Theme: Imagine

TEDxGilbert is a nighttime event featuring 6 compelling speakers from a variety of backgrounds.

Gilbert High School
1101 E. Elliot Road
Gilbert, Arizona, 85234
United States

Ada McCartney

Ada McCartney is an educator, literary artist, and contemplative movement practitioner. Born in Colon, Michigan, she now resides in Tempe, Arizona. The aim of her work is to extrapolate meaning from metaphor, to lovingly liberate (herself) from oppressive socialization, and to explore the internal~external landscape with unencumbered attention to detail.

Adam Brooks

Adam Brooks is an award winning motivational speaker and distinguished educator at multiple colleges and universities in the areas of communications and education. He is the founder of Youth Awareness and Safety, an educational consulting firm which builds digital citizenship strategies for families, schools and non profits. Adam also created the award winning Drive-A-Logue, a research-based strategy to encourage meaningful conversations with our students while driving in the car. Adam has authored the best selling Brooks Books mini books, “Understanding Millennials” and “The Social Media Handbook.”

Adlai Lipton

Adlai Lipton is a sixth grader in the Comprehensive Gifted Program at Ingleside Middle School in Phoenix, Arizona. Adlai loves learning and sharing information with others around him. Adlai enjoys throwing runners out as a catcher on the baseball diamond. In fifth grade, Adlai developed a passion for hiking. Since then, he has hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and the top of Mt. Washington (tallest peak in New England). As his teachers would tell you, Adlai spends a lot of his time socializing and talking with his friends (maybe a little too much in class). He is constantly running around with his three younger brothers. One of the only times you will find Adlai sitting still and being quiet is when his nose is stuffed in a good book.

Amanda Schuerman

Amanda Schuerman is an 18-year-old community activist from Gilbert, Arizona. She currently serves as the Southwest Regional Director with March For Our Lives and as the Captain of her Speech and Debate team. She is a senior at Gilbert Classical Academy High School and plans to pursue a career in nonprofit law.

Dr. Angela Kenzslowe

As a clinical psychologist, entrepreneur, author, transformational speaker, actor and visionary, Dr. Angela Kenzslowe has been empowering others to live their best life for more than 20 years. Throughout her professional career she has helped others heal from psychological trauma, taught business courses at the collegiate level, been featured in TV and Film, and launched several entrepreneurial ventures. When not spending quality time with her family and close friends, she often ponders how the world is full of wonder with cultures that are undeniably fascinating. She believes understanding and embracing people who are different than oneself is the symbol of true wealth. She aspires to assist a multitude of people to have relief from trauma, so they experience the greatest life possible. Helping heal one person at a time is how we change the world.

Kaitlyn Fitzgerald

Kaitlyn Fitzgerald is Director of Brand at Zero Mass Water. Her career has included directing social change initiatives such as Changemaker Central, providing support to international students through the ASU MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program, founding Anidaso to provide scholarships and mentorships in Accra, Ghana, and working in local refugee resettlement at the AZ Lost Boys Center. Kaitlyn brings her passion for using business to drive positive social change to Zero Mass Water and has channeled these values into the brand, driving access to drinking water with the company's SOURCE Hydropanels producing water from sunlight and air. At Zero Mass Water, Kaitlyn focuses on transforming consumer behavior around drinking water in favor of sustainable choices. A graduate from Arizona State University, Kaitlyn has a B.A. in Global Studies and a B.A. in Business Administration with a concentration on Public Service and Public Policy and has a certificate in Arabic Studies.

Kiersten Begay

Kiersten Begay is an undergraduate senior at Arizona State University majoring in Business Law and American Indian Studies. She is currently a Native American Management Intern at the Town of Gilbert where her primary responsibilities include formulating, researching, and presenting project research to executive-level staff. Through various professional opportunities, Kiersten takes note on all effective procedures within the Town and partnering organizations in hope of bringing it back to her hometown. Her ultimate goals are to positively impact indigenous communities across the nation by educating others about indigenous history, rights, sovereignty, and contemporary issues. Kiersten Begay is a Diné woman from the Navajo Nation. She traditionally represents herself as: born for the yucca fruit-strung-out-in-a-line clan and born for the salt water clan, while her maternal grandfather is near-the-water clan, and her paternal grandfather was of the deer spring clan.