We are looking for the very best talent and stories that people in our local communities and beyond have to offer. Last year, all of our speakers were from Northern Nevada. In 2014, most of our speakers will be from Northern Nevada, but we will also showcase some important talks from people that live in other parts of our great country.

We are particularly interested in finding local talent – the best-of-the-best Reno and Northern Nevada has to offer. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design – so in 2014 we will put some entertainers on our stage! If you know a really talented singer, musician, band, comedian, actor or any other kind of entertainer, please make them aware of our event.

We are committed to finding some great talent and stories amongst our own University of Nevada students and faculty. We also remain committed to showcasing the stories and talent of our own University of Nevada alumni.

We plan to evaluate proposals as they are received and will make commitments to many of our speakers before September 16, 2013. When the call for speakers closes in September, our program committee will revisit all submitted proposals to fill any slots that are still available at that time.

We plan to select somewhere between 16 and 20 speakers. Last year we waited until November and posted all of our speaker profiles at once. This year, we will post the profiles of our accepted speakers on a rolling basis, as we make commitments to people, so at any give time you should always be able to tell how many speakers we still need to select.

If you have any questions about this process, please contact any member of our team or send an email to Bret at simmonsb@unr.edu.

Dr. Michael Morkin

Morkin’s TEDx talk was inspiring in that he emphasized triumph over tragedy, hope above gloom, and working together vs. against each other. He credited the community’s ability to come together as contributing to the success of the disaster management process (all patients made it to trauma centers within a two-hour period), which allowed for the physicians to really focus on their jobs. However, he noted that had the plane crashed even a millosecond later, or if the gas tank inside of the plane had been full as opposed to nearly empty when it crashed, the outcome of the situation could have changed drastically. For example, the nearest burn center is in San Francisco…

Dr. Michael Morkin

By sharing his personal experience with the community, what he learned about the management of the tragedy (you cannot micromanage your way out of a problem), and what adjustments Renown Health has since made to better accommodate large-scale tragedies in the future, he was not only able to shed some light on a dark subject, but open a dialogue with the community at large about what is required of both a hospital, its physicians, and the community to execute a disaster management effort well.

Creating Community Conversations

When communities come together, and more importantly create conversations amongst one another, great things can happen. As Dr. Bret Simmons pointed out in this post Creating Community Conversations, the initial hope for the TEDxUniversityofNevada event was to create conversations in the community as a basis for generating more conversation not only within our community, but throughout other communities across the globe.

18 Presenters at TEDxUniversityofNevada

Whether it be 13-year old Logan LaPlante discussing the need for alternative education, high school principal Lauren Ford talking about the importance of structured learning, Matt Bernardis pushing for a paradigm shift in the way we treat disease, Grant Korgan and Shawna Korgan sharing stories about how to overcome tragedy through triumph, or Laura Zander giving insights into the way she approaches business, Reno certainly brought together some its most notable and interesting ideas from within the community worth spreading that day. And in the future, there’s no telling where such seeds of knowledge will be harvested.

What Other People Are Saying

Pushing for dialogue and continuing the conversation is a common theme among TEDx participants and speakers who feel enlightened and moved to make a difference upon attending a TEDx event. From the official TED web site, attendees make statements like “What an amazing opportunity you gave me. I won’t waste it” and “A mind-opening experience. If it opens any more, I am afraid it will float past the ozone layer.”

Clare Dryer, Bret Simmons, Liz Christofersen, Abbi Whitaker

In her blog post recap entitled “Creating Community Conversation … Ideas Worth Spreading,” TEDx event attendee Leslie Daane of Barnard, Vogler and Co. talked about what she enjoyed most about the event and the conversations that were created. She urged: “As a community, let’s focus on the positive things that bring us together. What we can do individually and collectively to improve the Reno Tahoe area. Let’s keep the conversation going.”

Similarly, in a Reno Gazette-Journal article entitled “UNR: First TEDx event showed heart and soul of Reno” from TEDx speaker Mark Estee, owner/chef at Campo, he noted: “Reno is a forward-thinking community. We are home to big thinkers and accomplished professionals in medicine, education, and entrepreneurship. It is an incredibly caring city. A lot of us already knew that. TEDxUniversityofNevada just went a step further to prove it to the world.”

