Theme: Makers

TEDxNavesink MAKERS will explore the essence of creation.
We’re all makers, and sometimes we choose to make a difference.
We’re revolutionaries who only see malleable things to be deconstructed and reconstructed into better things.
Meet 30 makers. Life is what you make it. Make your mark.

Pollak Theater
400 Cedar Ave
West Long Branch, New Jersey, 07764
United States

Dudick

Christopher Dudick is the founder of Small Factory Productions, a multimedia and technology studio for children. Since its creation in 2007, Small Factory has worked with hundreds of NYC and NJ schools and thousands of students focusing on STEAM based enrichment programs such as Animation, Video Game Design, 3D Printing and Video Production. In 2012 Chris won an Emmy for producing ‘Socially Conscious Cartoons’ a series of cartoons with socially impactful messages created by kids for kids. Previous to starting Small Factory Chris worked on children’s shows for Nickelodeon, Nicktoons, Cartoon Network and AOL. Chris’ current venture, SiLAS Solutions is an avatar based software program that alleviates social skills disorders for children on the autistic spectrum.

Mullen

Bernadette Mullen, MA, CCC-SLP is a New Jersey licensed Speech-Language Pathologist. Bernadette is a highly qualified in her field and she is a nationally certified member of ASHA holding her Certificate of Clinical Competency. She has worked in the field of special education for 35 years. She has owned and operated Speech Start, a private practice in Hazlet, New Jersey for 18 years. She has extensive training in the areas of apraxia, language based reading disorders, autism spectrum disorder, behavior management and sensory processing disorders. Bernadette’s current professional focus is on social skills training programs. She is presently curriculum director for SILAS Solutions. This program is being implemented in multiple schools throughout the state for the purpose of improving special learners ability to socialize with their peers. The program includes both a computer program and a social skills curriculum

Zaritza

Anastasia Moiseeva, performing under the name “Zaritza”, is a singer, pianist and songwriter whose electro-pop/rock music combines modern digital soundscapes with dramatic, romantic elements from her Russian classical roots. Zaritza’s music reflects her cultural journey from the rich classical traditions and austere rural life in her native Russia to the creative abundance and technical innovation of her adopted American homeland. Raised in a Ural Mountains village, Zaritza was a government-sponsored classical pianist throughout her youth. She began writing pop songs as a teenager, recording and performing them while attending university. Tracing the footsteps of her idol, the great Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, Zaritza emigrated to New York and Monmouth County (a summer retreat for Rachmaninoff) to focus on her original music.

Akin Shoyoye

Akin Shoyoye is the co-founder of DriveAI, a research organization focused on developing open source software for autonomous vehicles so that anyone can build one. He is leading the effort behind fostering the DriveAI community, a collection of passionate creators unwilling to sit on the sidelines and ready to build out the world they want to see. With a penchant for working in high-pressure environments, Akin’s life is a story of being involved with teams set out to accomplish insane goals in an unreasonable short amount of time. Born in Nigeria and raised in Newark, Akin grew up as a can-do kid. That kid is now a man with the goal of rallying a community set out to explore the intersection of building technology and raw willpower.

Andrea Syrtash

Andrea Syrtash is a relationship expert, author and on-air television personality. She has contributed to over a dozen relationship-advice books and is the author of, “He’s Just Not Your Type (And That’s a Good Thing)” & “Cheat On Your Husband (With Your Husband)” (Rodale Books). She co-authored, “It’s Okay to Sleep with Him on the First Date: And Every Other Rule of Dating Debunked” (Harlequin NonFiction). Andrea has appeared in hundreds of media outlets including on The View, Good Morning America, The Today Show, CBS This Morning, HLN Weekend Express, The Wendy Williams Show, VH1 and on NPR’s Marketplace. She is the resident relationship expert on Yahoo’s “The Mansome Show”; the host of “Love & Sex” videos by KnowMoreTV for AOL, and the co-host of, “Life Story Project” on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network (Canada). Most recently, Andrea hosted relationship segments for The New York Post and a television pilot for TLC.

Anna Zhang

Anna Zhang is a 14 year-old photographer and editor-in-chief based in New York. When Anna isn’t out shooting concerts and talents, she is busy with schoolwork; Anna is currently a freshman at Horace Greeley High School. Outside of photography, Anna’s interests include music, tennis, and traveling. She specializes in the fields of travel, commercial, and live music photography. At such a young age, Anna has developed a unique eye and authentic style which has led her to work with many internationally renowned brands. In addition, Anna is the founding editor in chief of Pulse Spikes, an online and quarterly print magazine created by young people for young people. The magazine covers the fields of lifestyle & fashion, travel, and entertainment. With a great passion and dedication to her work, she has inspired many other adolescents to pursue their individual dreams.

