TEDxUWRiverFalls is about sharing ideas worth spreading from the perspective of our current faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

410 S Third Street
River Falls, Wisconsin, 54022
United States

Annie Mason

Annie Mason is an Assistant Professor of Multicultural Education at University of Wisconsin-River Falls. She works with pre-service teachers to understand how their personal identities impact their work with children, and she encourages all of her students to develop orientations toward social justice. She conducts research on the relationships among race, racism, school, and society.

Boyd Huppert

Boyd Huppert is a reporter at KARE TV in Minneapolis and host of the station's popular "Land of 10,000 Stories" segment. Boyd has been recognized with some of broadcast journalism's highest honors, including the national Emmy for feature reporting, the Scripps Howard Award and twelve national Edward R. Murrow Awards. In addition to his work as a reporter, Boyd has conducted more than 150 visual storytelling workshops at venues including NRK in Norway, TV2 in Denmark and TV New Zealand.

Brianna Pezon

Brianna is a 5th year senior at UW-River Falls and will graduate with her undergraduate degree in Social Work May 2015. She will also be continuing her education at the University of Minnesota this fall to pursue her Masters degree in Social Work specializing in Clinical Mental Health. Right now, Brianna is an intern at Valhalla Place working with those who struggle with addiction to opiate drugs, and hopes to work with those who struggle with all addictions in a mental health setting.

Claire McCarty

Claire McCarty, a professor in the College of Business and Economics at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, has spent over 25 years bridging the gap between management theory and practice. It's been estimated that up to 70% of U.S. workers are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces. The lack of recognition is certainly one reason. In an era of limited time, money, and energy, we need to focus on what actually works.

Jennifer Willis-Rivera

Jennifer Willis-Rivera is a Development Officer at Random Acts. Random Acts is a charity devoted to funding and inspiring random acts of kindness throughout the world. She is also a Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Wisconsin - River Falls.

Jim Madsen

Jim Madsen is the chair of the physics department at the University of Wisconsin–River Falls and an associate director of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, where he leads the education and outreach team. He has deployed three times to Antarctica, and presented science talks on five continents. He enjoys providing opportunities to participate in astrophysics research that range from one-time talks for general audiences to extended research experiences for teachers and students, including field deployments at the South Pole.

Kao Kalia Yang

Kao Kalia Yang immigrated to the Unites States when she was six years old after spending her first years in a Thai refugee camp. She is the award-winning author of The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir, and the forthcoming book The Song Poet. Yang is a graduate of Carleton College and Columbia University's School of the Arts.

Li Hongbo

Born in China’s Jilin province, Li Hongbo earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Jilin Normal University and his Master of Fine Arts in Folk Art and Experimental Art from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

Todd Bol

A UW-River Falls alum, Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin, is the creator and executive director of Little Free Library, a Wisconsin based nonprofit organization whose purpose is to promote literacy and the love of reading by building free neighborhood book exchanges.