Break Through Speaker Lineup (2020 Virtual Conference)
Hey TEDxErs! We hope you’ve had a great first week back at school, whether you’re taking classes on campus or back home. We know that we’ve been keeping everybody on their toes when it comes to our upcoming virtual conference, and we believe that we’ve kept you waiting long enough. So without any further ado, we give you our amazing speaker lineup!
Oscar A. Lopez III: The Digital Divide
Junior in Business Honors and Government
Oscar Armando Lopez III is a digital equity advocate, and an undergraduate student studying Government and Business Honors at the University of Texas at Austin.
In early 2020, Oscar was a Public Policy Fellow at Next Century Cities where he led research on the economic and public health benefits of expanding broadband access during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, Oscar served as the youngest participant of the Google Public Policy Fellowship. As a Fellow, he worked with Public Knowledge and the National Hispanic Media Coalition on issues concerning broadband access, data privacy, and the future of artificial intelligence. His work led up to him authoring a filing, submitted to the Federal Communications Commission, detailing the need to improve nationwide broadband data collection.
As a student, Oscar serves as a Representative of the College of Liberal Arts within the 114th Student Government Assembly where he holds the position of Chair of the Rules and Regulations Committee and Speaker Pro Tempore of the Assembly. He currently holds a seat on the Campus Climate Advisory Board, and previously held a seat on the Student Services Budget Committee which is tasked with advising university administration on the type and level of compulsory fees for student services and the allocation of the $41 million student services budget.
Dedicated to improving his hometown and school communities, Oscar is a Rotary Paul Harris Fellow and is a recipient of the Texas Exes President’s Leadership Award. A Laredo, Texas native, Oscar is proud to be from the U.S.-Mexico border.
Kelly Choi: Asian American Activism
Junior in Government and Creative Writing
Kelly Choi is a community organizer and junior at UT Austin studying government and creative writing. She helped mobilize over 15,000 people to protest gun violence at the original 2018 March for Our Lives in Houston. That summer, she joined young people from Parkland, Santa Fe, Chicago, New York, and more on the March for Our Lives' national youth civic engagement tour, Road to Change. Now, she is a part of the national team and continues to advocate for gun violence prevention. She took her advocacy to the 86th Texas Legislative Session by working for the Speaker pro Tempore as a legislative aide. She also became the first Community Engagement Fellow for the Harris County Judge’s office last summer.
Through her experiences, Kelly realized that using her voice, as a member of a movement and as an Asian American, wasn't always easy. Moving forward, she hopes to empower Asian-American youth all over the country to get involved in their community and be a part of the growing number of young people who are creating change.
Timia Bethea: Colorism
Graduated with a degree in International Business
Timia Bethea is a recent 2020 International Business graduate from the University of Texas at Austin who is constantly pushing the realm of what it means to be a Global Citizen. She is from Dallas, Texas and grew up with the mindset that real change and impact takes those who care to make the first move. This can be seen in her passion to bridge social impact and international business together.
She is motivated to inspire people to be more inclusive and representative through the work that she does as one of the four founders of The Color Complex, an organization that conducts research and creates social impact to combat colorism. This began as a project at UT where her and her team of three students and faculty were funded a trip to Ghana and 25K to execute change towards the universal stigmas of colorism by the President’s Award for Global Learning.
She has a repertoire geared towards international centered social justice, empowerment of women of color, and diversity and inclusion. Timia wants us to dig deeper into the narratives that have been written for the global majority. With meaningful conversations on colorism we can begin to cultivate global transformation of thought.
Maytal Eyal: Revolutionizing Mental Health
PhD in Counseling Psychology
Maytal Eyal is currently completing her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Maytal has been trained as a therapist in a variety of settings, including a community mental health center, a Veteran’s Affairs (VA) outpatient clinic, and two college counseling centers.
As a certified yoga instructor, Maytal is drawn to psychological practices that focus on integrating the mind and body. For the last several years she has focused on pioneering a mind-body wellness program that has been implemented in elementary, middle, and high schools across the Austin Independent School District.
Prior to earning her Ph.D., Maytal received a specialized degree in Crisis and Trauma Studies in the Middle East. Additionally, she spent two years as a research assistant investigating attachment styles within romantic relationships. For these two years, Maytal traveled around the U.S. interviewing individuals and couples about their relationship patterns.
Maytal’s amalgamation of experiences in the mental health sphere have enabled her to develop a unique lens within the field. Her current interests lie in developing creative and inclusive mental health models. She believes in the power of preventive health care and seeks to create programs that take an innovative approach to mental health and wellness.
Pooja Trivedi: Designing with Green Intention
Graduated with a degree in Biomedical Engineering
Pooja Trivedi is a UT Austin Biomedical Engineering Graduate. On campus, Pooja has been involved with Projects with Underserved Communities, water conservation research through the President's Award for Global Learning, Student Engineering Council, and Texas Orange Jackets. These experiences have led her to appreciate the social and environmental impact engineering can have.
Additionally, this past summer, Pooja worked at Apple as an R&D Recycling Innovation Engineer, tasked with tackling the company's electronic waste problems. Pooja is very excited to be discussing with the community what it was that she learned from these experiences and how the community can change the face of product design to become more environmentally friendly.
Michael Pyrcz: A Professor’s Secret Weapon
Professor at University of Texas at Austin
Michael Pyrcz is the Associate Professor in the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, with an assignment in the Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences. At the University of Texas, Michael teaches and supervises research on subsurface data analytics, geostatistics and machine learning. In addition, Michael is the Principal Investigator for the College of Natural Sciences, which is the University of Texas at Austin, freshman research initiative in energy data analytics and also teaches widely in the energy industry. Before joining the University of Texas at Austin, Michael conducted and led research on reservoir data analytics and modeling for 13 years with Chevron’s Energy Technology Company. He became an enterprise-wide subject matter expert, advising and mentoring on workflow development and best practice. Michael has written over 45 peer-reviewed publications, an open source Python package (GeostatsPy at https://pypi.org/project/geostatspy/), and a textbook on spatial data analytics with Oxford University Press. He is currently an associate editor with Computers and Geosciences, and is on the editorial board member for Mathematical Geosciences.
Michael is a supporter of open education to remove barriers and support scientific literacy. He promotes open education to support his students, working professionals, and anyone else in data analytics and machine learning for spatial science and engineering problems on Twitter (follow him as @GeostatsGuy, https://twitter.com/GeostatsGuy), and with his YouTube channel (subscribe to GeostatsGuy Lectures, https://www.youtube.com/c/GeostatsGuyLectures) and GitHub account (follow him as GeostatsGuy, https://github.com/GeostatsGuy). For more information go to www.michaelpyrcz.com.
As you can see, we have many very exciting speakers giving talks on a wide diversity of topics. There will be something interesting for everyone, and we think that this conference will truly be like none other. Be sure to check out our Facebook page and keep September 26th, 2020 reserved for this amazing event!
Until next time we connect,
- TEDxUTAustin