Faculty Director | Do No Harm Coalition

Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF and Faculty Director of the Do No Harm Coalition, Dr. Rupa Marya is one of the nation’s leading figures working at the intersection of medicine and social justice (including in investigating the health effects of police violence on communities and helping set up a free clinic under Lakota leadership at Standing Rock). She is also singer and musician who leads the internationally touring band Rupa and the April Fishes and the co-author (with Raj Patel) of the brand new book: Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice.

Physician, World-Renowned Expert on Trauma and Addiction

A Canadian physician of Hungarian origin and a Holocaust survivor as an infant, famous for his emphasis on compassionate approaches to addiction, Dr. Gabor Maté is one of the world’s most influential experts on childhood development and trauma, and is the author of four seminal books, including his most recent best-selling text, In The Realm Of Hungry Ghosts.

Co-Founder | Ceibo Alliance

An Indigenous activist from the Ecuadorian Amazon, first female president of her tribe (the Waorani of Pastaza Province) and co-founder of the Indigenous-led Ceibo Alliance, Nemonte Nenquimo was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people on Earth in 2020 (the only Indigenous woman on the list) and won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize among other major awards, for her struggles against the ravages of oil drilling in her people’s ancestral lands.

Director of Green New Deal Strategy | Data for Progress

A prolific, widely published 28-year-old Indigenous journalist, writer, activist and policy analyst, Director of Green New Deal Strategy at Data for Progress, Julian Brave NoiseCat has become a highly influential figure in the coverage and analysis of Environmental Justice and Indigenous issues as well as of national and global political and economic trends and policies.

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-Founder and Chief Relationship Strategist | 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.

Director | Equity Research Institute, USC

Manuel Pastor, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at USC and Director of its Equity Research Institute, has long been one of the most important scholars and activists working on the economic, environmental and social conditions facing low-income urban communities and the social movements seeking to change those realities. He has held many prominent academic posts, won countless prestigious awards and fellowships for his activism and scholarship, and is the author and co-author of many important, highly influential tomes, including most recently, State of Resistance: What California's Dizzying Descent and Remarkable Resurgence Means for America's Future (2018) and the just-about-to-be-released Solidarity Economics: Why Mutuality and Movements Matter.

Professor of Forest Ecology | University of British Columbia

Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia, one of the planet’s leading experts on the synergies and complexities of forests and the development of sustainable forest stewardship practices, Suzanne Simard is a world-renowned pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence whose work has influenced several major filmmakers and novelists. She is the author of the currently best-selling Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.

Co-Founder | South Los Angeles Youth Leadership Coalition

Nalleli Cobo, now 20, has been a passionate Environmental Justice activist since age 9, when she realized the oil drilling operation across the street in her South Los Angeles neighborhood was making her and many of her family and neighbors very sick. She helped create a grassroots campaign, People not Pozos (i.e. “wells” in Spanish) that has been fighting ever since to close the well permanently. Nalleli went on to co-found the South Los Angeles Youth Leadership Coalition, which sued the City of Los Angeles for Environmental Racism. Nalleli has become an award-winning, internationally renowned, profoundly inspiring young leader.

Executive Director | Designing Justice + Designing Spaces

A widely-traveled, award-winning, groundbreaking activist architect with 16 years’ experience designing projects internationally and a major thought leader in advocating for restorative justice centers (a radical transformation of the criminal justice system), Deanna Van Buren is Executive Director of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces, an architecture and real estate development firm innovating in the built environment to end mass incarceration; and serves on the national board of Architects/ Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility.

Biologist, Avid Gardener and Author

Anne Biklé is a biologist, avid gardener, and co-author, along with her husband, David Montgomery, of The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health.  Biklé is among the planet’s leading experts on the microbial life of soil and its crucial importance to human wellbeing and survival.

Professor of Geomorphology | University of Washington

David Montgomery is a professor of Geomorphology and, along with his wife and collaborator Anne Biklé, co-author of The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health a landmark exploration the microbiome. Montgomery's research looks at the process shaping Earth’s surface and how they affect ecological systems—and human societies. He has studied everything from the ways that landslides and glaciers influence the height of mountain ranges, to the way that soils have shaped human civilizations both now and in the past. He is an elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and has received many awards throughout his career, including a MacArthur Fellowship and the Vega Medal. In addition to The Hidden Half of Nature, Montgomery is the author of the seminal Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations and Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back To Life.

