TEDxOrcasIsland is coming to Orcas Center on Saturday, March 5. The day-long conference includes TEDx talks from a dozen local and national speakers, musical performances and more. Lunch is catered by New Leaf and served in the Madrona Room. Tickets are on sale at www.tedxorcasisland.  The theme is “Best of Both Worlds.” Below is an introduction to a few speakers:

While earning her masters of architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Katrina Spade designed a system that uses natural decomposition to turn our deceased into soil. Today, she is the founder and director of the Urban Death Project, an organization working to bring that system to the world.  Eric Youngren is a solar energy expert and entrepreneur living on Orcas. His SolarNexus off-grid systems are now powering lights and computers in over 1,200 schools and clinics in rural villages in Tanzania and Kenya. Katherine MacLean, PhD. is an academically trained research scientist with a long-standing interest in the neural correlates of consciousness and the science of well-being.