Theme: Community Connections

What is community? Why are community connections important and how do we strengthen them? How do we want to envision our future community?

TEDxGreatMills presents speakers and performers who demonstrate some of the many innovative and sustaining ideas that can help us more fully appreciate who we are and also envision a stronger more connected community.

Explore ideas about Community Connections in a full day of "Technology, Entertainment and Design" enlightenment on March 23, 2019.

Tickets $20 early bird (purchased by March 12) and includes lunch, $25 if after March 12 and lunch available while supplies last.

Great Mills High School
21130 Great Mills Rd
Great Mills, MD, Maryland, 20634
United States

Bernie Fowler

Farming for Hunger

Farming 4 Hunger Inc. was founded in 2012 by Bernie Fowler Jr as a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization that feeds the Hunger Community of Maryland. To date they have been responsible for growing and helping to distribute 5.2 million pounds of fresh produce for the region. In growing this organization, Bernie has been able to form a partnership with the Department of Corrections and since 2013, has personally mentored 62 felons from the Department of Corrections as they worked the many different phases of farming. He has greeted over 12,000 volunteers to the farm and continues to reach out to the community to provide more than just the food that is grown for distribution. He enjoys the challenge of helping to build the community, provide direction for people in need, offer an education in farming and even a new start in life for many - all starting with a little bit of soil. Bernie attributes all the success of the program to God, Faith, Hope and Love.

David Kung

Professor

Dave Kung fell in love with both mathematics and music at a very early age. More successful with one than the other, he completed three degrees from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, none in music, before joining the faculty at St. Mary's College of Maryland. He enjoys playing violin with students, in the local community orchestra, and with his daughter. He has authored a variety of articles on topics in harmonic analysis and mathematics education, and is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2006 Teaching Award and 2017 Service Award from the MD/VA/DC section of the MAA. His Great Courses lectures, How Music and Mathematics Relate, have quickly become a top Math & Science seller for the Teaching Company. He serves as director of MAA Project NExT, a professional development program for new faculty in the mathematical sciences.

Dominic Fragman

Musician and speaker

Dominic Fragman is a unique and exciting artist. He is a world renown multi-instrumentalist, performer, educator, lecturer, and program designer who's work focuses on improvisation, innovation, and freedom. He is a direct descendant of a lineage of groundbreaking jazz musicians including iconic masters, Paul F. Murphy, Larry Willis, and Cecil Taylor. Fragman is the co-founder of the Spirit of Jazz & Democracy, the Spirit of Innovation & Freedom, the Spirit of Innovation & Drumming, and the Mind Set of Innovation. His programming and work with Paul F. Murphy, Larry Willis, poet laureate Jere Carroll, and philosopher Dr. Sybol Anderson has been recognized as historic. Fragman has formed partnerships for his work with Zildjian, Loyola University of New Orleans, Maryland Humanities, Voice of America, Regis University, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum, and others.

Donna Jordan Dance Troupe

Donna Jordan has enjoyed a lifetime of dancing, performing and teaching, starting at age two when she danced nonstop until she collapsed in exhaustion. She is a member of the dance faculty at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and serves as executive director for the nonprofit The Dance Collective. With a passion for art and community, Jordan embodies the spirit of community connections through her work. Today’s performance incorporates a rope made of fabric contributed by members of the community, to symbolize a coming together of our loving and diverse community. The dance piece was created by eight dancers within one week – no small feat in the dance world! It is magical what we can do when we share the intention, passion, and drive to create.

Judy Brown

Creative Leadership

Judy Sorum Brown is a poet, speaker, writer, and educator whose work focuses on leadership and the nature of change. Formerly Vice President of The Aspen Institute, she served as a White House Fellow and Special Assistant to the US Secretary of Labor and taught leadership for the public good at the graduate school of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. She leads and teaches in a range of programs for executives. A poet, with interest in the leadership power of language and narrative, she has designed and facilitated leadership projects for symphony orchestras, urban libraries, manufacturing plants, public schools, the intelligence community and those who serve elders. Her leadership books include A Leader’s Guide to Reflective Practice, The Art and Spirit of Leadership.

Katie Mead

Student

Katie Mead is a 10th grade student attending Patuxent High School.Katie is a high honor roll student, and she participates in multipleextra-curriculars, playing in various orchestras and also swimming forher school. Katie has aspirations to attend Duke University and isplanning to major in computer science. In her spare time, she wishesshe had more spare time.