Associate Professor of Education | University of Nottingham

Sarah Amsler, an eco-social researcher, writer and educator, Associate Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham and a member of the Our Bodhi Project and the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures arts/research collectives, focuses in her work on how patterns of interpersonal, historical-social, epistemic, ontological and metabolic violence are reproduced in affective, embodied, conceptual, political and relational realms; and on strategies to interrupt systems of power that fuel suffering and destruction, so that other ways of being can become possible.

Renowned Musical Ensemble

Rising Appalachia, a renowned musical ensemble founded by Leah Song and Chloe Smith in 2006, and now grown to include David Brown on upright bass and baritone guitar, Biko Casini on world percussion, Arouna Diarra on ngoni and balafon, and Duncan Wickel on fiddle and cello, is rooted in various folk traditions, storytelling, and passionate grassroots activism. The band routinely provides a platform for local causes wherever it plays and frequently incites its fans to gather with it in converting vacant or underused lots into verdant urban orchards and gardens. In a time of social unraveling, Rising Appalachia’s unique interweaving of music and social mission and old traditions with new interpretations exudes contagious hope and deep integrity.

Founder | Our Bodhi Project

Sonali Sangeeta Balajee is the founder of Our Bodhi Project, which promotes practices at the intersection of Belonging, Organizing, Decolonizing, Health, and Interconnectedness. Sonali previously spent 13 years in government in Portland, OR, leading equity-based projects, has been an activist in HIV/AIDS work, environmental justice, and racial equity for 30 years, has 20 years’ experience in dance and music performance and 35 years’ practicing yoga and mindfulness.  She sits on the boards of Bioneers and Worldtrust.

Artistic Director | Kearny Street Workshop

Jason Bayani, MFA, a theater performer and author, is Artistic Director of the Kearny Street Workshop, the oldest multi-disciplinary Asian Pacific-American arts organization in the country. A Kundiman Fellow, his published works include: Locus (a 2019 Norcal Book Award finalist) and Amulet. He has written for World Literature Today, Muzzle Magazine, Lantern Review, and other publications and performs regularly around the country. His first solo theater show was 2016’s Locus of Control.

Co-Founder | Science and Nonduality

Zaya Benazzo, co-founder (15 years ago) of the non-profit organization Science and Nonduality (SAND) and its renowned Science and Nonduality Conference (which covers the intersection of spiritual inquiry, science, social healing and the arts), is also a filmmaker who most recently co-directed The Wisdom of Trauma. Prior to SAND Zaya spent 10 years as an environmental activist in The Netherlands and Bulgaria, including with Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and as a founder of For the Earth, one of the first environmental NGOs in Bulgaria.

Co-Director of Bioneers Indigeniety Program | Bioneers

Alexis Bunten, Ph.D., (Aleut/Yup’ik), Program Manager for Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program, has been a researcher, media-maker, manager, consultant, and curriculum developer for organizations including the Sealaska Heritage Institute, Alaska Native Heritage Center, and the FrameWorks Institute. She has published widely about Indigenous and environmental issues, and is the author of So, how long have you been Native?: Life as an Alaska Native Tour Guide. (bioneers.org)

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.

Co-Founder and Executive Director | Indigenous Climate Action

Eriel Tchekwie Deranger (Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation), a leading global figure in Indigenous Rights and Climate Justice activism, is the co-founder and Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action and is a member of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change. She also sits on a number of boards of notable non-profit organizations (including Bioneers) and activist groups. She has organized divest movements, lobbied government officials, led mass mobilizations against the fossil fuel industry, written extensively for a range of publications and been featured in documentary films (including Elemental).

Assistant Professor in the American Studies Department | University of New Mexico

Poet, Musician, Visual-Artist, Filmmaker, Educator and Activist

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.

Podcast Host | The Future Is Beautiful

Amisha Ghadiali, a facilitator, speaker and writer with extensive backgrounds in sustainable fashion, socially conscious entrepreneurship, activism, meditation and yoga, is host of the globally-acclaimed podcast The Future Is Beautiful. She has led many retreats, workshops and rituals around the world, and designed programs such as: The Heart of Transformation, Wild Grace, and a residential fellowship in community facilitation leadership. She also hosts an online membership community—Presence: for Creative, Connected and Courageous Living; and works one-to-one in her Presence Leadership Mentoring program.

