Ideas change everything
TEDx SUNY Cortland is the university’s local, independent program to highlight interesting speakers sharing big ideas. It is sanctioned by TED, the non-profit foundation that runs speaking events across the planet, featuring insights related to technology, education, design and a host of other fields. TEDx was created to enable communities and universities to create their own self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.
Applications to present at TEDx SUNY Cortland 2025 are now being reviewed. The event is scheduled for Friday, April 4, from 6 to 8 p.m. in Sperry Room 205.
Next spring’s event has adopted the current theme of the university’s academic year-long series organized by the Cultural and Intellectual Climate Committee: “Air.”
Selected speakers explore the invisible forces affecting our lives and share their thoughts with a global audience. The topics this theme lends itself to is as rich and varied as imagination.
You can look at air as a carrier of human emotions. Is love in the air? Tension? Foreboding? Does it serve as the conduit for cultural or societal shifts, giving us a sense that change is in the air? You can look through the lens of spiritual or metaphysical interpretations. Or science. From microplastics and greenhouse gases to radio signals from deep space, unseen forces pose new mysteries that need to be solved. What comes out of thin air? Money, perhaps? Great works of art? Artificial intelligence?
Six speakers were selected for TEDx SUNY Cortland 2024, which was held this spring to share their unique and inspirational views on our theme of “Reclamation.”
Links to the talks are below. Please feel free to view them and share them with whoever might be interested.
- “Reclaim your love of teaching”
Allison Noelle Megherian is a New York City music teacher, singer, songwriter, author and motivational speaker. She is certified in life coaching, mindfulness, meditation, breathwork and sound healing and is author of "A Motivational Reset for the Mindset."
- “The problem with data aggregation: Reclaiming our identity
Dr. Tui Lauilefue is a Washington State physician certified in both internal and obesity medicine with experience in both academic and corporate medicine. She now works as a direct primary care provider and is on a mission to raise healthcare standards.
- “Reclaiming our past through public history”
Evan Faulkenbury is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Cortland where he teaches courses on public history and U.S. history. He is the author of "Poll Power: The Voter Education Project and the Movement for the Ballot in the American South" (UNC Press, 2019) and co-editor of "Teaching Public History" (UNC Press, 2023). His current book project is "Remembering Rebellion: A Public History of Slave Revolts Across America."
- “Reclaiming our mental health: A struggle in silence to societal success”
John D. Lin is a world traveler, national award-winning public speaking professor and instructor in SUNY Cortland’s Communication and Media Studies Department who believes he has not succeeded despite mental illness, but because of it.
- “Reclaiming hope and our humanity through language acquisition”
Ryan Lerner graduated from SUNY Cortland with a degree in Adolescence Education: Spanish, but did his TEDx presentation while still a student. He was an honors scholar, president of the Spanish Club, a member of the French Club and former member of the Red Dragons swim team.
- “Reclaiming life after maternity leave and job loss”
Yen Maine transformed herself from a Citibank Vice President to a fragrance entrepreneur after losing her job during maternity leave. In the Adirondack Forest, she found inspiration to reinvent her family's fragrance business. She is now chief executive officer of the ADK Fragrance Farm, which produces all-natural perfumes, sprays, candles, soaps and other products.
SUNY Cortland’s annual TEDx conference seeks to bring together a handful of inspiring and visionary thinkers made up of faculty, staff, students, alumni and the surrounding Upstate New York regions for an evening of shared ideas. The inaugural TEDx SUNY Cortland debuted in the spring of 2023.