Directory

Step inside the TED Fellows community

Each year, a new group of TED Fellows from around the world, and from every discipline, are welcomed into this international community of remarkable thinkers and doers.

TED Fellows
2024 Cohort

TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Photojournalist, visual artist

Daro Sulakauri

Photojournalist Daro Sulakauri chronicles social and political issues in the Caucasus. By focusing on issues that are considered taboo, such as early marriages and the impact of Russian occupation, she defends against the erasure of Georgian culture, history and borders.

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Equity bioengineer

Erika Moore

Biomedical engineer Erika Moore Taylor researches how ancestry and sociocultural data affect disease development. Unlike many researchers, she accounts for diverse populations when building regenerative tissue models to create more equitable disease models

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Visual artist, poverty researcher

Huiyi Lin

Huiyi Lin is an economic policy researcher and one-half of Chow and Lin, an artist duo using statistical, mathematical and computational techniques to address food insecurity and poverty. Chow and Lin combine research, design and photography to raise awareness about global inequality in visually arresting ways.

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Medical mythbuster

Joel Bervell

Joel Bervell is a medical student educating people about health care disparities and biases through viral social media content. By sharing stories and studies with his audience of more than one million about the neglect of marginalized groups, he advocates for change in the health care system. 

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Ocean navigator

Lehua Kamalu

Lehua Kamalu is a captain and navigator of traditional Hawaiian ocean-voyaging canoes. She preserves and teaches these ancient sustainable navigation practices by integrating them into digital storytelling and daily life for future generations.

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Health systems entrepreneur

Mohamed Aburawi

Mohamed Aburawi is a surgeon and founder of Speetar, a digital health platform reshaping health care in conflict zones across the Middle East and Africa, especially his native Libya. Through this work, Speetar is helping to dismantle barriers to quality care and advocate for health care as a fundamental human right.

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Mechanical engineer

Norah Magero

Norah Magero is a mechanical engineer and creator of VacciBox, a cold chain solution saving lives in rural communities. She is working to build an Africa that manufactures and produces its own climate-health care technology.

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Chemosensory researcher, nurse

Paule Joseph

Taste and smell researcher Paule Joseph explores how conditions such as COVID-19, obesity, neurodegenerative disorders and substance abuse affect the chemical senses. Her lab combines clinical research, behavioral neuroscience, genomics and molecular biology, offering insights on how taste and smell affect our daily lives.

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

AI scientist, entrepreneur

Ramin Hasani

Ramin Hasani is cofounder and CEO of Liquid AI, where he helped invent liquid neural networks: a new AI technology inspired by living brains and physics. These revolutionary networks are more flexible and efficient than current AI solutions, shaping the future of machine learning and artificial intelligence research.

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Wildland firefighter

Royal Ramey

Royal Ramey is the cofounder of the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program (FFRP), a nonprofit providing career opportunities to formerly incarcerated firefighters in California. A 12-year wildland firefighter veteran, Ramey draws on his own lived experience, rethinking job training for the formerly incarcerated and addressing the challenges they face re-entering the workforce.

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Composer, artistic director

Sahba Aminikia

Iranian-born composer, pianist and educator Sahba Aminikia is the founder and artistic director of Flying Carpet Children Festival, an annual mobile arts festival and artist residency for refugee children escaping conflict zones.

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2024
Cohort

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Fellows Directory

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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

CEO

Anand Shah
CEO, Piramal Water Private Limited (Sarvajal) - Conceptualized and led start-up of a social enterprise developing a rural franchise model to deliver purified drinking water to villages, drives innovation agenda to develop technology to improve options for viability. CEO, Piramal Foundation - invests in youth and social transformation, played a key role in the initial conceptualization of the Teach For India program, developed the Piramal Prize for Innovations that Democratize Healthcare, setup the Grassroots Development Laboratory, and mentored the development of Source For Change. Co-Founder and Director, Indicorps - setup and designed leadership development strategy for Indicorps, drove the concept of diaspora service models, and led as Executive Director until Dec 2007. Consultant, Vedanta University (until July 2009) - assisted in articulation of the core purpose of the University, played a key role in public relations and outreach, drove academic strategy and developed mechanisms to reach out to leading thinkers globally. Founder, India Guide Publications - developed and sold concept for a travel guide enterprise that emphasized sustainable tourism and helped uncharted areas promote their tourism assets to global travellers. Founding Staff and Director of Technology (June 2000 - October 2001) - MATCH Charter School, Boston.
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Chief Executive Officer