Executive Director | Freedom Lodge

Ruby Gibson, Th.D., of Lakota, Ojibwe, Mestizo and Mediterranean descent, is an educator, researcher, author and leading practitioner of Somatics, as well as a traditional healer. Executive Director of the non-profit, Freedom Lodge, which provides historical trauma healing to Indigenous populations internationally, she has done groundbreaking work bridging bodywork, Transpersonal Psychology, traditional healing and spirituality for 35 years. Author of My Body My Earth, The Practice of Somatic Archaeology, she has developed two new healing modalities: Somatic Archaeology© and Generational Brainspotting™.

Keep It in the Ground Campaign Organizer | Indigenous Environmental Network

Dallas Goldtooth (Isanti Dakota/Dine) from Cansayapi village in Oceti Sakowin territory (currently called Minnesota), is the National Keep It In The Ground Campaigner for the Indigenous Environmental Network. He travels extensively across North America as a public speaker and organizer to support frontline Indigenous communities fighting fossil fuel extraction on their lands. He is also a Dakota language activist and cultural teacher, a film producer, playwright, actor and a comedian who co-founded The 1491s, an all-Indigenous social media group that uses comedy and satire as a means of critical social dialogue.

Executive Director and Co-Founder | Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education

Lauren D. Hage, an educator, consultant and ecological designer, is Executive Director and co-founder of the non-profit Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education, which encourages the study and practice of “Earth Intimacy,” “Co-Liberation,” “Embodiment” and “Prayerful Action” as key approaches for addressing the social and ecological crises of our times. Lauren is dedicated to supporting people to pursue their passions and shape their actions from a foundation rooted in interrelationship. Lauren comes from Ashkenazi Jewish (Russian), Sicilian, and Scottish ancestry.

Co-Founder | Permaculture Magazine

Maddy Harland co-founded a publishing company, Permanent Publications, in 1990 and Permaculture Magazine in 1992 to explore traditional and new ways of living in greater harmony with the Earth. She is the author of Fertile Edges—regenerating land, culture and hope and The Biotime Log. Maddy and her husband, Tim, have designed and planted one of the oldest forest gardens in Britain: once a bare field, it is now an edible landscape and haven for wildlife.

Founder and Director | Biomimicry for Social Innovation

Toby Herzlich, founder/Director of Biomimicry for Social Innovation (BSI), is an internationally recognized trainer, facilitator, and executive coach who has consulted for many organizations, including the Sierra Club, Agroecology Fund and Young Climate Leaders Network. Toby leads BSI’s Living Systems Leadership retreats and serves as faculty in Biomimicry 3.8’s two-year program for professionals. Toby sees herself as a cross-pollinator among change agents working on climate solutions and social equity, germinating a co-evolving network of leaders using nature’s intelligence for guidance and inspiration.

Leading Ecological Thinker, Teacher, Writer and Speaker

David Holmgren is (along with Bill Mollison) the co-originator of the Permaculture concept, following publication of their seminal 1978 text, Permaculture One. Globally recognized as a leading ecological thinker, teacher, writer and speaker who promotes Permaculture as a realistic, attractive and powerful alternative to dependent consumerism, he is the author of several books, including: Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability; Future Scenarios: How Communities Can Adapt To Peak Oil and Climate Change, and, most recently, RetroSuburbia: The Downshifter’s Guide to a Resilient Future. 

Comedian, Writer and Producer

Jackie Keliiaa (Yerington Paiute and Washoe), an Oakland, CA-based comedian, writer and producer, is a regular performer at a number of Bay Area comedy clubs and has performed at San Francisco SketchFest, Punchline San Francisco, Comedy Oakland and Tommy T’s, among many other venues. Some of her performances can be found online at: Team Coco LIVE: Moses & Friends and Illuminative’s 25 Native American Comedians to Follow. Jackie is also one of the comedians profiled in the recently published book, We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy.

Programs & Volunteer Manager | Chapter 510

Jahan Khalighi, a spoken word poet, youth educator and community arts organizer, leads creative writing workshops for personal and collective transformation in a wide range of settings, from juvenile detention centers to classrooms, from community centers to boardrooms. He currently manages programs at Chapter 510, a youth creative writing and publishing program in Oakland, CA. Jahan has performed widely, including at: TEDxSonoma, YBCA, Mission Cultural Center, Bioneers and Esalen; and some of his work has been published in Whoa Nelly Press.  

