Start Now.
We all possess the power to initiate change, in ways both small and large. Regardless of our situation or current challenges we can each start now. We can start with what we have, what we know, our human network, and with the knowledge gained from experience. We can begin with the lessons of the wise, and the optimism and fresh perspective of the young. We can start with simple gestures of kindness. We can start with clarity of purpose. We can start with a new outlook.
TEDxMidAtlantic 2013 showcased the stories of those who have led by example, and the ideas that can help us reframe the most intractable problems in new, imaginative ways.
Watch José Andrés’ talk »
José Andrés
Spanish Culinary Master
Named “Outstanding Chef” by the James Beard Foundation and recognized by Time magazine on the “Time 100” list of most influential people in the world, José Andrés is an internationally-recognized culinary innovator. Andrés teaches at Harvard and The George Washington University. He is also the founder of World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit which aims to feed and empower vulnerable people in humanitarian crises around the world.
Read More
He and his team are responsible for renowned dining concepts in Washington, DC, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami and Puerto Rico. These include minibar by José Andrés, Zaytinya, Oyamel, Jaleo and China Poblano at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, The Bazaar by José Andrés at the SLS Hotel Beverly Hills and South Beach, and Mi Casa at Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Puerto Rico. ThinkFoodGroup also supports his media, creative and education projects as well as philanthropic and social efforts. Often recognized for creating the “Spanish food boom” in America, Andrés is Dean of the Spanish Studies program at the International Culinary Center, the first and only professional program of its kind in the United States. Andrés is host and executive producer of Made in Spain on PBS. His cookbooks include Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America and he has introduced a line of culinary products from Spain with Jose Andres Foods.
Andrés teaches at Harvard and The George Washington University. He is also the founder of World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit which aims to feed and empower vulnerable people in humanitarian crises around the world.
Guest Curator
Cameron Russell
Supermodel & Media Reformer
Cameron Russell has spent the last decade posing as a supermodel. Occasionally she writes about grassroots public art and political power, and experiments with making art for the internet and the street. Cameron’s 2012 TEDxMidAtlantic talk has been viewed over 3 million times. She is the director of The Big Bad Lab, which creates participatory art and media platforms dedicated to including people in radical demonstrations of positive social change, and she recently founded Interrupt Mag, a participatory magazine.
Watch Gen. McChrystal’s talk »
Gen. Stanley McChrystal
US Military Commander
General Stanley McChrystal is the co-founder of McChrystal Group and is a Senior Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs where he teaches leadership. He also heads the Aspen Institute Franklin Project to encourage and promote national service. The General is a former Commander of US and international forces in Afghanistan and his career in the U.S. Army spanned 34 years.
Read More
Prior to his service in Afghanistan, he served as Director of the Joint Staff where he assisted the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in managing the direction, operation and integration of all combat land, naval and air forces. He previously commanded the Joint Special Operations Command, overseeing elite US military forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world.
His memoir “My Share of the Task” is a New York Times best seller.
Watch Jim McGovern’s talk »
Rep. Jim McGovern
US Congressman
Since his election in 1996, Congressman Jim McGovern has been widely recognized as a tenacious advocate for his district, a tireless crusader for change, and an unrivaled supporter for social justice and fundamental human rights. Currently serving his ninth term in Congress, McGovern serves as the second ranking Democrat on the powerful House Rules Committee, which sets the terms for debate and amendments on most legislation; and a member of the House Agriculture Committee.
Read More
In those roles, McGovern has secured millions of dollars in federal grants and assistance for Massachusetts. McGovern is also co-chair of both the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and the House Hunger Caucus. He also serves as Co-Chair of the Northeast Midwest Congressional Coalition.
Over the past 16 years, McGovern has consistently delivered millions of dollars for jobs, vital local and regional projects, small businesses, public safety, regional and mass transportation projects, and affordable housing around Massachusetts.
McGovern has authored important legislation to increase Pell Grant funding to allow more students access to higher education; to provide funds to preserve open space in urban and suburban communities; and to give tax credits to employers who pay the salaries of their employees who are called up to active duty in the Guard and Reserves.
A strong proponent of healthcare reform, his legislative efforts included reducing the cost of home health care, giving patients the dignity to be cared for in their own homes with the help of medical professionals.
McGovern voted against the initial authorization of force in Iraq in 2002, and has been among the most prominent Congressional voices on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. McGovern introduced a bipartisan, bicameral bill calling for a flexible timetable for withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan as a matter of national security and fiscal responsibility.
McGovern has also taken a leadership role in the fight against hunger at home and abroad, successfully expanding the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, which helps alleviate child hunger and poverty by providing nutritious meals to children in schools in the world’s poorest countries.
Watch Shiza Shahid’s talk »
Shiza Shahid
Director of Malala Fund
Shiza Shahid helped Taliban gunshot victim Malala Yousafzai return to school, and is the co-founder and director of the Malala Fund. The fund supports education innovators and activists across the world. Shahid has supported Malala’s work since 2009, when she mentored Malala and others in a summer retreat in Pakistan to raise awareness about the Taliban’s attack on female education.
Read More
After Malala participated in the camp, Shiza’s relationship with her and her family continued. Shiza graduated from Stanford in 2011 and started at McKinsey as a business analyst based in Dubai at the beginning of 2012.
In the early days following the shooting, every day was uncertain. “It was incredibly painful. We didn’t think she was going to make it,” Shiza recalls.
“Throughout this entire ordeal, Malala wanted to keep fighting for girls’ education,” Shiza says. “We wanted to create a platform for her to do so and find a way to capture the passion and interest her story inspired.”
The Malala Fund quickly took shape as that platform. Vital Voices, an organization devoted to empowering women, offered to temporarily host the Malala Fund while the permanent organization was being registered. The Malala Fund is now up and running, supported by an advisory committee, including a VP at Google, the CEO of Vital Voices, Malala, and Shiza.
Watch Seth Goldman’s talk »
Seth Goldman
Honest Tea Founder
Seth Goldman is co-founder, President and TeaEO of Honest Tea, the company he co-founded in 1998 with Professor Barry Nalebuff of the Yale School of Management. An entrepreneur at heart, Seth started with lemonade stands and newspaper routes as a kid, created a non-profit urban service program, and nearly pursued a prize-winning biotechnology idea before he started Honest Tea in his kitchen.
