We are delighted to have the following speakers and performers share the stage for our 2013 TEDxMaui event.
Paul Atkins
From Antarctica to the tropical Pacific, Emmy-winning filmmaker Paul Atkins has documented the world’s wildlife and cultures for National Geographic, the BBC, PBS, and numerous feature films. Paul is passionate about the preservation of the natural world, especially in his ecologically vulnerable island home, Hawai‘i. His first National Geographic special, the multiple Emmy-winning Hawai‘i: Strangers in Paradise, dramatized the threat of alien species invasion; and Michel Cousteau’s Voyage to Kure, on which Paul served as director of photography, convinced President George W. Bush to designate the Northwestern Hawai‘ian Islands as a National Monument in 2006.
Kālepa Baybayan
Kālepa Baybayan is captain and navigator of the Hawaiian deep-sea voyaging canoes Hōkūleʻa, Hawaiʻiloa, and Hōkūalakaʻi. A participant in the Polynesian voyaging renaissance since 1975, Kālepa is the past site director for Honuakai, a learning center of ‘Aha Pūnana Leo. This nonprofit organization uses the double-hulled voyaging canoe Hōkūalaka‘i to teach the Hawaiian language to participants, along with the Oceanic tradition of deep-sea navigation. Kālepa is navigator in residence at the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai‘i, developing curricula and materials that engage people of all ages in the indigenous art of celestial wayfinding.
Michael Bernard Beckwith
Michael Bernard Beckwith is the founder and spiritual director of the Agape University of Transformational Studies and Leadership, and founder of the Agape University of Transformational Studies and Leaders d in Los Angeles. An international speaker and meditation teacher, he originated the Life Visioning ProcessTM. His books include: Life Visioning, Spiritual Liberation~Fulfilling Your Soul’s Potential, Inspirations of the Heart, Forty Day Mind Fast Soul Feast, A Manifesto of Peace, and TranscenDance. He has appeared on The Oprah Show, Larry King Live, Tavis Smiley, and his own PBS special, The Answer Is You.
Rickie Byars Beckwith
As music and arts director of Agape International Spiritual Center, Rickie Byars Beckwith directs the 200-member Agape International Choir, and has performed at appearances with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, at Green Festivals across America, and at countless peace concerts. She and husband Michael Bernard Beckwith have created a catalog of songs that use music’s power for transformational healing. Rickie and the Agape Choir have collaborated with Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Will.I.Am, Niki Haris and Brenda Marie Eager; and are heard throughout North America, Europe, Africa—and all places in between.
Jim Channon
Called the business world’s “first corporate shaman” by Fortune magazine, Jim Channon is a social architect, philosopher, and futurist. A retired lieutenant colonel, he created the First Earth Battalion manual, and was lead futurist and educational technologist for the U.S. Army; his story was chronicled in the film Men Who Stare at Goats. Recognized worldwide as a pioneer of corporate visioning, Jim has been a trusted strategic designer for ten of the world’s largest companies. A Hawai‘i resident, Jim focuses on “social architecture”—his term for wrapping people in an ambiance that includes nature, beauty and play.
Sean Connelly
Sean Connelly is the author of Hawai‘i Futures, an online resource for sustainable urbanism in Hawai‘i. Born and raised on O‘ahu, Sean earned a B.A. in environmental urban design and a doctorate of architecture from UH Mānoa. He is a research collaborator at the Columbia University Laboratory for Architectural Broadcasting, a research unit devoted to developing new forms of communication in architecture and urbanism. Based in Honolulu and New York, Sean brings his knowledge of Hawaiian culture and ecology to the conversation to empower communities, restore ecosystems, and secure local abundance for future generations.
WenLu Duffy
WenLu started violin at age six, and later added piano, guitar, bass, and ‘ukulele to her repertoire. Now sixteen, she has played at many popular gigs around the island, including Zeptember, a Led Zeppelin tribute show at Mulligans on the Blue. She has opened for such stellar performers as Murray Thorne, Shea Derrick of Freeradicals Projekt, and MothXP. WenLu also performs with the Maui Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, Maui Pops Orchestra, and the Honolulu Youth Symphony, and enjoys playing every type of music, from Vivaldi to Led Zeppelin.
Alex Grey
Visionary artist Alex Grey began his career as a medical illustrator at Harvard Medical School, but is best known for paintings that present the physical and subtle anatomy of an individual in the context of cosmic, biological and technological evolution. His work has been featured in Time and Newsweek, on the Discovery Channel, and as album art for TOOL, the Beastie Boys and Nirvana.
Kamea Hadar
Kamea Hadar is the lead director of Pow Wow Hawai‘i, an annual gathering of artists from around the world that is transforming industrial space in Honolulu. Kamea grew up in the worlds of his Japanese/Korean mother and Israeli father. As a child, he took classes at the Honolulu Art Academy and University of Hawai‘i, and later studied art at the Sorbonne in Paris, the University of St. Louis in Madrid, and the University of Tel Aviv, Israel. His work has evolved from traditional oil-on-canvas photorealism to surreal portraits that strip their subjects to their purest forms, and aim to communicate more with less. Kamea is the youngest board member of the Hawai‘i Arts Alliance and resides in Honolulu.