Anant Kumar
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TED Fellows 2014 Cohort

Documentary photographer

Anastasia Taylor-Lind
Journalist and documentary photographer, National Geographic Magazine contributor, Harvard Nieman Fellow 2016 and author of MAIDAN - Portraits from the Black Square.
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TED Fellows 2014 Cohort

Eye surgeon, inventor

Andrew Bastawrous
Professor Andrew Bastawrous is Founder & CEO of Peek Vision Ltd and The Peek Vision Foundation. The company is a social enterprise which develops smartphone technology and public health tools to help eye health organisations increase their impact. He is an Ophthalmologist (Eye Surgeon), and Professor in Global Eye Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine where he teaches on public health for eye health and leads a research portfolio. Andrew has worked and undertaken research in over twenty countries including two years living in Kenya where he was leading a major eye disease study and the development and testing of Peek. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles focusing on public health and mobile technology in healthcare and has co-authored four book chapters. Andrew was made a TED Fellow in 2014 and has given two TED talks which have together been viewed over 2.5 million times. Peek's end-to-end services (Peek Solutions) are being used to transform eye health in low- and middle-income countries including Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Botswana, South Africa, Ethiopia, Pakistan, India and Nepal with new programmes in development. Currently nearly 50 active programmes are using Peek across 12 countries reaching over 1/4 million people each month. Peek’s vision check app, Peek Acuity, launched on Google Play store in 2016 and is a Class I medical device, which has been used in over 190 countries. The work of Andrew and the Peek team has been recognised with generous awards including the Mazda Rebels with a Cause Prize in partnership with TED, the Gifted Citizen 2014 Award, the Index Design Award, and the Rolex Awards for Enterprise. Peek was voted “best social-impact start-up in Europe” by Google and McKinsey in 2016. All prize money has been re-invested in Peek. Andrew has been listed as one of the world’s 30 most influential people in public health, was selected as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, and is listed as an “Eye Health Leader” by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. In 2016 he received the Clearly Vision Life Time Achievement Award and was made a Rolex Laureate. In 2018 Andrew was made an Ashoka Fellow and UBS Global Visionary and in 2019 he was declared a “Champion of Change” in The Ophthalmologist magazine’s 2019 Power List. In 2018, Andrew was invited to address the Commonwealth Service in the presence of the British Royal Family, Prime Minister, and a global live TV and radio audience. In his address, Andrew highlighted the transformative effects of regaining lost vision, and the importance of international collaboration in ending avoidable blindness and vision loss worldwide. As part of Peek’s mission to bring vision and health to everyone, Andrew is working with major banks, eye health organisations and funders to develop innovative financing models for eye health, the subject of his 2018 TED Talk. In addition to his work as CEO of Peek, Andrew has worked with astrophysicists to crowdsource retinal data, with National Geographic explorers to reach isolated communities, and with artists and activists to advocate for eye care globally (Project Light). Together with his wife Madeleine, he is establishing a social enterprise micro-bakery model in Kenya that provides employment and healthy food opportunities for the mass market.
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Andrew Mendelson
Andrew Mendelson is a creative polymath hailing from Brooklyn, NY. Musician, filmmaker, screenwriter, artist, philosopher, amateur alchemist, dog-lover, remote-controlled helicopter pilot: these are but a few of the many ways in which one might describe him. A devout student of Indian classical music, Andrew has been playing and studying the sitar for over 20 years. His fascination with North Indian classical music began as a freshman college student in his home state of Texas. Having witnessed his first sitar recital, Andrew was so moved that he committed himself to learning to play the instrument and hasn't looked back since. In 2005, Andrew traveled to India and won the grand championship gold medal at the Darshak Institute Music Competition in Jaipur, India--the largest music competition of it's kind in the state of Rajasthan. He is a disciple of renowned sitarist Pandit Krishna Mohan Bhatt. Andrew continues to perform at venues throughout New York City and University campuses across the U.S. He is also a studio musician and has composed music for various commercial and film projects, including the opening credit music for Mike Myers' film "The Love Guru." Andrew is also a founding member of Brooklyn Raga Massive, a collective of Indian musicians that hosts Indian classical music concerts, educational programs and weekly jam sessions throughout Brooklyn and the greater New York area. The remainder of Andrew's time is spent in film and television production. He has been working in the entertainment industry in New York City for over 15 years. His first documentary feature film entitled "A Cricket in the Court of Akbar," chronicles his participation in the Darshak music competition. Andrew also produced and edited the feature documentary "The Muslims are Coming!", which follows a group of Muslim-American comedians as they confront Islamophobia on a nationwide comedy tour. His latest film, which Andrew edited and produced, is the scripted comedy feature "3rd Street Blackout" about New York couple's falling-out in the midst of the blackout after Hurricane Sandy. Andrew has also edited many programs for national television broadcast. Andrew's work can be seen on HBO, PBS, Comedy Central, The Discovery Channel, and others. In 2012 he won his third Emmy Award for editing the "The Electric Company"--a revival of the classic children's TV series on PBS. With his editorial eye, he has helped shape compelling narrative programs, off-the-wall sketch comedies, and documentary series, including the hit series "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" on HBO. His latest project, "Jeff Ross Roasts Criminals: Live from Brazos County Jail," is a revolutionary take on the classic stand-up comedy special, diving head-long into America's troubled criminal justice system and lifting the veil on a world not often exposed to the media—life in a maximum security Texas jail. Andrew grew up in Texas and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater from Southwestern University.
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TED Fellows 2012 Cohort

