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).
Speakers
Speakers may not be confirmed. Check event website for more information.
Alex Cohen
Alex Cohen is co-host of Southern California Public Radio’s “Take Two” show, the top-rated public radio show in America’s largest market on the West Coast. As her roller derby ‘alter-ego,’ Axles of Evil, Cohen made a cameo appearance and served as the trainer and choreographer for the Drew Barrymore derby film “Whip It.” She is also the co-author of the book “Down and Derby: The Insider’s Guide to Roller Derby.” Alex brought the TEDxPasadenaWomen audience into the world of roller derby and shared how it helped her navigate motherhood.Allyson W. Gryphon and Lolita Lopez
Allison Gryphon and Lolita Lopez were patients of the same breast surgeon while they were both battling breast cancer. Their surgeon saw something in both of them and had them meet. They bonded immediately and started to refer to each other as “sisters.” Both are storytellers -- Allison is a filmmaker and Lolita is a television news reporter. The story they told at TEDxPasadenaWomen showed the audience the strength of their bond to not only fight their cancer, but help others their struggle with the disease.Alyesha Wise
Alyesha Wise is a Poet, Teaching Artist and Creator. She wrote her first poem at age 11 and has not stopped creating since. She is a two-time Women of the World Poetry Slam finalist and Philadelphia Grand Slam Champion. Not resting on her laurels, she continues to perform and conduct poetry workshops across the United States and UK. Alyesha brought the audience at TEDxPasadenaWomen to tears with her poem about she realized she could use her experiences growing up to help her younger sister and others.Benita Scheckel
Benita Scheckel is a southern California native. She is a playwright, actor, singer, educator, mother and wife. Her play, “Bend in the Road”, “The Anne of Green Gables Musical,” was one of ten new shows selected to go to New York in 2013 and enjoyed a national tour. Ms. Scheckel’s diverse career has included voicing a character on Disney’s hit animated series, Phineas and Ferb, traveling with a Gilbert and Sullivan Opera company and performing musical improv at the Ice House in Pasadena. Her passion for supporting and including all children in the arts has resulted in a satisfying career as an Arts Educator in the Pasadena Unified School District.Consuelo Martinez
Consuelo Martinez, a senior at Pasadena’s John Muir High School, is a first-generation Mexican-American and also a soon-to-be first-generation college student. Within the past year and a half, she found her voice in writing, poetry and public speaking and essentially found who she was: a poet, writer, artist and feminist. She showed the power of her generation through an original poem that brought the TEDxPasadenaWomen audience to their feet.Cristi Hegranes
Cristi Hegranes is the Founder and Executive Director of Global Press Institute (GPI) and the Publisher and Executive Editor of Global Press Journal (GPJ). A 2013 Ashoka Fellow, she is an experienced social entrepreneur, a media innovation pioneer, and a renowned international journalism trainer. GPI, founded by Hegranes in 2006, is an award-winning, high-impact social venture that uses journalism as a development tool to educate, employ, and empower women in developing media markets to produce professional local news coverage that elevates global awareness and catalyzes social change. Cristi told the TEDxPasadenaWomen audience, as well as her Nepalese reporters listening to her talk online, about her journey from a Western correspondent to the founding of GPI.Dr. Tess Warschaw
Tessa Albert Warschaw, Ph.D., is a distinguished author, speaker, psychotherapist/coach, and internationally-recognized seminar leader, specializing in corporate negotiating strategies, entrepreneurial negotiating, and life coaching. For the past 40 years, Dr. Warschaw has been a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and has a Ph.D. from USC. Dr. Tess showed the TEDxPasadenaWomen audience that after failure we must be resilient.Frank Chechel
Frank Chechel is a results-oriented insurance executive with more than 15 years of achievement, spanning product development, marketing and strategic planning. But beyond work, Chechel is husband to a successful psychiatrist, father to a determined seven year old girl and coach to an enthusiastic Under-8 girls’ soccer team. His TEDxPasadenaWomen talk explored how men can help to increase women’s positive momentum at work, at home and in their community.Joelle Casteix
Joelle Casteix is author of the upcoming book THE WELL-ARMORED CHILD: A PARENT'S GUIDE TO PREVENTING ABUSE. She is also the leading national “in the trenches” expert on the prevention and exposure of child sex abuse and cover-up. A successful writer and blogger, her other books include THE COMPASSIONATE RESPONSE: HOW TO HELP AND EMPOWER THE ADULT VICTIM OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE and YES, MY SON, WINE IS ONE OF THE FIVE FOOD GROUPS. Since 2003, Joelle has been the volunteer Western Regional Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Joelle took the TEDxPasadenaWomen audience through her own experience as a survivor of child sexual abuse and how it has shaped the work she does now.Kristin Maschka
Kristin Maschka is an author, speaker and consultant fascinated by change – change that will lead to women’s equality and change that helps both organizations and the people in them to thrive. She is the author of “This is Not How I Thought It Would Be: Remodeling Motherhood to Get the Lives We Want Today,” in which she weaves together her own story with a deep knowledge of history and society to offer parents a new perspective on their experiences and a set of tools for remodeling their own lives and the world around them. Kristin’s TEDxPasadenaWomen talk focused on the unconscious bias we all have and we all face.Loretta Whitesides
Loretta Whitesides has a passion for using human space exploration to inspire humanity with what is possible. She has more than five hours of weightless time in a 727 aircraft as a Flight Director for Zero-G Corporation. And, she and her husband, George, are both signed up to take a sub-orbital spaceflight on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo. She challenged the TEDxPasadenaWomen audience to find their mission and pursue it.Nancy Bennett
As a video/music director and producer, entrepreneur, executive and ball of energy, Nancy Bennett’s talents have pulsed through the heart of the media world for more than 25 years. She has founded multiple businesses that staked out the next wave in the confluence of technology, film, television, and advertising. Bennett is currently the Chief Content Officer for Two Bit Circus, an interdisciplinary team of artists, inventors, engineers, educators and entrepreneurs passionate about reimagining all forms of entertainment. Nancy told the TEDxPasadenaWomen audience that the path to success and happiness isn’t always a straight line and it isn’t always the way you planned it.Ron Florance
Ron Florance is the founder of RMF Consulting LLC., and the Senior Strategic Advisor and member of the Advisory Board of Robertson Stephens. He advises on comprehensive strategic asset allocation, investment strategy and investment solutions and is responsible for communicating the firm’s global investment strategy at conferences, academic lectures and continuing education programs. Ron broke down common sense investment strategies into layman’s terms for the TEDxPasadenaWomen audience.Tarnie Fulloon
Tarnie Fulloon is a transformational mentor, workshop facilitator, writer, and author. She partners with professional women to help them make intimate relationships thrive. For more than 25 years, Ms. Fulloon has been healing, mentoring and empowering women, through the wisdom and intelligence of their bodies, to access their innate confidence, sensuality and vitality. She teaches women to live life at their fullest potential with purpose and joy.Tembi Locke
Actress Tembi Locke is best known for her work in television and film. In 2014, she co-starred in “Dumb and Dumber To.” She has also appeared on “NCIS,” “The Mentalist,” “Castle,” “Bones,” “Friends”, and the Syfy series “Eureka.” She will next be seen in the indie feature, “Collusion.” She is also the creator and executive producer of the “The Kitchen Widow,” an inspirational online platform and web series dedicated to awakening our ideas about the “art of comfort” in times of illness and loss, inspired by the illness, decade-long caretaking and passing of her husband. She took the TEDxPasadenaWomen audience through her emotional journey from a grieving widow to an advocate for caregiving awareness.Organizing team