Lydia Waddell

Student, artist

Lydia Waddell is a young artist and 10th grade student at PatuxentHigh School in Lusby, Maryland. She’s won multiple awards for her workand intends to go into a career in communicative arts with her eyesset on a college career at VCUArts. However, she is not only a visualartist—she is a high honor roll student at PHS and plays a part in herhigh school Wind Ensemble, Pep Band, and Pit Orchestra. In her sparetime, Lydia enjoys doing everything a normal teenager does—takingnaps, playing video games, and talking with her friends.

Matthew Scassero

Artificial Intelligence

Matt is the Director of the University of Maryland Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)Test Site, focusing the resources and efforts of the state of Maryland on working with the FAA to integrate UAS into the national airspace, and enabling public access to these valuable assets to empower a flourishing new industry. Prior to his work with UAS, Matt was with Melwood, a non-profit dedicated to empowering people with differing disabilities to enrich their own lives through rehabilitative services and employment opportunities. Prior to joining Melwood, Matt completed a 27 year career in the US Navy, serving America in a wide variety of leadership roles both at sea and ashore. He has sailed on six of the seven seas and traveled to more than 25 nations across five continents. Matt earned his BS in Physics/Oceanography from the United States Naval Academy, his Master of Public Administration from the University of Baltimore, and is a Leadership Maryland graduate.

Nicole Rochester

pediatrician, private health advocate, speaker, author

Dr. Nicole T. Rochester is a board-certified pediatrician, private health advocate, speaker, author, and the CEO of Your GPS Doc, LLC, an innovative company that helps individuals and their family caregivers navigate the healthcare system. Dr. Rochester was inspired to start her company after caring for her late father and witnessing the complicated healthcare system from the other side of the stethoscope. Dr. Rochester provides individualized healthcare advocacy services as well as consulting services to employers and healthcare organizations.

Rory Feely

Chief Financial Officer and Chief Test Pilo

Co-founder, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Test Pilot at HopFlyt. Rory is a military Experimental Test Pilot and Marine Corps aviator that has been flying high- performance aircraft for over 20 years. He has deployed four times and flown over 300 hours in combat. He has a BSc. in Physics (Honors), an MS in Aerospace Engineering, an MS in Technical Program Management and is a graduate of the United States Naval Test Pilot School. Rory wants to rid the world from the jam of traffic and exhaust pollution while pushing boundaries in aviation design.

Sarah Lorek

Music teacher

Sarah Lorek’s educational mission is to cultivate students filled with integrity, initiative and independence through song. She has a Master’s Degree from Florida State University (2006), and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Delaware (2003). Currently, Sarah is Director of Choirs and Lead Teacher for the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts (AVPA) at Chopticon High School. AVPA strives to prepare students for future study by providing intense rigor, advanced instruction, connectivity, and professional artistic experiences. Ms. Lorek is a frequent clinician, member of the SMCPS Arts Leadership Team, and school PLC Leader. The Chopticon Choirs participate in their annual “pay it forward” concert season at Chopticon High School, where in lieu of ticket sales, our audiences are asked to donate to a local charity. Each season, the Choirs select organizations they are passionate about and have donated over a thousand dollars in the last four years alone.

Spring Ridge Rhythm Club

Rhythm Club is a performing arts group that get together and create heart pounding routines with a mix of beat boxing, dancing, singing, tapping, beating, and drumming. They are comprised of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students from Spring Ridge Middle School under the direction of Bonnie Beavan. Rhythm Club has performed all over the east coast, including performances in New York City, Washington D.C. at the Wizard Games, at Disney World and more!

Tammi McKinley

Midwife

Tammi L. McKinley, M.P.A, Certified Professional Midwife, has been practicing as an out of hospital midwife since 2004. She is the Founder and Clinical Director of Hampton Roads Midwifery in Norfolk, Virginia. Tammi is the President of the Virginia Midwives Alliance. She practices the Midwives Model of Care© which decreases situations that can lead to maternal mortality.

Wayne Karlin

author

Wayne Karlin has published seven novels: Marble Mountain, The Wished-For Country, Prisoners (all with Curbstone Press), Lost Armies, The Extras, Us (all with Henry Holt), and Crossover (Harcourt, Brace), and three works of creative non-fiction: Rumors and Stones, War Movies (Curbstone Press), and Wandering Souls: Journeys with the Dead and the Living in Viet Nam (Nation Books). His books have been published in translation in Denmark, Sweden, Italy and Vietnam. He co-edited the first collection of Vietnam veterans’ fiction from the war, Free Fire Zone: Short Stories by Vietnam Veterans, in 1973 and in 1995 was the co-editor of the first collection of fiction by Vietnamese and American authors who had been on different sides in the war: The Other Side of Heaven: Postwar Fiction by Vietnamese and American Writers.