TEDxMarkhamPublicLibrary

Speakers

Speakers may not be confirmed. Check the event website for the latest lineup.

• Dance Migration

  Dance Migration is Canada’s top contemporary Brazilian dance company, bringing to the stage the highest quality in Samba, Afro Brazilian dance, and more. This past fall, Dance Migration completed a tour of the Netherlands with its production Terra Brasil. Dance Migration is also an established school offering top training in Brazilian dance in Toronto. Check out DanceMigration.com for more info.

• Angelique Mendiola

  Student, York University

  Brent Angelique Mendiola is an Economics and Philosophy double major completing her final year at York University. In an increasingly binary world, she lives comfortably in the greys – continuously trying to foster a more nuanced understanding of the complex network of both socially constructed and naturally occurring relationships we all encounter everyday. In her free time, she is an arts-aficionado – she particularly enjoys literature, the visual arts, theatre, and music.

• Arina Kharlamova

  Arina Kharlamova is a writer of all things. Find her @akharlamova.com.

• Bill Cameron, PhD

  Philosopher

  Bill Cameron received his PhD in moral epistemology and feminist ethics from Western University in 2014. He studies and writes about the intricacies of how we know right from wrong, specifically how we ought to think about our gut feelings telling us what we ought to do. He is also an avid geek, with a voracious appetite for comic books, movies, roleplaying games, and overly large paperbacks filled with maps and made-up words. He lives and works as a benefits administrator and freelance writer in Markham.

• Brian Lau

  Founder and Principal Designer, Mad Studios

  Brian is a designer of 25 years and he has come to the realization that Design has been complicit in the environmental degradation of our planet. To solve this problem, he has made explorations into Deep Ecology, Ecological and Biophysical Economics and Environmental Philosophy and Ethics to inspire ideas in Design Futuring. Brian is completing a Masters degree in Knowledge Media Design at the University of Toronto and he has a Masters of Arts in Design from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design and a Bachelors degree majoring in Fine Arts and Economics. He has taught design at numerous design institutes and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (UK), a Certified Graphic Designer of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada, a professional member of the International Association of Designers (EU) and the Hong Kong Designers Association. His studio has won more than 100 international design awards.

• Julielynn Wong, MD

  Founder, 3D4MD

  Julielynn Wong, MD, MPH, is a Chinese-Canadian physician who founded 3D4MD, which creates 3D printable medical supplies to deliver healthcare in the most challenging places to those who need it most.

• Paul Mortfield

  Director, David Dunlap Observatory

  Paul Mortfield is Director of the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill, Ontario, housing the largest telescope in Canada. He is currently President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Toronto Centre. Paul has worked on several NASA spacecraft missions studying the Sun and Moon, creating innovative educational and outreach products and hosted a variety of live educational broadcasts on NASA-TV. Paul has taught astronomy and computing courses at colleges in the US and Canada. In his free time he plays blues piano and uses his own telescopes for astrophotography, science projects and the discovery of four asteroids.

• Peter Ellman

  Peter Ellman is versed in a number of styles from folk to jazz to hardcore to noise, and approaches every project with conscience and curiosity. Find him at peterellman.bandcamp.com.

• Sandy Cardy

  Author and Motivational Speaker

  Perhaps best known in Canada for her role as one of Canada’s leading authorities on financial, tax and estate planning, Sandy spent two decades helping Canadians increase their net worth and preserve the value of their estates. Her resume includes numerous print and broadcast media appearances such as The Globe and Mail, The Vancouver Sun, The Halifax-Chronicle, BNN TV, CBC Radio, Canada AM, City TV, CP 24 TV and a variety of magazines. Following years of struggle with a thyroid illness, she was diagnosed in 2012 with ovarian cancer. Since then, she has stepped forward to employ her public profile in the promotion and awareness of transitioning mind and body to harmony and balance.

• Sarayu Chityala

  Student, Bur Oak Secondary School

  Sarayu Chityala is a 15 year old teenager in grade 10 at Bur Oak Secondary School in Markham. She has had many negative experiences dealing with social media and society’s actions. But she overcame these experiences to become the confident and positive young woman that she is today. She now speaks about how social media can lead to lower self-esteem, the importance of being true to yourself, and explains why listening to society’s negative words is not the key to a happy life.

• Trish Lamanna

  Site 3 Fire Arts

  By day, Trish is a design director at a 360 camera company with a large body of knowledge in interactive marketing, design and usability. By night, she is a member of Site 3 Fire Arts, a volunteer group of 20+ people bringing together art, engineering, software programming, stagecraft and game design to create large-scale, fire installations for anyone to interact and have fun with.