TEDxSalem

Ideas worth spreading

Speakers

Kaeli Swift explores avid interest in avians at TEDxSalem VII

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Kaeli Swift, 32, is a bird girl.

As a lec­tur­er at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton with a Ph.D. in Avian Behav­ior and Ecol­o­gy, she spends her days talk­ing about the lives of birds. And as a researcher with an avid inter­est in avians, she some­times spends her nights that way, too.

Mar­ried, with five pets (sur­pris­ing­ly, no birds), Kaeli enjoys nee­dle felt­ing, read­ing, run­ning and bird­watch­ing. When not work­ing or engaged with her hob­bies, you can find Kaeli involved in sci­ence out­reach, speak­ing for dif­fer­ent orga­ni­za­tions, such as the Audubon Soci­ety, as well as to stu­dents and at senior homes. When she takes the stage at TEDxSalem in Jan­u­ary, Kaeli will share her fas­ci­na­tion with our feath­ered friends and dis­cuss the pow­er of crows to enrich our lives and con­nect us to nature.

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? Rethink­ing infi­deli­ty… a talk for any­one who has ever loved, by Esther Per­el. Amaz­ing talk on adul­tery and why peo­ple cheat.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? I think it means appre­ci­at­ing that there are dif­fer­ent ways to see the world and dif­fer­ent ways to solve prob­lems. Hav­ing cre­ativ­i­ty to see things and prob­lem solve in unique ways is real­ly great to val­ue.

What is one of your favorite child­hood mem­o­ries? Going to the golf course with grand­moth­er to catch tree frogs in Sty­ro­foam cups. Spokane (dur­ing ele­men­tary school)

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life? Health and that of the peo­ple around me

How has your life been dif­fer­ent than what you’d imag­ined?. Less pre­dictable.

What are some of the most impor­tant lessons you’ve learned in life? How did you learn them? Resilience, prob­a­bly the biggest les­son, learned that from being knocked down a lot and hav­ing to get back up.

What is some­thing unex­pect­ed that has changed about you in the last few years? Moved to a city I nev­er thought I’d live in — small, rur­al com­mu­ni­ty.

What song best describes your life? Bird­ing by Swet Shop Boys.

If you could live in the set­ting of any book or movie, with­out nec­es­sar­i­ly being involved in the sto­ry, which would you choose? Guernsey Lit­er­ary Pota­to Peel Soci­ety. 

What is the scari­est thing you have ever done for fun? I don’t like heights and I went on one of those sling­shot reverse bungee jump attrac­tions at Ore­gon State Fair. 

If you could instant­ly become an expert in some­thing, what would it be? Lichen. I think they’re so pret­ty and neat. Or mush­rooms.

What is the best gift any­one has ever giv­en to you? Hus­band bought me a cam­era – DLSR Nikon. Using it for bird­watch­ing

Would you rather have a rewind but­ton or a pause but­ton on your life? Pause – Need more time to get things accom­plished, going back seems painful and futile.

Favorite book? The Poi­son­wood Bible, By Bar­bara King­solver.

Top 3 movies of the moment? Day After Tomor­row, Coco, the first Men In Black

Top 3 songs or artists? Artists – Alt‑J, Mod­est Mouse, Band of Hors­es 

Where would you go in a time machine? Pleis­tocene Era (only if ful­ly armed) 

Make one change in the world? Snap my fin­gers and make every­one appre­ci­ate the con­nec­tion between social jus­tice and envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice.

Chunky or smooth peanut but­ter? Depends on my mood…

Great­est fear? US health care sys­tem. Pos­si­bil­i­ty of get­ting old with­out health care.

Some­thing some­one should know about you? “I con­sume way too much pop cul­ture.” Celebri­ty gos­sip, enter­tain­ment news, etc.

Favorite col­or? Rich yel­lows – marigold yel­low.

 

Mike Studer: Physical therapist, world record holder, pun enthusiast

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Salemite Mike Stud­er nev­er imag­ined him­self as an endurance ath­lete, espe­cial­ly grow­ing up as a base­ball play­er in the 1980s when the thought of run­ning more than 360 feet at a time (the length of an inside-the-park home run) seemed point­less. But that is what he became and now holds the world record for the fastest under­wa­ter tread­mill marathon. A Phys­i­cal Ther­a­pist with a Master’s degree in Neu­ro­log­ic PT, Mike enjoys run­ning, bak­ing healthy food, puns and dad jokes. He is also a ded­i­cat­ed com­mu­ni­ty vol­un­teer — “I love work­ing with the Mar­i­on Polk Food Share sort­ing food as a team with peo­ple from our clin­ic; serv­ing at our church in dra­ma roles; work­ing a med­ical tent at local sport­ing events to pro­mote healthy activ­i­ties” — and will be able to add TEDx speak­er to his list of accom­plish­ments come Jan­u­ary 4, 2020, when he speaks about the regen­er­a­tive capac­i­ties of the human brain. So meet Mike, then join us for his “idea worth spread­ing” in Jan­u­ary.

