Theme: The Power of Perspective

This year's theme is The Power of Perspective. This theme captures the idea of changing perspectives with time and personal life experiences. It touches upon how one can get locked into one point of view and how we aim, through our TEDx event, to broaden people's viewpoints and open their eyes to the world around them. It was derived with a foundation in community, the impact of actions (both big and small), morals and motivations, as well as the concept of taking risks and getting out of your comfort zone. We aim to break down the barriers that surround our daily lives and open conversation about how our perspectives influence our judgment of the world around us.

Harvey M. Powers Theatre
560 Coleman Hall Drive
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, 17837
United States

Annetta Grant

Consumer Researcher

Annetta Grant is a marketing professor and consumer researcher whose work explores how marketing and consumer behavior can support sustainability. Her award-winning research on sustainable consumption has appeared in top journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research and the International Journal of Research in Marketing, and has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, and ABC News. She received the Sidney J. Levy Award and was named one of Poets&Quants’ Top 50 Best Business Professors of 2024. Annetta grew up in Gaspé, Québec, where the coastline and forests sparked a deep connection to nature and an enduring interest in how people relate to their environment. That background continues to shape her work today. In both research and teaching, she encourages students to explore how marketing and consumer behavior can be powerful tools for building more sustainable futures.

Erin Jablonski

Director, Perricelli-Gegnas Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Erin Jablonski joined Bucknell in 2004 after earning her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and completing a postdoc at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Tenured in 2011, she later shifted her focus to entrepreneurship. In 2008, she founded Engineering Camp, a residential experience for middle and high school students. In 2013, she launched her first venture to commercialize a patented millifluidic device and later joined a startup focused on entrepreneurial mindset assessment. In 2016, she co-founded the Lewisburg Children’s Museum. Erin served as Associate Dean of Faculty in the College of Engineering from 2019 to 2024 and was interim dean during 2021–22. In 2021, she launched Engineering EXCELerator, a summer bridge program aimed at building engineering identity and self-efficacy. She became the inaugural Director of the Perricelli-Gegnas Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation in July 2024.

Keith Buffinton

Executive Director, LearningWell Coalition, and Dean of Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, emeritus, Bucknell University

Keith Buffinton is the inaugural Executive Director of the LearningWell Coalition, which promotes lifelong student well-being. He was a faculty member at Bucknell University from 1987 to 2023 and is Dean of Engineering, emeritus. He earned his B.S. from Tufts University and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. His career has centered on fostering strong student-faculty engagement, reflected in awards such as Bucknell’s Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, Tufts’ “Outstanding Achievement in Mechanical Engineering” award, the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network Dean’s Award, the Charles H. Coder Entrepreneurial Leadership Award, and the Burma-Bucknell Award for intercultural understanding. He currently serves on advisory boards for the Smull College of Engineering at Ohio Northern, the Tufts Center for Engineering Education Outreach, and the Coalition for Transformational Education, and as the Senior Advisor to the Editorial Board of LearningWell magazine.