The Graduate Student Assembly has organized a TEDx event to be held in the Campus Center Ballroom on April 30. Speakers include faculty, students, and leaders from the Boston community. The theme of the event is “Lighting the Way for the Future.”
Confirmed speakers are Mathew Malone, Jacob Kariuki, Darren Kew, Mary Still, Alethea Harney, Caitlin Cahow, Edward J. Benz, Jr., MD, Chef Barbara Lynch, with Tony Delois as the Featured Entertainment and “more speakers coming soon.”
TEDx is described as a “collaboration of thought leadership” with talks that aim to “foster learning, inspiration and wonder — and to provoke conversations that matter.”
Mathew Malone is the Massachusetts Secretary of Education and the Governor’s top adviser on education. Malone works closely with the state agencies, such as the University of Massachusetts, and helps to shape the education reform agenda.
Jacob Kariuki has a Master’s in Nursing from UMass Boston, and a Bachelor’s in Nursing from the University of South Africa. He has worked and taught at hospitals in Kenya and is involved with the Kenya Heart and Sole project — a push to connect students and clinicians in Kenya with those in the United States.
Darren Kew is the Executive Director of UMass Boston’s Center for Peace Democracy and Engagement. He studies crisis control and democratic development and is on the forefront of connecting the two fields. He has provided analyses for preventing conflicts around the world, and been a consultant to the United Nations, USAID, and more.
Mary Still has a Doctorate in Sociology from Cornell and is a part of UMass Boston’s Department of Management and Marketing. She has won awards for investigative reporting and for publications and public relations campaigns with a Fortune-500 owned hospital.
Alethea Harney specializes in media relations and communications. As a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts State Treasurer’s Office, she developed a marketing campaign for the Massachusetts’ stimulus program — one that was then replicated in several other states. She most recently served as Press Secretary to Senator Elizabeth Warren in the senate race in 2012.
Caitlin Cahow was a member of the United States Women’s National Ice Hockey team, where she won an Olympic bronze medal in 2006 and a silver medal in 2010. She graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor’s in Social and Biological Anthropology. Recently, Cahow represented the U.S. at the Closing Ceremonies of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi as a diplomat.
Edward J. Benz, Jr., MD, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and of the Institute in 2000. Previously, Benz was the chairman of the Department of Medicine at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has authored more than 300 articles, books, chapters, reviews and abstracts.
Tony Deblois is a 37-year old pianist from Randolph, MA. Born weighing one pound and three-quarters ounces, he is blind and autistic and has Savant syndrome. He can play more than twenty instruments and has memorized over 8,000 songs. He has been featured on television shows for both his musical and memory abilities. He graduated from Berklee College of Music Magna Cum Laude.
Chef Barbara Lynch is a Boston chef and restaurateur. As CEO of Barbara Lynch Gruppo, Barbara oversees the operations of eight conceptual restaurants. She founded the Barbara Lynch Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping Boston’s youth through support and teaching, as well as empowering families.
The name TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, and the first event in 1984 included presentations related to those areas but events since have shed those limitations. TED has now become a global phenomenon with high profile speakers ranging from Bill Gates, to Bill Clinton, to Stephen Hawking.
Sherrod Williams, Director of the Office of Student Leadership and Community Engagement, and the Interim Dean of Curricular and Development for the next five months, is a fan and avid watcher of TED talks.
He describes them as a “way for leaders and scholars to share experiences and knowledge in specific areas and to lecture on platforms to reach a broad audience.” The presentations are often short and focused.
TEDx events differ from those of TED in that they are independently run by those who have obtained a license from the founding organization and agree to follow the TED format, such as UMass Boston.
“It’s a TEDx movement, in a way,” says Williams. “Groups, schools, and organizations choose their own topics and speakers,” and it allows the community to get involved.
Maggie Chen, a literature graduate student, says she finds the upcoming TEDx event to be “very exciting and inspiring” and that she appreciates the forum for different perspectives, comparing it to when she recently lived in China.
Xiuyue Lu, an American studies graduate student also from China, who likes to watch Philosophy TED talks, echoes this, saying that she “loves the movement and the views being shared” and that the upcoming event “is very cool.”
Garret McNiel, a management junior who runs a web development company called SignedOn, says that the “videos are a great resource for learning about new ideas, trends, and innovation” and that “it’s a really great thing for our community.”
In regards to the TEDx UMass Boston theme, “Lighting the Way for the Future,” Williams calls it “very appropriate.” He says “UMass Boston is in a transition point. We are growing in numbers, building buildings in the 25-Year Master Plan, we are imprinting who we are, on Boston, and on the world.”
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