Speakers at TEDxUniversityofNevada

In closing, there’s no doubt that TEDxUniversityofNevada was and will continue to be one of the intellectual and emotional highlights of the year for both speakers and participants alike. TED events are unique in that they create a platform for bringing together the “best” ideas worth spreading and then mixing those ideas around within not only a local, but regional, and global community. TED events have a colorful history and are a spectacular way for bringing together those who are united by curiosity, open-mindedness, and a desire to think outside the box. So let’s keep the conversations alive and create additional dialogue by sharing insights with each other, as well as sharing the many inspiring videos from the day!

Also, remember to like us on Facebook and follow on Twitter so that you will be notified when the TEDx talks are available on video.

Robb Smith, co-founder of Chrysallis, is a social entrepreneur who is leading the charge in Reno, Nevada. In addition to spearheading numerous business ventures, Smith acts as CEO of the Integral Institute, which helps global leaders from all arenas to improve the human condition by providing research, education, and events that foster intentional, behavioral, cultural and social self-awareness. He is also the co-founder and chairman of Integral Life, a social media hub documenting the 21st century integral cultural renaissance occurring among some of the most forward-thinking people and organizations on the planet today. Not to mention, he is also a founding member of the Conscious Capitalism Institute, which operates on the premise that businesses have a far greater potential for fulfilling deeper societal purposes without compromise of productivity, profitability, and growth.

Robb Smith

In his talk, Smith spoke about the concept of “the transformational life” and the rapid progression of complexity in society today. He discussed the need for a paradigm shift, noting: “all of the great contemplative traditions tell us that focusing inward can help us to move past the limited boundaries of our existence; this will become an adaptive requirement of the next generation.” In short, he suggested that in order to forge ahead in uncertain times, we must move from insulted to informed, from scared to sacred, from “stand out” to “kneel down,” from egonomics to economics,  and from “look at” to “look as.”

Robb Smith

Of the 17 individuals who spoke at the TedxUniversityofNevada, there were two who stood out as exemplars of this social entrepreneurism ideal: Matt Bernardis, COO of First Warning Systems, Inc., a life sciences software and medical device company addressing early breast cancer detection, and Veronika Scavacini, an 8^th grade student and budding humanitarian in the Washoe County School district. Both Matt and Veronika are thinking like social entrepreneurs in their respective efforts to effect large-scale, sweeping change with an emphasis on creating sustainable social value.

Matt Bernardis is passionate about using artificial-intelligence backed medicine as a method for detecting breast cancer, and is pushing for a paradigm shift in the way we approach disease. His company, First Warning Systems, Inc., has created a non-radiogenic, non-invasive, non-toxic, scalable and low-cost breast cancer detection technology  that is based on recognizing tissue changes that evidence years before tumor presentation.

Matt Bernardis

Bernardis explained that one in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, and that the current screening system is flawed in that it’s akin to “trying to find a snowflake in a blizzard.” He mentioned that the healthcare system performs 35 million mammograms each year resulting in 750,000 unnecessary biopsies. As a result, his company is attempting to fill a gap where the healthcare system is failing. His key piece of advice? In order to forge ahead, we need to be able to see what everyone else is seeing but think what no one else has thought. And because of this type of thinking, his company has been able to make a difference.

Matt Bernardis

Veronika Scavacini too is passionate about making a difference. When she learned in first grade that the rainforest in Brazil was dying, she went home to her mother and told her that she wanted to start a company to save the Amazon. Veronika explained how she took it upon herself to research solutions that made sense to her in order to do “something” that could make a difference. Eventually she zeroed in on the water crisis in Africa, and in August of 2012 she personally delivered 1,100 LifeStraws (water purification devices) to children in Kenya. You can read more about her plight here.

