Theme: Explore. Discover. Transform.

TEDxOnondagaCommunityCollege is the first TEDx event held on the campus. It will consist of 12 speakers/performers over the course of a day and includes a catered lunch.

4585 West Seneca Turnpike
Syracuse, New York, 13215
United States

The Red House

Non Profit Theater Group

The Red House Arts Center (Redhouse) believes art has the power to build community and change lives. Everyday, we work across our community of Syracuse, NY, especially with underserved populations, creating opportunities such as acting roles, free tickets, and volunteer experiences. We bring the arts to students in struggling Syracuse City elementary schools reaching 2,200 kids each day. We are constantly growing and expanding in order to have the greatest possible impact on our community. Redhouse is a nonprofit, multi-arts organization dedicated to interdisciplinary works in the theatre, music, and visual arts. Redhouse is a regional provider of community-based arts education, with an emphasis on providing artistic experience for at-risk youth, individuals with disabilities, and families in need. We reach these populations through our public programs and community engagement initiatives by partnering with community organizations such as Syracuse City School District.

Anthony Massicci

I’m a first year OCC student majoring in Computer Science planning to transfer either to RPI or SU. Before this I was an Air Force Intelligence Analyst for 4 years with duty stations in Texas, South Korea, and Germany. During that time I worked on issues ranging from counterterrorism, cyberspace analysis, threat warning, and intelligence collection doctrine. While I gained a lot of knowledge about geopolitics and tradecraft from my previous job, my technical skills are mostly self-taught. I have an interest in cyber security and its impact on the greater society and public policy. I am also interested in the technical application of cyber skills and how they can be used to gather information and track targets.

Candice Dance

Professor Mathematics

Candy Dance is currently a Mathematics Professor at Onondaga Community College from Marcellus, NY. She has a BA in Mathematics from SUNY Geneseo and a MS in Mathematics Education from Syracuse University. She has earned many awards throughout her 33 year career at OCC including SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, NISOD Excellence Award, Trustee Recognition Award and AMATYC Teaching Excellence Award. In her free time she loves to travel the world with her husband and spend ample time with her kids and two grandchildren.

Christine Braunberger

Professor

Dr. Christine Braunberger is an English Professor at Onondaga Community College and a published author.

Clayton Bourassa

Electrical Designer

Clayton began playing the piano at the age of 6 taking lessons from his father. After giving up the piano in middle school, he began taking lessons in high school and competing in state competitions and playing for various recitals. He then attended OCC where he took lessons from Dr. Kevin Moore. Clayton now resides in Fairfax, Virginia where he works as an electrical designer and continues to perform concerts and various venues/recitals.

David and Cathy Owens

Peace Corp

Cathy Owens spent the last seventeen years of her career as an executive with a packaging company. She holds a B.A. in Microbiology and a Master’s Degree in Public Health. David Owens spent most of his career in international public relations and cross-cultural communications. He has a B.A. in American History and an M.A. in Japanese.

Garth Tyszka

Professor of Mathematics

Garth Tyszka is currently an associate professor of mathematics at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, New York. He has a Masters’ Degree in Mathematics Education from Syracuse University. He has also taught high school mathematics, worked as an actuarial technician in the Pension and Insurance industry, owned a small business outside of Geneva, New York, built his own house and owned several investment properties. He has a seven year “hole” in his resume’, in which he traveled extensively in North America as a nomadic ascetic attempting to follow the most rudimentary aspects of Christian theology. It is from this experience that he draws his life force from. He hates waste. He is married to an extraordinarily beautiful woman and has a grown daughter and two grown step-children.

Jessi Kneeland

Personal trainer, Empowerment coach, and creator of Remodel Fitness

Jessi Kneeland was a Certified Personal Trainer (NASM) in NYC for 7 years, specializing in empowering young women through strength training. She worked with high profile actors and models, as well as moms and working women, to get strong and feel confident. Jessi is the creator of Remodel Fitness, where she now spends most of her time blogging and coaching clients to break through barriers to optimal health and self-love. Remodel Fitness combines cutting-edge exercise science with body-positivity, to help women learn how to achieve the body they want while loving the body they have. She has written for and been featured in many major publications, including Women's Health Magazine, Self Magazine, Shape Magazine, Health Magazine, Greatist, and Buzzfeed.

Kathy DiCosimo

Preschool Director

I operate a New York State licensed group family child care from my home in Syracuse, New York. After several years as a business manager, helping others operate successful companies, I took the plunge and opened Kathy DiCosimo Family Child Care & Preschool in 1995. Since then, I have nurtured and educated over 100 children. When I’m not writing lessons plans or sanitizing toys, I can be found baking, pleasure reading, or spending time with my very understanding husband.

Marcia Burrell

Professor at SUNY Oswego

Marcia Burrell’s interests are in investigating teaching mathematics through technology. During spring 2011 she co-presented a calculator workshop in Alagoas Brazil for high school level mathematics and technology teachers. More recently, September 2014, she presented on Gatekeeping in Mathematics, in Montenegro and she continues to investigate how pre-service teachers learn how to teach math to all audiences using technology and other resources. Since 2003 Dr. Burrell, has co-directed Project SMART (Student-Centered, Multicultural, Active, Real-World Teaching), a program, which supports professional development opportunities for teachers mostly in Central New York and across New York State.. She has traveled to Benin West Africa with multiple groups of students through a comparative education course offered at SUNY Oswego, and has provided innovative experiences for students to demonstrate their understandings of their world through travel.

Mark Zane

Professor of Sociology

Mark Zane is a Professor of Sociology at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, New York. For the past eighteen years he has taught a number of sociology courses including Introduction to Sociology, Social Problems, Race & Ethnicity, Sociology of Gender Roles, Popular Culture and Sports in Society. He has presented papers on college hiring practices, and contraception use at the Southwestern Sociological Association Annual Conference, presentations of transracial adoption in juvenile, young adult, and adult literature at the Eastern Sociological Society annual conference, and papers on presentations of racism in baseball literature, Jackie Robinson in juvenile, young adult, and adult literature, and professional baseball players moonlighting as musicians at the Annual Symposium on Baseball and American Culture in Cooperstown, NY. Outside of Academe, Zane enjoys songwriting and performing at Central New York cafes, restaurants, bars, libraries, and festivals.

Robby Swope

Founder and CEO of Rockstar Digital

Robby Swope is a passion-filled, creative artist, entrepreneur and technology evangelist on a mission to change the world. As the Founder and CEO of Rockstar Digital, based in LA, he coaches individuals, companies and projects on their digital strategy and executes social media advertising campaigns to build reputation and awareness. Over the past 5 years, he’s worked with clients like EMI Records, SONY Music, Project (RED), DJ Tiesto, Kenny Chesney, Taylor Swift, James Worthy, Decibel Music Festival, and many more incredibly talented artists or entrepreneurs that you haven’t heard of yet, but one day will. Throughout his work, he was drawn to understand and connect the dots between technology, identity and lifestyle. His mission, via the translation of his experiences, is to help the world adapt via positive disruption; one person, one piece of content, one app at a time. He is excited to announce that two of those movements will begin in early 2016.