In its fourth year, TEDxCollegeofWilliam&Mary is taking its next step from commemorating the College’s long-standing history to realizing exactly how we are transforming the present.You don’t become “the Alma Mater of a Nation” without fanning the embers of change. Our speakers will explore and discuss the forces that are changing the world that we know today. From them, we will learn about how these forces — business, technology, globalization, and many more — are shaping the world that will become our future.

Kimball Theater
428 W Duke of Gloucester
Williamsburg, Virginia, 23185
United States

Ajit George

Director of Operations, Shanti Bhavan Children's Project

Ajit George is the Director of Operations for the Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project, a board member of the Indian Institute of Journalism, a frequent consultant for emerging non-profits, an energetic advocate for diversity in the game industry, a professional speaker, and the co-author of a forthcoming non-fiction work highlighting the role of dignity in personal and communal wellbeing. George and his team, through the Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project, work to alleviate severe poverty among members of the Untouchable caste in India by giving children an intensive, long-term education over the course of 17 years, from the age of 4 until they graduate from college. Shanti Bhavan students have gone from homes with no running water and electricity to post-college careers at companies such as Goldman Sachs, Ernst & Young, Deloitte and Mercedes Benz, making Shanti Bhavan’s success unprecedented in the non-profit world. Shanti Bhavan is the focus of an upcoming major multi-part television docu

Chitralekha Zutshi

Historian

Dr. Chitralekha Zutshi is an internationally acclaimed historian of South Asia, with an expertise on the region of Kashmir. She has spoken and published widely on the interrelationships among religious identities, nationalism, and historical thought and practice in South Asia. She is currently Professor of History at the College of William and Mary, and the author of two books—Kashmir’s Contested Pasts: Narratives, Sacred Geographies, and the Historical Imagination (2014), and Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir (2004). Her research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Library of Congress, and the American Institute of Indian Studies.

David Simnick

CEO/Co-founder, Soapbox

David Simnick is the CEO and Co-Founder of SoapBox, a company with a mission to empower consumers to change the world through everyday, quality purchases. SoapBox sells a full range of personal care products each with their own mission to provide soap or clean water to those in need with every purchase. SoapBox is now sold in Target, Walmart, Rite Aid, Publix, ShopRite, Giant, Winn-Dixie, Stop & Shops, and select Walgreens, Whole Foods, Vitamin Shoppe, H-E-B, and many other stores across the United States and beyond. David has worked or consulted for USAID, the U.S. Army, Michelle Rhee, U.S. Senate, and also was a Teach for America (TFA) educator in Northern Philadelphia. As an Eagle Scout, David loves the outdoors, volunteering, and working with budding entrepreneurs. He received his undergraduate degree from American University in 3 years and then dropped out of a masters program at The University of Pennsylvania to start SoapBox.

Erin Spencer

National Geographic Explorer

Erin Spencer is a National Geographic Explorer who uses digital storytelling to share innovative approaches to conservation. A two-time National Geographic Young Explorer Grantee, Erin’s work focuses on community-based invasive species management around the world. In 2014, Erin launched the Invasive Species Initiative, a web-based platform that uses photography and writing to share unique approaches to grassroots invasive species management. The project aims to educate followers about the impacts of invasive species and provide them with tangible tools they can use to combat invasive species in their own communities. Since the project’s launch, a number of organizations have used and/or funded her work, including NBC Universal, The New York Times, National Geographic, and CBS Sunday Morning. Erin graduated with honors from the College of William and Mary in 2014 with a major in Applied Ecology and a minor in Marine Science. She is currently based in Washington, D.C. and is a Digital Ou

John Spike

Art Historian

John Thomas Spike is a noted art historian, author and lecturer, specializing in Italian Renaissance and Baroque art. Since 2011, Spike has been Assistant Director and Chief Curator of the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William & Mary, where he has curated and catalogued several important international loan exhibitions, including ‘Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane’, 2013, and ‘Leonardo da Vinci and the Idea of Beauty’, 2015. Born in New York City in 1951, Dr. Spike earned his Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1979, with a thesis on Mattia Preti, the Italian follower of Caravaggio. In 2007, Spike was named to the faculty of the Masters in Sacred Architecture, Arts and Liturgy organized by the European University of Rome and the Pontifical Commission on Fine Arts. In 2010 Spike was recognized by the Council of Europe as an expert in Cultural Heritage.

Lizzie Stark

Independent Journalist/Author

Lizzie Stark is an independent journalist and nonfiction author. Her most recent book, the critically-acclaimed Pandora’s DNA, tells the story of the history, science, and legal battles around the BRCA genes through the lens of her family tree. Named an ALA Notable Book of 2015, Pandora’s DNA combines memoir of Stark’s experience growing up in a BRCA1 family with meticulous reportage into the history of medicine, gene patenting, and feminism’s role in shifting breast cancer treatment. Stark’s journalism and essays have appeared in The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Daily Beast, Jezebel, The Today Show website, and in numerous other publications.

Sabra Williams

Founder, Actors Gang Prison Project

Sabra Williams has received international acclaim for her work as an artist and founder of The Actors’ Gang Prison Project. After establishing a body of work as an actress and television host in the United Kingdom and internationally, Sabra became an “alien of exceptional ability” upon her arrival to Los Angeles in 2002. In 2004 Sabra was honored with an invitation to serve as a company member of The Actors’ Gang (Tim Robbins, Artistic Director). Based in part on her experience of working in prisons in the United Kingdom with The English Shakespeare Company and The London Shakespeare Workout, Sabra created The Actors’ Gang Prison Project and currently serves as the program’s Director in addition to serving as the company’s Director of Outreach, overseeing prevention programs for at-risk youth and gang members. Sabra has established strategic program partnerships between The Actors’ Gang, the Department of Justice and such organizations as Inner-City Arts and Homeboy Industries. She was