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Abjana Bhandari
Student – Juniata College
Abjana Bhandari is a junior at Juniata College, originally from Nepal. She’s studying Business Analytics with a secondary emphasis in Communication. Through her role as a Juniata Associate and her active involvement across campus, Abjana blends global insight with community engagement—believing that innovation begins not with invention, but with understanding and care.
Eric Quallen
Director of the Raystown Field Station – Juniata College
Eric Quallen (he/him/his) is the Director of the Juniata College Raystown Field Station. A New England native, Eric is a Coast Guard veteran and former wilderness instructor turned ecologist. He holds a bachelor’s degree in wildlife management and natural resources and a doctorate in ecology from the University of Wyoming. Eric’s research focuses on integrating animal behavior and population dynamics to better predict species responses to climate change. Outside of academia, Eric is an athlete, running ultramarathon races from 50 to 200+ miles in length. He is also a storyteller and community organizer with years of experience advocating for the LGBTQIA+ community. Growing up as a transgender man, Eric brings a unique perspective to the ways in which we perceive, and subsequently treat, one another. Importantly, Eric also has two dogs, Gus and Bandit.
Em Perago
Student – Juniata College
Em is a senior at Juniata College with a POE in Biology and a Secondary Emphasis in Spanish. They are the owner and founder of Robin’s Gourmet Food LLC, a small business focused on providing high quality food mixes to domestic rodents like hamsters and gerbils. After noticing a serious lack of quality in rodent foods in the United States, Em decided to start making their own homemade mixes. After a few years of practice, they began selling their mixes on Etsy, where their brand took off shortly after. Robin’s Gourmet Food is now one of the leading homemade rodent food brands on the market, grossing over $400k in sales since its start in 2020. After Juniata, Em hopes to attend graduate school to study animal nutrition.
James Latten
Professor of Music – Juniata College
James Latten, professor of music (percussionist/conductor), joined the Juniata faculty in 1997 as an adjunct percussion instructor, and assumed the full-time role as Director of Instrumental Music and Director of the College Wind Symphony in 2002. In addition, he directs the “Percussion at Juniata” program and instructs academic music courses including a team-taught Musical Acoustics course in the Physics department. Originally from Wellsville, New York, Latten holds a Ph.D. in Music Education (2003) from Penn State University, a Master of Music Education with wind conducting emphasis (1990) from Indiana University Bloomington, and a Bachelor of Music in Music Education (1986) from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania. Since 2003 he has performed as Principal Percussionist with the Altoona Symphony Orchestra, and conducts the Raystown Wind Orchestra. Today’s TED talk emanates from a topic in his History of American Popular Music class.
Robb Lauzon
Assistant Professor of Communication – Juniata College
Robb Conrad Lauzon is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Juniata College, where he studies the ways we create, store, and transmit ideas. His work bridges rhetoric, media ecology, and the ancient art of memory to examine how technologies—from public memorials to social media—shape the stories we tell about ourselves and our communities. Robb draws on classical memory techniques to reinterpret modern environments, offering audiences a fresh lens to derive meaning from the world that surrounds them. Passionate about helping others unlock deeper meaning in everyday life, Robb’s talk invites us to reconsider reading as a memory practice that lives not just in our minds, but in the world around us.
Alexander Ross
Student – Juniata College
Alexander Ross is a first-generation college student from West Virginia pursuing a B.A. in Death, Horror, and Narrative Storytelling. As a transgender student and creative, he explores how storytelling can depict mortality, fear, and trauma. His academic work is informed by his experiences working with aging populations, witnessing the emotional and cultural aspects of death firsthand. Alexander is also a dedicated advocate for queer rights and has served as an officer of Prism, Juniata College’s LGBTQ+ club, for the past three years. Passionate about challenging social taboos—especially around death—Alexander’s TED Talk invites the audience to consider human composting as a meaningful, sustainable alternative to traditional cremation and burial.
Tia Warrick
Public Health Director – Juniata College
Dr. Tia Warrick serves as the Director of Public Health at Juniata College, where she leads the Master of Public Health program and develops future-forward, community-driven public health leaders. With nearly a decade of experience in clinical research and epidemiology, Dr. Warrick has worked across academia, biotech, and nonprofit sectors to design inclusive, data-informed health solutions. She is also the founder of Lesous Consulting, where she creates skills-based training for clinical professionals and advises startups on health innovation strategy. Her work is guided by a deep commitment to equity, access, and systems thinking. At TEDxJuniataCollege, Dr. Warrick shares how impactful innovation isn’t always shiny or high-tech—it’s often rooted in culture, community, and common sense.
Kyle Jaquess
Assistant Professor of Psychology – Juniata College
Dr. Kyle J. Jaquess graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, with a doctorate in Kinesiology, specializing in cognitive-motor neuroscience. This was accomplished after earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology, with a minor in philosophy, from the University of California, Riverside, and a master’s degree in experimental psychology from California State University, San Bernardino. Kyle joined Juniata College in the Fall of 2020 after a one-and-a-half-year post-doctoral experience at the War-Related Illness and Injury Study Center at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, DC. When not interacting with students in psychology, neuroscience, and kinesiology courses, “Dr. J” leads the Cognitive Affective Motor (CAM) Lab on campus which is focused on investigating the psycho-physiological processes related to stress resilience and the learning of motor skills. In other words, Kyle is interested in how we grow to excel at doing embodied things of consequence.
Talia Haller
Bioinformatics Graduate – Johns Hopkins University
Talia Haller is a Future of Health speaker, AI strategy leader, and Johns Hopkins-trained bioinformatician reshaping medicine. She’s led AI initiatives for NIH’s All of Us program and advises organizations across the healthcare ecosystem. As former Head of Research at a wearables and diagnostics venture firm and current future of health strategy consultant, she applies AI, biomarker science, and precision medicine to create personalized, integrated care. With a master’s in bioinformatics from Johns Hopkins and a dual degree in finance and economics from the University of Washington, Talia bridges technical depth with business fluency.
Regina Lamendella
Valko Professor of Biological Sciences – Juniata College
Dr. Regina Lamendella is a Professor of Biology at Juniata College and an expert in molecular microbial ecology and bioinformatics. Her research focuses on how microbial communities impact human and environmental health, spanning topics from the gut microbiome to bioremediation. She leads Juniata’s Master’s Program in Bioinformatics and has received NIH and NSF funding. A dedicated mentor, she has guided over 150 undergraduate researchers, with 70+ co-authoring peer-reviewed publications. In 2022, she received the CUR Excellence in Mentoring Award. Her lab uses next-generation sequencing, metagenomics, and machine learning to identify microbial biomarkers and develop microbiome-based strategies for disease diagnostics and prevention.
Nicole C. Close
President of EpiriStat Inc.; Board of Trustees – Juniata College
Dr. Nicole Close is a globally recognized biostatistician, clinical trial strategist, and founder of EmpiriStat, Inc., a company specializing in the statistical design of innovative medical research. With over 30 years of experience across pharma, biotech, government, and academia, she has supported the development of therapies for infectious diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disease, vaccines, and more. Her work has advanced solutions in high-stakes settings, including with the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity. In her TEDx talk, Nicole explores how biostatistics has quietly driven medical breakthroughs and built trust in science. A mentor and advocate for women in STEM, she blends data and storytelling to show that changing lives doesn’t always require a white coat—just the courage to speak through numbers.