TEDxSalem

Ideas worth spreading

Speaker Announcement

Nina Baliga: Accessible tech is better tech for everyone

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Nina Bali­ga is the man­ag­ing part­ner for Break­ing the Bias, a pro­gram that helps com­pa­nies and indi­vid­u­als cre­ate tools, meth­ods and strate­gies to build more inclu­sive work­places.

When she isn’t advo­cat­ing for acces­si­ble tech, she spends her time snow­board­ing, rock climb­ing, play­ing video games and spend­ing time with her hus­band Pierce and two dogs, Tavvi and Rook.

One thing that you wouldn’t know about the 39 year old is that she has a ran­dom col­lec­tion of belt buck­les from when she lived in the deep south. We are thrilled to wel­come Nina to the TEDxSalem stage Jan. 4th. 

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? Elaine Mari­no’s “Bring­ing the Work­place into the 21st Cen­tu­ry”. Elaine has been a thought leader in how we can build work­places that tru­ly val­ue diver­si­ty and inclu­sion. I’ve been inspired by her work for years.  

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? It’s all about acces­si­bil­i­ty. Hav­ing worked with build­ing web­sites and apps that are acces­si­ble for the visu­al­ly impaired, I want­ed to start build­ing things that would be acces­si­ble for peo­ple of all dis­abil­i­ties. I rec­og­nized from the very begin­ning that build­ing acces­si­ble prod­ucts and ser­vices means build­ing amaz­ing prod­ucts for every­one. 

How has your life been dif­fer­ent than what you’d imag­ined? I knew that I would nev­er work a desk job. My biggest fear as a high school­er was the idea of work­ing in a cubi­cle. Even though I’ve held cubi­cle jobs, I’ve shown to myself that how we define work is up to us in many ways. I’ve been able to define my job in my own terms.  

Tell us some­thing about your­self we could nev­er tell from look­ing at you. I learned Irish for my lan­guage require­ment in col­lege. I would go to under­ground Irish-speak­ing pubs in Gal­way when I lived there for a sum­mer. You can imag­ine peo­ple’s faces when a brown 20-some­thing-year-old woman was going in there and speak­ing to them in Irish.   

If you could instant­ly become an expert in some­thing, what would it be? Video game design. I believe video games are not only an escape from our hec­tic lives, but can also be used as a tool for social impact. They’re a pow­er­ful form of sto­ry­telling that any­one can access.   

Go-to karaoke song? “Pour Some Sug­ar on Me” by Def Lep­pard.   

Under your bed right now? Prob­a­bly a whole bunch of dog fur. 

Chunky or smooth peanut but­ter? Smooth

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

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

Melissa Pollman: Rare disease awareness

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Entre­pre­neur. Par­ent. Activist. Meet Melis­sa Poll­man. Co-own­er of ConKraft Con­struc­tion, Cen­tral Homes Prop­er­ty man­age­ment and Stor­age 4 Less, she’s mar­ried (to Dean) with four kids (Audrey, Madi­son, Cole and Haley), plus two dogs, a cat, two Pygmy goats and a bunch of fish. She earned her MBA from Willamette Uni­ver­si­ty’s Atkin­son Grad­u­ate School of Man­age­ment while work­ing full time and rais­ing a fam­i­ly. She loves boat­ing in the sum­mer and ski­ing in the win­ter, and most of all, spend­ing time with her fam­i­ly. She is a founder of Haley’s Heroes, a foun­da­tion rais­ing funds and aware­ness to help find a cure for Bat­ten Dis­ease.

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? About 18 months ago I was invit­ed to watch my neigh­bor, Becky McBride, give a TEDx [like] talk as part of her nurs­ing degree. She spoke on pedi­atric pal­lia­tive care and was inspired to do so by our sto­ry of Haley and Haley’s Heroes Foun­da­tion.

What inspired you to do a TED talk? When faced with immea­sur­able grief you will do any­thing! I would nev­er have thought to do a TED talk before Haley’s diag­no­sis but now I will speak any­where and every­where peo­ple will lis­ten to spread aware­ness. It may not save Haley but at least it’s some­thing I can do when I’m pow­er­less to cure my daugh­ter. Fears of pub­lic speak­ing and being uncom­fort­able are noth­ing com­pared to the fear of los­ing a child. If my words can help one per­son, if I can add hope to a life, then maybe this jour­ney we are on won’t be for noth­ing. Haley will be a lega­cy and sto­ry that lives on and cre­ates hope in hope­less sit­u­a­tions.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? One of the symp­toms of Bat­ten Dis­ease is loss of vision. Haley’s loss of vision put us on this jour­ney. Her joy for life and spir­it inspired us to cre­ate a plan or vision to save her. The phrase “how to have vision when you can’t see” comes to mind. 