Tap dancer

Andrew Nemr
Mentored by Gregory Hines, Andrew Nemr is considered one of the most diverse tap dance artists today. An international performer, choreographer, educator and speaker, Andrew’s work explores tap dance as a vehicle for storytelling and community building. He has played with Grammy Award winning musicians across multiple genres, founded and directed the tap dance company Cats Paying Dues, now in their 11th season, and co-founded the Tap Legacy™ Foundation, Inc. (along with Hines). “A masterly tapper” (New York Times), Nemr’s work has been recognized with a TED Fellowship, acceptance into the SupporTED Collaboratorium, grants from the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces: Dance Initiative and the CUNY Dance Initiative, a FloBert Award for Tap Dance Excellence, and residencies with Quarterly Arts Soiree at Webster Hall, BRICLab, More Art’s Engaging Artists program, and Surel’s Place. Nemr is recorded on the Grammy nominated recording "Itsbynne Reel" by Dave Eggar, the DVD Documentary and companion album "Tuesdays at Mona’s" by Mona’s Hot Four, and narrates the DanceTime Publications DVD, Tap Dance History: From Vaudeville to Film. An avid public speaker, Nemr now uses the story of his journey and the craft of tap dance to speak on ideas of identity, community, faith, and love.
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TED Fellows 2016, 2017 Cohort

Biomedical researcher

Andrew Pelling
Andrew is a lifelong Scientist, full professor at the University of Ottawa and founder of multiple start up companies. His highly experimental ‘Pelling Lab for Augmented Biology’ has trailblazed by developing speculative living technologies of the future with the potential to redefine the limits of biology and medicine. The Lab is well known for its discovery that plants can be harnessed to create medical-grade biomaterials for engineering and regenerating human tissues. Andrew’s work in this area gained considerable international recognition after delivering his first TED talk on growing human ears out of apples. To date, the Pelling Lab has spun out four companies in the technology, biotechnology and medical fields, translating their discoveries into real world products and solutions. Andrew also serves as co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Spiderwort, a company translating the fundamental discoveries from his Lab in the area of plant-based biomaterials. As CSO, Andrew leads Spiderwort’s research program which addresses a variety of tissue engineering applications and unmet medical needs. Andrew also plays a key role in guiding the translation of Spiderwort’s products through the clinical and regulatory landscapes. As an award-winning scientist, Andrew has published his research in some of the world’s most prestigious journals and has been well recognized by his peers. He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, Member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada, a Canada Research Chair and a TED Senior Fellow. Andrew's leadership and experience are highly sought-after and he has delivered hundreds of keynotes and served in a variety of advisory roles for community, industry and government organizations.
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Founder/Creative Director/ filmmaker

