TEDxPortland

Speakers

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

• Amy Saltzman

  Amy Saltzman, M.D., is a former competitive gymnast, physician, and victim/sur-thrivor of decades of covert emotional abuse. She is an internationally recognized abuse prevention expert. She has a knack for translating difficult topics into “kid speak,” and is passionate about empowering children to spot and stop sneaky grooming, and obvious abuse in sports, schools, performing arts programs, religious settings, and community activities. Following the NWSL abuse scandal, she was appointed to the USSF Participant Safety Taskforce. The task force was created to protect three million athletes, from the youngest youth players to the professionals from all types of abuse.

• Aneesh Agarwal

  Aneesh Agarwal is a junior at Sunset High School who loves history as much as he loves figuring out how things work. He’s spent the past three years building amateur rockets, is a NASA Payload Design winner, and recently wrapped up a 2.5-year project constructing a fully functional RV-12 airplane. Outside the classroom, Aneesh is deeply involved in service, both locally and abroad. He’s built educational apps that now reach over 2,500 students in rural India, work that’s been nationally recognized by the Indian Philanthropy Alliance. He’s also an active member of his Boy Scout troop, and continues challenging students to elevate their thinking by embracing boredom and doing less, with purpose.

• Bala Ambati

  Bala Ambati, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oregon, and President of Pacific Clear Vision Institute, focusing on restoring vision for patients through LASIK or cataract removal. He became the world's youngest doctor at the age of 17, and completed his residency at Harvard and cornea fellowship at Duke. Over the course of his career, he has completed thousands of successful vision correction surgeries. Bala is also a co-founder of iVeena, a start-up focused on developing a new treatment for childhood nearsightedness.

• Diana Taurasi

  The undisputed greatest of all time, a 3× WNBA Champion, 2× WNBA Finals MVP, WNBA MVP, 10× All-WNBA First Team selection, and the league's all-time leading scorer. A 6× Olympic gold medalist and global icon of women's basketball, Taurasi redefined excellence, longevity, and competitive fire. Portland continues to solidify our reputation in the world as the epicenter for women's sports, and this Spring, the excitement will continue. One month before the WNBA launches in the Rose City with the Portland Fire, TEDxPortland is proud to welcome Diana Taurasi for a special Woman's Leadership Forum interview on April 11. This conversation is designed for anyone who cares about leadership, legacy, and building something that lasts - on the court, in business, and across our communities. This event isn't just an interview, it's a milestone. As Portland welcomes the Portland Fire and a new chapter of professional women's basketball, we're creating a room where leadership is discussed not as a slogan, but as a lived practice. The conversation will be rooted in greatness, consistency, standards, and the responsibility of influence. Thanks to our friends at KeyBank and RAJ Sports for making this possible.

• Jenny Nguyen

  Jenny Nguyen, a former chef, founded The Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon, in April 2022. It is the world's first sports bar dedicated exclusively to women's sports. Driven by her passion for women's sports, inclusive spaces, and gender equity, Jenny created the bar to counter the status quo of traditional sports bars. The Sports Bra quickly gained global attention, becoming a cultural touchstone and symbolizing the demand for women's sports and fandom. Jenny uses her platform to advocate for equal pay, coverage, and respect for women athletes, making her a vital voice in the sports equity movement.

• Jessica Elkan

  Jessica Elkan is the Executive Director of the James Beard Public Market, leading the development of a seven-day-a-week public market celebrating Oregon’s agricultural bounty and culinary excellence in downtown Portland. Public markets are in her DNA. Jessica comes from a long line of makers and merchants and was raised in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, shaped by her family’s woodworking business. With more than 25 years of nonprofit leadership experience, her work is grounded in economic inclusion and the belief that public markets connect people, culture, and opportunity.

• John Branam

  John Branam is an engaged parent, husband, and citizen who is passionate about improving opportunities and outcomes for youth, and especially for those from low-income families. John is also the Chief Transformation Officer of Bottom Line, a national education nonprofit, and has spent nearly 15 years at similarly-focused organizations. Early in his career John taught middle school, was a senior school district administrator, and served in the Peace Corps in South Africa. John has a degree in political science from Washington & Lee University, and a law degree from the University of Oregon.

• Jonathan Hurst

  Jonathan Hurst is Chief Robot Officer and co-founder of Agility Robotics, and Professor and co-founder of the Oregon State University Robotics Institute. He holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering and an M.S. and Ph.D. in robotics, all from Carnegie Mellon University. Jonathan works towards robot hardware and control approaches that achieve the compliance, dexterity, and mobility we see all around us in the animal world. His work enables robots to do useful work in human environments, generating greater productivity across the economy, and improving quality of life for all.

