TEDxOshkosh had a great collection of presenters on November 4. From this page, you can learn more about our 2017 speakers and watch their entire talk on video.
Table of Contents: This Year's Talks
(Click/tap any speaker's name to scroll down to their bio and talk details)
Myths, Misconceptions, Mysteries and Mistakes....of the Sex Trade
Javad Ahmad - The Internet of Everything
Science fiction has become reality, and devices in every corner of our lives are now adding Internet connectivity and intelligence to provide them with additional functionality that they could never have in isolation. This talk will explore how what once was fiction has become real, and will discuss the implications of this connectivity today, and into the future.
Javad Ahmad Biography
Javad Ahmad is the President / COO at Oracular IS LLC,, and has been involved in the information technology industry for 24 years. He focuses his expertise on translating day-to-day business and human needs into information technology strategy and implementation.
He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and has obtained post-graduate education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Ken Arneson - The Future of Aging
Aging today looks much different than it did a generation ago. Looking to the future, predicted patterns of aging might even be incomprehensible to people from a couple of generations ago. This forward-looking talk will explore ongoing and upcoming trends that will continue to change the face of aging in our world.
Ken Arneson Biography
Ken Arneson is the President/CEO of Evergreen Retirement Community, and has been in senior services for 30 years with experience ranging from in-hospital settings, for profit, and the not for profit sectos.
Ken has a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with concentrations in Marketing and Management from Minot State University in Minot North Dakota. He also holds a Masters in Public Administration with an emphasis in Health Care Administration from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
Atiba R. Ellis - Using Memes to Break Out of Voter Fraud Talk
Voter fraud talk has dominated our last two elections, and policy makers and voters have divergent views of the problem. This talk will show us how the lens of memes can help us focus on the first principles of voting and the evidence around what makes voting effective.
Atiba R. Ellis Biography
Atiba R. Ellis is a Professor of Law at West Virginia University and will be the Boden Visiting Professor of Law at Marquette University this fall.
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Sharon Hulce - The Story of Courage: Lessons from the Wizard of Oz
What kind of lessons can be drawn from a movie? Hulce believes quite a few can be found in the hit classic Wizard of Oz.
Sharon Hulce Biography
Sharon Hulce is President/CEO of Employment Resource Group Inc. (ERG) and is a 21-year veteran of the Executive Search industry. Sharon has served on numerous for profit and not-for-profit boards. She is a proud inducted member of The Pinnacle Society, a consortium of the top 75 recruiters in the country.
Charlie Krebs - Everyone is a Performer
Although we may not realize it, we're always 'performing'. This talk will explore ways to improve communication by bringing awareness of 'performance' to a higher level of consciousness.
Charlie Krebs Biography
Krebs is a professor of theatre and communication at Lakeland University, where he produces plays, musicals and comedy improv. Raised in upstate New York, his path to Wisconsin led him to colleges and universities in North Carolina, Kentucky, Louisiana, Georgia, Michigan and Illinois.
Curt Kubiak - Manufacturing Healthcare
This talk will explore opportunities for healthcare systems to improve their service delivery - and lower costs - by learning from successful manufacturing models.
Curt Kubiak Biography
Curt Kubiak is the founder and CEO of NOVO Health, and is also the CEO of the Orthopedic & Sports Institute. With a background in manufacturing, he brings a unique perspective to the administration of healthcare to deliver industry-leading pricing, outcomes, service and patient experience.
Nina Maybe - Radical Vulnerability: Choosing Authenticity as an Act of Resistance
To be vulnerable is to be authentic. To be authentic is to risk being unwanted. This talk will explore the pathway to choosing vulnerability
Nina Maybe Biography
Nina Maybe is a performer, poet, teaching artist, and professional lunatic who has been engaging the public in more than a decade of social experiments, art shows, and interactive theatrical productions.
Matt McVeigh - What Can Musical Performance Teach Us About Servant Leadership?
With the assistance of a quartet of musical performers, this talk will explore lessons in servant leadership found in music performance.
Matt McVeigh Biography
Matt McVeigh teaches at Fond du Lac High School with a passion for developing kids’ potential through music. He is in demand throughout the state as both a performer and teacher, and loves exploring the connected nature of music and human development. Matt has been recognized by the Wisconsin State Music Association as both a creative and innovative educator, and his students have been recognized for musical excellence.
Jonathan Patz - Climate Change is Affecting Our Health. Is There a Cure?
Public health is being impacted by climate change via many pathways - from alterations in infectious disease transmission to water-source compromise, malnutrition, air pollution, and other factors. This talk will include recent analyses that show how mitigating global warming provides extensive health opportunities, as well as major savings in healthcare costs.
Jonathan Patz Biography
Jonathan Patz, MD, MPH, is Professor & John P. Holton Chair in Health and the Environment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also directs the Global Health Institute.
He co-chaired the health expert panel of the first Congressionally mandated US National Assessment on Climate Change and was a convening lead author for the international Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. For 14 years, Patz was a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Patz is the author of nearly 100 peer-reviewed papers plus multiple reports, two co-edited textbooks and an encyclopedia on global environmental health.
Joseph Peterson - T. rex and T-Birds: Patterns of Evolution by Automotive Analogy
Cars and fossils in the same presentation? This talk will examine biological evolution over geologic time seen by analogy through trends in the automotive industry.
Joseph Peterson Biography
Dr. Joseph Peterson is an Associate Professor of Geology at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, where he conducts research in vertebrate paleontology. He earned his Ph.D. at Northern Illinois University in 2010 and has studied dinosaur preservation and behavior in the rocks of Utah, Montana, and Wyoming.
Carl Reible III - Family Dairy Farms: Drawing from the Past, Looking Towards the Future
Even though Wisconsin is known as America's Dairyland, it doesn't guarantee success for those who dedicate their lives to producing top quality food. In this talk, a farmer shares the scoop.
Carl Reible III Biography
Carl (Chubbs) Reible III, along with his father, mother and two brothers, owns and operates Reible Family Farms in Farmersville, WI where he manages their herd of 340 dairy cows. He is a graduate of the Lakeshore Technical College’s Farm Business Management program. He serves as Treasurer of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Knowles. Chubbs and his wife Emily live in Theresa and are welcoming their first child to their family in October 2017.
Tracey Robertson - Black Girls Aren't Magic
Like much of the country, Northeast Wisconsin is browning, but where are the opportunities for girls of color? This talk will explore how as a community we can come together and create magic in their lives.
Tracey Robertson Biography
Tracey Robertson is co-founder and Executive Director of Fit Oshkosh, Inc., a grassroots, nonprofit organization located in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, whose mission is to promote social transformation through Color-Brave conversations, education, advocacy, and research to achieve race equity and justice within our community.
Tracy Slagter - No Such Thing as a Free Lunch: Politics for Eaters
Not many people these days like talking about politics. This presentation will approach the topic of food as a possible springboard for productive political conversation.
Tracy Slagter Biography
Tracy H. Slagter is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Iowa in 2006, and has taught a wide array of courses on European and European Union politics, environmental politics, food politics, and international law.
Nancy Yarbrough - Myths, Misconceptions, Mysteries and Mistakes....of the Sex Trade
Mostly out of the public eye, sex trafficking and the sex trade industry is substantially more common than we might think. This talk will explore the reality.
Nancy Yarbrough Biography
Yarbrough is the Executive Director and founder of Fresh Start Learning Inc. She has served the Milwaukee community and surrounding counties for over 20+ years in the areas such as banking, adult education, advocacy/supportive services, professionalism skills, as a child care service training provider for adult learners and activist in pursuing legal rights for women in the workforce.
