Kali Woodward

Artist, Buddhist, Change Agent, Educator/Teacher, Explorer, Global soul, Idea generator, Life mentor, Parent, Philanthropist

Single mindedly dedicated to ending the injustice of illiteracy in America. Nearly one quarter of the entire Millennial generation is completely illiterate. Tens of millions of children in America's public schools cannot read at all. How did I end up here? Tired of endless years of pontification without implementation, after my freshman year I dropped out of college and hitchhiked to South America. Ended up spending a year as an ESL instructor in Bogotá, Colombia living and absorbing the rich Colombian culture, making lifelong friends and learning how to see the world in a totally different way. At age 20 I enlisted in the Army and became an Arabic and Spanish translator for the 101st Airborne Division. In retrospective hindsight I was driven by the deep and counterintuitive desire to be small. I experienced the speechless humility you feel when you realize you are a part of something 10,000 times bigger than yourself, steeped in centuries of history, and surrounded by the memories, both living and eternal, of incomparable acts of courage and selfless heroism. At 29 I graduated from UCLA Law School, committed to returning to a life of normalcy, but turning instead to 15 years of serial entrepreneurism. When my oldest son began having serious reading difficulties I became a stay at home dad, homeschooling him in order to teach him how to read. This experience re-ignited a deep seated, genetic interest in linguistics and education. My passions and avocations are diverse. I love life BECAUSE it's but a dream. I love neuroscience and nonlinear mathematics. I love the past, present and future. I'm a practitioner of Zen Buddhism. I periodically engage in abstract art, colored pencil mostly. I'm a writer. When my brain is in one of my favorite places, I'm an inventor, creating, prototyping, developing curriculum, experimenting in graphic design. I'm a teacher. I'm fascinated by nonlinear mathematics and especially Nobel Laureate Ilya Prigogine's work on dissipative structures far from equilibrium and more specifically, their application to human social organizations through "dissipative social structure theory." I'm unbelievably idealistic, but a pragmatic realist. I believe that we can achieve almost anything once we realize that reality is infinitely malleable. I believe that almost every complex problem can be solved through a systematic application of neuroscience and nonlinear mathematical models, followed by unlimited persistence and hard work. I have a love hate relationship with words, which I believe were, for so long, a critical, but soon to be, archaic, modality for interpreting reality, as they force us to channel complex ideas through limited neurochemical corridors of the brain that constrain both our understanding of, and our expression of, complete meaning. Life, the universe and everything can more readily be expressed as nonlinear mathematical patterns. I believe that our children and our children's children will interpret the world's social problems through exponentially clearer nonlinear mathematical lenses and will solve today's seemingly intractable problems as easily as adding 2+2. I'm a TEDizen since my first TED conference in 2004 in Monterey. I co-organize TEDxPhoenixville, outside of Philadelphia, hosted by the one and only, Kelly Stoetzl. I believe in TED because of its core mission of sharing ideas with people everywhere in the world. I love big ideas, amazing ideas, crazy, pie in the sky ideas, as well as practical, tactical, realistic solutions to the world's most complex problems. But I also love simplicity, the perfectly imperfect nature of life, the universe, unity, beauty and innocence. I love things that leave me speechless (and so many things do). I love the Earth, sunsets, mountaintop views and space. (Jody Foster, Contact, "They should have sent a poet.") I love heroes and courageous men and women who have dedicated their lives to a piece of a much larger and more important puzzle than their own self satiation. I have ultimate respect for those who have pursued and continue to pursue true spiritual awakening. But I am grounded, sometimes chained by my prefrontal cortex. I love humor, especially slapstick and stupid things. I specialize in inappropriate and inopportune punchlines. Even if the grownup part of my brain stops me from saying them, I'm still thinking them. I spent way too much time in the principal's office as a kid. I couldn't help making jokes at just the wrong moment, disrupting the class. Too bad "disrupting" wasn't so in vogue back then as it is today. I love to hear people's stories. I'm fascinated by biography. Someone once told me that everyone has something fascinating about themselves to share and I believe it's true. Looking forward to diving into fascinationville at TEDActive 2015.

Freedom, Love, Zen, Literacy, Neuroscience, Nonlinear Mathematics, Education, Underprivileged and Under-Served Students, Gifted and Talented Students, Creativity, Human Potential, Art and the Future

Universal Earth English in the near future will exponentially increase tangible opportunities for world peace!

Abstract Art (my Own), Dissipative Social Structure Theory and Nonlinear Mathematics, Literacy, Neuroscience and applications to changing the brain., Zen and Buddhism

I went to TED in Monterey in 2004 where I met Malcolm Gladwell, Imogen Heap, of course, Chris Anderson, Zee Frank, Herbie Hancock, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and so many amazing and talented TEDizens. I came away from that conference inspired by the vast potential of human energy, human intelligence, human compassion and human determination. TED set the bar for me in terms of what human achievement, human potential and human connectivity can be all about and I have applied that experience in almost everything that I have done since. I attended several other TED salons and TEDx events before joining the TEDx Phoenixville team as a lead organizer. The rest of My TED Story continues this year at TED ACTIVE in Whister. See you there : )

Making up silly songs to entertain my six year old. Also finding things. I can find anything, a needle in a haystack. If you lose something at TEDActive 2015 contact me. I'll help u find it : )