Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics (Emeritus) | Oberlin College

David W. Orr, a Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics (Emeritus) at Oberlin College, is a pioneering, award-winning thought leader in the fields of Sustainability and Ecological Literacy. The author and co-author of countless articles and papers and several seminal books, including, most recently, Dangerous Years: Climate Change and the Long Emergency, he has served as a board member or adviser to many foundations and organizations (including Bioneers!). His current work is on the state of our democracy

CEO | Mother Jones

Monika Bauerlein is the award-winning CEO of Mother Jones, one of the most important and impactful investigative journalism institutions in the U.S. Born in Germany but widely traveled, she had an extensive journalistic career as a writer and editor until coming to Mother Jones in 2000. Under her and now Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery's leadership, MOJO has become one of the rare success stories in contemporary independent journalism, winning three National Magazine Awards.

Faithkeeper | Onandaga Nation, Haudenosaunee

Oren Lyons, a Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan who serves as a Member Chief of the Onondaga Council of Chiefs and the Grand Council of the Iroquois Confederacy (i.e. the Haudenosaunee peoples), is an accomplished artist, social and environmental activist, and author; a Professor Emeritus at SUNY Buffalo; a leading voice at the UN Permanent Forum on Human Rights for Indigenous Peoples; and the recipient of many prestigious national and international prizes including The UN NGO World Peace Prize. Oren also serves on the boards of several major nonprofit organizations and social enterprises; is founder and Principal of One Bowl Productions, a purpose driven film and TV production company; and is an All-American Lacrosse Hall of Famer and Honorary Chairman of the Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Team.

State Senator | Maine

Chloe Maxmin, hailing from rural Maine, is a Maine State Senator just elected in 2020 after unseating a two-term Republican incumbent and (former) Senate Minority Leader. In 2018, she served in the Maine House of Representatives after becoming the first Democrat to win her rural conservative district. Chloe is seeking to develop a new politics for rural America, and she and her campaign manager, Canyon Woodward, are currently writing a book for Beacon Press about their electoral success and political goals.

Director | Our Secure Future

Sahana Dharmapuri, the Director of Our Secure Future, a program of One Earth Future Foundation, was previously an independent advisor on gender, peace and security issues to many major international organizations including USAID, NATO, The Swedish Armed Forces and the International Peace Institute. She is the author of Women, Peace & Security: 10 Things You Should Know and has published articles and papers widely.

Founder | World Pulse

Jensine (pron. “yen-see-nah”) Larsen is an award-winning digital impact entrepreneur, international journalist, and expert on the use of technology to strengthen global women’s power. She is the founder of World Pulse, an independent, women-powered global social network connecting tens of thousands of women from 190 countries and bringing them a greater global voice. Through World Pulse women leaders are impacting over 17.4 million lives by building global movements, launching businesses, changing policies, and transforming harmful cultural practices.

Executive Director | Groundswell Fund

Vanessa Daniel, a former union organizer and longtime social justice activist, is an award-winning innovator in the field of philanthropy. She founded and is Executive Director of Groundswell Fund, the largest funder of the U.S. reproductive justice movement, and of Groundswell Action Fund, the largest U.S. institution helping fund women of color-led 501c4 organizations. Groundswell, among other achievements, is the country’s only fund dedicated to supporting access to midwifery and doula care for women of color, low-income women and transgender people; and funds a women-of-color-led Integrated Voter Engagement training program as well. Vanessa also serves on the board of the Common Counsel Foundation.

CEO | Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples

Tia Oros Peters (Shiwi), a mother, grandmother, writer and artist, as well as a social, cultural, and environmental justice organizer for 30+ years, is CEO of the Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples, which supports Native Peoples' community generated strategies for cultural revitalization, movement building, self-determination, and Re-Indigenization. Tia also co-founded the Global Indigenous Women's Caucus and Indigenous Women Worldwide, and serves on the National Advisory Committee of Grantmakers for Girls of Color and on the boards of the Proteus Fund and of Tools and Tiaras.

Co-Founder and Executive Director | One Earth

Justin Winters, formerly Executive Director of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, is the co-founder and Executive Director of One Earth, an organization working to galvanize science, advocacy and philanthropy to drive collective action on climate change to forge a path forward to a 2050 in which 100% renewable energy; protection and restoration of 50% of the world’s lands and oceans; and a transition to regenerative, carbon-negative agriculture create a world in which humanity and nature coexist and thrive together.

