TEDxMcMasterU

Speakers

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

• Alejandra Martínez Sosa

  Dra. Alejandra Martínez is a pediatric dentist and creator of the first Hospitality Manual in Dentistry in Latin America. She believes healthcare is not just about treatment, it is about trust, emotion, and human connection. Through her WOW Philosophy, she helps clinics transform patient experiences using anticipatory psychology, storytelling, and service design — proving that hospitality is not a department, but the strategy. Because clinics don’t have a patient problem. They have a hospitality problem. She is redefining what it means to truly care in healthcare. “The future of healthcare will belong to those who understand emotion as deeply as they understand science.”

• Celeste Warren

  Celeste Warren is a strategist and equity-driven systems thinker who isn’t afraid to challenge the stories we tell about success. Throughout her career, she has worked with organizations, universities and institutions to confront a difficult question: what if effort isn’t the real difference between who moves forward and who gets left behind? Influenced by her father, the first Black teacher and principal in Western Pennsylvania, Celeste brings both lived experience and professional insight to conversations about power, access, and progress.

• Colleen Pimentel

  Meet Colleen Pimentel, a Founder, Author, and GTM Business Leader with three decades of experience at tech giants like Google and Oracle. She is a leading advocate for "The Great Unlearning"—the process of trading external expectations for an authentic life defined by purpose rather than just achievement. This mission led her to a niche in transformational leadership, helping high-achievers navigate the "Fog" to reclaim their agency and fulfillment. Throughout her 30-year career, Colleen mastered the art of reinvention, navigating over ten pivots while mentoring others to unlock their most purposeful professional chapters. Her battle-tested resilience inspired her book, Second Act, where she rewrites the rules of power and fulfillment for successful women. Colleen continues to advocate for psychological safety and authentic agency, with a goal of building corporate cultures and personal lives where individual voices are heard and truest powers finally step forward.

• Erin Finley

  Erin Finley (she/her) is a visual artist who teaches at OCAD University. For over 20 years, she has helped people through art programs that build community and support well-being. Erin works with long-term care communities, using the power of art to activate memory and enrich lives. She is passionate about helping people combat loneliness and isolation through innovative, collaborative art encounters. Her projects have been widely featured in media and on television.

• Janet King

  Janet King (she/her) is a student leader, literacy advocate, and founder of the Ameliorate Library. A 10th-grade scholar from Atlanta Georgia with a 4.0 GPA and Student Government Vice President at Kulima Montessori, she is passionate about community engagement, political science, anything related to the arts. With a longstanding passion driving her work, she built on that foundation as a graduate of the Veritas Debate Institute and a participant in the Veritas Global Travel Program, broadening both her perspective and experience. In her talk, Janet explores how people can reclaim clarity and confidence through reading, critical thinking, and intentional community-building. Drawing from her experience launching a youth-led library initiative, she challenges the assumption that impact is authority dependent, showing how everyone can feel more positive in today’s world and use literacy as liberation in a world overwhelmed by noise.

• Kelly Kaur

  Dr. Kelly Kaur is an English lecturer, a published author, and a recipient of the 2024 Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award. Her writing has been published globally and was even selected to be preserved on the moon through a UNESCO initiative (through the Lunar Codex Project). She is also a World Championship of Public Speaking finalist. Kelly’s TEDx talk explores the future of writing in a world where artificial intelligence is increasingly prominent. She encourages people to embrace writing as a personal tool for expression and empowerment, especially in times when human voice and creativity feel more important than ever.

• Mthabisi Mhlanga

  Mthabisi Mhlanga is a keynote speaker, public speaking coach, and product leader dedicated to helping people find and own their voice. Born and raised in Zimbabwe, his journey from academic probation in university to the quarterfinals of the World Championship of Public Speaking shaped his core belief that confidence isn't a personality trait, it's built through evidence. Trained as a CPA at KPMG before transitioning into product management in tech, he brings analytical precision to the deeply human work of communication. Mthabisi has coached founders, executives, and high-performing teams to speak under pressure and lead with presence. His work centers on helping people rewrite the internal narratives that keep them playing small so they can speak in a way that moves rooms, decisions, and lives.

• Natasha Caleel

  Natasha Caleel deeply believes that the people closest to a problem are often best positioned to build its solution. This conviction shaped her transition from clinical practice to entrepreneurship after she struggled to find the support she needed as a new mother. Over the past decade, Natasha has built Sage Society, a women’s fitness brand, from the ground up. What began as helping a few friends has grown into multiple fitness studios serving hundreds of women. Her work focuses on addressing the gaps the fitness industry has long overlooked, including pregnancy, postpartum recovery, perimenopause, and women’s health across every stage of life. Drawing on both clinical expertise and lived experience, Natasha challenges other industries to ask: Who are we leaving out? Through her work, she hopes to inspire others to stop waiting for perfect solutions and begin building the solutions they wish already existed.

• Nichole Shelton

  Nichole Shelton JD MBA MSCTA, ambassador for Prosperous Pivots LLC, is a strategic advisor, licensed attorney, and innovation catalyst dedicated to helping competent leaders stop waiting and start moving. With over 20 years of experience spanning law, entrepreneurship, and executive strategy, she has built ventures rooted in bold pivots and disciplined iteration. As the founder of 2nd Chair Legal and creator of ANDY, an AI-powered legal communication platform built by an attorney for attorneys. Nichole champions practical innovation that empowers professionals to evolve before crisis forces change. Her work centers on one idea: imposter syndrome is not insecurity. Rather, imposter syndrome is misdirected authority. Through her writing and speaking, she equips leaders to transform expertise into momentum.

• Sahith Rajkumar

  Sahith Rajkumar is an Honours Biochemistry student at McMaster University, researcher, and community advocate who challenges how we define progress. Through his work with Gore Park Community Outreach and Smiling Pillars, an initiative he founded to foster resilience and intergenerational connection, Sahith has spent over four years showing up consistently for communities in Hamilton. His research in Indigenous health and HIV equity, combined with his sustained community work, has led him to question the metrics we use to measure impact. While progress is often celebrated as fast, visible, and upward, Sahith invites us to recognize another kind of momentum: the quiet strength of returning, rebuilding, and remaining present under constraint.

• Tanner Bergsma

  Tanner Bergsma (they/them) is a Canadian autistic international bestselling author, TEDx speaker, and youth leader advancing mental health, inclusion, and systemic change on a global scale. With an academic background in psychology, Tanner combines lived experience, policy leadership, and frontline advocacy to drive meaningful, evidence-informed solutions. Tanner serves on multiple nonprofit and municipal boards, contributes to national initiatives, and represents Canadian and North American youth internationally. Tanner works with various Intergovernmental organizations to advance the Sustainable Development Goals and youth-driven policy, in order to strengthen communities and amplify voices too often left unheard.