Drummer and Water Conservation Administrator

Deb Lane has been playing the drums for most of her life. Formerly a member of the Santa Cruz World Beat Band, Pele Juju, she performs with artists throughout the Bay Area and beyond. In addition to her musical endeavors, Deb is a leader in water-use efficiency and works as a Water Conservation Administrator.

Percussionist, Educator and Facilitator

Afia Walking Tree, M.Ed., a Jamaican-born feminist percussionist, educator, and facilitator working at the “crossroads of rhythm, land, and liberation,” is an adjunct professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), an Artist-in-Residence with the African American Policy Forum, and One Billion Rising/V-Day’s Jamaica Coordinator. Afia has returned to Jamaica to steward a 25-acre regenerative land-based sanctuary and learning hub (Solidarity Yaad), where she curates nature-immersed healing journeys and eco-experiences rooted in ancestral wisdom, agroforestry, food security, and community care, prioritizing BIPOC women, and gender-expansive, queer, and trans-masculine people.

Tribal Chair | Confederated Villages of Lisjan Nation

Corrina Gould, born and raised in the village of Huichin (now known as Oakland CA), is the Tribal Chair for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan Nation and co-founded and is the Lead Organizer for Indian People Organizing for Change, a small Native-run organization; as well as of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, an urban Indigenous women-led organization within her ancestral territory. Through the practices of “rematriation,” cultural revitalization and land restoration, the Land Trust calls on Native and non-Native peoples to heal and transform legacies of colonization and genocide and to do the work our ancestors and future generations are calling us to do.

Project Lead | Mother Tree Project and Program

Suzanne Simard, Ph.D., is a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia and leads the Mother Tree Project and Program. Her research—showing that forests are cooperative, connected networks—has revolutionized forest ecology. Her TED Talk has reached millions, and her bestselling book Finding the Mother Tree continues to capture global interest. Named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2024, she champions regenerative forestry rooted in Indigenous knowledge.

Bestselling Author and NY Times Magazine Writer

Ferris Jabr, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, is the author of the bestselling Becoming Earth, which reviewers have described as an “infectiously poetic” “masterwork” that “earns its place alongside the best of today’s essential popular science books.” Ferris has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and Scientific American and has received fellowships and grants from Yale, MIT, UC Berkeley, the Pulitzer Center, and the Whiting Foundation. His work has been anthologized in four editions of The Best American Science and Nature Writing series.

Executive Director | Bioneers

Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), Executive Director and Program Director of the Bioneers Indigeneity 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.

Renowned First-Nations Actor and Musician

Gary Farmer, an actor and musician born on Six Nations land along the Grand River, Ohsweken, Ontario, is widely recognized as a groundbreaking figure in the development of Indigenous media in Canada. The founding Director of Aboriginal Voices Radio Network, he was also the Publisher of Aboriginal Voices Magazine from 1993 to 2003. As an actor Gary has been nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards for Best Supporting Male Actor in: Powwow Highway, Dead Man, and Smoke Signals, and, most recently, he is a regular on two popular television series—Resident Alien and Reservation Dogs.

Musician and Composer

Garth Stevenson, a highly accomplished double bassist and composer especially known for creating music in direct communion with the natural world, traveled to Antarctica with the legendary biologist Dr. Roger Payne in 2010 to study whale communication and was able to imitate those calls on his double bass, attracting a dozen sei whales to their icebreaker. He has continued that work, most recently during a 2025 trip to Baja, Mexico to play for humpback whales, an extraordinary episode that was captured on film by National Geographic director Andy Mann.

Bio coming soon.

Director | Othering and Belonging Institute

john a. powell, Director of the Othering and Belonging Institute and Professor of Law, African American, and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, was previously Executive Director at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, and prior to that, founder/Director of the Institute for Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota. john, who serves on the boards of several national and international organizations, formerly served as the National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU); co-founded the Poverty & Race Research Action Council and has taught at numerous law schools including Harvard and Columbia. His latest books are Belonging Without Othering, How We Save Ourselves and the World and The Power of Bridging, How to Build a World where we all Belong.

Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy | Georgetown University

Michele Bratcher Goodwin, an acclaimed bioethicist, constitutional law scholar, and prolific author, is credited with helping to establish and shape the field of health law. Currently the Linda D. & Timothy J. O’Neill Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy and the Co-Faculty Director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown, Goodwin’s previous positions include: Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and founding Director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy as well as teaching at Harvard’s Law and Medical schools. Dr. Goodwin, who directed the first ABA accredited health law program in the nation and established the first law center focused on race and bioethics, has won slews of prestigious awards for her scholarship, and her writing has appeared in many of the country’s leading academic law reviews. She is the author/editor of six books, including: Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood.

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.

Award-Winning Author and Naturalist

Terry Tempest Williams, a writer, educator, and environmental activist known for her lyrical and impassioned prose, is the author of over twenty creative nonfiction books including the environmental literature classic, Refuge – An Unnatural History of Family and Place, and: The Open Space of Democracy, Finding Beauty in a Broken World, When Women Were Birds, and Erosion – Essays of Undoing. Her most recent book is the The Glorians – Visitations from the Holy Ordinary (spring ’26). A Recipient of Guggenheim and Lannan literary fellowships, Ms. Williams’ work has appeared widely, including in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Progressive, and Orion, and has been translated worldwide. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she is currently Writer-in-Residence at the Harvard Divinity School.

Researcher, Writer and Workshop Leader

Shilpa Jain, a researcher, writer and workshop leader on topics including globalization, creativity, ecology, democratic living and innovative learning, has facilitated dozens of transformative leadership gatherings around the world and worked with hundreds of young leaders from 50+ countries. Her past positions include: Executive Director of YES! (for 11 years); Education and Outreach Coordinator of Other Worlds; and learning activist with Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development in Udaipur, India.

Bio coming soon.

Director | GRID Alternatives

Marisa Villarreal, Director at GRID Alternatives (a national renewable energy nonprofit), has 15 years’ experience in developing intersectional climate and social justice programs in a wide range of contexts, as well as in seeking to create restorative spaces for transformation, healing, dreaming, and play.

Faculty Member and Clinician | University of Florida

Dr. Cindy Nelly, DNP, APRN, CNM, is a faculty member and clinician at the University of Florida and a global health consultant with 25+ years’ experience delivering care and building health systems in austere environments affected by conflict, natural disasters, and large-scale displacement. Her work spans over 15 countries and focuses on emergency clinical care, workforce training, and operational leadership. Most recently, she has supported frontline health services in Gaza, strengthening emergency, maternal, and women’s health capacity while partnering with local and international teams to sustain care under extreme constraints.

Founder and Executive Director | Breast Friends Lactation and Support Services

Brandi Gates-Burgess, IBCLC, the founder and Executive Director of Breast Friends Lactation Support Services, a nonprofit that provides clinical lactation care, peer counseling, support groups, and community-based education to Black families across the Bay Area, also works as a hospital-based lactation consultant at Highland Hospital in Oakland. In addition to her clinical work, Brandi serves as the Community Engagement Specialist for the UCSF MILK Research Lab, where she co-developed the NICU Toolkit for Black Families, Hospitals, and Birth Centers. She is also deeply involved in community research and advocacy, serving on the Community Advisory Boards for the UCSF Preterm Birth Initiative and the Perinatal Equity Initiative and also co-chairs the Breastfeeding Cultural Outreach Taskforce (BCOT), whose mission is to revive the art and tradition of breastfeeding in the Black community.

Communications Strategist

Tiffany McElroy, a two-time Emmy Award-winning television journalist and news anchor with experience covering major political and cultural stories at the local and national levels, received an Emmy Award in 2009 for an hour-long news special, The Legacy of Martin Luther King: Forty Years After Memphis. A UCLA graduate, McElroy began her broadcasting career in California before anchoring and reporting in Philadelphia and New York City. She now serves as a part-time instructor of Communications and Media Technology and works as a communications strategist in the Bay Area.

Emergency Room and Pediatric RN

Sandra Adler Killen, an Emergency Room and Pediatric RN and Internationally Board-Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), has, since 2009, dedicated her career to supporting underserved communities in the U.S. and internationally, with projects spanning Mexico, Syria, and Lebanon. In 2024, she deployed to Gaza as a trauma RN, providing frontline care for mass casualties with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and recently completed her third deployment with GINA—the Gaza Infant Nutritional Alliance—where she focused on pediatric care, lactation support, and capacity-building initiatives. Sandra is also part of an international telehealth lactation consultant team offering remote care and guidance to thousands of mothers and babies in Gaza.

Managing Director | Biomimicry for Social Innovation

Gina LaMotte, Managing Director of Biomimicry for Social Innovation, has 25 years’ experience working in biomimicry, systems-change, social innovation, design thinking, and climate justice. In 2008, she founded EcoRise, a nonprofit supporting thousands of K-12 schools nationwide with programs centering youth leadership to advance climate action, sustainability and environmental justice. She also created Gen:Thrive, which provides network mapping and data visualization tools to advance health, equity, and climate resilience in K-12 schools.

Science Advisor | Biomimicry for Social Innovation

Deborah (Deb) Bidwell is a Senior Biology Instructor at College of Charleston, a science advisor at Biomimicry for Social Innovation, and a freelance consultant at Chickadee Biomimicry. A Certified Biomimicry Professional, Deb specializes in translating biology for regenerative design, biomimicry pedagogy, and curriculum development. Her recent projects include: The Nature of Trust, Nature Positive Practices, Beloved Economies, and Biomimicry on The Ray.

Engagement & Learning Lead | Biomimicry for Social Innovation

Bio coming soon.

Deputy Director | City of Albuquerque’s Department of Arts and Culture

Elsa Menendez is the Deputy Director of the City of Albuquerque’s Department of Arts and Culture and a core trainer with Sonderworx/DAC for the Albuquerque Community Safety Department, where she trains behavioral health first responders in conflict management, communication, and inclusive leadership practices. With 40+ years in international theatre, Elsa has worked as a writer, director, producer and performer, including as Artistic Director of Tricklock Company and Producer of the Revolutions International Theatre Festival. A certified life coach, she co-founded Women Leading Change and serves on the board of Biomimicry for Social Innovation. Elsa previously worked for U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich and the National Hispanic Cultural Center. She is currently studying Polyvagal Theory and is a core member of the Eco-Performance Institute, exploring the intersections of art, ecology, and embodied learning.

Executive Director | Amazon Watch

Leila Salazar-López has worked for 25+ years to defend the world’s rainforests, human rights and climate through grassroots organizing and international advocacy campaigns. She has been the Executive Director of Amazon Watch since 2015, leading that organization’s work to protect and defend the bio-cultural and climate integrity of the Amazon rainforest in solidarity with Indigenous and forest peoples.

