The speaker lineup for TEDxSnoIsleLibraries 2016 is set.
“Through the nomination and review process, we’ve got what I believe will be an exciting, thought-provoking and transformational program,” said Ken Harvey, Sno-Isle Libraries Communications Director and TEDxSnoIsleLibraries licensee. “The audience will experience a line-up of individuals who will stand on a TEDx red circle on the Edmonds Center for the Arts stage and share ideas they hope to implant in your mind or heart.”
The event is scheduled for 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Nov. 18. Along with the live event at Edmonds Center for the Arts, 13 community libraries will host livestream viewing along with four partner sites including Snohomish PUD auditorium, Everett; Everett Community College, Edmonds Community College and University of Washington Bothell. To ensure seating, registration is required for the Sno-Isle Libraries sites. Registration is not required for the four partner sites.
“We’ve heard some frustrations that we are just now announcing the speaker lineup, even though registration opened 20 days ago,” Harvey said. “This is something that sets TED and locally organized TEDx events, such as TEDxSnoIsleLibraries, apart from other conferences.
“TED and TEDx is about coming to hear something, not see someone,” Harvey said. “It is the promise of delivering and connecting with a day of ideas, not about speaker names, credentials or personalities.”
Still, Harvey said he’s pretty excited about who will be delivering those ideas.
“The speakers range in age from 16 to 64,” Harvey said. “They also range from a CEO to high-school students, from a horse trainer to a robotics team coach along with other backgrounds that serve as launching points for the ideas they will bring forth.”
Harvey also pointed out that the day is intended to be transformational for the speakers as well as those who hear and see them.
“The speakers are chosen by a team of Sno-Isle Libraries staff members, starting from a list of nominations that we solicit from the public,” Harvey said. “But that’s just the beginning. Once chosen, the speakers go through a substantial orientation and training to help hone the presentation of their messages.
“Many of the speakers from the 2015 event said this was one of the most valuable and transformational things they’d ever been involved in,” Harvey said.
The speakers for TEDx SnoIsle Libraries 2016 are:
Andre Feriante, flamenco guitarist, poet
Andre’s career path was set at 13, when he first heard the flamenco guitar. He mastered the art and has blended it with classical and Brazilian styles. He has studied with Andres Segovia in Madrid, given a private performance at Carnegie Hall, and performed the National Anthem at a Seattle Sounders game. This concert performer has also released 14 albums. Andre is artistic director of Leavenworth’s Guitar Euphoria Festival.
Andrew Ballard, growth strategist
Andrew loves helping clients understand why listening to the voice of the customer is just as important as delivering great goods, products or services. He and his wife, Sandra Ballard, launched Marketing Solutions, a research-based growth strategies company, in 1997 and have clients ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Andrew is author of “Your Opinion Doesn’t Matter.”
Betty Smith, aerospace engineer, advocate
Betty is a lifelong learner with an insatiable curiosity for the sciences and neurosciences. Now a senior systems engineer in aerospace for Boeing, Betty has 38 years of management and leadership in a range of projects, including weapons design and ways to improve soldier survival on the battlefield.
Darcy Ottey, bridge-builder, gift-unleasher
Darcy spent her college years studying anthropology and sociology to develop an understanding of culture and social change theory. She has dedicated her life to helping young people open the door to deeper self-discovery and claim their gifts, skills and strengths. Darcy was executive director of Journeys, an organization based in suburban Seattle, and more recently helped struggling Hawaiian teens through a gardening-based therapeutic program.
Dawn Shaw, author, speaker
Dawn is a public speaker and the author of a memoir, a web series and a blog in which she shares her unique experiences with adversity and advice on overcoming it. Her latest book is “Facial Shift.” Dawn knows all about Icelandic horses, having spent years breeding, training and selling the beautiful animals. She owns Lone Cedar Icelandic Horses in Grapeview, Wash.
Ed Castro, musician, educator
Ed often heard the phrase “innovation through imitation” as a young musician, and the concept has defined his career. A founding member of the Mosaic Brass Quintet, he is both a freelance musician and a teacher at Soundview School. Ed is also a lecturer and affiliated artist at Pacific Lutheran University, where he performs with the Lyric Brass Quintet.
