TEDxSalem

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Hailey Hardcastle: student advocate

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At 19, Hai­ley Hard­cas­tle is already an accom­plished advo­cate.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Ore­gon stu­dent is a mem­ber of Stu­dents for a Healthy Ore­gon and was one of four teen activists who lob­bied for a men­tal health bill (HB 2191), which excus­es stu­dent absences for men­tal health rea­sons. The law was enact­ed this year. 

Her fam­i­ly includes three younger sis­ters, a won­der­ful hard­work­ing moth­er and two Alaskan husky pups. Hai­ley enjoys paint­ing, read­ing the news, lis­ten­ing to musi­cals (her favorite is Hamil­ton) and watch­ing foot­ball. In Jan­u­ary, we will wel­come her to the TEDxSalem stage to speak about her advo­ca­cy, but first, let’s get to know Hai­ley Hard­cas­tle. 

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? I had a fan­tas­tic math teacher in mid­dle school who would show us an inspi­ra­tional TED talk every Fri­day. I remem­ber think­ing that every per­son who gave a TED talk must be a celebri­ty or incred­i­bly smart. When I grew old­er and learned that TED speak­ers are just reg­u­lar peo­ple, the talks became even more empow­er­ing, know­ing that I could be like one of those peo­ple I admired so much in mid­dle school.

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? My favorite TED talk is called Be The Hope by Gay­athri Ram­prasad. I came across this talk after meet­ing Gay­athri per­son­al­ly to dis­cuss the men­tal health leg­is­la­tion that I helped pass. Her sto­ry changed the way in which I talk about my own men­tal health strug­gles. I used to be embar­rassed about what I’ve been through but her talk inspired me to see the pow­er with­in my sto­ry and myself. I now open­ly share my sto­ry and embrace it to fur­ther my men­tal health advo­ca­cy work.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? Vision to me means look­ing ahead to the future. There is a time and place for reflec­tion but right now is the time to con­sid­er what a bet­ter future will look like.

Hai­ley Hard­cas­tle TEDxSalem 2020

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life? My three younger sis­ters, two of them are in mid­dle school and the oth­er is four years old. They’ve helped me see life from a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive and can always put a smile on my face.

Tell us some­thing about your­self we could nev­er tell from look­ing at you. I have severe gen­er­al anx­i­ety. My anx­i­ety makes some things a lot hard­er for me but it also led me to find­ing my pas­sion for lead­er­ship and activism.

Do you have any com­mu­ni­ty activ­i­ties? I’ve always been very involved in stu­dent gov­ern­ment! Now that I’ve grad­u­at­ed I still enjoy vol­un­teer­ing for the Ore­gon Asso­ci­a­tion of Stu­dent Coun­cils to work with kids on build­ing their lead­er­ship skills.

Under your bed right now? Well I’m in col­lege so under my bed right now there’s an unrea­son­able amount of snacks.

Make one change in the world? If I could change only one thing in the world, it would be the way in which peo­ple com­mu­ni­cate. I wish more peo­ple would be will­ing to empathize and com­pro­mise with oth­ers who may not have the same beliefs as them.

Great­est fear? The ocean because so much of it is still unex­plored so we real­ly have no idea what’s out there.

Ran­dom fact: My favorite place I’ve ever been to is Machu Pic­chu in Peru.

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. 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

Music translator Rian Gayle invites us to reinterpret music together

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Rian Gayle makes music come alive for those who can’t hear it and even those who can.

The Amer­i­can Sign Lan­guage music trans­la­tor moves his body to the rhythm, uses facial expres­sions to con­vey emo­tion and spends count­less hours trans­lat­ing phras­es and metaphors into signs that dri­ve home mean­ing. At TEDxSalem Jan. 5, he will not only trans­late but teach every­one to sign a pop­u­lar song to the music.

“Some peo­ple who are deaf real­ly appre­ci­ate see­ing the music in ASL,” he said, “and they say ‘oh that’s what that song means.’ They’re fas­ci­nat­ed with the signs and the trans­la­tions them­selves. Some of them think final­ly I can access music.”

With­out this type of trans­la­tion, music can fall flat with lyrics that often make lit­tle sense in direct trans­la­tion. Imag­ine read­ing the lyrics to Bohemi­an Rhap­sody with­out expe­ri­enc­ing the emo­tion or the soar­ing ups and downs. Gayle can con­vey emo­tion, tone and show whether some­one is yelling or calm.

Gayle became deaf at the age of three, but he can still pick up the beat and feel the rhythm. He start­ed music trans­la­tion per­for­mances about 15 years ago at church and now offers class­es to those who want to learn through Salem ASLu­sic.

He loves reg­gae, hip hop, blues and pop, and his favorite song is “Redemp­tion Song” by Bob Mar­ley.

“It’s a great song,” said Gayle, who, like Mar­ley, is from Jamaica.

By day Gayle is the accom­mo­da­tions coor­di­na­tor at West­ern Ore­gon University’s Office of Dis­abil­i­ty Ser­vices. He also serves on sev­er­al boards and com­mis­sions that work to bring greater access to those with dis­abil­i­ties.

Music trans­la­tion is anoth­er way to not only pro­vide that access to the deaf com­mu­ni­ty but also build bridges. The per­for­mances are for deaf and hear­ing audi­ences.

Hear­ing audi­ences get to expe­ri­ence songs and ASL in a whole new way. He invites audi­ence par­tic­i­pa­tion and even teach­es a few of the signs. It also brings greater aware­ness, Gayle said, “yes we are deaf, but we can have fun, and we can enjoy music.”

To any­one look­ing to team up with Gayle, he said“We can work togeth­er through music, and I can per­form with you.”

“That is some­thing that I’m try­ing to work on for the future so our com­mu­ni­ty and our lan­guage becomes more vis­i­ble,” he said.

Rian Gayle

Home­town: Kingston, Jamaica,

Edu­ca­tion: B.A.  in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion and M.A. in Inter­na­tion­al Devel­op­ment for per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties from Gal­laudet Uni­ver­si­ty, Wash­ing­ton, D.C.

Fam­i­ly: Wife, Laine, daugh­ter, RiLana (com­bi­na­tion of Rian and Laine)

Hob­bies: Bik­ing, hik­ing, dance, sal­sa, read­ing, watch­ing movies and row­ing with drag­on boat team “Peace Drag­on War­rior”

Favorite recent movie: “Roma”

Favorite music: “I do love reg­gae, hip hop, rap and some indie music, neo soul and Span­ish music for danc­ing.”

Favorite Food: “I do absolute­ly love Indi­an food, and the Jamaican restau­rant in Port­land serves great food.”

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.

Come for TEDxSalem, stay for the sights

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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 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 (The Lit­tle Mer­maid 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 you will get the dis­count­ed rate of $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.

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.