Dr. Peace Amadi (Psy.D), HIU Professor of Psychology, is a woman of many interests, talents and accomplishments. Along with teaching at HIU, Dr. Amadi is founder of The Pink Couch, a blog and digital community that challenges women to “get to the heart of the matter;” co-founder of The Ruby Project, a non-profit that empowers girl survivors of abuse & trauma using the creative arts; a former beauty queen (Miss Nigeria in America 2007); and an emerging media personality.

Her latest endeavor began as an act of faith and has developed into an incredible opportunity: Dr. Amadi can now add “featured TEDx speaker” to her ever-evolving resume.

Dr. Amadi first reached out to a contact at TED about the possibility of being a speaker in early 2016. She sent possible topics and talking points she had drafted “in faith” of one day speaking at a TED conference. Unfortunately all of the speaker slots for the season were filled…but Peace did not give up hope. She continued working on her potential TED talk anyway. Dr. Amadi was contacted last October, on her birthday nonetheless, and was told that she had been selected to speak at the upcoming TedxTalk at UC Davis.

Peace’s TedxTalk addresses social media and self-esteem. This topic was chosen for its relevance in today’s society and its direct impact on her own life. She experienced first-hand the positive and negative effects social media had on her self-esteem. “If I, with all these skills and knowledge about self-esteem am being affected, how are others who don’t have the training and knowledge on these issues being affected?” Peace states.

Dr. Amadi spoke on March 5, 2017, at TEDx in UC Davis, San Francisco. The video of her presentation is embedded below.