Strategic Partner | RESOLVE

Carly Vynne, Ph.D, is an ecologist and conservation strategist who seeks out creative solutions for how we can leave more room for nature in a rapidly changing world. She recently co-authored The Global Deal for Nature, which calls for an ambitious, time-bound set of nature-based targets that must be achieved if we are to solve the climate and extinction crises.

Campaign Director | Avaaz

Oscar Soria, Campaign Director at the renowned, highly effective, international civic movement Avaaz, is an Argentine human rights and environmental campaigner who has received widespread recognition for his innovative work at the intersection of technology, organizing, and advocacy on social, political, and environmental issues. He previously held senior global roles in Greenpeace and WWF and served in non-executive or advisory roles for the boards of several prominent organizations, including: Oxfam, Amnesty International, and the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities.

Managing Director | One Earth

Karl Burkart is the Managing Director of One Earth, which supports academic institutions and NGOs working on the cutting edges of climate and energy science, biodiversity mapping, and sustainable agriculture. Formerly Director of Media, Science and Technology at the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, Karl's past projects include: creating the blog, Greendig; producing and writing Planet 100, the Discovery Network's first online video news show; and leading digital advocacy for the TckTckTck campaign, a global network of more than 450 NGOs working to secure a strong international climate agreement. Karl's publications include co-authoring the groundbreaking paper "A Global Deal for Nature: Guiding Principles, Milestones, and Targets" in 2019.

| Brazilian Coordination of Indigenous peoples in the Amazon (COIAB)

Angela Amanakwa Kaxuyana is part of the senior leadership of the Brazilian Coordination of Indigenous peoples in the Amazon (COIAB). At a very young age, in the late 90’s she played a critical role in the struggle of the Kaxuyana, Kahyana and Tunayana peoples that led the demarcation of their lands in 2003. Angela led several indigenous led conservation initiatives and has a degree in Business Administration with specialization in environmental management.

Executive Director | Rap Sessions

Bakari Kitwana, an internationally known cultural critic, journalist, activist, and thought leader in the area of hip-hop and Black youth political engagement, is Executive Director of Rap Sessions, which conducts town hall meetings around the nation on difficult dialogues facing millennials. A Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard, Kitwana co-founded the 2004 National Hip-Hop Political Convention and is co-editor of the new book Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government For the People.

Co-Founder | Black Voters Matter Fund

LaTosha Brown, an Atlanta-based award-winning organizer, philanthropic consultant, political strategist (and jazz singer) with 20+ years’ experience in the non-profit and philanthropy sectors, co-founded Black Voters Matter Fund, a power building Southern based civic engagement organization; is principal owner of TruthSpeaks Consulting, Inc., a philanthropy advisory consulting firm; and is the founding Project Director of Grantmakers for Southern Progress.

CEO | AI For the People

Mutale Nkonde is an AI Policy advisor of the UN, member of the Tik Tok Advisory Board and CEO of AI for the People, a non profit communications firm that seeks to change tech neutrality narratives.  Prior to this, Nkonde worked in AI Governance. During that time, she was part of the team that introduced the Algorithmic Accountability Act, the DEEP FAKES Accountability Act, and the No Biometric Barriers to Housing Act to the US House of Representatives.  Nkonde holds fellowships at the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford University and the Institute of Advanced Study at Notre Dame and is an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

Executive Director | United We Dream

Greisa Martinez Rosas is the Executive Director at United We Dream, a national nonpartisan, membership-based organization of immigrant youth and allies that advocates for the dignity and fair treatment of undocumented immigrant youth and their families. The co-founder of the Texas Dream Alliance, she has been a Fellow with the League of Young Voters, a 2018 Fellow with the Opportunity Agenda Communications Institutes, and has organized immigrant youth, students and workers for the passage of pro-immigrant policies at the local, state and national level for the past decade.

Mycologist and Author

Paul Stamets, speaker, author, award-winning mycologist, medical researcher, groundbreaking mycological entrepreneur, and a visionary thought leader in the study of fungi and their uses in promoting human health, ecological restoration, and detoxification of the environment, is the author of six books, including: Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save The World, Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, and Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World. Paul has discovered and named numerous new species of psilocybin mushrooms and is the founder and owner of Fungi Perfecti, LLC, makers of the Host Defense Mushrooms (www.hostdefense.com) supplement line. And Paul’s work has now entered mainstream popular culture. The new Star Trek: Discovery series features a Lt. Paul Stamets, Science Officer and Astromycologist(!).

