Theme: UNTOLD

At TEDxCLE, TEDTalks and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection amongst attendees, speakers and our community. TEDxCLE was founded by Clevelanders Hallie and Eric Kogelschatz in an effort to bring Cleveland innovation, development, and positive change to the world.

1511 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio, 44115
United States

Kasumi

Kasumi, a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow, is a genuine polymath recognized worldwide for her accomplishments as a filmmaker, visual artist, musician, writer and performer. Running throughout her work is an intellect highly attuned to the elemental symbols and gestures that constitute our memories, perceptions, and interpretations of a universe in which we find ourselves otherwise without guides. Her work is in collections and has been screened worldwide: from Lincoln Center with The New York Philharmonic to performances with Grandmaster Flash and DJ Spooky. BREAKDOWN, the 2010 Vimeo Remix Award winner, premiered at Carnegie Hall with the American Composers Orchestra.

Brandy Schillace

Historian and author Dr. Schillace writes about intersections of medicine, history, and literature. She works as Research Associate and Public Engagement Fellow for the Dittrick Museum of Medical History and Managing Editor of Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry (an international journal of cross-cultural health research). Dr. Schillace’s co-edited collection, Unnatural Reproductions and the Monstrous(Cambria Press) provides an interdisciplinary look at birth, and her book Death’s Summer Coat (E&T UK, Pegasus US), explores the other end of life through cultural approaches to death and dying. Her current project explores the science behind steampunk, that clockwork genre of gadgets and gizmos (and Victorian debonair).

Daniel Gray-Kontar

Daniel Gray-Kontar is a poet, rapper, journalist, educator, and youth mentor. His poetry has appeared in such anthologies as Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam (Three Rivers Press) Spirit and Flame: An Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry (Syracuse University Press), and on the sound recording Grand Slam: The Best of the National Poetry Slam, Volume One (Mouth Almighty Records). Kontar is also the 1994 national poetry slam co-champion.

Daphne Fecheyr

Daphne Fecheyr-Lippens biography includes a lot of bio. While getting her MS in Biotechnology she realized that she didn’t fit in as well as the rest of her classmates. For a long time she was looking for her passion, which she finally found after learning about Biomimicry. Now she realizes that she fits best within an interdisciplinary team, where she can bring a nature-centered perspective to solving problems. She is getting her PhD at The University of Arkon, the reason why she left her comfortable habitat of Ghent (Belgium). For her dissertation, which is sponsored by Parker Hannifin, she is learning from avian eggshells how to create novel UV-protective materials, and from hedgehogs how to absorb high impact forces. Together with the other fellows, she co-authors a blog germinature.com about anything related to Biomimicry.

Darius Stubbs

Darius Stubbs is a poet, playwright, performer, vocalist, educator and transgender advocate who has been living and working in Cleveland, OH since 2006. At CPT, he has been involved in the creation of over one dozen original performance pieces spanning the genre spectrum from performance art to fully-staged productions. He has also lent his talents as an instructor for CPT’s education programs including S.T.E.P, a summer theatre intensive for Cleveland teens; the Y-Haven Theatre Project assisting previously homeless men in recovery from chemical dependency to express themselves through performance and Brick City, a summer and after school theatre performance program for children living in CMHA housing. As an advocate for Transgender Clevelanders, Darius is actively seeking to lend his voice to the chorus of others in the city who are fighting to make sure that the “T” in LGBT does not remain a silent one.

Jeremy Umansky

Jeremy Umansky is the Larder Master and Wild Food Forager for Team Sawyer’s growing list of lauded concepts, including Trentina and The Greenhouse Tavern. In this role, he does everything from making fresh cheeses and yogurts, to churning butter, to curing meat, to fermenting and bottling sauces. Umansky also forges throughout the Cuyahoga Valley, allowing Sawyer to serve seventy species of wild fungi and use over 180 wild plants that grow in the region at Trentina. He cooks at Trentina several nights a week, and oversees Team Sawyer’s entire pasta-making program.

Lee Ponsky

Chief of the Department of Urologic Oncology at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio Lee Ponsky meets patients daily that "live with regret." His interactions with these individuals & his own family inspired him to take a year, get off the grid & he's now ready to share his advice for those looking to do the same. Learn how in his 2015 TEDxCLE talk.

Maggie Eisenstat

Maggie Eisenstat is an advertising professional, a mother, a wife and a proud Cleveland transplant. Born in Manhattan, she also spent stints in Jamaica and Florida before moving to Northeast Ohio in 2007. She is also the daughter of incredible parents who both, within mere months of one another, lost their battle with AIDS when she was young.

Natalie Leek-Nelson

Natalie Leek-Nelson has 25 years of experience in non-profit and corporate environments. She has been a Teacher, PR/Marketing professional, Admissions, and Development Director in the non-profit sector as well as a Marketing, Business Development and E-Commerce Director in regional and national corporate technology companies. Ms. Leek-Nelson accepted the role of CEO and President for Providence House, a non-profit crisis nursery for infants and children in 2001. Since assuming her role at Ohio’s first licensed crisis nursery, Natalie has worked diligently to improve the organization’s operations, programming, development, and community outreach efforts and in 2012 successfully completed $2.5 Million capital campaign for expansion of the Crisis Nursery. Her community involvement includes roles with the Cuyahoga County Defending Childhood Governing Board, Ohio City, Inc., the Ohio City Nonprofit Dialogues, and the Executive Committee of the West Side Family Resource Network.

Rene Polin

René Polin has more than 20 years’ experience in product design and development. He is the president and founder of Balance Inc. – a full-service product innovation consulting firm in Cleveland, OH.

Tony Jack

Anthony Jack has a BA in Psychology and Philosophy from Oxford University, and a PhD in Experimental Psychology from University College London. He then trained in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL, London and the Dept. of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis Medical School. Since 2007 he has been leading the Brain, Mind and Consciousness lab at Case Western Reserve University. In 2014 Dr Jack also became the Research Director of the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence.