Theme: 360 - Learning from All Angles

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

Loyola Marymount University
1 LMU Drive
Los Angeles, California, 90045
United States

Nes't Pas

The Harmony Project Saxophone Ensemble, "Nes't Pas", came together in 2010. A violinist, a cellist, and a clarinetist asked Mrs. Erin if she would teach them sax. Erin jumped enthusiastically into the project, immediately emphasizing ensemble repertoire. In the past five years, Nes't Pas has been invited to perform at the L.A. Zoo, Dodger Stadium, and countless Harmony Project benefit events. Nes't Pas alumni frequently attend rehearsals and stay involved with HP through this ensemble. Monica Burgos, a founding member, plays baritone sax and violin; Ivan Ignacio, soprano sax and clarinet; Diana Momjian, tenor sax and flute. All three perform in HP top orchestra. Maria Correa, tenor sax, is an oboist in the Harmony Project band. Erin Armstrong is a passionate teaching artist and band director extremely committed to commissioning and performing new music. Her students constantly amaze her by using the power of music to promote teamwork, self confidence, and community.

Billionaire PA

A name with a unique meaning and purpose, “Billionaire” seeks to inspire billions of people to speak life into their dreams and develop a "Wealthy Mind." He maintains his title as "P.A.", or “Production Assistant”, to remind people “A job title does not justify your success; so be careful how you treat people.” Billionaire P.A., Founder, CEO & President of Wealthy Minds, Inc., a multifaceted corporation that is continuing to evolve, is inspiring people all over the world through multiple avenues. Determined to change the world, Billionaire P.A.’s TEDxTalk will inspire you to “Talk less. Execute more.” He will motivate you to “Speak Your Dreams into Existence” and encourage you to develop a “Wealthy Mind.”

Bodo Hoenen

Bodo Hoenen is an EdTech innovator creating autonomous self-schooling opportunities for children in poverty, disaster areas, conflict zones, and areas that restrict open education. Motivated by his young daughter's self-directed learning, Hoenen realized children crave learning and when given the opportunity, will seek out knowledge and skills. He founded Dev4X's Moonshot Education Project 18 months ago, with a vision to create a personalized digital learning platform to revolutionize education for the world's most marginalized children. Hoenen and Dev4x have recently joined the Global Learning XPRIZE (GLXP) in an effort to pilot their learning platform through the $10M grant GLXP's provides for the best education solution. With his latest project, Hoenen will illustrate how we can leverage the natural teaching moments of communities to create learner-generated algorithms that teach any child, just about anything, no matter where they are born.

Carol A. Wells

Carol A. Wells is an activist, art historian, curator, lecturer, and writer. She has been collecting posters and producing political poster art exhibitions on a variety of human rights themes for over thirty years. Trained as a medievalist at UCLA, she taught the history of art and architecture for thirteen years at CSU Fullerton until a poster changed her life. In 1988, Wells founded the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, an educational and research archive with more than 85,000 domestic and international human rights and protest posters going back to the 19th century, including the largest collection of post WWII social movement posters in the U.S. Wells' TEDxtalk will focus on the power of graphics to combat public apathy and feelings of helplessness, opening up a truly democratic arena for political debate.

Chiqeeta Jameson

Chiqeeta Jameson is Director of Sales and Women’s Health Advocacy for SonoCiné, Inc., which produces an automated whole breast ultrasound (AWBUS®) technology designed to find small, invasive breast cancer in women with inconclusive mammograms due to dense-breast tissue or implants. She is co-founder of the “Dangerous Boobs Tour,” the presentation entity of the non-profit organization, “Each One, Tell One.” Chiqeeta graduated Illinois State University with a degree in Speech Communications where she was a member of the ISU Forensics Team. Having her breast cancer missed three times by mammography, only to later learn that earlier detection by ultrasound would have required less invasive treatment, transformed her life. She is determined to change the standard of breast health care by raising dense-breast tissue awareness for the early detection of breast cancer. Chiqeeta delivers a passionate, medically-based TEDx Talk entitled, “If You’re Dense, You Need to be Smart.”

Dr. Joseph Bailey

Joseph Bailey is an Edison Scholar at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and a Research Associate Professor at the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. He is currently developing machine learning algorithms to help improve searching for prior art during patent prosecution. Dr. Bailey also collaborates with talented students at the University of Maryland from business, engineering, and computer science to learn through creativity and design. He has a Ph.D. from MIT, a Master’s from Stanford, and a Bachelor’s from Carnegie Mellon University. Bailey will discuss the need for innovation and how we can better prepare innovative students by amplifying their creativity.

Jesse Chen

Jesse Chen is a technology strategist focused on strengthening communities, civic engagement, and leadership support systems. He is the co-founder and CEO of Powerline, an award-winning, next-generation platform that provides leaders and communities with a streamlined set of tools for leading, organizing, influencing, and mobilizing collective action in any kind of community.As a long-standing community activist, Chen has led or engaged in numerous efforts around student rights, hunger relief, workplace engagement, and governmental reform. Jesse currently serves on the Movement Circle steering committee for the Global Citizens Movement, a global community of hundreds of civil society activists from over 70 countries. He also serves as chair of strategic alliances on the national board of directors for Omicron Delta Kappa and was a US Delegate to International Civil Society Week in Johannesburg in 2013 and in 2014.