Co-Executive Director | Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN)

Michelle Chan is the Co- Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), a California-based environmental justice organization that builds the power of Asian immigrant and refugee communities and advances climate resilience, affordable housing and a just transition off fossil fuels. Prior to joining APEN, Michelle was the VP of Programs for Friends of the Earth (FOE) US, where she provided strategic leadership for campaigns on climate, energy, oceans, food and economic justice. Previously, she led FOE’s Economic Policy team, and campaigned to hold Wall Street accountable for its environmental impacts.

CA Policy Consultant

Katie Valenzuela, a policy consultant based in Sacramento, CA, has empowered communities, organizations, and coalitions to engage in state and local policy for 25+ years. She has built legislative campaigns for education justice, civil rights, food access, public safety, public health, housing access, and environmental justice. Katie’s experience includes serving as a member of the Sacramento City Council from December 2020 to 2024, as Policy and Political Director for the California Environmental Justice Alliance, as Principal Consultant for the California Legislature’s Joint Legislative Committee on Climate Change Policies, and as a founding board member of the Sacramento Community Land Trust. She has shared her expertise as an invited speaker and training session leader at major venues across the country.

Senator | State of California

Senator Josh Becker, JD/MBA, a public policy innovator working at the nexus of community activism, technology and social justice, was elected to the California State Senate in 2020, representing the 13^th District, which comprises most of San Mateo County and northern Santa Clara County. Among his many accomplishments, Josh worked with refugees in war-torn Central America in the 90s; later created Full Circle, a community leadership and policy innovation organization; served 7 years on the California State Workforce Development Board; was a founding trustee at UC Merced; co-founded New Cycle Capital, a pioneer in building socially responsible businesses; founded a legal tech accelerator to support innovative entrepreneurs in the public policy realm; and, while still a student, co-founded the Stanford Board Fellows program, which trains students to serve on the boards of local nonprofits. (sd13.senate.ca.gov)

Managing Director | Nutrient Density Initiative

Mary Purdy, MS, RDN, an integrative eco-dietitian, working at the intersection of sustainable food systems and climate and human health, spent 13+ years in clinical practice, taught for 8 years at Bastyr University in Seattle, and is currently Managing Director of the Nutrient Density Initiative that works to connect the dots between soil health and nutrient-rich food. Also on the adjunct faculty at The Culinary Institute of America's Master’s Program in Sustainable Food Systems, she speaks widely on nutrition, sustainability and regenerative agriculture. With 130+ podcast episodes and two books under her belt, Mary is a leading voice on how to foster resilient, just, and healthy food systems.

Restorative Food Systems Director | Bioneers

Arty Mangan, Director of the Bioneers Restorative Food Systems program, worked as farm worker and local food entrepreneur. He has also worked with Indigenous farmers growing traditional crops and with Black farmers developing ecological agricultural trainings. His current focus is on the intersection of climate and regenerative agriculture. Mangan is a former board president of the Ecological Farming Association.

Executive Director | Bionutrient Food Association

Bio coming soon.

Renowned First-Nations Actor and Musician

Gary Farmer, an actor and musician born on Six Nations land along the Grand River, Ohsweken, Ontario, is widely recognized as a groundbreaking figure in the development of Indigenous media in Canada. The founding Director of Aboriginal Voices Radio Network, he was also the Publisher of Aboriginal Voices Magazine from 1993 to 2003. As an actor Gary has been nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards for Best Supporting Male Actor in: Powwow Highway, Dead Man, and Smoke Signals, and, most recently, he is a regular on two popular television series—Resident Alien and Reservation Dogs.

Filmmaker and Author | Sugarcane

Julian Brave NoiseCat (member, Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen, and descendant, Lil'Wat Nation of Mount Currie), formerly a political strategist, policy analyst and cultural organizer who played a major role, in, among other achievements, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Alcatraz Occupation and getting Deb Haaland appointed Interior Secretary (the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history), is a writer, journalist, and the first Indigenous North American filmmaker ever nominated for an Academy Award (for his co-direction of Sugarcane). NoiseCat’s journalism has appeared in dozens of leading national publications and has been recognized with many awards. His first book, We Survived the Night, was a national bestseller in Canada and an indie bestseller in the U.S., and Julian is also a champion powwow dancer who played hockey for three of the oldest teams in the game: Columbia University, the Oxford University Blues and the Alkali Lake Braves.

Award-Winning Artist

Natalie Ball, MFA, an elected member of the Klamath Tribes Tribal Council, is an artist whose work has been shown nationally and internationally. She has won many prestigious awards for her art, including fellowships from Native Arts and Cultures and the Hallie Ford Foundation, as well as grants and/or awards from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the Seattle Art Museum, to mention only a few.

Executive Director | Bioneers

Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), Executive Director and Program Director of the Bioneers Indigeneity 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.

Interfaith Minister, Educator, Activist and Author

Liza J. Rankow, Ph.D., an interfaith minister, educator, activist, and author whose lifework centers the deep healing that is essential to personal and social transformation, has been a spiritual counselor and teacher for more than three decades, working with individual clients, facilitating healing retreats, and offering classes and workshops in a variety of community and academic settings. Her new book is Soul Medicine for a Fractured World: Healing, Justice, and the Path of Wholeness.

Justice, Equality and Public Health Activist

Reena Szczepanski has spent her career working for justice, equality, and public health, starting in her teenage years doing work/study as a caregiver for babies affected by HIV/AIDS and eventually managing the New Mexico Department of Health’s Hepatitis Program. She later became Executive Director of Emerge New Mexico, a statewide organization dedicated to training women to run for office and led the Drug Policy Alliance New Mexico to many legislative victories, including the state’s medical cannabis law, substance abuse treatment, and criminal justice reform. Reena then served as the Chief of Staff to Speaker Brian Egolf, and in 2022 was herself elected to the New Mexico House of Representatives and was elected House Majority Leader by her colleagues. She is the first Asian American elected to legislative leadership in the history of New Mexico.

Co-Director | New Public

Deepti Doshi, Co-Director of New Public, a non-profit R&D lab focused on creating healthy, prosocial digital spaces, has been working at the intersection of social change, social media, and leadership development across the private, non-profit and public sectors for 20+ years. As a Director at Meta, Deepti helped establish the New Product Experimentation team and created the Community Partnerships team to build products, programs, and partnerships that support community leaders. Deepti also founded: Haiyya, India’s largest community organizing platform; Escuela Nueva India, an education company that serves the urban poor; and The Fellows Program at the Acumen Fund to build leaders for the social enterprise sector. She holds degrees from Harvard Kennedy School and the Wharton Business School.

Councilmember | Oakland City Council

Bio coming soon.

Principal | JG Insights

Jiggy Geronimo, Ph.D., a former neuroscientist and biology professor turned social justice advocate, brings her research expertise and understanding of the mind to her work on political narratives. She is the founder and Principal of JG Insights LLC, an innovative progressive consulting firm designed for the modern media environment that specializes in fostering transformational coalitions and effective campaign strategies. Previously the founding Executive Director of the Research Collaborative where she helped coordinate the national #CountEveryVote campaign to protect the 2020 election, she also ran policy campaigns for democracy in over 10 states working with Voting Rights Lab and Indivisible.

Award-Winning Author and Naturalist

Terry Tempest Williams, a writer, educator, and environmental activist known for her lyrical and impassioned prose, is the author of over twenty creative nonfiction books including the environmental literature classic, Refuge – An Unnatural History of Family and Place, and: The Open Space of Democracy, Finding Beauty in a Broken World, When Women Were Birds, and Erosion – Essays of Undoing. Her most recent book is the The Glorians – Visitations from the Holy Ordinary (spring ’26). A Recipient of Guggenheim and Lannan literary fellowships, Ms. Williams’ work has appeared widely, including in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Progressive, and Orion, and has been translated worldwide. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she is currently Writer-in-Residence at the Harvard Divinity School.

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.

Senior Program Advisor | Earth Island Institute

Bridget Hughes, a Senior Program Advisor at the Earth Island Institute, has worked for 30+ years in social, environmental, economic and racial justice organizations and public agencies, including working on: mental health, housing, unlearning oppression, women's health/HIV, community/school gardening and labor. She is a deeply experienced facilitator and coach with a long track record in capacity-building and organizational development.

Co-Director of the Food Culture Collective | Earth Island Institute

Jovida Ross, Co-Director of the Food Culture Collective at Earth Island Institute, has 20+ years’ experience working with a wide range of groups to creatively develop proactive, visionary, whole-systems solutions to complex problems. She designs participatory, generative processes and experiential learning to support organizations and teams from small restorative justice circles to large multi-stakeholder strategic initiatives, community organizations and public entities to philanthropic institutions, to meet their goals.  Her history spans efforts to generate community-based solutions to violence, queer liberation, reproductive justice, ecologically-responsive and just economies, and climate resilience.

Buddhist Retreat Teacher | Spirit Rock Meditation Center

Erin Selover, a residential Buddhist retreat teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Northern California, somatic trauma therapist, and Rites of Passage guide currently living at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, is also: co-founder of the Celtic Wheel Sangha; a member of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery’s Buddhist Working Group to Protect Oak Flat; and board member of the cooperative nonprofit, Nourishing Futures.

Community Organizer, Researcher and Mindfulness Teacher

Limei Kat Chen, a Bay-Area-based queer Chinese diasporic community organizer, researcher, and mindfulness teacher who draws from several lineages (including the Plum Village tradition, Tantric Buddhism, Daoism, and Earth-based teachings), is active in the Buddhist Coalition for Oak Flat in solidarity with the Apache groups fighting to protect that sacred site and also organizes in the Bay Area with the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity and 18 Million Rising, working to support survivors of violence and to use art and music as healing medicines.

Lead Pastor | First Mennonite Church of San Francisco

Sheri Hostetler, Lead Pastor at First Mennonite Church of San Francisco since 2000 and one of the founders of what is now called Inclusive Mennonite Pastors, a coalition of pastoral leaders seeking LGBTQ+ justice in the church, is co-founder of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, which calls on Christian and Christian-descended people to address the extinction, enslavement, and extraction done on Indigenous lands. Co-author of So We and Our Children May Live: Following Jesus in Confronting the Climate Crisis (2023) and co-host of the Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Podcast, Sheri is also a spiritual director, a permaculturist descended from long lines of Amish-Mennonite farmers, and a poet whose work has appeared in A Cappella: Mennonite Voices in Poetry and Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems.

Hailed by NPR as one of the "purest contemporary voices," Amikaeyla stands as a transformative force in modern music and healing arts. Her remarkable journey from surviving a hate crime to becoming an International Hero for Peace exemplifies the transformative power of voice that defines her work today. As founder and director of the International Cultural Arts and Healing Sciences Institute, she has pioneered the revolutionary "Music As Medicine" methodology, now embraced by leading institutions including the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, Department of Health & Human Services, and The American Psychological Association.

