We’re so excited about the range of “Human” talks that are going to happen on the York Theatre stage on September 16th!

If the first round of speakers piqued your interest, wait til you hear who we have in store for you next…

Dr. Saber Miresmailli
3 Words to Describe Me: Peace Through Food
Favourite TED Talk: Sir Ken Robinson, Do Schools kill Creativity?

Dr. Saber Miresmailli is an award-winning biologist, entrepreneur, startup CEO and a foodist. Saber’s mission in life is to change the way we produce and protect our food. He received his Ph.D in Plant Science from the University of British Columbia and conducted his post-doctoral studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

He studied plant signalling and behavior for well over a decade and published several articles and book chapters. Saber received the Award of Excellence in Innovation in Agriculture from the BC Investment Agriculture Foundation and the Award of Innovation Excellence from the North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce. He also collaborated with the Bill & Melinda Gates’ Foundation to help farmers in West Africa.

Tru Wilson
3 Words to Describe Me: Truth, acceptance, celebration
Favourite TED Talk: Geena Rocero, Why I Must Come Out

Tru Wilson is an articulate fourteen-year old transgender advocate from Ladner, BC. Tru first made headlines in 2014 when her family filed a human rights complaint against her local Catholic School for not supporting her transition. In response, the CISVA became one of the first Catholic school boards in North America to develop a policy to support gender expression.

Tru and her family went on to participate in a 2015 Vancouver Parks Board transgender awareness campaign. The same year Tru was recognized by Vancouver Magazine as one of the city's 50 most powerful and influential people.

In 2016, Prime Minister Trudeau personally acknowledged Tru for her advocacy in his welcome speech to the visiting Royals. And in 2017 Tru was named “Sexual Health Champion” by Vancouver's Options for Sexual Health. Tru is currently an ambassador for Big Love Ball and Out in Schools, and continues to share her story to both educate and inspire others.

Max Richter
3 Words to Describe Me: Designing Healthy Buildings
Favourite TED Talk: Jamie Oliver, Teach Every Child About Food

Max is a Senior Architect and Associate in the Vancouver office of Perkins+Will. Since joining the firm in 2010, he has worked on a number of the firm’s most innovative projects, including the VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre, which is the first building in Vancouver to earn Petal certification for the Living Building Challenge, and the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability, which was designed to be ‘net positive’ in seven different ways.

Max regularly speaks and writes about sustainable design and healthy materials, and he recently co-authored an article on integrating academic research into the architectural design process.

Meharoona Ghani
3 Words to Describe Me: Inspire, cultivate, build
Favourite TED Talk: Brené Brown, The Power of Vulnerability

Meharoona Ghani holds a Master of Arts degree in Gender and International Development with a speciality in gender analysis and race theory from the University of Sussex, Institute of Development Studies.

After a 20-year B.C. provincial government career, she launched M. Ghani Consulting. Today, she wears many hats: a Community Engagement and Diversity Specialist, Spoken Word Artist, and Educator with M. Ghani Consulting; a Manager with the North Shore Multicultural Society; and a published writer working on her forthcoming book: “Letters to Rumi” – an autobiographical account about identity and belonging.

Jodie Ortega
3 Words to Describe Me: Social Narrative Disrupter
Favourite TED Talk: Monica Lewinsky, The Price of Shame

Jodie Ortega has taken childhood trauma and intergenerational cultural shame and turned it into a powerful tool for disrupting the damaging social narrative and belief systems that contribute to rape culture and the culture of shame. She uses a distinctive brand of storytelling characterized by rap and spoken word and she has taken that performance to Victor Walk, TEDxRenfrewCollingwood, and PechaKucha as well as to various educational and community settings.

She believes that in sharing our stories, we create community and in empowering our children, we raise children that will tell. Jodie is committed to encouraging parents to engage in continuing dialogue around body autonomy with their children to help remove the stigma of cultural silence around sexual violence. She was also a nominee in the 2016 Courage to Come Back Awards (Social Adversity category).

