TEDX TRALEE 2022 SPEAKERS

- THE GOOD ROOM - 

JANA OSTA

Conquer the World with Hypnosis

Throughout her 10 years working in corporate, Jana started seeking a deeper meaning to life and immersed herself in a journey of self-development and healing. Her first Yoga Teacher Training in India ignited her transformation and opened her eyes to a whole new world of possibilities.
She became mesmerized by the power of the mind, which lead her to seek a diploma from the Accredited School of Hypnotherapy HMI (Hypnosis Motivation Institute). She is also a Kundalini Yoga Teacher, with an expansive depth of understanding in yogic studies, meditation, and spirituality. Her passion to learn more about the body and holistic wellness, lead her to also become an IIN (Integrative Institute of Nutrition) certified holistic health & wellness coach.
Jana loves supporting people to step into their true potential and live their life’s purpose. She combines energy and mindset work to uplift people’s lives and helps them release limiting blocks that are in the way of their success.
She changed careers, launched her own business, bungee jumped the highest bridge in the world, hiked the highest mountain in Africa and plans to keep seeking new heights – who’s in for the ride?

SHARON MCCARTHY

Adult Autism Journey

Sharon is a professional who has worked in the autism field in a number of capacities for over twenty years. She lectures in University College Dublin, coordinates and delivers autism-centric courses in her local community colleges and delivers autism-specific training workshops to different disability and training services across the country. She has spoken at different events nationally and internationally and is founding director of Autism Journeys Training and Consultancy service where she supports autistic individuals and their families from both an advocacy and educational standpoint.
Sharon is passionate about progression in the field of disability and autism and strives to ensure educational professionals and support staff are equipped to respectfully meet the needs of neurodivergent individuals. Sharon holds a number of disability specific qualifications and continues to upskill to ensure she provides best support. She is also both a qualified advocate and childcare professional.
Sharon is the presenter of Autism Journeys Radio Show and Podcasts, a show centred on gaining the perspectives and telling the stories of figures in the autism community. It is currently listened to in 27 countries around the world. She is also the author of the strengths focused visuals programme Supporting Autonomy: Visual strategies to set the autistic child up for success.
Most importantly, Sharon is parent to multiply-identified neurodivergent children for more than 25 years and recently, as a female (in her mid-forties!) she was identified as both autistic and an ADHDer and is finally empowered to be her authentic neurodivergent self.

THALER PEKAR

The Power of Paradox

Thaler Pekar is a pioneer in narrative and communication and a global keynote speaker. The BBC and the Smithsonian Institution hail Thaler as one of the world's leading experts on institutional storytelling and applied narrative. For 17 years, she and her team at Thaler Pekar & Partners have advised leaders around the world and across sectors to align, inspire, and engage audiences.
Thaler Pekar & Partners' work ranges from producing hundreds of award-winning oral histories and videos to institutionalizing their trademarked communication processes at several Fortune 500 companies. Thaler had the great honor and pleasure of gathering 178 oral histories for Chuck Feeney's The Atlantic Philanthropies, visiting Ireland multiple times.
Thaler is a visiting professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University Executive Masters program. Her influential work on the ethics of working with story, participatory narrative, and story elicitation is featured in six books.
Thaler is a longtime resident of Hoboken, NJ and a more recent resident of Unadilla, NY. She serves on the Hoboken Historic Preservation Commission and is a board member of the Hoboken Historical Museum. Thaler always crosses the street to walk on the sunny side.

FRANCISKA ACS

Embrace your passion to create happiness

Franciska is a Marketing Manager at DocuSign and recently graduated from her Masters degree in Marketing at LSDM. She is the founder of Consider it Cakes, a network of 600+ volunteers who bake birthday cakes for asylum seekers, the homeless, and refugees.

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Franciska Acs is a Marketing Manager at the IT company, DocuSign and recently graduated from the London School of Design and Marketing with her Masters degree in Marketing. As a passionate hobby baker, she founded Consider it Cakes in 2021 - a nationwide initiative with over 600 hobby bakers who make free birthday cakes for asylum seekers, homeless, and refugees to make them feel special and valued on their birthday.