Director | The Spirit Aligned Leadership Program

Katsi Cook (Mohawk/Haudenosaunee), from Akwesasne along the St. Lawrence River, a groundbreaking, revered figure in the revitalization of Indigenous midwifery and of advocacy for Indigenous women's health, is Director of The Spirit Aligned Leadership Program, which works with Indigenous elder women to heal, strengthen, and restore Indigenous communities. A founding member of the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives and the Konon:kwe ("all women") Council, Katsi has decades of experience as a researcher and a lecturer on Indigenous environmental reproductive health, and she and her husband of 40 years, Jose Barreiro, have 6 children and 11 grandchildren.

Professor | California Institute of Integral Studies

Francoise Bourzat, a San Francisco Bay Area-based somatic counselor, teaches at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, runs online courses, lectures in various institutions, collaborates with physicians on a variety of treatment projects, and trains psychedelic guides internationally. She has guided ceremonies with sacred mushrooms in collaboration with Indigenous healers in Huautla de Jimenez, Mexico, for the last 30 years and is the author of: Consciousness Medicine: Indigenous Wisdom, Entheogens, and Expanded States of Consciousness for Healing and Growth.

Senior Producer | Bioneers

J.P. Harpignies, Bioneers Senior Producer, affiliated with Bioneers since 1990, is a Brooklyn, NYC-based consultant, conference producer, copy-editor and writer. A former Program Director at the New York Open Center and a senior review team member for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge from 2010 to 2017, he has authored or edited several books, including Political Ecosystems, Delusions of Normality, Visionary Plant Consciousness, and, most recently, Animal Encounters.

Progressive Talk Show Host

Thom Hartmann, the top progressive talk show host in America for over a decade and a four-time Project Censored Award-winning journalist, is the author of some 30 books, including the international bestseller, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight (about the end of the age of oil), used as a textbook in many schools and colleges. Thom, a former psychotherapist and entrepreneur, has also co-written and been featured in 6 documentaries with Leonardo DiCaprio.

CEO and Founder | Bioneers

Kenny Ausubel, CEO and founder (in 1990) of Bioneers, is an award-winning social entrepreneur, journalist, author and filmmaker. Co-founder and first CEO of the organic seed company, Seeds of Change, his film (and companion book) Hoxsey: When Healing Becomes a Crime helped influence national alternative medicine policy. He has edited several books and written four, including, most recently, Dreaming the Future: Reimagining Civilization in the Age of Nature.

Co-Executive Director | ACRE (Action Center on Race and the Economy)

Maurice BP-Weeks, based in Detroit, has many years’ community organizing experience in such areas as housing, policing, incarceration, corporate accountability and education justice. Co-Executive Director of ACRE (Action Center on Race and the Economy) where he works with community organizations and labor unions on campaigns to create equitable communities by dismantling systems of wealth extraction in Black and Brown communities, he also serves on many boards, including those of: Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity, National Institute for Money in Politics, Investors Advocates for Social Justice and the National Black Workers Center.

Co-Director | Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Stacy Mitchell, the Portland, Maine-based Co-Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which produces research and develops policy to counter corporate control and build thriving, equitable communities, has written extensively about the dangers of monopoly power, including for The Atlantic,Bloomberg, The Nation, and The New York Times. She's the author of a book, Big-Box Swindle, and several influential reports, including "Amazon's Stranglehold" and "Monopoly Power and the Decline of Small Business."

Jadyn Fauconier-Herry, a recent graduate of New York University, where she earned her BA in Social and Cultural Analysis with a concentration in theories of Race, Class, and Punishment, aims to honor in her writing and research the work of radical Black thinkers who have come before her and those participating in current struggles and organizing efforts.

Co-Founder and Healing Justice Organizer | How Our Lives link Altogether (H.O.L.L.A.)

Cory Greene, Ph.D., formerly incarcerated himself, is: an organizer with the Formerly Incarcerated Convicted People and Family Movement (a national movement to change the public policy landscape of criminal justice); co-founder and Healing Justice Organizer with How Our Lives link Altogether (H.O.L.L.A.); a national organizer with the Education Liberation Project; as well as a research associate on numerous participatory action research projects. A former National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, Echoing Green and Camelback Fellow, Cory's organizing work has been featured in several documentaries, including: Ava Duvernay's 13th, From Prison to NYU, and most recently, We Came to Heal.

Communications Manager | Essie Justice Group

Olka Baldeh, a Fulani storyteller, poet and nomad, and an environmental justice advocate and anti-police brutality activist for nearly a decade, currently works as the Communications Manager for the Essie Justice Group, a California-based nonprofit that serves women with incarcerated loved ones, and is also the founder of the Black Moon Podcast.