Veronika Scavacini, Grant Korgan, Shawna Korgan and Logan LaPlante

Through creating a video, causing a stir on social media, and obtaining media coverage on such news channels as the Today Show and KRNV, Scavacini was able to turn her heartfelt concerns into a movement that has not only helped to inspire others, but provide clean water to those in need, and bring awareness to an important environmental issue that demands attention. Her mission continues as she would like to deliver 4,000 LifeStraws to Kenya in 2013.

Veronika Scavacini

Because of social entrepreneurs like Smith, Bernardis, and Scavacini, we can all better understand how to navigate and address the complexities of the world though inspired-action and purpose. The question is, what do you see differently that others don’t?

While having an environment that’s conducive to business is just one prerequisite for entrepreneurial success, having the vision, passion, mission, and energy to bring it all together are quite another. Of the talks given by James Kosta, CEO of 3G Studios; Mark Estee, chef/owner of Campo; Ryan Dolan, General Manager of Dolan Automotive Group; and Laura Zander, co-owner of Jimmy Beans Wool; several common themes emerged including the philosophy that running a business well requires vision, passion, energy, risk-taking, hard work, flexibility, and adaptation. Below are some of the stories these individuals shared at the Tedx University of Nevada, Reno event and the key insights from each.

3G Studios – As the CEO of an independent video game development studio, James Kosta focused his talk on his vision for the future of online gaming, to be led by Nevada, by combining video game technology with online gaming. In 2012, 3G Studios was the first video game company to apply for an online poker license. By operating as the driving force behind the innovative vision of 3G Studios, his company has been able to grow, adapt, and lead the charge in terms of new technological endeavors. Founded in 2006, 3G Studios has approximately 50 employees and pulls in an estimated $10.5 million in annual revenue.

James Kosta

Campo - Mark Estee’s talk focused on passion. As chef and owner of a highly successful downtown Reno restaurant that opened alongside the Truckee River in 2011, Estee has managed to build a business around this concept. The Campo Reno web site notes that Estee’s culinary career has been driven by a deep love for the authentic ingredients that create true connections between land, farmer, food, and diner. He continues to forge new territory in his own cooking technique known as “Whole Hog Philosophy,” which focuses on digging deeper into the fuller flavors produced from using every portion of every ingredient. In his talk, he also placed an emphasis on building relationships—particularly with farmers, fisherman, and ranchers—which has also been central to his business approach.

Mark Estee

As such, Estee can be found actively sharing his passions and building relationships through his web site, social media presence, interactions within the community, and inside of his restaurant.  In 2012 Campo was named to the 2012 “Best New Restaurant” list in Esquire Magazine.

Mark Estee

Dolan Automotive Group – Ryan Dolan’s talk focused on the need for business to be integrated within the community and noted that “business is a vessel that can take you there.” As general manager of a family-owned, well-integrated automotive business in the Northern Nevada region, he said at one point he decided that it was time to give back to the community to not only do the right thing, but to get more involved within it, as well as to build strategic relationships with future consumers.

Ryan Dolan

From this service-based mission, Dolan Automotive Group’s “class project” idea was born, whereby area public school teachers are asked to submit a concept for a classroom project on behalf of students. Teacher proposals are then voted on by fans of the Dolan Automotive Group Facebook page and the top 20 vote-earners receive $2,500 to help bring the idea to life. In 2011, the inaugural $50,000 Class Project awarded 20 Northern Nevada classrooms with $2,500 each. This program not only aided local schools in countless ways, but it established brand awareness throughout the region and also took care of the social media “problem” of needing to grow a strong presence online. Their Facebook page grew from 0 fans in June of 2011, to over 30,000 fans by January of 2013.

Ryan Dolan

Jimmy Beans Wool – Laura Zander’s talk focused on the need for being flexible, adapting, and going with the flow in business. She shared a story about having her two-year old son ask the pilot of an airplane whether or not he could sit in the cockpit. Despite her husband’s disagreement, she thought, the worst that can happen is that he says no, but can you imagine what might happen if he said yes?

