2019 CHAOS Speakers

The Redef Movement Brielle, NJ Director: John Barrella The Redef Movement is a professional street dance company based in New Jersey under the direction of John Barrella. This company has promoted hip hop, breakdance, popping, locking, & comedy through performance...

Resistance Revival Chorus New York, NY Launched in 2017 in response to the Trump presidency, the Resistance Revival Chorus is a collective of more than 60 women who join together to breathe joy and song into the resistance, and to uplift and center women’s voices. The...

Matt Cook Brick, NJ Heartfelt, melancholy and exuberant experiences contribute to the all-around uniqueness of New Jersey Shore-based indie/alternative singer/songwriter Matt Cook, who in August of 2010 entered a life-threatening diabetic coma at only 25 years old....

Tara Geraghty Monmouth County, NJ Choosing Fun in the Chaos of Cancer In the chaos of childhood cancer, laughing, while seemingly offensive, is actually an appropriate choice...and science proves it. Tara challenges the cancer conversation and embraces laughter, fun,...

Philip Bump How Subjective Media Replaced Institutions Misinformation isn't a result of social media. Social media is the accelerant that created chaos in the wake of a collapse in institutional confidence. President Trump is the highest-profile spreader of...

Jordan Modell Asbury Park, NJ Common Ground on Abortion - Yes Really We live in a country in chaos. And there are few issues more chaotic and divisive than abortion. And yet after four months of traveling the deep south, Jordan realized that perhaps there is one old...

John Nottingham Cleveland, OH Getting to Wow Ambiguity can be frightening, but we alone among all creatures can see past it, not only to survive, but to thrive. Working with a game company once, I learned that games need three things: rules, scoring and peril. The...

Jessica Creane Philadelphia, PA Gamifying Chaos: Embracing Uncertainty Through Play In moments of chaos, games and interactive experiences can help us remain playful in the face of uncertainty. When circumstances greater than us, be it climate change, politics, love,...

Ganes Kesari Monmouth Junction, NJ Saving our Planet’s Biodiversity with AI The global environmental crisis and rapid depletion of our flora and fauna have triggered Earth’s sixth mass extinction. Pushed to the brink of disaster, our natural world is in total chaos....

Fox Beyer Chatham, NJ Win Anyway No two steps Fox has ever taken have been the same, and his balance is at times so fickle that he can find himself face first on the ground at any moment. Cerebral Palsy. Fox's chaos. However, has he been teaching and coaching for the...

Krishna Patel Westport, CT End Slavery with Transparent Supply Chains There are more people enslaved now than at any other time in human history. Criminal profits are conservatively estimated to be $150 billion dollars per year, making it the second most lucrative...

Courtney Reardon New York, NY Chaos of Climbing Everest: The Mental Journey Picture an Everest climber. Strong. Resilient. Capable. But everyone has weaknesses. And Everest will expose them! Courtney recently became the 68th American woman to summit Mount Everest and...

Bob Pflugfelder Watertown, MA Things Will Fly Through The Air: Inspiring Science Through Chaos Chaos in the classroom would normally describe a teacher’s worst day. Yet for Bob Pflugfelder, chaos has a unique side effect that makes it a powerful teaching tool both in...

Andrew Maris Fair Haven, NJ What Jurassic Park Gets Wrong About Chaos Theory To scientists, “chaos” does not mean randomness. Researchers use chaos to describe situations where two nearly identical starting points lead to completely different results. Also known as...

Ben Freeberg New York, NY Chaos Isn't An Excuse 2018 was the year when I got diagnosed with cancer, had major changes in work, helped friends and family fight health battles, and entered into the creative writing and comedy world. That chaos has helped me to become an...

Sarbmeet Kanwal, PhD Holmdel, NJ Chaos to Cosmos It is natural for chaos to precede the accomplishment of a goal that is grandiose enough to demand the elevation of the human race to its next level. Our cosmic history shows that unprecedented results emerge from...

Kolton Andrus San Jose, CAEngineering for Chaos: Preparing for DisasterSociety is becoming increasingly dependent on technology. What happens when those systems fail? Chaos Engineering is a new software discipline dedicated to answering this question and preventing...

Kenneth Campbell Perryville, MDChaos Theory and the BeatlesThe Beatles and their generation not only shaped the political culture of the sixties, but also embodied values and ideals that inspired a revolutionary change in consciousness for decades to come. Ken’s idea...

Cory Kahaney New York, NYThe Joke That Saved My Life On our worst days, it is often a joke that can save us. We can sometimes remember the joke as vividly as the crisis because it marked the shift from despair to hope. Cory shows how humor is a tool anyone can use to...

Alex Castillo Brooklyn, NYEmpowering the Mind “To measure is to know” - Lord KelvinWhat happens when we measure our emotions? Alex is passionate about the human brain and how we can empower our minds and change the ways in which humans interact with computers. There...

Akilah S. Richards Lawrenceville, GARaising Free PeopleWe can’t keep using tools of oppression and expect to raise free people - we must examine privilege and power in our relationships with our children, the world’s most vulnerable citizens and embrace chaos in...