Community Engagement Program Director | Ecology Center

Pilar Zuñiga, a Climate Equity Consultant with the Ecology Center in Berkeley, has, for the past 2 years worked with the City of Berkeley and the community to establish and expand environmental justice and climate adaptation initiatives. A longtime sustainability practitioner, educator and community organizer, her multi-faceted professional involvements include: youth development, sexual and reproductive health, art, business development, and sustainable floral design via her business, Gorgeous and Green.

Deputy Director for the Planning and Development Department | City of Berkeley

Alene Pearson, an AICP-certified planner with 25+ years’ experience in city planning, project management, and team leadership, currently serves as Deputy Director for the Planning and Development Department at the City of Berkeley, where she oversees departmental operations, supports staff, and manages special projects. Alene has led a wide range of land use, transportation, housing, and environmental planning projects and has contributed to the development of a number of inclusionary housing policies and equity initiatives. She is known for building strong partnerships with colleagues and stakeholders and helping to advance policies and programs that benefit the communities she serves.

Executive Director | Ecology Center

Martin Bourque, the Executive Director of the Ecology Center in Berkeley since 2000, has led that cutting-edge non-profit to become a high-impact engine for change locally, regionally and nationally, helping move progressive agendas in such domains as transparency in plastic recycling, pollution reduction, food and farming, access and equity, consumerism, and zero waste.

Founder | Center for Food, Faith & Justice

Reverend Dr. Michael A. Smith, a nonprofit professional with nearly 30 years of executive leadership experience, has, since 2005, served as Pastor of McGee Avenue Baptist Church in Berkeley, CA, where he founded the Center for Food, Faith & Justice in 2015 as a nonprofit community-based organization in response to the local needs of food sovereignty, healthy equity, violence prevention, affordable housing, workforce development and community food security through urban agriculture. Pastor Michael, as he is affectionately called, has also served as Affiliate Professor of Ecojustice and Creation Care at the Berkeley School of Theology.

Executive Director | Healthy Black Families

Wilhelmenia “Mina” Wilson is Executive Director at Healthy Black Families, Inc., a Berkeley-based public-health non-profit that organizes individuals, families, and the institutions that serve them into collaborative communities empowered with skills to advance social equity and justice, with a focus on Black people, families and communities. Mina’s ancestry connects her to Somerset Place, a North Carolina plantation where five generations of her forebears were exploited as enslaved people, an ancestral connection that informs her work in the world.

Founder and Executive Director | Regenerative Earth

Jennifer Menke, founder and Executive Director of Regenerative Earth and co-founder of Sacred Contract, is: a lecturer for the University of Colorado's Masters of Environment program; guest lecturer at the University of International Cooperation (UCI); and a facilitator for the Bio-leadership Fellowship. She has throughout her career used systems-mapping, facilitation, and strategic design to help local communities, Indigenous tribes, governments, foundations, businesses, and organizations develop and implement collaborative strategies to meet conservation targets, give rights to nature, enhance community wellbeing, and stimulate regenerative economies.

Co-Founder | Center for Ethical Land Transition

Cassandra Ferrera, a co-founder (in 2021) of the non-profit Center for Ethical Land Transition dedicated to the “land justice” movement, i.e., the process of achieving repair, healing and justice rooted in sacred relationship with land, previously had 22 years’ experience as a real estate agent and consultant supporting groups in cooperative stewardship and land decommodification. She is a resident of the Landwell Community in Northern California.

Operations and Reunion Program Co-Director | Center for Ethical Land Transition

Abi Huff is the Operations and Reunion Program Co-Director at the Center for Ethical Land Transition whose purpose is to support Black, Indigenous, and diasporic communities with pro-bono, solidarity-based land transition facilitation.

Senior Legal Counsel | Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights

Thomas Linzey, Senior Legal Counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, widely recognized as the founder of the contemporary community rights movement, drafted the very first “rights of nature” law in the world (in Pennsylvania in 2006), and consulted on the very first rights of nature constitutional provisions (in Ecuador). Linzey co-founded the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, sits on the Board of Advisors of the New Earth Foundation and is the author of several books, including: Be The Change: How to Get What You Want in Your Community and On Community Civil Disobedience in the Name of Sustainability. Linzey’s work has been featured widely, including in leading publications including the NY Times, Mother Jones and the Nation magazine.

Founder | Mosaiceye Collective

Chetna Mehta, a granddaughter of Indian and South African diasporas, is a multidisciplinary artist, facilitator, and “creativity doula” who seeks to weave somatic healing, decolonial/ecological frameworks, and expressive arts into a liberatory practice. The founder of Mosaiceye Collective, which provides resources, programs and spaces where women and non-binary changemakers can play, transform, and engage in expansive collaboration, Chetna is the author and illustrator of the Cultivating Compassion in Times of Fascism Coloring Book.

Founder and Editor | The Lever

David Sirota, an award-winning journalist and bestselling author of four books who served as Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign speechwriter in 2020, is founder and Editor of The Lever, a reader-supported investigative news outlet, and host of the weekly podcast Lever Time and the audio series Master Plan, whose first season won the 2025 National Press Club and the Signal awards. He also created Audible’s financial crisis podcast series Meltdown, named one of the best podcasts of the year by The Atlantic. Sirota also co-won the Writers Guild of America’s 2022 award for best original screenplay (with Adam McKay).

Host | KALW’s Your Call

Bio coming soon.

Indigenous Rights Advocate

Juliette A. Jackson, J.D, LL.M, an enrolled member of The Klamath Tribes, is an Indigenous rights advocate specialized in energy and environmental law who works at Henkels Law, LLC in Portland, Oregon and also serves as Executive Director of Maqlaqs Gaa’tkni, a native-led nonprofit based in Chiloquin, Oregon. Jackson is also part of the Protecting Mother Earth (PME) Collective, a joint partnership between the Indigenous Environmental Network and Earth Law Center. Her law review article Stop Killing the Klamath: Rights of Nature Protections with Tribal Law, the National Historic Preservation Act, and Collaborative Management Strategies for a Tribe on the Front Lines of Climate Change, has attracted substantial attention in the field of tribal environmental justice.

Bio coming soon.

| Klamath Tribes Youth Council

Travis Jackson, 14, an enrolled member of the Klamath Tribes who currently serves on the Klamath Tribes Youth Council, trained for the past year to participate as a paddler representing his people in an historic, month-long 300+ mile journey down most of the newly (mostly) undammed Klamath River. He is deeply committed to advocating for water rights, river restoration and the undamming of the remainder of the Klamath river watershed. Outside of his advocacy, he is a multi-sport athlete and enjoys connecting with elders to be immersed in traditional teachings.

Youth Council Secretary | Klamath Tribes

Melia McNair, 15, of Klamath, Modoc, and Filipino ancestry, a sophomore in the Dual Language Immersion program at Rex Putnam High School in Milwaukie, OR, is currently the Klamath Tribes Youth Council Secretary and a passionate advocate for free-flowing rivers, environmental justice and human rights. An experienced paddler, she participated in the historic first kayaking descent of the almost undammed Klamath River in the summer of 2025. Melia also enjoys dancing and singing at powwows and has been practicing taekwondo since she was five years old and is currently an instructor.

Social-Media Director | Klamath Tribes Youth Council

Scarlett Schroeder, 14, an enrolled member of the Klamath Tribes, currently serves as the Social-Media Director for the Klamath Tribes Youth Council and proudly represents her community as the Klamath Tribes “Restoration Queen.” Scarlett has been involved with the Paddle Tribal Waters program since 2024, as part of cohort 3, where she developed a strong passion for protecting and restoring the environment. Last summer she participated in the historic first kayaking descent of the (almost) undammed Klamath River. Scarlett is deeply committed to advocating for water rights, river restoration, and the undamming of the two dams left on the Klamath River.

Youth Paddler

Bio coming soon.

Professor of Transformative Studies | California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS)

Jeanine M. Canty, Ph.D., Professor of Transformative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) whose teaching intersects issues of social and ecological justice, ecopsychology, and the process of worldview expansion and change, is author of: Returning the Self to Nature: Undoing Our Collective Narcissism and Healing Our Planet; and editor of and a contributor to the collections: Ecological and Social Healing: Multicultural Women’s Voices and Globalism and Localization: Emergent Approaches to Ecological and Social Crises.

Associate Professor | California Institute of Integral Studies

Sara H. Salazar, Ph.D., Associate Professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, a Xicana scholar and educator whose transdisciplinary work is centered on decolonial theory and praxis, feminist philosophy, and critical pedagogies, conducts research on: Chicana spirituality, art, and activism; radical mothering practices; Indigenous food systems; and Restorative Justice.

Executive Director | Berkeley Food Institute

Jeanne Merrill, M.Sc., Executive Director of the Berkeley Food Institute (an interdisciplinary research, education and policy institute working to advance just and sustainable food systems), has 25+ years’ experience in food systems advocacy, policy analysis and development, and nonprofit leadership. A co-founder and former Policy Director with the California Climate and Agriculture Network (CalCAN), she led policy initiatives that established the state’s Climate Smart Agriculture Programs, resulting in nearly $1 billion invested in financial incentives and technical assistance. Jeanne has also held several state and federal appointments, most recently to the U.S. EPA’s Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Advisory Committee (2023).

Buddhist Retreat Teacher | Spirit Rock Meditation Center

Erin Selover, a residential Buddhist retreat teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Northern California, somatic trauma therapist, and Rites of Passage guide currently living at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, is also: co-founder of the Celtic Wheel Sangha; a member of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery’s Buddhist Working Group to Protect Oak Flat; and board member of the cooperative nonprofit, Nourishing Futures.

Community Organizer, Researcher and Mindfulness Teacher

Limei Kat Chen, a Bay-Area-based queer Chinese diasporic community organizer, researcher, and mindfulness teacher who draws from several lineages (including the Plum Village tradition, Tantric Buddhism, Daoism, and Earth-based teachings), is active in the Buddhist Coalition for Oak Flat in solidarity with the Apache groups fighting to protect that sacred site and also organizes in the Bay Area with the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity and 18 Million Rising, working to support survivors of violence and to use art and music as healing medicines.

Lead Pastor | First Mennonite Church of San Francisco

Sheri Hostetler, Lead Pastor at First Mennonite Church of San Francisco since 2000 and one of the founders of what is now called Inclusive Mennonite Pastors, a coalition of pastoral leaders seeking LGBTQ+ justice in the church, is co-founder of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, which calls on Christian and Christian-descended people to address the extinction, enslavement, and extraction done on Indigenous lands. Co-author of So We and Our Children May Live: Following Jesus in Confronting the Climate Crisis (2023) and co-host of the Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Podcast, Sheri is also a spiritual director, a permaculturist descended from long lines of Amish-Mennonite farmers, and a poet whose work has appeared in A Cappella: Mennonite Voices in Poetry and Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems.