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life?  My fam­i­ly.  I’m blessed to have a hus­band that is also my best friend. My chil­dren are extreme­ly close despite the age dif­fer­ences. We are a close-knit fam­i­ly. My heart is full when we are all togeth­er.

How has your life been dif­fer­ent than what you’d imag­ined? I envi­sioned a fam­i­ly and all that goes along with it… watch­ing your kids grow up… watch­ing them get mar­ried… becom­ing a grandparent…etc. Receiv­ing the diag­no­sis that Haley has a fatal dis­ease blew that pic­ture up. I live with con­stant grief while bat­tling to stay present and grate­ful for the time we have. 

What is the scari­est thing you have ever done for fun? As a teen after I jumped off a bridge into a riv­er up at north fork. It was real­ly high up and I land­ed wrong. I had bruis­es all up and down the back of my legs. It was first and last time I ever did some­thing like that.

Do you have any com­mu­ni­ty activ­i­ties? I like to run races with friends. I have run Hood to Coast for the past five years and actu­al­ly find it fun! 

If you could instant­ly become an expert in some­thing, what would it be? Expert in cur­ing Bat­ten Dis­ease!

Favorite book? I love to read mur­der mys­ter­ies- par­tic­u­lar­ly with a hero­ine! I real­ly don’t know why but it’s all I read … except for the TED book.

Ran­dom fact: I am left-hand­ed but my kids are all right-hand­ed.

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

Marisa A. Zapata: Rethinking homelessness

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Marisa A. Zap­a­ta is a researcher, edu­ca­tor and plan­ner. She is the Direc­tor of Home­less­ness Research & Action Col­lab­o­ra­tive and Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Land-use Plan­ning at Port­land State Uni­ver­si­ty. She holds a doc­tor­ate in Region­al Plan­ning, a mas­ter’s in Urban Plan­ning and a bachelor’s in Anthro­pol­o­gy. When not work­ing, you may find her play­ing flute, read­ing a book, tak­ing a long walk or play­ing a board game. In Jan­u­ary, Dr. Zap­a­ta will take to the TEDxSalem stage to address how we can solve home­less­ness by rethink­ing who has a right to hous­ing.

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? My first TED expe­ri­ence was prob­a­bly “ille­gal” because it was a TED “style” talk but not offi­cial­ly through TED. One of my friends from col­lege was doing a talk about health care issues that she was study­ing as a med­ical doc­tor. It was won­der­ful to see her, a per­son I had known for awhile, being on a stage and shar­ing her knowl­edge. I learned a lot from the talk!

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? My cur­rent fave is by Gab­by Rivera who talked about cre­at­ing the first queer Lati­na super­hero. I didn’t grow up read­ing graph­ic nov­els, though my dad talked about his favorite super­hero — Spi­der­man. Like many things I have only real­ized as an adult, my lack of inter­est in a par­tic­u­lar thing was part­ly dri­ven by not see­ing peo­ple like me. I know a lot of peo­ple say rep­re­sen­ta­tion mat­ters, but it real­ly goes fur­ther than an image or a lan­guage. It’s also about ideas and con­ver­sa­tion styles and char­ac­ters who are like your fam­i­ly mem­bers. For me, super­heroes are about imag­ing dif­fer­ent types of futures. A super­verse with white men and hyper­sex­u­al­ized white women could nev­er be a future for me. But a Lati­na? That’s a super I can believe in. I also loved Gabby’s deliv­ery. Like Gab­by, I grew up learn­ing to tell sto­ries and for me, humor was a big part of that. See­ing her laugh on stage is a great reminder that humor can be such an impor­tant part of talks on seri­ous top­ics.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? I love this year’s theme. Vision can mean so many dif­fer­ent things, but I think all of those things involved how we share our thoughts, ideas, fears, and hopes. Whether through lit­er­al shared sight or through lan­guage, we cul­ti­vate how we live in com­mu­ni­ty with one anoth­er. For my work, I think about how to envi­sion just futures, and cre­ate path­ways to move us in those direc­tions while prepar­ing for uncer­tain­ty. A lot of this work is about fore­sight — try­ing to think about how our futures might play out based on our presents. I think this is espe­cial­ly impor­tant when think­ing about home­less­ness. We have what can feel like an over­whelm­ing set of tasks in front of us, and list of pos­si­ble options. Envi­sion­ing futures allows us to struc­ture the work and the options.