Laura Zander

This moment in time became a metaphor for how she approaches her business.  As a former San Francisco-based software engineer, running a business that sells yarn (which, not to mention sold $7 million worth of knitting and crochet products and fabric in 2012) is certainly not what she had originally pictured for herself. But by continually asking questions, prodding, experimenting/risk taking, and driving her ideas forward, she has ended up where she is today with over 50 employees, a 20,000-square-foot building, and 1,000 orders on a good day. Her best advice? “Dream big and go with the flow, because you never know where the flow is going to take you.” Put another way: “If you dream big, assume failure, work hard, and stay flexible, your imagination can take you places you never dreamed.”

Laura Zander

In closing, these Northern Nevada businesses are thriving. It’s not every day we get the chance to hear such insights from entrepreneurs who are forging ahead and making excellent progress. Take the time to watch their talks, as well as to understand and internalize their advice so that you too can apply such lessons and make dreams a reality in your own life!

Photography provided by Theresa Danna Douglas and Alixzandra Collaro.

We are honored that Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NCET) named TEDxUniversityofNevada as their best new entrepreneurial activity of the year. Big thanks to Doug Erwin of EDAWN for his part in this recognition. It took a lot of dedicated people to make TEdxUniversityofNevada what it was, and I want to recognize some of them here.

Dean Greg Mosier and Associate Dean Kambiz Raffiee provided sponsorship from The University of Nevada College of Business Online Executive MBA program. This was important because it allowed us to immediately focus on assembling our program of speakers.

My program committee of Liz Christoffersen, Clare Dryer, and Abbi Whitaker helped us identify and vet our fantastic group of 18 speakers. Liz served as our master of ceremonies, Clare as our stage manager, and Abbi as our timer the day of the event. The three of them managed everything that took place on stage that day.

Our program would not have been the same without the help of Abbi Whitaker and her team at The Abbi Agency. Abbi introduced us to Grant Korgan, Shawna Korgan, Mark Estee, James Kosta, and Matt Bernardis. Constance Aguilar, Nicole Rose Dion, and Leah Scherschel helped us with our logo design and press releases.  Abbi rocks!

Kristin Stith introduced me to Ryan Dolan and Brian Williams. Brian Williams introduced me to Veronika Scvacinni. Brian also did us a huge service by constructing this website.

David LaPlante introduced us to his son, Logan, and his business partner, Robb Smith.

Phyllis Freyer of Renown Health made the critical introduction to Dr. Mike Morkin. With her help, Dr. Morkin’s presentation would have never happened.

Pedro Martinez graciously entertained my suggestion that he should speak at TEDxUniversityofNevada. He could have easily ignored me, but instead he introduced me to Craig Musni who really engineered the presentation with Pedro. Lauren Ford, and Deyanira Baca.

Jim McClenahan and Lori Mead did a tremendous amount of behind the scenes work leading up to and on the day of the event to bring all the logistics together. We simply could not have done this without their help. On the day of the event, Jim managed everything outside the theater, which freed me up to work the inside of the theater. The student volunteers of Delta Sigma Gamma helped direct the flow of our participants at the event. Jeremy Wright, John Pratt, and the rest of the staff at the Joe Crowley Student Union were also instrumental to the success of this event.

Tyler Bourns of Bourns Productions, Inc. was a real pro in the way he and his team handled the video of the event.

Finally, a HUGE thanks to Tiffany Brown and Jessica Torres for handling our social media around the day of the event. They created some excellent blog posts and a ran a very informative Twitter back channel at #tedxunr.

We hope to do this again in 2014, so stay tuned for more information in the coming months.

In the meantime, I am making arrangements to attend TEDxReno in April 2013 and I’d strongly suggest you do the same!

According to Drew Dudley, who gave a recent TEDx talk in Toronto, it may be more often than you think. In this TEDx video about the concept of “lollipop leadership,” Drew relayed the story of an experience in college where he had been handing out lollipops on campus to raise awareness about cystic fibrosis, when he gave a particular lollipop to a young man and asked him to please hand it over to the “pretty lady standing next to him.”