She believes that people often underestimate the power of small acts of kindness. Her initiative shows how much happiness something as small as a personal birthday cake can bring to the community. The home-made birthday cakes make the recipients feel special and loved which can mean the world to someone who feels lonely and isolated.

In her TEDx Tralee speech, Franciska wants to encourage the audience to think about how they can use their own passion to make the world a happier place in their own way. Consider it Cakes is an inspiring story of volunteers of all age groups coming together to bake for strangers like the homeless, people in Direct Provision and refugees from Ukraine in order to put a smile on their faces.

Franciska’s story brings out the beauty of small actions with a big impact.

TRICIA HEALY

Looking at the Elephant

Tricia Healy is an artist and dreamer, a singer and a writer and she works as a psychotherapist specialising in serious and terminal illness, dying, and death. Life as she knew it fell apart when she was in her early 30s. She was diagnosed with a serious illness, had emergency surgery and her marriage ended. She well and truly entered into the dark night of the soul and with the support of an amazing psychotherapist Nora C, she learned to heal her past, recover her lost parts and connect with her intuition. She began to feel with a powerful pull, a whispering from within, to work with the dying, which she initially dismissed as ludicrous. When she finally accepted the new path, she trained in psychotherapy and volunteered as an artist with palliative patients. 15 years later, it is an area she is still incredibly passionate about and is now the subject of her Masters thesis which she is currently completing.
She is a passionate advocate of communication about dying and death, of opening up the whole taboo subject and sharing what she has learned through her work. She believes it can gave a profoundly healing and empowering impact, on both the dying and the very much living, creating meaning and purpose at all stages of life. She is delighted for the opportunity to talk at TedX Tralee.

RA JAMES

Why You Will Never Find Your Purpose

Ra James is the creator of future elders, an organization that assists in keeping global wisdom traditions alive and integrating them within the context of the modern world. He has traveled to over 50 countries learning from indigenous cultures, sitting in ceremonies, and implementing regenerative frameworks and biomimetic strategies with governments and organizations worldwide via his consulting company Pueo. He is also a poet, children's book author, musician, and guide for leaders who are looking to use wisdom as a catalyst for truly transformational change and reconnection to transcendent purpose.

GARETH LANDY

Breaking the taboo of male infertility and XXY

Gareth was born in Dublin and grew up in Northern Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s. Following school he studied media, specialising in video production and photography. For over a decade, Gareth filmed over 300 weddings and produced high quality wedding films for couples throughout Ireland; he was nominated for several awards.

In 2015, Gareth and his partner, Anna married. They decided in 2017 to try to have a family. After some months of no result, Gareth went for further analysis with his GP. Following two semen analysis and an appointment with a blunt Urologist Gareth learned that he was infertile. Looking for a second appointment the couple visited Dr Jonathan Ramsay, an experienced urologist in London. It was at this point they learned that Gareth has Klinefelter Syndrome or XXY. 

So what is Klinefelter Syndrome? It is a medical condition where a child is born with an extra X chromosome. Whereas men are XY, women are XX, Gareth is XXY. 

Gareth will tell you how he has overcome the devastating news about his own fertility and why he says he is now so happy not to have sperm as if he did, he would not be a father to his amazing twins. He believes that we need to increase awareness of XXY (one of the most common genetic conditions affecting boys and men) and to start having conversations about male infertility in society.

WILLIAM MICKLEM

The GO! Rules How to run your own race

William is a Coach, Author, Inventor, and Presenter.  He created the acclaimed strategy for improving performance for adults, Going Over The EDGE, 

and for young people The GO! Rules.  He has presented at numerous conferences internationally and is known for an innovative communication style 

including the use of poetry.