Graham Hill
“Designpreneur” Graham Hill founded the eco-blog TreeHugger.com to help, he says, “push sustainability into the mainstream.” Purchased by Discovery in 2007, Treehugger.com remains one of the most trafficked green blogs, reaching more than 5 million visitors per month. Graham’s latest venture, LifeEdited, designs space-efficient buildings, products and lifestyles to yield more money, health and happiness with less stuff, space and energy. The New York Times called one project “the apartment of the future.” Graham lives in New York and Maui, where he schemes daily about how to help humanity avoid rapid extinction.
Quayle Hodek
Called one of the “7 Hottest CEOs “ by Treehugger. com and one of Red Herring’s “Top 25 Entrepreneurs under 35,” Quayle Hodek is a pioneer in the field of renewable energy. As the CEO of Renewable Choice Energy, Quayle has been on a mission to convince companies that switching to renewable energy is the right thing to do, for the planet and the bottom line.
Archie Kalepa
Recently inducted into the Hawai‘i Watermen’s Hall of Fame, fifth-generation Lahaina resident and Lahainaluna graduate Archie Kalepa is one of Hawai‘i’s greatest ocean sports pioneers. A legendary big-wave surfer, Archie is one of a handful of men able to tow surf the enormous waves that break on Maui’s north shore. He’s also a leader in the development of innovative safety equipment and rescue techniques using Jet Skis and water sleds. Archie is a key player in the push to modernize and innovate stand-up paddling, and is dedicated to resurrecting interest in the traditional Hawaiian sport of canoe surfing.
Brian Kennedy
President and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Brian Kennedy earned his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His graduate work led to the discovery that sirtuins— enzymes coordinating cell metabolism—are key to the aging process. Brian has published in Science, Nature, Cell and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; and served on the National Institutes of Health Cellular Mechanisms of Aging and Development study section. He consults for biotech and pharmaceutical companies, and is researching aging in the Pacific Rim.
Garrett Lisi
After getting his Ph.D. in physics from UC San Diego, Garrett moved to Maui, seeking an optimum balance between surfing and his theoretical research. While pursuing an unanswered question at the heart of Quantum Field Theory, he began to develop what he called “An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything,” which proposed a unified field theory combining particle physics and Albert Einstein’s theory of gravitation. His story and work have been featured at TED, in Outside Magazine, The New Yorker, Surfer, and recently in Scientific American.
Sherry Lynn
Sherry Lynn received a BFA from Parsons School of Design, and art-therapy certification from the New School for Social Research. She has a master’s in art therapy and transpersonal counseling psychology from Naropa University, Boulder; has led programs in conflict resolution, art therapy, and transpersonal counseling psychology at universities; and conducted workshops for social-service professionals in the U.S. and Australia. One of her gifts is to teach parents and professionals to create and use stories therapeutically with children. She teaches the Nurturing Families of Hawai‘i curriculum for the Institute for Family Enrichment, and runs the Pono Parenting Program on Maui.
Makana
Born and raised in Hawai‘i, Makana is an acclaimed master of Hawaiian slack-key guitar, a singer, composer, and cultural ambassador. He has performed in venues from Tianjin Opera House in China, to the White House, and was featured on multiple Grammy®-nominated albums. His focus is to honor tradition while exploring new perceptions. Makana is also active in building community awareness about food and nutrition, land, social-engineering strategies, health and spiritual growth. He received worldwide attention for his poetic protest in 2011 at the APEC World Leaders’ Dinner hosted by the Obamas. His hobbies include sowing clarity through philosophy on his blog, Mindmints.com.
Next Level Theater Productions
Rachel Deboer leads this team of dedicated dancers, body painters, aerialists, puppeteers, costume designers, filmmakers, musicians, fire dancers, and photographers. As Next Level, they create transcendent black-light shows based on ancient cultural and mythological stories from around the world. Based on Maui, Next Level Theater educates the world about Hawaiian culture, making the invisible visible through astonishing black-light illusions and simple storytelling.
Jenelle Peterson
Believing that “being an inspiration to children is the most progressive political act of all,” Jenelle Peterson has taught in classrooms as diverse as Compton and Maui. She attended the New School for Social Research in New York City, receiving both a masters of science in teaching and a certification in secondary education. Janelle currently teaches fourth-grade social studies at Maui Preparatory Academy.
Kim Rosen
Kim Rosen, MFA, is the author of Saved by a Poem: The Transformative Power of Words. Combining her devotion to poetry with her background in spirituality and psychology, she has touched listeners around the world with the power of spoken poems to heal and inspire individuals and communities. She is the co- creator of four CDs of spoken poems and music, and her work has been featured in O Magazine, The Sun, The New Yorker and Spirituality & Health Magazine.
Lauren C. Roth Venu
The founder and president of Roth Ecological Design International LLC, Lauren C. Roth Venu has been a leader in integrated systems planning and ecological design for over eleven years. Her company provides consulting, project management, design/build and operational services for natural-systems technologies for storm-water and onsite wastewater treatment. As part of the design team, Lauren received a regional U.S. EPA award (2005) for the innovative and cost-saving design of a water feature at Hualālai Golf Course on Hawai‘i Island. Lauren is also cofounder of Ke Kai Ola Farms, a research and development 501(c) (3) nonprofit focused on sustainable saltwater bioremediation systems and integrated marine aquaculture techniques. Her clients include developers, government, architects, schools, and industry.