Four years later, the girl introduced herself to Drew, and explained that she had been one second away from making the decision that day to change her mind about college when this guy had suddenly handed her a lollipop, whom she later went on marry. The amazing thing about the story was that Drew had no recollection of it ever happening, but that his actions that day had set someone else’s life on a path of forward motion without ever even realizing it, for which this girl was eternally thankful.

Liz Christoffersen, MC

Movement was a common theme from the TEDxUniversityofNevada talks. For example, Shawna Korgan talked about movement when she stated that movement is the essence of life. She asked such questions of the audience as “what do your movements say about you?” and “what ripples will you create with the movement of your life?”

Shawna Korgan

Below are a couple of examples from TEDx speakers who have been able to create positive ripples in their lives:

 Brian Williams of Think Kindness shared a story about an email that his organization received one day from a young girl wanting to commit suicide. Through carefully crafting a response that ultimately suggested attending one of their Think Kindness events, after weeks of silence they received an email reply from the girl to learn that she had gone on to volunteer to help the homeless, which provided her life with renewed meaning and desire to continue moving forward and help others. Because of her unlikely interaction with the non-profit and their positive response, her life was turned around.

Grant Davis, a 16-year old singer and songwriter, talked about his sister’s drug addiction and how that affected him a child. He noted feelings of loneliness and sadness brought on by the addiction, and that he needed to spend time focusing on himself in order to heal, in which he turned to music. Today he is inspiring others through his music.

Grant Davis

In 2011 his song “Just A Child” captured third place in the 2011 MusiCares and GRAMMY Foundation Teen Substance Abuse Awareness Through Music Contest, and he also won an all expenses paid trip to New York City for having another one of his anti-drug songs selected to be performed at a concert in Madison Square Garden. Because of his experiences, he’s been able to turn a negative into a positive for not only himself, but his family, and for others.

Grant Davis

Deanna LeBlanc, Nevada’s “2012 Teacher of the Year,” discussed how she finds something to love about every single one of the children in her classroom, because “when children know that you love them, they’re willing to move Heaven and Earth for you.” LeBlanc discussed a particular situation in which she had with a student who was habitually angry, and how she had worked to help him trust her and build a relationship through not only unconditionally loving him, but by being strategic, persistent, and letting go of that which she could not control. Because of her patience and persistence, LeBlanc has no doubt made a lasting impact on this child’s life.

Deanna LeBlanc

On a similar note (from the standpoint of education), Hug High School principal Lauren Ford talked about the fact that in 2006, Hug High School had only a 36% graduation rate. While the school now has a 51% rate of graduation, she noted that her school is not without its troubles given its demographic positioning. Because many students are just trying to make it from one day to the next, she stressed the importance of creating a structured and safe environment for her students to be able to focus on learning.

Lauren Ford

Senior Deyanira Baca is one example of a Hug High School student who has benefitted from this approach, or from the effects of the movements that have been created by Ford. In her talk, Deyanira, who is in the top 5% of her class, discussed her desire to attend medical school despite having had a violent, and oftentimes unsupportive, upbringing. With an alcoholic father, a mother who worked as a housekeeper, and siblings who never graduated from high school, she noted that her teachers had been her lifeline, providing her with much-needed structure, support, and guidance at a time in her life when she had none. She credits her success with the stability she has received from her teachers along the way. The ripple effects of Lauren’s leadership will no doubt have long-lasting effects on the lives of her students who choose to rise to the challenge of pursing their education despite being faced with unfortunate challenges at home.

Deyanira Baca

When the unexpected happens, or when things turn for the worse, it’s imperative to keep pushing forward. By creating movement that has a positive ripple effect on others, you just never know how or whom you’re going to impact.

Photography provided by Theresa Danna Douglas.

Logan LaPlante

LaPlante really hit the nail on the head when he talked about the importance of making a life rather than simply making a living. As he discussed his creative approach to education known as “hackschooling,” which he refers to as a remix or mashup of learning that never loses sight of making happy and healthy a priority, and “living the grom life,” the theme soon emerged from the event that focusing on happiness might just be the key to living a most fulfilling, purposeful, and successful life.