Read More
In March 2011, Honest Tea was acquired by The Coca-Cola Company, helping to further the reach and impact of Honest Tea’s mission by becoming the first organic and Fair Trade brand in the world’s largest beverage distribution system.
An entrepreneur at heart, Seth started with lemonade stands and newspaper routes as a kid, created a non-profit urban service program, and nearly pursued a prize-winning biotechnology idea before he started Honest Tea in his kitchen. Since then, the company has initiated community-based partnerships with suppliers in India, China and South Africa, and has created marketing partnerships with the Arbor Day Foundation, City Year, and RecycleBank. In addition to being named one of The Better World Shopping Guide’s “Ten Best Companies on the Planet based on their overall social and environmental record,” Honest Tea was also listed as one of PlanetGreen.com’s “Top 7 Green Corporations of 2010.” In 2010, The Huffington Post ranked Honest Tea as one of the leading “8 Revolutionary Socially Responsible Companies.”
Watch Gbenga’s talk »
Gbenga Akinnagbe
Actor & Activist
Gbenga Akinnagbe is best known for his role as Chris Partlow on the HBO original series The Wire. Gbenga has also starred in multiple movies, including The Savages, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The Good Wife, and is the lead in the upcoming indie film Home. He starred in Showtime’s Nurse Jackie and is currently on the hit show Graceland. Gbenga also recently founded the clothing line Liberated People.
Read More
Born in Washington, D.C. to Nigerian parents and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, Akinnagbe was in and out of trouble as a youth. He is the second oldest of six children, with one older sister and four younger brothers. He is the first in his family to be born in the U.S. He attended Colonel Zadok A. Magruder High School in Rockville, Maryland. Akinnagbe attended Bucknell University on a wrestling scholarship, majoring in Political Science and English. He is the cousin of DC rapper Wale.
Watch Sam Berns’ talk »
Sam Berns
Life Champion
Sam Berns is a Junior at Foxboro High School in Foxboro, Massachusetts, where he has achieved highest honors and is currently a percussion section leader in the high school marching band. He recently achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. Sam was diagnosed with Progeria, a rare, rapid aging disease, at the age of 2. He is featured in the documentary Life According to Sam, which will premiere on HBO on October 21, 2013.
Read More
He has been speaking publicly since he was 4 years old, shortly after his parents founded The Progeria Research Foundation, an organization that raises research funding and runs programs to find the cause, treatments and cure for Progeria.
Watch Akec Khoc’s talk »
Akec Khoc Aciew
South Sudan Ambassador
Due to his remarkable background in international affairs, and upon the establishment of the Embassy of the Republic of South Sudan in the United States, Ambassador Akec was appointed as the first ambassador, making history in May 2012. In this capacity he and the Embassy staff hope to enhance the bilateral diplomatic relations between the Republic of South Sudan and the United States of America.
Read More
Akec joined the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in 1986. Soon after joining the movement, he was appointed the director of the SPLA Medical Corps. He moved away from the refugee camps and into the frontlines of the conflict where he treated wounded soldiers as well as the wounded IDPS, and surrounding communities that lacked proper medical supplies. From 1989 to 1990, he remained active in political efforts through his involvement in the Sudan Rehabilitation and Relief Agency (SRRA) as a regional coordinator of the Northern Upper Nile located in Nasir. His medical experiences allowed him to continue to work closely with the SPLA by treating wounded soldiers as well as helping them receive specialized treatment by evacuating them to more equipped hospitals. He also helped organize availability of medical facilities for soldiers, IDPS, and surrounding communities.
From 1991 through 2003, he wasdispatched to France as the representative of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) where he canvassed humanitarian and political awareness and support, as well as international assistance. Throughout his position as representative, and in order to help maintain himself, as well as the movement, he trained and worked as a clinical hematologist. In 2004, Ambassador Akec continued his medical training in Minnesota, USA, where he began focusing on his specialty. This path was interrupted in 2006 when he was recalled as part of the Powers-sharing arrangements in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and began his international career as he was appointed an Ambassador in the Government of National Unity (GONU). His international relations career continued as he was posted to the United Nations Permanent Mission for Sudan as the deputy Permanent Representative in 2007. His service was recognized when he was appointed Charge D’ Affaires of the Republic of Sudan in Washington, D.C. from 2008 to 2010.
Watch Jon Jarvis’ talk »
Jon Jarvis
National Park Service Director
National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis began his career in 1976 as a seasonal interpreter in Washington, D.C. Today, he manages that agency whose mission is to preserve America’s most treasured landscapes and cultural icons. Today, he is responsible for overseeing more than 22,000 employees, a $3 billion budget, and 401 national parks that attract more than 280 million visitors every year.
Read More
Jarvis’s 37-year career has taken him from ranger to resource management specialist to park biologist to superintendent of parks such as Craters of the Moon, North Cascades, Wrangell-St. Elias, and Mount Rainier. Before being confirmed as the 18th Director of the National Park Service on September 24, 2009, Jarvis served as regional director of the bureau’s Pacific West Region.
Watch Leigh’s talk »
Leigh Gallagher
Fortune Magazine Editor
Leigh Gallagher is an Assistant Managing Editor at Fortune magazine. She is a cochair of the Fortune U.S. State Department Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership and a visiting scholar at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. Her first book, The End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream is Moving, was published by Portfolio in August 2013.
Read More
She is a co-chair of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, speaks regularly at Fortune and other business and economics conferences, and is a seasoned business news commentator, appearing regularly on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, CNBC’s Squawk Box, CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, public radio’s Marketplace and a wide variety of other programs.
Watch Susan Shaw’s talk »
Susan Shaw
Marine Scientist
A marine toxicologist, explorer, author, and passionate ocean advocate, Susan Shaw is widely known for her pioneering research on the toxic legacy of man-made chemicals in the ocean environment. An outspoken and influential voice on ocean pollution, Shaw dove in the Gulf of Mexico oil slick in May 2010 and has informed the national debate on the hazards of chemical dispersants.