Communications Director and Research Fellow | Lead to Life

Liz Kennedy, a Detroit-based storyteller and organizer, is Program Coordinator for the Allied Media Conference, where she works to create spaces for artists and organizers to strategize, celebrate, and cross-pollinate across movements and mediums. Liz also works with Lead to Life, a collective of queer artists dedicated to "bridging racial and environmental justice through ceremony and art practice...to decompose systems of oppression."

Executive Director | Urban Tilth

Doria Robinson, a 3rd-generation resident of Richmond, California and Executive Director of Urban Tilth, is a co-founder of Cooperation Richmond, a worker-owned cooperative developer and local loan fund. Doria previously worked: on organic farms in Massachusetts; at Veritable Vegetable, a women-owned organic produce distribution company; at Real Food Company; and at Mixed Nuts Food Co-op. A Certified Permaculture Designer, she also led the development of Urban Tilth’s 3-acre urban farm in Richmond and the Farm-to-Table CSA social entrepreneurial venture that now serves 440 West County families each week.

Executive Director | Rich City Rides

Najari Smith, Richmond, CA-based founder and Executive Director of Rich City Rides, former chair and still member of the Richmond Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee, has worked tirelessly to improve bike infrastructure and to use bicycles to unite neighborhoods and communities throughout the Bay Area, including by creating the biggest bicycle celebrations in Richmond’s history.

Communications Organizer | New Economy Coalition

Natalia Linares, Communications Organizer at the New Economy Coalition, has over a decade of experience as a cultural organizer, artist advocate, and publicist working to amplify voices from traditionally underrepresented communities. In 2010 Natalia founded Conrazón, an agency for artists and creators invested in new paradigms of heart-centered economic justice in the performing arts and media.

| Movement Generation

Michelle Mascarenhas-Swan, a member of the Movement Generation (MG) staff collective who has been on its planning committee since 2008, has worked for the last 25 years building movement vehicles for frontline communities. Prior to her work at MG, she co-led the Center for Food and Justice, the National Farm to School Initiative, Rooted in Community, and the School of Unity and Liberation. Michelle was also a founding co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance and the Our Power Campaign and was recently named an Ashoka Fellow (2017-2020).

Professor | University of Washington

Howard Frumkin, MD, MPH, Dr.Ph, a physician and epidemiologist, Professor Emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington, previously led the Our Planet, Our Health initiative at the Wellcome Trust. His many other positions have included: Dean of the University of Washington School of Public Health, Director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the CDC, and Chair of Environmental and Occupational Health at Emory University. He has served on the boards or advisory committees of a wide range of leading scientific, professional, academic and governmental institutions and is the author or co-author of over 250 scientific journal articles and nine books, including Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Health, Well-Being, and Sustainability; Environmental Health: From Global to Local, and most recently: Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves (Island Press, 2020).

Executive Vice President for Health and Policy | EcoHealth Alliance

William B. Karesh, Ph.D., a leading global expert on infectious diseases, wildlife and the environment, is Executive Vice President for Health and Policy at EcoHealth Alliance, President of the World Animal Health Organization Working Group on Wildlife Diseases, chair of the IUCN Wildlife Health Specialist Group; and serves on the WHO's International Health Regulations Roster of Experts focused on the human-animal interface and wildlife health. Currently EPT Partner Liaison for the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT-2 program, Dr. Karesh coined the term "One Health" in 2003 to describe the interdependence of healthy ecosystems, animals and people and has pioneered solutions-oriented initiatives with this concept as the guiding principle in programs under his direction in over 45 countries from Argentina to Zambia. He has published 180+ scientific papers and written for broader audience publications, including his highly acclaimed first book for a general audience, Appointment at the Ends of the World.

Senior Producer | Bioneers

J.P. Harpignies, Bioneers Senior Producer, affiliated with Bioneers since 1990, is a Brooklyn, NYC-based consultant, conference producer, copy-editor and writer. A former Program Director at the New York Open Center and a senior review team member for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge from 2010 to 2017, he has authored or edited several books, including Political Ecosystems, Delusions of Normality, Visionary Plant Consciousness, and, most recently, Animal Encounters.

