Theme: Embrace the Unknown

Ohlone College is proud to host its first TEDx event: TEDxOhloneCollegeNewark. We hope that you will join us on March 10, 2018 to attend TEDxOhloneCollegeNewark and listen to a diverse range of speakers from across the Bay Area. We have invited brilliant, provocative guests to discuss their revelations and insights on the vast unknowns of the world.

Embracing the unknown is the first step to discovering a new passion. To cast all the fear, nervousness, and doubt into the wind for the purpose of learning and understanding requires courage. We want our guests to come into the audience with open minds and a sense of adventure. We hope that through TEDxOhloneCollegeNewark, we can ignite a fiery passion in our audience members to take their first step to question everything, encourage learning, and spark a conversation.

Ohlone College Newark Center
39399 Cherry St.
Newark, California, 94560
United States

Alberto Ledesma

UC Berkeley Assistant Dean for Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity

Alberto Ledesma was born in Jalisco, Mexico in 1965. He was brought to Oakland, California at eight years old as an undocumented immigrant. Since then, Alberto has graduated UC Berkeley three times over and has held faculty positions at Cal State University, Monterey Bay and UC Berkeley. His dissertation, “The Dialectics of Silence and Subterfuge,” is one of the earliest critical works written in the United States on the representation of undocumented immigrants in fiction. Over the years, Alberto has published poems, essays, and short stories in a variety of venues. He is a past winner of UC Irvine’s Chicano/Latino Literary Prize and was a featured writer in Gary Soto’s Chicano Chapbook series. His essays have appeared in various edited collections, including David R. Maciel’s Culture Across Borders and Arturo J. Aldama and Naomi Quiñonez’s Decolonial Voices. His current work in progress is Diary of a Reluctant Dreamer: Vignettes from an Undocumented Life.

Anna David

NY Times Best-Selling Author

Anna David is the New York Times-bestselling author of two novels and four non-fiction books about addiction, recovery and relationships. She’s been published in The New York Times, Time, The LA Times, Vanity Fair, Playboy, Vice and Women’s Health, among many others, written about in numerous publications including Forbes, Martha Stewart Living, Entrepreneur, Allure and Women’s Health and has appeared repeatedly on The Today Show, Hannity, Attack of the Show, Dr. Drew, Red Eye, The Talk and numerous other programs on Fox News, NBC, CBS, MTV, VH1 and E. She created and hosts the Recover Girl podcast and the recovery storytelling show Hammer(ed) Time and speaks at colleges across the country about relationships, addiction and recovery. Through her company, Light Hustler, she helps creatives share their dark to find their light—through coaching, writing, workshops and more.

Clint Pardoe

Motivational Speaker

For over a decade, Clint Pardoe was a popular Speech Communication Instructor at community, state, and private colleges in Northern California. This, combined with being a highly-trained Life Coach, led him to write The 4 Secrets to College Life Success: How to thrive in your life during and after college. Based upon his book, Clint has spoken at local, regional, and national college events in order to support college students in living more successful academic, personal, and professional lives. In addition, Clint is also an accomplished Business Coach who has spoken at major corporations such as Apple and made a significant impact coaching people in the real estate industry. More recently, Clint serves as Lead Coach for Youth Speaker University; an organization that trains people to make an income and impact in the youth industry.

Denise Soler Cox

Co-Producer + Co-Director of Project Enye

A Latina filmmaker and cultural storyteller, Denise Soler Cox is dedicated to helping individuals, organizations and companies transform how we experience culture, identity, and belonging. She’s built a reputation for being a speaker who has the rare ability to shine a light on a sensitive and often ignored topic with extraordinary clarity, honesty, and humor. Her approach not only inspires and provokes new ways of thinking but most importantly leaves audiences inspired to take action and incorporate positive change into their lives. She is a distinguished member of the 4th Cohort of the Stanford Latino Leaders Entrepreneur Program and is a National Association of Latino Independent Producers 2017 Fellow. Denise was also the 2017 recipient of the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Bridge Builder Education Award. She has been the featured speaker in places like UN Empower Women Summit, 1vyG Conference, TEDx, LinkedIn, The Smithsonian Latino Center, Wellesley College, and VaynerMedia.

