Theme: Evolution of Perspectives

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).

Our ideas and viewpoints change over time whether that's within a profession, within an academic field or throughout an individual's own experience. For the first annual TEDxWhyteAve event, we want to explore how people's perceptions have changed throughout their lives and the future implications they create!

Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre
8426 Gateway Blvd NW
Edmonton, Alberta, T6E 4B4
Canada

Dr. Andreea Vanacker

Entrepreneur/Author

Andreea D. Vanacker is the CEO of SPARKX5, a company that elevates human potential through its holistic wellbeing application and resilience programs. She is the author of three books, is an international speaker, and is often featured in Forbes and Fast Company articles on topics that inspire leaders to create human-centric organizations and individuals to thrive. Andreea will be speaking about “The Trilogy of Joy” which is a new model for overcoming life struggles and finding more meaning and joy from our life experiences. After living through a 9-hour brain operation, the experience has transformed her life in many ways. Instead of going through the Cycle of Grief, as many would with a brain tumor diagnosis, she chose a new way of looking at life to deal with the situation prior and after the operation. During her talk, you will discover what are the pillars of the Trilogy of Joy model that she has developed, and how to effectively implement them in your life journey.

Dr. Don Page

Theoretical Physicist

Prof. Donald Nelson Page is an American-born Canadian theoretical physicist at the University of Alberta, Canada. He got his BA at William Jewell College in the United States in 1971, attaining an MS in 1972 and a PhD in 1976 at Caltech. His professional career started as a research assistant in Cambridge from 1976-1979, followed by an assistant professorship at Penn State from 1979 to 1983, and then an associate professor at Penn State until 1986 before taking on the title of professor in 1986. Page spent four more years at Penn State before moving to become a professor at the University of Alberta in Canada in 1990. His work focuses on quantum cosmology and theoretical gravitational physics, and he is noted for being a doctoral student of the eminent Professor Stephen Hawking, in addition to publishing several journal articles with him.

Dr. Hassaan Tohid

Neuroscientist

Dr. Hassaan Tohid, MBBS,SUDCC, CCATP is a 2 times TEDx speaker, neuroscientist and a board certified substance abuse clinician in addiction counseling. He has written and published more than 50 scientific peer-reviewed articles & book chapters, mainly related to neuroscience and mental health. He also authored some books and is the senior editor of the Springer Book “International Medical Graduates in the United States A Complete Guide to Challenges and Solutions 1st ed. 2021 Edition. Dr. Tohid is also the founder of the California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences and Psychology and trains medical students on research and related subjects. He also served as the faculty of neurology and psychiatry and later served as a course director of psychiatry for Scholar-Rx/FirstAid USMLE-Rx. He is also known for his motivational talks among students and peers.

Joseph Chang

University Student

Joseph Chang is a nursing student completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Alberta. Along with his studies, he currently has a role in undergraduate research, being part of a team exploring the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on pediatric mental health. Joseph embodies a deep appreciation for community involvement, and currently works at both a local non-profit, Goodwill Industries of Alberta, and as an undergraduate nurse in Alberta’s COVID-19 vaccination program. Joseph’s unique personal experiences combined with his time as a healthcare student and frontline worker during the pandemic have changed his perspective on stress. Joseph will share how his personal experiences with the effects of the pandemic shifted his view on stress from being a barrier, to an opportunity to support himself and others around him instead. As he begins his career as a health professional, Joseph aims to continue leading in his communities and empower others to do the same.

Majid Mirza

CEO

Majid is the Co-Founder and CEO of ESGTree, a technology platform which helps financial institutions and investors manage their environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. In April 2022, LinkedIn News named Majid as one of the 'Top 15 Voices for the Green Economy' in the US & Canada. He is a sustainability executive and doctoral researcher with over 12 years of ESG and a former Board Member of the Canada Forum for Impact Investment and Development (CAFIID). Before launching ESGTree, Majid worked in the Sustainable Development and Impact Investing space in over 20 countries and managed social impact projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Through this time working in policy, consulting and technology, he observed certain trends, risks, and opportunities in the ESG and impact and investing space. This culminates in his talk on how integrating ESG today is essential for doing business tomorrow.

Patrick Aylward

Former Lawyer

Patrick used to be a courtroom lawyer, and then spent many years as a mediator. He has a problem with conflict – not its resolution, its existence. His talk challenges a fundamental truism of the field of conflict resolution: the idea that there’s a positive side to conflict. In unveiling the truth about conflict, Patrick opens up the conversation about differences and diversity, and illustrates that our daily use of debate creates conflict. As his talk progresses, Patrick introduces the idea that a shift from debate to collaboration is both easy and essential, starting with three conversations that are sucking the life out of groups, communities and workplaces. He wraps up with an attitude and an action that each person can take as their first step to stop debating and to start collaborating.

Paul Kan

Executive Coach

Paul Kan is a High Performance and Executive Coach, Keynote Speaker, and Host of the Yes I Kan Podcast. After almost a decade of sales and leadership experience managing multi-million dollar portfolios with billion dollar brands, he left corporate to pursue a more meaningful path. He has spent the past two years coaching over 300 corporate and individual clients from CEOs to Olympians to up-level their Emotional Intelligence capability and create their next level of high performance results. After conquering a 30 year internal battle with shame and fear, Paul is on a mission today to use his story of breaking through barriers as a Transgender man to empower and inspire others to transform their lives and create freedom from the inside out by being fully, unapologetically, authentically YOU.

Shelagh Cummins

CEO

Shelagh Cummins is the Founder and CEO of The Road to Seven TM - a coaching, training, and financing company that guides women entrepreneurs in building a profitable and fulfilling business. Driven by an unwavering belief in the power of women entrepreneurs and their impact on both society and the economy. For the past decade, Shelagh Cummins has helped women entrepreneurs transform from struggling solopreneurs to thriving CEOs. They learn to shift to empowered action while removing the barriers to their success. Shelagh inspires her students to park the excuses and become #womenofaction. She is not afraid to kick out the crutches, make over mindsets, and flatten fears – always with a healthy dose of humour and candour. Shelagh Cummins works tirelessly to rewrite the rules when it comes to capital access for this resilient and highly dedicated group of entrepreneurs. We must stop asking why women are not good investments and start asking how we can better invest in women.

Tamiko Nicholson

Educator

Tamiko Nicholson has worked with students ages five to 75 in a variety of settings and countries, learning valuable lessons along the way. She has seen how much impact we have on the lives of others with the words and images we share, particularly when it comes to children. She has witnessed how children from marginalized backgrounds—be it race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability, etc.—can struggle to grow healthy self-identities in our current society. Using a world citizen framework can help all children widen their worldviews, grow empathy for others, and see differences from new perspectives. Importantly, it can help children from marginalized backgrounds see how they do have a place, and agency, in this world. What you share with the world, children see—learn how to make diversity positively visible with “world citizen glasses.”

Thor Reinhardt

Author

Thor is an Author, Innovator and Youtuber with his wife and 4 children. Thor’s upbringing was a very privileged and luxurious one with a family run business that would grow into a global player employing more than 1k people all around the world, that he would join, feeling invincible and naively believing life would never change. But Life is full of transitions; within a short period, everything that was built over a 20-year period was lost, leaving Thor and his father to make a choice to rebuild or retire. Thor wrote his first book that helped him overcome his depression and started his journey on YouTube to tell his story, to encourage and inspire others to overcome their own challenges. Thor realized that the best view comes after the hardest climb and discovered that there is Life After Failure.