Tell us some­thing about your­self we could nev­er tell from look­ing at you. My health pre­vents me from work­ing out as hard or often as I want. I’d love to be doing one hour of spin­ning or jog­ging or bik­ing to work, but my phys­i­cal health doesn’t match that. I’ve come to appre­ci­ate a long walk, but also, I just want to go jump on a tram­po­line for an hour!

What is the scari­est thing you have ever done for fun? I rap­pelled down a 28-sto­ry build­ing for a Big Brother/Big Sis­ter fundrais­er with my Lit­tle Sis from the pro­gram. It was for “fun.” It wasn’t real­ly all that fun.

Favorite books? And why. 

Bless Me, Ulti­ma by Rudol­fo Anaya. The sto­ry of a young boy caught between two cul­tures as a young Lati­no liv­ing in the South­west res­onat­ed with me as a cul­tur­al­ly mixed Mex­i­can Amer­i­can from Texas. This book was the first time I read some­thing where mag­i­cal real­ism was inte­grat­ed into the sto­ry, and one of the first times I had seen my cul­ture described in a fic­tion­al sto­ry.

Invis­i­ble Cities by Ita­lo Calvi­no. It’s hard to explain too much about the book with­out giv­ing it away! Maybe I can leave it with — it’s my world view. We all may come from sim­i­lar places and see and expe­ri­ence our com­mu­ni­ties in rad­i­cal­ly dif­fer­ent ways.

Go-to karaoke song? Fan­cy by Reba McEn­tire

Chunky or smooth peanut but­ter? Chunky. All the way.

A ran­dom fact: A fire ant bite could kill me! 

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

Student scientist Mihir Joshi has a solution to save the ocean

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The youngest speak­er to take to the TEDxSalem stage this com­ing year is Mihir Joshi, a 13-year-old stu­dent at South Salem High School. Mihir, who enjoys play­ing video games, prob­lem-solv­ing and run­ning cross-coun­try, at one time, was able to solve a Rubiks Cube in under 45 sec­onds. Always look­ing for solu­tions, this curi­ous teen will take to the TEDxSalem stage to share how he learned to pre­dict the change of Marine Pro­tect­ed Areas and what you can do to help save the ocean.

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? I par­tic­i­pat­ed and spoke at the first-ever TEDxYouth@Salem event in Novem­ber 2017. (Check out Mihir’s talk here)

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? “This is What Hap­pens When you Reply to Spam Emails” by James Veitch. I love this TEDxTalk because of its amaz­ing use of humor.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? To me, Vision means to visu­al­ize some­thing that doesn’t exist today and strive to make it a real­i­ty because of your pas­sion and hard work.

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life? Being able to grow up in a pos­i­tive and sup­port­ive house­hold with amaz­ing par­ents and a great sis­ter.

Tell us some­thing about your­self we could nev­er tell from look­ing at you. I won home­com­ing court this year in my high school.     

What song best describes your life? “Haven’t Met You Yet” By Michael Bublé. I chose this song because I’m always look­ing for the next thing out there and I believe the best is yet to come.

Top 3 movies of the moment?

  1.     3 Idiots (Bol­ly­wood movie)
  2.     Guardians of the Galaxy 1
  3.     Ter­mi­na­tor 1

Top 3 songs or artists?

  1.     AJR
  2.     Jon Bel­lion
  3.     Khalid

Where would you go in a time machine? I would go back in time to watch Neil Arm­strong take his first step on the moon.          

Chunky or smooth peanut but­ter? How could any­one ever like chunky peanut but­ter! Smooth is the only option.  

Favorite col­or? Red

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

Theresa McCormick: Tomorrow’s fuel may be under your kitchen sink

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Sci­en­tist There­sa McCormick has a few ideas about alter­na­tive fuels, includ­ing one that you may find in your house already. 

There­sa is an Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor of Chem­istry at Port­land State Uni­ver­si­ty who holds a BSc Chem­istry from Queen’s Uni­ver­si­ty (2004), a PhD Chem­istry from Queen’s Uni­ver­si­ty (2008), with Post­doc from Uni­ver­si­ty of Rochester (2009–2010) and Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to (2011–2013). Orig­i­nal­ly from Cana­da, her favorite hob­by is curl­ing (more on that below), and now lives in Port­land with her hus­band, Omar El Akkad, and their daugh­ter. She once per­formed in an immer­sive rein­ter­pre­ta­tion of Julius Cesar that took over the entire chem­istry build­ing at her uni­ver­si­ty. Curi­ous? Us too…read on and learn more about Dr. McCormick then join us in Jan­u­ary for her idea worth spread­ing.