Environmental Ambassador | Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma

Casey Camp-Horinek, Environmental Ambassador of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma and Hereditary Drum-keeper of its Women’s Scalp Dance Society, elder and matriarch, is also an Emmy award-winning actress, author, and internationally renowned, longtime Native and human rights and environmental justice activist. She led efforts for the Ponca tribe to adopt a “rights of nature” statute and pass a moratorium on fracking on its territory. She has traveled and spoken around the world.

Founder and Executive Director | IllumiNative

Crystal Echo Hawk (Pawnee), is the founder and Executive Director of IllumiNative, the first and only national Native-led organization focused on changing the narrative about Native peoples on a mass scale. Crystal built IllumiNative to activate a cohesive set of research-informed strategies that illuminate the voices, stories, contributions and assets of contemporary Native peoples to disrupt the invisibility and toxic stereotypes Native peoples face.

Program Director of the Bioneers Indigenous Knowledge Program | Bioneers

Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), Program Director of the Bioneers Indigenous Knowledge Program, previously served her Mojave-based tribe in several capacities, including as: first Executive Director at the Chemehuevi Cultural Center, a member of the tribal council, and Chair of the Chemehuevi Education Board and Chemeuevi Headstart Policy Council. Cara is also a highly accomplished photographer/artist.

Co-Founder | The Redwoods Music

Alfred Howard, a prolific spoken-word artist, writer, and co-founder of The Redwoods Music, a San Diego record label and collective, currently pens lyrics for 8 bands and performs homemade percussion with six. In his early 20s he caravanned with musicians all across the county before finally setting roots in San Diego, where he has become a leading figure in that city's musical community. He is the author of 2 books, including The Autobiography of No One; writes articles for several leading San Diego newspapers and magazines; and has written lyrics for over 30 released albums.

Singer/Songwriter

Leah Song, leader/front-woman of the renowned band, Rising Appalachia, as well as a solo artist, is a singer, multi instrumentalist (fiddle, banjo, guitar), and a musical pioneer across genres and mediums who has had great success and impact in the worlds of folk and roots music, including as founder of the "slow music movement." She and Rising Appalachia are also committed to and widely respected for deeply integrating activism on such topics as the environment, food justice, human rights and prison reform in their lives and work.

Dustin Thomas, an artist, consultant, and creative strategist based in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, has performed hundreds of shows around the world, and, in his consulting work, has advised campaigns and offered creative direction to brands, funds, and executives with an emphasis on environmental stewardship, cultural celebration, and social justice.

Luke Wallace is a Canadian folk-singer known for his politically charged lyrics and his deep engagement in current social movements, including performing at youth climate and other demonstrations. His message-driven songwriting and powerful delivery have landed him slots at Salmon Arm Roots and Blues, Vancouver Island Music Festival, The Vancouver Folk Festival and an opening slot for the global roots band Rising Appalachia. His 5^th, most recent album, released in 2020, is What on Earth.

Co-Founder | Democracy Collaborative

Gar Alperovitz, Ph.D., co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative and co-chair of the Next System Project, has had a distinguished career as a historian, political economist, professor, scholar, activist, policy expert, and government official. A former Fellow of King's College, Cambridge University, and a founding Fellow of the Institute of Politics at Harvard, he has served as a Legislative Director in both the U.S. House and Senate, and as a Special Assistant in the Department of State. The author of many critically acclaimed books, including seminal tomes on economic inequality and atomic diplomacy, his articles are widely published in leading news outlets, and he has frequently testified before Congress.

Vice President of Communications | The Democracy Collaborative

Isaiah J. Poole, who has 30+ years' experience in journalism and was a founding member of both the Washington (DC) Association of Black Journalists and the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association, is the Communications Director for The Democracy Collaborative. He was previously Communications Director for People's Action and for the Campaign for America's Future.

Co-Manager of the Climate and Energy Program | The Democracy Collaborative

Johanna Bozuwa, M.Sc., Co-Manager of the Climate and Energy Program in The Next System Project at The Democracy Collaborative, focuses on the transition from the extractive, fossil-fuel economy to resilient, equitable communities based on climate justice and energy democracy in her work. Her writing has been widely published including in The Nation, The Hill, and Progressive Review. She has organized around climate justice in both the U.S. and the Netherlands, from campaigns to eliminate the social license of fossil fuel companies such as Shell to fights for utility justice and public power.

Research Director | The Democracy Collaborative

Thomas M. Hanna, Research Director at The Democracy Collaborative and a leading expert on democratic models of ownership and governance, is the author of several books, including, most recently: Our Common Wealth: The Return of Public Ownership in the United States. A dual U.S./UK citizen, he has advised the UK Labour Party and has served on the advisory boards of several national and international initiatives, including two European Research Council-funded research projects.

