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Monika Bulaj is an award-winning photojournalist, reporter, documentary film-maker, and educator, based in Italy. Her personal work on minorities at risk, faiths and shared sacredness in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Africa, and Caribbean, has been recognized by The Aftermath Project Grant, Leonian Award & W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Bruce Chatwin Special Award, Grant in Visual Arts from the European Association for Jewish Culture, and other awards and nominations. Bulaj's work has appeared in The Guardian, Granta Magazine, National Geographic, The New York Times, TIME, Courier International, RevueXXI, La Repubblica, Corriere della Sera, and GEO, among others. She has published 10 books, the latest being Nur. Afghan Diaries with National Geographic (in Polish) and Where Gods Whisper, with Contrasto (in English and Italian). She has displayed her work in more than 90 personal exhibitions around the world. Bulaj was the first women to receive the Italian National NonViolence Award “for her work as a photographer, reporter, and documentary-maker which sheds lights on humanity living in the most hidden yet most evident boundaries on earth, for showing war through its consequences, for investigating mankind’s soul, our eagerness for religiosity, tenderness, and dignity. Bulaj makes the invisible visible by exploring people’s soul, by uniting humanity in an image.”

I am a Conservationist and Scientist interested in the bigger picture of Wildlife Conservation. I am passionate about empowering and bringing indigenous communities and conservationists at the forefront of conservation efforts. I am also passionate about inspiring and building the capacity of the next generation of African conservation leaders. I have been working in wildlife conservation since 2009 and have been involved in finding and applying innovative ways to tackle threats facing wildlife and wildlife areas and increase biological diversity. I am also working to promote human-wildlife coexistence and socio-economic development of communities living adjacent to wildlife areas. My research has mainly been focused on the ecology and conservation of large carnivores especially African lions. I am also interested in Protected Area Management, Community Development and Community Based Natural Resources Management, Role of Conservancies and Ranches in conservation, International Wildlife Trade and Human Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence. I am also founder of the Indigenous Conservationists Alliance www.indigenousconservationists.org which seeks to bring together all indigenous conservationists under a single platform to connect, share ideas, collaborate, be inspired, motivate, and be accessible to potential partners and funders.

Moriba Jah, holder of the Mrs. Pearlie Dashiell Henderson Centennial Fellowship in Engineering, is the director for Computational Astronautical Sciences and Technologies (CAST), a group within the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. He is also the Lead for the Space Security and Safety Program at the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law. Moriba came to UT Austin by way of the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory prior to that, where he was a Spacecraft Navigator on a handful of Mars missions. Moriba is a Fellow of multiple organizations: TED, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), American Astronautical Society (AAS), International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS), Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). He has served on the US delegation to the United Nations Committee On Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN-COPUOS), is an elected Academician of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), and has testified to congress on his work as related to Space Situational Awareness and Space Traffic Management. He’s an Associate Editor of the Elsevier Advances in Space Research journal, and serves on multiple committees: IAA Space Debris, AIAA Astrodynamics, IAF Astrodynamics, and IAF Space Security.

Nandu Madhava – is the CEO and Founder of mDhil, a social impact start-up which provides basic health information over mobile phones in India. Since launching in March 2009, mDhil has reached over 150,000 paid users and is currently expanding services in preventative care, diabetes, & reproductive health information. Previously, he was part of the management team at OfficeTiger, a Chennai-based Business Process Outsourcing firm acquired by RR Donnelley. Nandu was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic, where he worked on technology development issues and assisted foreign doctors with medical clinics in local communities. Nandu later worked at Goldman Sachs & UBS in asset management roles where he was part of a 3-member team that managed over $1 billion in diversified assets. He is an undergraduate of the University of Texas and received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Nanfu Wang is a Chinese filmmaker based in New York City. She directed, produced, filmed, and edited feature documentaries Hooligan Sparrow (Sundance 2016, shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Award for Best documentary feature), I Am Another You (SXSW 2017, Special Jury Prize winner), and One Child Nation (Sundance 2019, Grand Jury Prize Winner). Wang has won over twenty awards, including a Peabody Award, a Cinema Eye Honor, a George Polk Award, an IDA award, and an Independent Spirit Award. Wang teaches editing at the School of Visual Arts as well as cinematography at New York University.

Zoya Phan is International Coordinator at Burma Campaign UK. Zoya is one of the leading Burmese democracy activists in Europe. She has met with the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and other senior politicians from around the world, to urge them to take action on Burma. She is regularly features in national and international media including BBC, CNN, ABC and Al Jazeera. Zoya is from the Karen ethnic group in Burma. When she was 14 Burmese army soldiers attacked her village, and she and her family were forced to flee. They hid in the jungle for weeks before finding their way to a refugee camp in Thailand. She is now a refugee living in London. In 2008 Zoya Phan and her family founded the Phan Foundation, which provides aid for the Karen people, protects Karen culture and promotes human rights. Zoya is also on the board of Austria Burma Center, and Secretary of the Karen Community Association UK. Her autobiography “Little Daughter” was published by Simon and Schuster in April 2009.

