Theme: Changemakers

A live-streamed event featuring changemakers from an array of industries and backgrounds sharing stories and ideas that helped to shape who they are and who we can all become.

River Oaks is a community within Woodbridge, Virginia. It's about 32 miles southwest of Washington, DC and a few miles north of the marine corps base at Quantico. It's comprised of a rich tapestry of active duty military and veterans, government workers and contractors, families, college students, and hardworking small business owners. It's a community that recognizes and values the intersectionality of its diverse cultures - maybe it sounds a lot like your community :-).

TEDxRiverOaks (Virtual)
16900 McGuffeys Trail
Woodbridge, Virginia, 22191
United States

Andy Andrews

Author

Andy Andrews is an author and speaker whose work has appeared on The New York Times bestseller lists in the categories of Hardcover Fiction, Hardcover Nonfiction, Business, and Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous. Dave Ramsey called him "our generation's Mark Twain" and he is best known for the international bestselling books The Traveler's Gift and The Noticer. ABC's Good Morning America named The Traveler's Gift "one of the five books you should read in your lifetime." He has written over 26 books and sold more than 20 million copies around the world. His books have been translated into over 40 languages. Andrews regularly speaks for corporations, organizations, athletic teams, and the U.S. Military. Andrews releases a weekly podcast, "The Professional Noticer" that has subscribers from more than 100 countries.

Brian Bean

Educator/Entrepreneur

Brian Bean is an award-winning teacher with over 15 years of classroom experience, an entrepreneur who built a business with a national impact in education and a successful exit, and an engaging public speaker. After being victimized by a Ponzi scheme, he developed a game-changing teaching model for personal finance that students can relate to and internalize. The Real-World Classroom is an innovative approach combining a robust simulation and curriculum, providing an engaging financial literacy application component for any course. Brian has presented the model at conferences and workshops across the country, including SXSW Education's Next Stage and keynote addresses for Business Professionals of America and the Jump$tart National Educator Conference. In addition, he has been featured in podcasts, blogs, articles, and many other forums as an education innovator. He expects to complete a doctorate at Vanderbilt's prestigious Peabody College of Education in 2023.

David B. Morse

coming

David B. Morse gained years of experience worldwide, fulfilling commercial, manufacturing, and R&D roles, and earning a Chemistry Ph.D. and an International Business MBA. Combined with deep research, this practical experience enabled David to develop a unique perspective and discover the underlying fundamentals of negotiation. His system connects our innate toolkits for communication to everyday bargaining. The approach allows people to gain greater insight, become more confident, and create more value in their negotiations. David helps people recognize and practice the best techniques for creating valuable, enduring partnerships. David B. Morse shares his learning system to build better negotiators at home, at work, and in their communities.

Dr. Christina Johns

Pediatric Emergency Care Physician

Dr. Christina Johns is a leading pediatric emergency care physician and Senior Medical Advisor at PM Pediatric Care, the largest pediatric urgent care network in the US. Dr. Johns led PM Pediatric Care’s COVID-19 response team as one of the earliest organizations to develop clinical protocols and administer COVID-19 testing to children in 2020. She is board certified in both pediatrics and pediatric emergency medicine, has appeared on national news shows and created a community webinar series to decode evidence-based clinical information. Her pediatric residency was completed at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and fulfilled her postdoctoral fellowship at Children’s National Health Systems in Washington, DC. She served as assistant division chief in the Emergency Medicine and Trauma Center at Children’s National/The George Washington University School of Medicine for 15 years, where she also obtained her education master’s from George Washington University School of Education.

Eileen Vélez-Vega

Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Public Works of Puerto Rico

Eileen was raised in Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico and obtained her BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez and a MS in Engineering, from Mississippi State University. She interned at the Walt Disney World College Program and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. She has worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers and Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. In 2014, she moved to Puerto Rico to lead the Kimley-Horn office. Eileen’s specializes in the design and construction for commercial and general aviation airports, as well as multidisciplinary projects and business development. In 2020, she was appointed as the first woman for the position of Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP) of Puerto Rico.

Frankie Abralind

Multimedia Artist

Frankie Abralind is a multimedia artist based in Washington, DC. His education and training in experience design guide his creative work, which includes painting, writing, and game design. During the day, Frankie runs a nonprofit that helps fight burnout in healthcare.

Harvey Johnson

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Resolution Management, Diversity and Inclusion

Harvey serves as the principal advisor on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (I-DEA). He provides executive leadership in this capacity, and is responsible for implementing departmentwide policies and programs to ensure I-DEA is in the fabric of all VA does. He is also a seasoned and certified Life Coach.

Jasmine Bell

College Student and Narcolepsy Awareness Activist

coming

K.C. Boyd

Librarian

coming

Royston King

Philanthropist

Royston G. King is a self-made Forbes 30 Under 30 & world-renowned multi-millionaire award-winning 8-figure serial entrepreneur, multiple best-selling author, celebrity socialite media personality, & world's leading preeminent philanthropist. Partner & advisor to celebrities, billionaires, royal family brands, billion-dollar brands, public-listed companies, New York Times best-selling authors, social media verified (actors, pro athletes, musicians, entrepreneurs, personal brand influencers, etc.), Fortune 500, Forbes 1000, Inc 5000, & the world's biggest brands

Shawna Pope-Jefferson

Educator

Shawna is a speech-language pathologist specializing in literacy intervention who challenges prevailing conventions about how to teach reading and spelling. Over the last 10 years, her studies and work have led her to what she believes is a better way to teach reading and spelling so that all students, regardless of socio-economic differences, can benefit from the empowering gift of literacy. She has provided skilled intervention to students with an array of strengths and challenges, even some thought to be unteachable, with great success. She is also a thought leader amongst a small but rapidly growing segment of the literacy world that is dedicated to a method of word study known as Structured Word Inquiry. Over her 25-year career, she has worked with clients ages birth to 103 in a variety of settings. She spent nine years as a senior lecturer at SIU - Carbondale. Today she heads a private Speech-Language Pathology and literacy intervention practice in Cobden, Illinois.

Sunitha Sandeep

Executive Coach

Sunitha is an executive coach helping high-achievers break-free from their inner struggles, re-ignite their true potential and re-engage with life in an inspired, fulfilling and impactful way. Being a trauma survivor herself & having baked in the furnace of inner-contemplative-transformational journey, she uses a radical inside-out approach, intricately weaving Eastern practices of Contemplative and Awareness Inquiries with Western methodologies of Trauma/Somatic Healing, Positive Psychology & Emotional Intelligence. She is a certified Meditation/Mindfulness Teacher, Positive Psychology Practitioner, Trauma Support Specialist & an Integrative Wellness Inner-Transformation Coach. She is also a speaker, technical corporate leader, multi-pageant winner, creative artist, wife & a mom

Winsome Sears

Lieutenant Governor of Virginia

Winsome's family immigrated from Kingston, Jamaica when she was six. She is proud to have served in the US Marine Corps. She has served as the VP of the Virginia State Board of Education; and as a presidential appointee to the US Census Bureau, as co-chair of the African American Committee; and the Advisory Committee on Women Veterans to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Winsome was first elected in 2002 to a majority Black House of Delegates district, a first for a Republican in Virginia since 1865. She is the first female Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the first Black female elected to statewide office. She is most proud of her community work leading a men’s prison ministry and as director of a women’s homeless shelter. She holds a B.A. in English with a minor in Economics, and an M.A. in Organizational Leadership. Winsome and her husband, Terence, have two daughters Katia and Janel, in addition to DeJon, and granddaughters Victoria and Faith.