Theme: (un)Seen

We will explore the ideas and people in our community who may be unseen or unnoticed.

1601 11th Street
Brookings, South Dakota, 57006
United States

Anthony Ongaro

Creator, author, filmmaker

Anthony Ongaro (@anthonyongaro) is the creator of Break the Twitch, a website and YouTube channel on intentionally connected living through minimalism, habits, and creativity. Break the Twitch has been featured in Lifehacker, Fast Company, The Star Tribune, The Jason Show and is consistently ranked as one of the top five minimalism blogs online. Anthony is the author of the upcoming book “Break the Twitch: A Practical Guide To Minimalism & Intentional Living”. Previously, Anthony was the Marketing Director of Nice Ride Minnesota, the urban bike share nonprofit in Minneapolis and St. Paul. He currently lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Amy and their Maltipoo, Rocky.

Daniel Kota

Stem cell advocate, scientist, Brazilian

Dr. Daniel Kota is a scientist at Sanford Research whose program focuses on cellular therapy and stem cell biology. Native of Brazil, Dr. Kota received his PhD in medical sciences and completed a postdoctoral training in neurotrauma while unlocking the therapeutic properties of adult stem cells across the USA at the Burnham Institute, Tulane University, Texas A&M University and the University of Texas. Dr. Kota has a passion for translational science and his work establishes a paradigm shift in the way we view adult stem cells and how we can use them to treat diseases.

Erik Therwanger

Entrepreneur, movie buff, empowering leader

Erik is the founder of Think GREAT and draws from his experiences as a U.S. Marine, executive business leader and entrepreneur to help organizations achieve new levels of success. He uniquely combines leadership development, strategic planning, sales training, and goal-setting into strategies and techniques that empower team members and leaders to exceed expectations. Erik’s interactive and entertaining style engages audiences as he empowers them to open new possibilities in their personal and professional lives. As a speaker, coach and author, Erik creates a wave of dynamic thinking, encouraging leaders to plant leadership seeds in others. With a lasting message of inspiration, he also empowers audiences as he describes his life-changing experience of being his wife’s caregiver during her four bouts with cancer and cardiac arrest. Focused on creating a worldwide people movement, Think GREAT is working to enhance how the world views leadership.

Jaixai Treva Reineke

Organizer, student, Bobcat

Jaixai Reineke is a 12 year old girl who lives in White, SD with her mom, dad, and two cats. She was born in Providence, Rhode Island and grew up in Michigan. Later, 2015, she moved to South Dakota! Currently, she attends Mickelson Middle School in Brookings. She is in many activities such as piano, violin, swimming, and cross country. On top of all of that, Jaixai is also learning mandarin Chinese. She also organized the first ever, youth organized, TEDx youth event in Brookings and hopes it continues for many years to come!

Jonathan Lundgren

Scientist, farmer, bug-lover

Dr. Jonathan Lundgren is an agroecologist, entomologist, farmer, and beekeeper. He started his career as an award-winning scientist working for the USDA Agricultural Research Service on risk assessment of pesticides and developing ecologically intensive pest management solutions for farmers. Together with his family and laboratory team, Dr. Lundgren began Ecdysis Foundation and the Blue Dasher Farm initiative in 2016. The goal of this initiative is to reinvent our food production system along regenerative principles. By conserving soil and promoting biodiversity on farms, we can produce nutritious food profitably. All while reducing many of the negative impacts that agriculture has on our planet.

Rachel Peterson

Advocate, researcher, arctic enthusiast

Rachel Peterson is a child advocate and researcher focusing on youth voice and youth empowerment. While living and working in Norway as a Regional Director for one of the world’s largest children’s rights organizations (Save the Children), Rachel developed a deep interest in and passion for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) – a document that guides her both vocationally and personally. Rachel believes that, while there is a lot of great work being done in the area of youth voice and empowerment, we still tend to focus on children and youth as having future value. How would the world be different if we, on a much larger scale, really listened to young people and acknowledged their present value? What are we losing out on by not initiating conversations with young people about their perspectives and opinions?

Richard Holm

Snoopy-dancing physician

Richard P. Holm MD is 68 and an internist who has taught medicine for three years at Emory U. School of Med. In Atlanta, practiced outpatient, inpatient, ER medicine in Brookings for 35 years. Now semi-retired, he is a Professor of Clinical Medicine for the USD, Sanford School of Medicine, an Adjunct Professor in Journalism at SDSU, prior Chief of Staff of Brookings Health System, Governor of the SD Chapter of the American College of Physicians, and President of the SD State Medical Association. Rick was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer October 1st 2016, and has had full treatment with chemotherapy, radiation, and in May, the Whipple surgery to remove the cancer. It is said that he now has about a 50% chance of cure, and he is pleased with that. He has enjoyed for 25 years a local weekly ½ hour AM radio show and for 15 years, a SD Public Broadcasting, one hour, live, prime-time, call-in, medical, TV show. He is working on a second book.

Samuel Sinyangwe

Activist, data scientist, co-founder of Campaign Zero

Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey), 26, is a policy analyst and data scientist who works with communities of color to fight systemic racism through cutting-edge policies and strategies. Samuel co-founded Mapping Police Violence to support activists across the country to collect and use data to fight police violence and co-founded Campaign Zero to advocate for local, state, and federal policy solutions to end police violence. Samuel has been featured on MSNBC, CNN, BBC, LA Times, the Forbes 30 under 30 and The Root 100. Previously, Samuel worked at PolicyLink to support a national network of 61 Promise Neighborhoods communities to build cradle-to-career systems of support for low-income families. He grew up in Orlando, FL and graduated from Stanford University in 2012, where he studied how race and racism impact the U.S. political system. Samuel’s talk is entitled: Ending Police Violence in the United States.

Sanaa Abourezk

Chef, author, nutritionist

Sanaa Abourezk is a Gourmet Chef, Restauranteur, Author, Nutritionist, Blogger Passionate about the art of cooking and teaching cool recipes. Sanaa owns and operates a popular Middle Eastern Restaurant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agricultural Engineering and a Masters degree in Nutrition. She attended cooking school in Florence, Italy, as well as the Cordon Bleu Baking School in Paris, France. She has worked as a nutrition adviser for the South Dakota Department of Health, where she advised clients on nutrition, cooking, and healthy eating. A talented creator of healthy and delicious recipes, she has published three cookbook: Secrets of Healthy Middle Eastern Cuisine, Oh Boy, I Can’t Believe it’s Soy!, and Gluten Free Mediterranean. Sanaa is passionate about developing recipes tailoring to certain dietary needs such as veganism and celiac disease. These recipes, however, can be enjoyed by anyone.

Taneeza Islam

Lawyer, activist, Bush Fellow

Taneeza Islam is an immigration and civil rights lawyer with a private practice in Sioux Falls SD. In 2017, she led the first coalition of immigrants, refugees, Muslims, interfaith, and social justice communities to defeat Islamophobic and anti-refugee resolutions and a bill in the state legislature, with a 3-0 record. With this momentum, she founded and is the executive director of SD Voices for Peace working to share accurate information about Islam, Muslims, immigrants and refugees to fight Islamophobia and anti-immigrant bigotry in the state. In the last three months, SDVP has organized sharing of stories of new US Citizens in Sioux Falls, featured on the front page of the Argus Leader on Citizenship Day; organized a solidarity vigil for SD Dreamers with an attendance of 200 people; and set up a DACA renewal hotline for eligible DREAMers in SD. Taneeza is a frequent speaker and media spokeswoman on Islam/Islamophobia and immigration law/issues throughout the state.

Zahra Ebrahim

Architect, environmentalist, community-builder