TEDxSalem

Ideas worth spreading

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Hebah Hasan: Overcoming your past to follow your future

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It was a sim­ple ques­tion from her daugh­ter that prompt­ed her to open up about her past.

Hebah Hasan’s fam­i­ly often gath­ered around her hus­band to hear sto­ries from his child­hood. One day the daugh­ter point­ed out that she rarely shared any sto­ries from hers.

“She asked me, ‘Did you do this as a lit­tle kid? Did you [dance] bal­let, did you do gym­nas­tics, did you do music?’” said Hasan, 32, moth­er of two and a speak­er at this year’s TEDx Salem VI.

“Actu­al­ly no, I didn’t do any of that,” she said.

“It was a dif­fer­ent time and a dif­fer­ent place,” she said.

Hasan grew up in Sau­di Ara­bia.

There, women were not to cause trou­ble in school, she said. They were seen as wives and com­pan­ions to men, not col­leagues, she said. Women were not to inter­rupt men and were not allowed to sec­ond guess the teacher, she said, some­thing that would prove very dif­fi­cult for the nat­u­ral­ly pre­co­cious and inde­pen­dent Hasan.

She recalls being reg­u­lar­ly neglect­ed and ignored in her class­es grow­ing up. She also remem­bers the emo­tion­al abuse she would reg­u­lar­ly take at school. One par­tic­u­lar­ly humil­i­at­ing moment was when she had ques­tioned one teacher’s math prob­lem and had been forced to stand on one foot in the cor­ner for the remain­der of the class.

Despite the hard­ships Hasan endured, she went on to grad­u­ate from high school and com­plete her edu­ca­tion in elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing and com­put­er sci­ence. Today she works as a soft­ware engi­neer at Garmin in Salem.

Hasan is not look­ing for pity. Look­ing back on her strug­gles, she knows that they played a role in mak­ing her who she is now, she said. That’s the part of the les­son she hopes her daugh­ter hears and not the pain or the fear, she said.

“I don’t want to dis­cour­age her, it made me who I am,” Hasan said.

She will share her sto­ry on the TEDxSalem stage to pro­vide empow­er­ment, she said, and per­spec­tive.

“I would like them to look at things from a dif­fer­ent angle,” she said.

It’s a per­spec­tive she says she wants to share most of all with her son and daugh­ter.

“I want to do it for my kids, they inspire me.”

 

 

Name: Hebah Hasan

Age: 32

Edu­ca­tion: Degree in elec­tri­cal and soft­ware engi­neer­ing, com­put­er sci­ence from Ore­gon State Uni­ver­si­ty

Posi­tion: Soft­ware team leader at Garmin Avi­a­tion

Home­town: Riyadh, Sau­di Ara­bia

Fam­i­ly: Hus­band, son and daugh­ter

Pets: Lots of pets grow­ing up, includ­ing a lizard, par­rots, bun­nies, cats and dogs, most­ly from her father who would ran­dom­ly bring them home, “just from pet store or friends or wher­ev­er.” “He got the weird­est pets ever.”

Hob­bies: Hik­ing, camp­ing, being out in nature; learn­ing gui­tar and piano

Favorite movie: Brave­heart, star­ring Mel Gib­son. “When he shout­ed, ‘Free­dom!’ How impor­tant this is [for him], to the point that he will fight for it to the end of his life.”

Favorite song: “Remem­ber This,” by NF and “The 4th Branch” by Immor­tal Tech­nique

Favorite books: Mys­tery books, espe­cial­ly the writ­ings of Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle.

 

 

TEDxSalem VI

TEDxSalem VI is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. It runs 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 5 at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Tick­ets are on sale now for $55, $45 for stu­dents. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.com.

TEDxSalem speaker Carla Brauer on discovering the thrill of the hunt

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Death does not intim­i­date Car­la Brauer.

The 34 year old owns Der­mesti­dar­i­um, a ser­vice for hunters and pet own­ers that uses flesh-eat­ing bee­tles of the same name to clean skulls and bones. She worked in the funer­al ser­vice busi­ness before that.

“My whole liv­ing has been made around death for years now,” she said.

Peo­ple some­times assume that she’s depressed, or mor­bid or goth, but she’s not, she said. With her ser­vice, she gives pet own­ers memen­tos of their deceased pets.

