TEDxCollegeoftheCanyons will bring Santa Clarita into the light of the future and demonstrate the talent and vigor we have in this valley.

On April 19, 2014, TEDxCollegeoftheCanyons will host its second annual conference, this year following the theme of “Perspectives.”

The event is happening at the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center from 9am to 3pm.

Seven speakers have been selected to speak at the event with topics ranging from the intersection of Biology and art to America’s obsession with death.

Students can purchase tickets at the College of the Canyons Office of Student Development.  Check the College of the Canyons website for current hours.  Each ticket is $20 and you must provide a valid student ID ( the $20 ticket also applies to any highschool or college student besides students affiliated with College of the Canyons, but they must provide their respective school ID). Must be cash or check if purchased through ASG. Limit two tickets per student.

Community members can purchase  tickets online through the College of the Canyons website.  Each ticket is $50. Limit one ticket per person.

Speakers

Charles Chase

Charles Chase manages the Revolutionary Technology Programs organization for the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. The organization’s charter is to create, mature, and transition a broad range of disruptive technologies with significant Lockheed Martin system impact. Technology focus areas include: power and propulsion systems; RF and optical meta-materials; cognitive and physiological human performance monitoring; new sensor modalities; adaptive and bio-inspired structures; and plasma flow control devices. He recently won the Lockheed Martin Innovate the Future contest with “Power from Low Speed Wind”, and was a semifinalist in the Buckminster Fuller Challenge with “Bio-Inspired Morphing” to eliminate design stagnation. He presented his organization’s work on compact fusion power and propulsion at the 2013 Google “Solve for event. He was a low observable engineer on the F-117A production program and has also worked for the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company as an electromagnetics group lead. He is a co-founder of CBH Technologies, a start-up developing next generation lighting technology and holds numerous patents.

Annette E. Craven

Annette E. Craven, Ph.D. is a first generation high school, college, and doctoral graduate, currently Director of the Doctor of Business Administration program at University of the Incarnate Word. In addition to achievements in the non-profit, corporate, and government sectors, she has also held the highest faculty governance positions in higher education. She is also well-known internationally for her national Baldrige service, leadership service, and accomplishments in creating scholarly venues for researchers. Annette has spoken to international audiences about the Changing Human Perspective each professional experiences and the lessons they learn as they progress Through the decades of life: the Terrible Teens, the Tremulous Twenties, the Thunderous Thirties, the Fearful Forties, the Fantastic Fifties, and the Sassy Sixties.

David C. Andrus

David C. Andrus has been a Professor of Political Science at College of the Canyons (COC) in Santa Clarita, California since 2002. At COC, Professor Andrus has served as Vice-President of the Academic Senate, Chair of the Senate’s Policy Review Committee and currently as Chair of the Department of Political Science. He has also served as the founding President of the full-time faculty association’s political action committee.
Professor Andrus holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from California State University, Los Angeles with an emphasis on International Affairs, as well as a Juris Doctorate from Southwestern University School of Law. He has worked for a political consulting firm where he served as a Political Organizer and Field Director for United States congressional campaigns; political researcher; and as an international election observer and poll center manager on behalf of the United States State Department for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). He has led a political/education delegation to Colombia on behalf of a non-governmental conflict resolution organization. Professor Andrus has also headed a municipal public labor association where he headed collective bargaining efforts and participated in state mediation and conflict resolution. He is a former member of the United States Army and is a native of Southern California.

Frank Oviedo

Frank Oviedo is the Assistant City Manager for the City of Santa Clarita and brings more than 15 years of management experience to his current role.

Prior to coming to Santa Clarita, Frank served as City Manager of Wildomar in Riverside County. In his four years with Wildomar, he successfully balanced three consecutive budgets, developed the city’s first comprehensive economic development work plan, helped secure millions in grants funds for transit, negotiated the city’s solid waste contracts, worked with the City Council to develop a plan to support the city’s future infrastructure needs, and implemented an economic development roundtable to develop a strategy for long-term community sustainability.

Prior to his time in Wildomar Frank was deputy city manager in the City of Elk Grove. In the late 1990’s he worked for the City of Santa Clarita in the finance and parks and recreation departments where he learned “the Santa Clarita way” of effectively and efficiently managing a city. He brought Santa Clarita’s philosophy to subsequent jobs, while gaining experience as a manager in the public sector. In 2013, Frank returned as the Assistant City Manager for Los Angeles County’s third largest city.

Mr. Oviedo received his B.A. from Fresno State University and his M.P.A. from the Arizona State University School of Public Affairs. He has served on several not-for-profit boards and guest lectured at numerous universities. In addition to all of his work accomplishments, he is a world traveler, husband, and father of two.