Professor | UC Berkeley

Gül Dölen, Ph.D., is a Professor and the Bob & Renee Parsons Endowed Chair in the Department of Neuroscience, and Department of Psychology, the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at UC Berkeley. Dr Dölen, who has won many prestigious awards for her teaching and research, also maintains an Adjunct Professorship in Neuroscience and Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Director | UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics

Michael Silver is a Professor of Optometry and Vision Science and Neuroscience and the Director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. The research goals of Michael Silver's laboratory are to better understand how the human brain constructs representations of the world around us and how these representations are modified by cognitive processes such as attention, expectation, and learning. His team addresses these questions by applying a combination of behavioral, brain imaging, modeling, and pharmacological techniques.

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.

Associate Professor | University of British Columbia Okanagan

Jeannette Armstrong, (lax̌lax̌tkʷ), Ph.D., of syilx Okanagan ancestry, is a fluent speaker, language teacher and knowledge keeper of Syilx Okanagan; a professor at UBC Okanagan; and Coordinator of that university’s Interior Salishan Languages programs. A recipient of the Eco Trust USA Buffett Award in Indigenous Leadership, Jeannette serves on Canada’s Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge Subcommittee of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada and is a lifetime fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an officer of the Order of Canada.

Bestselling Author and NY Times Magazine Writer

Ferris Jabr, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, is the author of the bestselling Becoming Earth, which reviewers have described as an “infectiously poetic” “masterwork” that “earns its place alongside the best of today’s essential popular science books.” Ferris has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and Scientific American and has received fellowships and grants from Yale, MIT, UC Berkeley, the Pulitzer Center, and the Whiting Foundation. His work has been anthologized in four editions of The Best American Science and Nature Writing series.

Project Lead | Mother Tree Project and Program

Suzanne Simard, Ph.D., is a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia and leads the Mother Tree Project and Program. Her research—showing that forests are cooperative, connected networks—has revolutionized forest ecology. Her TED Talk has reached millions, and her bestselling book Finding the Mother Tree continues to capture global interest. Named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2024, she champions regenerative forestry rooted in Indigenous knowledge.

Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy | Georgetown University

Michele Bratcher Goodwin, an acclaimed bioethicist, constitutional law scholar, and prolific author, is credited with helping to establish and shape the field of health law. Currently the Linda D. & Timothy J. O’Neill Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy and the Co-Faculty Director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown, Goodwin’s previous positions include: Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and founding Director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy as well as teaching at Harvard’s Law and Medical schools. Dr. Goodwin, who directed the first ABA accredited health law program in the nation and established the first law center focused on race and bioethics, has won slews of prestigious awards for her scholarship, and her writing has appeared in many of the country’s leading academic law reviews. She is the author/editor of six books, including: Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood.

Professor of Law and Harry & Lillian Hastings Research Chair | UC College of the Law

Radhika Rao, Professor of Law and Harry & Lillian Hastings Research Chair at UC Law San Francisco, clerked for Justices Harry Blackmun and Thurgood Marshall at the Supreme Court after graduating from Harvard Law School, and has gone on to become a widely published, major legal scholar and thought leader in a number of domains, including constitutional law, abortion, assisted reproduction, and property rights in the human body. She has been a Fulbright Distinguished Professor at the University of Trento in Italy and served on the California Advisory Committee on Human Cloning, and she currently serves on the California Human Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee.

Assistant Professor of Law | UC Irvine School of Law

Ji Seon Song, J.D., LL.M., on the faculty at the UC Irvine School of Law, teaches and writes in areas of criminal and health law, and is a leading scholar on the deployment of policing authority and its effects on racial minorities and other marginalized groups. Her recent work has focused on policing in healthcare sites, the criminalization of pregnancy, and crisis response. Her scholarship draws on years of practice experience, including representing youth and adults as a public defender in California and serving as a Senior Policy Advocate for the National Juvenile Defender Center. Prof. Song works with regional and national networks of scholars and practitioners focused on policing and patient rights and regularly conducts trainings and consults for medical providers on the intersection of medical care and policing.

Executive Director | Amazon Watch

Leila Salazar-López has worked for 25+ years to defend the world’s rainforests, human rights and climate through grassroots organizing and international advocacy campaigns. She has been the Executive Director of Amazon Watch since 2015, leading that organization’s work to protect and defend the bio-cultural and climate integrity of the Amazon rainforest in solidarity with Indigenous and forest peoples.

Researcher, Writer and Workshop Leader

Shilpa Jain, a researcher, writer and workshop leader on topics including globalization, creativity, ecology, democratic living and innovative learning, has facilitated dozens of transformative leadership gatherings around the world and worked with hundreds of young leaders from 50+ countries. Her past positions include: Executive Director of YES! (for 11 years); Education and Outreach Coordinator of Other Worlds; and learning activist with Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development in Udaipur, India.

Percussionist, Educator and Facilitator

Afia Walking Tree, M.Ed., a Jamaican-born feminist percussionist, educator, and facilitator working at the “crossroads of rhythm, land, and liberation,” is an adjunct professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), an Artist-in-Residence with the African American Policy Forum, and One Billion Rising/V-Day’s Jamaica Coordinator. Afia has returned to Jamaica to steward a 25-acre regenerative land-based sanctuary and learning hub (Solidarity Yaad), where she curates nature-immersed healing journeys and eco-experiences rooted in ancestral wisdom, agroforestry, food security, and community care, prioritizing BIPOC women, and gender-expansive, queer, and trans-masculine people.

Drummer and Water Conservation Administrator

Deb Lane has been playing the drums for most of her life. Formerly a member of the Santa Cruz World Beat Band, Pele Juju, she performs with artists throughout the Bay Area and beyond. In addition to her musical endeavors, Deb is a leader in water-use efficiency and works as a Water Conservation Administrator.

CEO and Co-Founder | Bioneers

Kenny Ausubel, CEO and co-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.

Artist, Chef, Publisher and Author

bryant terry, MFA, an artist, chef, publisher, and author whose work has earned him many prestigious honors, including a James Beard Award, an NAACP Image Award, and an Art of Eating Prize, has authored five cookbooks, including Afro-Vegan and Vegetable Kingdom. terry also edited and curated the anthology Black Food and served as the editor of The Best American Food and Travel Writing 2025. He is currently a Fellow at Headlands Center for the Arts.

Farmer, Food Sovereignty Activist and Educator

Leah Penniman, a Black Kreyol farmer, author, mother, and food justice activist who has been tending the soil and organizing for an anti-racist food system for 25 years, currently serves as founding Co-Executive Director of Farm Operations at Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York, a Black & Brown-led project that works toward food and land justice. She is the author of: Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land (2018) and Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists (2023).

Singer and Musical Educator

Destani Wolf, a Berkeley, CA-based singer and musical educator, celebrated by Jazz Times as “one of the West Coast’s most inventive vocalists…and an accomplished improviser,” has gained renowned for her powerful, soulful voice, impeccable control, effortless vocal range, and original, genre-defying songs. Hers has been a remarkable musical trajectory from performing at 15 at the Great American Music Hall to recording on over 40 albums including 3 that were GRAMMY-nominated, to being a lead vocalist of Cirque du Soleil, to currently being a Professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a member of the legendary Bobby McFerrin's MOTION.

Director | Equity Research Institute at USC

Manuel Pastor, Ph.D., a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, currently directs the Equity Research Institute at USC. The inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change at USC, Pastor’s research has generally focused on issues of the economic, environmental and social conditions facing low-income urban communities – and the social movements seeking to change those realities. He has won countless awards for his scholarship and advocacy and is the author or co-author of many books, including: Just Growth; Solidarity Economics; and, most recently (with Chris Benner), Charging Forward: Lithium Valley, Electric Vehicles, and a Just Future.

Co-Founder | United We Dream

Cristina Jiménez Moreta, who came to the U.S. from Ecuador in 1998 and grew up undocumented in Queens, New York, is an award-winning community organizer, bestselling author, and leading social justice activist. Co-founder and former Executive Director of  United We Dream (UWD), the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the country, she has led multiple national and local campaigns for immigrant justice, including playing a leadership role in the campaign to win and implement the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA). A distinguished lecturer at the City University of New York, Jiménez was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and named one of Time 100’s most influential people. She is the author of a bestselling debut memoir Dreaming of Home (2025).

Co-Founder | FireGeneration Collaborative (FireGen)

Kyle Trefny is an organizer, artist, wildland firefighter, and co-founder of FireGeneration Collaborative (FireGen), which started out with a GoFundMe campaign and a petition and became a dynamic, influential youth-led organization that has helped bring about the historic involvement of firefighters and Indigenous fire management practitioners in governance processes and engaged hundreds of young people in fire research. A faculty research assistant at the University of Oregon’s Ecosystem Workforce Program, Kyle is also active in movements for Indigenous sovereignty, queer rights, and climate justice and was a recipient of a 2024 Brower Youth Award.

Executive Director | Bioneers

Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), Executive Director and Program Director of the Bioneers Indigeneity 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.

Filmmaker and Author | Sugarcane

Julian Brave NoiseCat (member, Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen, and descendant, Lil'Wat Nation of Mount Currie), formerly a political strategist, policy analyst and cultural organizer who played a major role, in, among other achievements, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Alcatraz Occupation and getting Deb Haaland appointed Interior Secretary (the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history), is a writer, journalist, and the first Indigenous North American filmmaker ever nominated for an Academy Award (for his co-direction of Sugarcane). NoiseCat’s journalism has appeared in dozens of leading national publications and has been recognized with many awards. His first book, We Survived the Night, was a national bestseller in Canada and an indie bestseller in the U.S., and Julian is also a champion powwow dancer who played hockey for three of the oldest teams in the game: Columbia University, the Oxford University Blues and the Alkali Lake Braves.

Professor of Law | Fordham Law School

Zephyr Teachout, Professor of Law at Fordham Law School, is a renowned and influential expert on the intersection of corporate and political power. She is the author of Corruption in America, which traces the history of what corruption has meant at different times in our history and, most recently of: Break 'em Up, which makes a case for reimagining the relationship between democracy and antimonopoly law. Zephyr also ran for Governor and Attorney General of New York State, getting the New York Times endorsement in the latter race, and is a leading figure in national antimonopoly and democracy defense movements.

Technology Journalist and Science Fiction Author

Cory Doctorow, a renowned, award-winning science fiction author, activist, and journalist, is the author of dozens of books, most recently, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, (nonfiction); and the novels Picks and Shovels and The Bezzle. His other notable books include the “solar-punk” novels Walkaway and The Lost Cause, and the tech policy books The Internet Con and Chokepoint Capitalism. Cory also: maintains a daily blog at Pluralistic.net; works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and is: an AD White Professor at Cornell University; an MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate; a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at Open University; a Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of North Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science; and a co-founder of the UK Open Rights Group.