Laura Marquis

For nearly a decade, Laura Marquis was inexplicably sick. Motivated to find answers, Laura embarked on a journey of self-discovery, finding that the food we eat directly impacts our health and wellness. Armed with a degree in Applied Body Science, a passion for health, and a thirst for answers, Laura became a Nationally Certified Massage Therapist, and later opened her own fitness studio in 2009. Today, she is drawn to the kitchen by a passion to educate herself and others on the sugar epidemic, launching the very first refined-sugar-free dessert cookbook. Laura's TEDx talk will expose her personal journey as a sugar addict, reveal why the average healthy American, regardless of their measurements, really isn't healthy; and examine why, despite modern medicine, obesity and disease still prevail at a rapid rate.

Leo Flowers

A comedic powerhouse and masterful storyteller, Leo was host of TEDxLoyolaMarymountU:360. Originally from Chicago, he began his comedy career in Los Angeles quickly working his way into major clubs and theaters across the country. His delivery has been described as “smooth and deliberate,” his comedy, “philosophically funny.” Leo has toured on the “Shaved and Depraved Comedy Tour” and can be heard on the Laughing Skull Comedy album. Captivating audiences of all demographics, Leo Flowers has performed in Japan for the U.S. troops, at the Montreal Comedy Festival and has made numerous television appearances: FOX’s “Bones”, “Comics Unleashed w/Byron Allen; MTV’s “Sports Blender;” and was a panelist on "The Up Down" on the E! Network. In 2014 he also hosted "Staan Dup" on Starz and was featured on "Last Call with Carson Daily."

Mandela Schumacher-Hodge

During her time as a middle school teacher in South Central Los Angeles and Pacoima, CA, Mandela earned a Master's Degree in Education Administration and Policy, and was admitted into a top six Ph.D. education program. Thereafter, she co-founded the edtech startup, Tioki, which became dubbed “The LinkedIn for Educators.” In 2013, Mandela was appointed the Global Director of Education Entrepreneurs at UP Global (now Techstars). Within the first year, her team scaled the organization from three to six continents, solidifying it as the largest initiative in the world dedicated to teaching people how to use entrepreneurship to improve education. In 2014, Mandela was named to the Forbes “30 Under 30 in Education” list, a distinction recognizing her influential accomplishments at the intersection of education, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Margaret Martin

Margaret Martin is a doctor of public health. She is the Founder and Director of Advocacy and Research of Harmony Project, a music-based mentoring program that provides instruments and tuition-free group and private music lessons to thousands of the most vulnerable children in Los Angeles as a means of positive youth development and social inclusion. Harmony Project has garnered two Presidential awards since 2009. Affiliated programs have launched across six states. Findings of her research collaboration with Northwestern University’s Auditory Neuroscience Lab show that early music training significantly improves cognitive function in disadvantaged children, especially for language processing and reading. Illuminating student brain development, Martin's TEDxTalk will discuss the transformative effects of music education for underprivileged children.

Nolan Bushnell

Nolan Bushnell created an industry when he founded Atari in 1972 and gave the world Pong, the first blockbuster videogame. Today his design credo—that games should be “easy to learn and difficult to master”—is inspiring a new generation of developers. A prolific entrepreneur, he has started more than 20 companies, including Catalyst Technologies, the first Silicon Valley incubator, and Etak, the first in-car navigation system—not to mention Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theater. In the process, he pioneered many of the workplace innovations that have long made Silicon Valley a magnet for creative talent. Bushnell was the first and only person ever to hire Steve Jobs, which he details in his 2013 book, Finding the Next Steve Jobs. A biopic, tentatively titled Atari and slated to star Leonardo DiCaprio as Bushnell, is currently in preproduction.

Raymond Ejiofor

Raymond Ejiofor, a recipient of the prestigious Gates Millennium Fellowship, completed a B.S. in Decision Science, with minors in Engineering Studies and Technology & Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and is pursuing a Masters of Public Health from University of Southern California. Raymond's performance credits include Toshiba, Samsung, Beijing Dance Festival, SummerStage NYC, Pharrell, Fitz and the Tantrums, Pittsburgh Opera, and Daft Punk. He was a founding member of August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble, named "25 to Watch" in 2012 by Dance Magazine. Ejiofor currently collaborates with various companies such as Lula Washington Dance Theater, L.A. Contemporary Dance Company, Union Project Dance Company, Pony Box Dance Theater, and MOVEMENTmovement.

Shea Emry

All-Star Middle Linebacker, Shea Emry, one of the fiercest and nastiest players in Canadian football has been simultaneously tackling on a new field: men’s emotional wellbeing. Sidelined with an injury, Emry battled trials of the past, including negative self-image and a lifetime of upholding the machismo standards of masculinity in professional sport. Immersed in a culture that expects men to mask their feelings, Emry recognized the toxic silence of manliness was effecting more than just him. Using his platform in professional sport, Emry founded Wellmen, a movement that proves being a ‘real man’ is about being a balanced man. Emry uses the seeming strength of an axe and vulnerability of tree pose blended into an experience which opens ones heart to the possibilities of transparency and freedom. His TEDx talk will inspire a rewilding of the culture of masculinity, one that accepts a more whole and complete human. No part, tear, feeling or grunt left out.