Armand Ferranti

Growing up in small town New Jersey, I spent my adolescence taking stuff apart and making things. I was constantly outside, building new ideas or tinkering with old ones. During high school I took interest in art, business, mechanics and science. I played a few seasonal sports but focused on getting my pilots license early on. After high school I left for flight school in South Carolina. I then moved to Florida to start an associates in business degree while simultaneously attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at night for my bachelors. After a couple of years I moved back to New Jersey to attend an aircraft mechanics school, which ultimately resulted in a job building helicopters. From there I moved into a corporate position as an underwriter assessing aviation risks for an insurance company while pursuing my dreams in my free time.. Inventing.

Ben Heck

A self-taught hacker, modder and maker Benjamin Heckendorn – better known as Ben Heck – is host of element14’s The Ben Heck Show, a weekly web series in which Ben tackles fun and interesting projects from 3D printing and gaming to drones and robots. Among Ben’s more popular innovations are a single-handed PS4 and Xbox controller, a single-handed guitar, original Apple-1 replica, handheld Raspberry Pi console, flying quadcopter/drone and wearable turn signals for bikers. Heck, a Graphic Design graduate, got his start creating custom single-handed gaming controllers for veterans with disabilities. Since then, he’s skyrocketed to Internet fame and become synonymous with the phrase “innovation” among the Maker Movement. With more than 32 million YouTube views and fans spanning the globe, Ben is a proponent of computer science education, the DIY movement and equipping his viewers with the tools and knowledge to overcome any obstacle – design-related or otherwise.

Bob Lucky

Bob Lucky is an engineer known worldwide for his writing and speaking about technology and society. He has led premier research laboratories in telecommunications over the last several decades, first at Bell Labs and then at Telcordia Technologies, where he was corporate vice president, applied research. After retiring from that position he has remained active in professional activities, including advisory boards, studies, and consulting. He has been active throughout his career in professional, academic, and government roles. He received his doctorate in electrical engineering from Purdue University, has since been honored with four honorary doctorates, and has received a number of major awards, including the prestigious Marconi Prize and the IEEE Edison Medal. He has been elected a fellow of the IEEE and to membership in the National Academy of Engineering, and to both the American and European Academies of Arts and Sciences.

Dina Long

Borough of Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long took the oath of office on January 1, 2012 and was re-elected to a second, four-year term in November 2015. Hurricane Sandy devastated the small coastal community during her first year, and she has since worked tirelessly for Sea Bright’s recovery. In the wake of the storm, Mayor Long helped forge strategic partnerships with government, university and philanthropic institutions to provide resources and programs for Sea Bright, and, three years later, revitalization is evident throughout the community. Prior to her election as Mayor, she served three consecutive 3-year terms on the Borough Council. Mayor Long, like all of Sea Bright’s elected officials, serves the community on a volunteer basis. Mayor Long works full-time as an Assistant Professor at Brookdale Community College. She is married and the proud parent of one child,12, and one dog.

Eileen Huang

Eileen Huang is the Northeast National Student Poet for the year of 2015, the nation’s highest honor for young poets presenting original work. She is also a current sophomore at High Technology High School, the #1 STEM high school in the country. As a National Student Poet, Eileen acts as a literary ambassador, hosting workshops and readings in her region and community as part of a year-long community service effort. In addition, she was given the opportunity to read her poetry to First Lady Michelle Obama at a private ceremony in the White House. Much of her poetry focuses on her Chinese heritage, cultural fusions, and the general turmoil that comes with adolescence.

Florence Williams

Florence Williams is a contributing editor at Outside Magazine and a freelance writer for National Geographic, the New York Times, The New York Review of Books, Slate, Mother Jones, and numerous other publications. She is currently working on a book about Nature and the Brain. A fellow at the Center for Humans and Nature and a visiting scholar at George Washington University, her work focuses on the environment, health and science. She has received many awards, including six magazine awards from the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the John Hersey Prize at Yale. Her first book, BREASTS: A Natural and Unnatural History (W.W. Norton 2012) received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in science and technology and the 2013 Audie in general nonfiction. It was also named a notable book of 2012 by the New York Times. She serves on the board of her favorite non-profit, High Country News, and lives with her family in Washington, D.C.

Garry Kvistad

GARRY KVISTAD, founder and CEO of Woodstock Chimes®, has been a member of Steve Reich and Musicians since 1979 and is one of eighteen to win a Grammy award for the recording of Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. He has been a member of the acclaimed NEXUS percussion group since 2002. He has performed with both groups as soloists with preeminent orchestras throughout the world. Garry earned his BM from the Oberlin Conservatory and MM from Northern Illinois University. Formerly on the faculties of Northern Illinois University and the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory as a member of the Blackearth Percussion Group, he is currently on the faculty of the Bard College Conservatory.

