TEDxPSU, Penn State’s annual local TED event, announced its speakers this week for the conference, themed “Face to Face.” This year’s conference will be held Sunday, February 11.

Brendan Bosnan

Brosnan is a senior finance and entrepreneurship major who spent three years on Penn State’s football team before suffering a career-ending injury. He co-founded a six-figure retail business while maintaining his rigorous schedule as a student-athlete and a top GPA.

Anna Leach

Leach works as a data analyst for Ohio State and an instructional designer for a sales training company. She recently graduated from the Master of Learning Technology program and has work experience in a number of fields, ranging from restaurant service to higher education.

Meade Lewis

Lewis learned how to code when he was just a fourth grader, was the Chief Information Technology Officer of multiple oil firms by the age of 21, and co-founded his own analytics company when he was 22.

KC Miller

Miller’s list of accomplishments is extremely impressive for a high school senior. He started the Keystone Coalition for Advancing Sex Education, was awarded the 2017 Young Hero Award by the National Liberty Museum for his human rights activism, and will attend the University of Pennsylvania next fall.

Lisa Freeman

Freeman is a social worker from Pittsburgh who’s passionate about social justice. One of her main goals as a social worker is to raise awareness about individuals’ cultural identities, but she also works part-time as a first responder.

Stephanie Orme

Orme attended Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications and is a Ph.D. candidate for her work studying feminism in video games. She’s been published in communication journals and books and will serve as the vice chair of the Game Studies Division of the National Communication Association.

Sonya Begay

Begay is a member of the Táchii’nii” Native American clan and is a registered member of the Navajo Nation. Her research surrounding the development of the atomic bombs that ended World War II found that residents of Los Alamos in New Mexico dealt with problems surrounding mining gold and lacking clean drinking water due to the Manhattan Project.

Shreyash Manak Bohara

Bohara is a male feminist who hopes to improve gender inequality throughout the world. He left his hometown of Jaipur, India to attend Penn State in the summer of 2014 and was an integral part of developing a platform for sexual assault victims to anonymously speak on their experiences in September 2017.

Yael Warshel

Warshel is the Assistant Professor for Telecommunications and Research Associate of the Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State. She’s fluent in five languages, has conducted field work in the Middle East & Sub-Saharan Africa, and has received three Top Doctoral Dissertation awards for her work in the communications and peace studies fields.

Douglas Herman

Herman founded Rough Cut Media, a non-profit organization that supports professional media outlets, and advocates for increasing the amount of media creation programming used in public schools. He also co-founded Rough Cut Schools to provide the same media support to public schools.

Talaya Waller

Waller is a marketing scholar and a branding expert who speaks internationally. She’s worked with several executives and public figures from companies based in the United States and overseas and has work experience in government relations and entrepreneurship.

Kelsey Wettig

Wettig graduated from Penn State in December 2017, receiving her degree in Advertising/PR. She lives with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and joined Penn State’s mental health awareness club to speak about her life with GAD. She’s currently developing a website with the goal of generating constructive conversations about mental health disorders.

Nalini Krishnankutty

Krishnankutty is a writer, researcher, and speaker who grew up in Mumbai and received her bachelor’s degree in engineering there. She came to Penn State as a graduate student and earned her Ph.D. in chemical engineering.

Dan Ralphs

Ralphs has spent his life working to unlock and analyze people’s dreams. His ability to help people discover and pursue their dreams is unparalleled and he founded the Dream School, a company that helps people and corporations discover and chase their dreams.