Speakers

Twelve voices. One stage. No asterisk.

Six adult speakers and six student speakers. Each one introduced the same way. Each one held to the same standard. On August 22, 2026, every one of them delivered.

At TEDxHuntingValley, a student speaker is not introduced as a student. An idea is an idea.

Speakers

Adult Speakers

Six leaders from across Cleveland and beyond, who shared the same stage as our student speakers.

Speaker

Nic Barlage

CEO, Cleveland Cavaliers & Rock Entertainment Group

Talk

“You’ll See It When You Believe It”

Nic Barlage is the Chief Executive Officer of Rock Entertainment Group, the Dan Gilbert company behind the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, Rocket Arena, Cleveland's incoming WNBA team, and a growing portfolio of teams, venues, and media. Since becoming CEO in 2021 he has driven the organization's transformation into a national force in sports and entertainment, twice named a Best Place to Work in Sports, while investing more than $48 million back into the community. He is helping reshape Cleveland's urban core through major city-building projects, from the Rock Block entertainment district to the revitalization of Public Hall, on the belief that a strong downtown is the heartbeat of an entire region.

Watch the talk25:35

Speaker

Fred Nance

Senior Partner, Squire Patton Boggs

Talk

“EQ: The Difference Maker in Winning High-Stakes Engagements”

Fred Nance is a Senior Partner and Executive Group member at the global law firm Squire Patton Boggs, where he has served a term as Global Managing Partner and co-leads the Sports and Entertainment Practice. An accomplished trial lawyer, he is nationally known for his long-term representation of LeBron James and Dave Chappelle, and he was one of five finalists in the contest to become NFL Commissioner. His high-stakes work for the City of Cleveland is broadly known, from the 1990s battle that kept the Browns in the city to ending its decades-old school desegregation case and developing the half-billion-dollar Cleveland Convention Center. A fixture of the city's civic life, he chaired the Greater Cleveland Partnership, has served on the boards of the Cleveland Foundation and the Cleveland Clinic, and in 2015 became just the seventh lawyer in Cleveland's history inducted into the Northeast Ohio Business Hall of Fame.

Watch the talk46:10

Speaker

Laila Edwards

Olympic gold medalist, U.S. Women's National Ice Hockey Team

Talk

“Before the Applause”

Laila Edwards is an Olympic gold medalist and a Cleveland Heights native who, on her debut in 2023, became the first Black woman to play for the United States women's national hockey team. At the 2026 Milan Cortina Games she became the first Black woman to play hockey for Team USA at an Olympics and the first Black American woman to win Olympic gold in the sport, assisting on the tying goal in a 2-1 overtime win over Canada. She won three NCAA national championships at the University of Wisconsin, and at age 20 she was named MVP of the 2024 World Championship, the youngest player ever to receive the honor. In June 2026 she was selected fourth overall by PWHL San Jose, the highest a Black woman has ever been drafted in the league.

Watch the talk14:44

Speaker

Marc Byrnes

Chairman Emeritus, Oswald Companies

Talk

“Are You a Battery Charger?”

Marc S. Byrnes is Chairman Emeritus of Oswald Companies, one of the largest employee-owned insurance brokers in the country, which he helped build after his agency merged with Oswald in 1987. A fixture in the Northeast Ohio civic community, he has served as Chairman of the Board of United Way of Greater Cleveland, where he was named Volunteer of the Year, and as Chairman Emeritus of the Cleveland Leadership Center, and he sits on the boards of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and University School. Inside Business has named him among the Power 100 most influential leaders in Northeast Ohio, and in 2016 he was inducted into the Business Hall of Fame. A 1972 graduate of University School, he earned his B.A. from Williams College.

Watch the talk14:30

Speaker

Brandon Chrostowski

Founder, President & CEO, EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute

Talk

“Breaking Out”

Brandon Chrostowski is the founder, president, and CEO of EDWINS Leadership and Restaurant Institute, a Cleveland nonprofit that gives formerly incarcerated adults a second chance through free culinary and hospitality training. Classically trained as a chef and sommelier in Paris, New York, and Chicago, he built EDWINS around a French restaurant where students learn the trade, backed by wraparound support that includes housing, a fitness center, free childcare, and a butcher shop, bakery, and diner that employ graduates. The program trains more than one hundred people a year and reports a recidivism rate of just three percent, setting a national standard for re-entry. He has been named a CNN Hero and a 2025 James Beard Impact Award honoree, and was featured in the Academy Award-nominated documentary Knife Skills.

Watch the talk13:54

Speaker

Jeff Epstein

President and CEO, Port of Cleveland

Talk

“The Infrastructure of Possibility”

Jeff Epstein is the President and CEO of the Port of Cleveland, one of the largest ports on the Great Lakes, where he leads the maritime and economic development finance work of an organization that supports more than 23,000 jobs and generates over $7 billion in economic impact each year. He came to the Port after serving as Chief of Integrated Development for the City of Cleveland, overseeing Planning, Economic Development, Community Development, and Building & Housing under Mayor Justin Bibb, where he launched new financing tools and helped create the North Coast Waterfront Development Authority. Before that, as Executive Director of MidTown Cleveland and Director of the Cleveland Health-Tech Corridor, he guided more than $230 million in transformative real estate development over seven years. He holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.S. in Public Policy Studies from Duke University, and began his legal career clerking for Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

Watch the talk23:07

Student Speakers

Six students from six schools across Greater Cleveland, selected through an open competition on the strength of the idea alone, and coached through the summer to the stage.

