Theme: Create- Engage- Innovate

TEDxCarrollwoodDaySchool is a TEDx experience for students in 6-12th grade along with adults in our community. The focus, as all TEDx events, is to inspire and spark ideas with our students. This year the theme focuses on Create- Engage-Innovate. We purposefully choose a topic that would have a wide variety of talks and ideas.

Carrollwood Day School
1515 West Bearss Avenue
Tampa, Florida, 33613
United States

Brad Ruffkess

Marketing

Brad Ruffkess is leading a new team at Coca-Cola whose aim is to make Coca-Cola’s marketing assets and resources readily available to help their partners meet their business objectives. Prior to this role, Brad was a Global Connections Strategist, working with the company's various brands and markets around the world to help deliver Liquid and Linked connection strategies that have social at the heart. Brad led the Connections Strategy on global IMCs including Coca-Cola Music, Fanta Play and most recently The Rio 2016 Olympic Games. In Brazil, Brad was instrumental in building the company’s most progressive Real-Time Marketing capability as part of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Prior to Coca-Cola, Brad was Director of Web Strategy at Merge Agency, helped communities in "Creating Bridges as Art" at FIGG in Tallahassee, Florida and founded the now defunct LazyCampus, a network of local portals for smart card enabled college communities.

Danielle Calhoun

Photographer/Blogger

Three and a half years ago, Ms. Calhoun first visited CDS as part of a huge shoe drive collection she was heading up. The shoe drive took her to Burkina Faso, West Africa. It was there that she realized there was more to her than than just a wedding photography business, and she began her adventure into Socially Conscious Wedding Blogging, Black Sheep Bride. The intention of this movement is to encourage brides, wedding vendors and society, as a whole, to dig deeper into their hearts and recognize the true impact their purchasing habits could have on the greater good. It’s said that the wedding industry gets over $60 billion a year (not including honeymooning or house related costs) and yet so little of that money amount is reinvested into society. BSB was created to provide brides opportunities to see the change they can have on this world, through creative decision making, purchasing habits, design alternatives and wedding vendors that support causes.

Eric Hollis

US Navy to Entrepreneur

Dr. Eric Hollis was born and raised in Silsbee, TX. He graduated from high school in 1983 and enlisted in the United States Navy and attended basic training in San Diego July 1984. Dr. Hollis served more than 30 years in the United States Navy as an enlisted member and as a Navy Officer. Dr. Hollis served on several U.S. Navy ships and traveled to more than 49 different countries throughout his career. Dr. Hollis retired from the U.S. Navy on August 1, 2014; his personal awards included the Defense Meritorious Service Medal (2), Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Navy Commendation (three awards) Joint Service Achievement Medal (two awards), Navy/Marine Corps Achievement Medal (two awards), Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Kosovo, Korean, and NATO medals in addition to various other campaign ribbons and medals.

Jeannie Pierola

Chef

Chef Jeannie Pierola was born in Ybor City here in Tampa. After opening her first restaurant, she then worked as executive chef at the renowned Tampa restaurant Bern’s Steak House and later SideBern’s. She is a four-time James Beard Foundation Semi-Finalist and one of just a handful of Tampa Bay area chefs who’ve been invited to cook at the prestigious and fabled James Beard House in Greenwich Village She has cooked for many prestigious people including former President George H. Bush, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and TV icon Oprah Winfrey. In 2012 Chef Pierola opened edison: food+drink lab in Tampa, Florida. edison is known for its innovative and inventive food and drink selections while maintaining a familiar and comfortable environment. In January 2014, Tampa Bay Times’ Food Critic Laura Reiley named edison: food+drink lab, “No. 1 Restaurant in the Tampa Bay Area” and referred to Chef Pierola as amongst the country’s best chefs.

Kari Wagner

Organizer

Kari Wagner is the founder of the America 4 Boston Prayer Canvas project and a CDS parent. Mrs. Wagner began the project after the terrorist bombing at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. With the help of 7 moms, they created a massive canvas (the size of a football field) with more than 250,000 well-wishes from around the globe. The canvas was hosted at the US Capitol and signed by both the House and the Senate as well as countless professional atheletes, world leaders, at-risk youth, cancer patients, senior citizens, prisoners and all walks of life. Mrs. Wagner is a former award-winning broadcast journalist, working with CBS affiliates across the country. She now dedicates her time to supporting mission work domestically and abroad. She is a founding member of the Meade Activity Center Advisory Board…helping to build a community center in her home state of Kentucky. Mrs. Wagner is also an ambassador to Nicaragua for Children Mending Hearts. She traveled to the country rece

Krissy Lloyd

Student/ Positive Phrasing

risten Lloyd is a sophomore who currently attends Carrollwood Day School. She is an accomplished musician where piano is her primary instrument. Kristen is also a multi-sport athlete, playing both basketball and volleyball at the competitive level. She is the founder and co-leader of Carrollwood Day School's Powerstories club. A club where Kristen leads her peers in discovering their true selfs via storytelling. Kristen describes herself as creative, an out-of-the-box thinker, authentic, and ambitious.

Leah Vicencio Brooke Bennett

Theater Students

Leah Vicencio Leah Vicencio has been attending Carrollwood Day School school since she was 2 and is now in 11th grade. Leah shows her passion for theater through roles in shows like Bye Bye Birdie, The Little Mermaid, and The Wizard of Oz, and as secretary of the CDS thespian troupe. Leah was awarded a superior for her duet scene at the district competition. Brooke Bennett Brooke Bennett is a junior at Carrollwood Day School and has been attending this school since kindergarten. She has found her place on the stage with roles in shows like Bye Bye Birdie, The Little Mermaid, and The Wizard of Oz. She is the vice president of CDS’s thespian troupe and received two superiors at the district competition this year, including a superior on the duet scene performed during TEDxCarrollwoodDaySchool 2016.

Parker Hayes

Student/ IT

Parker Hayes has attended CDS since kindergarten. He has recently found a love of the stage and performed in one-acts and the Wizard of OZ. In addition to the theater, he has always been drawn towards technological endeavors advancing his skills in programming and game design. As a balanced IB student, Parker also hikes, camps and leads an active lifestyle.

Scott Kelby

Photoshop

Scott Kelby is Editor, Publisher, and co-founder of Photoshop User magazine and is co-host of the influential weekly photography talk show, The Grid. He is also President of KelbyOne, an online educational community teaching Photoshop, Lightroom and Photography. Scott is a photographer, designer, and an award-winning author of more than 60 books, including The Digital Photography Book, parts 1 - 5, The Adobe Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers, Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques for Photographers, The Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers, and Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It. The first book in this series, The Digital Photography Book, part 1, has become the top-selling book on digital photography in history.

Tracie Horsington

Theater

Tracie Horsington is currently a senior at Carrollwood Day School. She has written two one-act plays, one of which ranking "Excellent" among the Florida Thespians' State competition, and two more scripts in process. When not playwriting, Tracie enjoys performing and assisting in theater productions, recently ending a run of "The Wizard of Oz". Having lived in several countries, Tracie has decided to continue pursuing playwriting and theater at the Savannah College of Art and Design."