UNC Chapel Hill students have hundreds of resources available to them to research, to learn, to prototype — these tools are at our arms’ length, waiting for us to piece them together to create something that matters. The theme of TEDxUNC 2015, assembly required, is about impassioning students and community members to consider what tools they have around them and how they can combine those tools to make something meaningful. While there are bright engineering minds ready to pound the hammer and create, we know that assembling our resources doesn't always mean “building stuff” (though sometimes it does). Assembly required equates to more than just a literal meaning. It’s about taking any tools around us — any inspiration that we can find — to stop waiting, to take action and to do something.
Speakers
Speakers may not be confirmed. Check event website for more information.
Ellis Dyson and the Shambles
Hailing from the great state of North Carolina, Ellis Dyson and the Shambles take traditional Appalachian music to the next level with masterful instrumentation and a notoriously explosive live show. This sextet is composed of highly trained jazz musicians with a deep-seated love and respect for the conventions and practices of the musicians that came before them. Front man Ellis Dyson (banjo) knows how to command a crowd with his exuberance and effortless swagger, while supporting instrumentalists Danny Abrams (saxophone), Matt Hall (trumpet), Jonathan Ng (violin), Nate Huvard (guitar), and Ford Garrard (bass fiddle) provide a tasteful, yet exciting harmonic backing. Ellis Dyson and the Shambles have opened for national touring acts such and consistently sell out mid-sized venues in the triangle area such as Local 506 and Tir Na Nog Irish Pub. As long as there is moonshine in the hills of North Carolina, Ellis Dyson and the Shambles will continue to bring the ruckus.The NightShift
The NightShift is a progressive trip-hop/neo-soul band that formed in Chapel Hill in early 2015. It’s drive is based in the fusion of hard hitting grooves of artists like Sly and the Family Stone and the mechanical fire of electronic producers like Flying Lotus. The band consists of: Atticus Reynolds – Drums/Sample Pad; Nate Huvard – Guitar; Butler Knowles – Electric Bass; David Klingman – keys/synth; Noah Granger – Vocals.Alyse Schacter
Alyse Schacter is a 22-year-old Health Sciences student at the University of Ottawa who has used her own experiences battling obsessive-compulsive disorder as a young child to speak out against the stigma of mental illness. Through speeches, training, and activism, she aims to increase conversation about mental illness and teach that mental illnesses are neither rare nor strange and that they can be overcome.Amber Koonce
While a student at UNC, Amber advocated for a minority and elderly neighborhood against gentrification, assisted a policy professor with the creation of an electronic welfare system in NC, and served as a Governor Purdue appointee to the North Carolina Council for Women. Amber’s most rewarding role has been serving as a mentor to incarcerated youth. She has worked with incarcerated children in Durham, Ghana, Scotland, and the Philippines. Amber founded the international non-profit, BeautyGap, which has been recognized by Glamour Magazine and Cosmopolitan Magazine for distributing dolls of color to girls of color around the world. Currently, Amber is a student at Yale Law School where she continues to engage in issues of criminal justice and election law. Amber is a Morehead-Cain Scholar and served as the first African-American Jason of the Order of the Golden Fleece.Chase Lewis
Notwithstanding his young age, 15-year-old Chase Lewis has invented two life-saving devices. People usually are amazed that someone so young is an inventor, let alone an inventor with one patent and another one on the way. What amazes Chase, however, is that people often do not understand that we ALL are inventors. Chase believes there is nothing more human than invention.Dalton Conley
Dalton Conley is a New York University professor of Sociology and a leading researcher with a focus on racial inequalities, measurements of class, and how health and biology affect – and are affected by – social position. His work was inspired by his own childhood, growing up as the “lone white kid” among the black gangs of New York’s Lower East Side.Jaspal Sandhu
Dr. Jaspal Sandhu is a professor of public health at the University of California-Berkeley. His research focuses on developing innovative ways to use technology to improve population health, including using apps on mobile phones to help aid community health.Jonathan Hebert
