Theme: Rethinking Tomorrow

TEDxICC is offering new ideas that would change the way we think about the future: Innovative ideas in entrepreneurship, technology, sociology, professional branding, theater and entertainment, education, green energy, and globalization. We invite you to join us at Independence Community College to explore new ways of looking at the world, and the future.

Independence Memorial Hall
410 N Penn Ave
Independence, Kansas, 67301
United States

Braidon Beard

Sophomore, Independence Community College

Braidon Beard is a sophomore at Independence Community College (ICC). He is a Liberal Studies major with plans to study communication or religious studies at a regional university. In his two years at ICC, Braidon helped create the Creative Writing Club, regularly M.Cs Open Mic Night, and holds a position as Student Government representative of the school’s debate team. Braidon is the top ranked debater nation after winning first place at the JV National Debate and Forensics Conference of 2016.

Dave Cash

Superintendent

Mr. David Cash joined Team Chickasha in 2014. He was previously the superintendent for Locust Grove Schools in northeast Oklahoma. Mr. Cash has more than 15 years experience as a school administrator. He is an alumnus of Oklahoma State University and University of Central Oklahoma.

Dave Trabert

Kansas Policy Institute

Dave Trabert is President of Kansas Policy Institute, a state think tank dedicated to the constitutional principles of limited government, free markets and the protection of personal and economic freedom. His published work includes "A Five-Year Budget Plan for the State of Kansas," “Student-Focused Funding Solutions for Public Education,” “Removing Barriers to Better Public Education,” “A Historical Perspective of State Aid, Tuition and Spending for State Universities in Kansas” and “Volume III: Analysis of K-12 Spending in Kansas,” a primer on K-12 finance. Trabert was an appointed member of the Kansas K-12 Student Achievement and Efficiency Commission. He serves on the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force and co-chairs the Education Finance Joint Working Group for the American Legislative Exchange Council. Trabert is also a member of the Speakers Bureau at The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice.

David Weaver

EVP Creative + Strategy Barkley

David is an idea machine, a relentless self-experimenter, a provocateur, long-time TEDster, and...according to many, "a darn nice guy." A native Iowan, David is an advertising and marketing veteran. He has conceived and implemented marketing programs and advertising campaigns that have differentiated companies in ways that drastically built brands and sales. With over twenty years of experience directing strategy for some of the most respected and innovative companies in the world, Dave's worked with a wide variety of clients, from technology (Samsung, HP, TMobile), automobiles (Nissan, Infiniti), sports (the Los Angeles Dodgers, Fox Sports Network), travel and tourism (American Airlines, Washington State Department of Tourism), and traditional packaged goods (Nestle, Hot Pockets). David has spoken on the TED Mainstage in 2010, TEDActive in 2011, TEDxPhoenix and TEDxOmaha in 2011, and TEDxSMU in 2010.

Deji Akingbade

Author

Born in Nigeria of the Yoruba Tribe, Deji Akingbade was an American Immigrant and now American citizen. Deji has a background in accounting, management, and fitness. He is the author of the book, Be the Verb-Not the Noun. He is a management and leadership consultant in Houston, Texas, where teaches his audience, typically students and business professionals, how labels limit our expression of purpose, passion and action.

Diana Kander

Professor, University of Missouri

Diana Kander’s family escaped from the Soviet Union when she was 8 years old. By the time she was an American citizen, she had perfected her skills as a capitalist — selling flea market goods to grade school classmates at a markup. Today, Diana is a Georgetown educated attorney and successful serial entrepreneur, having founded and sold a number of ventures. She serves as a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Missouri and a consultant to large organizations training them on creating a culture of innovation and getting their employees to think like entrepreneurs. Diana is the author of All In Startup, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling novel outlining lessons for launching successful products through a story of a struggling entrepreneur making his way through the World Series of Poker. The book is used by over 60 universities to teach entrepreneurship and innovation courses.

Jon Bachura

National Outreach Director, Youth Entrepreneurs

Jon is the National Outreach Director for the Youth Entrepreneurs Foundation. He is a strategist, writer, philosopher, facilitator, instruction and pedagogy designer, and amateur comic. He is an epiphany junky, awesomeness evangelist dependent, and a fan of the Oxford Comma. A graduate of Emporia State University, Jon has worked for small businesses and entrepreneurs since he was 10 years old. in 2008, Jon was accepted to the Koch Associate Program where he learned to apply the science of human action to education, management, and entrepreneurship. With a deeper understanding of economics and markets, Jon believes that all of us are born to solve problems for profit.

