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).

Charles Darwin University
CDU Theatre, Casuarina Campus
Ellengowan Drive
Darwin, Northern Territory, 0810
Australia

Adam Turley

Physics Teacher

Adam is a Physics teacher at The Essington International Senior College – Charles Darwin University. Adam is an award-wining science teacher who came late to his profession after starting out in the military. With a passion for Physics and Chemistry Adam has taught year’s 7 through to 12 across the public and private education sectors. Adam’s key motivation is changing the way students view the universe they live in and the lives they live via a scientific perspective – achieving curricular outcomes but not at the expense of wonder and excitement. Adam has a Bachelor of Science with first class Honours in Chemistry from UNSW@ADFA and a Graduate Diploma of Teaching and Learning from CDU.

Bronwyn Clee

Heart Centred Strategic Leadership Consultant and Emotional Fitness Coach

As an advocate for social justice, Bronwyn Clee helped pioneer Restorative Justice in the Northern Territory in 2000. Results driven, she cares about people and fair processes. Her passion is in helping people solve problems by facilitating conversations that matter and helping unify teams. Her deep understanding of what it takes to motivate, to learn and to sustain cultural change is what achieve results. A straight shooter, she works in partnership with organisations and individuals who want to quickly achieve sustainable change. Her practises are informed by asset based community development, strengths based practice, restorative practices and executive coaching theories. Director of Bronwyn Clee & Co, her unique ability lies in bringing clarity to what really matters. CEO of The Institute of Hope, Bronwyn believes self care must come first.

Caroline Heske

Privacy advocate

As a senior policy advisor on privacy and freedom of information (FOI) for the Northern Territory Information Commissioner, Caroline is fascinated by the ways in which information technology is rapidly changing our social behaviours. Although her background is as a lawyer, she has noticed the extent to which ‘legal problems’ can often be dealt with more effectively by designing systems and processes with privacy in mind from the outset – a principle known as ‘privacy by design’. When, in the space of a month, two of her friends were independently subject to revenge porn blackmail attempts, what started as an attempt to assist one of them with navigating the legal framework turned into a consideration of whether there might be another way of framing the revenge porn problem. Caroline has degrees in Law and Arts from the University of Melbourne. She has worked as a criminal prosecutor for the NT DPP, an investigator for the Commissioner for Public Interest Disclosures, Acting Dir

Ioannis Michaloudis

Visual artist, Academic and Researcher

Dr. Yani Michaloudis is internationally acknowledged as one of the leaders in Art&Science and the first ever creator and investigator on the application of the NASA’s nanomaterial silica aerogel in Visual Arts, Design and Architecture. His career started in Paris as a researcher at Sorbonne University where he had presented his thesis in 1998 on the elastic relationships between Visual Arts & Design. In Paris he taught for 8 years undergraduate Product Design students in the “Arts Décos” School. In 2001, after receiving the Fulbright Award for Greek Artists, he moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the States. There he completed his Post-Doctoral research on Art&Science as a Research Fellow, whilst teaching postgraduate students. For the years 2012-2014 he was teaching students at all levels in Curtin University, School of Design and Art, Western Australia. He is currently coordinating the post-graduate program in Visual Arts at Charles Darwin University, Australia.

Joanne Wicks

Registered Play Therapist

Joanne is a Registered Play Therapist and a Registered Counsellor who is an Associate Lecturer at Charles Darwin University, School of Psychological and Clinical Science where she is a Unit-Coordinator of three post graduate courses in Play Therapy. For nearly a decade, Joanne has worked with children and families in a variety of settings including Aboriginal communities, private practice, private agencies, not for profit organisations and immigration detention centres in Darwin and on Christmas Island. She has also worked as a counsellor at Darwin and Palmerston schools. Joanne operates as a seasoned professional with clinical strengths in working with very young children to adults. Her areas of expertise include play therapy, activity therapy and therapeutic parenting. She also specialises in helping children and families heal from trauma, torture and abuse, and counselling through interpreters. Joanne is currently upgrading her Master by Research into a PhD, which focuses on res

Koki Yamanaka

Violinist

Koki was born in Yokohama, Japan in 2002. Koki started learning violin with the Suzuki method in Dusseldorf, Germany at age 5. Koki has lived in Darwin, NT since July 2014. Koki’s dream is to be a train driver in Japan.

Margaret Thorsborne

Author, trainer, facilitator, advocate for restorative problem-solving

Marg is a passionate advocate for healthy relationships, conflict resolution, restorative justice and relational leadership. With a long history first as a teacher and counsellor, and now as a consultant, she works tirelessly to help school communities and organisations understand what emotional health and wellbeing looks like, sounds like and feels like. She is widely recognised as an international pioneer and expert on school & workplace bullying, and has played a major role in the introduction of restorative practices into schools and workplaces in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, USA, Canada and UK. She is an experienced mediator and facilitator & has expertise in the management of trauma & critical incidents. Her work is informed by a range of disciplines including biology, psychology & social, organisational & management theory.