Jonathan Hebert is a senior Economics and Public Policy major from Chapel Hill. Jonathan has been studying and teaching improv comedy for 5 years. He begun his training at the Dirty South Improv theater in Carrboro and now coaches and performs with the Chapel Hill Players (CHiPs) at UNC.Karsten Coates
Karsten Coates is a spoken word artist, student, and researcher at the University of Virginia. Fascinated by the effects that differing perceptions have on the human experience, he channels his intellectual musings into accessible lyrical pieces that raise questions about the everyday.Kathleen Gallagher
Dr. Kathleen (Kate) Gallagher is a scientist at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at UNC Chapel Hill, and Clinical Associate Professor in the School of Education. Dr. Gallagher’s research and applied work focuses on the design, implementation and evaluation of evidence-based approaches that support the learning and well-being of young children, families, and early childhood professionals in the contexts of poverty and disability. Her current projects include 1) an intervention to support toddlers with autism and their families, 2) evaluation of a project to enhance rural North Carolina’s communities’ early childhood systems, 3) development of a mindfulness-based program to enhance the health and well-being of early childhood professionals. Dr. Gallagher has been privileged to teach and work directly with young children, families and early childhood professionals for over 25 years.Kewulay Kamara
Kewulay Kamara, is an internationally renowned poet, storyteller, and lecturer, has been the subject of three feature articles in The New York Times and has appeared on A&E Television, Public Television and other major media outlets. Kewulay has performed at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, The Kitchen, Symphony Space, Gerald Lynch Theater, City Center, The Museum of Natural History and Oxford University, and participated in The Peoples Poetry Gatherings, and the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry and Langston Hughes Festivals. He is the recipient of numerous grants from major foundations including the Ford Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, National Geographic, and National Endowment for the Arts. Kewulay received an MA in Economics at the Graduate Faculty New School for Social Research and presented a thesis for an MFA in Performance and Integrated Media Arts at Brooklyn College CUNY. He has lectured for 25 years at the City University of New York.Khalil Fuller
Khalil Fuller, a Brown University undergraduate studying Education and Social Innovation Studies, is the founder of NBA Math Hoops, an organization dedicated to improving math literacy among urban youth through fun and innovative methods that involve the game of basketball.Lala Main
Lala Main is a singer/songwriter from Dallas, Texas. She has just completed her Debut Album titled “Beautiful Struggle”. LaLa has previously worked in the Music Industry in Los Angeles recording music/vocals for Wii Games and for a Billy Blanks DVD. Her song “Take Her To The Club” has charted overseas.Naimul Huq
Naimul Huq, an alumnus of the Morehead-Cain Scholars Program at UNC, is currently working as a Social Media Associate at WCG in Austin. He works to change how businesses interact with their consumers through better communication, analysis, and engagement.Todd Zakrajsek
Dr. Todd Zakrajsek is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and the Executive Director of the Academy of Educators in the School of Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill. Prior to his work at UNC, he was the Inaugural Director of the Faculty Center for Innovative Teaching at Central Michigan University and the founding Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Southern Oregon University, where he also taught in the psychology department as a tenured associate professor. Dr. Zakrajsek has directed over 20 national and international conferences devoted to evidence-based teaching and learning. He also sits on several boards in a variety of areas related to higher education, including Technology Enhanced Instruction for Microsoft and the Journal of Excellence in College Teaching. He has published, and presents regularly, on the topics of human information processing, effective teaching, and student learning.Venroy July
A 2004 graduate of the Morehead-Cain Scholars Program at UNC, Venroy July works as an attorney and professional boxer in Baltimore, MD. July wrestled while at UNC and into his law school career at Duke University. Searching for an outlet for physical activity, he began boxing professionally after he began practicing law, eventually becoming a promoter in order to set up and promote his own matches.Organizing team
