TEDxRainier 2015

Terry is a longtime practitioner of capoeira, contact improvisation, hip hop dance, physical theater, and tree climbing.

Akash Thakkar is an award-winning composer, sound designer, and public speaker within the video game industry.

Brian Arbogast is the Gates Foundation’s Director of Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Team Global Development Program.

Dr. Diamond currently serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine and he is a physician at Harrison Urgent Care Clinics.

Dan Finkel wants everyone to have fun with math and has devoted much of his life to understanding and teaching the motivation, history, aesthetics, and deep structure of mathematics.

David Schmader is a multi-talented writer, playwright, newspaper columnist, and performance artist.

Deep is an accomplished technologist with over 18-years of experience conceptualizing, architecting, and deploying multiple advanced networking applications.

A doctor turned environmentalist, Dr. Webb’s mission is improve both human and human environmental health.

Dr. Rusty Rodriguez is a microbiologist who has studied symbiotic interactions between plants and microorganisms for more than 25 years.

Erika Wagner is a major player in the field of commercial space ventures and is at the forefront of developing technologies to enable human space transportation.

G. Willow Wilson is an award-winning book and graphic-novel author.

Jesse Hagopian is best described by the name of his blog, I Am An Educator. He is a teacher, educator, and activist.

Maura O’Neill places innovation at the center of her work, study, and attitude. Through her work in the public, private, and academic sectors, she has created entrepreneurial and public policy solutions for some of the toughest domestic and global problems.

Megan Ming Francis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington. Megan specializes in the study of American politics, race, and the development of constitutional law.

Neel Baxi is a senior at Skyline High School in Sammamish, Washington and an International Baccalaureate Diploma Candidate.

Susie Lee is a visual artist and the CEO of Siren, the radical new social discovery app which “brings civilized flirting to the dating space.”

Tanmeet Sethi, M.D. is an integrative physician, teacher, writer and mother. She is passionate about Real Medicine—not the kind that comes out of a bottle, but the kind that comes from caring for ourselves.

Emmy Award winning actor, writer, and director Tom Skerritt is a much loved resident of Washington State. While an English major in Wayne State University, his interest in filmmaking led him to UCLA to study film directing.

Xolie Morra Cogley is an active representative of the Autism community, speaking personally about her life with Asperger’s Syndrome.