Born and raised on Maui, Brandy Nālani McDougall is of Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiʻi, Maui, Oʻahu and Kauaʻi lineages), Chinese and Scottish descent. She is the author of a poetry collection, The Salt-Wind, Ka Makani Paʻakai (Kuleana ʻŌiwi Press 2008), the co-founder of Ala Press and Kahuaomānoa Press, and the co-star of an amplified poetry album, Undercurrent (Hawaiʻi Dub Machine 2011). In 2012 she was awarded the national College Composition and Composition Convention Richard Braddock Award for a critical article on Kaona and Hawaiian Rhetoric that she co-wrote with Georganne Nordstrom. Her scholarship and poems have been published in journals and anthologies throughout Hawaiʻi, the Pacific and Turtle Island. She is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies in the American Studies Department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
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, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. 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)