TEDxPaloAlto will take place on Sunday, April 2, at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto. The theme is Identity and will feature presentations from a diverse range of voices, including scientists, artists, authors and technology experts.

Qualities, beliefs, DNA, environment, experiences and choices make each of us unique. Commonalities and variances are established largely through identity and its possible interpretations. These different facets will be explored by speakers including:

Dr. Mehret Mandefro, President of Truth Aid which specializes in producing fiction and non-fiction films about social change; Desmond Richardson, the first African American Principal Dancer of American Ballet Theater; Nina Simon, Executive Director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History; actor Oak Onaodowan; and Ibtihaj Muhammad, a member of the U.S. Fencing Team, on Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential list and a 2016 Olympic medalist where she was the first American woman to compete in hijab.

Other presenters include Jonathan D. Trent, Ph.D., founder and director of the OMEGA Global Initiative (OGI), a non-profit dedicated to expanding global access to potable water, food from the ocean, and alternative energy; Dr. Marci Bowers, a pioneer in the field of Genital Reassignment Surgery; David Crane, a lecturer in Public Policy at Stanford University and president of Govern for California; Dr. Harry J. Saal, Executive Chair of Retrotope, Inc. a pharmaceutical startup; Leila Takayama, a human-robot interaction researcher, professor at University of California, Santa Cruz and founder of Hoku Labs; and David Hochschild who fills the environmental position on the five-member California Energy Commission.

TedxPaloAlto will also feature performances by percussive-dance phenomenon Rhythmic Circus and the Watsonville Taiko Group.

$99.

http://www.tedxpaloalto.com/