Read More
She is currently leading a region-wide investigation on the effects of oil and chemical dispersants in the Gulf ecosystem and serves on the US Department of Interior’s Strategic Sciences Working Group, a team of scientists charged with assessing consequences of the oil spill and recommending policy actions. She appears in several documentary films on the Gulf disaster including Animal Planet’s Black Tide: Voices of the Gulf and Green Planet’s The Big Fix, the Official Selection documentary at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
She is credited as the first scientist to show that flame retardant chemicals used in consumer products have contaminated marine mammals and commercially important fish stocks in the northwest Atlantic. Her research has influenced policy decisions in the US and abroad, including the Maine legislature’s decision to ban the neurotoxic flame retardant Deca, and the subsequent US phase-out of the chemical.
Shaw chairs The Explorers Club State of the Oceans Forums highlighting solutions to the crisis facing the world’s oceans. She is a keynote speaker at universities and major venues around the world. In November 2011, she delivered the keynote address on marine pollution at the Swedish Society for Marine Sciences Conference Visions of the Sea that was attended by King Carl Gustav.
A Fulbright Scholar with dual degrees from Columbia University in film and public health/environmental health sciences, Shaw published Overexposure, the first book on the health hazards of photographic chemicals, in 1983 with Ansel Adams. She is a Professor at The School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, State University of New York, Albany, and serves on the International Panel on Chemical Pollution, a select group of scientists advising policymakers on the management of toxic chemicals in developed and developing countries.
Watch Paul Reed Smith’s talk »
Paul Reed Smith
Guitar-Maker
Paul Reed Smith – guitar-maker, musician, songwriter and the Founder and Managing General Partner of Paul Reed Smith Guitars, was born in Bethesda, Maryland. He made his first playable guitar for extra credit at St. Mary’s College. In 1985, he opened Paul Reed Smith Guitars. Today the company is the third largest electric guitar manufacturer in America.
Read More
PRS’ list of artist endorsers reads like a who’s-who list of contemporary musicians. Smith holds almost 100 registered and pending trademarks, several copyrights, and nearly two dozen patents.
Paul Reed Smith presides over research and development of new PRS products, serves as a mentor through motivational lectures to Maryland high school students, cherishes his role as husband and parent and is an accomplished guitarist who, despite his very busy schedule, has played with Carlos Santana, Mark Tremonti, Chuck Brown and a host of other notable artists and continues to write, perform and record music with The Paul Reed Smith Band.
Watch Paul Reed Smith’s talk »
Isobel Coleman
Council on Foreign Relations
Dr. Isobel Coleman is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York, where she directs CFR’s Civil Society, Markets, & Democracy program. Her areas of expertise include the political economy of the Middle East, democratization, civil society, economic development, educational reform and gender issues. She is the author and coauthor of numerous books, most recently: Pathways to Freedom: Political and Economic Lessons from Democratic Transitions.
Read More
Dr. Coleman’s other books include The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Security (Routledge Press, 2012), Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East (Random House, 2010), Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President (Brookings Institution Press, 2008), and Strategic Foreign Assistance: Civil Society in International Security (Hoover Institution Press, 2006).
Dr. Coleman’s writings have appeared in publications such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, and Forbes, and online venues such as TheAtlantic.com and CNN.com. She also writes the blog “Democracy in Development” on CFR.org. She is a frequent speaker at academic, business, and policy conferences. In 2010, she served as a track leader at the Clinton Global Initiative. In 2011, Newsweek named her as one of “150 Women Who Shake the World.”
Prior to joining the Council on Foreign Relations, Dr. Coleman was CEO of a healthcare services company and a partner with McKinsey & Co. in New York. A Marshall scholar, she holds a BA in public policy and East Asian studies from Princeton University and MPhil and DPhil degrees in international relations from Oxford University. She serves on several non-profit boards, including Plan USA, Student Sponsor Partners and the National Outdoor Leadership School.
Watch Mickey Edwards’ talk »
Mickey Edwards
Aspen Institute VP
Former Congressman Mickey Edwards is a lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He is also vice president of the Aspen Institute. Edwards served as a member of Congress for 16 years, during which time he was a senior member of both the House Appropriations and Budget Committees, and ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Foreign Operations.
Read More
After leaving Congress, he taught government and public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government for 11 years before moving to Princeton in 2004. He has also taught at both Harvard Law School and as a visiting professor at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute. Former Congressman Mickey Edwards will discuss “How to Turn Democrats and Republicans Into Americans!”
Watch Liz Ogbu’s talk »
Liz Ogbu
Sustainable Designer
A designer, social innovator, and academic, Liz is an expert on sustainable design and spatial innovation in challenged urban environments globally. From designing shelters for immigrant day laborers in the U.S. to a water and health social enterprise for low-income Kenyans, Liz has a long history of engagement in the design for social impact movement.
Read More
Currently, she has her own multidisciplinary consulting practice and is on faculty at UC Berkeley and Stanford’s famed d.school. Previous roles include first-ever Scholar-in-Residence at the Center for Art & Public Life at California College of the Arts, Innovator-in-Residence through the inaugural IDEO.org Fellowship, and Design Director at the nonprofit Public Architecture.
Her projects have been widely exhibited and recognized both in the U.S. and internationally. Named as one of Public Interest Design’s Top 100, Liz is also a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council and a 2012 Next City Vanguard. She earned architecture degrees from Wellesley College and Harvard University.
Watch Michel Nischan’s talk »
Michel Nischan
Sustainable Food Leader
Chef Michel Nischan wears many hats, from dynamic restaurant owner, award-winning cookbook author, and media personality to food policy advocate and non-profit foundation CEO. A proponent of sustainable farming, local and regional food systems, and heritage recipes, Michel has long been a leader in the movement to honor local, pure, simple, and delicious cooking.
Read More
He is owner and founder of Dressing Room, his homegrown restaurant in Westport, CT, and CEO and president of the Wholesome Wave, which is dedicated to nourishing neighborhoods by supporting increased production and access to healthy, fresh, and affordable locally grown food for the well-being of all.
Ason of displaced farmers, Nischan grew up with a deep appreciation for sustainable agriculture and those who work the land. As a professional chef and advocate for a more healthful, organic and sustainable food future, he has built on those childhood values and become a catalyst for change and new initiatives in local and regional food systems.
