Theme: Inspiring Curiosity

A mix of speakers from various background. All from the Cleveland area, to speak on what they do and how they work to inspire curiosity.

Shaker Heights High School
15911 Aldersyde Drive
Shaker Heights, Ohio, 44120
United States

Amy Hanauer

Amy Hanauer is the founding executive director of Policy Matters Ohio. She has a master’s of Public Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a B.A. from Cornell University. Before starting Policy Matters in 2000, Amy did research and policy work in Wisconsin, Colorado and Washington D.C. In addition to running Policy Matters, Amy does research on work, wages, tax policy, energy policy and other issues. Amy is on the board of directors and the executive committee of the national think tank Dēmos, the steering committee for Emerald Cities Cleveland, and the advisory committee to the national Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN).

Caira Lee

Caira Lee first earned recognition as a slam poet while attending Shaker Heights High School. She won first prize in the Cleveland SlamU youth poetry finals in 2011, earning the chance to compete in the national Brave New Voices competition. As a 12th grader in 2012, she placed first in the SlamU finals again and this time traveled with a team to the Brave New Voices competition in California. Her high school classmates voted her Most Likely to Change the World, and she gave the commencement speech at her 2012 graduation. In 2013, she won a spot on Cleveland’s Lake Effect Poetry adult slam team and competed at the National Poetry Slam in Boston. The same year, she began studying at the College of Wooster, where she majors in Political Science and Religious Studies. She founded and coaches Wooster’s first slam team, Know Eye Slam.

Dan Moulthrop

Dan Moulthrop is the CEO of the City Club of Cleveland, the nation’s oldest continuous free-speech forum. He was appointed to that position in 2013 after serving as a member, volunteer and forum moderator at the City Club for many years. Moulthrop, who lives in Shaker Heights with his family, worked as a teacher after graduating from the University of California Berkeley in 1995 and then as an award-winning journalist after earning a journalism degree from UC Berkeley in 2005. With Dave Eggers and Ninive Calegari, he co-authored Teachers Have it Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers. The book, published by New Press in 2005, appeared on the New York Times Bestsellers List and provided the basis for the 2011 documentary “American Teacher.” He also hosted 90.3 WCPN’s Sound of Ideas program and in 2010, co-founded The Civic Commons, a non-profit organization aimed at creating productive civil dialogue through social media.

Dan Moulthrop

Dan Moulthrop is CEO of The City Club of Cleveland, the nation’s oldest continuously running free speech forum. He was a co-founder of The Civic Commons, a Knight Foundation project creating a social media environment designed for civil civic dialogue. Prior to that, he was the host of Sound of Ideas on 90.3 WCPN ideastream. Dan is also co-author, with Dave Eggers and Ninive Calegari, of the best-selling book Teachers Have it Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers (The New Press, 2005), which provided the basis for the 2011 documentary "American Teacher." He's an award winning local public radio host, a former high school teacher and a graduate of UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. He lives in Shaker Heights, Ohio, with his wife and three children.

Hannah Belsito

Hannah Belsito is the Vice President of Destination Development & Community Affairs for Destination Cleveland, Cleveland’s Convention & Visitors’ Bureau. In this role, Hannah leads Destination Cleveland’s destination development efforts by working with community partners to enhance the visitor experience and strengthen the destination. She seeks to continually advance Cleveland as a visitor destination through organizational community engagement strategies.

Koyen Parikh Shah

Koyen Shah is an educator and innovator who directs the Center for Leadership and Well-Being at Hathaway Brown School. The center’s programming enables girls to explore what it takes to lead well today. Prior to the Center, she was a founding director of The Aspire Program. A college access and teacher development program at Hathaway Brown started in 2002, Aspire targets motivated and high achieving girls who are limited in opportunity because of low family income and lack of exposure to higher education. Koyen started her career as a middle school teacher at Hathaway Brown and in the Brookline (MA) Public Schools. She serves on the boards of the Cleveland Botanical Garden and is a Cleveland Schools Book Fund advisory member. She has an undergraduate degree from Yale University, is a graduate of the Shady Hill School Teacher Training Course, and has a master’s degree in education from Tufts University.

Koyen Shah

Koyen Parikh Shah is an educator an innovator who directs the Center for Leadership and Well-Being at Hathaway Brown School. Prior to the Center, she was a founding director of The Aspire Program. Started at Hathaway Brown in 2002, Aspire targets motivated and high achieving girls who are limited in opportunity because of low family income and lack of exposure to higher education. Girls who attend Aspire participate in a variety of leadership-building activities in academic classes and exploratory workshops during middle and high school. Aspire also offers interns working in the program an introduction to the teaching field. Shah has an undergraduate degree from Yale University, is a graduate of the Shady Hill School Teacher Training Course, and has a master’s degree in education from Tufts University.

Scott Mescudi

Born Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi in Cleveland, Kid Cudi began rapping while attending Shaker Heights High School and later Solon High School. In 2004, Kid Cudi moved to Brooklyn, NY to pursue his rap career. He released his first mixtape, “A Kid Named Cudi,” in 2008. The mixtape earned Kanye West’s attention, leading him to sign Cudi to his GOOD Music imprint. As an up-and-coming artist, Cudi contributed hooks and lyrics to songs by West and Jay-Z, including “Heartless,” “Paranoid” and “Already Home.” These collaborations set the foundation for Kid Cudi’s successful solo career. He signed with Universal Motown in 2009 and released his first full-length album later that year. Cudi earned his first three Grammy Award nominations in 2010, two for his single “Day ‘n’ Nite” and one for the collaboration “Make Her Say.” In 2012, he won two Grammy Awards for “All of the Lights,” a collaboration with West, Rihanna and Fergie.

Wesley Lowery

Wesley Lowery was born and raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio. He attended Ohio University's Scripps School of Journalism, and soon after graduation landed a job at the Boston Globe, where he was part of a team that received the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing. Currently, Lowery is a reporter with the Washington Post, covering race related issues all around the nation. He makes an effort to connect with his readers not only through his writing, but through social media on Twitter and Snapchat. Wesley's efforts to make the news accessible to individuals of all backgrounds has been truly remarkable, and we were proud to have him on the TEDxSHHS stage.