TEDxMountainAve is proud to announce the 2025 speakers for the live event next spring!
After receiving applicants from all over the country (and a few internationally!), speakers were selected for their unique idea that ties into the event theme of “Beyond Barriers.” Hear their thoughts at the event on Wednesday, April 30, at Poudre High School, 201 S. Impala Drive, in Fort Collins.
Tickets
Tickets will go on sale in early March. This TEDxMountain Ave. event is free for all Poudre School District students and $10 for general admission. After the event, a short reception will be held where audience members can continue conversations inspired by the talks, meet the speakers, and converse with the event leadership team. Complementary light refreshments and snacks will be provided. To receive a ticket sale reminder, please fill out this form.
Speakers for 2025 TEDxMountainAve
Here are the seven speakers selected for this year's event, as well as background information on who they are and what their talk will be about.
Aloha Arceo Apitz
Family Liaison
Aloha Arceo Apitz is a Venezuelan immigrant who came to this country with her daughter without speaking English. Hoping for a better future, Arceo Apitz received the valuable help of a family liaison to navigate the country's educational system. After receiving that support, she wanted to give back. Eight years ago, she was motivated to work as a family liaison. She prioritizes helping non-English speaking students and their families, creating inclusive and equitable opportunities to access education and promote a better quality of life.
Arceo Apitz has facilitated Spanish talks in the fields of mental health, drugs and alcohol, and suicide prevention. Her achievements have earned her recognition as a march leader at the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration and recipient of the Impala Award at PHS. She has experience as a psychologist, school teacher, university professor, and co-founder/co-owner of “Chiquillos” a tutoring/summer camp company in Venezuela.
Brian Bauer
Certified Addiction Specialist
Brian Bauer, a certified addiction specialist and recovery advocate, founded the Abundance Foundation in 2020 to address the growing need for accessible addiction treatment services for underserved populations. Inspired by his recovery journey over the last twelve years from drugs and alcohol, Bauer is passionate about guiding others toward lasting change.
His vision is to erase the stigma of addiction by filling in the gaps of a broken system. With a deep understanding of the challenges faced by individuals struggling with addiction, he has built a strong team that provides essential support, community building and recovery coaching to the underserved population of his community. Bauer's unwavering commitment to integrity, authenticity, faith, and personal excellence drives the Foundation’s mission to empower individuals to overcome addiction and build contributing, fulfilling lives of purpose and hope.
Dr. Scott Ellner
Senior Advisor and Healthcare Strategist at Major Futures
Dr. Scott Ellner has a proven track record of building a solid physician engagement culture that drives successful results. He is a thought leader and a well-recognized figure in the healthcare industry, with over 25 years of experience as a practicing general surgeon and chief executive officer of large physician groups and health systems. In 2015, the American Association for Physician Leadership recognized his leadership with the top award, a testament to his expertise and influence in the field.
Dr. Ellner's strategic guidance profoundly impacts healthcare organizations. His expertise in strategic planning, operational optimization, healthcare law and compliance, patient safety, and financial sustainability fosters a welcoming environment for healthcare professionals, ensures physician well-being, and significantly elevates patient outcomes.
Hannah Barquero
Poudre School District Student
Hannah Barquero is a junior at Rocky Mountain High School. She has many interests including reading, writing and pottery, but her main passion is music. She spends most of her time playing guitar for the School Of Rock Loveland Regional House Band, an audition-only advanced music performance program.
Barquero was diagnosed with leukemia when she was eleven years old. After two years of chemotherapy treatment, she struggled to return to normal life and has since learned that certain mindsets were holding her back. Her goal is to use her unique experience to educate and share her ideas with the world, and to inspire others to adopt positive mindsets in order to get through hard times. She wants to spread awareness about childhood cancer and its long-term effects in hopes of motivating others to be mindful, patient, and compassionate, and to highlight the importance of resilience and determination.
Richard Bistrong
CEO, Front-Line Anti-Bribery LLC
Richard Bistrong is a contributing writer for Fast Company and the CEO of Front-Line Anti-Bribery, a consultancy focusing on real-world anti-bribery, ethics, and compliance challenges. His expertise is in ethics and compliance, ethical decision making, anti-bribery and corruption and commercial pressures. His work has appeared in Fast Company and Harvard Business Review. Connect with Bistrong on LinkedIn and Twitter/X.
Scott Donnell
Best Selling Author and Financial Literacy Expert
Scott Donnell is the best-selling author of Value Creation Kid: The Healthy Struggles Your Children Need to Succeed. With over 6 million families served, Donnell is the leading voice in helping parents teach their kids good money skills. He is an integral part of bringing Children’s Business Fairs to families nationwide and is the founder of Dinner Table.
Sophia Imark
Poudre School District Student
Sophia Imark is a student at Rocky Mountain High School student. She participates in Math Honor Society, National Honor Society, Science Olympiad, and the Computer and Technology Student Association. She is also proud to be the founder and president of her school’s Asian American and Pacific Islanders Club, where she works to encourage connection and cultural awareness.
Outside of school, Imark's heart lies in the arts. She has dedicated 13 years of her life to dance and feels fortunate to train at Front Range Classical Ballet Academy under the caring guidance of Miss Ixchel Levendosky. Sophia still treasures the memory of her first recital (and costume malfunction)—an early lesson in resilience that keeps her smiling today. When she is not dancing or studying, she loves taking walks, spending time with loved ones and binge-watching Gossip Girl.
TEDxMountain Ave is independently operated by a collaboration of students and educators in Poudre School District and the Fort Collins area. TEDxMountain Ave promotes workforce skills development, relationship building and hands-on leadership experience with a focus on youth empowerment.
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About TEDx, x = independently organized event
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).
About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, often in the form of short talks delivered by leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED Conferences, intimate TED Salons and thousands of independently organized TEDx events around the world. Videos of these talks are made available, free, on TED.com and other platforms. Audio versions of TED Talks are published to TED Talks Daily, available on all podcast platforms.