Percussionist, Educator and Facilitator

Afia Walking Tree, M.Ed., a Jamaican-born feminist percussionist, educator, and facilitator working at the “crossroads of rhythm, land, and liberation,” is an adjunct professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), an Artist-in-Residence with the African American Policy Forum, and One Billion Rising/V-Day’s Jamaica Coordinator. Afia has returned to Jamaica to steward a 25-acre regenerative land-based sanctuary and learning hub (Solidarity Yaad), where she curates nature-immersed healing journeys and eco-experiences rooted in ancestral wisdom, agroforestry, food security, and community care, prioritizing BIPOC women, and gender-expansive, queer, and trans-masculine people.

Drummer and Water Conservation Administrator

Deb Lane has been playing the drums for most of her life. Formerly a member of the Santa Cruz World Beat Band, Pele Juju, she performs with artists throughout the Bay Area and beyond. In addition to her musical endeavors, Deb is a leader in water-use efficiency and works as a Water Conservation Administrator.

Researcher, Writer and Workshop Leader

Shilpa Jain, a researcher, writer and workshop leader on topics including globalization, creativity, ecology, democratic living and innovative learning, has facilitated dozens of transformative leadership gatherings around the world and worked with hundreds of young leaders from 50+ countries. Her past positions include: Executive Director of YES! (for 11 years); Education and Outreach Coordinator of Other Worlds; and learning activist with Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development in Udaipur, India.

Bio coming soon.

Director | GRID Alternatives

Marisa Villarreal, Director at GRID Alternatives (a national renewable energy nonprofit), has 15 years’ experience in developing intersectional climate and social justice programs in a wide range of contexts, as well as in seeking to create restorative spaces for transformation, healing, dreaming, and play.

Author, Advocate, Consultant and Educator

Anna Malaika Tubbs, Ph.D., a bestselling author and leading multidisciplinary expert on race, gender, and equity, translates her academic knowledge into clear and engaging stories that have been widely published in major magazines and newspapers. She is the author of: The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of MLK Jr, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation (2021) and Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden From Us (2025). Anna is also a frequent speaker whose TED Talk has been viewed some 2 million times.

Associate Instructor | Dharma College

Carl Pilcher, Ph.D., retired from a decades-long career in space science, holds a B.S. and Ph.D. in Chemistry, the latter from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an M.P.A. in International Relations from Princeton. He was on the astronomy faculty of the University of Hawaii for a dozen years before becoming a NASA administrator for almost 3 decades. His professional arc took him from planetary science to serving as Director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute. Carl also began studying ancient teachings in 2015 with a Hindu teacher and joined the Dharma College community as a student in late 2021. Central to his interests are integrating ancient wisdom, particularly of non-dualism, with a modern scientific world view.

Deputy Director | City of Albuquerque’s Department of Arts and Culture

Elsa Menendez is the Deputy Director of the City of Albuquerque’s Department of Arts and Culture and a core trainer with Sonderworx/DAC for the Albuquerque Community Safety Department, where she trains behavioral health first responders in conflict management, communication, and inclusive leadership practices. With 40+ years in international theatre, Elsa has worked as a writer, director, producer and performer, including as Artistic Director of Tricklock Company and Producer of the Revolutions International Theatre Festival. A certified life coach, she co-founded Women Leading Change and serves on the board of Biomimicry for Social Innovation. Elsa previously worked for U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich and the National Hispanic Cultural Center. She is currently studying Polyvagal Theory and is a core member of the Eco-Performance Institute, exploring the intersections of art, ecology, and embodied learning.

Primatologist, Botanist, Social Anthropologist, and Conservation Activist

Elodie Freymann, Ph.D., a primatologist, botanist, social anthropologist, filmmaker, scientific illustrator, and conservation activist, recently attracted global attention with her groundbreaking research on how wild chimpanzees in Uganda's Budongo Forest self-medicate with medicinal plants and how that use overlaps with local traditional healers’ pharmacopeias. She is now following up that research with the first systematic study of non-human self-medication in the Peruvian Amazon. Much of Elodie’s work blends the worlds of science and art to document how people interact and co-exist with the flora and fauna around them and how anthropogenic disturbances are disrupting these symbiotic relationships. She has received several awards for her work and is a Fellow at both The Explorers Club and The Linnean Society.

Musician and Composer

Garth Stevenson, a highly accomplished double bassist and composer especially known for creating music in direct communion with the natural world, traveled to Antarctica with the legendary biologist Dr. Roger Payne in 2010 to study whale communication and was able to imitate those calls on his double bass, attracting a dozen sei whales to their icebreaker. He has continued that work, most recently during a 2025 trip to Baja, Mexico to play for humpback whales, an extraordinary episode that was captured on film by National Geographic director Andy Mann.

Professor | UC Berkeley

Gül Dölen, Ph.D., is a Professor and the Bob & Renee Parsons Endowed Chair in the Department of Neuroscience, and Department of Psychology, the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at UC Berkeley. Dr Dölen, who has won many prestigious awards for her teaching and research, also maintains an Adjunct Professorship in Neuroscience and Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

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.

Chief Research and Program Officer | Pacific Institute

Heather Cooley, Chief Research and Program Officer at the Pacific Institute, a pioneering, Oakland-based non-profit organization dedicated to creating and advancing solutions to the world’s most pressing water challenges, has led its research and programs since 2004, focusing especially on sustainable water management, water resilience, and the water–energy nexus. Her work bridges science and policy to inform decision-making at local, state, and national levels. Heather, who holds multiple degrees from UC Berkeley, has served in leadership and advisory roles on a number of major state and national water policy bodies.

President and CEO | We the People of Detroit

Monica Lewis-Patrick, President/CEO of We the People of Detroit, is an educator, entrepreneur, scholar, and human rights activist especially renowned for her tireless activism for safe, affordable water. A member of: the National Water Affordability Table, All About Water/Freshwater Future Subcommittee, PolicyLink’s Water Equity and Climate Resilience Caucus (WECR), End Water Poverty, and the Governance Board for Healing Our Waters/Great Lakes Coalition (HOW), Lewis-Patrick also co-chairs the Water Committee on the Michigan Advisory Council on Environmental Justice.

Assistant Professor | Stanford University

Khalid K. Osman, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford, also holds faculty affiliations at the King Center for Global Development and the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. His research focuses on ensuring equity and justice in the provision of infrastructure services, currently focusing on the water sector, including frameworks for equity in the adoption of new water technologies and sanitation justice challenges in rural communities. Khalid has had many collaborations with local community-based organizations and leads Osman Lab, which develops new approaches to equitable and just infrastructure in vulnerable, climate change-challenged communities.

Leading Indigenous Rights Advocate and Attorney

Samantha Skenandore, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation who previously served as a Tribal Attorney for the Ho-Chunk Nation’s Department of Justice and clerked for the United States Department of Justice, Indian Resources Section, is a founding partner of Skenandore Wilson LLP with 20+ years’ multi-jurisdictional legal experience working with tribal governments and enterprises to build governmental and economic infrastructures across Indian Country. She works in a wide range of legal domains, including: tribal and corporate governance, business transactions, economic development, real estate, cultural resources, water rights, labor issues, and representing clients before members of Congress, congressional committees and federal agencies. Samantha has also been integral to the Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program, helping develop a toolkit to help frame legal considerations for tribal nations to consider adoption of “Rights of Nature" laws.

Chief | Rappahannock Tribe

Chief Anne Richardson, Chief of the Rappahannock Tribe since 1998, is a 4th generation chief in her family and the first woman to lead a tribe in Virginia since the 1700s. She has a long legacy of community leadership and service and has been instrumental in building her people’s institutions and infrastructure, including working tirelessly to purchase some of the tribe’s ancestral lands along the river that bears their name, developing a “Master Plan for the Return to the River,” a groundbreaking sovereignty and conservation initiative. Among her many achievements Chief Richardson founded the Indigenous Conservation Council for the Chesapeake Bay and serves or has served on a number of state, regional and federal advisory committees and boards.

Tribal Chairman | Klamath Tribes

William E. Ray, Jr., Tribal Chairman of The Klamath Tribes (Treaty of 1864), had a 42-year-long career in the USDA Forest Service (retiring in 2020), serving in a wide range of positions, including as an: Archaeologist, District Ranger, Forest Manager, Area Manager, EEO Specialist, Tribal Government Relations, and Wildland Firefighter. Ray was also elected by the Elders of the 48 Tribal First Nations of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians to serve as Co-Chair of its Cultural Affairs Committee from 1982 to 1994, and he has served on a number of boards and committees for the state of Oregon. He also founded and directs the non-profit Rainbow Youth Golf Education Program.

Founder and Chair | NAIWA Daughters

Jasmine Smith, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, is the founder and Chair of NAIWA Daughters, a youth-led nonprofit dedicated to empowering Indigenous young women in activism, leadership, and community engagement. Grounded in her cultural heritage and lived experience, Jasmine leads NAIWA Daughters in amplifying Indigenous voices and addressing racial and social injustices. Through her leadership, the organization has reached local, regional, national, and international platforms, advancing conversations around equity, inclusion, and Indigenous representation.

Co-Founder | United We Dream

Cristina Jiménez Moreta, who came to the U.S. from Ecuador in 1998 and grew up undocumented in Queens, New York, is an award-winning community organizer, bestselling author, and leading social justice activist. Co-founder and former Executive Director of  United We Dream (UWD), the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the country, she has led multiple national and local campaigns for immigrant justice, including playing a leadership role in the campaign to win and implement the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA). A distinguished lecturer at the City University of New York, Jiménez was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and named one of Time 100’s most influential people. She is the author of a bestselling debut memoir Dreaming of Home (2025).

Founder and Executive Director | Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA)

Guerline M. Jozef, a globally recognized, award-winning human rights advocate, strategist, and thought leader, is the founder and Executive Director of Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), the only Black-led, women-led, Haitian-American-led organization serving migrants at the U.S.–Mexico border, and co-founder of the Black Immigrants Bail Fund and the Cameroon Advocacy Network. Jozef, whose work has been featured in many leading publications and news outlets, has testified before the UN, the U.S. Congress, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Director | Equity Research Institute at USC

Manuel Pastor, Ph.D., a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, currently directs the Equity Research Institute at USC. The inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change at USC, Pastor’s research has generally focused on issues of the economic, environmental and social conditions facing low-income urban communities – and the social movements seeking to change those realities. He has won countless awards for his scholarship and advocacy and is the author or co-author of many books, including: Just Growth; Solidarity Economics; and, most recently (with Chris Benner), Charging Forward: Lithium Valley, Electric Vehicles, and a Just Future.

