TEDxUNI: Charting Destiny is committed to helping individuals, institutions, and our culture move forward in bold, positive, meaningful ways. Our event will result in our attendees and our community charting destiny!

Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center
8201 Dakota Street
Cedar Falls, Iowa, 50614
United States

Amit Sood, MD

Amit Sood, MD, is Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic and Director of Mayo's Complementary and Integrative Medicine program. He is the author of The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living and The Mayo Clinic Guide to Happiness. He is one of the most sought-after speakers at Mayo. He has received several NIH and foundation awards to test and implement integrative and mind-body approaches within medicine. Dr. Sood received the 2010 Distinguished Service Award, the 2010 Innovator of the Year Award, and the 2013 Outstanding Physician Award from Mayo Clinic.

Colice Sanders

Colice Sanders has dedicated herself to motivating and empowering under-represented populations through public speaking and workshop presentations since 1998. As an Advising Specialist for the University of Northern Iowa’s Student Support Services (SSS), a federally funded TRiO program, she draws from her experiences as a former foster youth, teen mother, and first-generation college student to advocate for and support fellow first-generation students, students with low incomes, and students with disabilities.

Dave Gould

Dave Gould is the University of Iowa’s first Obermann Center Public Scholar and a member of its adjunct faculty. His Life Design course was created to transcend higher education’s conventional role by helping students find meaning and purpose. He recently returned from spending 14 months working with the Downtown Project, Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh’s organization dedicated to transforming Downtown Las Vegas into the most community-focused large city in the world. He is also a filmmaker whose credits include Freestyle: The Victories of Dan Gable, The Checker King, and Two Sides of the Moon.

Hannah Shaffer

Hannah Shaffer is a senior Writing major at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). In her four years at UNI she explored multiple fields of study before finding her passion in writing. She is now an award-winning, published poet and an editorial intern at the North American Review, America’s oldest literary magazine. She is also a regular performer at poetry slams and readings, was the opening act for professional slam poet Neil Hilborn, and is a member of many musical ensembles and the UNI Panther Marching Band.

Jean Trainor

Known for her commitment to her community, Jean Trainor volunteers her time and expertise to the Inclusion Connection (www.inclusionconnection.org) Board, UnityPoint Health Systems Board, and many other local organizations. Her proudest accomplishment is being Nate’s mom.

Jordy Brown

Jordy Brown is a community volunteer and a senior college student majoring in Elementary and Middle Level Education. He is about to graduate from the University of Northern Iowa and is looking forward to student teaching internationally. His goal is to experience a culture completely different from Iowa, and then to come back and share his experience with his own students. Growing up, he looked forward to summer camp all year, especially sitting around a fire eating marshmallows and sharing stories with complete strangers.

Keevin O'Rourke

Keevin O’Rourke is not just looking ahead to his senior year in college as a marketing major at the University of Northern Iowa. He is strategizing ways to grow his startup company, Monday Creations, out of its current space. Passionate about entrepreneurship, Keevin is vice president of his campus Entrepreneurship Club and an advisory board member for a local One Million Cups group. In those roles, he advises fellow Millennials with startup dreams of their own—the perfect vantage point from which to figure out what Millennials really want in a workplace.

Mike Fisher

Mike Fisher, the Principal of Hoover Middle School in Waterloo, Iowa, leads a diverse learning community of over 800 students in grades 6-8. He has led the transformation of Hoover Middle School into a Leader in Me learning community. He appreciates the privilege of serving a school that has become a model for leadership and character education in the community.

Nate Trainor

Nate Trainor is an advocate for acceptance and belonging of persons with disabilities. Although non-verbal, he is a powerful “voice” for inclusion. He has experienced first-hand what rejection, exclusion, and assumed incompetence can feel like. He volunteers his time to help others understand that everyone has many abilities and many ways to communicate and belong within a community.

Taylor Morris

After excelling in sports and graduating high school in 2007, Taylor Morris joined the Navy with hopes of making it into Special Operations. He ultimately found his passion as a Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician. On May 3, 2012, an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) detonated while Taylor was clearing a path into a building to provide his team cover from enemy fire during a mission in Kandahar, Afghanistan. He sustained injuries to all four limbs, entailing loss of both legs above the knee, his left arm from the bicep down, and his right hand. After two years of rehabilitation at Walter Reed Medical Center, Taylor and his fiancée are building a new life together, different from previously planned, but exciting and passionate nonetheless.

Teri Trask

Teri Trask is the Principal at Orange Elementary in Waterloo, Iowa. Orange was recently named one of 123 Lighthouse Schools in the world by the FranklinCovey organization. Guiding the school’s three-year journey building its Leader in Me program, Trask has been dubbed an “Enthusiologist Extraordinaire” by her peers for her no-nonsense approach and the passion, energy, and optimism she brings to the table.