Logan LaPlante

Luckily for Brian Williams, founder of the non-profit organization Think Kindness, he figured this out at an early age as well. During his sophomore year of college, Brian was ranked the “#1 Integrated Marketing and Advertising Student in the Nation” by the American Advertising Federation and received the “Marketing Professional of the Year” award for Northern Nevada for his participation in the Toyota Matrix ad campaign. Shortly after achieving this recognition, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a “suit and tie” job as Marketing Director for the largest commodities brokerage firm in Orange County. But, he felt something was missing. In his talk, he mentioned how he continually felt as though he was chasing an emotional feeling that he wanted out of life after having “made it” in the corporate world, though he couldn’t quite pinpoint what that was. With the help of his childhood martial arts instructor, he was able to hash out the fact that he knew he wanted to help people in a more meaningful way. He was asked, “What would the impact be if you could inspire 1,000,000 Acts of Kindness?” Hence, a light bulb went off, and Think Kindness was born.

Brian Williams

To date, Brian has documented more than 250,000 Acts of Kindness, he has spoken to over 75,000 students, and received the Thornton Peace Prize. He has been endorsed by governors, senators, mayors, and by dozens of school principals. By honoring the pursuit of happiness and finding meaning in his own life first before reaching out to help others, he has been able to affect change in a more profound way that he could have previously accomplished without having taken the time to ask “what makes me happy?”

Brian Williams

In a similar vein, Washoe County School District superintendent Pedro Martinez discussed the path his life took from Mexico, emigrating with his family to a poor area of Chicago as a small child, and succeeding against all odds throughout his years in the school system, eventually graduating from college with the highest of honors, and becoming a sought after business consultant. He noted that at that point in his life, he truly felt as though he had made it. From being raised by parents with only a second grade education, to becoming an advisor to some of America’s top CEOs, he had truly hit his stride. However, he was soon feeling the pull to return education where he knew he could make a bigger difference.

Pedro Martinez

Martinez began working with large institutions as the director of finance and technology for the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, which sparked his interest in education. He then served as chief financial officer and budget director of Chicago Public Schools (nation’s third largest school district) for almost seven years. Through these initiatives, he next became the deputy superintendent of the Clark County School District overseeing 357 schools, and is currently superintendent for the Washoe County School District, overseeing the success of the District’s 93 schools.

Pedro Martinez, Lauren Ford and Deyanira Baca

In hearing these personal stories about re-defining purpose and finding meaning in life via the pursuit of happiness, it’s difficult to deny that the pursuit of health and happiness may just hold the key to a robust and multi-faceted, highly personalized path to education. After all, LaPlante did make the wise observation: “Once you’re motivated to learn something, you can really get a lot done in a small amount of time.”

Photography provided by Theresa Danna Douglas.

In listening to the variety of speakers at the TEDxUniversityofNevada event, discovering meaning in the midst of tragedy was a common theme.

Preparing for TEDxUNR

To kick off the event, the audience watched a video from a recent TEDx event where Amy Purdy discussed her brush with death after contracting bacterial meningitis, which resulted in the loss of both her kidneys, both her legs, and hearing in one ear. She talked about being completely physically and emotionally broken. But, she reached a turning point in her recovery when she stated: “I knew that in order to move forward, I had to let go of the old Amy, and learn to embrace the new Amy.” From there, she not only went on to pick up snowboarding again, but start her own non-profit, travel to Africa to put shoes on children’s feet so that they could attend school, and also earn two back-to-back world cup gold medals making her the highest ranked adaptive female snowboarder in the world. Her story proves that coping with tragedy through finding meaning in it can lead directly to being able to move forward in life with a renewed purpose.

Shawna Korgan

Next up: Shawna Korgan spoke about her husband Grant’s 2010 snowmobile accident, which paralyzed him from the waist down (more detail in this USA Today article). Luckily for the both of them, it just so happened that Shawna not only founded a wellness center at age 28, but had a degree in exercise physiology, as well as an infectiously positive attitude. Throughout the tragedy, she stood by her husband’s side and together they worked hard to help him recover.

