TEDx Spring 2020 Talks

Hannah Loo: Ph.D. Student at the University of Pennsylvania

Hannah Loo is a 2017 SUNY Geneseo graduate and the founder of TEDxSUNYGeneseo. Since graduating, she has spent time conducting research at the National Institutes of Health and is currently a Neuroscience Ph.D. student at the University of Pennsylvania. Outside of her studies, Hannah is an Olympic weightlifter and also directs Project SHORT, a pro-bono consulting organization she founded that works with underrepresented students applying to medical and graduate school. She is passionate about education, mental health, music, and, of course, the brain.

Kyle Navratil: Undergraduate Student at SUNY Geneseo

Kyle Navratil is an undergraduate student at SUNY College at Geneseo. He is studying English with a concentration in creative writing and a minor in cognitive science. For 6 months Kyle lived as a Christian missionary in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and has returned to the United States to pursue his passion and enthusiasm for the importance of a liberal arts education. His goal is to inspire and equip others with the knowledge of "how" to think, not merely "what" to think.

Kaitlin Joyce: Undergraduate Student at SUNY Geneseo

Katie Joyce is a senior Theatre and Communication double major who has a passion for performance and media. She grew up in Lancaster, New York, but recently moved to Wesley Chapel, Florida. Katie works in the costume shop and was the house manager for the fall series of shows. She has also been an actor in multiple productions here, including her favorite: Jazzmin in Da Mayah, last April. She plans on pursuing a career in the entertainment industry, with the hopes to one day star in a feature film. In her (rare) free time, she likes to work on her passion projects from creating makeup designs, writing scripts, or filming for her YouTube channel.

Glenn McClure: Composer and Professor at Paul Smiths College

Glenn McClure is a composer and professor. He currently serves on the faculty of Paul Smiths College in the Adirondack Region of New York State. Mr. McClure served as the Artist-in-Residence for the National Parks Arts Foundation at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park where he worked with scientists to create a musical exploration of the volcanos. He also traveled to Antarctica to compose music based upon the work of UCSD climate scientist Dr. Peter Bromirski. Mr. McClure recently received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts/Opera Division in partnership with Mountain Lake PBS for his new voting rights opera, Promised Land: An Adirondack Folk Opera.

Jim Allen: Associate Professor of Psychology at SUNY Geneseo

Jim Allen is the author of The psychology of happiness in the modern world: A social psychological approach, perhaps the only textbook about happiness that examines how cultural and economic factors affect personal happiness. Although the book covers traditional “positive psychology” topics such as the importance of gratitude, it also focuses on how the culture of materialism, advertising and our national emphasis on economic growth lowers our collective happiness. He regularly teaches a course on the psychology of happiness at SUNY Geneseo, along with courses on social and environmental psychology. Jim is an associate professor of psychology at SUNY Geneseo, where he has taught since earning a Ph.D. in social psychology from Arizona State University in 1993. He lives in Geneseo with his wife Deb. They both enjoy the outdoors, travel, and backyard gardening, and are proud of the fact they got rid of their television in 1999 when their first child was born.