A dynamic gathering of visionary movement leaders, activists, and professionals exploring innovative, nature-inspired solutions for today’s pressing environmental and social challenges.
The 36th annual Bioneers Conference offers a space to gather and be inspired to renew our work protecting and revitalizing society, justice and the web of life. The struggle for the soul of a civilization is a multi-generational commitment. Each step matters, and even more so when the prevailing winds make progress more difficult. Let’s come together in community to be revitalized as we explore creative solutions and new paths forward.
It has never been more important to harness the brilliance and grit of our community. Through inspiring talks, deep discussions, collaborative workshops, the unique Indigenous Forum, eye-opening art, and the forging of transformative connections, Bioneers 2025 is designed to reinvigorate our passion for positive change and bold new ideas. We look forward to gathering in Berkeley in late March!
Original river and delta images by Dan Coe. Read a conversation with Dan about his art and artistic process here.
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Featured Speakers at Bioneers 2025
See the full list of speakers here, and visit our full schedule to see afternoon sessions, films and more.
Keynote Speakers - Thursday, March 27th
Janine Benyus
Co-Founder
The Biomimicry Institute
Janine Benyus, a winner of countless prestigious awards, world-renowned biologist, thought leader, innovation consultant and author of six books, including 1997’s foundational text, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, is widely considered the “godmother of Biomimicry.” In 1998, she co-founded the Biomimicry Guild, which morphed into Biomimicry 3.8, a B-Corp social enterprise providing biomimicry consulting services to a slew of major firms and institutions. In 2006, Janine co-founded The Biomimicry Institute, a non-profit institute to embed biomimicry in formal education, and over 11,000 members are now part of the Biomimicry Global Network. Among various other roles, Janine serves on the board of the U.S. Green Building Council, the advisory board for the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, the advisory board for Project Drawdown and as an affiliate faculty member at The Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University.
Keynote Address:
Thursday Keynote Speaker Lineup
March 27th | 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Crystal Echo Hawk
Founder and CEO
IllumiNative
Crystal Echo Hawk (Pawnee) is the founder and CEO of IllumiNative, the first and only national Native-led organization focused on changing the narrative about Native peoples on a mass scale. IllumiNative has been instrumental in changing the representation of contemporary Native peoples in key sectors of entertainment, pop culture, media, and politics. Known nationally as a thought leader, innovator, acclaimed speaker, and skilled executive who builds meaningful collaborations, Crystal has led partnership-building with such industry leaders as Nielsen, Netflix, NBC Universal, Amazon, Disney, Marvel, and others. Crystal also serves as a member of Nielsen’s External Advisory Council and the Comcast Diversity Council.
Keynote Address:
Thursday Keynote Speaker Lineup
March 27th | 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Haley Mellin
Artist and Land Conservationist
Haley Mellin, PhD, is an artist focusing on painting and land conservation. In 2017, she founded Art into Acres, a non-profit supporting permanent land conservation on behalf of the arts. Indigenous-led and community-led protected areas are the focus, and the initiative has supported the designation of about 70 million acres of new protection. Haley initiated the first environmental council and carbon emissions calculations at U.S. art museums, and juried the inaugural National Endowment for the Humanities climate grants. She is the co-author of Conservation Imperatives published last year in Frontiers. Her painting is observational and done outdoors. Haley advocates for environmental justice for all life, and was mentored by Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, Chandra Pai and the South African artists rosenclaire.