Student Speaker

Jackson Sarver

Senior, Aurora High School

Talk

“Feed Billions, Kill Millions: The Tragedy of Fritz Haber”

Jackson is a senior at Aurora High School and a four-year varsity golfer with a love for all things science and history. He has dedicated his high school career to challenging himself academically and through the many school clubs he is part of, including Student Council, where he serves as club president. When school is out, you can usually find him at the local Barnes & Noble shopping for new books, at the golf course practicing his swing, or at his great-aunt's house playing with her dog and listening to old records on vinyl. Through his talk, Jackson hopes to shine a light on the troubled past of ammonia fertilizers and the dangers they still pose to our world today.

Watch the talk15:20

Student Speaker

Claire Witalec

Rising junior, Laurel School

Talk

“Where Do We Draw the Line? Gerrymandering and Democracy”

Claire Witalec is a rising junior at Laurel School who is passionate about all things democracy. She is a Democracy Summer Fellow, combining direct campaign work with civics-based workshops, and a research intern at the Matriots, a nonprofit focused on empowering women in Ohio's political offices. She started a Girl Up chapter at Laurel to engage other students in advocacy, and is completing a Capstone project aimed at increasing young people's civic participation and voting turnout. A dedicated Lincoln-Douglas debater who also coaches middle school extemp and serves as team secretary, she looks forward to sharing her ideas on representation, polarization, and participation.

Watch the talk15:25

Student Speaker

Ethan Shneyderman

Junior, Mayfield High School

Talk

“They Wrote Back: The World Is More Reachable Than You Think”

Ethan Shneyderman is a junior at Mayfield High School in Highland Heights, Ohio. At just age ten during the COVID-19 pandemic, he began writing letters and emails to foreign embassies, world leaders, airports, and hotels, not for a school project, but because he was curious and believed the world was worth reaching out to. They wrote back. A first-generation American whose family emigrated from the former Soviet Union, Ethan serves as Student Council President, is a nationally recognized civics leader through the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute, and is passionate about international relations, government, and human connection. His talk asks a question almost nobody asks: what would happen if you just reached out?

Watch the talk13:40

Student Speaker

James Mason Jr.

Senior, University School

Talk

“It’s About What You Say, Not How You Say It”

James Mason Jr. is a senior at University School in Hunting Valley, Ohio, where he serves as one of ten elected House Prefects and is active in student leadership, the Black Student Union, and the performing arts. A passionate communicator, he was named State Runner-Up in Poetry Out Loud and a finalist in the Sherman Prize Speaking Competition. He competes in varsity track and field, qualifying for the OATCCC Division II State Championships in the shot put, and is a Future Business Leaders of America State Runner-Up in Organizational Leadership. Through the inaugural Cleveland Cavaliers Social Impact Academy and his work mentoring younger students, he has developed a passion for service, and hopes to attend an HBCU to study law, public policy, and civic leadership.

Watch the talk17:16

Student Speaker

Priyasha Ghosal

Sophomore, Hawken School

Talk

“The Human Cost of Convenience: How Efficiency Erodes Empathy”

Priyasha Ghosal is a sophomore at Hawken School in Ohio, passionate about STEM, leadership, and social impact. In 2022 she founded Light of Love, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit supporting pediatric cancer patients at St. Jude Children's Hospital and UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital. A nationally recognized math competitor, competitive dancer, speech and debate national semifinalist, and award-winning social entrepreneur, she has been featured by the Young Entrepreneurship Institute, the Veale Institute of Entrepreneurship, and WKYC. As an American Heart Association Teen of Impact nominee for Greater Cleveland, she led 16 teens to raise over $22,000 in eight weeks for cardiac disease awareness. She believes young people can solve real-world problems through compassion, innovation, and action.

Watch the talk16:17

Student Speaker

Gage Martin

Senior, Louisville High School

Talk

“The Ads on Your Phone Are Making You Mow Your Lawn”

Gage Martin is a senior at Louisville High School and a member of the Teen Wellness Team for the Ohio Department of Health, where he helps shape Stark County's Community Health Improvement Plan. He is president of his school's Speech and Debate team, which he has competed on for seven years, making him one of the top competitors in the Ohio Speech and Debate Association. Gage is an alumnus of Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership, an NSDA Academic All American, and the creator of the nationally recognized Duck Game used in schools. Outside of that he enjoys pickleball, rock climbing, and taking care of his lawn, and his talk digs into corporate influences on our culture and what we might do to minimize them.

Watch the talk13:44

Thank you to every student across Greater Cleveland who applied to speak in 2026.

That's a wrap · August 22, 2026 · Gund Auditorium

Twelve ideas left the room. Now they're yours.

Thank you to every speaker, every volunteer, and everyone who filled the seats. All twelve talks are free on YouTube. Watch one, then send it to the person it made you think of.

Watch the talks Subscribe on YouTube

Press inquiries or a note for the organizers: tedxhuntingvalley@gmail.com