“I actu­al­ly find it real­ly ful­fill­ing,” she said.

Her busi­ness isn’t the only place where Brauer con­fronts death. She also hunts large game. It’s a wide depar­ture from her veg­an roots, but you’ll hear more about that switch at her TEDxSalem talk Jan. 5.

For Brauer, the act of stalk­ing prey like deer gives her a deep­er appre­ci­a­tion for life, some­thing she says she didn’t quite have as a veg­an.

“You get this appre­ci­a­tion and respect and con­nec­tion for deer as a whole, ver­sus deer as an indi­vid­ual,” she said.

Pho­to: Car­la Brauer

Hunt­ing for food has giv­en her a clos­er con­nec­tion with it, a desire to know and appre­ci­ate her food, Brauer said. It’s part of a larg­er push for her to eat health­i­er food that’s local­ly sourced.

Part of eat­ing more local­ly is find­ing out where your food came from, she said, how it was har­vest­ed, how it trav­eled from the farm or field to your fork.

“You have the oppor­tu­ni­ty when you’re buy­ing at the farm­ers’ mar­ket to real­ly learn those sto­ries,” she said, “and start ask­ing peo­ple about how they grew this, where did this come from, what is it, how do I cook it?”

Hunt­ing for food has also giv­en her a deep­er appre­ci­a­tion for the land that she hunts on and the impor­tance of pre­serv­ing pub­lic lands for wildlife, lands under threat of pri­va­ti­za­tion today.

A large por­tion of state efforts to man­age pub­lic lands is fund­ed by mon­ey from hunt­ing licens­es and equip­ment, Brauer said. A short­age of hunters means a short­fall in man­age­ment bud­gets, she said.

“We all share that space. But I feel like when you’re a hunter, you depend on it so much. You’re so invest­ed, and it’s so per­son­al to you that you’re real­ly going to get involved when some­thing comes around that threat­ens it,” she said.

 

Name: Car­la Brauer

Age: 34

Posi­tion: Own­er of Der­mesti­dar­i­um, a skull and bone-clean­ing ser­vice for hunters and pet own­ers

Home­town: San Fran­cis­co

Fam­i­ly: Wife, 2 res­cue dogs (Aus­tralian Kelpie and Labrador mix), and 4 res­cue cats

Hob­bies: Gar­den­ing, light farm­ing on prop­er­ty, cook­ing

Favorite movie: Hor­ror movies. “Hard to find a hor­ror movie I actu­al­ly find scary.”

Favorite music: Country/folk music.

Musi­cal instru­ments she can play: Fid­dle, musi­cal saw

Cur­rent­ly read­ing: The Pow­er, by Nao­mi Alder­man, A Sand Coun­ty Almanac, by Aldo Leopold

Cur­rent­ly watch­ing on Net­flix: MeatEater

 

TEDxSalem VI

TEDxSalem VI is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. It runs 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 5 at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Tick­ets are on sale now for $55, $45 for stu­dents. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.com.

Tickets on sale now for TEDxSalem VI

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Forty eight days and count­ing until one of the best events in Salem.

TEDxSalem, an offi­cial­ly licensed TEDx event, is back Sat­ur­day, Jan. 5 to deliv­er a full day of ideas worth spread­ing. Don’t miss your chance to be a part of the TEDx expe­ri­ence. Tick­ets are $55, $45 for stu­dents.

Where else will you hear from an under­tak­er, doc­tor of sex­ol­o­gy, chem­istry pro­fes­sor and neu­ro­sci­en­tist in one action-packed day? Twelve com­mu­ni­ty speak­ers will inspire and chal­lenge you on every­thing from restora­tive jus­tice to how your brain changes your beliefs dur­ing moments of sur­prise.

Did we men­tion the live enter­tain­ment, catered lunch and swag bag? TEDxSalem also includes curat­ed TED Talks, snacks, three recess ses­sions to expand your mind and, of course, sur­pris­es.

Need more rea­sons to attend? Here are the 12 speak­ers who will blow your mind.

TEDxSalem Speakers

Jen­ny­Lynn Diet­rich, an Ore­gon Deaf­Blind Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance Net­work facil­i­ta­tor, will give us a look at the Deaf­Blind com­mu­ni­ty.

