2022 Speaker Reveal
Welcome back, TEDx-ers!
Now that we’ve revealed our 2022 conference theme, we want to introduce you to our speakers. Ranging from breakthrough researchers to ambitious students, Blueprints offers a variety of unforgettable speakers that will teach, inspire, and connect with all audience members.
Dr. Brené Brown
Dr. Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston, where she holds the Huffington Foundation Endowed Chair at the Graduate College of Social Work. Brené is also a visiting professor in management at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business.
She has spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy; is the author of six #1 New York Times best sellers; and is the host of the weekly Spotify original podcasts Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead.
Brené’s books have been translated into more than 30 languages, and her titles include Atlas of the Heart, Dare to Lead, Braving the Wilderness, Rising Strong, Daring Greatly, and The Gifts of Imperfection. With Tarana Burke, she co-edited the best-selling anthology You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience.
Her TED talk on the Power of Vulnerability is one of the top five most-viewed TED talks in the world, with over 50 million views. She is also the first researcher to have a filmed lecture on Netflix. The Call to Courage special debuted on the streaming service in April 2019.
Brené lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband, Steve. They have two children, Ellen and Charlie.
Dr. Jim Allison
Dr. James P. Allison is Regental Professor and Chair of the Department of Immunology, the Olga Keith Wiess Distinguished University Chair for Cancer Research, Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Research, and the Executive Director of the Immunotherapy Platform at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He has spent a distinguished career studying the regulation of T cell responses and developing strategies for cancer immunotherapy.
He earned the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which he shared with Dr. Tasuku Honjo, "for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation." Among his most notable discoveries are the determination of the T cell receptor structure and that CD28 is the major costimulatory molecule that allows full activation of naïve T cells and prevents anergy in T cell clones. His lab resolved a major controversy by demonstrating that CTLA-4 inhibits T-cell activation by opposing CD28-mediated costimulation and that blockade of CTLA-4 could enhance T cell responses, leading to tumor rejection in animal models. This finding and a great deal of persistence paved the way for the field of immune checkpoint blockade therapy for cancer. Work in his lab led to the development of ipilimumab, an antibody to human CTLA-4 and the first immune checkpoint blockade therapy approved by the FDA. Among many honors, he is a member of the National Academies of Science and Medicine and received the Lasker-Debakey Clinical Medical Research award in 2015.
His current work seeks to improve immune checkpoint blockade therapies currently used by our clinicians and identify new targets to unleash the immune system in order to eradicate cancer.
Tiff & Leon Chen
Tiffany and Leon Chen started Tiff’s Treats, the nation's first on-demand, baked-to-order, warm cookie delivery brand, in 1999 as 19-year-old sophomores at the University of Texas at Austin. They started with $20, a cell phone, and a dream, and over the past 20+ years have grown the business to 75 retail distribution locations (and counting) employing more than 1,700 employees, with a valuation over $500 Million.
Tiffany and Leon both graduated from the University of Texas in 2001 and live in Austin with their boy/girl twins. In addition to running Tiff's Treats, they often keynote at events such as SXSW and for companies like Southwest Airlines and Dell Technologies. They've been chosen as Ernst and Young Entrepreneurs of the Year and are also investors in dozens of other companies in addition to supporting local non-profits such as Foster Angels of Central Texas, The Andy Roddick Foundation and the ConnorMan Foundation.
Dr. Karen Willcox
Karen E. Willcox is Director of the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, Associate Vice President for Research, and Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds the W. A. “Tex” Moncrief, Jr. Chair in Simulation-Based Engineering and Sciences and the Peter O'Donnell, Jr. Centennial Chair in Computing Systems. Prior to joining the Oden Institute in 2018, she spent 17 years as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she served as Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the founding Co-Director of the MIT Center for Computational Engineering, and the Associate Head of the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. She is also an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute.
Willcox holds a Bachelor of Engineering Degree from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and masters and PhD degrees from MIT. Prior to becoming a professor at MIT, she worked at Boeing Phantom Works with the Blended-Wing-Body aircraft design group. She currently has funded projects supported by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Research Laboratory, ARPA-E, Department of Energy, Lockheed Martin, NASA, and Sandia National Laboratories.
In addition to her research pursuits, Willcox is active in education innovation. She served as co-Chair of the MIT Online Education Policy Initiative, co-Chair of the 2013-2014 Institute wide Task Force on the Future of MIT Education, and Chair of the MIT OpenCourseWare Faculty Advisory Board. She is a recognized innovator in the U.S. education landscape, where she is a 2015 recipient of a First in the World Department of Education grant that developed and deployed educational technologies in community colleges. She continues to direct the MIT Mapping Lab, which develops technologies for the future of digital education.
Dr. Scott W. Tinker
Scott Tinker works to bring industry, government, academia, and nongovernmental organizations together to address major societal challenges in energy, the environment, and the economy. Dr. Tinker is Director of the 250-person Bureau of Economic Geology, the State Geologist of Texas, and a professor holding the Edwin Allday Endowed Chair in the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin.
With Director Harry Lynch, Tinker coproduced and is featured in the award-winning energy documentary film Switch, which has been screened in over 50 countries to more than 15 million viewers and is used on thousands of K-through-12 and college campuses. Dr. Tinker formed the nonprofit Switch Energy Alliance in 2016 and has completed two new films: Switch On, a feature length documentary addressing global energy poverty, and Energy Makes our World, a five-minute, Hollywood-quality film made for global museums and giant screens. Tinker is the voice of EarthDate, a two-minute weekly program that focuses on remarkable stories of Earth. EarthDate is produced by the Bureau of Economic Geology and is featured on over 400 NPR and public radio stations in all 50 United States
Dr. Tinker has served as president of several associations, including the American Geosciences Institute (AGI), the Association of American State Geologists (AASG), the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), and the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies (GCAGS). Dr. Tinker is an AGI Campbell Medalist, AAPG Halbouty Medalist, GCAGS Boyd Medalist, and a Geological Society of America Fellow. In his visits to some 60 countries, he has given over 900 keynote and invited lectures.