Andy, Amadi, Ahamefule Okoroafor
Andy Amadi Okoroafor was born in Nigeria on February 8th 1966. He pursued his film education and a successful creative career in Paris. He was an acclaimed creative director His clients have included Xuly-Bët, Nissan, L’Oreal Kookaï, Virgin Music France, Galeries LaFayette etc. His film works includes music videos those he directed and others as creative director for Virgin music France in his 5 year stint as creative director: This includes LES NUBIANS, STEPHAN EICHER, FRANCOISE HARDY, JULIEN CLERC& CARLA BRUNI, BENJAMAIN BIOLAY , MANU CHAO etc. In Germany, singers like PATRICE, AYO, ADE BANTU, NNEKA have also benefited from his visuals. His first film was a documentary on Xulybet Funkin fashion Paris. He has also directed Commercials for STAJI, OCEANIC BANK and the fashion films for likes Maadame Figaro to Alerx Rotin. His first feature film RELENTLESS was premieres at the BFI london and has since been shown around the world. His 2ndf Feature film Breadfruit/ 20£Dream is completed In summer 2019 Andy Amadi OKOROAFOR is the founder, editor and creative director of the acclaimed CLAM MAGAZINE. He is also a TED fellow since 1999. 2017 • 20£dream in development • Produced and directed ALEX ROTIN ‘RETAKING PARIS’ commercial 2016 • Produced and Directed ‘Prinzessin’ in Frankfurt Germany part of the ‘Solitude’ project an 8 part Art film installation #4 • Produced and Directed ‘El Camino’’ in Barcelona, Spain part of the ‘Solitude’ project an 8 part Art film installation #3 • Produced and Directed Clam TV, 13 episodes x 24' Tv magazine for MNET WEST AFRICA 2015 • Produced and Directed ‘BLOCK HOUSE ’ in Tokyo, Japan part of the ‘Solitude’ project an 8 part Art film installation #2 • Presentation of the ‘Solitude’ projec #1 and #2 at the Gallery Catherine Bastide, BRUSSELS 2014 • Produced and Directed ‘GRACELAND ’ in Johannesburg, South Africa part of the ‘Solitude’ project an 8 part Art film installation #1 • Produced and directed Diesel jeans/ Edun project in Lagos Nigeria • Presentation of GRACELAND the ‘Solitude’ project #1 at the Arsenal Cinema, Berlin • Produced and DIRECTED a viral film for the city of VILLERS COTTERETS 2013 • Produced and DIRECTED two viral films for Lutetia Hotel Paris with David LINCH • Produced and directed of viral films for Figaro Magazine • Produced and directed viral film for the Printemps department stores. 2012 Directed music of videos and commercials Collaboration with the singer NNEKA. 2011 Relentless Andy wrote, produced and directed his first feature film RELENTLESS, starring the German/Nigerian singer NNEKA. Relentless was selected at the BFI London Film Festival, Lincoln Center, New York, the Brooklyn ART Museum and Brown University, Rhode Island, Cairo film festival etc. 1993/94 Directed TV documentary on Xuly-Bët (foremost African fashion designer in Paris). Artistic Director 2000/2005 • Artistic director for Virgin Records France - 1999 • Artistic director for the The SEHM Fashion Fair, Paris. • Launch of the magazine Clam. 1997/98 • Artistic director for Moda Barcelona Fashion Fair. 1995/96 • Artistic director for Who’s Next Fashion Fair. 1994/2000 • Artistic director for XULY BET FASHION, PARIS . Editor-in-chief and Art Director 1999/2017 • Magazine Clam Founded Clam, a magazine on creativity - distributed in France, Africa, US, UK, Japan, South Africa, Germany.
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TED Fellows 2010, 2013 Cohort

Space researcher, biologist, artist

Angelo Vermeulen
Angelo Vermeulen is an artist, biologist, space systems researcher, and community organizer. In his work he ties together technological, ecological, and social systems through group engagement and collaboration. Biomodd is one of his most well-known art projects and consists of a worldwide series of interactive art installations in which computers and ecosystems coexist. In 2009 he launched Space Ecologies Art and Design (SEAD), a platform for artistic research on architectures and ethics of space colonization. Seeker is one of the resulting projects involving co-created starship sculptures that evolve over time. Since 2011 he is member of the European Space Agency Topical Team Arts & Science (ETTAS), and in 2013 he was crew commander of the NASA-funded HI-SEAS Mars mission simulation in Hawai'i. His space-related work led him to start a new PhD at Delft University of Technology, developing paradigm-shifting concepts for evolvable starships. He co-authored the book 'Baudelaire in Cyberspace: Dialogues on Art, Science and Digital Culture' with philosopher Antoon Van den Braembussche, and gives talks about his work around the world. In 2012 he was a Michael Kalil Endowment for Smart Design Fellow at Parsons in New York. Currently, Vermeulen is a TED Senior Fellow, and holds positions at LUCA School of Visual Arts in Ghent, Belgium, and Die Angewandte in Vienna, Austria.
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Anindya Sinha
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TED Fellows 2010, 2019 Cohort

