Theme: Creating Tomorrow

TEDxMissouriS&T 2017 brings together a global community interested in exploring how we Create Tomorrow with innovative thinkers who thrust ideas into action. TEDxMissouriS&T presents a diverse lineup of scientists, artists, storytellers and volunteers who share their vision of the future.

There is only ONE tomorrow and it belongs to ALL of us. Every unique perspective, every bold solution and every big idea is important as we look toward the future. Join us as we learn from our region’s leading thinkers and share in our enthusiasm of writing the next page in history.

Leach Theatre
103 Castleman Hall
400 W. 10th St.
Rolla, Missouri, 65409
United States

Chad Fong

Mental Conditioning Coach

Chad is a Mental Conditioning Coach and owner of Helm Mental Conditioning. He earned his Master’s degree in Exercise Science with an emphasis in Psychosocial Aspects of Sport from the University of Utah after completing his undergraduate education and Division I swimming career at Brigham Young University. As a collegiate swimmer Chad was able to experience firsthand the intense power of the mind and its role in success or failure. It was these pressured performance moments that ignited his passion for the science of success and the topic he will present on today, Mindset. He is currently a Cognitive Performance Coach for the United States Army for the Special Operations Cognitive Enhancement for Performance group in North Carolina. Throughout his career Chad has had the opportunity to work with elite club, high school and collegiate level athletes as well as many top-tier military men and women. He is married to Laura and together they have their sweet 18-month-old son Owen.

Jeremiah Bassey

Entrepreneur, Thinker, and Problem Solver

Jeremiah Bassey is an entrepreneur, a thinker and a problem solver. He was born in Nigeria, where he had a firsthand experience about the challenges in the healthcare system in Nigeria and in Sub-Saharan Africa. At the age of five, he lost his father in an auto accident. This event prompted him to start thinking outside the box in terms of having to figure out how to get a good education and improve his life and that of his family. His search to better himself and solve the health and socioeconomic problems that faces the society led him to migrate to United States on his own at the age of eighteen to further his education.

Joel Burken

Curators' Distinguished Professor in Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Dr. Burken received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1996, where he conducted some of the initial research on phytoremediation. He has been at Missouri University of Science and Technology since 1997. He currently serves as Chair and Curators’ Distinguished Professor of the Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Department. Dr. Burken has also held temporary positions at: EAWAG in Zurich Switzerland, at the National Environment Research Institute (NERI) in Denmark, and at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand as an Erskine Fellow. Joel’s research has focused upon using vegetation low impact and natural treatment systems since 1991.

Jon Barry

Jon Barry is a passionate public servant and advocate for the people of Missouri. He started his career in state government as the Director of the Show-Me Heroes program in 2013 before accepting leadership roles in the Office of the Secretary of State in 2015. From 2001 – 2009, he lived and worked in the Netherlands, Taiwan, China, Singapore and Australia leading multinational business development, sales and marketing programs for Fortune 500 companies throughout the Asia-Pacific region. His specialties include program development, program launch and leadership, startup and strategic planning, and go-to-market strategy. Jon is a Soldier in the Missouri Army National Guard, is currently completing an MBA with an emphasis in marketing, a volunteer mentor with the Central Missouri Foster Care and Adoption Agency and is conversational in Mandarin Chinese. He serves as the director of the Missouri NO KID HUNGRY effort.

Jossalyn Larson

Assistant Teaching Professor in English and Technical Communications

I am an Assistant Teaching Professor with the Department of English and Technical Communication at Missouri University of Science and Technology. As a scholar of rhetoric and composition housed at a STEM university, I am consistently engaged with questions regarding the applicability of the humanities to careers in science and engineering. The influence of “scientism” - the philosophy that argues for the supremacy of the scientific method and the rejection of all modes of thought that cannot be confirmed by empirical data - makes encouraging new ways of thinking exceptionally difficult. This influence is also divisive, and it can put scientists and engineers at odds with a wider audience: it has led to drastic political divides and even divides within families, giving rise to what some have called “anti-intellectualism.”

Matthew Kerns

Artistic Work-Maker, Educator & Performance Curator

Matthew is an artistic work-maker, educator & performance curator. He believes that performative arts in and for the community are vital to the cultural fabric of our existence. He holds an MFA in Contemporary Performance from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Acting, for Matthew, is experiential and psychophysical. He has acted, directed & produced professionally on stages across the nation but his true love is contemporary performance. His late night immersive piece, GAY FANTASIA, won the 2014 St Lou Fringe that he became Executive Director of just two years later. Along with leading StlFringe he is also the Director of Community Engagement & Programming for the Grand Center Arts District in St. Louis, Missouri. In 2015, he founded of The Drama Club Stl, an educational performance company. His students are currently seen on national television shows, major motion pictures, independent films, commercials and on Broadway.

Terry Barner

Senior Video Producer

Terry Barner forgets things. The mileposts in Terry’s life are easy to remember, like his current job as a senior video producer at Missouri S&T’s Marketing and Communications Department. Before that he was an award-winning newspaper photojournalist with five different news organizations in Missouri and Florida. But how does someone who spends much of his life with his mental “record” button firmly pressed combat forgetfulness? Simple: (a) Never stop learning. (b) Document your decisive moments and life lessons, good and bad. Share those visual slices of time with individuals God brings into your life. Terry has pressed the symbolic “play” button thousands of times since his college days learning art at Drury University or the nuts and bolts of visual communication at Mizzou’s School of Journalism.

Tom Meuser

Clinical Psychologist and Applied Gerontologist

Tom Meuser, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and applied gerontologist at the University of Missouri - St. Louis (UMSL), where he directs the Gerontology Program and coordinates the UMSL Life Review Project. Over the past decade, Tom and his students have interviewed over 300 senior volunteers about their life stories and personal legacies, and presented them with "Keepsake" DVDs to share with family. His present research focuses on the transmission of legacy across generations. Tom is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and widely respected as an educator and researcher in this important field.

William Schonberg

Professor in Civil, Architectural and Envionmental Engineering

Dr. William P. Schonberg is a Professor in the Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering Department at Missouri S&T. He received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, and his MS and PhD degrees from Northwestern University. A significant part of Dr. Schonberg's scholarly activities is dedicated to improving the safety of our astronauts as they work in space to improve our lives here on earth. As an academic leader, he has been department chair at two different universities and served one year as Interim Dean. In 2007 Dr. Schonberg was honored to receive the Manuel T. Pacheco Award from the University President’s Academic Leadership Institute (PALI) in recognition of his outstanding academic leadership accomplishments. In 2015 he was honored with the member rank of Distinguished Scientist by his professional society in recognition of his many scholarly accomplishments as well as his dedication to the society’s programs and its student members.