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? I believe that it was the 1998 Aimee Mullins inter­view TED talk. For obvi­ous rea­sons, this is rel­e­vant to my pro­fes­sion as a phys­i­cal ther­a­pist.

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? Per­son­al­ly, I am a bit of a health nut, and I very much appre­ci­at­ed Eliz­a­beth Black­burn’s TED talk about the Sci­ence of Aging, specif­i­cal­ly regard­ing the length and lifes­pan of DNA through telom­eres. I mod­i­fied my already strange the­o­ries on caloric intake and eat­ing in gen­er­al as a func­tion of this talk. 

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? The abil­i­ty to see what oth­ers might not. We have a human spec­trum of vis­i­ble light, that is well-stud­ied. How­ev­er, giv­en our indi­vid­ual expe­ri­ences and inher­ent bias­es, we bring dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives on human lim­its. I bring a per­spec­tive that caus­es me to believe in my vision for greater accom­plish­ments that what we present­ly achieve in peo­ple — and specif­i­cal­ly the human brain.

What is one of your favorite child­hood mem­o­ries? Pitch­ing the entire game of a lit­tle league all-star game and no-hit­ting the oppos­ing team. 

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life? My work eth­ic and my wife. 

How has your life been dif­fer­ent than what you’d imag­ined? I nev­er imag­ined myself as an endurance ath­lete, grow­ing up as a base­ball play­er in the 1980s when the thought of run­ning more than 360 feet at a time (the length of an inside-the-park home run) seemed point­less.

What are some of the most impor­tant lessons you’ve learned in life? How did you learn them? Do the right thing. Admit to your­self and oth­ers when your con­cept of the right thing, was wrong. 

What is some­thing unex­pect­ed that has changed about you in the last few years? Med­ical advance­ments and our own fam­i­ly’s expe­ri­ences with chron­ic health con­di­tions, includ­ing pain and the rela­tion­ship to changes from the body to the brain and reverse…due to the pres­ence of chron­ic pain. 

Tell us some­thing about your­self we could nev­er tell from look­ing at you. I know more point­less facts than any­one real­ly should store in their brain. Triv­ia about sports, music, his­to­ry, etc. 

What song best describes your life? “I Did It My Way,” pop­u­lar­ized by Sina­tra or “It’s a Beau­ti­ful Day,” by U2

If you could live in the set­ting of any book or movie, with­out nec­es­sar­i­ly being involved in the sto­ry, which would you choose? “A Field of Dreams” or “Char­lie and the Choco­late Fac­to­ry”

What is the scari­est thing you have ever done for fun? At about 12 years old, I con­fi­dent­ly but inept­ly sad­dled-up a Shet­land pony and pro­ceed­ed to ride it with my cousin, Fred Stud­er, 13, at the same time. Not long into the ride, the sad­dle proved to be too loose and we were soon upside down on a 5‑foot tall horse with­out enough ground clear­ance to ride upside down. 

If you could instant­ly become an expert in some­thing, what would it be? Jazz piano

What is the best gift any­one has ever giv­en to you? Love

Would you rather have a rewind but­ton or a pause but­ton on your life? Rewind. I have enjoyed many moments that I would glad­ly relive. 

Favorite book(s)? And why. Bro­ca’s Brain by Carl Sagan — the insights into how the brain oper­ates fas­ci­nat­ed and con­tin­ue to fas­ci­nate me. 

Top 3 songs or artists? Where the Streets Have No Name, Start Me Up, Beau­ti­ful Day. U2, Rolling Stones respec­tive­ly.

Go-to karaoke song? Every­body Hurts by REM

Chunky or smooth peanut but­ter? Chunky

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and swag. It takes place from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 4, 2020, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Click here for tick­ets.  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

Meet the final round of speakers for TEDxSalem VII

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TEDxSalem is proud to announce the final round of speak­ers for TEDxSalem VII “Vision” on Jan­u­ary 4, 2020.

Nina Bali­ga, Co-Founder and CEO of <div>ersity, will dis­cuss build­ing acces­si­bil­i­ty to tech­nol­o­gy for peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties and how it can make our world bet­ter not just through inclu­sion, but by improv­ing prod­ucts and ser­vices for every­one.

Justin Fein­stein, Ph.D., a Clin­i­cal Neu­ropsy­chol­o­gist and direc­tor at the Lau­re­ate Insti­tute for Brain Research Float Clinic & Research Cen­ter and Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tul­sa, Oxley Col­lege of Health Sci­ences, will share how float­ing (in a sen­so­ry depri­va­tion tank) can desen­si­tize the anx­ious ner­vous sys­tem, includ­ing in patients with PTSD, pan­ic dis­or­der, ago­ra­pho­bia, social pho­bia, and gen­er­al­ized anx­i­ety. 