Anita Doron
The day I was born, my father went to register me at the office of citizens, where he was told “Anita” was not Soviet enough and was sent home to come up with a less imperialistic name. When he returned, the bureaucrat, intoxicated after a wedding, decided to register me as Anita anyway. From that day forward, my life has been shaped my cryptic chances. I grew up in the land of abandoned castles, Romani cures and stores filled with nothing but tuna canned in tomato sauce. My mother rejected the official truth handed down by the government and my father refused the reality accepted by the middle class, leading me to seek and witness alternative truths from an early age. In the summers we traveled to the mountains of Georgia and Armenia, their valleys flooding my imagination with golden rivers and pomegranate creation myths. In Uzbekistan, I marveled at a rock face encrusted with microscopic diamonds, fell off a donkey and was cured at a feast cooked by women wearing as many braids as their age. On a remote island of apple trees in Turkey, I encountered a family forgotten by civilization and in the North West Territories, I breathed in glowing crystals of ice formed in the -55 air while turkey-sized ravens flew over my head. In a Peruvian village, a Shaman read my life in coca leaves and made me stand before a giant stuffed condor to reveal the exact truth of my soul. The older I grew and the more magic I witnessed, the less I was able to believe in a binary, black and white reality. I recognized that believing in absolute, singular truths generates hatred between families and nations. And it is this slow-cooked and sun-baked understanding that compels me to give expression to the real that exists in people. The co-existence of multiple truths is not only possible, it is necessary and magical. I'm a filmmaker, writer (the Oscar-nominated "The Breadwinner") and mother to a sweet little person named Tian.
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TED Fellows 2017 Cohort

War reporter

Anjan Sundaram
Anjan Sundaram (b. 1983, Ranchi, India) is the author of three award-winning memoirs of journalism, Stringer, Bad News and Breakup, and has been called "one of the great reporters of our age" by the BBC foreign correspondent Fergal Keane. He was an Artist in Residence at the Bellagio Center, run by the Rockefeller Foundation, in 2019, and has served as a Fellow at TED, The Berggruen Institute, The Skoll Foundation, and King’s College. Anjan has received a Frontline Club Award, a Moore Prize, and a Reuters Prize, with award citations and critics repeatedly comparing him to the Polish reporter Ryszard Kapuscinski and the Nobel Laureates V.S. Naipaul and William Faulkner. Anjan’s work centers marginalized communities in the world’s greatest but most neglected conflicts. Anjan creates personal, subjective, and non-authoritative narratives to evoke wonder and a sense of inspiration, by immersing audiences in the reporter’s experience on human rights and environmental frontlines. Anjan’s books have been featured by Christiane Amanpour and Fareed Zakaria on CNN, on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and Democracy Now by Amy Goodman. He writes for Granta magazine, The New York Times, and the New York Review of Books. His TED talk received over a million views, and he will speak again at TED about his reporting in 2024. Anjan graduated from Yale University and holds a PhD in creative writing and journalism from the University of East Anglia.
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TED Fellows 2012, 2009 Cohort

Ophthalmologist

Anthony Vipin Das
Eye Surgeon + Innovator + Maker Dr.Vipin is an Associate Director and Consultant Ophthalmologist at L V Prasad Eye Institute, India. He leads strategy for Technology and Innovation at one of the largest eye care networks in the world. A TED Senior Fellow and curator of TEDxHyderabad, he is passionate about AI changing eye care globally through collective learning. He co-directs the LVPEI Center for Innovation.
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TED Fellows 2018 Cohort