Ivette Bayo Urban, doctoral candidate, educator
Ivette is interested in how we teach with, and about, technology –especially as it relates to information equity, interdisciplinary learning, diversity and inclusion. She advocates for the role libraries play in supporting literacy and providing access to information for all. A doctoral candidate at the University of Washington, Ivette is a former middle school teacher from Miami.
Jeff Lynass, adviser, educator
Jeff excels at helping kids to reach their potential and find their passion for learning. He has taught and coached children from middle to senior high school for 21 years at Lake Stevens School District. He advises two robotics clubs and has been an event partner for the Western Washington State VEX Robotics competition for three years.
Karla Hawley, music therapist, overcomer
Karla seeks solitude in wilderness and playfulness in people’s smiles. She uses music therapy to build communities within assisted living and memory care facilities, and to treat people who have suffered from trauma. Karla directs music therapy services for the Snohomish County Music Project, working with families and intimate community circles of youth who are at risk, in legal trouble or on the streets.
Kevin Bowcutt, hypersonics scientist
Kevin has been on the leading edge of aerospace science for the last three decades, whether leading classes of advanced engineering students or scientists. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and member of the National Academy of Engineering. Highlights of his 30-year career include leading the team that designed reusable space launch vehicles with the National Aerospace Plane program and investigating the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Kevin is now at Boeing Research & Technology.
Matt Poischbeg, mixed martial arts fighter, VP
Matt believes that much of his success in life stems from life and technical skills acquired as an at-risk teenager in Germany. When he came to the Pacific Northwest as a young man, he parlayed those skills to move up from his mail room internship at Sea-Dog Corporation and now serves as vice president and general manager for sister company Sea-Lect Plastics.
Rachel Maxwell, CEO, adviser, crowdfunder
Rachel’s driving motivation is to put some love into finance. She co-founded Community Sourced Capital, which Entrepreneur Magazine listed among its Brilliant 100 companies to watch in 2015. Prior to cofounding the company, Rachel was Deputy Director of Renewable Energy & International Law, an organization bringing together select international leaders to create clean energy and climate policy solutions.
Radhika Dalal, student, TEDxYouth organizer
Radhika is a senior at Kamiak High School. As a first-generation American, she takes pride in her Indian heritage. She is an intern at the Institute for Systems Biology and aims to pursue a career in science. Radhika is also a licensee for TEDxYouth@KHS, an upcoming school event that will focus on Kairos, or “topics of the age.”
Rilee Louangphakdy, college student, storyteller
Rilee is committed to helping and motivating others to emerge from their teen years transformed by their experiences. He has shared his stories of personal loss and gain in a commencement speech, at the 2015 YMCA Minority Achievers Program banquet, and to students at the Marysville Getchell High School International School of Communications. Rilee is a Marysville Getchell 2015 graduate and Everett Community College sophomore.
Robert Hoyt, aerospace technologist, CEO
Rob loves overcoming the big technical hurdles that we face on our way to becoming a spacefaring civilization. He co-founded Tethers Unlimited Inc. in 1994, and built it into a research and development firm for space and defense. He is now building a spin-off, Firmamentum, to commercialize in-space manufacturing. Rob has won more grants from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program than any other researcher.
Seconde Nimenya, author, diversity Leader
Seconde travels the world sharing a message of tolerance and peace, working to bridge the gaps between multicultural communities, and urging others to use the adversity in life to become better people. She advocates for diversity and inclusion in the workplace and education system. Seconde is author of “Evolving Through Adversity.” Her second book, “A Hand To Hold,” is a novel of love and redemption.
Sriharshita “Harshu” Musunuri, student, inventor, scientist
Harshu conducts research in thermoelectrics and has earned national recognition for her studies and invention. She was an intern at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is curriculum director of the non-profit Girls Rock in Science and Math. She is a 2016 Davidson Fellow Laureate, junior at Henry M. Jackson High School in Mill Creek, and student researcher in a University of Washington chemical engineering lab.
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