Naomi Natale is an installation artist, photographer, and social activist. She is most interested in using art to bring about and inspire social change. She accomplishes this by creating and directing large-scale art installations that engage hundreds and thousands of artists, activists and children to act on behalf of a social cause. Naomi believes that by inspiring action through art, you can change the world one person at a time. She is the founder and director of The Cradle Project, a fundraising art installation designed to call attention to the plight of the estimated 48 million children orphaned by disease and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Using the symbolism of empty cradles to represent the lost potential of these orphans, The Cradle Project was designed to provoke art into action. Over 550 cradles were created –using solely scrap, discarded and recycled materials¬– and donated by artists from around the world who were drawn to the project’s vision. www.thecradleproject.org Currently, Naomi is the founder and director of a new project titled, One Million Bones, a fundraising art installation designed to recognize the millions of victims killed or displaced by present genocides. www.onemillionbones.org

TED Fellow Nassim Assefi is a physician, global health specialist, content curator, health tech consultant, civic entrepreneur, and novelist who enjoys living at the intersection of many worlds. Her most passionate project is to reimagine the "refugee crisis" in Europe as an opportunity to reinvent rural livelihoods. Her doctoring is a blend of internal medicine, gynecology, psychiatry, human rights, and public health. Her consulting work ranges from primary health care and development strategies for the low income world to health tech start-ups and COVID-19 occupational safety. Her novels (Aria, published by Harcourt and translated into 5 other languages, and forthcoming Kabubble) explore complex issues like grief and humanitarianism. A second generation Iranian-American and soloist parent based in Seattle, Nassim has traveled to more than 60 countries and has lived on the 5 major continents. When asked the inevitable "What do you do?" question, Nassim has fun making up futuristic-sounding job titles like philomath, expert generalist, social justice entrepreneur, and thrillionaire. Thanks to a TEDGlobal Fellowship in 2009, Nassim was introduced to TED's remarkable, worldwide ideas community and has been a diehard TEDHead ever since then. She is living her best life in North Africa, possibly her forever home.

Nathalie Miebach translates scientific data related to ecology, climate change and meteorology into three-dimensional structures. Her main method of translation is principally that of basket weaving, which functions as a simple grid through which to interpret data in three-dimensional space. A fundamental player in the translation process is PLAY, and how its visual manifestations can be used to question and expand the traditional boundaries through which scientific information has been visually translated and understood. Nathalie Miebach holds a Master of Art Education and Master of Fine Arts from Massachusetts College of Art, MA. She is the recipient of numerous awards and residencies and has been shown in the US and Europe. Her work bridges over to many other disciplines such as science, data visualization and technology, which has been written about in several publications including Art In America, Art News, Sculpture Magazine, Wired and several international design magazines.

