Theme: RISE

TEDxLindenwoodU is a University TEDx event that will showcase Talks presented by Lindenwood University faculty, staff, students, and members of the St.Charles and surrounding communities. This event will be a half-day event filled with powerful talks, performances, entertainment and conversation!

Emerson Black Box Theater
2300 West Clay
St.Charles, MO, Missouri, 63301
United States

Alison Albee

Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences

Alison Albee is an Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences who teaches Cell Biology and Genetics. Dr. Albee received her bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology from Purdue University and her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She came to St. Louis to pursue her post-doctoral studies at Washington University in St. Louis before joining the faculty at Lindenwood University in 2013. In her free time, Dr. Albee enjoys challenging herself in a wide variety of ways, whether it be physically through chasing after her 1-year old and 4-year old, mentally through board games and crossword puzzles, or creatively through designing and sewing projects.

Andrea Boyles

Associate Professor, Criminal Justice

Dr. Boyles received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Kansas State University with concentrations in Gender and Criminology. Her research interests are social inequality; gender; the intersection of race, class, and gender; criminology; incarceration; race, place, and policing, ethnography, and community disorder. She has taught a broad series of courses in Anthropology, Sociology, and Criminal Justice ranging from Culture and Communication, Sociocultural Theory, and the Sociology of Poverty and Conflict to Policing, Victimology, Race, Ethnicity, and Gender and Public Policy in Criminal Justice. Dr. Boyles has also taught within the Missouri prison system and presented research on the effects of incarcerated parents on children. As author of Race, Place, and Suburban Policing: Too Close for Comfort, Dr. Boyles's current research hinges on community disorder with another manuscript under contract with the University of California Press.

Brryan Jackson

Visionary, Speaker, Ambassador

An international motivational speaker, native to the St. Louis area has an extraordinary story of survival. When he was 11 months old, his own father, who had worked in the medical field, injected him with HIV-tainted blood. offering no hope to Brryan's family, doctors diagnosed Brryan, then five years old, with AIDS. believing they had done everything they could to save his life, doctors expected him to die. By God's grace, He defied the odds and lives on to represent a story of hope, courage, and faith. One's choice is either victim or victory.

Heather Brown-Hudson

Associate Professor of French, English and Gender Studies

Dr. Heather Brown-Hudson, a Philadelphia native, is Associate Professor of French, English and Gender Studies at Lindenwood University in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Brown-Hudson received an M.A. in French Literature from Middlebury College and a Ph. D. in Comparative Literature from The Graduate Center at the City University of New York. In addition, as the faculty advisor, Heather enjoys overseeing the organization of engaging events, ranging from speaker evenings to the LU Monologues, to the annual LU Drag Show. Heather volunteers for two local St. Louis organizations, Bridgeway's Women's Center in St. Charles MO, and PRIDE ST. Charles. She is married with two young sons, Graham and Nolan. Her most recent publication is an essay in the June 2017 Palgrave MacMillan anthology The Absent Mother in the Cultural Imagination: Missing Presumed Dead, entitled "A Side of Family, Hold the Mother: Dare Wright and her Fictive Kin in the Lonely Doll Series."

Javeria Farooqi

Associate Professor, Finance

Dr. Farooqi received her Ph.D. in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from The University of Texas Pan-American. She has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards including UTPA Excellence, International Women’s Board, and VIP Star Scholarships. She was also a recipient of Texas Business Hall of Fame Scholarship. She has presented her research at both national and international conferences, including 33rd Annual Congress of the European Accounting Association, Southern Finance Association, and Academy of Economic and Finance. In addition, Dr. Farooqi has published her research in Journal of Investing, Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Quarterly Review of Economics, Journal of Economics and Finance, and Review of Accounting and Finance. Currently, she teaches finance, both graduate and undergraduate level, at Lindenwood University in St. Charles. She teaches Investments, Corporate Finance, and International Finance.