Hai­ley Hard­cas­tle, a grad­u­ate of Sher­wood High School and fresh­man at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ore­gon who helped with a new piece of leg­is­la­tion that allows Ore­gon stu­dents to take “men­tal health days” off from school (House Bill 2191), will speak to defeat­ing the stig­ma sur­round­ing men­tal health and learn how we can cre­ate a more empa­thet­ic soci­ety.

Mihir Joshi, a 13-year-old stu­dent at South Salem High School, will explore how to pre­dict the change of Marine Pro­tect­ed Areas in the ocean and what you can do to help save the ocean.

Dr. Marisa Zap­a­ta, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Land-Use Plan­ning at Port­land State Uni­ver­si­ty, will address how we can solve home­less­ness by rethink­ing who has a right to hous­ing.

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.”

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. It takes place 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 4, 2020, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Tick­ets will go on sale in Octo­ber. (Join our email list to find out about Ear­ly Bird tick­ets.) 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

Workplace guru Moe Carrick finds inspiration at home for her TEDx talk

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Author and entre­pre­neur Moe Car­rick makes work­places fit for human life.

“Work at its best builds us up, lifts our hearts, chal­lenges our minds, solves big prob­lems, and con­nects us to oth­ers,” she said.

At its worst, work can make us sick, angry, sad and mis­er­able. A bad boss, for exam­ple, who doesn’t lis­ten, man­age or tell the truth or a bad job fit, can affect every­thing from our moti­va­tion and morale to our health and rela­tion­ships.

Car­rick runs a con­sult­ing firm and pub­lished her first book “Fit Mat­ters: How to Love Your Job” in 2017. Her next book, “Brave­space” is due out in 2019. She also deliv­ered two TEDx talks on the impor­tance of a healthy work life.

The three things that mat­ter most at work, she said, are feel­ing seen (pos­i­tive rela­tion­ships with your boss and col­leagues), feel­ing pur­pose (being able to feel that your work mat­ters) and cul­ture (the way things are done is con­sis­tent with your val­ues.)

But that’s not what she’s talk­ing about Jan. 5.

Car­rick is going deep­er and pick­ing a top­ic clos­er to home. She will explore the idea of women advo­cat­ing for men in a world that is redefin­ing mas­culin­i­ty.

“It’s a bit clos­er to my heart, my per­son­al sto­ry, not just my work sto­ry,” she said.

The moth­er of three was inspired by her most impor­tant job: rais­ing two sons, ages 23 and 26, and a daugh­ter, 17.

“What I’ve seen in rais­ing my sons in par­tic­u­lar is the notion of what it means to be a man today is a bit wonky,” she said.

Her sons and her children’s friends have strug­gled with expec­ta­tions, roles and iden­ti­ty, and she wants to explore ways that women can sup­port men in nav­i­gat­ing the chang­ing land­scape.

Car­rick, who is also an orga­niz­er for TEDxBend, is look­ing for­ward to her third time as a speak­er on a TEDx stage and learn­ing from the oth­er pre­sen­ters.

“For me it’s a fun way to offer con­tent and to think about ideas that make our world bet­ter,” she said.

“I always learn some­thing.”

Moe Carrick

Age: 56

Edu­ca­tion: BA from Uni­ver­si­ty of New Hamp­shire, MS from Anti­och Uni­ver­si­ty New Eng­land and Dare to Lead cer­ti­fied facil­i­ta­tor

Hob­bies: Run­ning, cof­fee and rid­ing her horse Gra­cie

Sur­pris­ing job: She worked for Out­ward Bound where she led adven­tures for chem­i­cal­ly depen­dent kids, tak­ing them back­pack­ing, sail­ing and canoe­ing.

Favorite book: “Angle of Repose” by Wal­lace Steg­n­er

Favorite food: Fresh bread

Favorite Ted Talk: “Brenè Brown: The pow­er of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty”

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.

Elizabeth Fournier found comfort, purpose and love in the funeral industry

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Fournier was always drawn to funer­als. They helped her make sense of los­ing sev­er­al fam­i­ly mem­bers in quick suc­ces­sion.

After earn­ing a degree in com­mu­ni­ca­tions from Lin­field Col­lege, there was only one career for her: Mor­ti­cian. She under­stood bet­ter than most what griev­ing fam­i­lies go through, and it helped her con­nect.

“If I had some­one pass­ing,” she said, “what would I want? I would want some­one to gen­tly hold my hand and be kind.”

Despite find­ing suc­cess in her field, she had not found her true love, yet. Over the course of one year, she braved 77 blind dates to find the one. She met a lot of nice guys, she said, but it was her col­league who lis­tened to her sto­ries about each date who turned out to be the best fit.