Watch Pierce Freelon’s talk »
Pierce Freelon & Apple Juice Kid
Beat Making Lab
Pierce Freelon is a musician, professor, and artivist with a passion for creativity and community. He has taught music, African studies, and political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina Central University. He is also the co-founder of Beat Making Lab; a program that has partnered with PBS to build music studios in international community centers.
Read More
Front man of the genre-bending The Beast, Pierce has been hailed as a “natural, engaging blend of jazz and hip hop,” by Jazz Times Magazine. An international ambassador of music-based community initiatives, Freelon worked with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz to bring Bebop to Hip Hop to youth; from Los Angeles to New Delhi.
Watch Rachael Chong’s talk »
Rachael Chong
Catchafire Founder
Rachael Chong is Founder & CEO of Catchafire, the nation’s leading online pro bono network that connects talent and purpose. Prior to Catchafire, Rachael helped start up BRAC USA by strategically utilizing pro bono talent. Rachael founded Catchafire with a vision to create a more efficient and effective social good sector, and a world where it is commonplace to serve for the greater good.
Read More
Catchafire has been featured in The New York Times, Mashable, NPR, FOX Business, CNN Money, Crain’s, Forbes, Fast Company, TechCrunch, Daily Candy. In 2012, Rachael received the prestigious NYC Venture Fellowship, the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award, and was named one of Fast Company’s most 100 creative people in Business 2012.
She has a Masters of Public Policy Degree from Duke University and graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College at Columbia University.
Watch Mason Peck’s talk »
Mason Peck
NASA’s Chief Technologist
As the chief technology advocate, Mason Peck will help communicate how NASA technologies benefit space missions and the day-to-day lives of Americans. NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist coordinates, tracks and integrates technology investments across the agency and works to infuse innovative discoveries into future missions. The office also documents, demonstrates and communicates the societal impact of NASA’s technology investments.
Read More
In addition, the chief technologist leads NASA technology transfer and technology commercialization efforts, facilitating internal creativity and innovation, and works directly with other government agencies, the commercial aerospace community and academia.
Peck serves as NASA’s chief technologist through an intergovernmental personnel agreement with Cornell, where he is on the faculty as an associate professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and teaches in Cornell’s Systems Engineering Program.
Peck has a broad background in aerospace technology, which comes from nearly 20 years in industry and academia. He has worked with NASA as an engineer on a variety of technology programs, including the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites. The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts sponsored his academic research in modular spacecraft architectures and propellant-less propulsion, and the International Space Station currently hosts his research group’s flight experiment in microchip-size spacecraft.
Watch Lale Labuko’s talk »
Lale Labuko
NatGeo Humanitarian
National Geographic Emerging Explorer Lale Labuko witnessed the unspeakable and spoke out. At age 15 he saw elders from his tribe in Ethiopia tear a two-year-old girl from her mother’s arms. The child was never seen again. On that day, he heard the word “mingi” for the first time, an ancient term to describe a cursed infant deserving death. He co-founded Omo Child to stop the ritualistic killing of infants and children.
Read More
Lale provides 37 rescued children from the Omo Valley of southwest Ethiopia with safe shelter, care, and education. He divides his time between Ethiopia and the United States, where he is a student at Hampshire College.
Watch Jeff Speck’s talk »
Jeff Speck
City Planner
Jeff Speck is a city planner and urban designer who, through writing, public service, and built work, advocates internationally for smart growth and sustainable design. The Christian Science Monitor called his recent book, Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time, “timely and important, a delightful, insightful, irreverent work.”
Read More
As Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 through 2007, Mr. Speck created the Governors’ Institute on Community Design. He is the co-author of Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, which the Wall Street Journal calls “the urbanist’s bible.”
Watch Monique Sternin’s talk »
Monique Sternin
Positive Deviance Creator
Monique and her husband Jerry developed the Positive Deviance approach over the last two decades. In addition to using the PD approach to fight childhood malnutrition in the developing world, Monique has promoted the use of the PD approach in various sectors, such as advocacy against FGM in Egypt, condom usage for commercial sex workers in Myanmar, and maternal & newborn care in Pakistan.
Read More
Positive Deviance is an approach to behavioral and social change based on the observation that in any community, there are people whose uncommon but successful behaviors or strategies enable them to find better solutions to a problem than their peers, despite facing similar challenges and having no extra resources or knowledge than their peers.
Since it was first applied in Vietnam, PD has been used to inform nutrition programs in over 40 countries by USAID, World Vision, Mercy Corps, Save the Children, CARE, Plan International, Indonesian Ministry of Health, Peace Corps, Food for the Hungry, among others.
Monique’s passion for the PD approach stems from its successful impact in improving lives of thousands of women and children throughout the world and providing a powerful tool for communities to solve seemingly intractable problems.
Watch JJ Rendon’s talk »
JJ Rendon
Political Strategist
Besides being a psychologist, communicator, publicist, and film director, J.J Rendon has gained recognition throughout the world for his remarkable work as a political strategist. Over the last thirty years, Rendon has advised over five thousand political campaigns for executive and legislative levels of government, both provincial and municipal. He has been the recipient of several honorary awards for his defense of democracy, freedom, human rights, and educational support.
Read More
His biggest and most important challenge has been to defend the democracy of his home country of Venezuela, from which he self-exiled 10 years ago as a rejection to the Venezuelan neo-totalitarian government. J.J Rendon has started a campaign to promote democracy in Venezuela by giving international non-profit seminars called “The Power of One” in order to raise awareness about the serious situation that Venezuela is going through and get people more involved in this issue.
Watch Claire Fraser’s talk »
Claire Fraser
Microbiologist
Claire M. Fraser, PhD, is a world-renowned scientist who launched a new field of study – microbial genomics and, through her ground-breaking research and pioneering leadership in this field, has fundamentally changed our understanding of the diversity and evolution of microbial life on Earth. Her collective work over two decades, has made sustained and transformational changes to our understanding of microbial biology.
Read More
In 2007, Dr. Fraser was recruited to the University of Maryland School of Medicine as the Director of the newly-formed Institute for Genome Sciences. Previously, from 1998 – 2007, she was President and Director of The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) in Rockville, MD and led the teams that sequenced the genomics of many important bacterial and parasitic pathogens and the first model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana.