Justine Pas

Associate Professor, English

Justine Pas emigrated from Poland when she was a teenager. She attended high school in Southern California where she also completed her undergraduate education. Pas earned a PhD in American Culture at the University of Michigan in 2008 and spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow and then another year as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Oberlin College in Ohio. She joined the English faculty at Lindenwood University in 2010. Pas teaches American and world literature and her research interests include Ethnic Literature and Translation Studies. Her recent publications include chapter contributions to two scholarly volumes, “The Other Women’s Lives: Translation Strategies in the Global Feminisms Project” (with Magdalena Zaborowska, Feminist Translation Studies, Routledge), “Relaying Lem’s Solaris: The Politics of Relay Translations and Language Hierarchies” (Translation and the Intersection of Texts, Contexts and Politics, Palgrave Macmillan).

Lindenwood University Student Fashion Designers

Fashion Design Students

Michelle Benedict

Educator, Mindfulness Practitioner

Michelle Benedict is a mother, an educator, and a practitioner of mindfulness. She earned a Master’s Degree in Education from Lindenwood University and is currently a 3rd Grade Teacher in an urban school district in St. Louis, Missouri. Michelle incorporates mindfulness and meditation into her classroom lessons and has seen significant positive behavioral shifts as a result of these practices. As a parent for more than 20 years, Michelle has raised her four children with a supportive and authoritative style that she is proud to share with others. Every summer, Michelle takes her two youngest children on a month-long outdoor camping adventure to help her family reconnect with each other and nature. They have traveled across America, over mountains and across deserts working toward their goal of sleeping under the stars in all 50 states.

Patrick Wallace

Principal,Wright City West Elementary School

Pat Wallace is an educator who believes in the power of people. He has seen first hand the impact educators can have on youth, especially youth in need and he has dedicated his life to helping others. His talk, “Be a Zero” centers around the simple belief that if we all answer the question, “How many people can you live with not helping today?” with “zero” the world will be a better place. He takes this belief into his work as he has served as a Middle School HistoryTeacher, Elementary School Assistant Principal, and is currently the Building Principal at Wright City West Elementary School. Mr. Wallace is married to his college sweetheart Valerie, and together they have a beautiful daughter Aspen Grace.

Paul Wright

Physical Education Professor/Coach

Dr. Wright earned a doctoral degree from the University of Utah; a Master’s degree in Recreation Therapy; and a B.S. in Community Recreation and Sports Management. Dr. Wright is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the State of Missouri and specializes in Sports Psychology work with elite athletes. He is a full-time faculty member at Lindenwood University in the College of Health Sciences. Dr. Wright has been a Collegiate Coach in Track, Cross-Country, and Soccer. In May of 2010, Coach Wright assumed a new position as the Head National/Olympic Team Track Coach for Hong Kong China. His contract had him based at the Hong Kong Olympic Training Center through the London Olympics. In his personal time, Dr. Wright coaches the local high school’s cross-country teams where his athletes have qualified for the State Championships in each of the last five seasons – teams that have included 4 of his 6 children. One of his most memorable life experiences was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

Robin Grebing

Assistant Professor, Higher Education Leadership

Dr. Robin Grebing is an Assistant Professor in the Higher Education Leadership doctoral program at Maryville University.  Dr. Grebing has over eleven years of administrative experience at 2- and 4- year institutions.  She began her career in education teaching social studies and English in grades 7-12 in central Missouri.  In 1997, Dr. Grebing was recognized as Outstanding Middle-Level Social Studies Teacher by the Missouri Council for the Social Studies.  Dr. Grebing has seven years of experience working in marketing and public relations in health care, government, and nonprofit agencies.  Dr. Grebing holds a B.S.Ed. from the University of Missouri-Columbia, an M.B.A. from William Woods University, and an Ed.D. in educational leadership and policy. Dr. Grebing lives in St. Charles County with her husband, Dave, and their four rescue dogs.   They also have two daughters.  Dr. Grebing volunteers at the Humane Society of Missouri and has a passion for animal rescue.