Nervous/Excited to Share my TED Talk

  One day, I had to bring my daughter to my office. As many parents know, sometimes you have no other childcare options. Trying to keep my 11-year-old occupied while I worked, I gave her the task of screening my email. She flagged a message that I would have quickly deleted: "TED Residency Applications". Since she is a fan of the TED Talks online, she was excited to fill the application for me. The application required a one-minute video which my daughter easily created. In just one take, she interviewed me by asking: "What is your idea worth spreading?"

  The result of having been accepted to the TED Residency was this 6-minute TED Talk that I hope you will view and share. It tells the story of how I transitioned from working as a laboratory neuroscientist to becoming an environmental health researcher. By listening to my students, translating research data onto maps, working side-by-side with local leaders, and using community-based participatory research, we discovered huge disparities in the asthma epidemic. 

  In the process of that research, I also found that putting myself "out there" as a Puerto Rican woman scientist can be very meaningful to my own community. Girls like my daughter rarely see people like me on the big red-dot stage. Please help me change that.

Go to TED Talk or type: bit.ly/LuzClaudioTEDTalk. Than you.