Theme: RISE

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).

609 Congress Street
Portland, Maine, 04101
United States

Chanel Lewis

At the age of 26, Chanel is your typical millennial. She wears many hats. Why is that? Short answer: Chanel is passionate about her work. Chanel founded and directs A Seat at the Table, co-owns a millennial-run career consulting biz, works as a Program Coordinator at a non-profit, and is the Vice-Curator for the Portland Global Shapers Hub. However, there are common threads in her work: education and learning, equity and inclusion, and community. As a community member, she provides opportunities for people to gather, discuss, and learn about topics such as equity, inclusion, race, sex and gender, climate change, etc. A Seat at the Table, an initiative of the Treehouse Institute, seeks to bridge the gaps in our community by creating gathering spaces and promoting radical listening as a way to build and strengthen empathy, compassion, understanding, and action to make our communities more equitable and inclusive to all.

Darren Ranco

Darren J. Ranco, citizen/member of the Penobscot Nation, is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair of Native American Programs at the University of Maine. Since 2009, he has been the project leader of the Brown Ash/Emerald Ash Borer project in the Mitchell Center. He has a Masters of Studies in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School and a PhD in Social Anthropology from Harvard University. Dr. Ranco’s research focuses on Wabanaki protection of cultural and natural resources. He teaches classes on indigenous intellectual property rights, research ethics, environmental justice and tribal governance. The son of Nelson Newell Ranco and May Ranco, he grew up in Orono and currently resides in Hampden.

David Thete

David Thete (pronounced DAV•EED THEET) – 19 year old artist, activist, and youth advocate; David imagined a world where young people would be free to create any and everything their minds would allow. Where their ideas would be valued. At the age of 17 he decided to run with “Tomorrow’s Ideas”. Thete founded and is the current Creative Director of Kesho Wazo. Kesho Wazo (translates to “Tomorrows Ideas” in Swahili) an art collective for and by the youth. He has made a name for himself in the prominent art community of Portland, Maine. The focus of Kesho Wazo is to create a platform for young people by advancing the youth through: artistic expressions, individuality and cultural experiences.

Dr. Atyia Martin

Dr. Atyia Martin is a Certified Emergency Manager with a diverse set of experiences in public health, emergency management, intelligence, and homeland security. Mayor Martin Walsh appointed her as the Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Boston as part of the 100 Resilient Cities initiative pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation. In this role, she is responsible for leading the development and implementation of Boston’s Resilience Strategy. Boston will focus on advancing racial equity as the foundation of the Resilience Strategy process. Dr. Martin has served as adjunct faculty in the Master of Homeland Security at Northeastern University. She was previously the Director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness at the Boston Public Health Commission. Her previous professional experience includes the Boston Police Department’s Boston Regional Intelligence Center; City of Boston’s Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management; the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI); and active duty Air Force assigned to the National Security Agency.

Florence Reed

Award-winning thought leader and innovative practitioner, Florence Reed, believes that when people work together, things can change for the better. After serving in the Peace Corps in Panama in the 1990s, Reed founded Sustainable Harvest International, a nonprofit organization that preserves the environment by partnering with farming families to increase well-being through sustainable farming. In recent years Reed has enjoyed being a delegate to the Opportunity Collaboration and Environmental Laureates Convention, as well as a member of advisory committees for the National Peace Corps Association and U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.

Israa Enan

Israa Enan from the hot city, south of Iraq, called Basra. She is 20 years old and attends the University of Southern Maine; studying human biology. She loves writing and reading books in Arabic and English. Her family is very important to her, along with education, and her values. She believes, with education, we can have a better world. She also believes that peace should be everywhere so everyone can experience it. She hopes to be a good role model to the coming generations.

John Hobart

John has a scientific perspective and two decades of experience designing and developing computer software. John has worked in far-reaching fields ranging from applied mathematics to skydiving to music. John is a co-founder of Coria Inc., a machine learning and data science company based out of Portland, Maine. His current work is centered on applied computer vision, where he leads a diverse team of electrical engineers and computer scientists building the next generation of intelligent cameras. In 2017, John took a team to Amman, Jordan to see if machine learning and data science could be used to help formulate a solution to the largest refugee crisis since the end of World War II. What they learned resulted in the creation of a new team dedicated to using emerging technology for the common good.

