TEDxPittsburgh

Speakers

Speakers may not be confirmed. Check the event website for the latest lineup.

• Jordan Wong

  As a Chinese American whose childhood was filled with anime, manga, and video games, Jordan Wong (WONGFACE) creates drawings, characters, and icons to contemplate the hero’s journey, the game theory of leveling up throughout life, and the Ultimate Self. Jordan has produced large-scale installations and public artwork for the city of Cleveland as well as exhibited at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh (2024 and 2020), Massillon Museum (2023), and Akron Art Museum (2021 – 2022). From 2020 to 2022 Jordan served as the president of the Cleveland chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design. His work has been featured by Graphic Design USA (”People to Watch 2021”), The Great Discontent (issue no. 5), Ideastream, Destination Cleveland, Downtown Cleveland Alliance, Channel 3 WKYC, News 5 Cleveland, Cleveland Magazine (”Most Interesting People 2021”), PressureLife, The Land, FreshWater Cleveland, and CAN Journal. In 2024, Jordan was one of seven artists—selected from over 100 applicants—awarded the Transformative Arts Fund (TAF), a $3 million initiative supporting public art projects led by artists in partnership with institutions based in the City of Cleveland. Jordan has artwork in the collections of Meta (the parent company of Facebook), the Akron Art Museum, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Cleveland Public Library, University Hospitals, Laura and Fred Bidwell (founder and former executive director of FRONT Triennial, now concluded), and other private collectors.

• Nicole Young Yurisko

  Nicole Young is a Career Design Advocate and digital media entrepreneur who helps professionals think beyond the traditional career ladder. She first used public storytelling and strategic skill-building to break into the tech industry without a conventional path, leveraging visibility to create opportunity. After being laid off from a role she once considered a dream job, she began documenting her reinvention in real time — rebuilding her career through content, consulting, and ownership-driven work. Through her writing and media platforms, Nicole explores how storytelling, visibility, and intentional career design can transform uncertainty into leverage in the modern economy.

• Ted Anthony

  I tell stories. Stories about you and me and us, about our country and our world and the strange and meaningful tapestry of human experience. I tell stories about things that connect with each other unexpectedly, and about how the most insignificant details in our surroundings can, when poked at, turn out to mean everything. Once I wrote an entire book about a single song. When left to my own devices, I gravitate to stories about the building blocks of American culture and the state of a changing China. I do other things, too. I currently work as AP's director of new storytelling and newsroom innovation, helping to drive the organization forward toward an even more creative future. As a leader in AP's news operation for more than two decades, I have tried to bring an unerring sense of creative storytelling — in any form, in any fashion, on any platform — into our journalism as our industry changes fundamentally and shifts onto exciting and disruptive new platforms. Along the way, I teach and train and mentor and speak about journalism and why it must remain a fundamental and relevant part of the world during an uncertain era.