Theme: Entanglement

Our fifth annual event in Deerfield Massachusetts, this year we've expanded with more talks, workshops, and gallery exhibitions too! In partnership with Frontier Community Access Television, we're proud to present this event via live webstream as well!

Please note that all schedule times are approximate: if you have your heart set on seeing a particular talk, make sure to arrive early!

TEDxDeerfield is FREE and attendees may park anywhere on the Deerfield Academy campus. We hope you'll join us!

Elizabeth Wachsmann Concert Hall
Deerfield Academy
Deerfield, Massachusetts, 01342
United States

Angelique Alexos

Student, Journalist

Originally from Lake Forest, Illinois, Angélique is a junior in high school. Although she has always loved literature, history, and the arts, Angelique’s interest in journalism began a few years ago when she took a summer journalism program. Learning about such a profession has opened Angélique's eyes to what it takes to share stories, immerse yourself in a culture, and be a trustworthy source. She currently participates in a couple publications on campus. Angélique would like to thank the TEDx team, the speakers, and, of course, the audience members for making this event possible.

Bill Waterhouse

Author of the Hiker's Information Packet

Bill Waterhouse is an avid hiker living in Turners Falls, Massachusetts. After a fellow hiker fell in 2016, Bill has followed his passion to teach hiker safety. He has developed a Hiker’s Informational Packet that allows hikers to provide pertinent information to Search & Rescue Teams in an emergency. He teaches compass and map skills, finding lost hiker events, and fire starting. Bill is an Eagle Scout, and his main goal is to keep people safe by being prepared and educated.

Helen Feng

Student, Musician

Born in Auckland, New Zealand and raised in Shenzhen, China, Helen Feng is an aspiring composer, pianist and vocalist who is currently an eleventh-grader. She found interest in composition around four years ago, and was since prompted to explore ways in which music can intermingle with her passions for literature, philosophy, and social action. Studying performance inspires her to reflect on the evolving definition of the 21st-century composer-performer, amid a growing influence of new media, emphasis on interpersonal music-making, improvisation, interdisciplinary studies, and cultural competency in an interconnected world.

Kate Clayton-Jones

Nurse, Footcare

Kate Clayton-Jones MSN PhDc RN is the founder and CEO of FootCare by Nurses, an agency of nurses skilled in the art and science of foot care. Kate entered nursing later in life post a career in aviation and then finance. Always curious, Kate recognized that foot care was often overlooked when more pressing medical needs were being attended to. Kate decided that all people deserve great foot care that is evidence based, and has not looked back since.

Kirk Woodring

LICSW

Kirk Woodring is the author of “Assessing the Risk: Suicidal Behavior in the Hospital Environment of Care” and has served as the Chief Clinical Officer at the Brattleboro Retreat and the Vice President of Clinical Services at the Center for Human Development. Mr. Woodring is also an adjunct professor at Smith College School for Social Work, where he teaches and coordinates courses in group therapy. His area of professional interest is in training clinicians on techniques for assessing suicide risk.

Mark Chung

Student, Activist

Mark Chung is from Seoul, South Korea, Mark grew up embracing his Asian identity, advocating for issues such as the Korean education crisis. Moving to the United States in 2017, Mark uses his experiences to bring underrepresented issues to light. Mark continues to pursue his passion for public speaking, and he leads an advocacy group addressing the North Korean refugee crisis.

Maya Laur

Student

Maya Laur and is a Junior in high school. She lives in Wendell, MA and is passionate about social justice. Her favorite classes in school are those that require her to think critically, use creativity, challenge authority, and utilize inquiry. She loves to engage with the world around her and ask questions in all of her classes because she feels it is an essential part of learning both inside and outside the classroom.

Rosnel Alejandro Leyva-Cortes

Activist/Entrepreneur

Rosnel Alejandro Leyva-Cortes Jr. was born and raised in Cuba, a country known mainly for its isolation from the modern internet as we know it. He is also the founder and lead product designer of Mata De Guayaba, a start-up whose goal is to bring fast and open internet into Cuba through the use of specially designed devices. It's Rosnel's mission to be able to implement his idea of an open and accessible internet for the people of Cuba, but it is also to inform the rest of the world of just how precious and fragile our internet really is.

Ryan Safiry

Student, Activist

Currently a Senior in high school, Ryan Safiry will be attending Columbia University in September 2019. Ryan is the Founder and President of a nonprofit organization, “Be4Cause,” which promotes cancer awareness in North Africa and drives to advocate for child labor laws and civil rights. In the summer of 2018, Ryan received recognition in Morocco for building a playroom in a hospital benefiting kids suffering from cancer. He is also working in a partnership with an orphanage in Morocco, ”Enfance Espoir,” mentoring minor mothers giving up their infants born out of wedlock. Ryan has gained an interest in social justice and international relations, and his passion for journalism motivated him to create a non-partisan political magazine at his school, called “The Green Light.” In 2018, Ryan delivered a TEDx Talk in Cairo, Egypt, speaking onto the issue of stereotypes in a changing world. Ryan aims to continue to promote peace and understanding among all nations around the world.

Sam Bronkers

Student

Sam Bronckers is 17-year-old from the suburbs of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He played field hockey on a national level and was selected for the national team under 15. In addition to many sports, other passions of his include debate, classics, and biology. Although his main aspiration lies in Medicine, Sam is very open-minded and loves to learn about other topics, including news. In American News – A European perspective, Sam will share his insights from his experience in Europe and America.

Tom Schiff

Consultant, Healthy Masculinities

Tom Schiff, Ed.D. is the founder and director of Phallacies, Inc., an organization that engages men and boys in critical conversations and direct action to challenge mainstream ideas of masculinity and foster physical and emotional health and community well-being. Tom is a national award-winning practitioner who has worked with organizations ranging from small local non-profits to the NFL. He founded the UMass Amherst Men and Masculinities Center and continues to serve as an adjunct faculty member in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at UMass.

Trisha Boonpongmanee

Mathematician

Trisha Boonpongmanee has cultivated a passion for mathematics and spatial puzzles and currently works to use applied math to solve real-world problems. This exploration fostered an interest in the Fourier transform and its interdisciplinary applications. To impart the importance of this problem-solving mindset, she promotes STEM literacy with younger students through outreach programs, contributes math competition problems for different math communities, and lead a STEM focused club.