Vice President of Policy & Strategy | Data for Progress

Julian Brave NoiseCat is Vice President of Policy & Strategy at Data for Progress, and Narrative Change Director for the Natural History Museum. A Fellow of the Type Media Center and NDN Collective, his work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and other publications. Julian grew up in Oakland, California and is a proud member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq'escen and descendant of the Lil'Wat Nation of Mount Currie.

Directs the Climate Justice efforts | Tom Steyer PAC

Vien Truong, J.D., one of the country’s leading, award-winning experts and strategists on building an equitable green economy, has helped develop numerous energy, environmental, and economic policies and programs at state, federal and local levels and advised on billions of dollars in public investments for energy and community development programs, including co-leading the coalition to pass the law creating the biggest fund in history for the poorest and most polluted communities in California. Vien currently advises lawmakers, universities, foundations, and organizations on developing inclusive workforces, sustainable economies, and equitable environmental policies; directs the Climate Justice efforts for Tom Steyer PAC; and supports the climate efforts of the California Business and Jobs Recovery Task Force. Previously President/CEO of the Dream Corps and Chair of Oakland’s Planning Commission, she also serves on the boards of the California Endowment and Ceres.

CEO and Founder | Ocean Collectiv

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a Brooklyn native marine biologist and policy expert, is founder and CEO of Ocean Collectiv, a strategy-consulting firm for conservation solutions, and founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank focused on coastal cities. Her mission is to build community around solutions for our climate crisis. She is co-editor of All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, a brand new anthology of wisdom by women climate leaders.

Founder | Great Plains Action Society

Sikowis (aka Christine Nobiss), a member of the Plains Cree/Saulteaux of the George Gordon First Nation in Canada, grew up in the city of Winnipeg but has been living in Iowa City for 15 years. A dedicated activist who writes, speaks and organizes extensively on Indigenous, climate, environmental, and political issues, she founded Great Plains Action Society in 2015. Sikowis holds a Masters Degree in Religious Studies from the University of Iowa and is a mother of three.

Founder and Director | Daily Acts Organization

Trathen Heckman is the founder/Director of Daily Acts Organization, a non-profit dedicated to “transformative action that creates connected, equitable, climate resilient communities.” He also serves on the convening committee for Localizing California Waters and the advisory board of Norcal Resilience Network, and he has helped initiate and lead numerous coalitions and networks including Climate Action Petaluma. Trathen lives in the Petaluma River Watershed where he grows food, medicine and wonder while composting apathy and lack.

Founder and Executive Director | Mycelium Youth Network

Lil Milagro Henriquez, founder (in 2017) and Executive Director of Mycelium Youth Network, an organization dedicated to empowering young people of color around climate change issues, is a veteran of social justice organizing with 18+ years' experience working on a range of issues, including: access to higher education for low-income people and communities of color; food sovereignty; environmental racism; and labor organizing; among others. She is a current recipient of a Women's Earth Alliance fellowship.

Senior Policy Advisor for Climate and Resilience | Boulder, Colorado

Brett KenCairn, Boulder, Colorado's Senior Policy Advisor for Climate and Resilience, coordinates the city's climate action and climate resilience strategies and leads development of its carbon drawdown focus area. He initiated and now leads a multi-city collaboration called the Urban Drawdown Initiative co-launched with the Urban Sustainability Director's Network and Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance. Previously, Brett founded or co-founded several organizations, including the Rogue River Institute for Ecology and Economy, Veterans Green Jobs, and Community Energy Systems, and he has worked across the western U.S. in community-based initiatives in rural, Native American and other marginalized communities.

Leadership Institute Manager | Daily Acts

Kerry Fugett facilitates and co-creates the Leadership Institute for Just and Resilient Communities at the non-profit, Daily Acts. She previously served as Executive Director of Sonoma County Conservation Action, leading grassroots campaigns to eliminate synthetic pesticides, facilitating coalition building, canvassing to elect environmental leaders, and organizing mutual support during record-breaking fires in Northern CA. One of her main areas of focus is the weaving of antiracism into community-led climate justice movements.

Traci Sorell, Cherokee Nation citizen and an award-winning author, writes fiction and nonfiction books, short stories and poems for children. A former federal Indian law attorney and advocate, Traci lives with her family in northeastern Oklahoma where her tribe is located.