Isabelle Lam

American High School Interact Club President

As a senior at American High School, Isabelle Lam serves as Interact Club President, a service organization dedicated to fostering leadership and promoting understanding of international issues. She leads her officer team and club through bimonthly service events, allowing her members to develop a passion for service. This past Fall, she has successfully led a three-month donation drive, “Right to Thrive,” collecting food, clothes, and educational supplies to donate to various non-profit organizations across the Bay Area. For her outstanding leadership skills and passion for service, she was awarded with a full scholarship to Rotary’s 2017 annual Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, a weeklong leadership camp. Outside of Interact, she enjoys staying active through participating in American High School’s pole vaulting team and award-winning marching band. In the future, she plans to pursue a B.S. in biomedical technology, while continuing to positively influence her community.

John Perez

Ohlone College Communication Professor

John D. Perez is a Bay Area native, raised in Belmont, California & a resident of Las Vegas. He is a professor of Communication Studies at Ohlone College with a unique background in healthcare administration, forensics & animal husbandry. As a student he was a competitor on the Solano College Speech & Debate team and in 2000 was the top Parliamentary debate speaker in the State of California. He has held roles from volunteer speech coach to Director of Forensics and it is this unique blend and passion for communication and motivation that provides his students with a dynamic learning experience. Mr. Perez holds a Master’s degree from the University of Southern California & from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He is also an instructor of Argumentation & Debate, Business & Professional Communication, Interpersonal & Interpretation of Literature. Mr. Perez also volunteers to mentor students through the Umoja program at several Bay Area colleges.

Nick Saud

Ohlone College Student

Nick is a student here Ohlone College and is currently pursuing his AA Transfer Degree for Theater/Preforming Arts. He got his start as an actor at a very young age and has continued since as a actor, director, and now, playwright under the mentorship of Michael Navarra Smith at the Fremont Campus. He has been composing and writing lyrics for 5 years, and intents to purse further with this passion. He thanks you for attending, and hopes you enjoy.

Rose-Margaret Ekeng-Itua

Ohlone College Engineering Professor

Rose-Margaret Ekeng-Itua is a Professor of Engineering at Ohlone College, with over 10 years of experience in Higher Education. Before moving to the US, she was the Chair of the Engineering Department and Senior Lecturer at the University of West London, London, UK. She holds a B.Eng. (Hons) in Electrical/Electronic Engineering, from the Federal University of Technology Owerri, Nigeria, an MSc. in Mobile and Satellite Communication from the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK and pursed her Doctorate in Cybernetics at the University of Reading, UK. She is the 2017 Outstanding Teaching Award recipient from the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) PSW section. Prof. Itua also received the 2017 Faculty of the Year Award from Ohlone College. She has been recognized by UNESCO, BBC, and the IEEE for her contributions towards bridging gender and race divides in STEM education and careers.

Sam Campbell

Ohlone College Student

Sam Campbell is a student at Ohlone College who is known to challenge the status quo. They hold three National Phi Rho Pi speaking awards and uses their platform to raise awareness in the community about race, gender, and sexuality. As an indigenous student Sam dedicates their time to advocating for indigenous rights and the removal of indigenous imagery from logos. Sam has an associates degree in Communication studies and a certificate in intercultural communication.

Vu Dinh

Collective Artist

A Bay Area native from Hayward, California. Vu Dinh is a student studying interpersonal communication, and group behavior. He spends half his year training young leaders, and the other half focusing on his next big projects. From his international service projects in Mexico, and Vietnam he transitioned to focusing on building his local community. He now works on projects creating platforms for others to share experiences, advice, and insight on various topics throughout his projects. From interviewing people on their experience in unhealthy relationships, to people’s connection to a particular song. In his current project, Can We Speak, Vu interviews people on infatuation, love, and heartbreak.