The Permission Principle | Shannon Fernando, MSN-FNP-C | TEDxBeverly Grove

Shannon Fernando opened her TEDxBeverlyGrove 2026 talk with an Ethiopian farmer's description of a crop as a member of the family, then admitted she had traveled there to study it like a resource. What followed was not a story about scarcity. It was a case for asking before building anything. Drawing on nearly two years spent earning trust from officials and farmers to cross the crop over a border for the first time in its history, Fernando closes with the line that gives the talk its title: hunger is not a scarcity problem, it is a permission problem. Shannon Fernando, MSN-FNP-C, is a family nurse practitioner and global nonprofit leader advancing healthcare access, women’s entrepreneurship, and food security for indigenous women and their families in East Africa and South Asia. She is the Founder and CEO of Alabaster International and works directly in remote regions of Kenya, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Sri Lanka to elevate local voices and advance equity and justice for marginalized women.

Her work has been recognized with the Humanitarian Award from the 15th Annual Taste Awards, Los Angeles Times nominations, and features in NPR, LA Times, and Spectrum News. Named a 2024 Commitment-Maker by the Clinton Global Initiative, Fernando leads Alabaster’s initiatives to combat hunger in East Africa. Alabaster has also joined the U.S. State Department’s Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) Champion Program, was named a 2025 Food Planet Prize Longlist nominee, and was selected as an F5 Tech for Good winner. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx