Theme: Uncommon

On April 10, 2015 we will host TEDxRVA : UNCOMMON at the historic Carpenter Theatre at CenterStage with greater accessibility and seating from years past. TEDxRVA will have increased engagement within the greater Richmond community. Andy Stefanovich, a Richmond-based corporate curator, provocateur and author, will once again oversee this year’s event, with an enthusiastic team of local volunteers.

Uncommon disrupts the common. It unravels old conventions, remembers the forgotten, overlooked and excluded. Uncommon allows us to have different conversations about different moments in different ways.

The speakers this year will explore the rare, the extraordinary . . . the uncommon.

Richmond CenterStage
600 E Grace Street
Richmond, Virginia, 23219
United States

Brig White and John McAdorey

John "Mac" McAdorey is an advertising creative and actor who has made several appearances in AMC’s Turn. Mac challenges himself to do one impossible thing a year. For 2015, he intends to raise more than $10,000 running the NYC Marathon for Alzheimer’s awareness, in tribute to his mother. Film director and advertising creative Brig White has produced work for some of the world’s top brands, including Oreo, Apple, and Volkswagen, and worked with many of the top agencies in America. He founded the social engagement agency Friendemic, which now has over 30 employees and works with BMW, Toyota, and Chrysler.

Gordon Stettinius and Terry Brown

Gordon Stettinius is an award-winning photographer whose work can be found in many private and public collections. In recent years, he has led photography workshops, taught at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and founded a publishing company that produces fine art photography books. Terry Brown is a commercial photographer and fine artist who was a member of the artist collaborative FEAST. Her work has been shown widely and is featured in the collections of the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, as well as many private collections. In 2014, Gordon and Terry completed an eight-year-long project: Mangini Studio, which features studio portraits of Gordon in various hairstyles, all photographed by Terry. Individually, these portraits are humorous, awkward, even nostalgic. As a whole, one may wonder if these two have too much time on their hands.

Rashad Lowery and Alex Mejias

As a leader in the "retuned hymns" movement, Alex Mejias has reintroduced churches across the U.S. to long-forgotten Christian poetry by combining ancient lyrics with original music. In 2011, Alex began collaborating with Rashad Lowery, a youth pastor at East End Fellowship who has explored using hip hop in congregations to build bridges between diverse cultures and generations. Rashad began rapping as a teenager and released his first album last summer under the moniker Shad-E. Together, Alex and Rashad have discovered common ground in the lyricism of hymns and hip hop, blending the sounds folk, rock, and rap to create an entirely new expression of sacred song. Their weekly co-writing sessions have blossomed from a few songs into its own project, HymnCity.

Anne Holton

Following decades of serving Virginia’s families and children, Anne Holton continues that legacy as Virginia's secretary of education. After earning her law degree from Harvard, Anne worked as a legal aid lawyer and became a juvenile and domestic relations district court judge in 1998. As Virginia’s First Lady from 2006 to 2010, she led a major reform of Virginia’s foster-care system to connect more children with permanent families. Afterward, she joined the Child Welfare Strategy Group at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, consulting on foster care reform efforts nationwide. In 2013, Anne was program director for Great Expectations, which helps youth in the foster-care system gain access to higher education.

Brandon Farbstein

Brandon Farbstein, currently a freshman at Deep Run High School, has set out to make a name for himself within the Richmond region. At just age 15, Brandon has performed in 13 shows with SPARC, the School of Performing Arts in Richmond Community, most recently playing Dr. Neville Craven in The Secret Garden. When not on stage, Brandon is a strong believer in philanthropy and giving back. Diagnosed with a rare form of dwarfism at just age 2, Brandon has a unique perspective on the world and aspires to inspire other others. Nationally, he serves as an Ambassador for the March of Dimes, while locally he works on the Deep Run Marathon Dance student committee.

Brig White

Brig White is a film director and advertising creative. He has produced work for some of the world’s biggest brands, including Oreo, Apple, and Volkswagen. He has worked with many of the top agencies in the U.S., including Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Tool, and the Martin Agency. Brig’s work has been honored by Cannes Lions, the One Show, D&AD, the Andies, and the Creativity Annual. His work has been featured in the New York Times, SPIN, Rolling Stone, Fast Company, Mashable, and many other outlets. He founded the social engagement agency Friendemic, which now has over 30 employees and works with BMW, Toyota, and Chrysler.

Courtney Ferrell

As a creativity consultant and international speaker,. Courtney Ferrell can be found standing at the busy intersection of ideas, energy, and people. Her latest idea, Girl Up, empowers young women to take full advantage of their gifts, their independence, and their possibilities in order to create an extraordinary life for themselves. In the past decade, she has worked intimately with thousands of young women as a speaker, teacher, coach, dorm mother, and mentor. Her mission is to provide girls with actions and language that will help them put common (and uncommon) sense into practice and become a sought-after person without compromising who they are.

David Bailey

David Bailey has spent the last 15 years using music as a tool in the reconciliation process. The Richmond native is the founder of Arrabon, a nonprofit that helps communities understand diversity and reconciliation through the vehicles of cultural training and music. He is an active member of a multicultural Christian faith community that endeavors to be a faithful presence for both the poor and rich in Church Hill. Over the last five summers, he has conducted an urban songwriting internship to create new songs with people of diverse ethnicities, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds in order to tell new stories and create spaces of belonging in a gentrified community.

Dr. Joel Levine

Dr. Joel Levine is a Research Professor in Dr. Joel Levine is a Research Professor in the Department of Applied Science at the College of William and Mary. Prior to joining the College of William and Mary in 2011, Joel spent 41 years at NASA. During that time, he developed models of the upper atmosphere of Mars for the Viking 1 and 2 Mars Orbiter and Lander Missions and worked on other missions to explore the Red Planet. Through his study of the atmospheres of both Earth and Mars, Joel explores the similarities and differences between the two planets, while continuing the search for life outside of earth. During his TEDxRVA talk, he will discuss the United States' plan to send astronauts to Mars for the first time.

Dr. Michael Bishop

Michael Bishop is a Richmond musician best known for his work with GWAR. In the late 1980s, Bishop started as the bassist for the shock rock band while in high school, creating the character Beefkake the Mighty. Bishop left the band to concentrate on Kepone, a post-punk group who released three records between 1992 and 2000. In 2012, he earned a Ph.D. in music from the University of Virginia, specializing in popular music ethnography and performance studies. Following the death of GWAR singer Dave Brockie in 2014, Michael became the band’s vocalist, the Berserker Blöthar. Today, he stays busy as a writer and learning strategist, a member of Kepone and a country and soul group called the Misery Brothers, and the bassist for Sarah White. He also works with composer J. William Adkins on music, stage, and animation projects.

Dr. Ram Bhagat

Ellen Cockerham

Ellen Cockerham is executive director of Classical Revolution RVA, a local nonprofit organization which seeks to integrate classical music with Richmond’s vibrant music and arts scene by performing in bars, restaurants, galleries, and other nontraditional venues. Her 200-plus group of musicians includes local freelancers, VCU students and faculty, and several members of the Richmond Symphony, where she has been a principal second violinist since 2009. Ellen has drawn on this pool of local talent to perform monthly concerts at the Balliceaux restaurant and music venue, an opera at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, and at the annual Mozart Festival in Carytown.

Emily Erb

Now living in Philadelphia, Emily Erb grew up in Richmond, Va. in a musical family that valued discipline and commitment. After earning a fine arts degree at Philadelphia’s Tyler School of Art, Emily travelled to Madagascar, where she discovered a love for ancient Indian silk painting techniques. This adventure sparked a fascination with global history and of American art’s role on the international stage. Over the next several years, Emily honed her textile-based craft, supported herself through various construction jobs, and obtained a masters degree from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Her work has been displayed in several high profile public galleries and will be featured in solo show this summer at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond.

Erin Thomas-Foley

Erin Thomas-Foley is the director of education for the School of Performing Arts in Richmond City (SPARC). Over the last 16 years, she has become a major force and key teaching artist behind SPARC, an outreach program dedicated to taking arts education to metro Richmond's schools and youth centers. Her most recent achievements include the creation and direction of LIVE ART, a cutting edge, inclusive arts education program that culminates in a cross-pollinated arts concert, featuring nationally recognized musicians and students from multiple organizations and schools within the Richmond community.

