TED Community » Heather Hankamer

About Me

A native of Dallas, Texas, Heather Hankamer grew up in the film business. For over 20 years Heather was the Managing Partner and Buyer for Dallas’ oldest and most successful independent movie rental store, Premiere Video.
Over the years Heather has been very active in the Dallas film community. From 2002 till 2003 she was on the Board of Directors for Women in Film.Dallas as Membership Chair and Topaz Coordinator. Heather Hankamer was also a founding Board Member of AFI DALLAS International Film Festival, which she served on from 2006 until 2009. Heather served for two years on the Festival's Education Committee and one year as the Chair of the Programming Committee. In the third year of the Festival, Heather was named Chief Operating Officer for AFI DALLAS.
In December of 2009 Heather was named Associate Director of the Hunt Institute of Engineering and Humanity which is housed in the Bobby B. Lyle Engineering School at SMU.
In the fall of 2011 she joined TEDxSMU as an Assistant Director. Since then her role has evolved and grown. In 2013 she was named Director and also runs several programs for the Lyle School of Engineering at SMU.
Heather is passionate about Dallas, reading and inspiring the next generation of thinkers and leaders.