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).

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Anik Khan

Anik Khan is a Queens, NY based musician and entrepreneur who makes hip hop that likes to travel, drawing from his immigrant roots and his inner city upbringing. He's been championed by various tastemakers and platforms including Billboard, Beats1, Ebro, Zane Lowe and Sir Elton John.

Bastian Purrer

Bastian is the co-founder and inventor of humanID, a nonprofit and open-source online identity preserving privacy and blocking bots, spam and abusive users online. Before focusing his work on protecting privacy and fighting disinformation, Bastian pursued a career as Founder & Executive at leading e-commerce companies, ranging from global success stories to complete failures. He was among Groupon’s first employees, and later the first CMO at Southeast Asia's e-commerce giant Zalora, and CMO at Silicon Valley’s Homejoy. Most recently, Bastian built Indonesian e-commerce app LYKE. Bastian has built teams across various cultures and countries in Asia, Europe and North America. He recently graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Brent Leggs

Brent Leggs is the Executive Director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the largest preservation campaign ever undertaken on behalf of African American historic places. Through the Action Fund, he leads a broad community of leaders and activists in honor of the clarion that preserving African American cultural assets is fundamental to understanding the American story. Leggs is the author of Preserving African American Historic Places, a Harvard University Loeb Fellow, a recipient of the Robert G. Stanton National Preservation Award, and an Associate Professor and Senior Advisor to the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites.

Chhavi Verg

Chhavi Verg is a model, actress, host, and former beauty queen. She was Miss NJ USA 2017 and first runner-up at Miss USA 2017, making history as the first Indian-American to make it that far in the Miss USA competition. Born in India, Chhavi came to the United States with her family when she was four years old and was brought up in Edison, NJ. Chhavi is a Rutgers alumnus, graduating as an honors scholar and manga cum laude with a B.S. in marketing. Since then, Chhavi has become a representative for South Asians in the fashion, entertainment, and creative spheres. She has been featured in music videos, on billboards, in magazines, and in various commercials. Chhavi is passionate about giving back to her community and is a strong proponent of women’s equality, empowerment, and education.

Chris Gavaler

Chris Gavaler is an associate professor of English at W&L University, where he serves as comics editor of Shenandoah magazine. He has published two novels: School for Tricksters (SMU 2011) and Pretend I’m Not Here (HarperCollins 2002); and six books of scholarship: On the Origin of Superheroes (Iowa 2015), Superhero Comics (Bloomsbury 2017), Superhero Thought Experiments (with Nathaniel Goldberg, Iowa 2019), Revising Fiction, Fact, and Faith (with Nathaniel Goldberg, Routledge 2020), Creating Comics (with Leigh Ann Beavers, Bloomsbury 2021), and The Comics Form (Bloomsbury forthcoming). His visual work appears in Ilanot Review, North American Review, Aquifer, and other journals. He reviews graphic novels monthly at PopMatters.com and blogs weekly at thepatronsaintofsuperheroes.wordpress.com.

Jake Rattigan

Jake Rattigan is a third-year student in the Rutgers University Honors College, studying Psychology, Economics, and Spanish. He currently serves as an Alternative Breaks Site Leader, Honors College Lead Ambassador, and Research Assistant in the Social, Health, & Interdisciplinary Psychophysiology Lab. Having taken a social justice and systems approach to healthcare, Jake plans to pursue a Ph.D. and career in Clinical Neuropsychology, with the goal of starting his own practice. While his primary research interests include cognition and decision-making processes, Jake is also intrigued by motivation, mindfulness, and emotional intelligence. He believes that self-compassion practices are essential components of recovery and daily life.

Linda Sun

Linda Sun, a junior at the Rutgers Business School, has always dreamed of joining the TED stage. Inspired by speakers of the past, Linda realized the life long lasting impact of a compelling narrative and set out to contribute her own. After joining the millions of other dating app users this quarantine, it became apparent to her that the digital age has created a rampant contagion of love seeking millennials and the surmounting pressure many face to slosh off singlehood. In an attempt to find love herself, she created a dating profile, uploaded onto social media, and began swiping right.