Michael Rousell of South­ern Ore­gon Uni­ver­si­ty will take us on a jour­ney into how your brain secret­ly changes your beliefs dur­ing moments of sur­prise.

Car­la Brauer, own­er of Der­mesti­dar­i­um, will share how recon­nect­ing with food changed her life and led to a career bring­ing new life to the dead as a bone clean­er.

Eliz­a­beth Fournier, under­tak­er from Cor­ner­stone Funer­al, will explore “The Ulti­mate Act of Envi­ron­men­tal Vol­un­teerism.”

Melis­sa Michaux, Willamette Uni­ver­si­ty Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor, exam­ines “Restora­tive Jus­tice in prison is nec­es­sary to trans­form pris­on­ers for safer com­mu­ni­ties.”

Michelle Jones of the Wayfind­ing Acad­e­my will speak on the high­er edu­ca­tion sys­tem, and new mod­els pro­vid­ing alter­na­tive ways of look­ing at the pur­pose of col­lege.

Darya Rose, weblog­ger, neu­ro­sci­en­tist, and author, will speak on how psy­chol­o­gy impacts your abil­i­ty to cre­ate healthy habits and what to do about it.

Moe Car­rick, author, will explore women advo­cat­ing for men (ver­sus “help­ing” them) with new ideas of redefin­ing mas­culin­i­ty.

Hebah Hasan will share how she over­came the con­straints of her cul­ture to earn an advanced degree and become a leader in her field.

Geri Rich­mond, Pres­i­den­tial Chair in Sci­ence and Pro­fes­sor of Chem­istry at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ore­gon, holds numer­ous notable sci­en­tif­ic accom­plish­ments and was recent­ly award­ed the 2018 Priest­ley Medal from the Amer­i­can Chem­i­cal Soci­ety.

Rebec­ca Shapiro, Artist-in-Res­i­dence, will cre­ate the TEDxSalem stage dis­play to help set the tone this year. Learn how she will be “Refram­ing the Jour­ney”

TEDxSalem VI

TEDxSalem VI is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. It runs 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 5 at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Tick­ets are on sale now for $55, $45 for stu­dents. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.com.

Hang out with the TEDxSalem crew and speakers at Venti’s 

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Whether you’re TEDx-curi­ous or an avid sup­port­er of Salem’s talks on ideas worth spread­ing, we would love to meet you.

Grab a beer and some food, and join the TEDxSalem team along with past and present speak­ers for a casu­al night of social­iz­ing start­ing at 6 p.m. Tues­day, Sept. 25 at Ven­ti’s Cafe + Base­ment Bar down­town.

You’ll get a chance to ask past speak­ers the ques­tions you’ve been dying to know the answers to and get a hint of what top­ics are on tap for TEDxSalem VI on Jan. 5, 2019.

You might even find your­self tempt­ed to share your ideas worth spread­ing.

Bonus: 10 per­cent off all sales at both Venti’s loca­tions will ben­e­fit TEDxSalem. Come out and sup­port one of the coolest events in Salem. You won’t be dis­ap­point­ed.

What: Hang out with TEDXSalem crew as well as past and present speak­ers

When: 6- 9 p.m. Tues­day, Sept. 25

Where: Ven­ti’s Cafe + Base­ment Bar, 325 Court St NE, Salem, Ore­gon 97301

Why: Because it’s going to be awe­some, and 10 per­cent of sales will ben­e­fit TEDxSalem.

Meet the next 5 speakers of TEDxSalem VI

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TEDxSalem is proud to announce the next five of our speak­er line­up for TEDxSalem VI “re.” Keep an eye on our web­site as over the next few months we will delve into the sto­ries behind our speak­ers learn­ing more about their “ideas worth spread­ing” at TEDxSalem VI on Jan­u­ary 5, 2019.

Weblog­ger, neu­ro­sci­en­tist, and author Darya Rose will speak on how psy­chol­o­gy impacts your abil­i­ty to cre­ate healthy habits and what to do about it.

Author Moe Car­rick will explore the provoca­tive ground of women advo­cat­ing for men (ver­sus “help­ing” them) with new ideas of redefin­ing mas­culin­i­ty.

