Hobart and William Smith Colleges

28 October 2026 • Entrepreneurship • Service TEDxHWS Makes Its Debut

The inaugural conference will bring a diverse group of speakers to campus to share ideas and experiences that challenge assumptions and illuminate what connects us. From neuroscience and public health to leadership, space exploration and the arts, speakers will draw on a wide range of expertise and personal experiences.

Ideas about resilience, identity, health, leadership and human connection will take center stage when Hobart and William Smith students host the inaugural TEDxHWS conference on Thursday, Nov. 5.

Organized by a student club and led by Cori Bohan ’27, TEDxHWS will begin at 6 p.m. in Froelich Hall of the Gearan Center for the Performing Arts. The event will feature 11 speakers sharing ideas and experiences inspired by the theme “We Are One,” which explores diversity, unity and the connections that shape our shared humanity.

TEDx events are independently organized programs inspired by TED’s mission of spreading ideas through short, powerful talks. The inaugural HWS conference will bring together perspectives from academia, health care, mental health, the arts, leadership and other fields, inviting audiences to consider familiar questions from new perspectives.

For Bohan, a student trustee who is majoring in sociology, the event grew from an idea she developed while participating in the Todd Feldman ’89 and Family Pitch Competition during the 2023–24 academic year. Her pitch, Stories We Tell, envisioned a nonprofit initiative that would help school-aged children find their voices and build confidence in public speaking through workshops and TED-style events.

That idea helped lay the groundwork for TEDxHWS, creating a platform for speakers to share their stories and insights while encouraging audiences to listen across differences. Executive Director for the Centennial Center and the Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning Katie Flowers, the project’s advisor, has played an instrumental role in supporting Bohan and the student group throughout nearly a year of planning and preparation.

“Bringing such unique and incredible people to the HWS stage has been special, and I’m beyond thankful for the village of people who have supported this project and helped bring it to life. I hope this event shows people that we are more alike than different,” says Bohan.

The conference’s intentionally broad theme gives speakers room to connect their individual areas of expertise and lived experiences to larger questions of belonging, community and human connection.

Among the HWS participants, Associate Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectional Justice Jessica Hayes-Conroy, Zaira Bulatova ’28 and August Montiel ’29 will present together on health, exploring how it is measured and understood, the role of health policy and related questions. Hayes-Conroy’s scholarship examines the intersections of health, science and lived experience; Bulatova studies public health and the relationship between scientific knowledge and human experience; and Montiel’s interests in mathematics and public health include women’s health and biostatistics. Their collaborative talk will bring these complementary perspectives to a shared discussion of health and the ways it is defined, studied and shaped by policy.

Other speakers will offer individual perspectives informed by their professional and personal experiences. Darleen Santore, known as Coach Dar, is a mental performance and leadership expert whose work with athletes and business leaders is informed in part by her recovery from three strokes. Retired NASA astronaut Col. Terry Virts will draw on a career that included piloting the space shuttle Endeavour and commanding the International Space Station. Clinical social worker and author Julius Owens will address the psychological and ethical challenges leaders face within institutions, while author Linda Dynel’s work focuses on intimate partner violence and the resilience of survivors.

The lineup also includes cognitive neuroscience researcher Geoff D. Green II, who studies stress, cognition and human performance; author and brand strategist Natalie Henry, who explores authenticity and creative expression; the Rev. Susan Langner, whose ministry has emphasized listening across differences; and Sandeep Tissaaratchy ’26, an international relations graduate student at the University of Chicago whose research focuses on post-conflict peacebuilding and development.

“We wanted to bring together people with very different experiences and areas of expertise to show how many ways there are to understand the world and our place in it,” Bohan says. “From health and science to leadership, resilience and identity, each speaker offers a distinct perspective, but all of their stories connect to the larger idea that we have more in common than we might think.”

Community members can attend the conference in person at Froelich Hall or participate through watch parties around campus. For updates and additional information, follow TEDxHWS on Instagram at @tedxhws.