Four headlining speakers for the TedxACU conference were confirmed: Justin Goldston, Ryan Pemberton, Clint Schumacher and Brad Gautney.

TEDxACU has had a four-year history of highlighting topics that deal with business and the economy, scientific discoveries, the impact of art and how as a community, people can better live their lives. With those that have been announced to speak, there is a large range of diversity in the topics that will be discussed.

Ryan Pemberton, minister of university engagement at the First Presbyterian Church of Berkley in California, had a successful career in marketing and public relations before leaving to pursue his calling. “If you knew you’d fail, would you go anyway?” Pemberton will discuss how the ups and downs of his journey dramatically redefined how he understood the role of success and failure.

Clint Schumacher, an attorney at Dawson & Sodd in Fort Worth, has been in legal practice for 21 years, being named in the elite Texas SuperLawyer list. His talk, “The Resiliency Decision,” will ask the audience to “consider how life might be different if they decided it didn’t matter how many times they had been knocked down, but focused instead on what it would take to get back up again and again.”

Brad Gautney, founder and president of Global Health Innovations in Dallas has dedicated his career in pediatric nursing to providing life-saving interventions for mothers and their babies living with HIV/AIDS. “What If We Can Change The Narrative: Ending Pediatric HIV/AIDS” will explain his journey on ending this epidemic, partnering with John Hopkins School of Medicine and the Kenyan government to treat more than 120,000 women and children.

Justin Goldston, senior management consultant at Ultra Consultants in Boston, has spent most of his career working with international organization leaders as they implement productivity software or “enterprise application.” Goldston’s topic will be “Blockchain: The ‘True’ Sharing Economy,” which will consider some “ifs” of Blockchain’s future impact on the “sharing economy.”

Events like TEDxACU have introduced students on campus to new ways of thinking, helping to impact them and they way they approach school, work and life.

Donte Payne, a senior DET major from Killeen, said, “Having TEDx events keeps us informed on topics most people are not knowledgeable on, often being conducted by sources well-versed in these topics. While many of the talks may not challenge ideas, they introduce new ones that have the audience thinking.”

TEDx2019 will take place at Fulks Theatre on March 1 from 4-9:30 p.m. General admission tickets are available online for $30. Students can register for $20 at www.tedxacu.org.

What IF you left with a new perspective? (Photo credit to the TEDxACU 2019 facebook)