TEDxNicoletCollege is back! This year’s theme is Origin Stories: Reflections from Our Northwoods Community. Together, these reflections will blend to create a kaleidoscope of our beautifully intertwined histories, backgrounds, experiences, identities, and more.

Preliminary Speaker Order and Topics

1. Nate Sheppard - A personal story of creating his film and how stories shape a community.

2. Bob Martini – A history of the Clean Water Act (50th anniversary) and success in the Wisconsin River basin.

3. Bryn Lottig - Personal story of being a child of an alcoholic, but not following in her mother’s footsteps.

4. Matt Steingraber - The journey of building character for all members of the community from children to leaders.

5. Woodzick - The importance of vocabulary for self identify and representation, how to approach educating the community, and the intersections and parallels in neurodiversity, gender, and non-binary populations.

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6. Amber Hammond - Invisible disabilities; what they are, how prevalent they are in our community; statistics, and stories of chronic disabilities.

7. Andrew Johnson - A personal origin story, growing up queer in the Northwoods and what led him to return to the community.

8. Saga Erickson - Rethinking how we live. A personal story of approaching life and work in an unconventional sustainable manner.

9. Debbie Merkel - A personal story of overcoming hopelessness; what hope is, how to obtain it, and how to help others find it.

10. Dan Hagen -  Overcoming fear and depression by embracing failure; inspiring personal story about how he faced his fears head on.