“Lit­tle did I know the guy who worked in the base­ment who I brand­ed Creep­er McCreep­er­son (the cre­ma­to­ri­um tech­ni­cian) would end up being my one true love,” she said.

“We have been hap­pi­ly mar­ried for 13 years.”

Now Fournier owns and oper­ates Cor­ner­stone Funer­al Ser­vice with her husband’s help in Bor­ing, Ore­gon. He works behind the scenes, and she is the one who answers the phone when­ev­er a fam­i­ly needs her, 24/7. They also run a res­cue farm as a way to unwind.

“We have goats and sheep that we hug and kiss, sing to, pat and take pic­tures of,” she said.

“Okay, it’s only me that hugs and kiss­es, sings and takes pic­tures of them. I would say tak­ing care of them and spend­ing time with them is def­i­nite­ly my main form of self-care.”

Fournier is known for blaz­ing a trail in envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly buri­als. She wrote two books on the top­ic: “The Green Bur­ial Guide­book,” and “The Green Reaper: Mem­oirs of an Eco-Mor­ti­cian.”

She is also known for giv­ing fam­i­lies the free­dom to say good­bye in their own way whether that is a daugh­ter dri­ving her dad in his favorite truck one last time or lay­ing a moth­er to rest on fam­i­ly-owned prop­er­ty.

In addi­tion to “Green Reaper,” she is also called the under­tak­er of Bor­ing, Ore­gon. She loves both titles equal­ly.

Hear her sto­ry and how your last act in the world can be your green­est at TEDxSalem Jan. 5.

Elizabeth Fournier

Home­town: Port­land, Ore­gon

Fam­i­ly:  Hus­band Michael and Daugh­ter Sofia.

Hob­bies: Pay­ing it for­ward. I also enjoy sneak­ing into friends’ pantries and rear­rang­ing their canned food.

Music: Any­thing that grooves my soul.

Favorite author: I like to flip through the dic­tio­nary and learn new words.

Favorite food: What’s not to like?

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.

Geri Richmond: Learning with lasers

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Geri Rich­mond has a pas­sion for lasers that stretch­es back over 40 years.

Like dis­sect­ing a sen­tence down to the let­ters of every word, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ore­gon chem­istry pro­fes­sor uses laser tech­nol­o­gy to dis­cov­er the fun­da­men­tal nature of the phys­i­cal world.

“You’re always after find­ing out the details that make things go,” she said.

Lasers have come a long way since her days in grad­u­ate school in 1976 when she first got wind of the bur­geon­ing tech­nol­o­gy. She had nev­er done much with build­ing machines or elec­tron­ics before that, she said.

It was the com­bi­na­tion of optics, light, elec­tron­ics and the con­struct­ing of machine com­po­nents that hooked her, she said, as well as the con­stant evo­lu­tion of the tech­nol­o­gy.

“It’s just been won­der­ful to see the progress,” she says.

Lasers can be used to study just about any­thing, but for Rich­mond her pas­sion is the envi­ron­ment. In par­tic­u­lar, Richmond’s dis­cov­er­ies seek to pro­vide key insight into cur­rent issues like clean drink­ing water or envi­ron­men­tal cleanup and response. She will share one of her key find­ings at this year’s TEDx Salem VI.

Rich­mond is also pas­sion­ate about pro­mot­ing women in sci­ence. Com­ing up in the field in the 1980s, she wit­nessed a num­ber of female col­leagues drop out as a result of being mar­gin­al­ized in the class­room.

“I thought that was a tremen­dous waste,” she said.

As part of the orga­ni­za­tion COACh at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ore­gon, Rich­mond has ven­tured around the world in order to reach out to women and encour­age gov­ern­ments and uni­ver­si­ties to encour­age women to learn sci­ence.

The best part of her work she says is teach­ing, as she’s done at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ore­gon in a career that has spanned over 33 years. She was award­ed the Nation­al Medal of Sci­ence by Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma in 2013 in part for her effort to pro­mote women in sci­ence.

 “There is noth­ing more pre­cious than being able to work with my stu­dents,” she said, “and see them advance in their careers.”

Name: Geri Rich­mond

Age: 65

Title: Pres­i­den­tial Chair of Sci­ence and Pro­fes­sor of Chem­istry at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ore­gon

Home­town: Linds­boro, KS

Fam­i­ly: Hus­band of 42 years, two grown sons

Pets: 2 ter­ri­ers, some chick­ens

Favorite Book: The Giv­er, by Lois Lowry. “It reach­es all ages, and it makes you think pret­ty deeply about a lot of things.”

Favorite Music: Any­thing by Pink Mar­ti­ni

Favorite Movie: It’s a Won­der­ful Life

Hob­bies: Gar­den­ing, sewing.

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.