Social entrepreneur + designer

Antionette Carroll
Antionette D. Carroll is building an intergenerational movement of Redesigners for Justice to co-create and reimagine a world in which racial equity and health equity are the status quo. Her driving belief is "Like all systems, systems of oppression, inequality, and inequity are by design. Therefore, they can be redesigned." To redesign this world, we need a new type of leader - a leader that leverages the history of youth being the architects of change and agitators of the status quo of exclusion, erasure, and oppression. Her ultimate vision? To be a pivotal supporter and Design Ally of youth of color in building a world that embraces the humanity, rights, and power of Black and Latinx people. How is she getting closer to this vision? Being a serial social entrepreneur, activist, community organizer, and Redesigner for Justice. Antionette is the Founder, President and CEO of Creative Reaction Lab, a nonprofit educating and deploying youth to challenge racial and health inequities impacting Black and Latinx populations. Within this role, Antionette has pioneered an award-winning form of creative problem solving called Equity-Centered Community Design (named a Fast Company World Changing Idea Finalist) and a new leadership model called Redesigner for Justice. Through this capacity, Antionette has received several recognitions and awards including being named an Aspen Institute Civil Society Fellow, Roddenberry Fellow, Echoing Green Global Fellow, TED Fellow, ADCOLOR Innovator, SXSW Community Service Honoree, Camelback Ventures Fellow, and Essence Magazine Woke 100. Additionally, Antionette has been featured in Empathy for Change by Amy J. Wilson, Fast Company Innovation by Design: Creative Ideas That Transform the Way We Live and Work by Stephanie Mehta, and the upcoming Beloved Economies: Transforming How We Work by Jess Rimington and Joanna L. Cea. In her “free” time, Antionette is a civic and equity design coach and international speaker and facilitator, previously speaking at Microsoft, NASA, Square (Block), Capital One, AIGA National Conference, The Ohio State University, and more. When she is not working (which as a mom, wife, and entrepreneur usually equals never), she is watching science fiction, action and Asian cinema, reading, practicing handlettering, coloring with her children, and adding to her shoe and jewelry collection.
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TED Fellows 2013 Cohort

CO - Founder

Antonio Torres
Antonio Torres TED Fellow Mexican-American artist, architect, and educator who explores expressions and sensations through various media and architecture. He cofounded The Bittertang Farm as a place to experiment with the physics, biology, behaviors, and emotions of our surroundings. Recently, he has built 3 inflatable pavilions, a pregnant sugar oozing piñata, a plush toy collection, a sagging birdcage, a room of wax, an edible environment, and a giant living amphitheater.
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Bittertang

Fellows Talks

We’ve organized Fellows talks into curated playlists to make it easier to find content you’re interested in.

TED Fellows impact at a glance

Change that gets noticed

200M

200M people impacted by Fellows work annually

451M

451M TED Talk views

2,234

2,234 articles published by/about Fellows per year

1,303

1,303 speaking engagements each year

234

234 businesses launched

The groundbreaking work of a TED Fellow does not stay in the shadows. Each year we study the impact Fellows have on their respective fields, as measured by tangible forms of recognition. Here are some highlights from the past few years.

Our purpose

What makes a TED Fellow?

TED Fellows are some of the brightest, most ambitious thinkers, future-shapers and culture-shakers from nearly every discipline and corner of the world.

Whether it’s discovering new galaxies, leading social movements or making waves in environmental conservation, with the support of TED, Fellows are dedicated to making the world a better place through their innovative work. In 2024 the program will shift to a nomination-based application process.

Qualifications

We look for the proximate emerging leaders working on-the-ground on world-changing ideas -- the doers, makers, inventors, technologists, filmmakers and photographers, musicians and artists, educators, scientists, entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, and human rights activists. Here is what we look for in a TED Fellow:

1

Emerging leaders. We focus our efforts on individuals who are in the earlier phases of their career, those who have a track record of excellence but have not received a numerous other fellowships and accolades. We search for those who are not already on the global stage.

2

Originality and authenticity. We look for proximate leaders with a unique approach to solving humanity’s greatest challenges. We look for the people working on-the-ground on world-changing ideas, putting ideas into action.

3

Kind, collaborative character. We look for individuals who have an early track record of great work in their field. We look for individuals from all disciplines, who have collaborative, kind personalities. Many Fellows claim that the community of other Fellows is the most valuable aspect of the fellowship. We try to nurture this collaborative spirit in the community.

4

Poised to grow. Since this is not a granting fellowship, we look for individuals who would best be able to use the TED community and this opportunity as a launching pad. The TED Fellowship is best for candidates who are prepared to grow with TED’s forms of support: amplification, network-building, communication training, professional development coaching and mentoring.