Gordon Stettinius

GGordon Stettinius is an award-winning photographer whose work can be found in many private and public collections. In recent years, he has led photography workshops, taught at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and founded a publishing company that produces fine art photography books.

Jeff Fernandez

As CEO and co-founder of Grovo Learning, Jeff Fernandez is reinventing training for the 21st century workforce. Jeff is guided by the belief that companies must put people first today to become industry leaders tomorrow. Prior to Grovo, he served as product manager with Clickable (acquired by Syncapse), a web service that brings simplicity to online advertising. From 2006 until 2009, he led business development and sales for Doostang (acquired by Universum Global), an online career networking community. Jeff graduated with highest honors from Harvard College, where he penned his thesis on maximizing human performance.

Jessica Rathbun-Cook

Jessica Rathbun-Cook is the youth programs director at ROSMY, an organization serving lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender, questioning, and queer (LGBTQ) youth. As the only organization of its kind in Central Virginia, ROSMY creates a space where young people can safely articulate who they are, gives them the opportunity to explore that identity, and celebrates the diversity of personalities that make a community unique. As a queer person currently in the process of ordination in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Jessica is drawn to conversations about the gap between the “queer” world and the “church” world, and is deeply invested in ways we might create spaces where those worlds overlap.

John McAdorey

John "Mac" McAdorey is an advertising creative and actor who has made several appearances in AMC’s Turn. Mac challenges himself to do one impossible thing a year. For 2015, he intends to raise more than $10,000 running the NYC Marathon for Alzheimer’s awareness, in tribute to his mother.

Joi Marshall

Born on Chicago's South Side, Joi Marshall grew up listening to Motown, envisioning herself as the next Diana Ross. In 1992, Joi was selected to join Giant Records’ newly formed R&B group, Jade. Despite the group's multi-platinum success, the young trio discovered that being well known did not necessarily equal being well paid. Turning lemons into lemonade, Joi put all of her years of experience into a critically acclaimed quick reference guide, Answers to the 20 Most Asked Question about the Music Business. Now living in Atlanta, she lectures on the music business and represents recording artists rights. She also coaches people to “Start Where They Are, With What They Already Have, To Live The Life They Truly Want.

Laura Akesson

Laura McGlinchey Akesson began her passion for science education with an interest in how mathematics can both predict and help understand the world around us. Her teaching philosophy has evolved over a 15-year teaching career to involve the interconnectedness of not only math and science, but of math, science, music, history, art, language, business, coding, photography, sport, psychology, and sociology. In 2009, she founded Science Overdrive, a non-profit company that offers free professional development for K-8 science teachers. Currently, she works at the Steward School, teaching physics and biomedical design, serving as the academic dean for the Bryan Innovation Lab, and coaching cross country.

Lucinda Scala Quinn

Lucinda Scala Quinn is a firm believer that food, security, and love are entwined in the meals we cook and serve to our family and friends. Her childhood passion for cooking blossomed into a career as a chef, teacher, author and food editor. She currently serves as senior vice president and executive editorial director for food at Martha Stewart Living and host of the television show, Mad Hungry: Bringing Back the Family Meal. Lucinda has authored four books and is currently working on her fifth. All of Lucinda’s books and projects feature the food she cooks and loves, with recipes that are big on flavor and low on fuss.

Micah White

Micha White has made a name for himself as a comedian, actor, and community supporter. The Birmingham, Ala., native has performed with D.L. Hugely, Bob Saget and many other comedians, as well as opened for musical artists such as Jill Scott, Beenie Man, and Stevie Wonder. His stand-up act won the regional Def Comedy Jam in Virginia Beach in 1998 and earned a place among the top 10 in the HBO Lucky 21 Comedy Competition in 2007. Micah's acting talents have earned him roles in the film Unstoppable with Denzel Washington and the television series “Army Wives." Micah also holds himself accountable to the community that supports him. In 2013, he started RVA Has Talent, a company that pairs local entertainers with non-profits to raise money and awareness. More recently, he launched RCJC (Richmond Correctional Justice Center) Has Talent, an eight-week program helps inmates acquire job training, write business plans, and get coaching from professional entertainers.

