TEDxThunder Hill

Speakers

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

• Cleveland Horton II

  Cleveland L. Horton II is a civil rights leader with more than two decades of experience working at the intersection of equity, public policy, and community engagement. As Executive Director of the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, he leads the state agency responsible for protecting Maryland residents from discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, health services, and state contracting. His career has included investigating discrimination complaints, mediating disputes, shaping policy, and advising government and community leaders on civil rights issues. With experience spanning government, labor relations, and advocacy, Cleveland brings a firsthand understanding of how institutions, policies, and human relationships can influence whether people experience fairness and opportunity.

• Erikka Smith

  Erikka Smith is a professional school bus driver whose daily work has given her a distinctive window into how children see themselves when they are outside the classroom and no longer being graded or formally evaluated. For the past two years, she has transported and observed hundreds of elementary, middle, and high school students, making a deliberate practice of encouraging the children in her care. Her broader experience includes customer experience leadership, employee onboarding, healthcare, real estate, and community service. Across those roles, Erikka has seen how words, guidance, and consistent support can influence confidence and personal growth. Her perspective is grounded not in theory alone, but in the everyday conversations and observations that happen when children are simply allowed to be themselves.

• Gillie Haynes

  Gillie Haynes is a communications expert, award-winning professor, author, and former journalist who has spent more than 30 years helping people find clarity and confidence in how they communicate. As founder of Simply Speaking, she coaches individuals, executives, and organizations in public speaking, presentations, media engagement, and cross-cultural communication. Her work has taken her from university classrooms and government leadership to international stages, including public speaking workshops at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala and the American Center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. A longtime lecturer at The American University, Gillie brings the perspective of a journalist, educator, and coach who has spent decades studying what happens when people find the courage and language to make themselves understood.

• Justin Shaw

  Justin Shaw is an entrepreneur, advisor, and ecosystem builder who has spent more than a decade working with founders—and building businesses himself. At the Maryland Innovation Center, he leads programming and partnerships that have supported more than 5,000 entrepreneurs through 75+ programs and a network of regional partners. He also founded IAMJS Consulting, where he helps business owners strengthen operations, systems, staffing, and growth strategy. His perspective is grounded in firsthand experience: Justin built a custom menswear company that generated nearly $1 million in sales before expanding his work into advising and developing other entrepreneurs. A featured speaker at the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses International Summit, he brings practical insight into what changes as an idea becomes a business—and a founder becomes a leader.

• Moni Oloyede

  Moni Oloyede is a marketing educator and strategist who helps people understand not just how marketing works, but why people respond to it. Drawing on more than a decade of experience across marketing strategy, digital campaigns, audience development, and technology, she now teaches founders and business owners how to build strategies grounded in customer psychology, communication, and trust. Through MO MarTech and programs including the Maryland Innovation Center and FounderTrac, Moni turns marketing concepts into practical tools people can use. She has spoken at MarketingProfs B2B Forum and Litmus Live, published in Applied Marketing Analytics, and organized a 1,800-member marketing technology community. Her work explores the human behavior beneath the systems, messages, and choices that shape how people connect.

• Monique Acosta

  Monique Acosta is a project management professional whose 20+ year career spans healthcare, nonprofit, and financial services organizations. Her work centers on bringing people, systems, and complex initiatives together to produce measurable results. At Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities, she led an organization-wide transition to virtual service delivery that restored 85% of revenue while expanding client access by 90%. Her experience also includes federal healthcare initiatives, advocacy and community education programs, and consulting across nonprofit and corporate environments. A heart transplant survivor and Certified Patient Experience Professional, Monique brings a perspective shaped by both sides of healthcare: building systems designed to serve people and navigating those systems as a patient herself.

• Rukiya Ware

  Dr. Rukiya Jeffers Ware is a leadership consultant, educator, executive coach, and international athlete whose work explores how people grow, adapt, and perform across different stages of life. Her two-decade career spans education, technology, special education, organizational leadership, and consulting, including graduate-level instruction at Teachers College, Columbia University. Beyond her professional work, she is a Team USA Masters Track & Field athlete and World Masters Championships silver medalist, bringing firsthand experience with reinvention, discipline, and high performance well into adulthood. Through Roselle Advisory Worldwide, she advises leaders and organizations on leadership development, strategy, change, and organizational effectiveness. Her perspective bridges research and lived experience across the classroom, workplace, and competitive sport.

• Saquan Maxwell

  Saquan Maxwell is a nonprofit leader and youth mentor whose work is rooted in helping young people and communities build pathways toward growth and opportunity. He is the founder and Executive Director of PUSH (Persevere Until Success Happens), a Howard County nonprofit he has led since 2017 through mentorship, education, leadership development, and wellness programming. Under his leadership, PUSH has secured more than $250,000 in grant funding and developed partnerships across schools, businesses, government agencies, nonprofits, and community organizations. Saquan also created the PUSH Men's Wellness Series, bringing men together for conversations about leadership, healing, mental health, and community. His experience gives him a grounded perspective on what it takes to create opportunity, build trust, and help people move forward.

• Valari Jackson

  Valari Jackson is a facilitator, author, coach, and former avionics systems engineer whose career has centered on understanding how people think, communicate, and work together. For 15 years, she has facilitated conversations and learning experiences around leadership, personality and behavior styles, conflict navigation, and team strategy. Her professional path also includes 20 years as a real estate managing broker and a decade at Lockheed Aeronautical Systems, where she worked on the testing and implementation of secure flight systems. Through Fierce Focus Strategies, Valari works with leaders and organizations to examine the patterns and blind spots that influence communication, relationships, and performance. Her clients have included Harvard Business School, USDA, DC Public Schools, and Maryland Public Television.

• VerShaun Terry

  VerShaun Terry, M.Ed., is an educational leader whose career has focused on creating environments where students with different learning needs can succeed. With more than two decades in education, he has worked as a classroom teacher, special education compliance specialist, and director of special education. At The Goodwill Excel Center, he built the infrastructure for the school's special education program, overseeing services, staff development, compliance, and individualized support for students with disabilities. His experience also includes advocating alongside students and families and helping young people navigate transitions beyond the classroom. VerShaun brings the perspective of an educator who has spent his career examining what students need when traditional approaches to learning do not fully serve them.

• Záda Beasley

  Záda Beasley is a technologist and entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience working at the frontier of artificial intelligence, aerospace, autonomous systems, and national defense technology. As Founder and CEO of ZataData®, she leads an AI/ML research and development lab focused on human-centered AI, with applications spanning space exploration, national security, healthcare, and data governance. Her career includes work on semiconductor memory technology, embedded AI/ML algorithms for commercial GPS satellites, A-10 fighter jet autopilot systems, and autonomous technology. Named the National Black Chamber of Commerce’s 2025 Entrepreneur of the Year, Zada brings the perspective of someone who has spent decades building technologies that increasingly shape how people live, move, communicate, and make decisions.