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).

University of Massachusetts
100 Morrissey Boulevard
McCormack Building, Ryan Lounge
Boston, Massachusetts, 02125
United States

Billy Starr

As the founder and executive director of the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, Billy Starr has developed the largest and most efficient athletic fundraising event in the country. Since raising the first $10k at its inception in 1980, the bike-a-thon is now approaching the $1B mark in funds raised for the Jimmy Fund of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Colby Swettberg

Colby Swettberg has been Chief Executive Officer of Silver Lining Mentoring since 2009. Silver Lining has been lauded as a national leader in mentoring services for youth in foster care. Under Colby’s leadership, Silver Lining has grown to serve more than eight times as many young people and has more than quadrupled its budget. Silver Lining was named as a Social Innovator in 2014 for “providing a sustainable solution to one of the region’s toughest social issues,”. Colby came to Silver Lining Mentoring after working at The Home for Little Wanderers, where Colby opened and oversaw a group home for LGBTQ teenagers, did clinical work in adoption and family stabilization, and provided training and consultation nationwide on LGBTQ issues. In 2012, Colby was honored to be chosen by then Senator John Kerry for the “Angel in Adoption” award for advocacy efforts on behalf of youth in foster care. In 2013, Colby was honored to receive the Excellence Award from national child welfare organization Youth Villages for service to youth in foster care. As a former educator, Colby earned a Master’s Degree in Education from Harvard University, and later focused on child welfare, earning a Master’s degree in Social Work.

Elisabeth Jackson

Elisabeth Jackson has a proven commitment to youth and long legacy at Bridge Over Trouble Waters. She's coordinated the front-line Medical Van service, a counselor, a Board of Directors member, and Interim Executive Director, before currently serving as President and CEO. With her experience, expertise, and passion, she leads Bridge in taking on the many challenges that homeless and unaccompanied youth face today. During her time at Bridge, Elisabeth has had a massive impact on both the depth and breadth of programs. Under her leadership, Bridge’s staff has doubled in size, opened our independent residence, Liberty House, launched a $50M campaign, and fundraised an additional $5M to expand housing for youth and single mothers. We remained 100% open and operational during COVID, ensuring that youth had somewhere to go when options were limited.

Felix Brooks-church

Felix Brooks-Church is Co-Founder and CEO of Sanku, a social enterprise and non-profit focused on combatting malnutrition through food fortification in East Africa. Felix leads the overall development, mission and trajectory of the organization, which was selected to Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list, Zayed Sustainability Prize winner, Lipman Family Prize winner, and a GiveWell Standout Charity. For the past decade, whilst living and working across Asia and Africa, Felix has refined micronutrient delivery systems and developed economic models for sustaining rural flour fortification. Felix holds a patent, having led all aspects of product development and engineering for Sanku’s award winning Dosifier technology (2019 Time Magazine Invention of the Year, 2018 IoT Evolution Product of the Year, 2018 Fierce Innovation Award, 2013 Ashoka Changemakers’ Winner).

Geralde Gabeau

Dr. Geralde Gabeau is a well-respected Haitian leader in Massachusetts. With over 20 years of experience working with the Boston immigrant community, Dr. Gabeau has worked on numerous public health initiatives that help bridge care to women and children. As the Founder and Executive Director of the Immigrant Families Services Institute (IFSI-USA) Dr. Gabeau has focused on immigrant Integration by building & implementing programs & services that directly serve and empower Haitian immigrants. The Immigrant Families Services Institute (IFSI-USA) mission is to center the voices of Haitian migrants and expedite their successful integration into the social and economic fabric of the United States with justice and dignity. Her talent for team-building helps to bring people together to address the needs of Haitian migrants & refugees and build safer & thriving communities for them all.