Ndubuisi Ekekwe - "a doctor of innovation" Ndubuisi Ekekwe holds two doctoral and four master’s degrees, including a PhD in electrical and computer engineering from the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore and MBA from University of Calabar, Nigeria, by March 2009. He founded Ultinet Systems-an IT & telephony firm- and formerly held the title of Banking Executive with Diamond Bank Plc, Lagos. He is the Founder of the non-profit African Institution of Technology and has held visiting positions in three African universities. A US semiconductor industry veteran, he blogs at Harvard Business Review site. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Babcock University, Nigeria. He authored/edited four major books: Adaptive Application-Specific Instrumentation and Control Microsystem; Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy: Corrosion Behavior Application; Nanotechnology and Microelectronics: Global Diffusion, Economics and Policy (won IGI Global 2010 Excellence in Technology Research ‘Book of the Year’ Award.); and Disruptive Technologies, Innovation and Global Redesign: Emerging Implications . An inventor, he holds a US Patent on microchip used in minimally invasive surgical robots and has authored many journal and conference papers. As a student, he worked on the NASA Jet Propulsion project- distribution of HV and HF in the space environment. Dr. Ekekwe has organized more than thirty five seminars and workshops on technology design, innovation and diffusion across Africa for schools, small firms and governments. He obtained BEng electrical & electronics engineering from Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria (FUTO, Aug 1998) where he finished top of his class. As Director of Research of a student body, he helped installed a students-designed and -managed Campus-wide FM Radio Station (one of few in Africa). Also in FUTO, he founded, edited and published FUTO Bubbles- a campus newsmagazine. It was in its debut edition that Prof SOE Ogbogu said: "there are two universities in Nigeria: FUTO and others'. Dr Ekekwe was also a member of the Students Union Constitution Review Committee. He is highly awarded. And some of his awards/fellowships include: Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering fellowship, United States National Science Foundation ERC fellowship, Jay D Samstag fellowship, United Kingdom Congress on Computer Assisted Orthopedic Surgery fellowship, United States Electrical Manuf. & Coil Winding Association scholarship, University Scholar (FUTO), Johns Hopkins Institutions Diversity Recognition Award (nominee), TED fellowship, Visiting Fellow (IUO, Nigeria), Grandeur Magazine's one of Nigeria's Most Influential Youth of the 21st Century, Harvard Business School & Hess 1978 Fund Ex-Ed scholarship, etc. In May 2009, he became the youngest scholar to deliver Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria (15th) Public Lecture of the University. Ndubuisi served in the United States National Science Foundation ERC/CISST E&D committee for four years. He was a panelist on Knowledge Industry in Africa in 2010 Wharton Business School African Business Forum, a speaker at 2010 TEDxChange Amsterdam, a knowledge expert in United Nations 2010 Lessons Learned Workshop for 5 African Countries (Freetown), plus numerous technical conferences including ISSCC, ISCAS, etc. He spoke in 2011 in Vietnam Education Foundation conference and Harvard Business School African Business Conference. He has participated as a speaker in New York Forum Africa, MIT Sloan Africa Innovate, Babson University Africa Business Club, BBC World Service, Tech4Africa, Africa4IT conference (keynote), Carnegie Mellon University, etc. Prof Ekekwe, featured in Marquis' Who's Who in America, is ex-Chair, IEEE Boston GOLD Executive Committee, and now PACE Chair. He is a Non-executive Board member of Temple & Aegeandas- an investment banking firm in Lagos (Nigeria); Founder/Non-Executive Chair, Board of Directors, First Atlantic Semiconductors & Microelectronics Ltd (Fasmicro), Nigeria; and Founding Board member of Germany-based Afriscience. In 2009, the Nigerian government nominated him to the ($180m grant) World Bank-Nigeria STEPB Int'l Advisory Board. Dr Ekekwe was selected as a "New Generation Leaders for Africa" by African Leadership Network in 2012. The African Innovator Magazine from the respected IT News Africa Publication calls Dr Ekekwe "A doctor of Innovation". He made the Nigeria Book of Records as one of the 52 Nigerian Most Influential Youth of the 21st Century as the nation celebrates its 52nd birthday. In August 2011, he received a commendation letter from the Nigerian Presidency for pioneering microelectronics programs in the country. He authored Nigeria's Vision 2020 Microelectronics thematic area and holds all-time best GCE/SSCE result of STS, Ovim, Nigeria.

In addition to being a TED Senior Fellow, Negin Farsad was recently named one of the 50 Funniest Women by the Huffington Post, and one of 10 Best Feminist Comedians by Paper Magazine. She has written for and appeared on various shows on Comedy Central, MTV, PBS, IFC, AOL, and MSN among others. She is director/producer of feature film release "Nerdcore Rising" (SXSW premiere, New Video Distribution). She is also director/producer/star of "3rd Street Blackout" starring Janeane Garofalo, John Hodgman, and Ed Weeks as well as The Muslims Are Coming! featuring Jon Stewart, Lewis Black, Rachel Maddow and David Cross. Her upcoming book "How to Make White People Laugh" will be released in Spring of 2016 by Grand Central (a division of Hachette). @neginfarsad on Twitter

Neha Gupta graduated with her Ph.D in Computer Science from University of Maryland, College Park in May, 2012. Her Ph.d thesis was on "Learning Techniques in Multi-Armed Bandits". She has published several papers in the area of large scale machine learning, online learning and location determination technologies. In general, her interests lie in applying machine learning and data mining to build smarter products. Before joining graduate school, she worked for Samsung as a Software Engineer for two years in their Telecom and Networks division. She finished her undergraduate studies in Electronics Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, India. She did internships and research in computational advertising at Tumri and Yahoo! Research. She is currently working as a Data Scientist at Adobe.

Nicole Amarteifio is a TV/film producer cited in The Financial Times "Top 25 Africans to Watch" list after a successful launch of the hit web series 'An African City’, dubbed by CNN and the BBC as Africa’s answer to ‘Sex and the City’. Nicole is currently pursuing TV/film projects full time, after a successful career in international development, including her role as the first ever social media strategist for the Africa Region at The World Bank. In 2018, Nicole premiered her first feature film, a romantic comedy called ‘Before the Vows’, at the New York African Film Festival, followed by the American Black Film Festival. She has several projects in development, including her second feature film ‘The Colour of Fruit’ as well as the TV shows ‘The Republic,’ ‘Mariah’ and ‘Elmina.’ Nicole currently splits her time between Accra, Ghana and Los Angeles, USA.