Our Speakers
TEDxNOLA is pleased to present a compelling program for the August 27th event, to be held at Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre.
We have identified a set of great high-profile international and local speakers who have a relevant story to tell about succeeding from creativity and crisis.
Included in the current lineup of confirmed speakers are:
Allison Plyer, N.O. Community Data Center
Allison Plyer is a nationally recognized expert in postâ€"Katrina demographics and New Orleans recovery trends. Allison spearheaded the City of New Orleans’ challenge to the Census Bureau’s 2007 and 2008 population estimates, resulting in a nearly 75,000 person adjustment to the Bureau’s estimates resulting in approximately $60 million in additional federal funds for education, law enforcement, child care, food assistance, homeless assistance, mental health services, and more for New Orleanians. She has presented on “New Orleans’ recovery according to the numbers” to audiences ranging from New Orleans neighborhood groups to the White House. Allison has learned that data is critical in a crisis for dispelling rumors and bringing people together around a common set of facts — and that creativity is required to truly democratize the data.
Billy Nungesser, Plaquemines Parish President
Branford Marsalis with Lolis Eric Elie
J. David Waggonner III, FAIA, President, Waggonner & Ball Architects
David Waggonner is the president of Waggonner & Ball Architects, an award- winning practice located in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is also the initiator of Dutch Dialogues, an intercultural, interdisciplinary and intergenerational exchange between Dutch engineering and design professionals and their American counterparts focused on water-based urban design. Over the course of three Dutch Dialogue conferences in the years after Hurricane Katrina, David has articulated a new vision of New Orleans as a delta city living with â€" rather than against – water to address long-term development of urban character and form.
Gary Solomon Jr., Solomon Group
Harry Shearer, Century of Progress Productions
Harry Shearer co-created the seminal mock-documentary “This is Spinal Tap” with his colleagues Rob Reiner, Chris Guest and Michael McKean. Â He’s also appeared in two of the subsequent Guest comedies, “A Mighty Wind” and “For Your Consideration.” Â He’s the voice of more than a dozen characters on the long-running Fox TV hit, “The Simpsons.” Â He also hosts a long-running weekly public radio hour, “Le Show.” Â His novel, “Not Enough Indians,” was published three years ago. Based on radio interviews he’s conducted with the experts on the New Orleans flooding, Shearer decided to make a feature-length documentary on the subject, “The Big Uneasy,” exploring the causes of the disaster and the chances of a recurrence. Shearer and his wife Judith Owen live in New Orleans, with homes also in London and Los Angeles.
Irwin Redlener MD, Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness
Irwin Redlener, M.D., is professor of Clinical Public Health and director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP) at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Dr. Redlener speaks and writes extensively on national disaster preparedness policies, pandemic influenza, the threat of terrorism in the U.S., the impact and consequences of major natural disasters and related issues. He was instrumental in establishing the Task Force on Terrorism with the American Academy of Pediatrics in the immediate aftermath of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has co-directed two federally-funded national consensus conferences on children and disasters. Dr. Redlener wa appointed as one of 10 members of the National Commission on Children and Disasters by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in March 2008.
Dr. Redlener is also president and, with singer-songwriter Paul Simon, co- founder of the Children’s Health Fund. Dr. Redlener has expertise in health care systems, crisis response and public policy with respet to access to health care for underserved populations.
James Carville, CNN and Tulane University
John Besh, Chef and Restaurateur
John Besh is the executive chef and co-owner of the Besh Restaurant Group based in New Orleans. His collection of restaurants include August, featured twice on Gourmet Magazine’s list of “Best Restaurants in the U.S.,” La Provence, LĂĽke, Besh Steak, Domenica and The American Sector.  He has been honored with a number of awards such as Food & Wine’s “Ten Best New Chefs” in America in 1999, “Best Chef in the Southeast” by the James Beard Foundation in 2006, and the Iconoclasts series featured him in 2007 as a creative visionary whose passion helped transform a culture.  


Besh is the host of two national TV shows TLC’s Inedible to Incredible and a PBS series beginning in 2011. Â He was the runner-up on the Food Network’s hit series, “Next Iron Chef” and appeared on Bravo’s “Top Chef Masters” to help raise money for and support the Make It Right Foundation. Â His first solo-authored cookbook, My New Orleans, was released in fall 2009.
