausman

Bernice L. Hausman is the Garner James Cline Professor of Humanities in Medicine and Chair of the Department of Humanities at Penn State College of Medicine. Prior to her appointment at Penn State, she spent twenty-three years in the Department of English at Virginia Tech. Dr. Hausman has a bachelor’s degree in Literature from Yale University and a doctoral degree in Feminist Studies and Critical Theory from the University of Iowa. She is an internationally recognized expert on medicine and culture, with expertise in breastfeeding and motherhood, transgender history, and vaccination controversy. She is the author of four single-authored books and numerous peer-reviewed scholarly articles. Her most recent book, Anti/Vax: Reframing the Vaccination Controversy (Cornell, 2019), challenges the public to understand vaccine dissent as a persistent and culturally meaningful aspect of modern societies.

Christine Palmer

Christine Palmer is a fourth year at the Pennsylvania State University, studying computer science with minors in mathematics and engineering leadership development. At PSU, Christine serves as the lead intern for the Presidential Leadership Academy, and is also involved with the Lion Ambassadors, Students Teaching Students, and Filipino Association. Christine is passionate about storytelling and hopes to combine her education/experience to inspire young adults to leverage technology creatively.

Divine Lipscomb

Councilman Divine Lipscomb is the First African American Council Member in the State College Borough. Divine is a formerly incarcerated scholar at Penn State in the Counseling Education Department with an emphasis in Clinical Rehabilitation and Mental health counseling. As a graduate assistant for the Restorative Justice Initiative, Penn State’s Prison Education Program, Divine works at the intersections of access to higher education and effective reentry practices for individuals impacted by the within the carceral system.

Jonathan Marks

Jonathan Marks is a Scotsman, who trained as a human rights lawyer in England, and now teaches at the Pennsylvania State University, where he is director of the Bioethics Program. He writes and lectures on ethics, law, and policy. His last TEDxPSU talk, “In Praise of Conflict,” was picked up by TED.com and received more than one million views in its first few weeks — not bad for a human but somewhat less impressive in the world of cat videos! That talk also became the framework for his book, “The Perils of Partnership: Industry Influence, Institutional Integrity, and Public Health,” published by Oxford University Press in 2019, and shortlisted for the Book Award of the North American Society for Social and Political Philosophy.

Marc Dingman

Dr. Marc Dingman is an Associate Teaching Professor of Biobehavioral Health at The Pennsylvania State University, where he teaches courses on neuroscience and other health sciences. He has published two neuroscience books for non-scientists: Your Brain, Explained and Bizarre, and he has a popular neuroscience YouTube channel called Neuroscientifically Challenged.

Michael Bérubé

Michael Bérubé is an Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Literature at Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of twelve books to date, including Public Access: Literary Theory and American Cultural Politics (Verso, 1994); Life As We Know It: A Father, A Family, and an Exceptional Child (Pantheon, 1996; paper, Vintage, 1998); and What's Liberal About the Liberal Arts? Classroom Politics and "Bias" in Higher Education (W. W. Norton, 2006). He has also published two edited collections, Higher Education Under Fire: Politics, Economics, and the Crisis of the Humanities (Routledge, 1995; with Cary Nelson) and The Aesthetics of Cultural Studies (Blackwell, 2005). Life as We Know It was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year for 1996 and was chosen as one of the best books of the year (on a list of seven) by Maureen Corrigan of National Public Radio.

Nora O'Toole

Nora O’Toole is a fourth-year majoring in Cybersecurity Analytics and Operations with a focus in Geopolitics and minoring in Security Risk and Analysis. She currently serves as the president to the University Park Undergraduate Association and sits on the University Park Student Fee Board, among other positions. Her involvement with her extracurriculars and academics have given Nora the space to be an advocate for communities that historically do not have a voice and participating in programs like the Presidential Leadership Academy has taught Nora the value of critical thinking. She’s excited to further explore how we all can find our own voice in being an advocate for ourselves and what that can mean for the future of America’s generations to come.

Priya Kumar

Dr. Priya Kumar is an assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University’s College of Information Sciences and Technology, where she studies how we as society think, talk, study, and learn about data privacy, especially in relation to children. She holds a PhD from the University of Maryland's College of Information Studies and an M.S. from the University of Michigan School of Information. Her research has been featured in media outlets including the New York Times, NPR, NBC, CNN, and Slate.