Executive Director | Chinese Progressive Association

Shaw San Liu, Executive Director of the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA), is an organizer and movement leader with 20+ years’ experience in labor and community organizing in the Bay Area and California. Previously serving as CPA’s Organizing Director, Shaw San has led campaigns to organize immigrant workers to fight wage theft and win workplace rights, raise and enforce labor standards including San Francisco’s $15 minimum wage, and to grow the democratic participation and power of immigrant working families. She has also helped co-found several multiracial and cross-sectoral partnerships across community, labor, and government, with the goal of building a thriving and inclusive economic future.

Co-Executive Director | SOULL (School of Unusual Life Learning)

Nandita Batheja, a facilitator, somatics practitioner, and multi-disciplinary artist, is Co-Director of the School of Unusual Life Learning and a facilitator of InterPlay, an improvisational creative arts practice designed to unlock the wisdom of the body.

Community Organizer and Singer/Songwriter | Youth in Arts

Austin Willacy, a community organizer, award-winning singer/songwriter and a longtime member of the renowned a cappella group, The House Jacks (https://www.housejacks.com/), seeks to use music to foster peacebuilding and social justice and bridge divides. He has toured globally, released numerous albums, and facilitated workshops internationally, including in Turkey, India, and Israel/Palestine. (austinwillacy.com)

Buddhist Retreat Teacher | Spirit Rock Meditation Center

Erin Selover, a residential Buddhist retreat teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Northern California, somatic trauma therapist, and Rites of Passage guide currently living at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, is also: co-founder of the Celtic Wheel Sangha; a member of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery’s Buddhist Working Group to Protect Oak Flat; and board member of the cooperative nonprofit, Nourishing Futures.

Community Organizer, Researcher and Mindfulness Teacher

Limei Kat Chen, a Bay-Area-based queer Chinese diasporic community organizer, researcher, and mindfulness teacher who draws from several lineages (including the Plum Village tradition, Tantric Buddhism, Daoism, and Earth-based teachings), is active in the Buddhist Coalition for Oak Flat in solidarity with the Apache groups fighting to protect that sacred site and also organizes in the Bay Area with the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity and 18 Million Rising, working to support survivors of violence and to use art and music as healing medicines.

Lead Pastor | First Mennonite Church of San Francisco

Sheri Hostetler, Lead Pastor at First Mennonite Church of San Francisco since 2000 and one of the founders of what is now called Inclusive Mennonite Pastors, a coalition of pastoral leaders seeking LGBTQ+ justice in the church, is co-founder of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, which calls on Christian and Christian-descended people to address the extinction, enslavement, and extraction done on Indigenous lands. Co-author of So We and Our Children May Live: Following Jesus in Confronting the Climate Crisis (2023) and co-host of the Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Podcast, Sheri is also a spiritual director, a permaculturist descended from long lines of Amish-Mennonite farmers, and a poet whose work has appeared in A Cappella: Mennonite Voices in Poetry and Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems.

Founder and CEO | Green Schoolyards America

Sharon Gamson Danks, MLA-MCP, an environmental city planner, social entrepreneur, and author, founded Green Schoolyards America in 2013 and is its CEO. She has been a leading figure in the “green schoolyard” field for 25+ years, helping build a movement to transform school grounds at scale into vibrant, nature-rich public spaces that engage the community and nurture children as they learn and play. Sharon is the author of Asphalt to Ecosystems and also co-founded the International School Grounds Alliance.

Environmental Planner

Rosey A. Jencks, MLA/EP, an environmental planner with over two decades of experience, leads technical teams in developing community-centered programs and plans for stormwater, wastewater, flood resilience, and sea level rise. Rosey, who has helped numerous communities re-envision their future by integrating green and nature-based infrastructure, believes climate resilience requires a “one water” mindset, focusing on land management and balancing green and grey infrastructure.

Urban Forestry Supervisor | CAL FIRE

Julia Gowin, Ph.D., the Northern California Urban Forestry Supervisor for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), co-leads CAL FIRE’s Green Schoolyards Program. Julia is an International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) Certified Arborist, a California Registered Professional Forester, the incoming President for the Western Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA), and a founding member of the California Schoolyard Forest System Initiative.

Founder and Director | The School for The Great Turning

Lydia Violet Harutoonian, an Iranian-Armenian-American facilitator-scholar, grief-worker, and folk music multi-instrumentalist, studied and worked with the renowned deep ecology elder and Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy for 17 years and founded and runs The School for The Great Turning based on Macy’s legacy. In her musical pursuits, Lydia has collaborated with a number of leading socially engaged performers, including Climbing PoeTree, MaMuse, Lyla June, and Rising Appalachia, with whose co-leader, Leah Song, she teaches the course, Singing the Bones, a project that brings artists together to explore and share folk music from their ancestries, encouraging cultural revitalization and diasporic healing.

Medical Director | Integrative Medical Clinic of Santa Rosa

Bob Dozor, M.D., Medical Director of the Integrative Medical Clinic of Santa Rosa and the Nyingma Senior Retreat Center at Ratna Ling, holds a B.A. in the History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Chicago and an M.D. from UC, San Francisco. He has been a student of Buddhism since the 1960s and a dedicated student of Venerable Tarthang Tulku since 1972.

Activist, Academic, Artist, Therapist, Dancer and Teacher

Amber Elizabeth Gray, Ph.D., is a widely traveled, highly experienced human rights psychotherapist, innovative movement artist, board certified dance/movement therapist, master trainer and educator, Continuum teacher, and public health professional with a decades-long track record working on social justice. An innovator in the use of somatic psychology and movement–based therapies with survivors of trauma, torture, war, and human rights abuses in a number of nations, she also draws from eco-psychology, contemplative psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, EMDR, somatic experiencing, and narrative exposure therapy in her clinical work and is the originator of the Poto Mitan Trauma & Resiliency Framework.

Executive Director | Home Planet Fund

Dilafruz Khonikboyeva, of indigenous Pamiri ancestry from Khorog, Tajikistan, is the Inaugural Executive Director of Home Planet Fund. Previously a political appointee in the Biden-Harris Administration who spent five years with the Aga Khan Development Network and eight years responding to conflict and climate crises, she is a transformational conflict expert, focused on civil war, environment and resource conflicts. Dilafruz has also served on the board of her alma mater, the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University and led the Climate Change Working Group for Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS).

Co-Founder | Daughters for Earth

Zainab Salbi, a humanitarian, author, and media host who has dedicated her life to women’s rights and global freedom, is co-founder of Daughters for Earth, a philanthropic fund and a movement focused on supporting, celebrating, and mobilizing women to protect and restore our Earth. At age 23, she founded Women for Women International, which helped more than 460,000 women survivors of war rebuild their lives. Honored with the TIME100 Impact Award, she has been recognized by Oprah Winfrey, People, and Harper’s Bazaar for her groundbreaking leadership on behalf of women worldwide.

Founder and Executive Director | Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network

Osprey Orielle Lake, the founder and Executive Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), works internationally with grassroots, BIPOC and Indigenous leaders, policymakers, and diverse coalitions to build climate justice, resilient communities, and a just transition to a decentralized, democratized clean-energy future. Osprey, who sits on the executive committee for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and on the steering committee for the Fossil Free Non-Proliferation Treaty, is the author of The Story is in Our Bones: How Worldviews and Climate Justice Can Remake a World in Crisis.

Founder and Director | Herring Protectors

Louise Brady (Kh’asheech Tláa), a member of the Sitka Tribe of Alaska, previously served as the tribe’s Director of Social Services and Tribal Court Administrator. She is the founder and Director of the Herring Protectors, a grassroots movement led by Indigenous women that uses the original teachings of the Kiks.ádi women’s ceremony and collective organizing to stand up to legacies of colonization and genocide that have led to the devastation of the yaaw (herring). She also serves on the Advisory Board of Native Movement; has co-produced and directed two award-winning films; and was the recipient of a 2022 – 2023 NDN Changemaker Fellowship.

Co-Founder and Director of Research and Education | Metoac Indigenous Collective

Shane Weeks, a proud member of the Shinnecock Nation, located in Southampton, New York, represents his people in a number of capacities, as an author, traditional singer and dancer, cultural consultant, artist, and member of several local boards and committees. The owner of Ohke Creations, a candle and jewelry business, he is also co-founder and Director of Research and Education at the Metoac Indigenous Collective, an intertribal organization focused on cultural preservation, and was a recipient of a Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023. As an artist, Shane works in many different mediums and collaborates with Indigenous communities from around the world.

Events and Gatherings Producer | Children of the Setting Sun Productions

Raynell Morris, a Lhaq’temish matriarch and enrolled Lummi tribal member, is the Events and Gatherings Producer at Children of the Setting Sun Productions and a board member of the Friends of Toki. A former Vice-President of the Sacred Lands Conservancy and Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs under President Clinton, Raynell was the first Native American staffer appointed to the White House. She also served as Chief of Staff for the Chairman of the Lummi Nation, and, as Director of Lummi Nation’s Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office, she was a key strategist in the successful campaign to block a proposal to build North America’s largest coal port terminal on Lhaq’temish (Lummi) sacred ground.

Co-Director, Indigeneity Program | Bioneers

Alexis Bunten, Ph.D., (Aleut/Yup’ik), Co-Director of 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.

Founder | Kahakulei Institute

Kevin John Fong, founder of the Kahakulei Institute (whose mission is to “weave people and possibilities to cultivate communities of belonging”), is the author of The Five Elements: An East Asian Approach to Achieve Organizational Health, Professional Growth, and Personal Well-Being. He has lectured about and taught the “Five Elements” approach to problem-solving to hundreds of organizations and thousands of people from Silicon Valley to rural Mississippi, from primary schools in New Mexico to the White House.

Founder and CEO | Green Schoolyards America

Sharon Gamson Danks, MLA-MCP, an environmental city planner, social entrepreneur, and author, founded Green Schoolyards America in 2013 and is its CEO. She has been a leading figure in the “green schoolyard” field for 25+ years, helping build a movement to transform school grounds at scale into vibrant, nature-rich public spaces that engage the community and nurture children as they learn and play. Sharon is the author of Asphalt to Ecosystems and also co-founded the International School Grounds Alliance.

Founder | Permaculture Artisans

Erik Ohlsen, a master of regenerative design, internationally-recognized Permaculture teacher, landscape contractor, award-winning author, farmer, herbalist, and practitioner of Nordic folk traditions, has founded numerous organizations that regenerate ecosystems, including his award-winning landscape design and contracting firm, Permaculture Artisans, established in 2006. Erik has committed decades to repairing ecosystems and connecting people with the land throughout the globe, designing and implementing hundreds of regenerated landscapes and farms, growing food and capturing millions of gallons of water per year.

