Orcas Island residents will be featured at the upcoming TEDxOrcasIsland conference at Orcas Center on Saturday, March 5.

Robert Dash’s love for photography started over 40 years ago. His photographs have appeared in galleries and juried shows around the country and in publications such as TIME and The Week and a international photography website Lensculture.

Dash is an educator with more than 20 years of teaching experience, mostly at the high school level. His academic training lies in biological sciences and human development, with a B.A in Environmental Studies from Evergreen College, and an M.A. in Human Development from Pacific Oaks College.

The constant theme running through Dash’s art is a fascination with micro landscapes in nature, and the poetry and metaphor that these views inspire. His work can be seen at Olga Artworks on Orcas Island and in a forthcoming book of photography and poetry. Dash has a son in college, and shares a home on Orcas with his partner, artist Ranna McNeil.

As Senior Director of Environmental Sustainability at Microsoft Corporation, TJ DiCaprio is the chief architect responsible for designing and managing Microsoft’s internal carbon fee model. Her efforts drive accountability while supporting innovation in efficiency, green power, and low-carbon economic development in emerging nations.

Recently she accepted the United Nations Lighthouse Activity award at the COP21 climate conference in Paris for the Microsoft carbon fee model, where 196 nations agreed on measures to mitigate climate change. In 2015 she was awarded the Aspen Institute Fellowship, and in 2014, TJ received the C.K. Prahalad award for Global Business Sustainability Leadership. In 2013 TJ was recognized by the U.S. Congress and bestowed the Individual Leadership award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She also was listed in the Top 35 Women Leaders in Sustainability by Triple Pundit, the Guardian’s 2013 Unlikely Climate Heroes, and invited to speak at the 2013 White House Women and Environment Summit.

DiCaprio is a certified pilot and enjoys sailing. She has led several expeditions piloting aircraft across the Americas and Africa, and sailed off the coast of Croatia, North America and Turkey.

Jake Perrine is a theatre and audio artist who has created works in Massachusetts, New York City, Chicago, Seattle, and Orcas Island. He received his BA in Directing, Composing and Sound Design for the Theatre from Hampshire College in 1993, where he created his first original operatic work, “Vamp,” composed entirely with early DOS sequencers and MIDI synthesizers.

In 1994 he co-founded “Thirteenth Tribe,” a non-profit theatre company in Chicago. In 1996, Jake became the Lead Media Engineer for RealNetworks in Seattle, pioneering over 200 webcasts including WOMAD, Bumbershoot, The Tibetan Freedom Concert, and U2.

Perrine was an audio production instructor at The Art Institute of Seattle for 10 years, at Cornish College of the Arts for two years, and also taught physical theatre at Seattle’s Freehold Theatre Lab. He has worked as a mastering engineer at RFI/CD Mastering for five years.

Since relocating to Orcas Island in 2010, Jake has acted in and directed shows at the Orcas Center including last year’s Beatles tribute, “Across the Universe,” and teaches the Orcas Island High School drama class. He has published three books through Hal Leonard publishing, and co-created an online school called Warp Academy, all focused on music production education. Perrine is a co-producer of the Imagine music and arts festival, which is gearing up for its second event this September at Doe Bay.

Tickets for the event are on sale at www.tedxorcasisland.com.