Keynote Address:
Thursday Keynote Speaker Lineup
March 27th | 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Panel Presentations:
Re-Igniting a Sacred Relationship to Nature: An Emergent Conversation
March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm
Baratunde Thurston
Executive Producer
America Outdoors
Baratunde Thurston, a writer, communicator and Emmy-nominated host and Executive Producer of the PBS TV series America Outdoors, and creator and host of the How To Citizen podcast, is also a founding partner and writer at Puck. His newest creation is Life With Machines, a YouTube podcast focusing on the human side of the A.I. revolution. Author of the bestselling comedic memoir, How To Be Black, Baratunde also serves on the boards of Civics Unplugged and the Brooklyn Public Library and lives in Southern California. (baratunde.com)
Keynote Address:
Thursday Keynote Speaker Lineup
March 27th | 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Panel Presentations:
Indigenous Forum – How Indigenous Roots of American Democracy Can Regenerate the Practice of Self-Governance
March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm
Keynote Speakers - Friday, March 28th
Wade Crowfoot
Natural Resources Secretary
State of California
Wade Crowfoot, on the frontlines of environmental leadership throughout his long career in the public and non-profit sectors, California’s Natural Resources Secretary since 2019, leads efforts to conserve California’s environment and natural resources, overseeing an agency of 25,000+ employees spread across 26 departments, commissions, and conservancies charged with stewarding the state's forests, natural lands, rivers, water supplies, coasts, wildlife and biodiversity, as well as helping oversee its world-leading clean energy transition, including a commitment to conserve 30% of its land and coastal waters by 2030. Secretary Crowfoot has led efforts to navigate California’s record-breaking droughts, floods, and wildfires and has initiated a new era of partnerships with the state's Native American tribes.
Keynote Address:
Friday Keynote Speaker Lineup
March 28th | 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Joy Harjo
U.S. Poet Laureate
Joy Harjo, the 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate and member of the Muscogee Nation, is the author of ten books of poetry, several plays, children’s books, two memoirs, and seven music albums. Her honors include Yale’s 2023 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry, National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ruth Lily Prize from the Poetry Foundation, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Tulsa Artist Fellowship. She is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and Chair of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, and is the inaugural Artist-in-Residence for the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she lives.
Keynote Address:
Friday Keynote Speaker Lineup
March 28th | 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Panel Presentations:
Indigenous Forum – Art and Healing—A Conversation with Joy Harjo and Cara Romero
March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm
Asa Miller – Youth Keynote
Marine Science Researcher
Asa Miller, 18, a marine science researcher and Greenburgh, NY’s Youth Poet Laureate, is an international leader in marine conservation who combines an acute knowledge of the issues facing marine ecosystems with the sensibility and creativity of a poet. He has conducted coral reef conservation in both his native Cuba and in Israel, each time working with teams whose collaborations transcended conflicts and borders. His documentary short “Coral Reef Restoration” has screened and won awards at 26 international film festivals. He is a winner of the Brower Youth, National Marine Educators Association Youth Leadership in Marine Conservation, and Blue Hatchling Youth awards.
Keynote Address:
Friday Keynote Speaker Lineup
March 28th | 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Doria Robinson
Executive Director
Urban Tilth
Doria Robinson, a 3rd generation resident of Richmond, California, current member of the Richmond City Council (District 3), and one of the most effective, exemplary community organizers in the nation, has been, since 2007, the Executive Director of Urban Tilth, a widely renowned community-based organization dedicated to cultivating a more sustainable, healthy, and just food system. Also co-founder of the Richmond Food Policy Council, former co-chair of the US Food Sovereignty Alliance Western Region, and member of the Climate Justice Alliance, Food Sovereignty Working Group, Doria (a Certified Permaculture Designer, Bay Friendly Gardener, Nutrition Educator and Yoga Instructor) has a strong background in farming, from working on the 350-acre Apostolic Temple of Truth Ranch on weekends in her youth to working on organic farms in Massachusetts while in college, and later at the legendary Veritable Vegetable women-owned organic produce distribution company.
Keynote Address:
Friday Keynote Speaker Lineup
March 28th | 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Panel Presentations:
Environmental Justice at a Difficult Crossroads
March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm
César Rodríguez-Garavito
More Than Human Life (MOTH) Project
Founding Director
César Rodríguez-Garavito, a Professor of Clinical Law, Chair of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, and founding Director of the More Than Human Life (MOTH) Project and the Earth Rights Advocacy Program (all based at NYU School of Law), is a human rights and environmental justice scholar and practitioner whose work and publications focus on climate change, Indigenous peoples’ rights, and the human rights movement. Editor-in-Chief of Open Global Rights, César has been an expert witness of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, an Adjunct Judge of the Constitutional Court of Colombia, a member of the Science Panel for the Amazon, and a lead litigator in climate change, socio-economic and Indigenous rights cases. He has conducted field research and environmental and human rights investigations around the world.
Keynote Address:
Friday Keynote Speaker Lineup
March 28th | 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Panel Presentations:
What if We Understood What Animals are Saying?
