Speakers – TEDxSwarthmore

	JOHN ALSTON – “Are We Good Enough for Chester?”Associate Professor of Music John Alston created a community of strivers and seekers in the Chester Children’s Chorus, which he founded with seven boys in 1994. Now with more than 100 boys and girls of all ages, the chorus makes far more than a joyous sound. His efforts to expand upon the successful model of the chorus culminated with the opening of the Chester Upland School of the Arts in 2008.
	MARY JEAN CHAN ’12 - ”A Tapestry of Narratives: Conversations through Poetry”A Political Science Honors Major and English Literature minor from Hong Kong, China. Passionate about heterodox economics, the intersection between politics and poetry, and other forms of literary expression. She is currently collaboratively working on organizing a conference entitled: “The Progress Paradox: Critical Perspectives on Development”, to be held at Swarthmore College from 8-16 April this year. Mary Jean was selected through the TEDxSwarthmore Student Challenge to join the speaker lineup as a student representative of Swarthmore College.
	REBECCA CHOPP - “Moral Imagination, Liberal Arts and the Good Society”Since joining Swarthmore’s community as its president in 2009, Rebecca Chopp has focused her work on the College’s role in cultivating a global intellectual community that will cultivate innovative and ethical leaders in a variety of fields and endeavors. Chopp, a well-known scholar of progressive religious movements in American culture, has recently focused her research on changing structures and cultures of higher education, the role of liberal arts in a democratic society, and religion and higher education.
	MARK KUPERBERG – “The Case for Big Government: The Case Americans Don’t Want to Hear”Professor of Economics. Mark Kuperberg, who joined Swarthmore’s faculty in 1977, teaches popular courses on macroeconomics. His main areas of interest also include public finance and law and economics.
	STEPHEN LANG ’73 – “On Beyond Glory: The Architecture of Acting”Actor and playwright. Stephen Lang ’73 currently stars in FOX TV’s “Terra Nova” and is perhaps best well-known for his role as Col. Quaritch in “Avatar.” Other memorable roles in film include “Last Exit to Brooklyn” and “Tombstone,” as well as “Death of a Salesman” and “A Few Good Men” on Broadway, among others. In “Beyond Glory,” his one-man play based on the war experiences of eight Medal of Honor recipients, he perhaps most notably demonstrates his commitment to making art both for entertainment and social value.
	CORINNA LATHAN ’88 – “Innovation, Empathy, and the Future of Human-Machine Interaction”Founder and CEO of AnthroTronix, Inc. Corinna Lathan [’88]‘s work with children with disabilities has been featured in Forbes, Time, and the New Yorker, and has led to being named one of MIT Technology Review‘s “Top 100 World Innovators” and Fast Company‘s “Most Creative People in Business.” Lathan is also the founder of Keys to Empowering Youth, an engineering mentoring program for young girls.
	DONNA JO NAPOLI – “What Children Need to Read”Professor of Linguistics. An expert on language use, Donna Jo Napoli‘s teaching areas include syntax, morphology, and the structure of American Sign Language. She is also a prolific and award-winning author of books for children and young adults, including Mama Miti (2010) and A Treasury of Greek Mythology (2011).
	STEPHANIE NYOMBAYIRE ’08 – “Marketeers of Misery: The Never Ending Business of Fighting Poverty, Wars and Famines”Graduate student at the NYU Wagner School of Public Policy. During her freshman year at Swarthmore College, Stephanie Nyombayire ’08 co-founded the Genocide Intervention Network and reported on the Darfur crisis from the Chad-Sudan border. In 2007, she was honored by Glamour‘s Top Ten College Women and the Rwandan First Lady Jeanette Kagame for her work on Darfur.
	BARRY SCHWARTZ - “Why Justice Isn’t Enough”Dorwin P. Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action. Author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, Barry Schwartz’s work explores the social and psychological effects of free-market economic institutions on moral, social, and civic concerns. In his book Practical Wisdom (2011), he and co-author Kenneth Sharpe argue that without such wisdom, neither detailed rules nor clever incentives will be enough to solve the problems we face.
	PAUL STARR – “Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle over Health Care Reform”Professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University and co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect. Paul Starr received the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction and Bancroft Prize in American History for The Social Transformation of American Medicine (1982) and the 2005 Goldsmith Book Prize for The Creation of the Media (2004). His most recent book is Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle over Health Care Reform (2011). He is the parent of Abigail Starr ’13.
	AMY CHENG VOLLMER – “Creativity, Communication and Compassion: the Role of Science and Science Literacy”Professor of Biology. An authority on microbiology and biotechnology, Amy Cheng Vollmer focuses her research on bacterial stress response, particularly in prokaryotes such as E. coli. In addition to her teaching and research at Swarthmore, Vollmer is president of the Waksman Foundation for Microbiology.
	STEVE C. WANG - “180º”Associate Professor of Statistics. Steve Wang develops statistical methods for addressing questions in paleontology and evolutionary biology. He specializes in the study of the timing of mass extinctions. He is also interested in statistical graphics and visualization and statistical methods in baseball research.