TEDxPrinceton

Speakers

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

• Ana Naranjo

  Ana María Naranjo is a Colombian-born creative entrepreneur and founder of The Creative Ana, a platform that helps business owners unlock their creative potential by mixing psychology, art, and business in unconventional ways. Drawing inspiration from behavioral science and the sensory world, Ana’s work reveals how “mixing the unmixable” can lead to unexpected breakthroughs in innovation and perception. Her creative projects, ranging from creative retreats to her illustrated recipes for Business Owners, invite audiences to see the invisible connections that spark transformation. Ana believes creativity is not a skill, but a way of seeing the world differently.

• Anna Kim

  Anna Kim is a fundraising strategist, philanthropy content creator, and founder of My Travelanthropy. With over a decade of experience managing seven-figure high-profile political fundraising campaigns and nonprofit galas, she has worked with ultra-high-net-worth individuals and prominent public figures across multiple sectors. Now as an educator, she observed the growing influence of creators using social media to raise awareness and came up with the term “The Modern-Day Philanthropists™” to define this new wave of next-generation philanthropy influencers. She has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today Travel, and The Washington Post, with words published in TIME Magazine and Robb Report. She holds an M.A. in Communications.

• Ben Pascut

  Ben Pascut holds a Cambridge PhD and has spent his career refusing to choose between thinking and doing—integrating scholarship, business strategy, and social impact into a single practice. He has directed a leadership center at Yale, presented at Oxford, Harvard, Brown, and Princeton, and been recognized by the U.S. government as a Person of National Interest and Extraordinary Ability. Ben's work sits at the intersection of leadership and technology. He believes AI is not a threat to human relevance—it's an invitation to a new Renaissance. Whether coaching executives, advising on legacy and succession, or speaking to audiences from boardrooms to TEDx, his commitment is the same: to meet people where they are—and walk with them toward flourishing. He holds certifications in executive coaching and private equity from Brown University and Wharton, and is currently pioneering AI-driven platforms that mobilize leadership development and human flourishing at scale.

• Carol Rickard

  Carol Rickard, LCSW, is a clinical social worker with more than 30 years’experience in behavioral healthcare and has written over 30 books on stress and wellness. A stage III cancer survivor, Carol knows firsthand how life can suddenly change and why it’s important to have the right tools and strategies to help. Her award-winning books and nationally syndicated wellness television show have changed thousands of lives for the better by teaching real world solutions. She has been a featured expert in Reader's Digest, Dr. Oz’s The Good Life, Woman’s World Magazine and trained many of the nation’s top organizations.

• Conor Hogan

  Conor Hogan is a privacy and strategy advisor from Ireland who believes that presence is the most powerful form of leadership. For nearly two decades, he has helped organisations balance innovation with integrity while learning to do the same in his own life as a husband, father of three, and community coach. The early loss of his father shaped his belief that time matters more than titles and connection more than control. His work and writing explore how ambition can coexist with empathy, and why showing up fully may be the truest measure of success.

• Heidi Saas

  Attorney Heidi Saas has almost 20 years of experience in consumer rights law, over 6 years in data privacy law, and over 4 years of AI governance experience. She held the CIPP/US certification from 2019-2024, and she currently holds the AI Governance Architect certification from Logical AI Governance. Her projects involve working with company executives in various industries on regulatory strategies, privacy program designs, risk management, implementation, and monetization of data assets within their privacy ecosystems. Attorney Saas also works with businesses to provide strategic advice on legal and policy matters, as well as multi-jurisdictional regulatory compliance strategies. She is a Fellow of Ethics and Privacy with the non-profit educational institution ForHumanity, and she serves as the Chair of the Lawyers and Litigators in AI Governance chapter for the Women in AI Governance professional organization.

• Jo Madnani

  Jo Madnani is an award-winning marketing leader and storyteller with over two decades of experience spanning India and the U.S. Her campaigns have earned recognition from The American Advertising Federation, and her writing has appeared in Midday, The Times of India, and The Miami Herald. Originally from India, Jo migrated to Florida in the early 2000s before settling in the Northeast. This cross-continental journey shaped her exploration of identity, intersectionality, and belonging. She channels these insights into her debut work, The Immigrant Journey, and its companion journal, The Immigrant Lens—examining how we navigate complexity without losing ourselves.

• Joanna de Peña

  Joanna de Peña is a performance psychology educator, speaker, and founder of Top Notch Scholars, a youth-leadership organization helping inner-city students lead with clarity, confidence, and purpose. Grounded in her doctoral research and personal story of transforming adversity into growth, Joanna bridges psychology and storytelling to address the growing youth mental health crisis. Her work empowers audiences to turn stress into strategy and emotion into motion—proving that one breath, one choice, and one step at a time can restore calm, build resilience, and spark lasting transformation.