Monica McCarthy

Actress

Monica McCarthy is preoccupied with the age-old question of what it means to flourish in an increasingly noisy world. She is the founder of Cheshire Parlour, a haven for exploring big ideas via the lens of philosophy and culture, and the co-founder of a Philosophy & Cocktails Club in NYC. Monica speaks at conferences around the country on the topics of creativity, meaning, and connective expression, and she creates and facilitates community experiences for purpose-driven companies and organizations including Impact Hub NYC and Holstee. A former Broadway and television actress, Monica has also worked behind the camera as a video producer and director for start-ups, not-for-profits, and entrepreneurs. When she’s not lost in her own thoughts, Monica is happily getting lost in far away lands, having traveled to over 36 countries on six continents. Monica is currently working on her first book about philosophy and the theater and she welcomes all the coffee you’d like to send her.

Nurali Mamedov

Sophomore, Independence Community College

Nuraly is a 20-year-old international student from Turkmenistan. He was 16, when he got selected to be a finalist of Future Leaders’ Exchange Program. He spent the following academic year being a representative of Turkmenistan in Washougal High School in Washington State. After a year in the USA, he came back to his home country to finish high school. During his last school year, he became a finalist of the Junior Achievement Asia-Pacific Company of the Year 2013, where he served as the President of a student-run company. As a result of the competition in Kuala-Lumpur, Malaysia, among 17 countries, their company got both the first place and the FedEx Access Award. Mammedov is student at Independence Community College. He is planning to major in Industrial Engineering and further transfer to a four-year school. He became a Coca-Cola Global Leader of, as well as an All-Kansas Academic Team Scholar. Currently, Vice-President of Debate/Speech, Kansas-Nebraska Regional President of PTK.

Ralph Richardson

Dean & CEO, K-State Olathe, Kansas State University

Dr. Ralph Richardson became dean and CEO of the K-State Olathe campus in August 2015 after serving for 17 years as dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University. He is a Diplomat of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Specialty of Internal Medicine) and a Charter Diplomat in the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Specialty of Oncology). He graduated from Kansas State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in 1970 and served as a captain in the United States Army Veterinary Corps from 1970 to 1972. He completed an Internship at Purdue University in Small Animal Medicine and Surgery in 1973 and a Residency at the University of Missouri-Columbia in Small Animal Internal Medicine in 1975. In 1978 Dr. Richardson completed a Training Program in Clinical Oncology at the University of Kansas Medical Center-Kansas City.

Robert Litan

Economist

Robert Litan is a lawyer-economist who has had a four-decade long career in legal practice, as a leading economic analyst and think tank executive, as a foundation executive, an executive in the media business, and service in high-level appointed positions in the federal government. After spending most of his career in Washington and Kansas City, Litan returned in 2014 to Wichita, Kansas, where he is partner with Korein Tillery, a law firm based in St. Louis and Chicago, and an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations. The author or co-author of 27 books and over 200 articles on a wide range of public policy issues, Litan’s latest books are Trillion Dollar Economists (Bloomberg Press, 2014), The Good Economy (The Kauffman Foundation and Roosevelt Institute, with Bo Cutter and Dane Stangler, February 2016), and Financial Crises and Policy Responses (AEI Press, 2016).Litan is currently on the research advisory board of the Smith Richardson Foundation.

Rodney Walker

Entrepreneur

Rodney Walker, a Chicago native, has a Bachelors degree from Morehouse College and a Masters degree from Yale University. Given the obstacles placed before him as a foster child, Rodney struggled academically and socially in school. He has been a speaker at TEDxYale. served as a keynote speaker in Monaco, France for Ernst and Young, and has delivered a Keynote at the White House on the importance of financial literacy for urban youth. Portions of his story have appeared on PBS’s American Graduate Day, in the national education documentary Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon, and in It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired and Get Going by Chelsea Clinton. Rodney is the Author of an educational memoir titled "A New Day One: Trauma, Grace, and a Young Man's Journey from Foster Care to Yale".

Vibhavari Jani

Assistant Professor, Kansas State University

Vibhavari Jani was trained as an architect, interior designer, painter, singer, and as a dancer and currently serves as an associate professor in the College of Architecture, Planning and Design (APDesign) at Kansas State University (KSU). She is the author of “Diversity in Design: Perspectives from the Non-Western World.” In more than 22 years of practice in the United States, she has served the architecture and interior design industry in executive and administrative capacity and designed and managed large ($100 million) projects for major corporations, health care, education, government and hospitality clients. She is a registered architect in India. Since 2011, Prof. Jani has been working with her graduate students in developing rehabilitation facility prototypes for our returning soldiers and veterans. At present, her efforts are focused on developing a Farm Training and Healing Center for the wounded warriors for SAVE organization.