Restorative Food Systems Director | Bioneers

Arty Mangan, Director of the Bioneers Restorative Food Systems program, worked as farm worker and local food entrepreneur. He has also worked with Indigenous farmers growing traditional crops and with Black farmers developing ecological agricultural trainings. His current focus is on the intersection of climate and regenerative agriculture. Mangan is a former board president of the Ecological Farming Association.

Professor of Law | Fordham Law School

Zephyr Teachout, Professor of Law at Fordham Law School, is a renowned and influential expert on the intersection of corporate and political power. She is the author of Corruption in America, which traces the history of what corruption has meant at different times in our history and, most recently of: Break 'em Up, which makes a case for reimagining the relationship between democracy and antimonopoly law. Zephyr also ran for Governor and Attorney General of New York State, getting the New York Times endorsement in the latter race, and is a leading figure in national antimonopoly and democracy defense movements.

Technology Journalist and Science Fiction Author

Cory Doctorow, a renowned, award-winning science fiction author, activist, and journalist, is the author of dozens of books, most recently, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, (nonfiction); and the novels Picks and Shovels and The Bezzle. His other notable books include the “solar-punk” novels Walkaway and The Lost Cause, and the tech policy books The Internet Con and Chokepoint Capitalism. Cory also: maintains a daily blog at Pluralistic.net; works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and is: an AD White Professor at Cornell University; an MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate; a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at Open University; a Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of North Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science; and a co-founder of the UK Open Rights Group.

Executive Director | Science and Environmental Health Network

Carolyn Raffensperger, Executive Director of the Science and Environmental Health Network, which, since 1998 has been the leading proponent in the U.S. of the Precautionary Principle as a basis for environmental and public health policy, was formerly an archeologist but, horrified at the destruction of the lands in which she was working, went to law school and became an activist to protect ecosystems and future generations. A co-convener of the historic 1998 Wingspread Conference on the Precautionary Principle and the Women’s Congresses for Future Generations held in 2012, 2014, and 2026, Carolyn co-edited Precautionary Tools for Reshaping Environmental Policy (2006) and Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing the Precautionary Principle (1999).

Science and Environmental Health Network | Science Director

Ted Schettler MD, MPH, the Science Director of the Science and Environmental Health Network, who has a medical degree from Case Western Reserve University and a master’s degree in public health from Harvard, is the author of: The Ecology of Breast Cancer and the co-author of several books, including: Generations at Risk: Reproductive Health and the Environment; In Harm's Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development, and: Environmental Threats to Health Aging. He has also published many articles in peer-reviewed journals and has served on advisory committees of the U.S. EPA and the National Academy of Sciences.

Senior Scientist | Science and Environmental Health Network

Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., a biologist who researches climate change, ecology, and the links between human health and the environment, serves as a senior scientist and writer-in-residence at the Science and Environmental Health Network and is the author of three acclaimed books on public health, including Living Downstream, which became an award-winning documentary film. She has also been a renowned activist for several decades.

Senior Attorney | Earthjustice

Sharmeen Morrison, J.D., a Senior Attorney with Earthjustice’s Biodiversity Defense Program, which engages in national litigation to confront the major drivers of biodiversity loss, has litigated cases to protect greater sage-grouse from oil and gas drilling in Wyoming, manatees from nutrient pollution in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon, golden-cheeked warblers from urban sprawl in Texas Hill Country, and insect pollinators from pesticide overuse nationwide.

Managing Director, Lands, Nature | NRDC

Bio coming soon.

Buddhist Retreat Teacher | Spirit Rock Meditation Center

Erin Selover, a residential Buddhist retreat teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Northern California, somatic trauma therapist, and Rites of Passage guide currently living at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, is also: co-founder of the Celtic Wheel Sangha; a member of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery’s Buddhist Working Group to Protect Oak Flat; and board member of the cooperative nonprofit, Nourishing Futures.

Community Organizer, Researcher and Mindfulness Teacher

Limei Kat Chen, a Bay-Area-based queer Chinese diasporic community organizer, researcher, and mindfulness teacher who draws from several lineages (including the Plum Village tradition, Tantric Buddhism, Daoism, and Earth-based teachings), is active in the Buddhist Coalition for Oak Flat in solidarity with the Apache groups fighting to protect that sacred site and also organizes in the Bay Area with the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity and 18 Million Rising, working to support survivors of violence and to use art and music as healing medicines.

Lead Pastor | First Mennonite Church of San Francisco

Sheri Hostetler, Lead Pastor at First Mennonite Church of San Francisco since 2000 and one of the founders of what is now called Inclusive Mennonite Pastors, a coalition of pastoral leaders seeking LGBTQ+ justice in the church, is co-founder of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, which calls on Christian and Christian-descended people to address the extinction, enslavement, and extraction done on Indigenous lands. Co-author of So We and Our Children May Live: Following Jesus in Confronting the Climate Crisis (2023) and co-host of the Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Podcast, Sheri is also a spiritual director, a permaculturist descended from long lines of Amish-Mennonite farmers, and a poet whose work has appeared in A Cappella: Mennonite Voices in Poetry and Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems.

Primatologist, Botanist, Social Anthropologist, and Conservation Activist

Elodie Freymann, Ph.D., a primatologist, botanist, social anthropologist, filmmaker, scientific illustrator, and conservation activist, recently attracted global attention with her groundbreaking research on how wild chimpanzees in Uganda's Budongo Forest self-medicate with medicinal plants and how that use overlaps with local traditional healers’ pharmacopeias. She is now following up that research with the first systematic study of non-human self-medication in the Peruvian Amazon. Much of Elodie’s work blends the worlds of science and art to document how people interact and co-exist with the flora and fauna around them and how anthropogenic disturbances are disrupting these symbiotic relationships. She has received several awards for her work and is a Fellow at both The Explorers Club and The Linnean Society.

Farmer, Food Sovereignty Activist and Educator

Leah Penniman, a Black Kreyol farmer, author, mother, and food justice activist who has been tending the soil and organizing for an anti-racist food system for 25 years, currently serves as founding Co-Executive Director of Farm Operations at Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York, a Black & Brown-led project that works toward food and land justice. She is the author of: Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land (2018) and Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists (2023).

Owner | Husch Vineyards

Zac Robinson continues a multi-generation commitment to farming and winemaking at his family's Husch Vineyards in Anderson Valley, now celebrating 50 years of regenerative farming. After selling their “disc” (a type of plow) in 1976, Zac and his family have been doing the "impossible," farming wine grapes without disturbing the soil.

Drummer and Water Conservation Administrator

Deb Lane has been playing the drums for most of her life. Formerly a member of the Santa Cruz World Beat Band, Pele Juju, she performs with artists throughout the Bay Area and beyond. In addition to her musical endeavors, Deb is a leader in water-use efficiency and works as a Water Conservation Administrator.

Percussionist, Educator and Facilitator

Afia Walking Tree, M.Ed., a Jamaican-born feminist percussionist, educator, and facilitator working at the “crossroads of rhythm, land, and liberation,” is an adjunct professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), an Artist-in-Residence with the African American Policy Forum, and One Billion Rising/V-Day’s Jamaica Coordinator. Afia has returned to Jamaica to steward a 25-acre regenerative land-based sanctuary and learning hub (Solidarity Yaad), where she curates nature-immersed healing journeys and eco-experiences rooted in ancestral wisdom, agroforestry, food security, and community care, prioritizing BIPOC women, and gender-expansive, queer, and trans-masculine people.

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.

CEO and Co-Founder | Bioneers

Kenny Ausubel, CEO and co-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.

Inventor and Co-Founder of the Field of Green Chemistry

John Warner, Ph.D., one of the founders of the field of Green Chemistry who co-authored its defining text “Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice” (with Paul Anastas), is a chemistry inventor and entrepreneur who works to create commercial technologies inspired by nature consistent with the principles of green chemistry. He holds over 350 industrial chemistry patents, and his inventions have served as the basis for several new companies in photovoltaics, neurochemistry, construction materials, water harvesting, and cosmetics. John, who has received many prestigious awards from within the chemistry industry, government, academia and civil society organizations, has had a distinguished academic career, including as a tenured full-professor at UMASS Boston and Lowell. In 2007 he co-founded (with Amy Cannon) Beyond Benign, a non-profit dedicated to sustainability and green chemistry education. He holds academic appointments at Monash University in Australia, Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, Somaiya University in India, University of Birmingham in the UK, Rochester Institute of Technology in the US, and Technical University of Berlin in Germany where they have named the “John Warner Center for Start Ups in Green Chemistry.” John also currently serves as CEO and CTO of Technology Greenhouse.

Executive Director | Global Alliance for the Future of Food

Anna Lappé, Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, a strategic alliance of philanthropic foundations working together and with partners globally for food system transformation, has, for 25+ years, been an advocate and funder for justice and sustainability across the food chain. The founder or co-founder of three U.S.-based organizations, including Real Food Media, a communications strategy nonprofit, and the Small Planet Fund, which supports food and farming advocacy movements worldwide, Anna is a national bestselling author who has contributed to more than a dozen books and is the author or co-author of three, including the critically acclaimed Diet for a Hot Planet.

Activist, Journalist, and Filmmaker

Raj Patel, an award-winning author, film-maker and academic, is a Research Professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin who has worked for the World Bank and WTO but also protested against them around the world and testified about the causes of the global food crisis to the US, UK and EU governments. A member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems and of the council of Progressive International, he has written extensively for a range of scholarly journals in economics, philosophy, politics and public health and also contributes frequently to a range of other publications, including The Guardian, Financial Times, New York Times, and Scientific American. He is the author of: Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and The Value of Nothing, and co-author of: A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things and (with Rupa Marya) of: Inflamed: Deep Medicine and The Anatomy of Injustice. His first film, co-directed with Zak Piper, is the award-winning documentary The Ants & The Grasshopper. He also co-hosted the food politics podcast The Secret Ingredient.

The Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company (DAYPC) is a diverse group of teens that collaborates with professional artists to create dynamic, original productions. Combining hip hop, modern and aerial dance, theater, song, and rap, company members take the stage to tell stories that stem from their lived experiences and express their visions for a world transformed. Since 1993, DAYPC has performed original work for up to 25,000 audience members annually, garnering critical acclaim and widespread community support for both their technical prowess and their commitment to advancing inclusivity, equity, and justice.

Founder and Chair | NAIWA Daughters

Jasmine Smith, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, is the founder and Chair of NAIWA Daughters, a youth-led nonprofit dedicated to empowering Indigenous young women in activism, leadership, and community engagement. Grounded in her cultural heritage and lived experience, Jasmine leads NAIWA Daughters in amplifying Indigenous voices and addressing racial and social injustices. Through her leadership, the organization has reached local, regional, national, and international platforms, advancing conversations around equity, inclusion, and Indigenous representation.

