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).

University of Toronto, Scarborough
1265 Military Trail
Toronto, Ontario, ON M1C 1A5
Canada

André Vashist

André Pawan Vashist is a father, husband, son, sibling, cousin, and friend. Raised in Scarborough, Ontario Canada and currently living in London, Ontario, Canada, by Deshkan Zibii as its called by Chippewa of the Thames, André is an award-winning serial social entrepreneur, emerging systems change innovator and aspiring spiritual ecologist. As one of the city’s top 20 under 40 and graduate of Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience Residency program, André is a cross-sector and cross-cultural facilitator working on bold collaborations in our community.

André Vashist

André Pawan Vashist is a father, husband, son, sibling, cousin, and friend. Raised in Scarborough, Ontario Canada and currently living in London, Ontario, Canada, by Deshkan Zibii as its called by Chippewa of the Thames, André is an award-winning serial social entrepreneur, emerging systems change innovator and aspiring spiritual ecologist. As one of the city’s top 20 under 40 and graduate of Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience Residency program, André is a cross-sector and cross-cultural facilitator working on bold collaborations in our community.

Ehi Ade-Mabo

Transformational and Mindset Coach, Ehi Ade-Mabo inspires women to live Purposefully and make an impact in the world with Entrepreneurship. Ehi is a Passionate and Inspirational speaker who has built her platform on helping Women develop their Self-Confidence, Overcome Fear, and be Profitable. Her message is built on the Premise of Abundance and the Audacity of Belief. Her works have been featured internationally in various platforms such as the Poverty and Social Protection Conference and other initiatives around the world.

Emily Alanna Moorhouse

Emily is a storyteller, media maker, researcher and educator. Even as a tiny 4-year-old, Emily knew she had a passion for creativity and music. In high school, she developed a passion for human rights and justice that continued throughout her undergraduate and graduate studies. Through her Doctoral work, Emily fuses her passions for creativity and justice, generating hopeful futures with youth that build relationality and move towards justice. She is a researcher, educator and Doctoral (PhD) Student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto trained in qualitative and quantitative research methods. Her areas of expertise include critical media literacy, sexual violence prevention, consent education, and social justice approaches to education.

Emily Alanna Moorhouse

Emily is a storyteller, media maker, researcher, and educator. Even as a tiny 4-year-old, Emily knew she had a passion for creativity and music. In high school, she developed a passion for human rights and justice that continued throughout her undergraduate and graduate studies. Through her Doctoral work, Emily fuses her passions for creativity and justice, generating hopeful futures with youth that build relationality and move towards justice. She is a researcher, educator, and Doctoral (PhD) Student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), the University of Toronto trained in qualitative and quantitative research methods. Her areas of expertise include critical media literacy, sexual violence prevention, consent education, and social justice approaches to education.

Gerald Cupchik

Gerald Cupchik completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan (1967), received his Masters (1970) and PhD (1972) from the University of Wisconsin, and did postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto where he has been a professor of psychology since 1974. He was president of the International Association for Empirical Aesthetics (1990-94), American Psychological Association Division on Psychology and the Arts (1996-97), and the International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature and Media (1998-2000). He received the Rudolf Arnheim Award in 2010 from the APA and the Gustav Fechner Award in August 2018 from the International Association for Empirical Aesthetics. He published The aesthetics of emotion: up the down staircase of the mind-body (2016, Cambridge University Press). His research interests cover aesthetics, design and imagination processes, emotional experience, and social communication.

Hamayal Choudhry

Born in Pakistan and raised in Toronto, Hamayal Choudhry is a multi-award winning social entrepreneur, a mechatronics engineering student, and a keynote speaker. He’s the Founder and CEO of smartARM, a robotics company dedicated to democratizing the bionics industry by providing affordable yet ultra-functional bionics supercharged with artificial intelligence to amputees across the globe. In 2018, his company, smartARM, became the world champion of Microsoft’s biggest technology competition, the coveted Imagine Cup, and walked away with $130,000. smartARM has since been acclaimed by Forbes, Business Insider, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. His passion for technology has led him to work with companies all around the world, including Tesla in California where he built robots. He has spoken on stages across the world including Paris, Berlin, Seattle, San Francisco, Egypt, and Pakistan. From multinational companies to lecture halls all around the world, Hamayal is regularly invited to present keynotes on creating sustainable start-ups that solve meaningful problems, finding purpose-driven work, how to be prepared for the fourth industrial revolution, and more. Through his work in engineering, his start-up, and his speaking. Hamayal’s self-motivation comes from seeking to empower people to find their purpose and create impact for those around them.