Founder and Executive Director | Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International

Osprey Orielle Lake, founder and Executive Director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International, works with grassroots and Indigenous leaders, policy-makers and scientists to promote climate justice, resilient communities, and a just transition to a democratized energy future. She also serves on the Executive Committee for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and is the author of the award-winning book, Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature.

| weDialogue and the World Café Community Foundation

Prominent Permaculture Teacher, Designer and Speaker

Penny Livingston, one of the most renowned and respected leaders in the field of Permaculture, has been teaching internationally and working professionally in land management, regenerative design and permaculture for 30 years. She has extensive experience in all phases of ecologically sound design and construction and specializes in the site planning and design of resource-rich landscapes that integrate rainwater collection, agroforestry systems, edible and medicinal planting, pond and water systems, habitat development and watershed restoration for homes, farms, co-housing communities and businesses. She is currently teaching online courses with Ecoversity and the Permaculture Skills Center.

Teacher | Generative Somatics

Donaji Lona draws on her Zapotec Indigenous ancestry in her work as a longtime community organizer and as a teacher, practitioner and bodyworker for 9+ years in the field of Somatics. She works predominantly with immigrant communities and communities of color in the San Francisco Bay Area (in English and Spanish) and is currently a teacher with Generative Somatics, an organization that focuses on bringing a politicized Somatics practice to movement-building organizations.

Musical Duo

MaMuse, a musical duo (Sarah Nutting and Karisha Longaker) fed by folk and gospel traditions that has been together 13 years and produced five albums, uses a wide variety of acoustic instruments (upright bass, guitar, mandolins, ukulele, and flutes) with the goal of creating uplifting music that opens hearts, nurtures a love of life and “inspires the world into thriving.”

Restorative Food Systems Director | Bioneers

Arty Mangan, Bioneers' Restorative Food Systems Director, joined Bioneers in 1998 as Project Manager for the Restorative Development Initiative. A former board president of the Ecological Farming Association and member of the Santa Cruz GE Subcommittee that banned GE crops, Arty has worked with farmers and agriculture since 1978, first as a partner in Live Juice and later with Odwalla, where he was in charge of fruit sourcing.

Founder and CEO | Emotion Dynamics LLC

Karla McLaren, M.Ed., an award-winning author and social science researcher, is a leading figure in the study of healthy empathy and the revaluing of “negative” emotions to help people open new pathways of self-awareness, deep healing, and effective communication. Founder and CEO of Emotion Dynamics LLC and developer of the Empathy Academy online learning site, she is the author of: The Power of Emotions at Work: Accessing the Vital Intelligence in Your Workplace; Embracing Anxiety: How to Access the Genius of this Vital Emotion; The Art of Empathy: A Complete Guide to Life’s Most Essential Skill; The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings are Trying to Tell You; and many other titles and courses.

Activist and Fighter for Indigenous Rights | Apache Stronghold

Naelyn Pike, 22, is a renowned young Chiricahua Apache activist and lifelong fighter for Indigenous Rights who follows in the footsteps of her grandfather who founded the Apache Stronghold to protect their people’s sacred sites and rights. At age 13 Pike was the youngest Indigenous girl to testify before Congress. Today she continues to battle corporations and political leaders whose actions damage the Earth as she fights for environmental sustainability and Indigenous rights at the local, state, and national levels.

Co-Director of Bioneers Indigeniety 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. (bioneers.org/pages/indigeneity-program)

Author

Anita Sanchez, Ph.D., of Aztec and Latina ancestry, has drawn from Indigenous wisdom and modern science to guide thousands of leaders in corporations and nonprofits in creating diverse and inclusive workplaces and communities. She is the author of six books, including the international bestselling: Success University for Women in Business, and the International Latino Book Award winner: The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times. (sancheztennis.com/anita, foursacredgifts.com)

Founder | Great Plains Action Society

Sikowis (aka Christine Nobiss) (Plains Cree/Saulteaux, George Gordon First Nation) grew up in Winnipeg but has been living in Iowa City for 15 years. She is the founder of the Great Plains Action Society, “a collective of Indigenous organizers of the Great Plains working to resist and Indigenize colonial institutions, ideologies, and behaviors.” She speaks, writes and organizes extensively on Indigenous rights, the climate crisis, environmental collapse and colonial capitalism.