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? My broth­er intro­duced me to TED, I don’t remem­ber what video he sent to me first, but he was devour­ing TED talks and send­ing me sev­er­al a day that he loved. 

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? Isabel Allende, her talk is so empow­er­ing, every once and a while I need to hear amaz­ing women talk about their lives. After watch­ing her talk, I start­ed read­ing her books, which are great, and where I learned why the Gold­en Gate Bridge is called the Gold­en Gate Bridge. 

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? To me, vision means see­ing things for both what they are and what they could be. When I think about see­ing things for what they are I think about see­ing the whole pic­ture, what the prob­lem is, and how to solve the prob­lem, and what new prob­lems that solu­tion will make. And when I think about what things could be I imag­ine how the world could be with the ide­al solu­tion to prob­lems. 

How has your life been dif­fer­ent than what you’d imag­ined? My life is dif­fer­ent from what I imag­ined in almost every way. I was raised on a farm out­side a very small town in rur­al Ontario. Most women I knew grew-up to become farmer’s wives. I knew I didn’t want to do that. I loved math and sci­ence, so I thought I would become a med­ical doc­tor, and work in my home town, and my farmer hus­band would look after the farm. When I went away to uni­ver­si­ty I found out that if you liked math and sci­ence you could become a sci­en­tist (I pre­vi­ous­ly thought all sci­en­tists were dead white men). That start­ed me down the path to become a chemist, and as is com­mon in aca­d­e­mics when I final­ly found a job as a pro­fes­sor I was very far from the farm I grew up-on. I nev­er thought I would leave Cana­da and move to Ore­gon (I didn’t real­ly know where it was until I inter­viewed at PSU). I nev­er thought I would be a chemist, teach­ing and research­ing, mak­ing dis­cov­er­ies and try­ing to solve the big world prob­lems.

Tell us some­thing about your­self we could nev­er tell from look­ing at you. Most peo­ple are pret­ty sur­prised to find out I was the cap­tain of the wrestling team in high school. I joined the team the year after they first allowed women to wres­tle. I had an amaz­ing coach who sup­port­ed the women as much as the men on the team. It was a great expe­ri­ence for me. Trav­el­ing for tour­na­ments was the first time I was on a plane. I learned a lot about how to lead a team that has been invalu­able in lead­ing a research group. I learned how to throw some­one, not quite as use­ful most of the time, but good to remem­ber. 

What is some­thing unex­pect­ed that has changed about you in the last few years? My daugh­ter came into my life two and a half years ago, which changed every­thing. Before her, my work was one of the most impor­tant things in my life, but now my fam­i­ly takes top-notch. Dahlia brings a new per­spec­tive, focus and joy to life to life.  

Do you have any com­mu­ni­ty activ­i­ties? I love curl­ing. I am a mem­ber of the Ever­green Curl­ing Club in Beaver­ton and have curled on the same team since I came to Ore­gon six years ago. I play lead, which means I throw the first two stones for my team. It’s a great com­mu­ni­ty and a fun sport.

If you could live in the set­ting of any book or movie, with­out nec­es­sar­i­ly being involved in the sto­ry, which would you choose? Anna Karen­i­na – I fell in love with 19th cen­tu­ry Rus­sia. I loved the farm­ing scenes, I want to go to the operas and par­ties. I read it because I felt like I need­ed to read it to be a well-round­ed adult, but I loved it. If you haven’t read it go read it. 

What is the scari­est thing you have ever done for fun? I went sky div­ing once. It was a late night in the lab and the whole group decid­ed it would be fun to go sky­div­ing. We all agreed to go togeth­er, but then every­one else backed out so I con­vinced my soon-to-be hus­band to go with me. I loved it and would do it again.

Would you rather have a rewind but­ton or a pause but­ton on your life? Pause, as long as it lets every­one else stop and I can still do things and don’t age while things are paused. 

Favorite book(s)? And why.
Amer­i­can War: it’s very good and every­one should have at least a dozen copies.

Time Trav­el­ers Wife: I love any­thing with time trav­el, so it was already off to a good start, but the char­ac­ters are great. Most great books I can’t put down, but this one I refused to pick up when I only had one chap­ter left because I didn’t want it to end.

Oryx and Crake, Mad­dAd­dam, and Year of the Flood: it is an immense­ly immer­sive imag­i­na­tion of a world where peo­ple didn’t take care of the earth.  

Make one change in the world? I would get rid of all car­bon emis­sions and have only sus­tain­able ener­gy. And while I’m at it, just cool the world down a bit. 

Chunky or smooth peanut but­ter? Smooth

Great­est fear? Bears and bees 

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