Theme: Disciplined Imagination.

In collaboration with the Howard Thurman Center, this year’s theme is ‘Disciplined Imagination’, an homage to the scholarly work of Howard Thurman. This is the first year that TEDxBU is hosting a hybrid student/faculty/staff/external speaker event.
The event is only open to members from the BU community unless directly invited.

Howard Thurman Center
808 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts, 02215
United States

André de Quadros

Boston University Professor of Music, Educator, Conductor, Scholar, and Human Rights Activist

Dr André de Quadros is a music educator, conductor, scholar, and human rights activist. His professional work has taken him to the most diverse settings in over 40 countries, spanning professional ensembles, and projects with prisons, psychosocial rehabilitation, refugees and asylum-seekers, poverty locations, and victims of torture, sexual violence, and trauma. He is a professor of music at Boston University and is also affiliated with the university's Center for Antiracist Research, the Pardee School Initiative on Forced Migration and Human Trafficking, and The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. He directs ensembles in Indonesia, Jerusalem, Boston, Sri Lanka, and the Mexico-US border. He is co-founder of The Choral Commons, an international media platform. In 2019, he was a Distinguished Academic Visitor at Queens College, University of Cambridge. He is the 2021 recipient of Chorus America's Brazeal Wayne Dennard Award for his work in social justice.

Ariyana Aghazadeh-Bonab

Political Science Student at Boston University

Ariyana Aghazadeh-Bonab is a sophomore from Woburn, Massachusetts studying Political Science, and hopes to go into the non-profit sector after graduation, specifically focusing on anti-poverty and homelessness. Graduating from a high school around 15 minutes outside of Boston, she spent lots of her childhood within the city and has seen Boston grow and change over time. In her free time, she does D1 Club Synchronized Swimming and enjoys film photography.

Devina Faustanisa Nursyah Wibowo

Psychology Student at Boston University

Devina is an undergraduate exchange student studying psychology from Indonesia. She is currently studying at the MET College of Boston University under a fully-funded scholarship from Indonesia’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. She developed a huge interest in positive psychology and is hoping to conduct further research in the area for her final thesis presentation. During her spare time, she loves to play sports, do journaling, and read self-development books. Her life motto is just as simple as to dream, believe and achieve.

Marissa Carty

Psychology Student at Boston University

Marissa Carty is a senior undergraduate student at Boston University majoring in Psychology with a minor in Dance. She is a member of the Kilachand Honors College and passionate about positive psychology and human flourishing, specifically the roles that healthy relationships, reflective practices, and culture play in well-being. She has worked as a Research Assistant at Boston Children's Hospital and the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders. She is currently conducting her honors thesis on self-compassion journaling and loneliness in the Lab of Contemplative Studies with Dr. Brenda Phillips. She is also writing a poetry collection on the psychology of well-being as her keystone project through the Kilachand Honors College. In addition to research, Carty has worked with nonprofit organizations such as The Steppingstone Foundation, Social Health Labs, and Mental Health Collaborative, where she is the Founder and President of the Young Adult Advisory Board.

Michelle Maidenberg

Psychologist + Author

Michelle maintains a private practice in Harrison, NY, and is the Co-Founder and Clinical Director of “Thru My Eyes”, a nonprofit 501c3 organization that offers free clinically guided videotaping to chronically medically ill individuals who want to leave video legacies for their children and loved ones. She is also adjunct faculty at New York University (NYU) and teaches a graduate course in Mindfulness Practice. Additionally, Michelle serves on the Board of Directors at The Boys & Girls in Mount Vernon and is a member of the American Red Cross Crisis Team and serves on the Board of Directors of the Westchester Trauma Network (WTN) in Westchester NY. She is a Certified Group Therapist through the American Group Psychotherapy Association and a Diplomate and certified member of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. Michelle wrote “Free Your Child From Overeating: 53 Mind-Body Strategies For Lifelong Health" and has an upcoming self-help book that will be published in Fall 2022.

Patrick Abouchalache

Managing Director, The PEGA Group, Lecturer at Boston University's Questrom School of Business

Patrick is the founder and Managing Director of The PEGA Group, a Boston and New York-based operating, investment, and advisory firm. He previously worked as an investment banker in Salomon Brothers / Citigroup’s Global Telecom and European M&A Groups as well as an investment analyst at the International Finance Corporation. Patrick received a B.S. in Economics, cum laude, from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from INSEAD. Patrick grew up between the U.S., Europe, and Lebanon, and speaks French, Spanish, and Arabic. Patrick’s active teaching and community involvement include mentoring undergraduates and graduates, international students, military veterans, and working adults across cultures and backgrounds as well as raising awareness and funding for many non-profits. Patrick is also an active BUild Lab mentor and lecturer at Boston University, where he teaches Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Family Business across multiple schools and colleges.

Paulina Preciat

Hospitality Administration Student at Boston University

Paulina has always had a major interest in exploring and traveling to find her passions. Born and raised in a small city in Mexico located in the Yucatan Peninsula, Merida, she is driven by storytelling and hospitality. She is currently a Junior majoring in Hospitality Administration at Boston University.

Tajan Renderos

Leadership Development Coach + Diversity and Inclusion Specialist

Tajan Braithwaite Renderos, ACC is a Leadership Development Coach and Diversity and Inclusion Specialist with over a decade of experience in start-up tech, and government agencies. Her coaching clients come from companies such as Netflix, Dropbox, Atlassian, Intel, Shopify, Lyft, and others. Tajan is known for helping senior leaders who are secretly feeling muted by low self-confidence, burnt out from perfectionism, and wanting to uplevel their careers do just that. Tajan is an expert trainer and speaker and has worked with organizations to teach leaders her signature framework on integrating a coaching approach to management so they can easily navigate the toughest parts of people management- conflict and difficult conversations. She is an avid blogger on leadership development and organizational development issues.

Tanya Gabrielian

Pianist + Assistant Professor of Piano at Boston University

Hailed by the London Times as a “pianist of powerful physical and imaginative muscle,” Tanya shot onto the international stage at the age of twenty with back-to-back victories in the Scottish International Piano Competition and the Aram Khachaturyan International Piano Competition. Since then, she has performed on four continents in acclaimed venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Sydney Opera House, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, and the Salle Cortot in Paris, with such orchestras as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and London Sinfonia. Tanya’s Southbank debut recital in the Purcell Room in London, presented by the Philharmonia Orchestra, was chosen as “Performance of the Year” by Seen and Heard International. Her latest album, Remix: Bach Transcriptions, was selected as Album of the Week by radio stations in Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.