co-director and educator | Weaving Earth

tayla shanaye is a bicultural Black mother who inhabits the intersection of somatic liberation, reproductive justice, and nature connection. She is a somatic educator and therapeutic counselor focused on the resolution of racialized and gendered trauma, the Co-Director and educator at Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education, and author of several publications. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Women’s Spirituality at CIIS.

| Santa Cruz Permaculture and UCSC Right Livelihood College

CEO, Author and Regenerative Farmer | Restoration Agriculture Development Inc

Mark Shepard, CEO of Restoration Agriculture Development, runs New Forest Farm (in Viola Wisconsin), a cutting-edge solar, wind and local biofuel-powered 110-acre commercial-scale perennial agricultural savanna, one of the first of its kind in the USA. Mark also teaches agroforestry, Permaculture and Restoration Agriculture and designs natural resource and agricultural properties worldwide and is author of the award-winning books: Restoration Agriculture: Real-world Permaculture for Farmers and Water for ANY Farm. A certified organic farmer since 1995, Mark is also a founding member of the American Hazelnut Company, on the board of the Stewardship Network, and a lead designer for the Valley Foundation of the Reed Jules Oppenheimer Foundation.

Co-Founder | Healing Generations Institute and the National Compadres Network

Jerry Tello, of Mexican, Texan and Coahuiltecan ancestry, raised in South Central Los Angeles, has worked for 40+ years as a leading, award-winning expert in transformational healing for men and boys of color; racial justice; peaceful community mobilization; and providing domestic violence awareness, healing and support services to war veterans and their spouses. He co-founded the Healing Generations Institute and the National Compadres Network, where he is currently Director of Training and Capacity Building. He has authored numerous articles, videos, curricula, and a series of children’s books, and is a member of the Sacred Circles performance group.

‘Stop It At The Source’ Campaigner | 350.org

Somatic Practitioner and Writer

Nazbah Tom (Diné), a Toronto-based somatic practitioner and writer, uses a combination of drama therapy, conversation, gestural practices, breathwork, new somatic skills, and bodywork to support individuals and groups through processes of embodied transformation.

Deputy Director of Eco-Cultural Revitalization | Karuk Tribe

Bill Tripp (Karuk from the Klamath River Basin) is the Deputy-Director of Eco-Cultural Revitalization for the Karuk Tribe’s Department of Natural Resources. A specialist on forest management and the lead author on the Karuk Eco-cultural Resource Management Plan (ECRMP) and co-author of the Karuk Climate Adaptation Plan, his work involves developing partnerships and strategic action plans to enable large landscape collaborative management throughout Karuk Aboriginal Territory and beyond.

Author | Relational Mindfulness

Deborah Eden Tull, a Zen meditation and mindfulness teacher, author, activist and educator who spent 7 years training at a silent Zen monastery, has been teaching dharma for 20 years and sustainability practices for nearly 30. Her teaching style is grounded in “engaged awareness,” which emphasizes the connection between personal awakening and global engagement. Author of: Relational Mindfulness: A Handbook for Deepening Our Connection with Our Self, Each Other, and Our Planet and The Natural Kitchen: Your Guide for the Sustainable Food Revolution, Eden offers retreats, online courses and consultations internationally. She also teaches The Work That Reconnects, a program created by Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy, and is affiliated with UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center.

educator | Weaving Earth

brontë velez (they/them), a Black-Latinx transdisciplinary artist, activist, designer and educator, is the Creative Director of the Lead to Life design collective and an Ecological Educator for the Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education. brontë is also currently working on a “mockumentary” with Jazz musician Esperanza Spalding and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

Teacher, Trainer, Consultant, Instructor, Facilitator, Program Developer and Psychotherapist

Patricia Vickers, Ph.D., of Heiltsuk/Ts’msyen/Haida ancestry on her paternal line and British on her mother’s side, based on Haida Gwaii, is an internationally respected leader in the field of trauma research among Indigenous peoples. A teacher, trainer, consultant, instructor, facilitator, program developer, and psychotherapist for Indigenous communities along the British Columbia coast, she is deeply committed to founding mental health services based on ancestral principles, including teachings on soul loss and soul retrieval and expressive responses to life in song, painting and dance. Patricia is also a painter, collage artist, mother of four, grandmother of nine, and Tango lover.