Author | There There

Title VI Indian Education Coordinator | American Indian Child Resource Center

Manny Lieras (Navajo & Comanche), the Title VI Indian Education Coordinator with the Oakland Unified School District, works with urban American Indian youth at The American Indian Child Resource Center and has established himself as an influential role model and change agent in the Oakland, CA, intertribal community. He also teaches pow wow drumming and singing, has produced a film series, Injunuity (www.injunuity.org), and works with the Occupied Canoe Family in the Bay Area.

Founding Director | Orita’s Cross Freedom School

Rev. Heber Brown, a multiple award-winning community organizer and social entrepreneur, is Senior Pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Baltimore, MD, and founding Director of Orita’s Cross Freedom School, which works to reconnect Black youth to their African heritage while providing them with hands-on learning opportunities to spark their creativity and build vocational skills. In 2015 he launched the Black Church Food Security Network, a multi-state alliance of congregations dedicated to creating a grassroots, community-led food system.

Co-Executive Director | Soul Fire Farm

Leah Penniman is a Black Kreyol farmer, mother, Vodun Manye (Queen Mother), and award-winning food justice activist who has been tending the soil and organizing for an anti-racist food system for over 20 years. She currently serves as founding Co-Executive Director of Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York, a people-of-color led project that works toward food and land justice, which she co-founded in 2010. She is the author of: Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land.

Founder/Director | Sierra Seeds

Rowen White, a seed keeper and farmer from the Mohawk community of Akwesasne and a passionate activist for Indigenous seed and food sovereignty, is founder/Director of Sierra Seeds, an innovative California-based organic seed stewardship organization; and Program Director for the Indigenous Seed Keeper Network, an initiative of the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance.

Program Director | Soul Fire Farm

Naima Penniman, an artist, activist, healer, grower and educator committed to planetary health and community resilience, is the co-founder of WILDSEED Community Farm and Healing Village, a Black and Brown-led intentional community focused on ecological collaboration, transformative justice, and intergenerational responsibility. She is also: Program Director at Soul Fire Farm, dedicated to supporting the next generation of B.I.P.O.C. (Black/Indigenous/people of color) farmers; the co-founder/co-artistic director of Climbing PoeTree, an internationally-acclaimed performance duo; a Thai Yoga Massage practitioner; and a member of Harriet's Apothecary, a collective of Black women-identified healers.

Senior Legal Counsel | Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights

Thomas Linzey, Senior Counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER), co-founded the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and the Daniel Pennock Democracy School (which has graduated over 5,000 lawyers, activists, and municipal officials nationally to fight to elevate the rights of their communities over corporate rights). He is the author of several books, including: Be The Change: How to Get What You Want in Your Community; On Community Civil Disobedience in the Name of Sustainability; and co-author of: We the People: Stories from the Community Rights Movement in the United States.

Executive Director | Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights

Mari Margil, Executive Director of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, leads its International Center for the Rights of Nature. Previously Associate Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, she assisted the first places in the world to secure the Rights of Nature in law, including Ecuador. She works internationally as well as with Indigenous peoples and tribal nations to advance Rights of Nature legal and policy frameworks. Mari is a co-author of: The Bottom Line or Public Health and Exploring Wild Law: The Philosophy of Earth Jurisprudence.

Executive Director | Menikahnaehkem

Anahkwet (Guy Reiter), a traditional Menominee from Wisconsin, member of the Menominee Constitutional Taskforce and Executive Director of the grassroots community organization, Menikahnaehkem, is a local organizer, activist, author, amateur archaeologist, and lecturer. He has organized a wide range of events on Menominee culture, spoken at a number of universities, and written articles for Environmental Health News and other publications.

Executive Officer | Ethicannos

Karyemaitre Aliffe, MD, a multilingual physician-scientist who has taught at Harvard and Stanford, has 35+ years’ experience in natural products research, including explorations in remote regions in the Amazon, Australia, and Africa. He has lectured widely in 50+ countries to health professionals, government and civil society institutions and business groups. Dr. Aliffe is presently Chair and Executive Officer at Ethicannos, Praxigen Biomedia, where he leads a natural health product development team, applying translational medicine and integrative neurophysiology to expand the utility of cannabis-based formulations in enhancing human health, fitness and longevity.