Dr. Fraser’s seminal work on the 2001 Amerithrax investigation led to the identification of four genetic mutations in the anthrax spores that enabled the FBI to trace the material back to its original source. This pioneering effort catalyzed the development of the new field of microbial forensics. Since 2002, Dr. Fraser has served on five committees that have focused on the role of genomics in biomedical research and biodefense and she was a founding member of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity.
Her numerous awards and honors include the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award (2002), the highest honor bestowed on research scientists by the Department of Energy; AAAS Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005); the Promega Biotechnology Award, the American Society of Microbiology (2005); Fellowship, American Academy of Microbiology (2005); Mostly highly cited investigator in microbiology for previous ten years, Thomson Scientific ICI; Charles Thom Award, Society for Industrial Microbiology (2006); Pioneer of Science Award, Hauptmann Woodward Institute (2008); Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame (2010); Rensselaer Alumni Hall of Fame (2011); and election into the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (2011).
She has served on many advisory panels for all of the major Federal funding agencies, the National Research Council, the Department of Defense, and the intelligence community. Most recently, she is helping with Intel’s Science Talent Search Committee, and volunteers with universities, research institutions, and other non-profit groups because of her commitment to the education of our next generation of scientists. She graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a B.S. in Biology and earned her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Watch Austin Troy’s talk »
Austin Troy
Urban Researcher
Austin Troy addresses issues at the intersection of urban planning and environmental sustainability. He is author of The Very Hungry City, which looks at how cities consume energy, what makes some cities more efficient than others, and what rising global energy prices will mean for cities. Additionally, he is co-principal investigator of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, one of the National Science Foundation’s two urban Long-Term Ecological Research projects.
Read More
In addition to being an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Denver in the Department of Planning and Design, he is also Principal and Co-founder of Spatial Informatics Group, LLC, an environmental consulting firm in operation since 1998.
Educated at Yale College (B.A.), Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (M.F.), and University of California Berkeley (Ph.D.), he worked for twelve years as a faculty member at University of Vermont before coming to Colorado. Additionally, he is co-principal investigator of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, one of the National Science Foundation’s two urban Long-Term Ecological Research projects and he served for four years as a planning commissioner for the city of Burlington VT. Originally from Los Angeles, he currently lives in Denver, CO with his wife and two sons.
Watch Alexis Casson’s talk »
Alexis Casson
Artist Collective Founders
Alexis Casson wears many hats: cinematographer, editor, photographer, and she also dabbles in simple web design. As a creator and storyteller Alexis’ passion lies with using art as a way to tell the stories of others. Alexis loves the idea of dissecting social issues and creating works that explore topics far beneath the surface. In 2011, Alexis, along with business partner Caneisha Haynes, created the web series The Peculiar Kind.
Read More
The series candidly explores the lives and experiences of queer women of color with eye-opening and unscripted conversations. She has also produced a documentary, The Glamourbaby Diaries, which explores ways young women can redefine glamor.
Watch Andy Shallal’s talk »
Andy Shallal
Busboys and Poets Founder
Andy Shallal moved to the U.S. from Iraq when he was 11 years old—the same year that Saddam Hussein came to power in his native country. In 2005 he opened Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C. Andy’s mission for this restaurant was to have a gathering place for people of all different incomes, races, and identities to come together and exchange ideas about social and political issues. Busboys and Poets today remains a popular restaurant and community resource for artists, activists, writers, thinkers, and dreamers.
Read More
After graduating from high school, Andy got into medical school at Howard University in Washington, D.C., but soon decided that it was not for him. He wasn’t afraid to leave what many would consider a prestigious and stable career in the medical field. But Andy was set on finding something he was passionate about. So, he moved out to the West Coast in search of something new and started working as a waiter. He soon realized that the restaurant business was something he really loved. He then decided to try his hand at opening up his own restaurant in Northern Virginia.
Watch Jimmy Lin’s talk »
Jimmy Lin
Rare Disease Warrior
Jimmy Lin, MD, PhD, MHS, is a 2012 TED Fellow and Founder & President of Rare Genomics Institute, the world’s first platform to enable any community to leverage cutting-edge biotechnology to advance understanding of any rare disease. Partnering with 18 of the top medical institutions, such as Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, and Stanford, RGI helps custom design personalized research projects for diseases so rare that no organization exists to help.
Read More
Dr. Lin is also a medical school faculty member at the Washington University in St. Louis and led the computational analysis of the first ever exome sequenching studies for any human disease at Johns Hopkins. He has numerous publications in Science, Nature, Cell, Nature Genetics, and Nature Biotechnology, and has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and the Huffington Post.
Watch Jennifer Golbeck’s talk »
Jennifer Golbeck
Human-Computer Researcher
Jennifer Golbeck is Director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab and an Associate Professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research has focused on developing computational methods for inferring information about people and their relationships online. She uses this both to develop personalized web applications and to inform users about the hidden information they unknowingly divulge through their activities.
Read More
Jennifer’s most recent book is “Analyzing the Social Web”.
Watch Henry Evan’s talk »
Henry Evans & Chad Jenkins
Robotics Engineer
Henry Evans was a healthy 40 year-old father of four when he experienced a stem-brain stroke, caused by an unknown genetic birth defect, and woke up with extensive paralysis. Today, he is non-vocal, but is able to move his head and one finger. Odest Chadwicke Jenkins, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Brown University. They will be showcasing the power of robots to assist those with severe physical disabilities.
Read More
Currently, Henry uses a head tracker to operate a variety of experimental user interfaces. These interfaces allow him to directly move the robot’s body, including its arms and head. They also let him invoke autonomous actions, such as navigating in a room and reaching out to a location.
Watch Derek Braun’s talk »
Derek Braun
Deaf Scientist
Derek Braun is a professor and geneticist at Gallaudet University’s Department of Science, Technology and Mathematics. Gallaudet is the world’s only liberal arts university for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. He oversees the Molecular Genetics Laboratory, where deaf undergraduate students perform research alongside deaf faculty. Research interests include mutations in the connexin 26 gene, which are responsible for up to half of congenital deafness in many world populations.
Read More
Prof. Braun is investigating whether its genetics, population structure, or evolutionary pressure is driving its prevalence in different worldwide populations.