An equestrian sports coach and coach educator for 50 years, including 10 years as Bord na gCapall National Coach, he recently celebrated his 41st year 

as a Fellow of the British Horse Society.  His book, the Complete Horse Riding Manual, is the world's top-selling equestrian manual, and his multi-award 

winning Micklem bridle, the top-selling ergonomic bridle.  However, his primary focus is now on performance improvement for all activities.

He was born in Cornwall, UK, and has lived in Co. Wicklow for over 40 years, where he breeds a small number of horses.  These include Mandiba, who 

was WBFSH horse of the year in 2010, and High Kingdom, Silver medalist at the London Olympics in 2012.  He also found Karen and David O'Connor's 

three great USA Olympic medalists Biko, Custom Made & Giltedge.

He is a founding and current director of Festina Lente in Co. Wicklow, that currently employs a team of 60 working weekly with over 400 students with

intellectual and physical challenges.  He was presented with lifetime achievement awards by Eventing Ireland in 2014, and the Saddle Research Trust in 2018.  

His wife, Sarah, and their three children, have all represented Ireland internationally in a variety of sports.

CIARAN PRIOR

Life Lessons - Dealing with Death 

Ciaran works as a Crime Scene Investigator (CSI) with An Garda Síochána, where he has served on the front line of policing for the past 32 years.

A lifetime dealing with death, trauma and tragedy has given him a deep insight into the fragility of this life that we live and a first-hand knowledge of how suddenly and violently it can be taken away.  This career journey has given him a profound perspective and grounding on the trials and tribulations of life.  

Long before the term “Life Coach” was invented, Ciaran was using his personality to connect with people to help and listen. Encouragement of young people via many years of Transition Year and Leaving Certificate school talks and coaching underage GAA teams led to speaking invitations in the workplace about wellbeing, life skills and dealing with adversity. Blending his natural ability to connect with people on an individual and group level with his unique backstory as a CSI, Ciaran engages, entertains and fascinates with his presentations.

This proven ability to connect will see him change career course in late 2022, having secured a position which capitalises on his public speaking strengths and will see him delivering presentations and seminars on leadership, resilience  and study skills across the educational and corporate sectors.

Married to Jacqui with 3 adult sons - Paul and twins Shane & Richard, Ciaran is an avid reader and enjoys escaping to the coast for some relaxation, sea swimming and savouring the outdoor life

BERNADETTE GILROY

Living with PKU and the Empowering Role of Advocacy

Bernadette Gilroy is Chairperson of the PKU Association of Ireland, a Lecturer at Munster Technological University Kerry, and a Researcher at Dublin City University. She lives with Phenylketonuria (PKU), a rare metabolic condition that affects a person’s ability to metabolise protein and if left untreated can lead to devastating neurological complications. She has been involved in the PKU Association of Ireland’s campaigns with the main objectives of empowering the PKU community by raising awareness, improving health services, and accessing innovative treatments. She is a graduate of the Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science and Industry (IPPOSI) Patient Education Programme, a member of the University College Dublin Public and Patient Involvement Ignite Executive Committee, the IPPOSI Board, the EUPATI National Platform and an Irish Delegate for the European Society of PKU and Allied Disorders. 

CLAIRE WALSH

Finding the extraordinary in the ordinary

Claire is a freediver, all year round sea swimmer and Blue Mind advocate.

Born and raised in landlocked Kildare, she moved out to live by the coast in her mid twenties and hasn’t looked back. With a background in theatre, a Masters degree in movement and not so much a love of singing as a need to sing, Claire’s work is an eclectic portfolio ranging from puppetry to gospel singing. 

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In 2015 Claire set out on a series of solo travels that would introduce her to the underwater world of freediving; the sport of holding your breath underwater. A hobby she thought would fall away upon her return to Ireland she soon learned it taught her just as much about life on land as it did underwater. 

When she's not holding her breath underwater, Claire is reading, teaching and talking about breath and what it can do for our body, mind and voice on land. Theatre, puppets, music and singing  coupled with a grá for the sea have served as perfect playgrounds to explore the possibilities and potential of breath in its many creative forms.