TEDxFSCJ 2020: Wonder

We regret to announce that our TEDxFSCJ Wonder event, scheduled for April 4, 2020, has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.  In the months ahead, we will announce a rescheduled date, but current uncertainties prevent us from doing so at this time.  Thank you for supporting TEDxFSCJ and for your dedication to ideas worth spreading.

-Your friends at TEDxFSCJ

Speakers

andrew adams

Andrew Adams (he/him) is a 19-year-old transgender activist and currently attends the University of Central Florida in Orlando. While attending high school in St. Johns County, he made a name for himself fighting his school district’s transphobic bathroom policy. Represented by Lambda Legal, he sued the St. Johns County School Board. After the first full trial of its kind in a federal court, he won his case in an unprecedented victory for transgender students everywhere. Andrew is also a writer, speaker and community activist. Currently, he studies psychology and political science at UCF and hopes to become a counselor and politician.

Inderjit (vicky) basra

With more than 20 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, Vicky Basra continues to advocate for gender equality and girls’ rights as President and CEO of the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center. Prior to joining the Policy Center in 2013, she was the Director of Family Preservation at Family Support Services of Northeast Florida and the Director of Project Safe at Vanderbilt University. She has contributed to a number of research studies analyzing the impact of trauma on girls and young women and is a frequent contributor to news media on issues related to commercial sexual exploitation, diversity and women’s leadership. Vicky holds a M.S.W. from the University of Tennessee and is currently pursuing a doctorate in social work from the University of Tennessee.

heather campbell

Heather (she/her) has worked in health care and human services for over a decade. While pursuing her degree in health sciences, she began to notice the significant gaps between medical treatment, emotional healing and social progress. After earning her Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Central Florida, she began practicing in fields dealing with grief and loss. She currently serves as a counselor and rehabilitation trainer at Florida State College at Jacksonville’s Vision Education and Rehabilitation Center. Heather resides in Jacksonville with her math teacher husband and a 5-year-old “Star Wars” enthusiast.

dima kroma

Dima Kroma is a Syrian-German informatics engineer, a mother, a wife and a passionate artist. She grew up in Syria and moved to the U.S. in 2010. As a hijabi immigrant Muslim woman, Dima faced challenges during her daily life in the U.S., and she found that people who are perceived to be different face the same challenges, no matter what the difference is. Dima decided to utilize her passion for art to build bridges, to tell people about her culture, to break cultural boundaries and to encourage open mindedness and inclusion. Dima has participated in multiple exhibitions and was featured at Jacksonville’s Museum of Science and History in 2019. Dima is also the founder and administrator of Arab Ladies in Jacksonville, a Facebook group supporting Arab women.

donte palmer

In October 2018, 30-year-old Philadelphia native Donte Palmer posted a photo to Instagram (@3boys_1goal) and unwittingly turned a routine moment of parental frustration into a global awareness campaign championing hands-on fatherhood. The now-viral image of Donte squatting on the floor while changing his son’s diaper—without access to a changing table in a men’s restroom—sparked an international discussion about evolving parenting dynamics and outdated caregiver expectations. With his family’s support, Donte embraced his new role as advocate and founded Squat For Change, a nonprofit with a mission to empower caregivers through education and inclusion. Donte currently lives in St. Johns, Florida, with his wife and three sons and recently announced a partnership with Pampers and Koala Kare to install 5,000 baby changing tables in public restrooms across the U.S. and Canada by 2021.

andrea reyes

Andrea Reyes is an immigration attorney and advocate of immigrants in Jacksonville, Florida. Born in Bogota, Colombia, she immigrated to the U.S. as a child. After graduating from Florida State University in 2006, she attended Florida Coastal School of Law. In 2014, she opened her solo practice focusing exclusively on immigration law. For the past three years, she has served on the Board of Directors for the Central Florida Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Andrea received the Florida Bar President’s Probono Service Award for Florida’s 4th Judicial Circuit, and in 2019, her law firm received the First Coast Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Business Advocate Award. Andrea prides herself on her commitment to justice for the oppressed and underprivileged in need of legal guidance and advocacy.

Kalai Sankar

Kalai Sankar, ‘Coach K’, as she is affectionately known among her students, is the founder of Shiva Robotics Academy, a robotics education institution geared to students in grades K-8. As a Carnegie Mellon-certified robotics instructor and professional LEGO educator, she has introduced after-school robotics programs in more than 25 Title I schools in Jacksonville, thanks to the partnership with organizations like Renaissance Jax and Communities in Schools of Jacksonville. Kalai is the recipient of Florida’s Best Robotics Coach award, Jacksonville Business Journal’s Innovator in Education Award, and the 40 Under 40 Award. Her robotics camps have been featured in the Florida Times-Union and Folio, as well as on Channel 4 and Action News Jax.

Hosts

Maiya elaine

Maiya Elaine is a classically trained visual artist, technical theatre major and graduate of Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. Currently enrolled in Florida State College at Jacksonville’s Bachelor of Applied Science in Digital Media program, she utilizes the tools and techniques of scenic painting and prop making in her work today. Her first solo show, “Breach,” explored themes and techniques for a new series in her studio at CoRK Art Studios where she combines traditional and digital techniques to inspire others through the power of artistic expression. She is also the cultural correspondent for First Coast Living’s monthly segment, “The Artist’s Corner with Maiya Elaine,” where she discusses arts and cultural events happening in Northeast Florida.

Kalee Jenkins

Kalee Jenkins is currently pursuing her Associate in Arts at Florida State College at Jacksonville in preparation for transferring to a university where she will major in Creative Writing. Along with serving as the Student Government President at Kent Campus, she is actively involved in the school’s Culture Center and a variety of clubs. Kalee is a member of the National Honor Society, Phi Theta Kappa. Kalee’s longer-term goal is to incorporate techniques from the Creative Writing degree to found a nonprofit organization, “Rewrite Your Narrative.” The nonprofit she envisions will help abused, PTSD inflicted, human trafficked and trauma victims rewire their brain using creative writing techniques and workshops.