Kafari + Jake Hoffman

Kafari is a pianist, beatmaker, and bluegrass percussionist, specializing in the rhythm bones – an ancient instrument played by holding two in one hand, flicking the wrist forward and backward to create sound. He first became inspired to play the bones three and a half years ago after seeing a concert that debunked his assumptions about bluegrass and exposed him to the African-American roots of traditional bluegrass and old-time music. A resident of Portland since 2011, Kafari enjoys teaching bones to passersby on the city streets and in classrooms across the state. Multi-instrumentalist and singer, Jake Hoffman was raised on jazz and rock n roll and spent his adulthood studying American folk musics. He has toured in 20 states and 11 countries — performing and teaching ballads, gospel and dance music from Appalachia and the American South. A community arts and cultural exchange advocate, Jake has lived in the Portland area since 2009 and is a teaching artist and program manager with 317 Main Community Music Center.

Lawrence Lessig

Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership

Lindsay Baldwin

Lindsay Baldwin is an insect enthusiast living in Portland, Maine. Her days are filled with running a footwear brand with her boyfriend and incorporating sustainable protein into (almost) everything she eats.

Najma Jama Abdullahi

Najma Jama Abdullahi is currently a senior at Waynflete High School. She is part of Seeds of Peace and a co-founder of SAYV, an organization devoted to giving young people and teens a platform to speak about issues they are passionate about. She is also an avid reader, poet, and lover of art. She is a Black Somali Muslim woman who is devoted to bringing equity to those disenfranchised.

Nickie & Luke Sekera

Nickie Sekera is the assistant director of SOLO, the founding school of wilderness medicine in the United States. She came to that position after working in remote medical clinics and minority-lead education projects within the conflict zones of Eastern Burma. Her work in that region lead to serving on the Board of Directors of the US Campaign for Burma where after 8 years, she felt increasing pressure to use her experiences and act locally. Inspired by her young son Luke’s inquiry process about global inequities, Nickie felt motivated to focus on water privatization issues from her home in rural Maine. She was the cofounder of the Community Water Justice network and elected as a Trustee to the Fryeburg Water District. She has been a mentor and adviser to several youth and leadership projects and works closely with her son on leadership skills to meet the demands of the next generation. Luke is an emerging leader who is preparing to take on the challenges of his generation. While working alongside his mother, he found his voice at a young age when he was the youngest person on record to testify in front of the Maine Public Utility Commission. His brief testimony against a US precedent-setting contract for his community’s groundwater led to his ability to collect over 170,000 petition signatures that he delivered to the governor’s office; he quickly learned about the hurdles to our democratic process in protecting our water commons. Luke recently entered his first year at Fryeburg Academy and in his free time he can be found exploring mountains, studying history, playing his guitar, running cross-country or speaking in public on water rights issues.

Peter Cooke

Peter Cooke is responsible for developing and managing Manomet’s Grocery Stewardship Coalition, the leading sustainability platform for the grocery sector. He has performed sustainability audits for dozens of businesses sectors, including more than 700 grocery stores nationwide. He is ISO 14001 Lead Auditor certified, Commercial Energy Auditor trained, Building Operator Certified, and Hazardous Waste Operations certified. Peter teaches at Antioch University, University of Southern Maine, and Tufts University.

Peter Haas

Peter is the Associate Director of the Brown University Humanity Centered Robotics Initiative. He was the Co-Founder and COO of XactSense, a UAV manufacturer working on LIDAR mapping and autonomous navigation. Prior to XactSense, Peter founded AIDG – a small hardware enterprise accelerator in emerging markets. Peter received both TED and Echoing Green fellowships. He has been a speaker at TED Global, The World Bank, Harvard University and other venues. He holds a Philosophy B.A. from Yale.

Samantha Appleton

Samantha Appleton is a photographer concentrating on historical trends. Her work strives to show that quiet, subtle moments make up the complicated components of large news stories. The bulk of her career has covered many of the most tumultuous, man-made events of the past decade. Primary stories have included conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, social issues in Africa, and immigration in the US. She has won numerous awards including Pictures of the Year, World Press Master Class, American Photography and Camera Arts. She was most recently an Official White House Photographer for the Obama administration during the first term. In addition to her photography, she is currently writing a non-fiction book project about Iraq.

Sara Juli

Sara Juli has created and performed innovative performance work since 2000. She has been fortunate to tour around the country performing her work in venues such as American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, Performance Space 122 (NYC), Dance Complex (Boston), Napa Valley Opera House, Artown Reno, SPACE Gallery and more. Internationally she has performed in The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, London, Russia and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. She is a recipient of New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project grant for her solo, *Tense Vagina: an actual diagnosis,* which is touring to ten cities during the 2018 season. Sara is the Founder/Director of Surala Consulting, a fundraising consultancy helping non-profits and artists build and execute fundraising strategies. She is co-chair of the Bates Dance Festival Advisory Council and is the 2017 Maine Fellow for the Performing Arts, awarded by the Maine Arts Commission.