Watch Chris Ullman’s talk »
Chris Ullman
World Champion Whistler
Chris Ullman is the four-time national and international whistling champion. From the steps of the U.S. Capitol, where he performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, to an Oval Office serenade of President George W. Bush, as well as 350 personalized Happy Birthday whistles a year, Chris rejoices in sharing his art with people around the world. By day, Chris is a Managing Director at The Carlyle Group, a global alternative asset manager.
Read More
Chris Ullman is the four-time national and international whistling champion. From the steps of the U.S. Capitol, where he performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, to an Oval Office serenade of President George W. Bush, as well as 350 personalized Happy Birthday whistles a year, Chris rejoices in sharing his art with people around the world. Chris started his puckered pursuits at age five, whistled incessantly while delivering newspapers as a teen, jammed with jazz bands in college, and worked the open mike circuit in his Washington, DC home. He has appeared on The Tonight Show, The Today Show, CNN, NPR, Voice of America, and hundreds of talk radio programs. His repertoire includes classical, blues, jazz, Broadway and rock. In November 2003, Chris released his debut CD, The Symphonic Whistler, featuring a 42-piece symphony orchestra. In 2012 Chris was inducted into the International Whistling Hall of Fame. By day, Chris is a Managing Director at The Carlyle Group, a global alternative asset manager.
Angel Gil-Ordóñez
Conductor
The former Associate Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Spain, Angel Gil-Ordóñez has conducted symphonic music, opera and ballet throughout Europe, the United States and Latin America. Currently, Mr. Gil-Ordóñez holds the positions of Music Director of PostClassical Ensemble in Washington DC, Principal Guest Conductor of New York’s Perspectives Ensemble, and Music Director of the Georgetown University Orchestra in DC.
Read More
In the United States, he has appeared with the American Composers Orchestra, Opera Colorado, the Pacific Symphony, the Hartford Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the National Gallery Orchestra in Washington. Abroad, he has been heard with the Munich Philharmonic, the Solistes de Berne, at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and at the Bellas Artes National Theatre in Mexico City. In the summer of 2000, he toured the major music festivals of Spain with the Valencia Symphony Orchestra in the Spanish premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass.
Born in Madrid and an American citizen since 2009, he worked closely with Sergiu Celibidache in Germany for more than six years. He also studied with Pierre Boulez and Iannis Xenakis in France. Mr. Gil-Ordóñez serves as advisor for education and programming for Trinitate Philarmonia, a program in Leon, Mexico, modeled on Venezuela’s El Sistema, conducting its youth orchestra and choir several weeks per year.
A specialist in the Spanish repertoire, Mr. Gil-Ordóñez has recorded four CDs devoted to Spanish composers, in addition to PostClassical Ensemble’s Virgil Thomson and Copland CD/DVDs on Naxos (Artist of the Week for both releases).
In 2006, the king of Spain awarded Mr. Gil-Ordóñez the country’s highest civilian decoration, the Royal Order of Queen Isabella, for his work in advancing Spanish culture around the world, in particular for performing and teaching Spanish music in its cultural context. Mr. Gil-Ordóñez received a WAMMIE award from the Washington DC association of professional musicians in the category of best conductor in 2011.
Watch Karen Rennich’s talk »
Karen Rennich
Bee Keeper & Scientist
As the Project Manager of the Bee Informed Partnership and the APHIS National Survey, Karen Rennich is based out of the University of Maryland’s Entomology Department. She works closely with all members of the BIP team and other organizations throughout the U.S. and gets to tackle everything from data analysis to field work and all jobs in between to keep BIP’s goals in sight and to keep the project moving forward.
Read More
She has a B.S. in Ocean Engineering from Purdue University and an M.S. in Ocean Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University. She designed and worked on large, underwater Navy sensor systems while she was employed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for 14 years. She has been a beekeeper for 7 years and manages 12 colonies at home.
Watch Juan Llanos’s talk »
Juan Llanos
Bitcoin Expert
A Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist, Juan has over a decade’s experience of building and managing AML/CFT and regulatory compliance programs for multiple international jurisdictions, including Canada, Italy, the United States and Spain, and is recognized as a pioneer in the development of compliance and risk management best practices for the money transfer industry. He is a member of the Bitcoin Foundation’s Regulatory Affairs Committee, and writes about risk and virtual currencies.
Read More
Juan is the co-founder, EVP and Compliance Officer of Unidos Financial Services, Inc., an innovative financial services and technology provider catering to merchants and under-banked end consumers in the USA and Latin America. He is responsible for the formulation and execution of the company’s technology strategy, as well as its AML and compliance risk management infrastructure. Previously, he was Chief Compliance Officer of Remesas Quisqueyana, Inc. in New York City.
Watch Michael Smith’s talk »
Michael Smith
Social Innovation Fund Director
Michael Smith is the Director of the United States government’s Social Innovation Fund, which operates under the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). The SIF is a CNCS program that mobilizes private and public resources to grow community-based nonprofits. Previously, Michael served as Senior Vice President for Social Innovation at the Case Foundation, where he led social innovation strategy, including investments, programs and partnerships.
Read More
Michael guided the Case Foundation’s entrepreneurial approach to giving, designed and managed creative campaigns to expand giving and engagement and played a key role in the design and management of numerous highly regarded public-private partnerships with the Case Foundation’s co-founders, the Obama and Bush Administrations, and leading corporations and philanthropies. Most recently, Michael led the Foundation’s effort to create the Startup America Partnership with the Kauffman Foundation and the White House, which so far has resulted in more than 30 state affiliates, 13,000 member firms and billions of dollars in resources aimed at making it easier for entrepreneurs to scale companies and strengthen communities.
Michael has also been responsible for Case Foundation sector-building initiatives like the recent Be Fearless campaign, seeking to foster more big bets and risk-taking in the social sector, as well as the Foundation’s effort to catalyze greater use of impact investing to drive social change. Before joining the Case Foundation, Michael worked at the Beaumont Foundation of America, PowerUP: Bridging the Digital Divide, Inc., the Family Center Boys and Girls Club, and the National Crime Prevention Council. He also served on the staff of Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts and holds a B.A. in Communications from Marymount University.
