TEDxBostonCollege

Speakers

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

• Babs Ryan

  CEO, Board Director, and Research Analyst at Various Firms

  Babs Ryan has been in 97 countries. She has a pile of patents including one based upon consumer secrets that generated sales of $800 million. As head of retail and consumer consulting at Forrester Research and Lead Analyst at Javelin Research, her relentless focus on connecting human insight to innovation helped companies understand the hidden drivers of consumer purchasing. She is the author of Emergency Money: Why There's a Flood of Small-Dollar Loans and Secret Accounts and hardcover America’s Corporate Brain Drain. Now a board director of several companies in AI, organic suntan formula, and banking, her career spanned entrepreneurship to senior leadership roles at PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), Kawasaki UK (as CMO), Citibank UK, Capgemini, and Agile tech ThoughtWorks. Babs is a PSIA-certified ski instructor, avid golfer, pickleballer, disco/bachata/Forró Brazilian dancer, with a 2nd degree Tae Kwon Do black belt and PADI SCUBA certification.

• Jennie Chin Hansen

  Health Policy Expert and Advocate

  Jennie Chin Hansen has been a career long systems designer and implementor, health policy expert and national advocate in the field of aging and care of older persons. Her early work on a local level has led to the development of Medicare and Medicaid law change called PACE, the Program of All Inclusive Care to Elderly, now operating in 33 states and DC. She also was the national president of AARP during the time of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Her work has led to honorary doctorates from Boston College, Harvard and the University Medal at the University of California, San Francisco.

• Lucas Vespoli

  Financial Crime Prevention Professional

  Lucas Vespoli is a Brazilian-born financial crime prevention professional focused on compliance, technology, and human behavior. In his work, he partners with financial institutions around the world to uncover threats that traditional systems were never designed to see. His career has taken him across three continents, from São Paulo to Amsterdam to New York, and shaped his belief that the most dangerous failures are the ones that never feel like failures at all.

• Mal Wrenn Corbin

  Author and Financial Services Executive

  Mal Wrenn Corbin is a keynote speaker, author, and financial services executive who challenges the stories we tell ourselves about who we are — and what we're allowed to want. She grew up navigating poverty, foster care, and homelessness in Worcester, Massachusetts, and went on to become a first-generation college graduate of Dartmouth College, earning her M.Ed. from Boston College's Lynch School of Education and Human Development. She has spent nearly 30 years building a career in financial services, and in 2024 published her memoir Raising Wrenns: a raw, honest account of survival and identity that earned a Kirkus Recommended review and was Runner-Up for the Indie Author Project 2024 Memoir of the Year. Her TEDx talk explores how gratitude — one of our most celebrated virtues — can quietly become the very thing keeping us from living authentically. Mal lives in Massachusetts and speaks professionally on the topics of resilience, identity, and the courage to be both grateful and true.

• Nicolas Moran

  Student

  Nic Moran is a junior studying philosophy and political science and minoring in Hispanic studies. He was raised in the small town of Waterbury, Vermont. Last year he completed an Ironman triathlon and is now working to create an independent newspaper at BC, the Boston College Linden as well as grow his own writing online. He will go on to work in writing and later pivot into politics.

• Randy Rosso

  Anti-Hunger Advocate and Data Strategist

  After earning his Master’s in Public Policy from the College of William & Mary, Randy Rosso has spent the last 27 years as an advocate, data analyst, and policy researcher, in pursuit of real and lasting solutions to poverty and food insecurity in America. He has worked for research firms such as the Urban Institute, Mathematica Policy Research, and the Lewin Group. Mr. Rosso has managed data analysis, visualization, and management for advocacy organizations, primarily the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), where he served as Data Architect before launching his freelance data consulting business, Food Data Nerd, in 2013. Mr. Rosso is well-versed in federal food and nutrition assistance programs, especially the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. He performed the primary data analysis to support Hunger Solutions, NY’s successful push to pass universal free school meals in 2025. Mr. Rosso lives in Arlington, VA with his wife and two kids.