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).

Crossroads Uptown
42 Calhoun St
Cincinnati, Ohio, 45219
United States

Chris Human

Coffee Enthusiast. Co-founder The 86 Coffee Bar and Pneuma Coffee Roasters

Chris Human has been involved coffee for 19 years. He co-founded The 86 Coffee Bar in 2010 and Pneuma Coffee Roasters in 2014. His passion for people has driven him to seek a better understanding of the inner-workings of the coffee industry and its impact on coffee producers. He is working toward a completely different direct trade program of coffee buying where focused on taking care of key players throughout the supply chain.

Dhadak Dhadak

UC Dhadak International Dance Team, a nationally ranked competitive Bollywood Fusion dance team

University of Cincinnati’s Premiere Co-Ed Bollywood Fusion Dance Team, UC Dhadak is a nationally ranked competitive dance team in their eleventh year. UC Dhadak is the most ethnically diverse team in the Desi Dance circuit and has brought the topic of conversation of non-Desi students participating in a traditionally Desi dance circuit to the forefront of our community.

Donald Ryan Gaffney

Ph.D. candidate, Department of Marketing, Lindner College of Business, University of Cincinnati

Donald Ryan Gaffney is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Marketing at the University of Cincinnati. Gaffney has spent most of his research career studying the impact of knowledge on behavior. Much of his research is focused on helping people make better purchase decisions and judgments."

Frank Kardes

Donald E. Weston Professor of Marketing and Distinguished Research Professor

Frank R. Kardes is the Donald E. Weston Professor of Marketing and Distinguished Research Professor at the Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award of the Society for Consumer Psychology, and a Fellow of five psychological societies.

Keith Kline

Executive Director of Grant Us Hope

Dr. Keith Kline currently serves as the Executive Director of Grant Us Hope, a Cincinnati-based non-profit focused on teen mental wellness and suicide prevention through the implementation of Hope Squad. Keith served as a public-school teacher and administrator for 34 years and lives in Liberty Township with his wife Gail.

Kevin Sansberry, II

People-Centric Executive, VP People, Values, and Culture, StriveTogether

Kevin Sansberry, II is a leadership consultant, researcher and nonprofit executive. He is a rebel against the status-quo, a seeker of justice who strives to lift underrepresented voices by combining experience in organizational development/effectiveness with research expertise in destructive leadership, organizational culture and coping to provide solutions informed by best practices balanced by cutting edge research.

Lucinda Lawson

Assistant Professor - Research, Dept. Biological Sciences, College of Arts & Sciences, Univ. of Cincinnati

Dr. Lucinda Lawson is an interdisciplinary evolutionary and conservation biologist at the University of Cincinnati. Her work spans tropical Africa, North America, and the Galápagos Islands. The goals of her research are to document biodiversity, explore the forces that generate it, and devising methods to better protect that diversity in our ever-changing environment.

Mentalla Ismail

Clinical Research Coordinator II, Graduate Student, Global Public Health, University of Cincinnati

Mentalla Ismail is a graduate student studying Global Public Health at the University of Cincinnati (UC). She is the founder of Refuge-UC, an organization that pairs UC students with Refugee High School students in the Cincinnati area. Her work within the refugee community focuses on accessibility to education and health literacy.

Rajeev Kurapati, MD

Physician, Hospital Medicine; Diplomat in American Board of Lifestyle Medicine

Rajeev Kurapati MD, MBA, practices Hospital Medicine, and Diplomat in American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. He is an award winning author of three books: Unbound Intelligence; Physician: How Science Transformed the Art of Medicine; and Burnout in Healthcare. He practices Hospital Medicine at St. Elizabeth Healthcare in Northern Kentucky, USA, since 2008. He earned an MBA from the University of Missouri in 2002. He draws insights from scientific knowledge and spiritual wisdom from around the world to provide answers to many of life’s existential questions. His first book, Unbound Intelligence, won the 2014 National Indie Excellence Award and was a finalist in the USA Best Book Awards.

Sakinah Hofler

PhD Student, Creative Writing, Dept. of English and Comparative Literature, University of Cincinnati

Sakinah Hofler is an award-winning fiction writer and a PhD student in Creative Writing, Dept. of English and Comparative Literature, University of Cincinnati. Born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, she has won the Manchester Fiction Prize and the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award. Previously, her poetry has been shortlisted for the Manchester Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Mid-American Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Philadelphia Stories, and elsewhere. She was a 2015-2016 recipient of the Edward H. and Mary C. Kingsbury Fellowship at Florida State University. A former quality and chemical engineer for the United States Department of Defense, she is currently a PhD student and an Albert C. Yates Fellow at the University of Cincinnati. She’s an advocate for infusing the arts into our daily lives.

Salvatore Marino

Botanist; Author; Explorer; Herbarium

Salvatore Marino is a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati, earning his BS in Biology, College of Arts & Sciences. As a botanist, he strives to discover the unknown using herbarium specimens. His work includes tracking island ecology using an innovative technique known as digital leaf morphometrics. He is the co-author, Digital Leaf Morphometrics within the Piper arboreum species complex. A record setting high school diver, his goal is to make the world of botany and science more accessible to the future generations.

Tom Synan

Chief of Police, Newtown, OH; Hamilton County Heroin Coalition Steering Committee-Interdiction

Mr. Synan is a United States Marine Corps veteran and a 25-year police veteran with the Newtown Police Department. For the last 10 years as Police Chief and as a SWAT Team Leader veteran. In 2014, after watching the last of an entire family die from drugs, the last two from heroin, Mr. Synan met with other members in Hamilton County and helped form the Hamilton County Heroin Coalition where he sits on the Steering Committee and Chair Interdiction. Mr. Synan coordinates law enforcement efforts to reduce supply and works with other members to help reduce demand. Mr. Synan was asked to testify in Washington D.C.at a U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee giving testimony on synthetic opiates and the impact Fentanyl and Carefentinal have had on the country. He was a speaker with President Clinton and other distinguished panelist for the Clinton Foundation discussing the opioid crisis at Johns Hopkins University.