Hebah Hasan will share how she over­came the soci­etal pres­sure of the Mid­dle East cul­ture she grow up in to obtain an advanced degree and work her way into a lead­er­ship role in her cur­rent job.

We will also hear from Geri Rich­mond, the Pres­i­den­tial Chair in Sci­ence and Pro­fes­sor of Chem­istry at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ore­gon who con­ducts research to under­stand the chem­istry and physics of com­plex sur­faces and inter­faces. Geri holds numer­ous notable sci­en­tif­ic accom­plish­ments and was recent­ly award­ed the 2018 Priest­ley Medal from the Amer­i­can Chem­i­cal Soci­ety.

Plus Artist-in-Res­i­dence Rebec­ca Shapiro, who is cre­at­ing our stage dis­play to help set the tone and con­vey the theme of TEDxSalem; Her con­cept is “Refram­ing the Jour­ney.”

TEDxSalem VI is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag that takes place Sat­ur­day, Jan. 5, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Tick­ets on sale soon. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.com.

Let’s spend the night together…

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Salem at night from the City of Salem website

 

You don’t have to leave Salem once the TEDxSalem par­ty is over. Stay. Explore. Enjoy.

We think Salem rocks, which is why we work so hard to bring you TEDxSalem, a show­case for just how cool this city, and our com­mu­ni­ty, is.

Here are a few ideas to help you get to know us.

Ice Skat­ing. Try your skills at Salem’s newest attrac­tion: Salem on Ice, an ice skat­ing rink at Salem’s River­front Park.

The Capi­tol. Guid­ed tours occur on week­days only, but it’s worth wan­der­ing in just to see the rotun­da.

The Elsi­nore The­atre. This beau­ti­ful his­toric the­ater shows clas­sic films, com­mu­ni­ty per­for­mances and nation­al tour­ing enter­tain­ment.

Eat your way through down­town. You’ll already be down­town for TEDxSalem, so why not do some explor­ing? We have clas­sic, long-stand­ing lunch coun­ters, qual­i­ty Ital­ian, Span­ish and French restau­rants, local­ly beloved estab­lish­ments and cozy cof­fee shops.

Riverfront Park from the City of Salem website

Head to the river­front. You could stroll the pedes­tri­an bridge, go for a spin on the Carousel or just soak up the atmos­phere. Use the new Minto Island bicy­cle and pedes­tri­an bridge to walk to Minto-Brown Island Park.

Taste the best wine Ore­gon has to offer. We’re pret­ty par­tial to Pinots. There are dozens of world class vine­yards and winer­ies just out­side city lim­its, many of them offer­ing wood-fire piz­zas, cheese plates or full kitchen options. Yum!

Take in a show, comedic or musi­cal. The options are darn near end­less. There’s fam­i­ly-friend­ly improv at Capi­tol City, the hottest indie films at Salem Cin­e­ma, and the lat­est musi­cal from the Pen­ta­cle The­atre (Beau­ty and the Beast launch­es the same week­end as TEDxSalem!).

Feel col­le­giate at Willamette. Our local uni­ver­si­ty has one gor­geous cam­pus, with wind­ing trails and autumn leaves just beg­ging for a leisure­ly stroll.

Art? Check. His­to­ry? Check. See the lat­est exhib­it at the Hal­lie Ford Muse­um of Art, peruse the finest pieces for sale at the Bush Barn Art Cen­ter, see the film-famous Ore­gon State Hos­pi­tal muse­um or soak up local his­to­ry at the Willamette Her­itage Cen­ter.

If wine isn’t your thing, maybe beer is? Our small but wild­ly tal­ent­ed (and deli­cious) col­lec­tion of brew­eries are win­ning awards and mak­ing head­lines.

Still need a place to stay? May we rec­om­mend the Grand Hotel in down­town Salem? Not only is it right next door to the Con­ven­tion Cen­ter, but TEDxSalem atten­dees get a dis­count! Just men­tion that you’ll be at the con­fer­ence and get a room for $139, plus tax.

Look­ing for oth­er must-see tips about Salem? Ask any of our vol­un­teers or team mem­bers!

Still need tick­ets for TEDxSalem? Nev­er fear, they’re still avail­able online.