by Heidi L. Everett
news@thenewsleaders.com
When eight local voices gather to share “ideas worth spreading” at the fifth annual TEDxStCloud, three of them will have strong St. Joseph connections.
Resident and business owner Mary Bruno, former College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University history professor Annette Atkins and Charlie Eisenreich, former Apollo High School principal, will take on this year’s theme, “Embrace,” Oct. 14 at the Paramount Center for the Arts.
“The theme of this year’s TEDxStCloud is Embrace,” said Brian Hart, event co-organizer. “We embrace the opportunity to gather, to thoughtfully consider new ideas, and to address together the challenges we face growing as individuals and as a community.”
The independently organized event, licensed by TED, is locally organized to bring the community together to share a TED-like experience. Some of the best talks from TEDx events have gone on to be featured on TED.com and garnered millions of views from audiences across the globe.
The full speaker line up for TEDxStCloud 2021 includes:
• Annette Atkins – A historian who uses letters, photos, shoes, art, chairs, census records, maps and other artifacts as keys to unlock the past, a past that is full of wonders and mysteries, stories and landscapes to be explored. She works from the belief that opening that door helps illuminate the past and the present. Atkins, a former professor, teaches that our history and our lives stand in such a close relationship to each other that reflecting on either one helps illuminate the other.
• Mary Bruno – Artist and owner of Bruno Press letterpress print shop. From early days in her father’s workshop, Bruno learned her love for printing. She took that love to the next level when she graduated with a printmaking degree and took over her father’s shop. She describes her work as the sum of hand-carved linoleum block plus handset wood and metal type plus wicked sharp wit.
• Charles Eisenreich – Lifelong K-12 educator and administrator and former minor league baseball player, Eisenreich taught and coached at several area schools and served as assistant principal at Tech High School as well as principal at Tech and Apollo high schools.
• James Alberts – Pastor, social justice leader and board member of ISAIAH MN. Alberts founded Higher Ground Church of God in Christ in 2001. Alberts has been a key leader in forging St. Cloud’s Community Policing Agreement and focuses on ongoing community development.
• John Harlander – Physicist and designer of optical instruments for astronomy and space physics including for NASA’s recently-launched Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite.
• Niloufer Merchant – Psychologist, trauma expert, former SCSU faculty. Merchant specializes in diagnosing and treating mental health disorders related to trauma, PTSD, depression and anxiety. She incorporates holistic approaches, honoring the mind, body and spirit connection. She speaks Gujarati, Urdu and Hindi.
• Pete Rogers – Expert in automation and robotic systems integration. Rogers brought more than 13 years in automation and robotics leadership when he accepted his most recent post in 2019 as Central McGowan’s vice president and general manager of automation.
• Robbyn Wacker – St. Cloud State University president and academician in gerontology and sociology. Wacker’s passion is to help create conditions that bring out the best in others and to advance the mission of higher education. She is a first-generation college student whose great-grandparents immigrated to the United States in search of a better life and settled in Colorado as farm laborers in the beet fields.
Tickets are on sale now at paramountarts.org.