Indigeneity Special Programs Coordinator | Bioneers

Britt Gondolfi, JD (Houma Descendant), a community organizer and mother, has worked with the Bioneers Indigeneity Program since 2017 as a facilitator for the Intercultural Conversation Program. She joined the Bioneers Rights of Nature initiative as an intern while in law school and subsequently as a Special Projects Coordinator to bring together tribal organizers, youth, and allies to advocate for the “Rights of Nature” in Indian Country. Britt, who recently ran for State Senate in Louisiana on a women’s rights platform, is the author of the children’s book, “Look Up! Fontaine the Pigeon Starts a Revolution.”

Leading Indigenous Rights Advocate and Attorney

Samantha Skenandore, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation who previously served as a Tribal Attorney for the Ho-Chunk Nation’s Department of Justice and clerked for the United States Department of Justice, Indian Resources Section, is a founding partner of Skenandore Wilson LLP with 20+ years’ multi-jurisdictional legal experience working with tribal governments and enterprises to build governmental and economic infrastructures across Indian Country. She works in a wide range of legal domains, including: tribal and corporate governance, business transactions, economic development, real estate, cultural resources, water rights, labor issues, and representing clients before members of Congress, congressional committees and federal agencies. Samantha has also been integral to the Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program, helping develop a toolkit to help frame legal considerations for tribal nations to consider adoption of “Rights of Nature" laws.

Distinguished Professor of Psychology | UC Berkeley

Dacher Keltner, a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley, is the host of the Science of Happiness Podcast and the author of many articles and books, including: Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life.

Bestselling Author and Journalist

Michael Pollan is a writer, teacher and activist. His most recent book, A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness, was published earlier this year. He is the author of nine previous books, including: This is Your Mind on Plants, How to Change Your Mind, Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire, all bestsellers. Pollan has taught writing at Harvard and UC Berkeley and has been a Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellow. In 2010 Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Researcher, Writer and Workshop Leader

Shilpa Jain, a researcher, writer and workshop leader on topics including globalization, creativity, ecology, democratic living and innovative learning, has facilitated dozens of transformative leadership gatherings around the world and worked with hundreds of young leaders from 50+ countries. Her past positions include: Executive Director of YES! (for 11 years); Education and Outreach Coordinator of Other Worlds; and learning activist with Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development in Udaipur, India.

Bio coming soon.

Director | GRID Alternatives

Marisa Villarreal, Director at GRID Alternatives (a national renewable energy nonprofit), has 15 years’ experience in developing intersectional climate and social justice programs in a wide range of contexts, as well as in seeking to create restorative spaces for transformation, healing, dreaming, and play.

Founding Director | Center for Regenerative Solutions

Brett KenCairn, founding Director of the Center for Regenerative Solutions and Senior Division Manager for Nature-based Climate Solutions for the City of Boulder’s Climate Initiatives Department, has throughout his career supported community-based initiatives across the western U.S., particularly in rural, Native American, and other marginalized communities. He also co-founded several organizations, including: the Rogue River Institute for Ecology and Economy; Indigenous Community Enterprises; Veterans Green Jobs; and Community Energy Systems.

Executive Director | West Blvd Neighborhood Coalition

Elliott J. Royal, Executive Director of Charlotte, North Carolina’s West Blvd Neighborhood Coalition (WBNC), spearheads initiatives aimed at advancing equity, education, and economic mobility along Charlotte’s West Boulevard Corridor. She has long been deeply engaged in her community, working to strengthen resident involvement and build partnerships. Among other projects, Elliott oversees the Seeds for Change farm and its youth honey enterprise, is establishing a Youth Advisory Council, and is leading the launch of Three Sisters Market, a community-owned food cooperative designed to improve food access and health equity for the Black community, which has been without a full-service grocery store for 36+ years.

Youth and Workforce Officer | Groundwork USA

Tanner Yess, a co-founder of Groundwork Ohio River Valley and Groundwork USA’s Youth and Workforce Officer, has led the creation of one of the nation’s largest youth green workforce programs and brought Climate Safe Neighborhoods to Cincinnati. An alumnus of the Peace Corps who worked on a fishing vessel in the Bering Sea after earning a degree in ecology and co-founded Cincinnati’s Tri-State Trails Coalition, he is also a National Park Service “Mountains to Main Street” Ambassador; SHIFT Emerging Leader; and recipient of the 2018 Murie Center Rising Leader Award.

Co-Pastor | First Mennonite Church of San Francisco

Rev. Dr. Patricia Plude, a musician, community organizer, and lifelong educator, (including twelve years as a professor at Santa Clara University), is co-pastor of First Mennonite Church of San Francisco, where for twenty-five years she and her colleagues have sought to model transformative, justice-oriented, feminine leadership. She is the co-author (with Dr. Kinari Webb) of The Art of Radical Listening: Revealing Collective Wisdom for Change.

Founder | Health in Harmony

Kinari Webb, MD., is a leading figure in rainforest conservation and public health who, recognizing the link between human and environmental health, founded the organization, Health in Harmony (HIH), to address rainforest devastation in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Inspired by studying orangutans in 1993, she returned after graduating from Yale School of Medicine and began work in Sukadana, West Kalimantan, Indonesia in 2007 with a focus on listening to rainforest communities’ own proposed solutions. HIH now works in 9.4 million hectares of rainforest in Indonesia, Madagascar, and Brazil. Honored with Ashoka and Rainier Arhnold Fellowships and profiled in numerous media outlets, Webb's work has garnered international recognition. She is the author of: “Guardians of the Trees: A journey of hope through healing the planet” and co-author (with Rev. Patricia Plude) of: “The Art of Radical listening: Revealing collective wisdom for change.”

Activist, Journalist, and Filmmaker

Raj Patel, an award-winning author, film-maker and academic, is a Research Professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin who has worked for the World Bank and WTO but also protested against them around the world and testified about the causes of the global food crisis to the US, UK and EU governments. A member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems and of the council of Progressive International, he has written extensively for a range of scholarly journals in economics, philosophy, politics and public health and also contributes frequently to a range of other publications, including The Guardian, Financial Times, New York Times, and Scientific American. He is the author of: Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and The Value of Nothing, and co-author of: A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things and (with Rupa Marya) of: Inflamed: Deep Medicine and The Anatomy of Injustice. His first film, co-directed with Zak Piper, is the award-winning documentary The Ants & The Grasshopper. He also co-hosted the food politics podcast The Secret Ingredient.

Farmer, Food Sovereignty Activist and Educator

Leah Penniman, a Black Kreyol farmer, author, mother, and food justice activist who has been tending the soil and organizing for an anti-racist food system for 25 years, currently serves as founding Co-Executive Director of Farm Operations at Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York, a Black & Brown-led project that works toward food and land justice. She is the author of: Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land (2018) and Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists (2023).

Founder and Executive Director | Civil Eats

Naomi Starkman, the founder and Executive Director of Civil Eats, the award-winning, nonprofit newsroom focused on the U.S. food system, was the site’s Editor-in-Chief until 2024. A John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. Naomi has worked at Newsweek, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, GQ, WIRED, and Consumer Reports magazines. After graduating from law school, she served as the Deputy Executive Director of the City of San Francisco’s Ethics Commission.

Managing Editor | Canary Media

Wendy Becktold is the Berkeley, CA-based Managing Editor at Canary Media, a national nonprofit news outlet that covers the clean energy transition and solutions to climate change. Before joining Canary Media, Wendy was Story Editor at Sierra magazine.

Director of Analytics and Chief Impact Officer | Industrious Labs

Victoria Chu, an analyst, technologist, and data visualization expert with 13+ years’ experience in climate and electric sector analytics, is the Director of Analytics and Chief Impact Officer at Industrious Labs, responsible for ensuring that the organization delivers measurable impacts in achieving its mission to transform the industrial sector for climate, justice, and jobs. Before joining Industrious Labs, Victoria led the development of data systems and evaluation models for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign.

Executive Director | Spirit Aligned Leadership Program

Tekatsi:tsia’kwa Katsi Cook (Wolf Clan member of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation), an Onkwehonweh traditional midwife, lifelong advocate of Indigenous midwifery and Native women’s health throughout the life-cycle (drawing from the longhouse traditionalist teaching that “woman Is the first environment”), is Executive Director of the Spirit Aligned Leadership Program. Her work over many decades has spanned a range of worlds and disciplines at the intersections of environmental reproductive health and justice, research, and policy. Katsi’s groundbreaking environmental research of Mohawk mother’s milk revealed the intergenerational impact of industrial chemicals on the health of her community, and she is a major figure in a movement of matrilineal awareness and “rematriation” in Native life.

Family Nurse Practitioner

Beverly Kiohawiton Cook who recently concluded her 4th term as an elected Chief on the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Council, is a Family Nurse Practitioner and a prominent voice in the mind-body medicine approach to restoring wellness, reproductive health and environmental justice for Mohawk people. She was previously Clinic Coordinator of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe’s Health Services and also served on the United South and Eastern Tribes (USET) Board of Directors and on the National Indian Health Board (NIHB), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Technical Tribal Advisory Committee (SAMHSA TTAC). Beverly is also active in traditional practices and circles in her ancestral community of Akwesasne, along the St. Lawrence River.

Founder and Executive Lead | Rematriation

Michelle Schenandoah, a member of the Onʌyota':aka (Oneida) Nation Wolf Clan of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, is the founder of the non-profit organization, Rematriation, which is dedicated to uplifting Indigenous women’s voices. Raised in a family of traditional leadership, she carries the values and responsibilities of being a Haudenosaunee woman throughout her life, including the truthful telling of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s global influence on modern democracy and women’s rights.

Founding Member | Konon:kwe Council

Louise Herne (Wakerakatste), a Bear Clan Mother for the Mohawk Nation Council, is a founding member of Konon:kwe Council, a circle of Mohawk women working to reconstruct the power of their origins and the principal organizer and leader of Ohero:kon (“Under the Husk”), a traditional rite-of-passage ceremony for Mohawk youth. A former Spirit Aligned Legacy Leader, Louise has presented at the UN’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, lectures regularly at universities throughout North America on Haudenosaunee philosophies, and is the Distinguished Scholar in Indigenous Learning at McMaster University Institute for Innovation and Excellence in Teaching and Learning (MIIETL).

Author and Activist

Jose Barreiro (Hatuey), an author and activist, is a Taino elder and a journalist who has covered Indian Country issues and themes for four decades. Among many other achievements, Barreiro directed several major multi-year exhibitions at the Smithsonian-National Museum of the American Indian between 2006 and 2017, including: "Taino: Native Heritage and Identity in the Caribbean," and “The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire." A resident of Akwesasne Mohawk Nation, Barreiro retired from the Smithsonian Institution, as a Scholar Emeritus, in 2017, but serves as an advisor to several Indigenous community projects in Guatemala, Cuba and Peru.