Watch Gerard Ryle’s talk »
Gerard Ryle
Investigative Journalist
Gerard Ryle is the director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Washington, D.C., where he oversees more than 160 member journalists in over 60 countries. In April 2013, ICIJ published leaked financial documents comprising tens of thousands of offshore accounts, in which many prominent international figures were implicated. That document was the product of a collaboration of thirty-eight news organizations including The Guardian, the BBC, and The Washington Post.
Read More
It is believed to the largest cross-border journalism collaboration to date. The document trove was more than 160-times larger in gigabytes than Wikileaks Cablegate of 2010.
Watch Ben Miller’s talk »
Ben Miller
Fundrise Founder
Ben is a co-founder of Fundrise. Ben’s responsibilities involve strategic partnerships, deal underwriting, real estate development, PR as well as setting the long-term strategy and goals for the company. Ben has 15 years of experience in real estate and finance, and he has acquired, developed, and financed more than $500 million of property in his time as Managing Partner of WestMill Capital Partners and President of Western Development Corporation.
Read More
Ben also started US Nordic Ventures, a cross-Atlantic private equity and operating company. Ben has worked as an analyst for Lubert-Adler, a private equity real estate fund. Ben was part of the founding staff of Democracy Alliance, a progressive investment collaborative.
Ben is also co-founder of Popularise, a real estate crowdsourcing website.
Watch Carrie Irvin’s talk »
Carrie Irvin
Education Entrepreneur
Carrie Chimerine Irvin is passionate about making sure every child has the chance to attend a great school. After a career in education policy and public education reform, she accidentally became an education entrepreneur when she and a colleague founded Charter Board Partners. The nonprofit is dedicated to improving the quality of public charter schools by helping them build stronger boards of directors
Read More
Charter Board Partners also aims to get more people involved in education reform by recruiting and training them to serve on public charter school boards. Their goal is not per se to promote charter schools, but to make sure the students in those schools are getting a great education by strengthening leadership and governance.
Watch Lisa Guernsey’s talk »
Lisa Guernsey
Early Education Advocate
Lisa Guernsey is Director of the New America Foundation’s Early Education Initiative. Ms. Guernsey focuses on elevating dialogue about early childhood education, in part by editing the Early Ed Watch blog, and spotlighting new approaches for helping disadvantaged children succeed. Ms. Guernsey’s most recent book is Screen Time: How Electronic Media – From Baby Videos to Educational Software – Affects Your Young Child.
Read More
She won a 2012 gold Eddie magazine award for a School Library Journal article on e-books, was a 2005 journalism fellow in the child and family policy program at the University of Maryland, and has served on several national advisory committees on early education. She holds a master’s degree in English/American Studies and a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Virginia.
A journalist by training, Ms. Guernsey has been a technology and education writer at The New York Times and The Chronicle of Higher Education and has contributed to several national publications, including Newsweek, Time, The Washington Post, and USA TODAY. She also blogs occasionally at The Huffington Post and is on Twitter @LisaGuernsey.
Watch Matthew Green’s talk »
Matthew Green
Cryptologist at Johns Hopkins
Matthew Green is an Assistant Research Professor of Computer Science at the Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on computer security and cryptography, and particularly the way that cryptography can be used to promote individual privacy. His work includes techniques to securely access medical databases, enhance the anonymity of Bitcoin, and to analyze deployed security systems. Prior to joining the Johns Hopkins faculty he served as a Senior Technical Staff Member at AT&T Laboratories.
Read More
Dr. Green has analyzed systems ranging from electronic payment systems to vehicle security systems. He has authored numerous scientific papers in the fields of computer security and cryptography.
Watch Laurenellen’s talk »
Laurenellen McCann
Sunlight Foundation
Laurenellen McCann is the Sunlight Foundation’s National Policy Manager, working to help build, expand, and support transparency and, in particular, open data initiatives around the country and the world. She leads Sunlight’s work on state and local issues. Laurenellen also directs Sunlight’s largest annual community gathering, TransparencyCamp, an “unconference” for knowledge exchange between open government advocates that’s inspired similar events across the globe.
Read More
She speaks regularly on open data and access to information, and has been cited by Politico, WBEZ, and numerous other local radio programs and newspapers.
Prior to joining Sunlight, Laurenellen worked at NPR and affiliate stations. When not fighting for smarter civic data, she’s often found thinking about how we interact in public space and cooking with vegetables. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a BA in Government and a passion for the information commons.
Watch Anwar’s talk »
Anwar Dafa-Alla
Sudanese Activist
Anwar Fatihelrahman Ahmed Dafa-Alla,PhD, is Adjucant Professor of Computer Science at Sudan University for Science and Technology and Neelian University and head of Information Technology department at Garden City College for Science & Technology in Khartoum, Sudan. Anwar is a special guest of TEDxMidAtlantic this year and is beloved by the TEDx community for his giving spirit and tireless efforts to advance knowledge throughout the world.
Read More
He has translated more than 970 TEDTalks into Arabic and has organized TEDxKhartoum and TEDxYouth@Khartoum.
Anwar is deeply involved in efforts to develop the Sudanese intellectual community, and he reports about the happenings in Sudan to the rest of the world. He is restless, a multi-tasker, and a huge fan of Hans Rosling.
Watch City of the Sun »
City of the Sun
Street Musicians
City of the Sun was created in 2010, in the subways, streets, and local bars of New York City. They began as “buskers,” or street performers, and their driving rhythms and fluid melodies immediately caught the attention of New York locals. Describing City’s sound can be a bit of a challenge—words never seem to give it justice. It is distinctly eclectic—a mélange of flamenco, blues, and indie/folk rock.
Read More
The band began playing small shows at bars and cafés, where they had the opportunity to collaborate with the likes of Steve Kazee, Lucas Papaelias, and Oscar Isaac. It was during these early gigging days that City also began to gain an enthusiastic and devoted fan following.
The band’s influences include Rodrigo y Gabriela, Led Zeppelin, Al di Meola, Dave Matthews Band, David Broza, Pink Floyd, John Mayer, Paco de Lucia, John Butler Trio, Jack Johnson, Bob Dylan, and Bon Iver. Their smooth tones are accompanied by technical flourishes that only enhance the musical experience. Audiences are amazed by the skill the young self-taught guitarists have cultivated—fans have described them as “tremendous”, “powerful”, “mesmerizing”, and “a re-invention of acoustic music.”