Gladys Vega

Gladys Vega joined the La Colaborativa (formerly Chelsea Collaborative) in 1990 and became executive director in 2006. She has worked as an organizer and an advocate to insure that the Latino community has a role in determining the ways its needs and concerns are addressed. She believes that empowerment of the individual leads to empowerment of the community and that social action is the vehicle an empowered community can use to achieve its goals. Gladys is the architect of most of the La Colaborativa's community coalitions and has played leadership roles in organizing for immigrants’ rights, tenants’ rights, welfare rights, open space and the environment, multicultural and anti-racism programs, and in numerous grassroots campaigns.

Imari Paris Jeffries

Imari K. Paris Jeffries, Ph.D., is the President and CEO of Embrace Boston, where he is leading a citywide racial equity transformation through The Embrace monument, the Embrace Center, and ongoing community organizing efforts. Imari brings a wealth of experience from the nonprofit management, racial equity, community activism, education reform, and social justice sectors and has served in executive roles at Parenting Journey, Jumpstart, Boston Rising, and Friends of The Children. Imari has extensive professional experience in public, national, and nonprofit leadership and has supplemented his work with volunteer service on boards. These have included Jumpstart, the African American Federation of Greater Boston, Save the Harbor, Save the Bay, the Elizabeth Peabody House, the Massachusetts Mentoring Partnership, the Edward Brooke Charter School, The Providers Council, and Third Sector New England. Imari was recently named one of Boston’s most Influential Bostonians by Boston Magazine and the Boston Business Journals Power 50. He is a four-time graduate of UMass Boston and received his Ph.D. through UMass Boston's Higher Education Program in June 2023. An Army veteran, Imari served from 1991-1996.

Jim O'Connell

Jim O’Connell, MD (he/him), serves as the President of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. O’Connell received his medical degree from Harvard University in 1982 and completed residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1985, he began full-time clinical work with homeless individuals as the founding physician of the program. He established the nation’s first medical respite program in 1985, with 25 beds nested within the Lemuel Shattuck Shelter. Working with the MGH Laboratory of Computer Science, Dr. O’Connell designed and implemented the nation’s first computerized medical record for a homeless program. Dr. O’Connell served as the National Program Director of the Homeless Families Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Dr. O’Connell is the editor of "The Health Care of Homeless Persons: A Manual of Communicable Diseases and Common Problems in Shelters and on the Streets". His articles have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, Circulation, the American Journal of Public Health, the Journal of Clinical Ethics, and several other medical journals. His first book, "Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor", was published in 2015 and featured on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

Kel Kelly

Kel Kelly is the mom of four kids, a humanitarian, empath, warrior for the underdog, refugee advocate, champion for the homeless, and the Founder and President of Humanity Rises. Kel has been deeply involved in the global refugee crisis since spending a significant amount of time in 2016 on the island of Lesvos, Greece in Camp Moria, the most dangerous refugee camp on earth. In Camp Moria, Kel was one of the many volunteers ensuring the refugees’ basic human needs – food, water, shelter, dry clothing, medical assistance, and comfort – were met after the refugees made the harrowing crossing of the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Lesvos in overcrowded boats wearing fake life jackets the smugglers had sold them. While navigating the sheer chaos of Camp Moria and witnessing their utter desperation, Kel realized she needed to spend the rest of her life looking for ways to restore dignity and ignite hope in the lives of these innocent souls who deal with unimaginable uncertainty every second of every day of their lives. That experience became the catalyst for Kel to leave her CEO job to focus the remainder of her life on alleviating refugee suffering and in doing so, she found the nourishment her soul was craving. Humanity Rises was created as the path to do just that. Kel is also the Founder and Former-CEO of Kel & Partners (K&P), the anti-agency agency for public relations and social media. For over twenty years, K&P delivered explosive results for clients like Lola, Zappos, TrueCar, VacationHomeRentals, Cumberland Farms, Hydrow, UNREAL, GLAAD and hundreds of other brands.

Marcelo Suárez-Orozco

Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco assumed the role of chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Boston on August 1, 2020. Prior to coming to UMass Boston Suárez-Orozco served as the inaugural UCLA Wasserman Dean, leading two academic departments, 16 nationally renowned research institutes, and two innovative demonstration schools at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. His research focuses on cultural psychology and psychological anthropology, with an emphasis on education, globalization, and migration. His award-winning books and edited volumes have been published by Harvard University Press, Stanford University Press, University of California Press, Cambridge University Press, New York University Press, and others.

