TEDxHouston

Speakers

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

• Ana Bueno

  Environmental Reporter

  Ana Bueno is a multi award–winning environmental journalist at N+Univision 45 reporting on topics ranging from air quality, environmental justice and wildlife conservation to watchdog Houston's oil and gas industry to elevate environmental awareness in Latino communities through impactful, accessible journalism.

• Daniel Millikin

  Executive Director

  Daniel Millikin is the Executive Director of Willow Waterhole Greenspace Conservancy, where he leads efforts to preserve, restore, and elevate one of Houston’s most unique urban landscapes. A ninth-generation Texan with deep roots in the region, he brings a lifelong connection to place alongside professional experience in horticulture, environmental education, and community engagement. Before his current role, Daniel worked at Herman Park and Memorial Park, previously hosting a radio show that focused on Houston area gardening. An experience that continues to shape his emphasis on communication and public connection. Under his leadership, Willow Waterhole is building on a strong foundation to become a premier outdoor destination and a model for how urban green spaces can serve both people and the environment.

• Dianne Kimiko Murata

  Chief Furniture Nerd + Accidental Environmentalist

  Dianne Murata is the Founder and Principal of Kimiko Designs and the accidental environmentalist behind Kimiko Green, a movement reshaping how the commercial furniture industry thinks about circularity. With 25+ years leading complex projects across corporate, healthcare, and higher education, she’s known as the “furniture fire chief” for her ability to solve problems others avoid. Today, she works with facility owners and real estate leaders to turn furniture into a strategic asset, proving that smart, durable planning is as good for the planet as it is for the bottom line.

• Esteban Montero

  Executive Director - Holon Foundation

  Esteban Montero grew up in Chile, a country whose geography is a sustained argument for the power and beauty of the natural world. He began his career as an engineer in the industries that extract that world's raw materials, work that put him at close range to both what those industries make possible and what they cost. Trained in engineering, finance and systems in Chile, MIT, and Tokyo's Keio University, he has since devoted his work to a single question: how complex systems — technical, social, ecological — integrate, or fail to integrate. That question has carried him into the science of how groups perceive, coordinate, and act together — work he explored with co-authors in A Categorical Defense of Our Future and in a chapter for Andy Adamatzky's Post-Apocalyptic Computing. As founder of the Holon Foundation, he applies that thinking to a piece of civic infrastructure most cities never look at twice: the front yard.

• Jessica Wilt

  Executive Director

  Jessica Wilt is the visionary executive director behind Central City Co-Op, Houston’s oldest organic and sustainable cooperative. An unwavering advocate for regional food sourcing, Jessica and her business partner rescued the 1998-founded grassroots buying club from financial struggle in 2016, transforming it into a thriving economic engine. Under her strategic leadership, the Co-Op 10x’d its business, moved into its first permanent storefront in The Heights, and evolved into a critical small business incubator that now partners with 100 local producers to offer 7,500 products year-round. Jessica applies an empathetic, informed lens to reshaping the future of local food. Her commitment to uplifting regional farmers and ranchers earned her the Houston Business Journal’s “Women Who Mean Business” honor in 2025. Beyond running a market, she is building a sustainable legacy where Houstonians can shop local and eat with integrity.

• Ryn Delpapa

  Founder at AR+E COMETS and Art for Climate Resilience Director

  Change-maker, Ryn Delpapa, believes in impact. A neuroarts tech founder, speaker, podcaster, and artist on a mission, they honor life's biodiversity, from plants to people. Ryn is a recent 2025 4.0 Tiny Fellow and CXC Changemakers for the Planet Fellow, bridging education, creativity, and environmental impact within their venture, AR+E COMETS, a global health studio. As a 2024 City of Houston City Initiative grant awardee, their Art for Climate Resilience community arts-in-health program shaped community health in Houston’s Third and Fifth Ward. This body of ongoing work, research, and insatiable curiosity and creativity is shared through the Earthly Bonds podcast, public speaking, and consulting.

• Suman Khatiwada

  Dr. and Founder

  Suman Khatiwada is on a mission to decarbonize the industries that feed and fuel the world. As co-founder and CTO of Syzygy Plasmonics, he develops photocatalysts and fully electrified chemical reactors that replace fossil-fuel-driven processes in chemical, fuel, and fertilizer manufacturing. Under his technical leadership, Syzygy has raised over $130 million in venture capital and secured four government grants. Across his career, he has built an invention portfolio spanning 21 patent families and 65 patents granted worldwide. Dr. Khatiwada holds a PhD in Materials Science and Nanoengineering from Rice University. He was named to the National Academies of Engineering's U.S. Frontiers of Engineering program in 2020 and received Rice's Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni award in 2024. He serves on the board of a nonprofit and is an active mentor for startup founders across many climate-forward accelerators.

• Tina Berger

  Author, Founder, Independent Management Consultant

  Tina Berger is the founder of Invest Like a Mother, a movement inviting investors to explore an unconventional framework and values-based approach to investing. She spent more than twenty years as an innovation and digital transformation advisor to corporate leaders in the energy sector. Through this work, she developed a deep understanding of how capital flows, how decisions are made, and how large systems evolve. Before that, she spent two years as a licensed investment advisor, learning how the financial markets work from the inside. Tina is the author of Coming Around and Invest Like a Mother (expected June, 2026). She holds a BA in English Literature and an MBA with an Energy concentration from the University of Houston. Her work reframes investing as a relationship, not a transaction. She emphasizes that when we invest, we are participating in real-world outcomes for people, communities, and the environmental systems we depend on.