TEDxProvidence lineup announced

THE INDEPENDENTLY organized TEDxProvidence announced its 2015 lineup of speakers for its May 2 event at the Columbus Theater.
THE INDEPENDENTLY organized TEDxProvidence announced its 2015 lineup of speakers for its May 2 event at the Columbus Theater.

PROVIDENCE – The independently organized TEDxProvidence announced its 2015 lineup of speakers Thursday, including Mary Burke, an economist who joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston research department in 2005; Leo Pollock, a co-founder of The Compost Plant; and Sheri Griffin, co-executive director of AS220.
The event will be May 2 at the Columbus Theater. TEDxProvidence is an independently organized event affiliated with TED Talks, a nonprofit that began in 1984 as a conference for speakers on the convergence of Technology, Entertainment and Design. Speakers now address a broader range of issues, including business and finance.
The Tedx initiative was begun by the organization to provide “Ted-type” experiences on a local level. Typically, each speaker addresses a subject for 20 minutes.
The full lineup of speakers for TedxProvidence:

  • Shura Baryshnikov, choreographer, dancer, educator. She is a teaching associate in the Department of Theater Arts and Performance Studies at Brown University. She is an artist committed to the process of creating, producing and performing movement.
  • Mary Burke, economist with Federal Reserve Bank of Boston research department; she previously taught economics as an assistant professor at Florida State University. She is currently working on papers that aim to explain disparities in obesity by race and gender and to measure the influence of peers versus teachers in academic achievement.
  • Malcolm Davidson, musical writer, former vice president at Sony Music New York. Davidson has long been concerned about wide extremes in the socio-economic structures of the U.S. and other countries. He is an active member of Ocean State Poets.
  • Sheri Griffin, nonprofit leader, founder of a farm stand and mail order citrus business with her parents and grandparents. She is now co-executive director at AS220, a nonprofit arts center in Providence. She has been working for Farm Fresh since 2005.
  • Ann Hood, bestselling author of the novels The Knitting Circle, The Obituary Writer, An Italian Wife and the memoir Comfort: a Journey Through Grief. She has won two Pushcart Prizes, Best American Food Writing Awards and Best American Spiritual and Travel Writing Awards.
  • Vatic Poet, slam poet, rapper, promoter of justice and philosopher. Building on the inspiring energy of the Providence Poetry Slam community, Vatic is leading an effort to empower rappers by holding them accountable as artists.
  • Kristen Minsky, one-half of the New York-based Minsky Sisters, tap dancer, director of Chifferobe Events and Providence’s vintage dance company, The TropiGals.
  • Leo Pollock, social entrepreneur, co-founder of the Compost Plant, which has diverted nearly 400 tons of food waste from Rhode Island’s Central Landfill since it launched in 2014. A key architect in the design and development of the Rhode Island Food Policy Council, and network coordinator.
  • Anisha Sekar, student and finance blogger, among the first employees of the personal finance website NerdWallet.com
  • Lucy Spelman, doctor of zoological medicine, among 156 board-certified zoological medicine specialists in the world. She currently practices in Rhode Island and teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design.
  • Willem van Rijn, climate change activist, former chief operating officer of Greenpeace International, the head-office of the global Greenpeace organization. Now an investor, active advisor and board member in an environmental remediation technology company, and a personal coach.
  • Norb Vonnegut, finance blogger, author of The Trust and a regular column in the Wall Street Journal, he is now working on a nonfiction book, The Dirty Little Secrets of Money.

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