Karen DeSalvo, Tulane Medical Center
Kimberly Rivers Roberts, “Trouble the Water”
Kimberly Rivers-Roberts is an actress, motivational speaker, rap artist and music producer. She is the star of Academy award nominated documentary “Trouble the Water” – the film won several accolades for its documentation of Hurricane Katrina as it happened including the 2009 Oscar® nomination for best documentary, the 2008 Sundance GRAND JURY prize winner, 2008 Full frame film festival Grand jury prize winner and the 2008 Gotham indie film award winner.
http://www.bornhustlerrecords.com
http://www.troublethewaterfilm.com
http://www.sonicbids.com/Blackkoldmadina
http://www.wikipedia.org/KimberlyRiversRoberts
Lynn Fritz, Fritz Institute and Lynmar Estate
Lynn C. Fritz shares his logistics industry leadership and experience through the Fritz Institute, a public charity, which provides operational and logistics expertise to the global humanitarian sector.
During his 30 years of leading Fritz Companies, Inc., as Chairman and CEO, he was able to develop his company from a small customs brokerage firm to a publicly traded international logistics services company of over 11,000 employees in 120 countries around the world, achieving Fortune 1000 status in 1997. He started the Fritz Institute in 2001 after he sold the company to UPS. The Institute has become recognized as the leader in developing programs to support operational effectiveness and logistics capabilities for the humanitarian and disaster relief sector.
A native of San Francisco, Mr. Fritz received his BA Degree from Georgetown University, and his JD from Lincoln University School of Law. In recognition of his outstanding leadership and community service, he was granted honorary degrees from Pepperdine University in 1995, and from Drexel University in 2004.
Matt Petersen, President and CEO, Global Green USA
Matt Petersen joined Global Green USA in 1994. Petersen has helped develop and guide the organization’s growing programs of eliminating weapons of mass destruction; fighting climate change; promoting green building and renewable energy; and ensuring access to clean water for all of humanity. He is a representative to the Council of Green Cross International, and has chaired the GCI Energy and Resource Efficiency Program.
In the aftermath of the Gulf Coast hurricanes, Petersen put forth a vision and mobilized resources to create the Global Green “Healthy Homes and Smart Neighborhoods” initiative, which includes: the New Orleans Sustainable Design Competition with Jury Chair Brad Pitt, resulting in the construction of the Holy Cross Project; the NOLA Green Schools Initiative funded by the Bush Clinton Katrina Fund; and work with Habitat for Humanity throughout the Gulf Coast to create more energy efficient housing.
Petersen has appeared on the TODAY Show, CBS Morning Show, ABC Good Morning America, CBS Evening News, CNN, and numerous other news programs, quoted in dozens of publications as well as being featured in Outside Magazine, Architectural Record and other publications. Petersen has lectured around the world in front of heads of state, corporate CEOs and opinion leaders.
In May 2008 he was appointed by the Sir Edmund Hillary Institute in New Zealand as the Inaugural Hillary Fellow. Previously, Matt ran local, state, and federal political campaigns as well as serving as the Executive Director of Americans for a Safe Future.
Matt Wisdom, CEO, Turbosquid
Matt is the CEO of TurboSquid, one of the web’s first digital marketplaces for user-generated content. Founded in 2000, TurboSquid is the world leader in 3D model sales, with a customer list as varied as Pixar, USA Today, Boeing, and Apple. TurboSquid’s story has been widely covered by news outlets, including CNN, Entrepreneur Magazine and MSNBC.
Matt entered the 3D industry in 1994 immediately following graduation from Brown University. He was a founding partner, animator, and senior producer of 3D visual effects for Chimera Digital Imaging. During that time he produced hundreds of animations and effects for television commercials and legal trials.
New Orleans and Louisiana figure largely in his civic work, which includes initiating the idea and co-authoring the legislation for the Louisiana Digital Media Tax Credit, leading the IT transition team for Mayor Landrieu’s incoming administration, and co-directing a YouTube video about post-Katrina New Orleans that received 1.7 million views. Matt serves on various non-profit boards, including GNO, Inc. and the Idea Village, as well as philanthropic organizations such as the RosaMary Foundation. Matt has won numerous awards, including being named Technology Leader of the Year for the Louisiana Governor’s Technology Awards, and Innovator of the Year by New Orleans City Business.
