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.

Keynote Address:

Ferris Jabr – Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life 

March 26th | 9:40 am to 10:00 am

Panel Presentations:

The Living Earth

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 26th | 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm

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.

Keynote Address:

Gary Farmer – A Change Has Gotta Come

March 26th | 10:01 am to 10:23 am

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – We Survived Apocalypse: Lessons in Resilience

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

President
One Fair Wage

Saru Jayaraman (JD, Yale, MPP Harvard), an academic at UC Berkeley and a renowned labor activist, is President of One Fair Wage, which organizes to raise wages and end sub-minimum wages nationwide. She has won numerous awards for her activism, including being named: one of CNN’s “Top10 Visionary Women,” a White House Champion of Change, a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award winner, and a San Francisco Chronicle ‘Visionary of the Year.’ Saru, who is interviewed and cited frequently in major media outlets, is author of: Behind the Kitchen Door; Forked: A New Standard for American Dining; and One Fair Wage: Ending Subminimum Pay in America.

Keynote Address:

Saru Jayaraman – What has Democracy Done For Me Lately? Engaging Working People in the Fight to Save Democracy

March 26th | 11:26 am to 11:48 am

Panel Presentations:

State of Emergency: How to Engage Working People in Saving Democracy During an Affordability Crisis

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Keynote Address:

Terry Tempest Williams – The Glorians Are Among Us

March 26th | 11:48 am to 12:10 pm

Panel Presentations:

Nature, Culture and the Sacred: Terry Tempest Williams in Conversation with Nina Simons

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 26th | 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm

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).

Keynote Address:

Leah Penniman – Free the People! Free the Land!

March 27th | 9:40 am to 10:01 am

Panel Presentations:

Food Justice from the Local to the Global: Raj Patel and Leah Penniman in Conversation

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 28th | 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm

Introducing:

Film Screening: Farming While Black

March 27th | 7:35 pm to 8:45 pm

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).

Keynote Address:

Cristina Jiménez Moreta – Mass Deportations: A Tipping Point Moment for All of Us

March 27th | 10:38 am to 11:00 am

Panel Presentations:

Neighbors and Allies: Solidarity in a Time of Distress

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 27th | 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm

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.

Keynote Address:

Julian Brave NoiseCat – The Epic Misadventures of the Trickster Coyote

March 27th | 11:24 am to 11:46 am

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – We Survived Apocalypse: Lessons in Resilience

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 27th | 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm

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.

Keynote Address:

Cory Doctorow – The “Enshittification” of Everything

March 27th | 11:46 am to 12:08 pm

Panel Presentations:

Resisting Enshittification: From Monopolies and Mediocrity to Reviving Democracy

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 27th | 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm

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.

Keynote Address:

John Warner – Biomimicry at the Molecular Level—Inventing a Sustainable Future

March 28th | 9:38 am to 10:00 am

Panel Presentations:

Green Chemistry Innovation and Education

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Keynote Address:

Raj Patel – Food Solidarity vs Fascism

March 28th | 10:00 am to 10:22 am

Panel Presentations:

Food Justice from the Local to the Global: Raj Patel and Leah Penniman in Conversation

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

State of Emergency: How to Engage Working People in Saving Democracy During an Affordability Crisis

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 28th | 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm

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.

Keynote Address:

Samantha Skenandore – Re-Evolving Indigeneity to Save our Planet

March 28th | 11:14 am to 11:36 am

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Rights of Nature: Rivers as Roads to an Indigenized Legal Future

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Keynote Address:

Michael Pollan – A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness

March 28th | 11:39 am to 12:01 pm

Panel Presentations:

The Hardest Problem: What is Consciousness? Michael Pollan and Dacher Keltner in Conversation

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Michael Pollan Book Signing with Pegasus Books

March 28th | 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Project Board Secretary
Pamir Roots (Social Good Fund)

Rano Abutrobova, Board Secretary for Pamir Roots and a consultant to the Home Planet Fund, is a mission-driven projects and grants management professional with 10+ years’ experience leading climate resilience, sustainability, and community-led initiatives across the UN, OSCE, USAID, and nonprofit sectors. As a Pamiri Indigenous woman, Rano brings a lived understanding of community stewardship and Indigenous knowledge systems, particularly in the mountain regions of Central Asia’s “Third Pole.” She has managed multi-donor portfolios, supported trust-based partnerships, and contributed to policies and programs rooted in local leadership and reciprocity.

