Theme: Disruptors

In changing times and constraining situations, disruptors courageously pivot from the status quo to drive change. They challenge stereotypes, uproot injustice, and stand firm in the face of opposition. On October 28, in Gaston Hall, a group of selected Georgetown students, faculty and community members will present their TEDx Talks to a live audience on how they themselves have been disruptors or witnessed moments of disruption.

Gaston Hall
Georgetown University
Washington, District of Columbia, 20007
United States

Ahmad Ashkar

Ahmad Ashkar is the CEO and Founder of the Hult Prize Foundation, the world’s foremost platform for the creation and launch of for-good, for-profit startups emerging from universities, awarding 1M USD each year to the winning start-up. He is also the founder of Falafel Inc. a falafel company that promotes social impact by employing and giving back to refugees.

Jeff Galvin

Jeffrey A. Galvin is the CEO and Co-founder of American Gene Technologies™ (AGT). He earned his BA degree in Economics from Harvard in 1981. He has more than 30 years of business and entrepreneurial experience including founder or executive positions at a variety of Silicon Valley startups. Several of his companies were taken public and/or sold to public companies, including one in the medical-technology arena that was sold to Varian, the leading maker of linear accelerators used in cancer therapy. Following his startup experience, he retired to become an Angel Investor in real estate and high tech. He came out of retirement to found and fund AGT after meeting Roscoe Brady at NIH.

Jenna Clifford

Jenna Clifford is an American Studies major at Georgetown University in the Class of 2018. Jenna is a member of the Georgetown Scholarship Program and serves as a Senator in the Georgetown University Student Association and as a Research Assistant for the Office of Student Financial Services. Jenna's thesis in American Studies is on the modern American Dream.

Lise Howard

Lise Howard is a Government Professor at Georgetown University and focuses on international relations, conflict resolution, civil wars, and peacekeeping. Howard's book, UN Peacekeeping and Civil Wars won the 2010 Book Award from the Academic Council on the UN System. Professor Howard has also published pieces in the Journal of Democracy, Global Governance, Annual Review of Political Science, and International Peacekeeping.

Luis Rosales

Luis is in the Class of 2019 at Georgetown University in the McDonough School of Business. Luis is a member of the Georgetown Scholarship Program and Georgetown Blue & Gray Tour Guide Society.

Matthew Wang

Matthew Wang could not speak until he was nine years old. His parents were ready to send him to a full-time facility that could better take care of him, but before they could, he forced himself to speak for the first time. He said no. Finding the power to stand up for himself has been a theme in Matthew's life ever since. Despite the difficulties of learning how to speak well throughout childhood, Matthew wound up on his high school debate team. Now a senior at Georgetown University, Matthew is a co-founder of a french fry company called Spud Buds.

Mélisande Short-Colomb

Mélisande's ancestors were among the 272 slaves whom Georgetown priests sold in 1838 to pay off the university’s debts. She is now a 63-year-old freshman at Georgetown, admitted through the legacy program as a descendant of the 272 enslaved people. Mélisande is a mother, a grandmother, and a professional chef.

Pedro Espinoza

Pedro David Espinoza is The Robin Hood of Technology according to The Voice of America. He is an internet entrepreneur, angel investor, keynote speaker, and soon-to-be author. At the age of 19, Pedro became the Founder and CEO of SmileyGo, an analytics platform that uses artificial intelligence to help companies take control of their public policy risk and turn their philanthropic grants into visibility. The investor-backed company aims to power some of the world’s largest and most influential corporations, marketing departments, and corporate foundations. In 2018, Pedro will publish a book about how immigrants have a competitive advantage to start a company in America.

Thana Hasan

Thana is a member of the Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Class of 2018.