Beth Galante, Director, New Orleans Resource Center & Office, Global Green USA
Beth Galante is responsible for the operation of Global Green’s New Orleans Resource Center & Office, supervision of the Holy Cross Project, and rebuilding initiatives including green affordable homes, schools, and neighborhoods.
Beth was formerly an Assistant D.A. in New Orleans, prosecuting homicides, sex offenses and public corruption cases. She taught at Tulane Law School, as the former Deputy Director of the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, which was the first recipient of the American Bar Association’s Distinguished Environmental Achievement Award and the National Law Journal’s Runner Up Lawyer of the Year during her tenure, for its groundbreaking work in the field of Environmental Justice. She is also a former legal representative of the New Jersey Attorney General and the Quapaw Indian Nation regarding damages to their natural resources.
Beth has a Masters of Environmental & Energy Law and J.D. from Tulane Law School. Beth is an Aspen Institute Fellow in its Henry Crown leadership program, and has served as Co-Chair of Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s Sustainability Task Force as well as present Co-Chair of the Green Collaborative in New Orleans.
Michael McDaniel, Frog Design
Michael McDaniel was born and raised in Centreville, Mississippi. He earned a B.F.A with an emphasis in graphic design from Mississippi State University where he remains actively involved serving on the College of Architecture Art and Design’s advisory board.
After beginning his design career in California, he now lives in Austin, Texas, where he is a Senior Designer at frog design. Prior to joining frog design in 2008 as a Senior Designer, he worked on large, diverse teams to solve complex interaction, experience, transportation, wayfinding, environmental, and branding problems for a variety of industries. His broad skill set and thoughtful approach to design has led to very unique and effective solutions for a variety of clients including Sprint, AT&T, American Airlines, Best Buy, HP, and Disney.
Michael’s work on design teams for M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, has been recognized by several professional design organizations, including the Society of Environmental Graphic Designers (SEGD). His redesign of the entire Interstate Highway System won top honors from the Cooper Union in 2006. His design work has been featured in major design publications such as Print, Critique, Communication Arts, How, and Step Inside Design. Michael’s Reaction Housing System has been featured by GOOD magazine several times including an online documentary.
His heart is truly in using meaningful design to help people in their daily lives. This goal is apparent from his development of various systems to help weakened patients around hospitals to housing systems designed to aid communities in rebuilding their lives following major disasters.
Mitch Landrieu, New Orleans Mayor
Richard Campanella, Tulane University
Richard McCarthy, Market Umbrella
Richard McCarthy embodies the phrase, “think globally; act locally.” After growing up in New Orleans and earning his master’s degree at the London School of Economics, he co-founded the Crescent City Farmers Market in 1995. As executive director, he led the organization to grow from a weekly farmers market into marketumbrella.org, an internationally recognized mentor for markets, community-building and sustainable economic development.
As it approaches its 15th year, the Crescent City Farmers Market has a $8.9 million economic impact on the city and the region. Attracting 2,500 shoppers a week in its three days, the markets adds $21,000 an hour to the New Orleans economy. However, they are about more than economic transactions. Every time two people meet, a social transaction occurs. These relationships create the social capital that every market needs to succeed. The Crescent City Farmers Market gives everyone, from kids to seniors, access to local food with projects like the Marketeer Club, Meet Me at the Market, Farmers Market Bingo, Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP), and the conditional benefit transfer project MarketMatch that has increased SNAP redemption rates by 600 percent at the CCFM.
Richard is a member of the New Orleans Food Policy Advisory Committee, WWNO Community Advisory Committee and the Edible Schoolyard New Orleans Task Force, the first Alice Waters project outside Berkeley to encourage sustainable gardening and cooking among underserved public school students. He was named a Public Health Champion in 2004 by the Tulane University School of Public Health.
Lisa P. Jackson
Administrator Lisa P. Jackson leads EPA’s efforts to protect the health and environment for all Americans. She and a staff of more than 17,000 professionals are working across the nation to usher in a green economy, address health threats from toxins and pollution, and renew public trust in the EPA’s work.
As Administrator, Jackson has pledged to focus on core issues of protecting air and water quality, preventing exposure to toxic contamination in our communities and reducing greenhouse gases. She has promised that all of EPA’s efforts will follow the best science, adhere to the rule of law, and be implemented with unparalleled transparency.Jackson is the first African-American to serve as EPA Administrator. She has made it a priority to focus on vulnerable groups including children, the elderly, and low-income communities that are particularly susceptible to environmental and health threats. In addressing these and other issues, she has promised all stakeholders a place at the decision-making table.