Gary Mottola

Gary Mottola is the past president (and currently board member and senior executive) at Madison Marquette, a leading developer, owner and operator of creative commercial and mixed-use projects throughout the United States. He has led Madison’s efforts to revitalize the Asbury Park waterfront. Mr. Mottola has been active in real estate development for many years. His career also includes time as an attorney at a prominent international law firm, lecturer in constitutional law, co-owner of a major thoroughbred training facility, and restauranteur. He is presently a member of the Board of Trustees of the New Jersey Hall of Fame, was a founding member of the board of a regional theater company in northern New Jersey, has a SAG card, and is active in efforts to stop animal abuse.

Helge Seetzen

Helge is an award-winning technologist, entrepreneur, and recognized global authority on technology transfer and display technologies. As General Partner of TandemLaunch, he works with inventors and entrepreneurs to build high growth technology companies. His past successes include the transformation of raw university IP into fully commercialized LED TV technology, including selling his last company – Brightside Technologies – to Dolby Laboratories after sealing partnerships with several of the largest consumer electronics companies in the world. Helge holds over 60 patents in the fields of display, camera and video technology.

Jay Bhatti

Jay is a partner at BrandProject and a personal early stage seed investor in New Jersey affiliated startups. Jay has over 20 years of experience building and managing Internet businesses and brings broad consumer and tech expertise to BrandProject. Jay has built and invested in startups in all major tech hubs of the US (Seattle, SF, NY). Previously, Jay was the co-founder of spock.com, the world’s leading people search engine. In 6 short months after launch, it became one of the top 1000 sites on the Internet and was covered by publications including The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Forbes, Newsweek, ABC News, NBC, and the Financial Times. Spock was sold in May of 2009 at which time it was generating over 50 million monthly searches. Jay has an MBA from the Wharton School and an Engineering Degree with highest honors from Rutgers University.

John Stepper

John helps people access a better career and life – and helps organizations create a more open, connected culture – by spreading the practice of Working Out Loud. Working Out Loud is an approach to goals that helps you build relationships and learn, enabling you to better enjoy each day while gaining access to more possibilities. Think “Dale Carnegie meets the Internet.” Instead of playing career roulette, you invest in deepening relationships. Instead of networking to get something, you lead with generosity. You make your work visible and frame it as a contribution. Combined, these elements form a powerful approach to work and life. The book Working Out Loud teaches people the approach, and a simple 12-week peer support process enables anyone to build a network toward a goal they care about. Working Out Loud circles are now in 13 countries and in organizations ranging from banks to manufacturing to telecommunications.

Ken Carbone

Ken Carbone is a designer, artist, musician, author, teacher and blogger for Fast Company. He says he can’t spell, can’t type and only learned to swim after he turned fifty. He’s never won an Oscar, never watched the Simpson’s and secretly loves opera. He is the Chief Creative Director of the Carbone Smolan Agency, a design and branding firm in New York City. Their client list includes: W Hotels, Canon, Mandarin Oriental Hotels, Boston Consulting Group and the Musée du Louvre. Carbone, along with his partner Leslie Smolan, are recipients of the 2014 AIGA Medal for design distinction. The agency’s work is widely published and is recognized for excellence worldwide. When he is not doing all of the above he enjoys playing the guitar very loud.

Kevin Ryan

Kevin Ryan is a father, husband, activist and child advocate. He leads Covenant House International, one of the largest charities in the Americas dedicated to serving homeless youth, and ending child trafficking. Covenant House’s work has been awarded the Conrad Hilton Humanitarian Award and the Olaf Palme Peace Prize. Over the past 5 years, Ryan and his team have built an international Sleep Out movement, involving thousands of participants across 2 countries and raising more than $23 million to house, heal and help homeless youth. Ryan previously served as New Jersey’s first public Child Advocate and first commissioner of the Department of Children and Families. His first book, Almost Home, a collaboration with former New York Times reporter Tina Kelley, became a national best seller in the Fall of 2012. The book chronicles the lives of 6 homeless teenagers as they faced abuse, violence and heartbreak in search of a place to call home.

Leonard Zax

Leonard Zax, grew up in Paterson, NJ, and graduated from Eastside High, the school portrayed in the movie Lean On Me. A lawyer and a city planner, he has extensive experience in urban development projects throughout the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. As a partner in the law firm Latham & Watkins he took on a pro bono cause: creating a national park to help revitalize his hometown. Leonard testified before Congress to create the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park. William Paterson University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters for “dedication to the founding ideals of the City of Paterson and to the realization of those ideals for a better quality of life for its citizens.” Leonard now works full time to enhance the benefits of the new national park for the city, the state, and the nation as the President of the Hamilton Partnership.