Jane Skeeter

Jane Skeeter is CEO and Founder of UltraGlas, Inc., the leading manufacturer of designed architectural and performance glass and glass tile. Headquartered in Chatsworth, CA, the company is world renowned for its artistic and architectural glass innovation and installations. It offers a full complement of glass fabrication techniques and processes that encompass everything from flooring to ceilings and most items in between. The company’s most recent innovations include the patented UltraGlas-E – an environment-minded product made from salvaged glass diverted from landfill – and BIPV (Building Integrated Photo Voltaic) glass panels that clad the exterior of a building while transforming sunlight into electricity to power the building.

Skeeter is a licensed General and Glazing Contractor and Certified Interior Designer. She holds a California Lifetime Teaching Credential and has taught adult and college-level courses in a variety of design and glass-related topics. She is a graduate of UCLA’s MDE program and the NAWBO Peak Leadership Academy, and is a USGBC LEED Accredited Professional. She is also a member of numerous professional trade organizations and is an active supporter of community non-profits, serving on the boards of The Boys and Girls Club, Val*Pac, VICA, Valley Economic Alliance, West Hills Hospital, Woodbury University and NAWBO-LA.

Skeeter’s other accomplishments and awards include: Past President of NAWBO-LA, National Association of Women Business Owners, SFVBJ’s Women in Business CEO of the Year and Business Woman of the Decade, NAWBO/Wells Fargo National Trailblazer Award. Two Crystal Achievements Awards from the National Glass Association Best of Boutique Award from Hospitality Design Magazine.

Lisa Solis

Lisa Solis DeLong RN is the co-founder of Justin Time Children’s House, an art based grief center for children and families experienced in the death of a loved one. She is a mother, registered nurse, bereavement facilitator, author and inspirational speaker. Her memoir, BLOOD Brothers, was released in 2011 and is touching the hearts of thousands of readers from laypersons to nursing students. Lisa’s first-born son, Justin, died at the age of 15, after a ten-year remission from leukemia, then six years later her youngest son, Jacob, was also diagnosed with leukemia. Jacob has completed treatments and is now a healthy teenager. Lisa is currently creating her second book, Getting Along With Grief, a family grief guide. She co-hosts Death Café Santa Clarita, a monthly gathering, as part of a global social franchise promoting awareness about death related issues. Lisa lives in Santa Clarita with her husband of 30 years, two daughters, ages 25 and 20, her 14-year-old son and her ten-pound “therapist” Poochini. She enjoys hiking, turning broken items into beautiful mosaics and most of all ballroom dancing.

Kelly Cude

Dr. Kelly Cude joined the College of the Canyons (COC) Biological Sciences Department in January 2007 and has taught a multitude of courses ranging from microbiology to molecular genetics and cancer biology. Dr. Cude grew up in a coastal community near Monterey Bay California where she attended community college before transferring to the University of California, Davis (B.S. Genetics, 1998) and the University of Washington, Seattle (Ph.D. Molecular & Cellular Biology, 2004).

Her scientific field of study (and personal passion!) is cancer biology. While Dr. Cude has worked in many areas of cancer biology, including Phase II Clinical Trials at the National Cancer Institute, gene sequencing and arrays, and signal transduction, one of her favorite ways to spend time is looking at cells through the microscope: specifically, observing the structural and genetic changes in cancer cells by fluorescence and confocal microscopy.

Following her PhD studies, Dr. Cude took a full time teaching position at Western Washington University, before transferring to COC in 2007. One of her goals as an instructor is to help her students to “change their perspectives” of the living world around them through the use of microscopes. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, gardening, and making stained glass art work.

In the Fall of 2013, along with her co-presenter Professor Kelly Burke, Dr. Cude exhibited a collection of micrographs at their collaborative art show ‘Life as Art” in the COC Gallery. The exhibit is now on permanent display in the Biological Sciences Department at COC.

Kelly Burke

Kelly C. Burke is a Professor of Biology at College of the Canyons where she is the Lead Faculty for Microbiology. Professor Burke has been at COC since 2002 and has been a full-time faculty member since 2005. She has been interested in the microscopic world since first looking into a microscope in the third grade, and in photography since about the same time. Along with her co-presenter Dr. Kelly Cude, Professor Burke exhibited a collection of micrographs at their collaborative art show ‘Life as Art” in the COC Gallery, Fall 2013.

Professor Burke earned her B.S. in Biology with a concentration in Marine Science from the University of Tampa, and her M.S. in Microbiology from the University of South Florida, where her favorite course was Electron Microscopy. Originally from Colorado she lived in MD, FL, NJ, and FL again prior to moving back west to California. Professor Burke is an active member of the AAUW-Santa Clarita Valley branch and is passionate about science education.