THANK YOU!
We are grateful for our volunteers: we could not continue the TEDxOakPark movement without YOU.
TEDxOakPark is an entirely volunteer-run movement, and we invite you to join us! Whether your passion is design, communications, partnerships or events, we’re looking for people of diverse backgrounds who are interested in making an impact in our community.
THANK YOU to our volunteers! We are grateful that you raised your hand to help TEDxOakPark share ideas worth spreading.
TEDxOakPark Executive Committee
Janna Fiester: Lead Organizer + License Holder
Vice President of UX and Brand Innovation at Sandstorm Design, Janna is a design-thinker and user-advocate. Always striving to make client work better, she sees the possibility in everything and takes nuggets of good ideas and nurtures them into strategically driven and unique unexpected executions. Janna honed this skill while earning her MFA and teaching at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Throughout her 20 years of experience, Janna’s work has been exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago and showcased in several design publications as well as winning industry awards. If Janna, a long-time resident of Oak Park, has any free time after work and family (a hubby, two kids), you can find her listening to the latest TED Talk or on the stage performing Flamenco.
Meridian Herman: Co-Organizer
Meridian is thrilled to serve alongside Janna as Co-Organizer, Speaker coach and a leader of the dynamic TEDxOakPark volunteer committee! She joined our volunteer team in 2016 in time to support our second TEDxOakParkWomen event as Marketing Lead. With unquenchable thirst for knowledge and experience, she has since served as a leader for nearly every volunteer subcommittee, spanning from the intricacies of our integrated marketing to partnership recruitment to volunteer management. Meridian is revitalized by the talent and commitment of TEDx volunteers, who continually exceed expectations and create memorable and meaningful events for our community. When not focusing on all things TED, she spends most of her waking hours crafting content in JLL’s Brand Center of Excellence. There, as a savvy wordsmith with an eye for design, she translates strategic direction into compelling content that engages audiences across a variety formats and channels for a corporate real estate audience. She’s an active volunteer at work, too: serving as leader for the Marketing Culture & Employee Experience Working Group and Building Pride Business Resource Group, and championing AI adoption. Outside of the workplace and TEDxOakPark, she is devoted to her diva cat (Sir Harry Rum Tum Tugger McFluffington), fixing up her beloved Berwyn bungalow, and spending time with family and friends. As a longtime — now former — Oak Parker, Meridian is proud + grateful to empower sharing ideas in and beyond our community.
Janien Hammonds: Operations Director & Board Member
Deeply committed to community empowerment, Janien invests her time and leadership in initiatives that amplify collective creativity and connection. She organized The Quilt Collective Chicago, a community-centered project that provided warm blankets to Chicago's homeless — reflecting her belief in the power of purpose to build community and inspire positive change. Janien is a strategic operations and compliance leader with experience building resilient systems across healthcare, medical technology, and high-growth startups. As a senior operations executive at Cast21, she drives organizational excellence through process optimization, risk management, and the development of robust compliance programs, including PCI, HIPAA, and quality systems. Janien brings her expertise in governance, operations, and stakeholder engagement to the TEDxOakPark Executive Committee and Board, where she is dedicated to supporting compelling ideas, elevating diverse perspectives, and strengthening meaningful conversations within the Oak Park and Austin communities.
Tania Haigh: TEDxOakParkWomen Founder
Founder & CEO of Chicago-based Magnolia Insights, Tania is a devoted women’s empowerment leader. Not only is she the TEDxOakParkWomen Founder, she has been a presenter and panelist at events that include Marketing to Women, Marketing to Moms, and Mujeres de Hace. Today her philanthropic and advocacy work serves parents and children through her role as Co-Founder/President of Parents Against Child Sex Abuse (P.A.X.A.). Tania has been an Oak Park resident for more than ten years with her husband, David, and daughter, Vivian. We thank Tania for her vision and passion that led to the first TEDxOakParkWomen event in 2015, our leader 2015-2017, and inspiration of the local TEDxOakPark movement that continues today.