Katie Heggtveit

Katie is a recent Nutrition and Food Science grad at Ryerson University with a specialization in Food Security, pursuing a Masters of Management in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Queen’s in August 2020. Upon graduation, she wishes to continue her work in addressing health inequities in low-income populations [locally and internationally] through her development and facilitation of collaborative, client-centered programs focused on exercise and nutrition intervention. She hopes to develop post-secondary courses/certificates and lectures in areas such as entrepreneurship, innovation, public health, community development, and homelessness.

Matthew Hoffmann

Matthew Hoffmann is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. He is also Co-Director of the Environmental Governance Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs. Professor Hoffmann’s research and teaching interests include global governance, climate change politics, and international relations theory. He is the author of Climate Governance at the Crossroads: Experimenting with a Global Response after Kyoto (Oxford University Press 2011) and Ozone Depletion and Climate Change: Constructing a Global Response (SUNY Press 2005). He also is a co-author on a recent collaborative book Transnational Climate Change Governance (Cambridge University Press 2014). His current collaborative research project, funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, explores the development of Political Pathways to Decarbonization.

Michelle Silver

Michelle Silver is currently an Associate Professor of Gerontology at the University of Toronto Scarborough where she holds joint appointments in the Interdisciplinary Centre for Health and Society and the Department of Sociology. Her book, Retirement and Its Discontents: Why we won’t stop working even if we can (2018), draws from in-depth interviews with a range of professionals that capture the need to create new retirement strategies. Her work has been featured in Forbes, the Times Literary Supplement, Zoomer, Next Avenue, The Globe and Mail, Global News, and other popular media sources. Dr. Silver’s primary areas of research include: 1) Work, Aging, and Retirement; 2) Perceptions about Aging; and 3) Health Information Seeking. She received a BA, BS, and MPP from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD from the University of Chicago.

Murray Clayton

After graduating from a degree in Humanities (Classical Archaeology) in 2009, Murray Clayton spent a couple of years excavating 3rd-century roman burials- his first exposure to human recovery. He returned to school to focus on human osteology, earning a second degree in Social Sciences, and eventually gained his Master of Science in evolutionary anthropology (with a focus on forensic anthropology). During his Master’s degree, he became active in local (Ontario) and international forensic casework, searching for, excavating, processing and identifying human remains. He remains active in the forensic community as the Program Officer for the Forensic Science Program at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

Nakimbe B’aobab

Nakimbe B’aobab is the CEO and Founder of Mappdom International, a Digital Marketing and Mobile Application Development company. With an impressive track record of success including multiple awards and industry recognition, Nakimbe empowers businesses with professional tools and campaigns that allow them to stand out, succeed and get results in today’s competitive marketplace. Holding a BA (Hons) from the University of Toronto and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Northeastern University, along with her Project Management certification, Nakimbe has helped several organizations rebrand and reposition themselves resulting in multibillion-dollar merger and acquisition transactions. Nakimbe is a keynote motivational speaker, conference organizer, published author, and self-empowerment coach. Her passions include African dance, various health initiatives, international travel, and UFC. Nakimbe is a loving mother to Marcus and Jasmyn, and grandma (Mama-G) to little baby, Jordyn. Her guiding values in life are freedom, health, and happiness.

Sauliha Alli

Sauliha is an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto Scarborough in Neuroscience and Psychology. As a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholar, she gained exposure to the field of international development through a three-month internship in Ghana. While abroad, she unexpectedly met some young women who shared a common narrative in their village: life on less than two US dollars a day, unemployment, teenage pregnancy and single motherhood. Moved by their story, she organized the first educational seminar on reproductive health in the village and started an international NGO that continues to serve this community. Outside of her volunteer work, Sauliha also conducts research at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and has authored several peer-reviewed publications in the field of psychiatry.

Taylor Paulite

Taylor Cassidy Paulite is an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto studying Chemistry, Applied Statistics, and Psychology. She is a co-founder of a beauty technology startup whose social initiative is to promote self-confidence by building various narratives of what beauty is today. This followed her research in the field of positive psychology in happiness, well-being, and mental health at the University of Toronto as well as her years of experience as a beauty consultant. She has worked at companies in various industries like SEPHORA, Sanofi Pasteur and Griffith Laboratories where she focused on re-defining work through the power of making innovation solutions with data.