Co-Founder and President | Amazon Conservation Team

Mark Plotkin, Ph.D., a renowned ethnobotanist who has studied traditional Indigenous plant use with elder healers in Central and South America for 30+ years, is also an award-winning activist who has worked with many conservation organizations, including Harvard’s Botanical Museum, the World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, and the Smithsonian. Co-founder (with his wife Liliana in 1996) and President of the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), dedicated to protecting the biological and cultural diversity of the Amazon, Plotkin is the author of many papers and articles and several books, including the international bestseller, Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice; Medicine Quest: In Search of Nature’s Healing Secrets; and The Killers Within: The Deadly Rise of Drug-Resistant Bacteria.

President & Projects Director | Botanical Dimensions

Kathleen (Kat) Harrison, co-founder (in 1985), President and Projects Director of the nonprofit, Botanical Dimensions, is an ethnobotanist, ethnobotanical educator and artist renowned for her unique explorations of often hidden aspects of plant-human relationships and of the deep history of humans in nature. She teaches a wide variety of courses (some open to all; others university sponsored field studies) in Hawaii, Northern California and the Peruvian Amazon.

Senior Producer | Bioneers

J.P. Harpignies, Bioneers Senior Producer, affiliated with Bioneers since 1990, is a Brooklyn, NYC-based consultant, conference producer, copy-editor and writer. A former Program Director at the New York Open Center and a senior review team member for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge from 2010 to 2017, he has authored or edited several books, including Political Ecosystems, Delusions of Normality, Visionary Plant Consciousness, and, most recently, Animal Encounters.

Co-Founder | Bioneers

Nina Simons, co-founder of Bioneers and its Chief Relationship Strategist is also co-founder of Women Bridging Worlds and Connecting Women Leading Change. She co-edited the anthology book, Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart, and most recently wrote Nature, Culture & The Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership. An award-winning social entrepreneur, Nina teaches and speaks internationally, and previously served as President of Seeds of Change and Director of Strategic Marketing for Odwalla.

Writer

Terry Tempest Williams, a genre-defying, award-winning writer, is the author of some sixteen books, including the environmental literature classic: Refuge—An Unnatural History of Family and Place; and: Red—Passion and Patience in the Desert; Finding Beauty in a Broken World; When Women Were Birds; The Hour of Land; and most recently: Erosion—Essays of Undoing. Her work has been published and translated worldwide. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Guggenheim Fellow, she is currently Writer-in-Residence at the Harvard Divinity School. Ms. Williams also has a long history of engagement in a range of environmental, social justice, peace, and women’s rights struggles.

Author

Rachel Bagby, an award-winning vocal and social healing artist with a Stanford law degree in social change, has mentored women leaders and thousands of audience members world-wide to unleash their voices as instruments of transformation. She is the bestselling author of Daughterhood and Divine Daughters: Liberating the Power and Passion of Women’s Voices.

Alixa Garcia, born in Colombia, is an award-winning poet, musician, visual-artist, filmmaker, educator, and activist. Her performance work with the duo Climbing PoeTree has been featured in hundreds of universities, conferences and festivals, including at the United Nations and T.E.D.’s Ideas Worth Spreading. Her visual work has been exhibited in major museums and public spaces, including in Times Square and at the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art. Her latest work is currently being exhibited in the Kunsthal Kade Museum, Netherlands.

Founder/Principal | BeeLine Associates

Rick Reed, founder/Principal of BeeLine Associates, has been working to advance the common good in groundbreaking ways with a wide range of philanthropic foundations and NGOs for three decades. In the food systems arena, he co-created the Lighthouse Farm Network and the Biologically Integrated Farming Systems Initiative. In the climate domain, he co-conceived and co-established the Re-Amp clean energy network spanning eight states in the upper Midwest focused on ending the region's carbon pollution, and is currently focused on holding the oil and gas industry accountable for creating the climate crisis.

Gulf Coast Campaign Representative | Sierra Club

Rebekah Hinojosa, an artist and organizer from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas currently serving as the Sierra Club's Gulf Coast Campaign Representative, works with communities along the Texas coastline to stop crude oil export terminals, associated pipelines, and three LNG fracked gas export terminals that would predominantly harm people of color and Indigenous populations.

Co-Founder and Senior Advisor | Funder Collaborative on Oil and Gas

Sarah Thomas, Ph.D., is co-founder of and Senior Advisor to the Funder Collaborative on Oil and Gas, a philanthropic initiative housed at the Rockefeller Family Fund, which seeks to accelerate an economically and environmentally responsible shift away from fossil fuels. She conducts strategy development and policy research for foundations, private individuals and nonprofit organizations and has assisted multiple collaboratives aimed at enhancing strategic alignment and coordinated action on climate change and social justice.