TEDxUniversityofDelaware’s sixth community wide event will be held on Friday, Sept. 30 at 5 p.m. in Mitchell Hall and will be live streamed as well. All members of the University of Delaware community are invited to attend.  Tickets are available on the TEDxUniversityofDelaware website, www.tedx.udel.edu. The event will also be livestreamed for community members who are not able to attend in person. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. 

The theme of this year’s event is “Seeds for the Future” and features six speakers from UD faculty, staff, students, and alumni. The event will have two students, one staff member, two alumni and one faculty member. These TEDx talks represent some of the most compelling ideas worth spreading this year from the University community.

Featured Speakers

Elizabeth Finkle, director, wellbeing and engagement for UD Employee Health and Wellbeing

Talk: “Big Feelings and Connected Connectors at Work”

Finkle is an experienced worksite wellbeing practitioner with 16 years demonstrated history in designing environments to promote lasting health and wellbeing. Finkle said her purpose is to help organizations create the conditions for people to thrive, work in effective ways and feel joy.

Throughout her career, Finkle has worked in a variety of employer settings including hospitals, health insurance companies, national sports teams, manufacturing sites and most recently, higher education at UD. Her superpower is people, with a flair for simplicity and she said she loves working on complex people scenarios. She is a leader in organizational health initiatives, employee experience design, program planning and professional development creation.   

Jacob Herz, UD student

Talk: “Have we been thinking wrong about puzzles?”

Herz is a senior media communications major with history and journalism double minors. He is involved in the Blue Hen Leadership Program, The Crew, Athletic and Event Operations, ComUDy, WVU, and Club Ultimate Frisbee. In his free time, Herz said he loves watching movies, collecting vinyl records, and hiking. 

Natalia Husby, UD alumna 

Talk: “Epigenetics: Unraveling the mysteries of nature and nurture”

Husby studied neuroscience and behavioral epigenetics in Tania Roth’s lab while at UD. She now works for EpiCypher, a biotechnology company that develops research tools for epigenetics research. Epigenetics is the study of what influences gene expression and how it changes based on behavior and the environment. When she’s not nerding out over science, she enjoys reading, hiking and spending time with her two dogs. 

Kisha Porcher, UD assistant professor of English

Talk: “Inhaling Anti-Blackness, Exhaling Liberation”

Porcher is a scholar-practitioner and agent of change for students. She works deliberately to disrupt racism in spaces she occupies, and holds others accountable to dismantle and disrupt racism in their respectable spaces. The work she does is for the freedom and legacy of her family, community and society.  

Jennifer Liner Rodstrom, UD alumna

Talk: “How to embrace your child’s gender transition”

Liner Rodstrom is a customer experience (CX) professional with 20 years of experience both as a  consultant and on the corporate side. Liner Rodstrom has extensive experience communicating customer insights, improvement programs, and CX concepts in a relatable way that drives customer-centric transformation across organizations. She has delivered insightful and engaging presentations at company, industry, and customer experience events for audiences of 20-200+. She received her Honors bachelor of arts in international relations and Spanish from UD, and her master’s degree in applied communication research from Boston University. Liner Rodstrom is married with two teenage sons, one who is transgender, and she is passionate about supporting LGBTQ+ rights for all, particularly children. In her free time she likes to sit with her dog on her lap doing the New York Times crossword puzzle.

Nadia Sheikh, UD honors student

Talk: “Is there a way to morph mindfulness to be Accessible?”

Sheikh is an honors undergraduate at UD. Her passions stem from curiosity about the mind and how one's mindset can affect the human body. She is also a promoter of mental health in her community by committing to research and clinical work within the psychological field. Nadia is the volunteer coordinator of Chalkboard Charities, a local Delaware non-profit dedicated to providing medical education to underserved communities. She said she hopes her talk inspires others to focus on their mental health and to also advocate for others. Nadia would love to give a shout out to her family and friends for always being so supportive and making her laugh along the way.

More about TED

TEDxUniversityofDelaware has previously organized events around the themes of Power, Adventure, Connectivity, Breakthrough and the TED Countdown climate change event. Talks from these events can be viewed on the TEDxUniversityofDelaware website, and have garnered over 400,000 collective views so far.

This event is made possible by multiple levels of support from various organizations and departments: The Office of the Provost, The Division of Student Life, University Student Centers, The Honors College, Blue Hen Leadership Program, Office of Communications and Marketing and many others.

For more information about these events, or TEDxUniversityofDelaware in general, please contact Matthew Creasy, TEDxUniversityofDelaware organizer at mcreasy@udel.edu

About TEDx, x = independently organized event

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, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection. 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.)

TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, often in the form of short talks delivered by leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED conferences, intimate TED Salons and thousands of independently organized TEDx events around the world. Videos of these talks are made available, free, on TED.com and other platforms. Audio versions of TED Talks are published to TED Talks Daily, available on all podcast platforms.

TED's open and free initiatives for spreading ideas include TED.com, where new TED Talk videos are posted daily; TEDx, which licenses thousands of individuals and groups to host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; the TED Fellows program, which selects innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities; The Audacious Project, which surfaces and funds critical ideas that have the potential to impact millions of lives; TED Translators, which crowdsources the subtitling of TED Talks so that big ideas can spread across languages and borders; and the educational initiative TED-Ed. TED also offers TED@Work, a program that reimagines TED Talks for workplace learning. TED also has a growing library of original podcasts, including The TED Interview with Chris Anderson, WorkLife with Adam Grant, Far Flung with Saleem Reshamwala and How to Be a Better Human.

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