Theme: Activate

Every day, we activate our ideas and our worlds with agency and with life. We translate sketches into built form. We manifest logic, reason, and emotion as works of art and science and story. And we transform thoughts into ideas. Ideas worth spreading.

JW Auditorium
217 Walnut Lane
Princeton, New Jersey, 08540
United States

Amanda Elmore

Olympic Gold Medalist Rower

Amanda Elmore is a 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist rower. Growing up in Indiana as a gymnast and high school valedictorian, she had no idea of her Olympic future. While working on her Bachelors in Biology, she walked onto the Purdue University Crew club in 2009. During college, she won two gold medals in the Under 23 Women's 8+ in 2012 and 2013. In 2014 she put her graduate work at the University of Michigan on hold when she accepted an invitation to train on the National Team in Princeton, NJ. Her sacrifice paid off when she made the 2016 Olympic team and won Gold in Rio. After the Olympics, she completed her Masters in Microbiology & Immunology and returned to training at the Princeton Training Center for the 2020 Olympics.

Chris Baldassano

Princeton Neuroscientist

Christopher Baldassano is an associate research scholar at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute of Princeton University. He became fascinated by studies of the human brain as a Ph.D. student in computer science, and has pioneered new approaches for applying techniques from artificial intelligence to understand brain activity. His research focuses on how perception and memory work in dynamic, realistic settings, such as watching and remembering television shows and movies. In 2018, he will be starting as an assistant professor of Psychology at Columbia University. He currently lives in his hometown of Maple Glen, PA with his wife and two children.

Gregory van der Vink

Founder of Novametrics, a Big Data Analytics firm

Gregory van der Vink, Ph.D. is the founder of Novametrics, a big data analytics firm that has received innovative research awards from the Department of Defense and the US Agency for International Development. He has also taught for over twenty years in the Geoscience Department and Environmental Institute at Princeton University. Dr. van der Vink’s fieldwork has included Greenland, Iceland, Arctic Ocean, Galapagos, Aleutian Islands, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and sub-Saharan Africa. He has served as a Presidential-appointed scientific advisor to the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the United States Department of State. He was named Princeton’s 250th Anniversary Professor for Distinguished Teaching in 2000/01 and was awarded the Engineering Council’s Excellence in Teaching Award. Dr. van der Vink received his Ph.D. in Geosciences from Princeton University. He has been a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow, a Congressional Science Fellow, and an International Affa

Helen O'Shea and The Shanakees

Helen O'Shea is a singer, songwriter, recording artist & show producer currently based in Princeton, New Jersey. Through her journey across four countries (Ireland, England, Canada, USA) from the world of medicine to motherhood to music, Helen has carved a path for anyone with dreams put aside for life's demands to revisit them and put them into action! And action simply means taking one tiny step at a time in the right direction, with the right people, to bring the dream to life, as Helen has just done - in collaboration with two time Grammy winner Marc Swersky - on her current project "Turning Tides..." Helen will perform at TEDxCarnegieLake 2017 with her band "Shanakee" - named for the Gaelic word "seanachai" meaning storyteller - featuring David Ross (Drums & Percussion), Jay Posipanko (Piano & Keyboard), John Mazzeo (Bass Guitar & Mandolin), Marvin Perkins (Dobro & Bass Guitar), and Bobby Kochis (Rhythm & Lead Guitar).

Joel Hammon

Co-founder of The Learning Cooperatives

Joel Hammon is the co-founder of The Learning Cooperatives, a group of self-directed learning centers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He is also the co-founder and president of Liberated Learners, an organization that supports educators around the world to create self-directed learning centers in their communities. Joel is the author of The Teacher Liberation Handbook that details how he left teaching in public and private schools after 11 years to create an educational alternative for young people.

Karen Nichols

Managing Principal of Michael Graves Architecture & Design

Architect Karen Nichols, FAIA is one of the founding members and the managing principal of Michael Graves Architecture & Design based in Princeton, New Jersey. Throughout her over-40-year career, she has championed a broad multi-disciplinary approach that integrates planning, architecture, interiors, product design and graphics with the belief that creativity arises from the often unexpected intersection of ideas. She was educated in art history at Smith College (B.A. Magna cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and in architecture at M.I.T. (M.Arch.), where she taught interdisciplinary courses for several years. She sits on the Advisory Boards of the Michael Graves College at Kean University and the College of Architecture and Design at NJIT. Elevated to Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects in 2003 for innovations in architectural practice, she is currently the Chair of the AIA’s national and international Jury of Fellows. She has authored or edited seven books and numerous articles