Michael Hempseed

Professional speaker, entertainer and entrepreneur

Michael is a highly sought after professional speaker. He has delivered many inspiring seminars on such diverse topics as overcoming failure, mental illness and resilience. Michael has a real heart for helping everyone be at their best, especially those who are really struggling in life. Funny, full of enthusiasm and taking a genuine interest in people are all qualities that make Michael a captivating speaker. In addition to this he hosts a weekly radio show called Lighthouse of Hope, dedicated to helping those experiencing mental illness. Visiting over 30 countries, including Ukraine, Cambodia, Morocco, China, India and Brazil has given Michael a wealth of real world experience. In particular his trip to India had a profound effect on him. Before leaving for India he was told that he would realise how lucky he was when he returned. Yet, he discovered a profound joy in India and when he returned he found that same joy was so often lacking in the Western World.

Nanako Yamanaka

Violinist

Nanako was born in Yokohama, Japan in 2006. Nanako started learning violin with the Suzuki method in Dusseldorf, Germany at age 3. Nanako has lived in Darwin, NT since July 2014. Nanako loves sports and is a hard-hitting striker in her soccer team.

Narelle Gosstray

Changing hearts and minds through baseball

Narelle has been helping girls and women chase their baseball dreams around the world since 2005. Playing second base for the inaugural Australian Womens Baseball Team in 2001, Narelle has donned representative caps as player, coach and administrator many times since then. Narelle is a member of the International Women’s Baseball Commission, Australian Womens Baseball Advisory Panel and Co-founder of the women’s baseball touring team, the Aussie Hearts. Narelle has represented Victoria, New South Wales and the Northern Territory in baseball, and is the first and only female coach in the Darwin Baseball League. Passionate about gender equity and using sport to influence social change, Narelle has developed a program for empowering Indonesian girls and women, and his excited about the impact that can be made through the universal language of baseball.

Philip Nitschke

Physician, advocate for voluntary euthanasia

For more than two decades Dr Philip Nitschke has been active in the Australian right to die movement, and has influenced the worldwide debate on voluntary euthanasia. In 1996, Dr Nitschke became the first physician in the world to administer a legal lethal voluntary injection to four terminally ill patients in 1996 under the Australia’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act. As Founder and Director of Exit International – a leading end of life rights advocacy and information non-profit – Dr Nitschke has written extensively in the area of voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide including two books, Killing Me Softly: Voluntary Euthanasia and the Road to the Peaceful Pill published by Penguin and The Peaceful Pill eHandbook published by Exit International USA. His autobiography Damned if I Do with Peter Corris was published by Melbourne University Press in 2013. Dr Nitschke holds a PhD in applied physics from Flinders University and is a graduate of Sydney Medical School.

Simon Moss

Researcher who explores the root causes of mental illness

Dr Simon Moss is an Associate Professor at Charles Darwin University. His primary research interest concerns how characteristics of organizations and societies, such as inequality of income or leadership, influence the brain functioning—and ultimately the mood, creativity, intuition, engagement, honesty, and altruism—of individuals. To investigate these issues, Simon has published a range of books and articles in the fields of leadership, emotion, motivation, and integrity. For example, he is an author of “The negative side of positive thinking”, “Where should I work?”, “The Science of Management”, “Sustainable coaching”, and “Emotional Intelligence: Journey to the Source”. Simon was also a cofounder of Zenith Professional Development, a company that collated every scientific discovery that contradicts prevailing management beliefs and practices. Using this database, he developed a tool that identifies misconceptions in management. In addition, he has presented training pr

Simon Watts

Husband, Father, Sales Professional, advocate for making a positive difference in our community

Simon has lived in the Northern Territory for over 35 years and loves the people as well as the lifestyle of this truly amazing part of the country. It was late one night in 2014 that Simon had a life changing Epiphany which has lead him down a new path and one of making a real positive life difference. Aside from organising fundraising events, assisting community organisations and non for profits he also enrols others within the community to share his passion and do the same.

Steven Bird

Conducting experiments on the future evolution of language

Steven has journeyed to some of the remotest places in Africa, Melanesia, Central Asia, and Amazonia to record speakers of the world’s treasure languages. He is visiting Darwin, a hot spot of linguistic diversity and language endangerment, to explore new ways to keep languages strong. Steven has held academic positions at the universities of Edinburgh, Pennsylvania, Melbourne, and Berkeley. He is currently a visiting professor at Charles Darwin University.

Susanna Samuelsson

Veterinarian, business owner, entrepreneur, mother, wife

Dr Sue has been a veterinarian in the Northern Territory for 13 years and is owner of Gove Veterinary Services in East Arnhem Land. She is the founder of i-Vet, Australia’s first pet telemedicine service designed to support regional and remote pet owners, and those people isolated by disability and illness. She is passionate about utilising technology in creative ways to provide accurate assistance to people unable to reach it. She is also a strong advocate for sole charge vets in small communities, particularly those with families, utilising telemedicine as support for work life balance. Dr Sue has a Bachelor of Science degree, Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery and Masters Degree in Small Animal Medicine and Surgery from Murdoch University in Western Australia.

Taylah Hendy

Musician

Warren Corowa

Musician, entertainer, lawn bowler and passionate Territorian who loves to sing about hope, reconciliation, a better world and our beautiful backyard

Warren is a musician and artist living in Darwin in the Northern Territory. Warren completed his debut CD Arafura Sky featuring 5 of his originals in 2013 and is in the recording studio working on his next CD which is due for release in 2017. Warren is a wonderful mixture of nationalities! He has Aboriginal (Bundjalung), Sri Lankan, Jamaican and mostly South Sea Islander heritage. Warren draws on his deep love for his family, his freedom, faith and an overwhelming sense of hope to write his songs.