Before becoming EPA’s Administrator, Jackson served as Chief of Staff to New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine and Commissioner of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Prior to joining DEP, she worked for 16 years as an employee of the U.S. EPA.
Jackson is a summa cum laude graduate of Tulane University and earned a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University. She was born in Pennsylvania and grew up a proud resident of New Orleans, Louisiana. Jackson now resides in Washington D.C.
Robbie Vitrano, Trumpet Group
Robbie is a co-founder and Chairman of Trumpet, a venture marketing company that is a manifestation of the reinventing New Orleans. His point of view: New Orleans is the Social Innovation Silicon Valley, an urban microcosm of the economic, political, social, environmental and cultural issues being re-evaluated in the U.S. and around the world. As such, Trumpet has evolved its full-service brand communications disciplines to launch new ventures, incubating and developing them inside its 12,000 square foot renovated warehouse in the Creole district of the historic Faubourg St. John. The work there comprises advocacy, optimism, and socially responsible capitalism.
Robbie has recently launched Trumpet Ventures, assembling a team of entrepreneurs, business strategists, media artists, technologists, cultural anthropologists, data analysts, and product/environmental designers —- inspired by the NOLA startup laboratory — to help launch emerging businesses by helping them to become sustainable, authentic and profitable brands. Accordingly, Robbie has also recently come on board as a partner with Naked Pizza, a company re-skinning the $30 billion pizza industry and its take-out and delivery model with a social mission and the world’s first healthy/”functional” pizza, attracting the backing of billionaires Mark Cuban and Robert Kraft.
He is also a professor at Loyola University, serves on the boards of numerous social innovation organizations in New Orleans, co-founded and incubated the Idea Village and StartupNewOrleans.com, is an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, City Business’ Innovator of the Year/Best Place to Work/Rising Tide,  Louisiana Technology Council’s technology of the year winner, GNO Inc. Digital Media Alliance co-chair, a two-time member of the Inc. 5000, an Adweek Creative All-Star, North American Board member of Worldwide Partners Inc. (world’s largest network of independent communications firms), and co-piloted the 1996 pinewood derby winner with his son Shane.
Sara Estes Cohen, G&H International Services
Born and raised in New Orleans, Sara Estes Cohen worked as a freelance writer and publicist for Infectious Music, representing groups such as the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, the Radiators, and Ellipsis until August 2005. After Hurricane Katrina, Sara moved to Los Angeles to obtain her master’s degree in public policy and emergency management at UCLA. For her thesis, entitled “Using Social Media for University Emergency Communications,” Sara worked with UCLA to develop a model for universities to leverage social media to communicate with students before, during, and after crises.
For the past four years, Sara has focused on planning, preparing for, and mitigating against the consequences of disasters with universities, federal, and local government agencies. She has spoken on the importance of leveraging social media for emergency preparedness, response, and recovery at several conferences, including the George Washington University Emergency Communications Symposium in 2008 and the Virginia Governor’s Campus Emergency Preparedness Summit in August of 2009 and 2010.Â
Sara currently works for G&H International Services, Inc. in Washington, D.C., supporting the Department of Homeland Security First Responder Communities of Practice, a professional networking, project collaboration, and resource repository platform for vetted members of the first responder and public safety community. The online platform allows its members to discuss and share information on emergency planning and preparedness, response, and recovery.
Scott Cowen, Tulane University President
Scott S. Cowen is Tulane University’s 14th President. He also holds joint appointments as the Seymour S Goodman Memorial Professor of Business in Tulane’s A.B. Freeman School of Business and Professor of Economics in the School of Liberal Arts.
In 2009 TIME Magazine named President Cowen one of the nation’s top 10 Best College Presidents and he was one of only four university leaders nationwide to receive the 2009 Carnegie Corporation Academic Leadership Award.
Since President Cowen’s arrival in 1998, Tulane University has more than quintupled its undergraduate applications while experiencing all-time highs
in student quality. In addition, Tulane has more than doubled the level of total private giving to the university and received a record level of research awards. The university has implemented a number of innovative academic and research program initiatives and significantly increased its community outreach. In recognition of Tulane’s accomplishments, it was noted as one of the “Hottest Schools in America” by Newsweek magazine in 2002 and 2008, and has been nationally recognized on multiple occasions for its civic engagement programs, while also being consistently ranked in the top tier of national research universities.
