TEDxLSU announces speakers – First six speakers revealed for March event

TEDxLSU returns this March for its second go-round and organizers announced today six of the 16 speakers slated to give “the talk of their lives” in Baton Rouge.

Last year’s event saw a sold-out crowd at Swine Palace for the first-ever TEDx conference in Baton Rouge. This year’s conference, set for March 29, moves to the Shaver Theatre in the Music and Dramatic Arts Building on LSU’s campus. Tickets go on sale Feb. 11. Find out more at tedxlsu.com.

TEDxLSU organizers plan to announce additional speakers later this week and next Tuesday.

The 2014 conference also includes demonstrations on the front lawn of the Music and Dramatic Arts Building, including a mobile exhibit on subsea technology, a program establishing tree seedling nurseries at area schools and 3D scanning technologies.

With the theme this year being “enact,” the announced speakers include:

The former drug dealer and gang leader from Old South Baton Rouge turned his life around and co-founded Stop The Killing, Inc., an anti-violence non-profit. Reed is a youth counselor and radio and TV host; he’s also launched a documentary film company focused on gang and drug violence.

Graves is the chair of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana, working with the state to improve the deteriorating coastline and helping coastal areas recover from storm damage. The CPRA will soon be housed at the Water Institute’s Baton Rouge campus that was announced late in 2013.

His home-grown non-profit, Front Yard Bikes, started as a way to help kids in his Old South neighborhood repair their bikes. Soon, it turned into a community project in the area just north of LSU, with LaFont helping empower the neighborhood youth and providing a safe haven for positive afterschool activities.

This LSU professor is dedicating her time to study and raise awareness about the causes of Type 2 diabetes, a disease with a huge impact on Louisiana.

Broome went from teaching math at Prescott Middle through Teach for America to establishing the first boarding school for at-risk youth in Louisiana. THRIVE opened in 2012 in East Baton Rouge Parish, offering sleeping quarters, meals and an excellent education for struggling students.

This world-traveler, originally from Jordan, is committed to the idea of creating global and multi-cultural businesses in Louisiana. Ghawi (pictured above) currently manages training programs for IBM’s new Baton Rouge services center.