Paul Eric Pape is a creative entrepreneur, TEDx speaker, and author. With over 20 years as a working artist, he has designed custom work for Disney, Universal, and Broadway. Known as "Santa for Nerds," he now helps creative entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses — because the starving artist story is a lie.

As artificial intelligence continues to reshape creative industries, what makes human creativity truly irreplaceable? Paul challenges the idea that artistic integrity and financial success must exist in opposition. Instead, his #TEDx talk explores why human imagination, originality and creativity remain more valuable than ever—and why they deserve to be recognized, respected and rewarded.

 Join us on Friday, Oct. 9. Reserve your seat today!

Founded by composer-filmmakers Darci Gamerl and David Downing, Bel Canto Duo creates immersive performances that blend original music, film, and NeuroArts-informed design. Combining oboe, English horn, cello, and live looping, their work explores ecology, migration, memory, and human connection through interdisciplinary storytelling rooted in classical artistry and contemporary collaboration.

Displacement is often seen as an ending, but what if it could become the beginning of something new? Through music, visual art and personal stories of migration, diaspora and resettlement, David Downing and Darci Gamerl explore how storytelling can transform loss into belonging and create new homes, new identities and new opportunities.

Join us on Friday, Oct. 9 as they share an idea that invites us to rethink how we define home, identity and connection.



 Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado is a 2026 National Survivor Fellow with Everytown for Gun Safety and the author of The Home Truth: A Gun Violence Survivor’s Journey (forthcoming 2026). A university professor and administrator, he details his experience after 40 years of hiding it away from his public life.

What happens when silence gives way to truth? After surviving gun violence, Dr. Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado shares how breaking decades of silence can transform personal pain into healing, challenge stigma and inspire meaningful change.

Join us on Friday, Oct. 9 as he shares an idea that reminds us of the power of vulnerability, courage and authentic storytelling.



Colin Roberts is an Omaha-based songwriter, performer, and founder of Everyman Songwriting. Rooted in Midwestern storytelling and lived experience, his work explores change, loss, reinvention, and human connection through music that turns everyday moments into something lasting and deeply personal.

We often think transformation happens in a single defining moment. But what if real change is built one day at a time? In his TEDx Omaha  talk, Colin Roberts explores how small, intentional choices accumulate into meaningful personal growth—and how reflecting on our progress can reveal just how far we've come.

Join us on Friday, Oct. 9, as Colin shares an idea that may change the way you think about transformation, growth and the journey toward becoming your best self.



Rachel Mindrup is an associate professor and the Deming Endowed Chair in Medical Humanities at Creighton University. Her son's neurofibromatosis diagnosis has been the motivation to work in portraiture and study the relationship to medicine, healing, and identity. Mindrup's work is held in many collections, most notably in Jane Goodall's.

A diagnosis can describe a condition. But it can never tell the whole story of the person living with it. Through visual art and personal experience, Rachel Mindrup explores how creativity can build empathy, educate communities about neurofibromatosis and bring greater visibility to the people behind the diagnosis.

Her TEDx Omaha talk invites us to look beyond the medical terminology and remember something fundamental: every diagnosis represents a unique human story.

Join us on Friday, Oct. 9, as Rachel brings this powerful perspective to the TEDx Omaha stage.



What happens when learning moves beyond the classroom and into the real world?

As Dean of Business at Midland University, Nick Schreck has helped strengthen experiential learning, connecting students with hundreds of businesses—both locally and globally.

Recognized as the Nebraska Postsecondary Professor of the Year and a Fremont Compass Award recipient, Nick also remains actively involved with nonprofits throughout his community.

Now, he’s bringing his experience and perspective to the TEDxOmaha stage. Join us Friday, Oct. 9, to hear Nick and the rest of our 2026 speaker cohort share ideas worth spreading.



Jennifer Okoliko is a workshop facilitator, and leadership development trainer with a PhD in Human Science and Leadership Studies from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She teaches leadership, interpersonal skills, and cultural intelligence, and researches identity and how people construct meaning under pressure and why that process matters.

Who are you—beyond your job, your accomplishments and the roles you play?

We often define ourselves by what we do and how others see us. But when life disrupts those familiar identities, we can be left asking a much deeper question: Who am I when all of that is gone?

In her TEDx Omaha talk, Jennifer Okoliko explores what it means to rediscover a sense of self that isn't dependent on circumstance, recognition or performance.

The challenge isn't becoming someone new. It's remembering who we are beneath everything we've learned to use to define ourselves.

 Join us on Friday, Oct. 9, and experience Jennifer's talk live at TEDx Omaha 2026.

What happens when we stop defining people by the labels placed upon them—and start seeing the person behind them?

Drawing from his experience in community-based gang intervention, Matt Baker explores how relationships, responsibility and human connection can create pathways toward meaningful change. Matt's TEDx Omaha talk challenges us to look beyond assumptions and consider what becomes possible when people are seen not simply for their circumstances, but for their humanity and potential.

Join us Friday, Oct. 9, and experience Matt's talk live at TEDxOmaha 2026!

Stephanie Havelaar is a speech-language pathologist and educator passionate about helping others understand complex human experiences through clear, meaningful communication. Drawing from both professional expertise and lived experience, she is committed to reframing conversations around domestic violence, survivor support, prevention, and public understanding.

Sometimes, the questions we ask shape the answers we receive. Stephanie Havelaar explores why domestic violence is so often misunderstood and how a deeper understanding of survivors' experiences can lead to greater empathy, awareness and meaningful change.

Experience her talk live on Friday, Oct. 9.  Tickets are on sale now at TEDxOmaha.com

David Joel Thomas is the Program Director of Creative Arts and an Associate Professor at Bellevue University. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Master of Arts in Philosophy from DePaul University. His training in art, architecture, design, and philosophy reflects his commitment to synthesizing critical research, creative production, and practical outcomes. He organizes his multidisciplinary practice around his Near Eastern heritage as an Assyrian American and international upbringing in Pakistan, Turkey, and Afghanistan. His work explores that precise moment when it becomes possible to transform chaotic conditions into creative process and renewal. Now, he’s bringing that perspective to the TEDxOmaha stage.

Join us Friday, Oct. 9, as David and our 2026 speaker cohort take the stage to share ideas worth spreading.

Traci Schacht is a spoken word artist and storyteller out of Council Bluffs, IA. She has won three Omaha Arts & Entertainment Awards for Best Performance Poet. She self published a book of poetry called Tumbleweeds. Traci has traveled through Nebraska with Poetry Out Loud and coached middle school and high poetry slam teams for The Nebraska Writers Collective. She enjoys performing poetry in the more unlikely spaces. A disabled woman, much of her poetry centers around disability. 

What if the things we see as imperfections are actually part of what makes us who we are?

Through poetry and personal storytelling, Traci Schacht explores how embracing our scars, setbacks and imperfections can transform the way we see ourselves—and reveal resilience, beauty and self-worth along the way.

Traci's TEDxOmaha talk invites us to reconsider how much power we give to the opinions of others and discover the strength that comes from embracing our own story.