Theme: Terms and Conditions Don't Apply

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).

Kenney Auditorium - Johns Hopkins Nitze Building
1740 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, District of Columbia, 20036
United States

Alan Trager

Public-private partnerships expert + professor

Alan M. Trager is a Senior Research Professor and Director of Public-Private Partnerships Initiative at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His PPP focus is International Health, Environment, and Economic Development. He served as Economic Advisor to the Xicheng District, Beijing on economic development projects. He was the primary academic consultant to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review. His private sector experience includes founding and chairing AMT Capital Management, a private investment firm, and creating and managing ventures for Morgan Stanley, where he was a managing director. 

Baktash Ahadi

Peace corps + military translator + filmmaker

Baktash Ahadi was born in Kabul in 1981. His family had to flee during the Soviet Invasion in 1984. After spending over a year and half in Pakistan between refugee camps and makeshift homes, his family was given asylum in the United States and started their new life in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Baktash has had careers in Peace Corps Mozambique and Booz Allen Hamilton. He was also a military translator in Afghanistan for three years. After Baktash joined FRAME BY FRAME as an ambassador to shed light on the country's complexities through human stories.

Chic Dambach

Peace Corps + peacemaker + kayak racer

Chris Dambach is an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, American University, and the University of Juba (South Sudan). He also serves as an adviser to the Director of the Peace Corps, and he is a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow.  Dambach has been nominated for the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, and the Institute for Economics and Peace presented him the Leadership and Service for Peace Award in 2016. He was named the 2016 Peace Corps Champion for keeping the spirit of service alive. He won the Global Peace Award in 2001 from the International Platform Association. The Dambach Award for Service to the Literary Arts was created in his honor by the CityLit Project in Baltimore. He was a national champion kayak racer and served as an official for canoe and kayak competition in the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games.  

Elizabeth Shadigian

obstetrician-gynecologist + women's health + writer

Elizabeth Shadigian, MD, FACOG is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and researcher specializing in the health, safety and well-being of women. She received her medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and studied, taught and practiced in major health care institutions for 20 years. Elizabeth left academia as a Clinical Associate Professor to create WomanSafeHealth, a medical practice based on women’s empowerment. She published her first book WomanSafeHealth: The Antidote to Status Quo Health Care in 2016, which presents a new model of health care based on safety and personal empowerment, as well as a scathing analysis of America’s current health care system. She is co-founder of the Battered Women and Children’s Memorial Garden. 

Kevin Frick

Business school vice dean + public health expert + mentor + professor

Kevin D. Frick, PhD, is a Professor and Vice Dean for Education at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. Prior to holding this position he was at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for more than 16 years. As a health economist he has specialized in measuring the economic impact of disease and the assessment of the cost-effectiveness of interventions to treat or prevent disease. Professor Frick has extensive experience working on issues related to vision health—working in both ophthalmology and optometry. His work in the area of vision and blindness include an assessment of the global loss of productivity related to blindness caused by disease; the incremental medical care expenditures and quality of life loss due to low vision and blindness caused by disease; and the global loss of productivity retailed to uncorrected refractive error;

Marc Goldwein

Fiscal policy expert + professor

Marc Goldwein is the Senior Vice President and Senior Policy Director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, where he guides and conducts research on a wide array of topics related to fiscal policy and the federal budget. He works regularly with Members of Congress and their staffs on budget-related issues. In 2010, Marc served as Associate Director of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (The Fiscal Commission), and in 2011 he was a senior budget analyst on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (The Super Committee). He has also conducted research for the Government Accountability Office, the World Bank, the Historian's Office at the Social Security Administration, and the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley. In 2011, Marc was featured in the Forbes "30 Under 30" list for Law & Policy. 

Michael Vlahos

Forreign affairs + national security + professor

Michael Vlahos, PhD, has taught in the Global Security Studies program at Johns Hopkins University's School of Arts and Sciences since 2011. He is a professor in the Strategy and Policy Department at the US Naval War College, a position he has held since 2010. During the 1980s he was the Director of the Security Studies Program at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies. He has also worked at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the Center for Naval Analyses, the Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency. Dr. Vlahos has been a foreign affairs and national security commentator on contract with CNN, appearing three to five times weekly for seven years, including stints as a regular on Crossfire and Larry King Live. He appeared regularly on Good Morning America and Canada AM as national security commentator. Since 2001 he has been a regular featured guest of the John Batchelor Show on WABC.

Priyali Sur

Journalist + activist + filmmaker

Priyali Sur is a journalist and documentary film maker reporting on social and development issues with a focus on gender rights. Priyali has in the recent past reported on the refugee crisis from Greece and Eastern Europe, highlighting the plight of women refugees and unaccompanied minors. Priyali started her career as a television journalist for India's CNN IBN, winning three national awards for her reporting. She also spent time in Washington DC in 2014 on a Fulbright fellowship. She is a contributing writer for the US Women Media Center, and works as a Consultant at the World Bank and is based in Washington DC.

Thomas H. Stanton

Enterprise risk management + professor

Thomas H. Stanton is a Past President of the Association for Federal Enterprise Risk Management (AFERM) and a former member of the federal Senior Executive Service. He teaches as an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, is a Fellow and former board member of the National Academy of Public Administration, and formerly chaired the Academy’s Standing Panel on Executive Organization and Management. With a career that spans the practical and the academic, Mr. Stanton’s work has led to the creation of new federal offices and approaches to delivering public services more effectively. Mr. Stanton has written several books including A State of Risk: Will Government Sponsored Enterprises Be the Next Financial Crisis? and Why Some Firms Thrive While Others Fail: Governance and Management Lessons from the Crisis

William Agresti

Information systems expert + cybersecurity + professor

Bill Agresti is a Professor in the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University. His research and professional interests are in cybersecurity, software engineering, and discovery informatics. He held senior technical and management positions at Computer Sciences Corporation, MITRE Corporation, and Noblis, Inc., where he was Director of the Software Engineering and Economic Analysis Center. He was Program Director for Experimental Software Systems Research at the National Science Foundation and led applied research and spacecraft systems development projects at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from New York University.