2020 EDITION - RIPPLES

"Finding the Courage to End Gun Violence in America"

Peter spent almost eight years on the staffs of Members of Congress on Capitol Hill, serving as legislative Director and Deputy Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. In 2012, he was appointed as an advisor to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, focusing on clean energy finance and deployment. In 2013, he joined Congresswoman Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly to launch Giffords, an organization dedicated to saving lives from gun violence, where he serves as Executive Director and Founder.

"The Language of Motherly Love"

Rebecca Cox (SFS '23) founded Project Olas, a social venture employing moms in the Guatemala City Garbage Dump community as Spanish language tutors online. In April 2020, Olas won first place in the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Challenge for $10,000 out of 34 teams. Rebecca leads a team of 38 and oversees the operation of 13 Club Olas chapters across the US.

"The Road to Black Liberation Isn't Yours to Choose"

Kayla Friedland (SFS '22) hopes to utilize her educational privilege to uplift marginalized, working-class communities through grassroots community and worker organizing. Kayla has been active in the DC uprisings since they began in May and contributes to the Georgetown community through her work as an intern with the Kalmanovitz Initiative & student movements like the Black Survivors' Coalition and Georgetown United Against Police Aggression.

"Make Jokes Not War"

Zev Burton (SFS '22), studying International Politics with a double minor in Russian and Mathematics, is deeply passionate about helping keep people safe from threats, and he's fascinated by discovering unique ways to help make the world more peaceful.

"Finding the words...transforming trauma."

Fr. Gerard J. McGlone, S.J., Ph.D. is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown. As a survivor of clerical sexual abuse, he will bravely be giving a speech entitled "Finding the words...transforming trauma." He was previously an assistant professor of psychiatry at Medstar Georgetown University School of Medicine. He has been Executive Director at several major treatment centers in the United States. He is also the lead author of several award-winning books: Creating Safe and Sacred Places and two Catholic Press Association (CPA) Award winners The Inner Life of Priests and To Be One in Christ: Intercultural Formation and Ministry.

"Relevance of the UN and multilateralism in post-COVID World"

Kul Chandra Gautam is a distinguished diplomat, public policy advocate, and human rights activist. Not only is he a former Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF and Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, but he has extensive experience in international diplomacy, development cooperation, and humanitarian assistance. Currently, Mr. Gautam serves on the Boards of several organizations dealing with poverty reduction, peace-building, inter-faith cooperation, public health, education, and the well-being of women and children.

"What Battling 11,000 Internet Trolls taught me about Political Discourse"

Alexandra Bowman (Col. '22), is a political cartoonist, satirist, and freelance illustrator from Washington, D.C. She serves as the Political Cartoonist for The Lincoln Project and environmental news platform Our Daily Planet. She is even the youngest current member of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists as well as the creator of “The Hilltop Show,” a political comedy web series seeking to present national and international news to young people across the US!

"Rethinking a Solution for Food Insecurity in America"

Daniel Humm, chef and owner of the Make It Nice restaurant group, started working at a kitchen at the young age of 14 and has spent over 20 years transforming restaurants from everyday brasseries to some of the most celebrated restaurants in the world. He will be stepping on the TEDxGeorgetown stage with a talk entitled, "Rethinking a Solution for Food Insecurity in America." Humm has received world recognition, including four stars from The New York Times, James Beard Foundation Awards including Outstanding Chef and Outstanding Restaurant in America, and three Michelin stars. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Daniel and his partners at Rethink Food created a commissary kitchen out of Eleven Madison Park to feed first responders, healthcare workers and those in need, later evolving the program into Rethink Certified, partnering with over 40 restaurants to fight food insecurity across the country.

"Cyber Deception a Path ahead for Cyber Defenders"

Dr. Stanley Barr is a three time graduate of the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Currently, Dr. Barr is a Senior Principal Scientist at The MITRE Corporation, a not-for-profit corporation that manages seven federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) to solve and mitigate cybercrime and other cyber-related issues.

"Weather Forecast Innovation"

Dr. Hendrik L. Tolman has a degree in Civil Engineering from the Delft University of Technology. He was born and raised in the Netherlands and came to the United States in 1990 as a NASA postdoc. Since 1992, he has worked for the National Weather Service (NWS), which is part of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He is the originator of the WAVEWATCH III wind-wave model and is presently the Senior Advisor for Advanced Modeling Systems for the NWS. In this position, he leads strategic planning for the next generation of computer models and modeling approaches used for the NWS forecasting enterprise.