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).

Isenberg Innovation Hub
121 Presidents Dr
Amherst, Massachusetts, 01003
United States

Alice Flaherty

Alice Flaherty MD, PhD is an associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at Harvard who treats patients with movement and mood disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her research subjects include creative motivation, the brain’s representation of the body and illness behavior. Both her general audience book on creativity, The Midnight Disease, and her children’s book, The Luck of the Loch Ness Monster, have won national awards. She has been profiled in publications ranging from The New York Times to National Geographic, and is a subject of Corinne Botz’s award-winning short film Bedside Manner.

Bob Lowry

Bob Lowry (UMass '93) is founder and CEO of Bueno Y Sano. Established in 1995, his small New England based company serves nourishing burritos and tacos that are also delicious. In addition, Bob is an instructor of entrepreneurship at the Isenberg School of Business. In his spare time Bob raises his two young children and occasionally finds time to go on a date with his beautiful wife Cathy.

Duncan Irschick

Duncan J. Irschick is an integrative biologist and innovator interested in the evolution and ecology of animal athletics, and how biological form informs synthetic design. Some of his research interests include gecko adhesion, 3D-imaging, animal movement, and bioinspiration. He is a co-inventor of two technologies – GeckskinTM, a bioinspired superadhesive, and BeastcamTM, a portable multi-camera technology that can create high-resolution 3D models of living creatures.

Harith Khawaja

Harith is a Senior Computer Science and Philosophy double major at Amherst College. His academic and professional interests gravitate around the philosophy that technology, ethical Computer Science and socially responsible entrepreneurship, pursuits dedicated to ensure technology makes the world a better place for everyone. Over the past year, he has been working on an undergraduate thesis on the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence while founding and running the Amherst AI Club.

Jim Flynn

Jim Flynn has founded pioneering tech companies in diverse industries such as international payment systems, internet billing, and online video distribution. Recently, he started The Kuwa Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to creating a self-sovereign identity platform that will work for the world's most economically disadvantaged people while being resistant to corruption or capture by the powerful.

Jim Henle

Author of “The Proof and the Pudding: What Mathematicians, Cooks, and You Have in Common“ and “An Outline of Set Theory,” Jim Henle finds interest in set theory, logic, nonstandard analysis, philosophy of mathematics, and many more.

Josh Silver

Josh Silver is the founder and director of RepresentUs, a post-partisan, nonprofit organization that is advancing campaign finance and election reforms across the nation. Josh is co-founder and former CEO of Free Press, an advocacy group that promotes critical journalism and Internet openness. He served as campaign manager of the successful 1998 "Clean Elections" ballot measure in Arizona. Josh publishes widely on democracy, media, election, campaign finance and a range of other public policy issues.

Kelsey Nass

Kelsey Nass is a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and originally from Rockville Center, New York. She’s currently pursuing a BDIC degree in Integrated Marketing Communications with hopes of a career in Public Relations. She is the president of the University of Massachusetts’s Sigma Delta Tau chapter and is a social justice intern on campus, strongly advocating for sexual assault prevention and awareness.

Kofi Charu Nat Turner

Kofi Charu Nat Turner (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley) is a socially engaged researcher and ceaseless seeker of knowledge. He is prolific at conceptualizing ways of engaging historically marginalized youth, K-12 teachers, universities and community organizations in social justice projects that support the development of youth multimodal literacies. Dr. Turner is a learner/practitioner of the Raja Yoga Tradition across multiple global contexts and has received degrees in Education Administration at Harvard University and in Africana Studies and Political Science at Brown University.

Livia Rizzo

Livia began her career in education as a high school science teacher with a passion for engaging students with interactive, student-centered experiences. She is currently a teacher and curriculum developer at HMS MEDscience, a simulations based high school STEM program in Boston, MA that develops students' critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and communication while investigating the human body. She was inspired to go into teaching from her experiences tutoring through A Better Chance in Amherst and Ware Adult Learning Center as well as from having amazing professors, coaches, and peers while a student-athlete at Amherst College.

Michael Sundel

A native New Yorker, Michael Sundel has had a varied career: big firm corporate lawyer, federal government attorney, and owner of an international logistics software company in Northern Virginia. He believes that working in different fields and launching startups should not be left only to young people. So, a few years ago, he and his wife built an indoor hydroponic public park in Easthampton, Massachusetts, as a pilot to try to build community and spur economic development. Michael's overall goal is to find interesting ways to use technology to improve people's lives.