TEDxAdelphiUniversity Announces Speaker Line-up for 2016 Event

The inaugural TEDxAdelphiUniversity organized by the staff from the Center for Health Innovation, will gather 100 of the most impassioned TEDx enthusiasts for a day of networking and dialogue on Tuesday, April 5, 2016, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Adelphi University Performing Arts Center Concert Hall, Westermann Stage at 1 South Avenue, Garden City, NY. The independently organized event, licensed by TED, will feature a stellar line-up of nine speakers and TED Talks videos under the theme of “What if…”

“TEDx promotes ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’ and we’re proud to present this inaugural TEDx event featuring talks around the concept of ‘What if…,’” said Elizabeth Gross Cohn, Ph.D., R.N., executive director of the Adelphi University Center for Health Innovation (CHI). Presenters will collectively suggest ways we can improve ourselves, our communities, and our society.”

Speakers at TEDxAdelphiUniversity include:

• Christine M. Riordan, Ph.D. of Garden City, NY, is president at Adelphi University and an award-winning educator and internationally recognized expert in leadership development, diversity and inclusion, and team performance. Dr. Riordan has been interviewed by and written articles for many top newspapers and media outlets. She will dare you to be extraordinary and share her thoughts on the three things extraordinary people have in common: passion, courage and resilience.

• Bernadine Y. Waller, LMHC, M.A. ’10 of Garden City, NY, is an adjunct professor and doctoral candidate at the Adelphi University School of Social Work whose trauma-informed work as a clinician inspires her research. Ms. Waller completed her graduate study at the Adelphi University Gordon F. Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies and will speak about intimate partner violence against women of color and how our responses could save a woman’s life. 

• Deborah Serani, Psy.D. of Smithtown, NY, is a Adelphi University Gordon F. Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies alumna and adjunct professor, award-winning author, go-to expert on psychological issues, with research interests in depression and trauma. Dr. Serani will talk about her personal and professional experiences living with depression to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness and ways to address this problem.

• Rabbi Glenn Jacob D.D. of Oceanside, NY, is one of the interfaith chaplains and Hillel director at Adelphi University whose background includes civil rights advocate on issues of church and state, reproductive rights, hate group monitoring and funding for public education. Rabbi Jacob will explain how people can create God beliefs without compromising their knowledge bases or their life experiences.

• Francine Conway, Ph.D. ’99 of Garden City, NY, is a clinical psychologist, professor and chair of undergraduate psychology at the Adelphi University Gordon F. Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies. Dr. Conway will discuss the importance of cultivating compassion for the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) child—from moral indictment to empathy, as well as her personal experience with her son’s struggles.

• Anthony Zenkus, LMSW of Huntington, NY, is an activist on income inequality, director of education at The Safe Center and adjunct professor at the Adelphi University School of Social Work. Mr. Zenkus works on eliminating wealth inequality to bring us less disease and violence and more cooperation, peace and creativity.

• Jennifer Krol ’17 of Neponsit, NY, is currently an English major and plans to further her education, pursuing a master’s in childhood education at Adelphi University. Ms. Krol notes if we de-normalized rape culture, but normalized talking about it, sexual violence would take a step closer to no longer being an epidemic.

• Madeline Dressner ’13, M.A. ’14 of Great Neck, NY, is an elementary teacher in Great Neck Public Schools and Adelphi University alumna with a B.A. in psychology and M.A. in childhood education with an advanced certificate in students with disabilities. The basis of Ms. Dressner’s talk will cover a project she created for her third graders during her student teaching called Apps for a Cause, which showed students technology as a tool for building advocacy and educating others about social justice issues around the world.

• Robert Goldfarb, Ph.D. of New York, NY, is a speech-language pathologist and professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in the Adelphi University Ruth S. Ammon School of Education. Dr. Goldfarb will talk about his experience of suffering a series of strokes and how to do the hard work needed to maximize recovery. 

Space is extremely limited. To enter the ticket lottery, please go to: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NHXMW5L. The event will also be streamed live. Ticket lottery winners will be notified by March 28, 2016, with tickets priced at $20 for general admission and $10 for students.  Lunch is included in the event and audience members are strongly encouraged to stay the entire program.

About TEDx, x = independently organized event

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or fewer) delivered by today’s leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED’s annual conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, and made available, free, on TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman.

TED’s open and free initiatives for spreading ideas include TED.com, where new TED Talk videos are posted daily; the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from thousands of volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed; the annual million-dollar TED Prize, which funds exceptional individuals with a “wish,” or idea, to create change in the world; TEDx, which provides licenses to thousands of individuals and groups who host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; and the TED Fellows program, which selects innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.