Theme: Colouring Outside the Lines

TEDxAshburyCollege is a student-led, independently-organized TEDx event—a local gathering where live and inspiring TED-like talks are shared with our community. Speakers this year will explore the theme of 'Colouring Outside the Line'. The theme encourages us to consider new perspectives, embrace innovative ideas, and welcome unconventional thinking.

Ashbury College
362 Mariposa Ave
Ottawa, Ontario, K1M 0T3
Canada

Axelle Dolan

Student

Hello! I'm Axelle, and my topic is the school uniform and its correlation to sexual assault and harassment. While this isn't a fun topic, it is one that is not talked about enough in my opinion. I hope you'll choose to come to see me speak at this year's TEDx event.

Brad Moyle

IB Chemistry Teacher, Ashbury College

Brad is an IB Chemistry teacher at Ashbury College. Prior to joining Ashbury in 2019, he taught Chemistry and Science in Toronto, as well as at international schools in Brussels, Belgium and Bangkok, Thailand. Brad is trained as a scientist but has long been interested in the field of Economics, especially as it relates to human behavioural choices. He holds a Bachelor's of Science from University of Waterloo, a Bachelor's of Education from Queen's University, and a Masters of Educational Leadership and Management from Royal Roads University. Brad lives in Ottawa with his partner, 1 year old son, and dog.

Dave McMahon

CEO

Dave McMahon is a deep generalist, a scientist, engineer, military veteran, business leader, strategist and futurist. Dave has an honours degree in computer engineering from the Royal Military College of Canada and has spent the last 35 years solving life's wicked problems. Dave led complex security programs research and development at Bell Canada. He is a lecturer at University of Ottawa, post graduate program on cyber and intelligence.

Dean Dimakopoulos

Student

I was born on December 23rd, 2005 in Ottawa, and live with my Mom, Dad, and brother. We are Greek. I lived in Ottawa most of my life until in 3rd grade when I moved to Toronto until the start of high school when I came back to attend Ashbury College. It is at Ashbury where I feel I was able to experience the most change in my life. The passing of my grandfather during this time helped motivate me to become more fit and be a competitive person to try and make him proud. After around 1.5 years of this journey, I started to see great success in many different things in my life because of how hard I was working. I realized that if I extended this dedication I had for sports to all other aspects of my life I could become great in almost all the things that I do. This has led me to much greater success in academics, entrepreneurship, different arts, and learning languages. I feel that something I can do is help others become the best versions of themselves in all aspects of there life.

Eva Liu

Student

Meet Eva Liu, a grade 7 student at Ashbury College. Unlike many others, she likes to do public speaking. Eva has always been a somewhat bossy child in her childhood and there's no surprise that she continues to be a leader in her middle school years. Throughout her years at Ashbury, Eva has won many awards for English, French and the Overall Grade Award. Eva and her family are big sports fans. Eva is a highly competitive fencer and a figure skater. She has gone to provincial fencing competitions where she ranked 5th and is qualifying for the 2022 Nationals. In her free time, Eva likes reading books and finishing them (no matter how long they are) in the same day. She also likes writing articles. Giving speeches is a strong passion of Eva. She has always liked to give inspiring speeches to her friends and parents. Eva's life may seem like a crazy tumble of homework, sports and literature all mixed together, but she often likes to spend time reflecting on how she is living her life.

Jason Parker

Flight Dynamics Specialist, Professional Space Engineer

Currently I am Lead Flight Dynamics Operations for design of Telesat's Lightspeed LEO constellation (Low Earth Orbit) working at the launch, mission, orbit, spacecraft, regulatory and deorbit levels. My secondary responsibilities within the Flight Dynamics group include: - transfer orbit services & orbit determination (chemical and electrical propulsion) - process improvement for operational efficiency - coding, testing and implementing automated programs within the satellite control ground software - spacecraft relocations - stationkeeping co-locations - collision avoidance & space situational awareness - maneuver reconstruction - spacecraft lifetime optimization - on-call operations - consulting services as available - various senior analysis as the fleet requires

Libby Boulianne

Head of Science

Dr. Bou is the head of senior school science at Ashbury College. A high school Physics teacher for over a decade, they love the extremes of Physics - the vast scales of the universe and the tiny scales of quantum physics. Having studied and taught astrophysics at Cambridge, MIT, and the University of Toronto, Dr. Bou finds every possible connection to the mysteries of the universe within their classes. Their masters explored planet formation and tested assumptions of disc collapse. Their PhD attempted to unravel how the energy from stars blows apart the nebula they are born within using three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic modelling. Both involved staring at beautiful images to uncover the science beneath!

Marie-Claude (MC) Lessard

Executive Coach

As the mother of a teenager with serious mental health challenges, MC Lessard went on an intense hunt for resources to help him out. In hindsight, she realizes that the most critical of these resources was finding her own personal power. MC shares a profound story of self-discovery which will inspire parents, CEOs, and anyone who sincerely wishes to be in service to others and make the most positive impact without depleting themselves.

Sahana Asokan

Student

Sahana Asokan is in grade 12 and in her final year at Ashbury College. She has always aspired to pursue business as a career. She is outspoken and an advocate for young entrepreneurs. Many young aspiring business owners have reached out to her for advice and guidance on their ventures. For the last two years, she has been researching and exploring how she can accomplish her goals and discover her passions after graduating from high school. Today, she’ll be sharing a glimpse of her findings and the path she has chosen, which many may see as unconventional and colouring outside the lines.

Sonny Dhanani

Chief, Critical Care, CHEO

Sonny Dhanani is the chief of the pediatric intensive care unit at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) in Ottawa and Professor (Pediatrics) at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Dhanani is Associate Director for donation research for the Canadian Donation and Transplant Research Program. He is now the Chair of the Canadian Donation Physician Network, Chair of Canadian Blood Services’ national Deceased Donation Advisory Committee, and steering committee member of Health Canada’s Organ Donation and Transplantation Collaborative. His own area of focus is leading international research pertaining to practices and standards for determining death after cardiac arrest for the purposes of donation.