Maureen Langan

Maureen Langan is a standup comic and radio talk show host. She is an award-winning broadcast journalist who worked for Bloomberg TV & Radio and public television before turning to the stage. She has performed on Broadway with Rosie O’Donnell and opened for Joy Behar, Steven Wright and Dennis Miller. Maureen performs around the country and world and has been featured in festivals in the U.S., South Africa, Ireland, the UK, Switzerland, and Canada. She has appeared on Gotham Live, HBO, CBS, HLN, and FOX (sorry). Maureen was raised in Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey, where there is no lake.

Melissa Febos

Melissa Febos is the author of the memoir, Whip Smart (St. Martin’s Press 2010), and the forthcoming essay collection, Abandon Me (Bloomsbury 2017). Her work has appeared in venues including The Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Glamour, Post Road, Salon, New York Times, Portland Review, Dissent, and she has been featured on NPR’s Fresh Air, Anderson Cooper Live, CNN’s Dr. Drew, & elsewhere. Her essays have won prizes from Prairie Schooner, Story Quartzerly, and The Center for Women Writers, and she is the recipient of fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, & The MacDowell Colony. The recipient of an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, she is currently Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Monmouth University and MFA faculty at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA).

Michael Paoli

Ten years ago, Michael Paoli, a Canadian, was smuggled into New York City to teach mathematics to kids. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto where he holds a double major in mathematics and theatre, the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (OISE) and a master’s of Mathematics Education at Hunter College. Michael currently teaches at the Ella Baker School in Manhattan and is a master teacher at Math for America. He is also part of a mathematics inquiry team led by Professor Betina Zolkower of Brooklyn College to “Engage Students in Framing and Solving Non-Routine Problems.” In 2014, Michael received a grant from Fund for Teachers to explore urban farming and aquaponics across Europe which sparked the entire project. The Captain Planet Foundation donated all the funding for the aquaponics system and it couldn’t have been done without them! Also, a big thanks to Jonathan Kadish who volunteered many hours by helping design, build and troubleshoot the structure.

Rinde Eckert

Rinde Eckert is an interdisciplinary artist – performer, singer, writer, composer, and director. He is a recipient of the Marc Blitzstein Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an Alpert Award in theater, a Guggenheim Fellowship in composition, and a Grammy Award. His music/theater piece And God Created Great Whales won an Obie Award in 2000. His Orpheus X was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2007. In 2008 his Horizon received a Lucille Lortel Award, and a Drama Desk nomination as Outstanding Play. In 2012 was one of the first class of recipients of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. In 2014 he made his debut as principle soloist with the New York philharmonic in Steven Mackey’s oratorio Dreamhouse, for which he wrote the libretto. Eckert is co-founder with Mackey of the prog-rock band Big Farm.

Suzanne Tick

Suzanne Tick is the founder of Suzanne Tick Inc., specializing in materials brand strategy, product design and direction for commercial interiors. Tick is currently Partnering with Tarkett on Brand Strategy, Creative Director for Teknion Textiles and Design Consultant for Tandus Centiva, Suzanne has maintained a distinguished career as a textile designer and studio Principal in New York City. Tick’s life and work have always been a narration of balance. Her struggles with fear and safety and love and forgiveness, have led her to create works that are both delicate and strong. “Weaving holds everything together, materials and life, successes and failures”. The balance in each of Tick’s weavings is an exploration of the technical and the organic. Industrial materials are juxtaposed against found materials. The quality of each piece is magnified by either the accumulation of material or the sparseness of material.

Yesi Morrilo-Gual

A recognized leader and finance professional, Yesi serves as an executive Director at one of the largest financial services firms in the world, where she manages a trillion-dollar proposal portfolio. This year, Yesi celebrated her 25th year on Wall Street, where she has consistently climbed the ladder after having started her career as an executive assistant. Outside her corporate role, Yesi is the founder of Proud To Be Latina, a for profit organization created to help Latinas banish self-doubt and break self-imposed barriers. Founded in 2011, Proud To Be Latina has become a premier platform where Latinas are taught the art of navigating corporate culture. Yesi holds an MBA in Administration from Touro University and a Bachelor in Finance, with a minor in Graphic Design from Baruch College in New York. Yesi resides in New York City with her husband and their two teenage sons. She is the author of RISE: Affirmations for Personal Growth, and the forthcoming novel, Stay.