Nicoletta Longo

Nicoletta Longo is the founder of NamaStay Sober, and an 850 hour meditation & mindfulness trainer. She is committed to empowering and enabling people to live a life that they love; the concept on which she developed NamaStay Sober. She is passionate about yoga, meditation and fitness and sees them as being an access to a fulfilled life. After having her own life transformed through her time living and studying yoga in Bali and India, Nico was inspired to offer yoga and fitness memberships to people in early recovery in her hometown of Boston. She seeks to foster creativity in the space that sobriety creates so as to prevent relapse and isolation. Nico believes that "mindfulness in the body leads to self awareness and that is where transformation begins."

Paul English

Paul M. English (born 1963) is an American tech entrepreneur, computer scientist and philanthropist. He is the founder of Boston Venture Studio, and previously co-founded and served as CTO of Kayak. In 2012, Kayak was acquired by Priceline for $1.8 billion. Before Kayak, English had created a number of companies, including the customer service company GetHuman; the e-commerce website-design company Boston Light, which was acquired by Intuit; and the anti-spam software company Intermute, which was acquired by Trend Micro. English co-founded Summits Education, a network of 41 schools in Haiti, created in partnership with the Haitian Ministry of National Education and Partners In Health, a non-profit where English serves as a director. He also founded King Boston, a racial-justice project which includes the creation of a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King at Boston Common and the King Center for Economic Justice in Roxbury, Boston.

Paul Niehaus

Paul is an economist and entrepreneur working to accelerate the end of extreme poverty. He is Chancellor's Associates Endowed Chair in Economics at UC San Diego. His research examines the design, implementation, and impact of anti-poverty programs at large scales. He is also co-founder of a series of companies working to amplify capital flows to emerging markets. He is co-founder, former president, and current director at GiveDirectly, the leading international NGO specialized in digital cash transfers and consistently rated one of the most impactful ways to give. He subsequently co-founded and served as a director of the enterprise payments company Segovia and the digital remittance company Taptap Send. Paul is a recipient of a Sloan Fellowship and has been named a "Top 100 Global Thinker" by Foreign Policy magazine and one of Vox's "Future Perfect 50." He holds a PhD in economics from Harvard University.

Rahsaan Hall

Rahsaan D. Hall is the president and chief executive officer of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts (ULEM). He brings more than 20 years of experience in civil rights and criminal justice to the role. Since opening to the Greater Boston community in 1919, ULEM has been employing a multi-point strategy to deliver services and programs which aim to increase self-reliance, specifically in the area of workforce and economic development. Hall previously served as the director of the Racial Justice Program at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts and is the founder of Rahsaan Hall Consulting. Prior to the ACLU, Rahsaan served as Deputy Director and Interim Director for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights (Lawyers for Civil Rights) and worked as an assistant district attorney for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.

Willy Foote

Willy Foote is founder and CEO of Root Capital, a nonprofit that offers farmers around the world a path to prosperity by investing in the agricultural businesses that serve as engines of impact in their communities. Root Capital provides these businesses with the capital, training, and access to markets they need in order to grow, thrive, and create opportunities for thousands of farmers at a time. Since its founding in 1999, Root Capital has provided more than $1.7 billion in loans to 770 agricultural businesses in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Together, these businesses have bought and marketed crops for 2.4 million smallholder farmers, reaching over 10 million people in rural communities. Willy is a Skoll Entrepreneur and an Ashoka Global Fellow. He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2008, one of Forbes’ “Impact 30” in 2011, and was a 2012 Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute. He served for nearly a decade on the Executive Committee of the Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE), is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), and serves on the Strategic Advisory Council of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan. Willy holds an MS in development economics from the London School of Economics and a BA from Yale University.