Jodie is a champion for survivors of sexual trauma and is committed to shining a light, not only on sexual and social injustice, but also the stories of triumph, like her own.

With just under two months to go until this year’s TEDxEastVan event, we’ve finally narrowed the list down to a group of speakers that we think truly reflect the spirit of TED and East Vancouver and will help us explore this year’s theme of “Human”.


Without further ado, here’s the first round of speakers with a little hint as to what their ideas worth spreading might be when they take the stage at the York Theatre on September 16th!

Bernhard Riecke
Words to Describe Me: Crossing Boundaries
Favourite TED Talk: Philip Zimbardo, The Demise of Guys?

After working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Vanderbilt University and UC Santa Barbara, Bernhard joined SFU in 2008 as an associate professor at their School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT) and directs their iSpace Lab. He likes to go beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries, combining natural sciences approaches (being a physicist by training) with human-centered and creative approaches (drawing from Psychology, Cognitive Science, Meditation, HCI, Design, and Art) using immersive Virtual Reality. He is increasingly interested in exploring how we could utilize the potential of multi-sensory media like Virtual Reality to foster meaningful or even pivotal experiences and profound emotional shifts that we might otherwise never be able to experience.

Patricia Liedl
3 Words to Describe: author, shit-disturber, iconoclast
Favourite TED Talk: I like them all!

Patricia Leidl is a Senior International Communications Advisor who specializes in strategic communications, political/security analysis and reputational risk management. Her clients and former employers include various international think tanks and non-governmental and multi-lateral agencies—a variety of United Nations agencies, including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization. Leidl has also consulted with various United States International Development Agency (USAID)-funded projects in Afghanistan, Yemen and Africa. Her 2015 book, The Hillary Doctrine: Sex and American Foreign Policy examines the relationship between the subjugation of women and the security of states.

Dr. Mari Swingle
3 Words to Describe: a Vibrant lateral thinker
Favourite TED Talk: Gabor Maté, The Power of Addiction and The Addiction of Power

Dr. Mari Swingle is an active writer, researcher and practitioner who has been working in collaborative clinical practice with adults, children and families at the Swingle Clinic for over twenty years. She is author of i-Minds: How Cell Phones, Computers, Gaming and Social Media are Changing Our Brains, Our Behavior, and the Evolution of Our Species and a 2015 recipient of a prestigious Federation of Associations in Brain and Behavioral Sciences Foundation (FABBS) Early Career Impact Award. Her message is strong; speaking to the need for balance between our relationship(s) with technology and with each other.

Mohammed Alsaleh
3 Words to Describe: Syrian Canadian Advocate
Favourite TED Talk: Alexander Betts, Our Refugee System is Failing. Here's How We can Fix it

During his final years of Med school, Mohammed Alsaleh was forced to flee Syria after surviving imprisonment and torture by the Assad regime for his involvement in the peaceful Syrian uprising. Fleeing to neighboring Lebanon, he had lost all hope facing hardships of forced displacement until his hope was restored by Canada. In 2014, he was offered a new opportunity in life as one of the first 28 Syrian refugee arrivals ever resettled in BC. Since then, Mohammed has been building a new life in Metro Vancouver while resuming his activism as a public speaker and volunteer at various public engagements, raising awareness and helping other newcomers settle in Canada.
 He currently serves as a Refugee Resettlement worker with Immigrant Services Society of BC. His journey from Syria to Canada and his work with refugees was featured in the documentary "Welcome to Canada".

Wendy Quan
3 Words to Describe: Compassion, Intention, Service.
Favourite TED Talk: Jill Bolte Taylor, My Stroke of Insight

Wendy Quan, founder of The Calm Monkey, is the industry leader helping organizations implement self-sustaining mindfulness meditation programs using change management techniques to create personal and organizational change resiliency. She trains and certifies meditators to become workplace and community facilitators through workshops and online training. Wendy is a certified organizational change manager who has been recognized as a pioneer by the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, the global Association of Change Management Professionals and the Chartered Professionals in Human Resources. Her worldwide clients include Google, the government of Dubai and amazing individuals who want to make a positive difference in the world.