Several local voices will share “ideas worth spreading” at the fifth TEDxStCloud. This year’s theme is “Embrace.”

The event will take place Thursday, October 14, 2021 at The Paramount Center for the Arts from 5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. The independently organized event, licensed by TED, is locally organized to bring the community together to share a TED-like experience. Some of the  best talks from TEDx events have gone on to be featured on TED.com and  garnered millions of views from audiences across the globe.

TEDxStCloud 2021 speakers include:

James Alberts — Pastor, social justice leader, and board member of ISAIAH MN. Alberts founded Higher Ground Church of God in Christ in 2001.  Alberts has been a key leader in forging St. Cloud’s Community Policing Agreement and focuses on ongoing community development.
Annette Atkins — An historian who uses letters, photos, shoes, art, chairs, census records, maps and other artifacts as keys to unlock the past, a past that is full of wonders and mysteries, stories and landscapes to be explored. She works from the belief that opening that door helps illuminate the past and the present. Atkins, a former professor, teaches that our history and our lives stand in such a close relationship to each other that reflecting on either one helps illuminate the other.
Mary Bruno – Artist and owner of Bruno Press letterpress print shop. From early days in her father’s workshop, Bruno learned her love for printing. She took that love to the next level when she graduated with a printmaking degree and took over her father’s shop. She describes her work as the sum of hand carved linoleum block plus handset wood and metal type plus wicked sharp wit.
Charles Eisenreich — Lifelong K-12 educator and administrator and former minor league baseball player, Eisenreich taught and coached  at several area schools and served as assistant principal at Tech High School as well as principal at Tech and Apollo High Schools.
John Harlander — Physicist and designer of optical instruments for astronomy and space physics including for NASA’s recently-launched Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite.
Niloufer Merchant — Psychologist, trauma expert, former SCSU faculty. Merchant specializes in diagnosing and treating mental health disorders related to trauma, PTSD, depression and anxiety. She incorporates holistic approaches, honoring the mind, body and spirit connection. She speaks Gujarati, Urdu and Hindi.
Pete Rogers — Expert in automation and robotic systems integration. Rogers brought more than 13 years in automation and robotics leadership when he accepted his most recent post in 2019 as Central McGowan’s vice president and general manager of automation.  
Robbyn Wacker – St. Cloud State University president and academician in gerontology and sociology. Wacker’s passion is to help create conditions that bring out the best in others and to advance the mission of higher education. She is a first-generation college student whose great-grandparents immigrated to the U.S. in search of a better life and settled in Colorado as farm laborers in the beet fields.

Tickets are on sale now through the Paramount Box Office at paramountarts.org.

For more  information about TEDxStCloud, visit www.TEDxStCloud.com and follow us on  FaceBook, Instagram and Twitter: TEDxStCloud.

About TEDx, x = independently organized event
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)

About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, often in the form of short talks delivered by leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED conferences, intimate TED Salons and thousands of independently organized TEDx events around the world. Videos of these talks are made available, free, on TED.com and other platforms. Audio versions of TED Talks are published to TED Talks Daily, available on all podcast platforms.

TED’s open and free initiatives for spreading ideas include TED.com, where new TED Talk videos are posted daily; TEDx, which licenses thousands of individuals and groups to host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; the TED Fellows program, which selects innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities; The Audacious Project, which surfaces and funds critical ideas that have the potential to impact millions of lives; TED Translators, which crowdsources the subtitling of TED Talks so that big ideas can spread across languages and borders; and the educational initiative TED-Ed. TED also offers TED@Work, a program that reimagines TED Talks for workplace learning. TED also has a growing library of original podcasts, including The TED Interview with Chris Anderson, WorkLife with Adam Grant, Far Flung with Saleem Reshamwala and How to Be a Human.

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