Micah "Bam Bamm" White

Micha White has made a name for himself as a comedian, actor, and community supporter. The Birmingham, Ala., native has performed with D.L. Hugely, Bob Saget and many other comedians, as well as opened for musical artists such as Jill Scott, Beenie Man, and Stevie Wonder. His stand-up act won the regional Def Comedy Jam in Virginia Beach in 1998 and earned a place among the top 10 in the HBO Lucky 21 Comedy Competition in 2007. Micah's acting talents have earned him roles in the film Unstoppable with Denzel Washington and the television series “Army Wives."" Micah also holds himself accountable to the community that supports him. In 2013, he started RVA Has Talent, a company that pairs local entertainers with non-profits to raise money and awareness. More recently, he launched RCJC (Richmond Correctional Justice Center) Has Talent, an eight-week program helps inmates acquire job training, write business plans, and get coaching from professional entertainers.

Ryan Abrahamsen

Ryan Abrahamsen started his first web development and video production company in 2002. Looking to personalize his work and merge his passion for the outdoors and photography with his career in web development, Ryan launched Terrain360.com in 2012. The website offers 360-degree image maps of hiking trails Merging his passion for the outdoor photography with his career in web development, Ryan launched Terrain360.com in 2012. The website offers 360-degree image maps of hiking trails all over the United States. Ryan partnered with local journalist, Andy Thompson, to start RichmondOutside.com, an outdoor news and information site featuring Terrain360. In 2014, Ryan and Andy partnered with the James River Association to float the 343-mile James River in a custom pontoon raft. The resulting map – now online at Terrain360.com and jrava.org – is the first 360-degree image map ever created of an entire river.

The Honorable Anne Holton

Following decades of serving Virginia’s families and children, Anne Holton continues that legacy as Virginia's secretary of education. After earning her law degree from Harvard, Anne worked as a legal aid lawyer and became a juvenile and domestic relations district court judge in 1998. As Virginia’s First Lady from 2006 to 2010, she led a major reform of Virginia’s foster-care system to connect more children with permanent families. Afterward, she joined the Child Welfare Strategy Group at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, consulting on foster care reform efforts nationwide. In 2013, Anne was program director for Great Expectations, which helps youth in the foster-care system gain access to higher education.

Tim Hickey

Tim Hickey is a writer as well as a founder and principal of Tangier Island Oyster Co., an aquaculture partnership with the watermen of Tangier Island, a remote spit of land in the Chesapeake Bay. The island’s isolation has shaped its 700 residents’ culture and value system and helped forge a determination to continue their uncommon lifestyle. Through an investigation of his own drive for working on the Island, Tim aims to reveal what it is about Tangier that appeals to those living on the mainland. A Richmond native, Tim currently lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and three children.

Trip Jennings

Trip Jennings is a National Geographic Explorer, filmmaker, and, most passionately, a conservationist. Much of his adult life has been spent traveling the world as a professional whitewater kayaker and making award-winning films about his adventures. Today, Trip runs Balance Media, a video production company focused on telling stories for environmental and social justice organizations globally. He’s also on the advisory board of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation (ASC), an organization that brings together conservation scientists who need data and adventurers who can help collect that data from around the world.

Will Baker

As President and CEO of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), William Baker guides the CBF in its efforts to “Save the Bay.” Founded in 1967, CBF leads the fight to reduce pollution and improve water quality throughout the Chesapeake’s six-state, 64,000 square mile watershed. A graduate of Trinity College, William joined the CBF in 1976 and became CEO in 1982. Under his leadership, CBF received the nation’s highest environmental honor in 1992—the Presidential Medal for Environmental Excellence. In 1993, The National Geographic Society awarded CBF its annual Chairman’s Award.

Yewande Austin

Yewande Austin is the executive director of the Change Rocks Foundation and a lecturer-in-residence at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her socially charged music has taken center stage with the likes of the Black Eyed Peas, Maroon 5, and India.Arie. Since 2006, Yewande has empowered the world’s most vulnerable youth through a combination of music education, academic, leadership and sustainable skill training. She will soon be in Nigeria to work with survivors of the 2014 Boko Haram kidnapping and other children that live with the daily threat of being trafficked. Can music really be a formidable weapon in the fight for social justice? She’s willing to bet her life on it.