Grant and Shawna Korgan

Since the incident, Grant Korgan has moved from a wheelchair, to a walker, to crutches, and is determined to realize his dream of one day being able to run again. In fact, in January of 2012, he sit-skied 100 miles in the South Pole’s subzero temperatures to raise money and awareness for research programs that support adaptive snow-sport athletes. How’s that for a story of being able to find meaning and purpose via tragedy?

Leilani Schweitzer

Now for a third and final story. In her somber talk, Stanford Medical Center patient advocate Leilani Schweitzer discussed the series of events leading up to the tragic death of her two-year old son. Due to preventable systemic failures of the health care system, her son died needlessly, without warning, and tragically. According to Leilani, 100,000 people will die this year alone in hospitals due to preventable mistakes. In such situations, she noted only three things people really need, which include: 1) an honest and transparent explanation of what occurred 2) a full apology, and 3) to know and see that changes have been made so as to prevent such a tragedy from ever occurring again.

Leilani Schweitzer

From her blog, she writes: “I don’t need to tell you it is brutal to lose a child, and it is not my intention to make you sad for me or for my son. This is a story of contrast and comparison, between what I know now and what I knew before.  My intention in telling you this is to bring something good from a horrible thing, to not allow it to become any worse.”

While Leilani stated she was grateful in that the hospital investigated, explained, took responsibility for and apologized for what happened, as well as asked what else they could possibly do to help, she noted that she would not tolerate such a situation without complete openness and transparency. This is because by being open and honest when the unexpected happens, we are able to learn from our mistakes. And by serving as a Stanford Medical Center patient advocate today, Leilani is undoubtedly making a profound difference in other people’s lives that she may have otherwise never been able to touch before.

Photography provided by Theresa Danna Douglas.

After sustaining a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down, world-class adventurer, nonoscientist, and professional athlete, Grant Korgan – who had never shied away from a challenge – refused to balk at his new reality because he still had a mission in store. Ten years prior, when his best friend and climbing partner passed away in an avalanche, his parents entrusted Korgan with their son’s equipment, entreating him to continue climbing on life’s skinny branches. Spurred by his commitment to a friend, an overwhelming sense of self-belief, and armed with the unconditional love and support of his soul mate and wife Shawna, Korgan decided right from the start he would overcome. By doing the hard work and tirelessly visualizing his progression, he found the strength to rise and reclaim his active lifestyle by becoming the first spinal cord-injured athlete in history to ski 80 miles to Antarctica’s South Pole. Today, he is the emerging face of spinal cord recovery and heralds his message of choosing positivity through adversity so that we may all climb a mountain for someone we love.

Korgan chronicles his injury and road to recovery in Two Feet Back, the first in a series of autobiographies, aimed toward reminding us all “that regardless of ability (or perceived dis-ability), every single one of us has the power to come to the awareness that you can achieve everything you desire in this life”.

“I believe that humanity’s natural state is one of positivity, greatness, and, ultimately, love,” begins Grant as he shares with others what he knows about the power of positivity, achieving goals regardless of circumstance, and the importance of remembering that life is happening right now, in this moment, with or without our permission.

His South Pole expedition was filmed as part of noted director Steven Siig’s documentary The Push: A South Pole Adventure. Korgan’s challenge was to raise money and awareness for the California-based 501.c.3 nonprofit High Fives Foundation, which helps winter-sports athletes recover from life-altering injuries and return to the sport they love. Additionally, Korgan’s expedition supports the Reeve Irvine Research Center, a science research facility at the University of California-Irvine devoted to the study of the repair, regeneration, and recovery of function after spinal cord injury.

In enthralling multimedia presentations, Grant Korgan plunges his audience into his skiing, snowmobiling, and kayaking expeditions by sharing multi-angled, HD footage of his various experiences – including his fateful snowmobile accident. His keynotes are universally applicable to all individuals and organizations – from healthcare professionals to athletes to corporations – inspiring all to believe in the enduring power of the human spirit within us all! Because as Korgan says, “we are all survivors, we are all survivors of something”…