Gloria Chan Packer
Gloria Chan Packer is a Principal and Founder of Recalibrate, a workplace mental wellness provider that delivers a uniquely science-backed, realistic, and actionable approach to mental wellness education for busy professionals. Her training and education includes various continuing education trainings with Deep Eddy Psychotherapy in Austin, Mindfulness Teacher Training from The Mindfulness Center in Washington, D.C., Executive Education from Columbia Business School, and a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin.
Prior to Recalibrate, Gloria led an established career in management consulting as a Senior Engagement Manager specializing in technology strategy and implementation for Fortune 500 clients. Gloria founded Recalibrate after an unexpected medical battle forced her to re-examine her relationship with stress, inspiring her to improve mental health education by promoting science over stigma. The company has since trailblazed the workplace mental wellness industry, educating 20,000+ employees at client organizations across the world. Since its opening in mid-2018, Recalibrate has worked with thousands of individuals across dozens of employers including Atlassian, McKinsey & Co, Cloudera, GLG, Humana, Outdoor Voices, and more.
Gloria’s favorite things include gardening, traveling, exploring the outdoors, social impact work, time with friends, and enjoying life with her husband Dr. Casey Packer and their pups, Pierre and Pintxo.
In her talk, Gloria shares her own story of needing mental wellness help from her career in management consulting and provides a framework for current professionals and college students alike to manage their health and their work. A rather unique take on the subject of workplace well-being, Gloria professes that “work is not your family.”
Valeria Colunga
Valeria Colunga is a 21-year-old activist, social entrepreneur and community organizer from Monterrey, Mexico. She attends The University of Texas at Austin working towards a dual degree in Latin American Studies and International Relations & Global Studies.
Valeria co-founded Cabilde, a software as a service tool to facilitate civic engagement and advocate for open government in Mexico. As a young teenager, she advocated for gender equality and girls’ empowerment through Girl Up. During her presidency in Girl Up Monterrey, Valeria directed the first Girl Up coalition in Mexico and served as a Teen Advisor. She is a LLILAS Benson Community Engagement awardee and finalist in DivInc's 2021 Champions of Change Awards. In 2020, she began her Spanish podcast Activismos & Quietismos where she talks with other Gen Z leaders and community organizers about social change in Mexico. In 2021, she was appointed by the United Nations Foundation as one of the eight Next Generation Fellows to write Our Future Agenda, a report aimed to foster solidarity between young people and the international community.
In her talk, Valeria talks about how Gen Z leaders need to be given a seat at the table to make substantive change on all issues from climate change to gun violence. Her talk serves both as a love letter to young students in the audience empowering them to be their own change makers, and as a direct message to older audience members for them to make room for the next generation. Throughout her talk, she references captivating examples from her own activism journey, such as meeting with the Prime Minister of Sweden and other world leaders to propel her main points.
Emily Yan
Emily Yan is a dual-degree Medical Student at the University of Texas at Austin. She is earning her M.D. at UT's Dell Medical School and her M.A. in Design focused on Health at UT's Design Institute for Health.
Previously, she studied at the University of California San Diego and holds a B.S. in Physiology and Neuroscience and an M.S. in Biology. She completed her Master's thesis in the field of Neuroscience at the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine in La Jolla, California
Along the way, her artistic bent sparked new ways of connecting with those around her. She is deeply invested in how art and creativity can inform science. Her unique perspective lends itself to thoughtful collaboration with patients in the design of their own health care experience. As a forward-thinking future physician, she is committed to designing a reimagined health care system because she believes that patients deserve to have their values serve as the through-line of their care.
Given that one of her favorite hobbies is pottery, her talk is a rendition of a Ceramics 101 class - but her talk is about much more than just pottery. Emily uses the creation process of ceramics as an analogy for how to build effective and empathetic medical teams, and shares stories from her own experience in the hospital to substantiate her ideas.
Sanika Bhave
Sanika is a senior at the University of Texas at Austin majoring in both Canfield Business Honors and Plan II Honors. She is also pursuing minors in Management Information Systems and Art History.
She’s sought to realize the power that comes from community at the intersection of policy, technology, and business, as she co-founded Austin Venture Strategy, an undergraduate organization working to make the VC + startup ecosystem more accessible to all, and is an active member of the Social Entrepreneurship Learning Lab. She also co-founded the CBHP Impact Network, which is working towards creating a more impact-minded Business Honors community. In Spring 2021, Sanika was named an Archer Fellow and spent the semester in D.C. doing policy work at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Her past experiences also include impact investing at the American Family Institute for Corporate and Social Impact, supporting venture capital investments at Crosscut Ventures, and assisting lawyers at Hutcherson Law. She likes to spend her free moments wandering through the stacks of Austin Public Library and inviting her friends over for a cup of chai.
Since her youth, she has always been interested in environmental causes, and this passion finds its way into the topic of her talk, which is electronic waste, or e-waste. Sanika gives a very insightful presentation on the harmful effects of e-waste, its scale, and thoughtful steps we can take to mitigate its effects.
Draft your Blueprint at our 2022 Conference on March 5th.
Ticket sales for our 2022 conference start on February 7th. Sign up for our newsletter via our website for TEDxUTAustin updates!
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Caroline Harrison