• Lindsey Lerner

  Lindsey Lerner is an artist, documentarian, and storyteller of stories that reveal the work beneath the surface. For nearly two decades, she’s built startups, managed national music tours, shaped cultural policy, and led creative strategy for brands and cities — always focused on the people, processes, and persistence that make things possible. As the creator of Field Notes from the Work (and the Wild), she documents the unseen rituals and quiet realities that fuel creativity, community, and change. Her work invites audiences to look beneath the surface — to see where value is truly created and how transformation unfolds long before the spotlight ever hits. She lives with her wife and daughters in The Bronx.

• Mia Baker

  Mia Baker is a Senior Manager at Electronic Arts and a longtime creative strategist with experience at Disney, Walmart, and the SAG Awards. Her work focuses on storytelling that bridges people and purpose, creating campaigns that inform, connect, and inspire. In 2025, she donated a kidney to a teenage stranger, an experience that deepened her belief in generosity and the unseen ties that link us all. Mia also serves on the Ascension Seton Foundation Committee in Austin, helping raise funds to expand their transplant program. Her talk explores how one act of kindness can ripple outward to connect us all.

• Michael Morand

  Michael Morand is Director of Global Commercial Strategy at Johnson & Johnson, where he partners with cross-functional and multinational teams to develop integrated strategies for next-generation autoantibody therapies. A military veteran who directed oper ations in multiple countries, Michael has managed teams spanning J&J's supply chain, channel strategy, health equity, and marketing organizations. He holds a DBA from Temple University, an MBA from NYU, an MA in Economics from OU, and a BA in Sociology from UMass. Michael serves as an adjunct professor at TCNJ and as aboard member and committee chair at TASK.

• Mikhail Kogan

  Dr. Kogan currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer at the Center for Integrative Medicine and Associate Professor of Medicine at George Washington University. As a physician specializing in integrative geriatrics, He is passionate about bringing holistic, evidence-based approaches into mainstream healthcare—especially for aging populations. He is the chief editor of Integrative Geriatric Medicine, the definitive textbook in the field, published by Oxford University Press. He also contributes to number of national boards including the National Cancer Institute’s CAM PDQ Board, American Board of Integrative Medicine, the GW Center for Aging, Health, and Humanities, IM4US, and AlzLife, and others.

• Montrece McNeill Ransom

  Montrece McNeill Ransom, JD, MPH, PCC, BCC is a global keynote speaker, executive coach, and belonging strategist who helps people turn self-doubt into confidence and connection. A former leader at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she brings more than 20 years of experience in public health, law, and leadership development. Through her coaching and talks, Montrece empowers leaders and teams to reimagine growth, courage, and belonging as essential tools for transformation. Her mission is simple but powerful: to help every person remember that they are, and always have been, right where they belong.

• Nicolas Darland

  Nick Darland is a veteran, entrepreneur, and author of Power in Chaos: Overcoming Adversity with Courage and Hope. Growing up, his parents told him he would be dead or in prison by the time he turned eighteen. At seventeen, Nick left home and did the unthinkable he graduated high school, joined the military, and has since built multiple companies. Today, he shares his story to help others turn struggle into strength, blending research on post-traumatic growth with lived experience. His message is simple but powerful: grit helps us survive, but growth sets us free.

• Paul Zeitz

  Dr. Paul Zeitz is a physician, civic healer and systems strategist working at the intersection of democracy and human connection. A preventive medicine physician, epidemiologist, and award-winning advocate with over 35 years of experience, he weaves together evidence-based methods from deliberative democracy, and neuroscience to help communities move from division to collaboration. As founder of the #unifyUSA, Dr. Zeitz speaks regularly on peacecrafting, trust-building, and systems change. Author of "Revolutionary Optimism" his mission is simple: show that peaceful coexistence is not only possible—it's practical. Dr. Zeitz and his wife Mindi are parents of five sons and grandparents of three.

• Saahil Mehta

  Saahil Mehta is a global citizen, serial entrepreneur, bestselling author, and high-impact leadership coach who helps ambitious leaders scale without sacrifice. With ventures across two continents and a life shaped by mountaineering, he embodies balance between success and stillness. Having coached hundreds of founders and executives across 25 countries, Saahil is a trusted voice in global leadership and a facilitator for forums like EO and YPO. Author of Break Free, he draws from personal transformation and mountain summits to inspire conscious leadership. Beyond titles, his mission is simple: to help leaders stress less, grow faster, and live a Zero Regret Life.

• Tea Mustać

  Tea Mustać is an AI governance and privacy specialist, currently pursuing an LL.M. at Harvard Law School. She works at the intersection of AI governance and data protection, helping organizations turn abstract regulation into practical action. Tea co-hosts RegInt: Decoding AI Regulation and co-authored The AI Act Compact. Her work has been recognized with the European Young Lawyers Award and the My Data Is Mine Award. She has spoken at global events like Web Summit and Dublin Tech Summit and regularly leads workshops on AI, tech policy, and leadership.