Theme: Revolutions

TEDxSalem IV, Salem’s official independently organized TED event, is an immersion experience at the intersection of technology, entertainment, design, science and art, that takes place Saturday, Jan. 7, at the Salem Convention Center.

"Playing on the idea of New Year’s resolutions, this year’s theme is ‘Revolutions,’” said co-curator Brian Hart. “We wanted a theme that was familiar but dynamic, simple and powerful, a word that would evoke a strong emotion but could be interpreted many different ways.”

“TEDxSalem offers attendees an opportunity to share their passions, discuss ideas and make connections,” said co-curator Carlee Wright. “We hope these connections will spark conversations, expand horizons and create change in our community, enriching the lives of the people in the Willamette Valley community. TEDxSalem is a day of talks, entertainment and activities that aims to inspire, engage and transform.”

Ticket cost includes a day of talks, entertainment, and interactive activities, plus breakfast, lunch, beverages, snacks and special TEDxSalem attendee swag.

Salem Convention Center
200 Commercial St SE
Salem, Oregon, 97301
United States

Alia Braley

Alia Braley is a nonviolent action educator. Through connecting with organizations like the Albert Einstein Institution, nonviolent activists are able to access the resources and knowledge that may help them to plan effectively and avoid some of the most common pitfalls.

Gina Ochsner

Salem native and storyteller Gina Ochsner is an award-winning novelist and fiction writer. She’s the writer-in-residence at Corban University, where she teaches writing and literature and directs the annual Portals Writing Conference.

Jerry Braza

Jerry is an ordained dharma teacher in the lineage of Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh, spreading mindfulness at retreats, seminars, workshops and classes. But mindfulness didn’t always come naturally to the retired Western Oregon University professor. He started to take classes on meditation and mindfulness. He traveled to India, China, Vietnam and Thailand to study. Then he mixed in his Catholic roots of contemplation and developed a secular mindfulness practice that he now shares.

Karen Holman

Karen Holman is a punk rocker, radio DJ, a researcher and chemistry professor at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. She lives deeply in all those identities.

Kathryn Cellerini Moore

Oregon-native and self-professed nerd Kathryn Cellerini Moore is a creative force transforming childhood memories into thought-provoking art installations. Drawn to art for its therapeutic values, Kathryn holds a BS in Psychology and a BFA in Allied Visual Arts from Oregon State University. She earned her Master's Degree in Studio Art with a focus on printmaking, sculpture and installation from Stony Brook University in New York.

Kelsey Juliana

Oregon-native Kelsey Juliana has worked on climate issues since age eleven. By sixteen, she was already a trainer and organizer for the Sierra Student Coalition’s week-long grassroots organizing camp where she inspired, taught, and collaborated with fellow youth on leadership organizing and activism skills. Her background includes work with Our Children’s Trust, iMatter and 350.org.

Megha Joshi

Megha Joshi is a teen inventor and classical musician who loves to discover new solutions and different ways to solve age-old problems. In her free time, she plays violin in the Salem Youth Symphony and South Salem High School’s Chamber Orchestra and Symphony.

Renee Mitchell

Renee Mitchell uses her words, art and performances to explore her multiplicity: her ethnicity, her gender, her thoughts, her experiences, her unique rhythms.

Teressa Raiford

Teressa Raiford is the community organizer and leader of Don’t Shoot Portland. From online harassment and threats against her life, to an arrest and trial for disorderly conduct, Raiford accepts and puts aside the costs of doing her job. A generational Oregonian who traces her family’s roots in the state back to the 1880s, she spent her youth in and out of foster care from the age of 7 through 18. Seeing inaction forced Raiford to recognize that more needed to be done to make minority voices heard, and more would be asked of her than just fundraising and marching.

Vanessa Timmons

Vanessa Timmons is the executive director of the Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, a nonprofit organization that works throughout the state to end violence in all communities. Timmons is also a mother, a grandmother, and a survivor of sexual abuse. She sees healing as a community-wide action, not just something that individual assault and violence survivors must do.

Warren Binford

Warren Binford works to improve the lives of children wherever she goes. A Willamette University professor, she taught middle school in South Central LA before Teach for America was a thing. She served abused and neglected children as a Court Appointed Special Advocate, and picked law as a career to protect kids.

Yesenia Gallardo

Yesenia Gallardo is an environmentalist and insect entrepreneur who seeks to further the dialogue about food and sustainability. She is a graduate of Yale University.