• Keely Cat-Wells

  Keely Cat-Wells is the Founder and CEO of Making Space, a talent and learning platform closing the disability employment gap. Under her leadership, Making Space has supported over 10,000 Disabled professionals through free, accessible education and pathways to employment, partnering with companies including Coca-Cola, Netflix, and Visa. Keely co-produced the documentary Fight To Fly with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, which exposed systemic barriers faced by Disabled travellers and helped drive policy reform. Prior to Making Space, Keely founded C Talent, a talent agency representing Disabled actors and creators with a combined reach of over 50 million people, reshaping disability representation in media before its acquisition in 2022. She is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, the youngest-ever Presidential Leadership Scholar, an Obama Leader USA, and an inaugural Gloria Steinem Fellow.

• Lauren Flower

  Lauren Flower is a choreographer, dancer, and teacher who sees creativity as a vessel for curiosity, connection, and discovery. She is a Company Artist with Oregon Ballet Theatre, performing classical and contemporary repertory while also working as a freelance choreographer. Lauren has created original works for OBT2 and the main company, and is commissioned for a new work in OBT’s 25/26 Collection. Their dual perspective fuels a collaborative, exploratory process that inspires artists to expand movement and push the boundaries of expression.

• Milky Kohno

  Milky Kohno, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University and a Research Scientist at the VA Portland Health Care System. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from UC Berkeley and completed her PhD in Neuroscience at UCLA, where her dissertation was the first to reveal abnormalities in intrinsic brain activity in methamphetamine use disorder and to clarify dopamine’s role in risky decision-making. She has since extended her work to uncover neurobiological and immunological biomarkers that can serve as targets for therapeutic intervention for substance use disorders. Leading the Biomedical Research of Addiction, Imaging, and Neuroscience (B.R.A.I.N.) Lab, Milky's research emphasizes mechanistic neuroscience at neural systems and molecular levels, merging basic science with clinically impactful aims.

• Oregon Symphony

  At the Oregon Symphony, home is more than a place; it’s their muse. From the beautiful natural landscapes to the inspiring stories of our neighbors, this state pushes them to create art that tells our story. As a nod to this year’s theme, today’s performance is a true homecoming for Ron Blessinger (violin), Lisbeth Carreno (violin), Maia Hoffman (viola), and Taylor Yoon (cello), four native Oregonians pursuing careers with their GRAMMY-nominated hometown orchestra.

• Rukaiyah Adams

  Rukaiyah Adams is the CEO of the 1803 Fund, which seeks to grow shared prosperity, through the alignment of financial investments and investments in community-based organizations. It is not a conventional investment firm, and it is not traditional philanthropy—the work of the 1803 Fund includes aspects of both. Fundamentally, it is ‘investing for the people’. Rukaiyah holds a BA with academic distinction from Carleton College, a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School, where she was on the Law and Policy Review and the Co-President of the Law Student Association, and a Master of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

• Ryan Dunlap

  Ryan Dunlap is a former Detective and SWAT Hostage Negotiator who founded Conflictish®, a conflict strategy firm dedicated to helping leaders turn conflict into their greatest competitive advantage. Drawing from his experience in law enforcement, Ryan specializes in bringing proven strategies from the interrogation room into the boardroom, transforming how leaders speak and lead during high-pressure moment. He is also the author of How to Untie a Balloon: a Negotiator's Guide to Avoid Popping Under Pressure, and has lectured on conflict strategy at many academic, corporate, and non-profit institutions.

• Sam Balto

  Sam Balto, creator of the Bike Bus, builds community and gets kids moving through collaborations ranging from Stranger Things to rides with Justin Timberlake, Benson Boone, and former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.

• Sean McClain

  Sean McClain is the founder and CEO of Absci, pioneering a new era of medicine at the intersection of AI and biology to design life-changing drugs. Sean envisions a world where we move beyond managing symptoms by dramatically shrinking timelines, slashing costs, and ultimately redefining how lifesaving medicines are created to find cures by design. From a 400 sq. ft. basement lab to an industry-leading biotech platform, his journey reflects a deep belief that the future of health lies in merging human ingenuity with machine intelligence.

• Ural Thomas and The Pain

  Universally recognized as one of the most exciting singers remaining from the original soul era, 82 year-old Ural Thomas and his band The Pain just released their third LP "Dancing Dimensions." Thomas initially made his name in the 1960s with stone cold soul classic releases like "Pain Is The Name of Your Game", "Can You Dig It", "Deep Soul", and his 1964 recording debut with The Monterays "Push - Em Up." After a musical journey that commenced in his native Portland, Oregon, and led to Los Angeles, Cincinnati, and New York, sharing stages with everyone from James Brown, to Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, and Etta James.