Today City of the Sun is made up of lead guitarist John Pita and rhythm guitarist Avi Snow. The band’s notable performances include famed production Sleep No More, acclaimed Broadway show Once cast parties, and Paul Rowland’s Ford Project Gallery. In early 2013 they supported rapper/poet K’naan on his nationwide U.S. tour and opened for Chromeo and DJ Questlove at a Seeds of Peace charity event in New York City. This fall, they have been invited to play several TED Conference events and most recently opened for Marky Ramone (The Ramones) at Irving Plaza . They continue to develop their sound, building upon the guitar rhythm and riff foundation with vocals, percussion and electronic soundscapes.
Watch Jen Oxley’s talk »
Jen Oxley
Filmmaker
Jennifer Oxley was born in Hollywood, California and caught the filmmaking bug early – she made her first film at the age of seven. Since then she has directed fifteen short films for Sesame Street, as well as the award-winning adaptation of Spike Lee and Tanya Lewis Lee’s children’s book, Please, Baby, Please. Her latest film, The Music Box, was acquired by The Museum of Modern Art for their permanent children’s film collection.
Read More
Her work in children’s television includes directing and artistic credits. Jennifer is the recipient of an Emmy Award for her role as director on Little Bill, and she created the look and animation style of The Wonder Pets!, which won an Environmental Media Award and the prestigious Japan Prize. Most recently Jennifer teamed up with Billy Aronson to create Peg + Cat for PBS KIDS.
Jeremy Jones
DMVFollowers Founder
Jeremy Jones is a young entrepreneur from Bowie, Maryland. He specializes in brand marketing, promotion and advertising for local businesses, entertainers and corporations. In 2010, Jeremy and his business partner Matthew Talley jumpstarted the DMVFollowers brand. With various business ventures with AT&T, recording artist Wale, and a host of others, Jeremy has made a great splash in the business and entertainment culture in the D.C. area, as well as the Atlanta area with the brand GAFollowers.
Watch Jackie Savitz’s talk »
Jackie Savitz
Protector of Oceans
Jacqueline Savitz is Oceana’s Vice President for U.S. Oceans. In this role she oversees Oceana’s Responsible Fishing, Seafood Fraud and Climate and Energy Campaigns. She also recently led a feasibility study to develop plans for Oceana’s Save the Oceans, Feed the World project. Over the past decade, Savitz has developed and led Oceana campaigns including its Climate and Energy Campaign, its Mercury Campaign and its first pollution campaign which was focused on cruise ship pollution.
Read More
Jackie’s background in marine biology and environmental toxicology combined with more than two decades of policy advocacy experience provides Oceana with a combination of sound science and strategic environmental vision. Savitz has been interviewed by hundreds of news organizations worldwide about a variety of issues and was invited by The Washington Post to speak about alternatives to offshore drilling on a distinguished panel of energy experts that included Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes, API president Jack Gerard and Cambridge Energy Research Associates’ Daniel Yergin. She also has appeared on numerous news programs including CNN’s “John King, USA” and “The O’Reilly Factor.” She has spoken on climate and energy issues at two prior TEDx conferences.
Prior to working with Oceana, Savitz served as Executive Director of Coast Alliance, a network of over 600 organizations around the country working to protect U.S. coasts from pollution and development. In the mid-nineties, Jacqueline worked as an environmental policy analyst with the Environmental Working Group in Washington, D.C., where she focused on the public health effects of water and air pollution and authored a series of reports on water pollution, air quality standards, fish contamination and medical waste disposal. Jacqueline first worked as an environmental scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation where she spent five years working on Chesapeake Bay issues.
Watch Bayeté’s talk »
Bayeté Ross Smith
Mixed Media Artist
Bayeté Ross Smith is an artist, photographer, and educator living in New York City. He began his career as a photojournalist with the Knight Ridder Newspaper Corporation. His collaborative projects “Along The Way” and “Question Bridge: Black Males” have shown at the 2008 and 2012 Sundance Film Festival, respectively. His work has also been featured at the Sheffield Doc Fest in Sheffield England and the L.A. Film Festival.
Read More
Bayeté has exhibited with organizations and institutions such as the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Brooklyn Museum, the Oakland Museum of California, MoMA P.S.1, Duetsche Bank, Rush Arts Gallery, the Leica Gallery, the Utah MOCA, the Patricia Sweetow Gallery, the Goethe Institute (Ghana), and Zacheta National Gallery of Art (Poland).
He has also been involved in a variety of community and public art projects with organizations such as the Jerome Foundation, Alternate Roots, The Laundromat Project, the city of San Francisco, the city of Atlanta, the Hartford YMCA and the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency.
Bayeté’s accolades include a FSP/Jerome Fellowship, as well as fellowships and residencies with the McColl Center for Visual Art, Charlotte, North Carolina, the Kala Institute, Berkeley, California, the Laundromat Project, New York, NY and Can Serrat International Art Center, Barcelona, Spain.
His photographs have been published in numerous books and magazines, including Dis:Integration: The Splintering of Black America (2010), Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present (2009), Black: A Celebration of A Culture (2005), The Spirit Of Family (2002); SPE Exposure: The Society of Photographic Education Journal, Black Enterprise Magazine, and Working Mother Magazine.
As an educator, He has taught on the collegiate level and mentored youth through community based art programs. He has worked with the International Center of Photography, New York University, Parsons, the New School for Design, the California College of the Arts, and numerous K-12 and college level courses. Bayeté is currently the Associate Program Director for KAVI (Kings against Violence Initiative), a violence prevention non-profit organization in New York that has a partnership with Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn.
He is represented by beta pictoris gallery/Maus Contemporary.
Watch Misra Walker’s talk »
Misra Walker
Activist Artist
Misra Walker is currently a junior at Cooper Union and is a Fine Arts Major. Her work blurs the line between activism and art by interrogating the history and politics that make up the backbone of her community. She is the founder of The House of Spoof, an art collective in Hunts Point, The Bronx, that hosts gallery shows for emerging artists and provides free art classes for the community in honor of their friend Glenn “Spoof” Wright who passed away in 2009.
Read More
Misra believes in the creation of accessible safe spaces where people can express complex feelings and engage in difficult conversations.
