TEDxJohns Creek

Speakers

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

• Dethra Giles

  Dethra Giles is a leadership strategist known for helping organizations strengthen communication, decision‑making, and performance. She has worked with leaders across major companies and global brands, translating complex people dynamics into practical, actionable strategies. She is also the author of That’s Not What I Said, where she equips professionals to handle difficult conversations with clarity and confidence.

• Dr. Karin Luise

  Dr. Karin Luise is an author, speaker, educator, and founder of "The ALIVE Collective". With a PhD in Counseling and Education and years of experience guiding people through reinvention, identity shifts, and life transitions, her work spans teaching, retreats, and transformational experiences that help people return to the truest versions of themselves.

• Joe Mittiga

  Joe Mittiga is the voice behind the WE! Podcast, a movement centered on emotional healing, spiritual growth, and human connection. Through powerful storytelling, he inspires others to awaken, heal, and become a force for healing in the world.

• Karl Obinna Amalu

  Beyond the technology, Obinna is a mentor at heart. He’s known for shaping junior engineers into confident, well rounded technologists and for building cultures where people grow as fast as the systems they create. His leadership, curiosity, and technical depth continue to push the boundaries of cloud innovation and digital transformation.

• Krish Makhija

  Krish Makhija is a junior at Middleton High School in the Biomedical Magnet Program with a strong interest in scientific research and real-world applications. He has been involved in public speaking since the age of 10, building strong communication skills. As a student researcher, he has two published papers. He is also the Founder of Brains2Hearts, a student-led initiative focused on neurocardiology and how understanding the brain-heart connection can help prevent disease. Through this work, he aims to make complex science more accessible and impactful in everyday life.

• Nandita Godbole

  Nandita Godbole is an award-winning cookbook author, ethnobotanist, food journalist, and ceramic artist based in Atlanta, Georgia. The founder of Curry Cravingsâ„¢ LLC, Turmeric Press, and Mrttika by Nandita, she has spent 35 years tracing India's pre-colonial culinary and botanical traditions through two Master's degrees, seven cookbooks, a novel, and countless handmade cups. Her seventh cookbook, Masaleydaar, won the 2025 Gourmand World Cookbook Award. Her eighth, India in a Cup: From Gardens to Glasses, arrives this November, the only Indian drinks book to pair its recipes with their historically documented ceramic vessels. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Food Network, Eater, BBC, and Forbes, and her books are read in more than 30 countries.di

• Nazeera Dawood

  Nazeera Dawood is a women entrepreneur and public health leader who transforms complex systems into pathways for equity and opportunity. As the Founder and CEO of Vendorship Inc., she helps businesses break through the barriers of government contracting and access the opportunities they deserve. Known for her empathetic Indo Western leadership style, she blends data, heart, and community insight to build cultures of shared success. Her work across healthcare, policy, entrepreneurship, and civic dialogue—including her platform Chai and Just Chat—positions her as a powerful voice for inclusive innovation and women’s leadership.

• Ninaad Lakshman

  Ninaad Lakshman is a mission-driven software engineer at Moderna, where he builds monitoring and alerting systems for critical manufacturing processes and supports cancer therapeutics software. He sees his work as less of a job and more of a way to do work that actually matters. He completed his Bachelor's and Master's in Computer Science at Georgia Tech, completing both degrees ahead of schedule. Ninaad enjoys helping students discover their own speaking voice and sense of purpose, a mission he started as a teenager with a company called Gifted Gabber. Outside of engineering and mentorship, you'll find him picking up his guitar or chasing waves on a tropical beach. In his view, the most powerful thing a student can build now isn’t the right skillset: it’s the right intentions.

• Nived Lakshman

  Nived Lakshman is a dedicated suicide‑prevention advocate. In high school, he worked with local districts to integrate suicide‑prevention education into their health curricula and taught students nationwide to recognize the signs of suicide through youth‑focused symposia. He founded the March for Teen Life, which brought more than 100 students, advocates, and policymakers to the Pennsylvania State Capitol to elevate awareness of teen suicide. He also helped advance suicide‑prevention legislation that passed the Pennsylvania State House.

• Nnamdi Ihenacho

  Dr. Nnamdi Ihenacho stepped into the United States in 2010 carrying two suitcases, a master’s admission letter, and the quiet conviction that hard work would be the master key to every locked door. But the years that followed taught him a different truth. Success, he discovered, isn’t powered by effort alone. It grows through community, mentorship, visibility, and the courage to reach out instead of powering through alone. What began as a solo pursuit became a lesson in connection — and it transformed not just his path, but his entire philosophy of what it means to rise. His most important credential for his talk is simple: he has lived on both sides of the door -- as someone who needed it opened, and as someone who has spent years opening it for others.

• Sagar Soni

  Sagar is an engineer by trade, a writer by choice, and a recovering productivity obsessive by necessity - someone who knows what it feels like to constantly chase “enough.” His work isn’t about productivity hacks. It’s about the quiet guilt that follows us, even when we’re doing everything right. Today, he invites us to rethink what it really means to live a meaningful life.

• Sirin Yelmen Oktar

  Sirin Yelmen Oktar is an author, radio host and the executive coach with two decades of experience working at the intersection of leadership, culture, and human transformation. She partners with C-suite leaders inside organizations where real change is needed, stepping in as HR strategist, coach, or trusted advisor depending on what the moment demands.