March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm
Women’s Earth Alliance
Co-Directors
Women’s Earth Alliance
Women’s Earth Alliance Co-Directors Amira Diamond, Kahea Pacheco, and Melinda Kramer co-lead Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA), a global initiative dedicated to empowering women’s leadership in environmental justice and resilience. Under their guidance, WEA has equipped over 50,000 women with technical, entrepreneurial, and leadership skills, impacting over 24 million people in 31 countries. Their collaborative leadership fosters networks that enhance climate resilience and address critical issues from clean water access to regenerative agriculture.
Keynote Address:
Friday Keynote Speaker Lineup
March 28th | 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Keynote Speakers - Saturday, March 29th
Colette Pichon Battle
Vision & Initiatives Partner
Taproot Earth
Colette Pichon Battle, a generational native of Bayou Liberty, Louisiana, is an award-winning lawyer and prominent climate justice organizer. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when Black and Indigenous communities were largely left out of federal recovery systems, Colette led the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy (GCCLP) to provide relief and legal assistance to Gulf South communities of color. After 17 years at GCCLP’s helm, as frontline communities from the Gulf South to the Global South face ever more devastating storms, droughts, wildfires, heat, and land loss, she co-founded Taproot Earth to create connections and power across issues, movements, and geographies.
Keynote Address:
Saturday Keynote Speaker Lineup
March 29th | 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Panel Presentations:
Biomimicry and Justice
March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm
Going Globalocal: Bioregional Climate Action Strategies
March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm
Stormy Weather: Confronting our Long Emergency
March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm
Thom Hartmann
Author and Talk Show Host
Thom Hartmann, a best-selling author of over 30 books in print and host of the #1 progressive talk show host in America for more than a decade, has co-written and been featured in 6 documentaries with Leonardo DiCaprio about climate change. A former psychotherapist, entrepreneur and refugee worker helping the worldwide Salem group start homes for abandoned and abused children all over the world, Thom and his wife Louise live in Portland, Oregon with a small menagerie of cats, dogs, ducks & geese.
Keynote Address:
Saturday Keynote Speaker Lineup
March 29th | 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Panel Presentations:
Supreme Oligarchy: Deconstructing the Alliance Between the Supreme Court and American Oligarchs
March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm
Ben Jealous
Executive Director
Sierra Club
Ben Jealous, named the seventh Executive Director of the Sierra Club in 2022, has served in roles from organizer to investigative journalist to president of two of the nation’s most influential groups pursuing equity and justice and protecting democracy and the environment. From 2008 to 2013, he led the NAACP as the youngest-ever president and CEO of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization and launched the NAACP’s Climate Justice Program. More recently Ben was President of People for the American Way (PFAW). Ben began his professional trajectory as a reporter and managing editor at the black-owned community newspaper, the Jackson Advocate, exposing “cancer clusters” in Mississippi’s rural communities caused by industrial pollution. He has also been a partner at one of the nation’s premier ESG venture capital firms, has won many awards, served on the boards of the Environmental Defense Fund, the Trust for Public Lands and the Wilderness Society, taught at Princeton (and currently at the University of Pennsylvania), and is a best-selling author, including most recently of: Never Forget Our People Were Always Free: A Parable of American Healing.
Keynote Address:
Saturday Keynote Speaker Lineup
March 29th | 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Panel Presentations:
Stormy Weather: Confronting our Long Emergency
March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm
Environmental Justice at a Difficult Crossroads
March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm
Bill McKibben
Co-Founder
Third Act
Bill McKibben, a contributing writer to The New Yorker and a co-founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice, founded the first global grassroots climate campaign, 350.org, and serves as the Schumann Distinguished Professor in Residence at Middlebury College in Vermont. In 2014 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel,’ in the Swedish Parliament and also won the Gandhi Peace Award as well as receiving honorary degrees from 19 colleges and universities. He has written 12+ books about the environment, including his first, one of the most prescient and important books of the last 100 years, 1989’s The End of Nature. His latest book is: The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at his Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened.
Keynote Address:
Saturday Keynote Speaker Lineup
March 29th | 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Panel Presentations:
Stormy Weather: Confronting our Long Emergency
March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm
