TEDxErasmusUniversityCollege

Speakers

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

• Akshaj Nair

  Akshaj (Aksh) Nair is a master's student at the International Institute of Social Studies, where they specialise in Social Policy and Sustainability. Alongside their studies, they work at Erasmus University College on curriculum redevelopment, helping weave sustainability more meaningfully into how students learn and engage with the world. Akshaj was a finalist for the ECHO Award 2025 and brings hands-on experience across a range of initiatives, from sustainability projects at the port to grassroots campaigns with Amnesty and exploration of alternative forms of activism.

• Alexa Starks

  Alexa Starks is an award-winning workplace culture innovator and working motherhood advocate focused on how modern work systems shape women’s careers after becoming mothers. She is the founder of Executive Moms and Editor-in-Chief of Mothered Magazine. As a mom of two toddlers, Alexa brings personal experience alongside research-driven insight to conversations about ambition, leadership, and how workplaces must evolve to better support real human lives. Her work centers on a compassion-first approach to leadership and the long-term sustainability of working motherhood. In her TEDx talk, Who Decides How Human You’re Allowed to Be?, Alexa explores the quiet conditioning that teaches us to act like life pauses for work and to hide the parts of ourselves that don’t fit a polished professional image. She challenges audiences to reconsider who really decides how much of their humanity is allowed in the room and what changes when we choose differently.

• Anna Strolenberg

  Cyberbullying, pornographic deepfakes and hate speech. The online world is the new breeding place for misogyny. Do we need a next wave of feminism? So women can take back the internet. Anna Strolenberg is a member of the European Parliament (Volt) and works on women’s rights, such as creating a safe online world for women. She has experienced first hand what can happen when you speak out online as a woman. She will share insights about online sexual harassment, advocate for the Fifth Wave of Feminism and will argue why both men and women need to be involved.

• Laura Henning

  Laura is a third-year Political Science student. Counter to what her major might suggest, her secret passion lies in a radically different field: emotional education. Over the years, she has gained knowledge across a range of topics, from emotional regulation and relationships to mental health and psychological disorders. Drawing on her personal experiences and therapeutic journey, her talk invites you to rethink what addiction is, how it works, and what you can do to free yourself from its shackles.

• Myeisha Payung

  Myeisha Payung is a third-year student at Erasmus University College majoring in International Law, with a focus on Indigenous Rights and International Environmental Law. Born and raised in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, she brings a lived perspective to narratives often discussed only in policy terms. Raised around the forests and the communities, her storytelling is guided by memory, connection, and the hope to amplify the invisible voices.

• Rob Salafia

  Rob is an authority on executive presence and transformative learning experiences. He combines two decades of experience as a top leadership development executive with a successful career in the performing arts. He is the author of – Leading from Your Best Self: Develop Your Executive Poise, Presence and Influence to Maximize Your Potential (McGraw-Hill).

• Ujwal Arkalgud

  Ujwal Arkalgud is an anthropologist who studies how invisible cultural rules shape the way we think, decide, and imagine our futures. Trained in social anthropology and experienced in building organizations, his work explores the hidden norms that quietly define what feels normal, respectable, or possible—often without our awareness. He has worked with leaders and institutions to surface these unspoken structures and rethink how decisions are made. Ujwal is the author of Invisible Rules, which examines how unseen cultural architecture influences careers, creativity, and leadership. His work invites people to question inherited assumptions and consider what becomes possible once those assumptions are made visible.

• Vilius Leikauskas

  Vilius Leikauskas is a Lithuanian-American student at Erasmus University College studying Economics with a minor in Neuroscience. He is fascinated by how people make decisions when they don’t really know what’s going on—and why uncertainty seems to push some people into action while it stops others completely. Outside of class, he has worked in consulting and commercial strategy, where certainty is a luxury we do not always have. Alongside his studies and work, he spends a lot of time learning about philosophy and human behavior, exploring those interests through books, podcasts, and long conversations. During his talk, he aims to show how separating what we can control from what we can’t can help us act more boldly, even when the picture is incomplete.