Kate Germond

Executive Director and Investigator at Centurion

Kate Germond is the Executive Director and Investigator at Centurion, a non-profit organization whose primary mission is to free and vindicate from prison those who are completely innocent of the crimes for which they have been wrongly convicted. Kate joined Centurion in January of 1987 after reading an article in the NY Times about Jim McCloskey's pioneering work on behalf of the wrongly convicted. She thought he might need some help. They met, thought they could get along and for 30-years worked shoulder to shoulder to free the innocent from prison. Prior to that, she was a businesswoman and community activist in Mendocino, California where she lived with her family for close to 20 years. With Jim's retirement in May 2015, Kate became the Executive Director of Centurion. For the time being Kate has had to put aside her passion of working in the field on cases until some of her hopes and dreams for Centurion come to fruition. Kate is grateful every single day for Jim's commitment in 1

Marvi Lacar

Documentary Photographer and Director

Marvi Lacar is a documentary photographer and director whose goal is to connect with her audience using creative visual language. Lacar started her career as a photojournalist covering domestic and international news and features stories for print publications like Time, Newsweek, New York, Stern, Paris Match and the New York Times. Lacar has received awards for her photography from Photo Levallois, Communication Arts, American Photography, Photo District News, Santa Fe Center Project Competition among others. Escape, her documentary film about the rescue and rehabilitation of Maasai girls in Kenya escaping Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and early marriage, was recognized by AI-AP International Motion Arts Awards, United Nations Association Film Festival and other national and international film festivals. After her father died in 2008, Lacar was diagnosed with acute clinical depression. This Is A Love Story, her ‘visual diary’ chronicling her own battle with depression, has been exhi

Serena Burla

Professional Marathon Runner and Cancer Survivor

Serena Burla is the 2014 half-marathon U.S. National Champion, a professional marathon runner, two-time cancer survivor, wife, mother, and friend who believes in the power of a positive attitude. In 2010, Serena was diagnosed with and underwent surgery for a cancerous tumor (Synovial Sarcoma) in her right leg. With the mentality, “save my life, save my leg, and anything else is bonus,” Serena was able to return to competitive running and went on to represent the United States at the 2015 and 2017 IAAF World Championships in the marathon. A month prior to her 2017 race, she noticed a new lump where the old tumor had been. Not letting this finding deter her, she successfully competed in the marathon finishing 11th. Since the race, Serena has undergone another surgery to remove the recurrence. Serena is committed to focusing on the good and keeping a smile on her face through everything life throws at her.

Suzanne Buchanan

Executive Director of Autism New Jersey

Dr. Suzanne Buchanan is the Executive Director of Autism New Jersey, a licensed psychologist and Board Certified Behavior Analyst - Doctoral (BCBA-D). She earned a doctorate in clinical psychology from Long Island University and has worked in the autism field for more than twenty years. Dr. Buchanan provides Autism New Jersey with clinical and operational leadership; disseminates information regarding evidence-based intervention to parents, professionals, and the media; and advises public policy efforts from a clinical perspective. She and her colleagues recently led a successful advocacy initiative to roll back policies that would have decreased the availability of housing for adults with autism. Dr. Buchanan also authored a paper on the effectiveness of Applied Behavior Analysis for adults with autism that was part of the justification for removing the age cap on the autism insurance mandate paving the way to a new funding source for treatment for adults with autism. Her interests in

Thomas Klimek

Thomas Klimek is a Cellist, who began playing Cello as a way to get out of class in 5th grade. It would take a few years for it to sink in, but by high school he had finally grown comfortable with the idea that he was a musician. From there, Thomas set to devouring any Cello repertoire that he could get his hands on. Under the tutelage of Kristen Palombit, Thomas applied and was accepted to the Musical Horizons program at the Eastman School of Music. He spent a summer immersed in a musical community, and working with Alan Harris and Kathleen Kemp. At that point, he decided that it was no longer enough to simply call himself a musician; he would make music his focus of study in order to truly become a musician. During his musical growth he learned to tap into the power behind the notes, learning that the notes of a piece were just the first of many steps towards making music. During his time at Gettysburg College, he studied with Daniel Levitov, and learned to push himself to learn faster, play better, and make more music. This pursuit of 'more' would lead Thomas to the field of musicology. He had always sought to socratically 'understand' music, and musicology allows one to do just that. Musicology opened him up to a world of exploratory understanding. Turning to a unique blend of history, philosophy and music theory, Thomas could engage works in ways he had never done before. So Thomas became a student of both music and history diving ever deeper into the analysis of musical history.

Yusuf Dahl

Entrepreneur and Real Estate Investor

An entrepreneur who has been on both sides of the struggle to strengthen Milwaukee’s most vulnerable neighborhoods, Yusuf Dahl has a unique perspective on urban blight. As a teenager, he operated a network of drug houses before being sentenced to prison for 10 ½ years. During the depths of the financial crisis he became an unlikely real estate investor in response to the onslaught of foreclosures in his neighborhood, eventually growing to a portfolio of over 200 affordable housing units. In the spring of 2017 Yusuf graduated from Princeton University with his master’s degree in public affairs where he studied urban development and housing. He currently serves as Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Lafayette College and consults with organizations across the country working to activate opportunities in inner city housing. A brief video of his journey can be found in the link provided.