In response to Katrina, President Cowen was appointed to the city’s Bring New Orleans Back Commission and charged with leading a committee to reform and rebuild the city’s failing public school system. President Cowen has devoted his days and nights to these monumental tasks and has already had impressive results. As part of this effort, Tulane chartered a K-12 school in New Orleans and created an Institute for Public Education Initiatives to support the transformation of public education in New Orleans.
Shamarr Allen
Paul Nauroth, Chief Technology Officer, Recovery Accountability & Transparency Board
Paul Nauroth is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (Recovery Board), the independent government agency responsible for overseeing the economic-stimulus program that was required by law when President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. As the CTO, Paul is responsible for the day-to-day operations in delivering of two award-winning Web sites, FederalReporting.Gov and Recovery.Gov to the American public.
Paul provides advice to Recovery Board executives in technological innovations and strategies, and provides solutions to help make government transparency possible. Paul also designs, develops and implements technical solutions to empower the organization’s mission to fight fraud waste and abuse of stimulus funding. Paul has over 10 years of professional IT experience and has received numerous awards for his technical contributions and
professionalism.
Paul previously worked for four years in the Inspector General’s office at the Department of Health and Human Services and is also a former Marine. Paul is married with two kids.
Steven Bingler, Concordia, Chairman and CEO, Concordia
Steven Bingler received his architectural training at the University of Virginia, where he was free to indulge his interest in democratic principles. In 1983, he founded Concordia, a community-based planning and architecture firm, to pursue systemic and collaborative design practices. Concord – which means harmony among things and agreement between people – is the firm’s one word mission statement.
Design projects include the Henry Ford Academy in Dearborn, Michigan where Concordia worked with teams of teachers, students and arts curators to integrate a learning environment for 400 inner city high school students into the 80 acre Henry Ford Museum complex. In 2006, Concordia coordinated the development of the Unified New Orleans Plan, a comprehensive strategy for the redevelopment of the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Concordia’s research alliances have included the MIT Media Lab, Harvard University’s Project Zero, the University of New Mexico, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Thornburg Institute, the Appalachian Education Lab and the West Ed Research Lab. In addition, Mr. Bingler has served as a special consultant to the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education for policy related to the design of schools as centers of community. His papers have been published in a wide range of books and journals in the fields of urban planning, architectural design, education, public health and smart growth.
Taylor Galyean, Principal, Feldmeier Galyean
Taylor Galyean is a principal of Feldmeier Galyean, an architectural firm focusing on hospitality and sustainable design. As designer and project manager, Taylor coordinates and leads the design team to insure that the vision is maintained through all the disciplines from concept through construction.
With over 12 years of experience with all aspects of luxury resorts and spas, primary clients include: The Broadmoor Hotel, The Greenbrier Resort, Hotel Hershey, and Coeur d’Alene Resort. In addition, Taylor leads a team of engineers and designers developing revolutionary hydrotherapy spa experiences including the SilverTAG Shower and the FT TAG Tub.
As a former instructor of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), Taylor has focused his environmental and educational interest to architectural projects including the award winning design of the NOLS Mexico Branch in Baja, Mexico. Taylor studied at Cranbrook School in Bloomfiled Hills, Michigan, and the Architectural Association in London, England. His Masters in Architecture (MArch) was received from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1994. He has been a guest critic at MIT, the Boston Architectural Center, Columbia College, and Tulane University.
Terrance Osborne, Visual Artist
Timolynn Sams, Neighborhood Partnership Network
Nick Spitzer
Nick Spitzer created and hosts American Routes, the public radio program devoted to sources and symbols of vernacular music and culture from a New Orleans and Gulf South perspective. He has produced cultural features for All Things Considered and Nightline, CDs, ethnographic films, and writings on public folklore. Spitzer founded the Louisiana Folklife Program, and later was senior folklife specialist at the Smithsonian. He artistic directed the Folk Masters concert broadcasts from Carnegie Hall and Wolf Trap, and the American Roots Independence Day concerts from the National Mall. An advocate for cultural rebuilding of New Orleans post-deluge, Nick was named Louisiana Humanist and a Fellow of the American Folklore Society in 2006. He received a Guggenheim fellowship for researching traditions of creativity in Creole communities in French Louisiana. Nick is professor of American studies and anthropology at Tulane.