2013 TEDxVictoria Speakers

This came in my email.

TEDxVictoria 2013:Emergence
Tickets online through McPherson Playhouse - cost is $83.50 

Preview of speakers
We are truly excited for our 3rd TEDxVictoria and cannot wait to meet you there. TEDxVictoria 2013: Emergence is November 16th, 2013 at the McPherson Playhouse. Here is a preview of our speakers and performers. We hope to see you at the event!

Bob McDonald
The host of Quirks & Quarks is Bob McDonald. One of Canada’s best known science journalists, Bob has been presenting the program since 1992. Bob is also a regular science commentator on CBC News Network, and science correspondent for CBC TV’s The National. Before joining Quirks & Quarks, Bob was the host of CBC Television’s children’s science program Wonderstruck. He is also the author of two books based on the program, Wonderstruck I and II.

Rebecca Marino
One of the most promising Canadian tennis players of her generation, Rebecca Marino, aged 22; made a remarkable—and remarkably mature—decision to halt her career and deal with the depression she’s battled for years. Her powerful choice made headlines, giving her an opportunity to engage the nation in an open, honest, and much-needed dialogue about mental health.

Mary-Wynne Ashford
A retired medical doctor, Mary-Wynne practiced Family Medicine and Palliative Care in Victoria, BC until 2004. She has received many awards for her work on peace and disarmament, including the Queen’s Medal from the Governor General of Canada on two occasions.  The topic of her talk is “Can You Think of a World Without War?”  Mary-Wynne’s experience with her topic comes from thirty years of speaking, writing, research and activism with nongovernmental organizations, especially physicians’ and women’s organizations, and with governments and UN leaders.

Alan Cassels
A drug policy researcher for the University of Victoria, Alan Cassels is a known for having a knack for finding and describing the chasm between what the market says and what science does in modern healthcare. Over the past two decades Cassels has spent much of his research energy studying clinical research and the marketing tactics of the pharmaceutical industry, turning some of that research into journalism and books, including an international best-seller.

Sarah Hunt
Sarah is a PhD candidate looking at issues of law and violence in Indigenous communities in BC.  She is Kwakwaka’wakw on her father’s side and Ukrainian and English on her mom’s side.  For the past 15 years worked as a researcher, writer and educator on issues of sex work, sexual exploitation and human trafficking, interested in centering their agency, choice, voice and mobility in how to address these prevalent conditions of violence in our communities.

Ian MacKenzie
Filmmaker and media activist, Ian dedicated to capturing and sharing the glimpses of the emerging paradigm.  His most recent film work includes Occupy Love explores the growing realization that the dominant system of power is failing to provide us with health, happiness or meaning.  The resulting crisis from the 2008 stock market crash has become the catalyst for a profound awakening.

Angela Moran
Niagara Falls, ON and Detroit MI were the backdrop of Angela’s childhood. Seeing boarded up downtown cores and dilapidated buildings were completely normalized until she planted a tree as a teenager and watched the forest that she spent a decade playing in get torn down for more houses. For the past 8 years Angela has worked toward the vision of an urban farm field school.

Performing: Kathryn Calder
Kathryn Calder is one of those artists who belies her age. She began her professional music career as a teenager, and by the time that most people are just stepping into their first independent record store, she had recorded 2 EPS and 4 CDs with the Victoria based Immaculate Machine (from whom she parted ways in 2008), and toured the world and recorded three albums as the newest member of The New Pornographers.

Hosts: Dave Morris and Missie Peters
Dave Morris is a storyteller and poet but mostly an improviser. He’s performed at Improv Festivals around Canada and the world, and was the artistic director of the Victoria Improv Festival this past year. He spends his days teaching public improv classes, performing as a one–man improvised storyteller, and producing shows at the Victoria Event Centre.

Bringing personal insight to global issues, Missie Peters is a performance poet who turns poetry into theatre. She has been honing her craft since 2005, and is a two-time Victoria Slam Champion, a past member of Tongues of Fire and a member of the improvised spoken word duo SpeakEasy. Missie Peters has been known to perform her poetry on street corners with improvisers.