TEDxAtlanta

Speakers

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

• Dyllón Burnside

  Actor, storyteller, activist

  Dyllón Burnside has built a career telling stories that challenge who gets to belong, and who gets to decide. An Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, actor, singer and writer, Dyllón is best known for playing Ricky Evangelista on the FX series “Pose.” Across stage and screen, his work has explored identity, belonging and the power of being seen. Beyond performing, Dyllón is the founder of Soul Flower Farm, a Georgia-based creative retreat where artists reconnect with themselves, one another and the land. His advocacy also helped advance Georgia House Resolution 1007, recognizing the arts as a resource for mental health and well-being.

• Genevieve LeDoux

  Imagination Architect

  Genevieve LeDoux has spent her career turning imagination into stories and questioning what happens to creativity when we get too good at knowing the rules. An Emmy-winning producer, songwriter and storyteller, Genevieve has spent nearly two decades creating entertainment for young audiences. Her work spans television, music, animation and interactive media, bringing together artists, writers and technologists to build worlds designed to capture a child’s imagination. Today, Genevieve is the creator of Star Forest, an animated musical universe inspired by nature, music and the wonderfully unconventional ways children see the world. Through her work, she continues to explore where original ideas come from and what allows them to survive long enough to become real.

• Margaret Weniger

  Career strategist, author

  Margaret Weniger is challenging one of our most persistent ideas about work: that a successful career follows a predictable path. After 12 years climbing the technology sales ladder, Margaret began studying what happens when carefully made career plans collide with layoffs, changing priorities and unexpected turns. Her research with professionals revealed that career disruption was far less unusual than we’ve been taught to believe. Her own experience gave the question particular urgency: Behind a résumé that looked successful, Margaret had been fired and laid off multiple times. Today, Margaret is director of Startup Launch at Georgia Tech’s CREATE-X, where she helps founders navigate uncertainty and build companies. She is also the author of “Broken: Designing Careers in a Flawed and Outdated System.”

• Marie Potel

  Human agency advocate

  Marie Potel-Saville is on a mission to protect something increasingly vulnerable in the age of AI: our ability to make our own choices. After a decade practicing competition law, Marie Potel-Saville turned her attention to how digital products can exploit predictable human behavior. She co-founded FairPatterns to identify manipulative design in websites and apps and help make those practices visible; work rooted in her belief that technology should preserve, rather than undermine, human agency. Marie is also chair of Women in AI Governance and a member of the European Data Protection Board’s Support Pool of Experts. She teaches law and technology, bringing together perspectives from competition law, behavioral science and AI governance.

• Matt Scheib

  Stunt performer

  An Emmy-nominated stunt performer and fourth-degree judo black belt, Matt Scheib has taken thousands of falls — getting tripped, flipped, tackled and launched for productions including “Stranger Things” and “Avengers: Endgame.” His experience taught him that knowing how to hit the ground can change what happens next. Matt is co-founder of The Falling Class and owner of Atlanta Judo Midtown, where he adapts techniques from stunt work and judo to teach older adults how to manage impact and move with greater confidence

• Rafi Kohan

  Human rivalry explorer, author

  An award-winning journalist and lifelong sports fan, Rafi Kohan spent three years investigating why people talk trash and what happens when they do. His search took him from playground courts and UFC fights to comedy clubs and military training grounds, where he interviewed athletes, neuroscientists, psychologists, poker players and philosophers. Rafi is the author of “The Arena,” a finalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, and “Trash Talk: The Only Book About Destroying Your Rivals That Isn't Total Garbage.” His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, GQ, Fast Company and Scientific American.

• Vijay Balasubramaniyan

  AI trust pioneer

  As co-founder and CEO of Pindrop, Vijay has spent more than 15 years studying security, identity and trust in digital communications. His work now includes detecting deepfakes and distinguishing legitimate humans and AI agents from malicious ones; experience that informs his thinking about how autonomous agents can safely act on our behalf. Vijay previously held engineering and research roles at Google, Siemens, IBM Research and Intel. He holds patents in communications security and earned his doctorate in computer science from Georgia Tech.

• Wendi Williams, Ph.D.

  Psychologist, Leadership Scholar

  In her work, Wendi Williams reimagines leadership by focusing on how power is created. A psychologist, educator and leadership scholar, Wendi has spent her career examining how identity, power and belonging shape the way people lead and thrive. Her work challenges traditional models of leadership centered on authority and individual achievement, focusing instead on what becomes possible when people create opportunity for one another. Wendi is president of the American Psychological Association and founder of The Well, a leadership development and consulting practice. Previously, she served as provost and senior vice president at Fielding Graduate University and dean of the School of Education at Mills College.