Elder Advisor
SpiritHouse

Mama Iya Ada (formerly known as Nia Wilson), with a background in pediatric and psychiatric nursing, has worked with teens and their families in drop-out, drug and pregnancy prevention in Durham, North Carolina, since 1998. She also served as Co-Director of SpiritHouse until recently as well as Senior Advisor for the Forward Justice Law Policy and Strategy Center since 2017.

Panel Presentations:

Water, Spirit, Power

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Host
KALW’s Your Call

Rose Aguilar, the longtime host of KALW’s Your Call, considered by many to be the Bay Area’s best public affairs program, has written for Al Jazeera English, The Guardian, Truthout, The Nation, and AlterNet. A member of the Native American Journalists Association and mentor-editor for The OpEd Project, an organization that works to increase the range of voices in the media, she is the author of Red Highways: A Journey into the Heartland. Before joining KALW, Rose published a newsletter about women's issues and was a technology reporter for CNET Radio. In college, she ran the TV and radio news departments and DJ'd a heavy metal show.

Panel Presentations:

How Our Democracy Became a Kleptocracy and How to Reclaim It [Cancelled]

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Healer, Educator and Grandmother

Nádia Akawã, an Indigenous leader of the Tupinambá people of Olivença in Southern Bahia, Brazil, in the Atlantic Forest biome, one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems, is a healer, educator, and grandmother who works with traditional herbal knowledge to care for her community and support women through natural gynecology practices. Nádia is also an advocate for the protection of Indigenous territories threatened by real estate development and mining, fighting for the relationship between land, healing traditions, and the survival of Indigenous communities.

Panel Presentations:

Water, Spirit, Power

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Community Organizer

Alondra Aragon, a community organizer since she was 15, has dedicated more than a decade working with environmental and youth justice movements. As a member of the Hummingbird Farm collective, she seeks to: create a space for the community to reconnect with the land and traditional local ecological knowledge; move toward a just transition by growing healthy food, restoring local ecosystems, practicing herbal healing, and providing job training; and build alternative community governance structures.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – Youth of Color Caucus

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

The Living Earth

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Introducing:

John Warner – Biomimicry at the Molecular Level—Inventing a Sustainable Future

March 28th | 9:38 am to 10:00 am

Saru Jayaraman – What has Democracy Done For Me Lately? Engaging Working People in the Fight to Save Democracy

March 26th | 11:26 am to 11:48 am

Educator, Cultural practitioner and Community Leader

Kuliamai Aveiro-Kalaniopio, a proud Hawaiian educator, cultural practitioner, and community leader from Waimea, has dedicated his life to the revitalization of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and the nurturing of Native Hawaiian identity among youth. For over three years, he has taught Hawaiian language at Kohala Middle School and works with ALPSS students in cultural practices, mālama ʻāina, and community-based leadership.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – Young Leaders Stories & Solutions at Bioneers: Celebrating 25 years

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Founder
Spiritual Social Medicinal Apothecary (SSoMA)

Sonali Sangeeta Balajee, an artist, organizer, and mindfulness/yoga instructor, is the founder of: the Spiritual Social Medicinal Apothecary (SSoMA), a spiritual and political project; and Our Bodhi Project, which focuses on healthy movement-building through enlivening the connection between social and spiritual wellness. Sonali previously spent 13 years in U.S. local government, creating, leading, and managing social justice and racial equity initiatives and has had a long community organizing background focused on climate and racial justice, youth development, death-and-dying, and HIV/AIDS-related advocacy and service. She also currently serves on the boards of Bioneers and Worldtrust.

Panel Presentations:

Wisdom from the Nonbinary: Medicines of Wholeness for Fractured Times

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – We Survived Apocalypse: Lessons in Resilience

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Little Manila Rising’s Urban Forestry Program

Aguila Barajas, an activist affiliated with Little Manila Rising’s Urban Forestry program based in Stockton, CA, is a permaculture practitioner, land steward, confectioner of natural medicines, and plant wisdom educator.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – Treesme/Chisme Circle: A Queer Talking Forest

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Youth Program – Rooted, Grounded and Fluid: An Intergenerational Queer Mixer 

March 26th | 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Women at the Center: A Call to Interdependence

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Networking for Creatives and Artists

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Co-Founder
Taproot Earth

Colette Pichon Battle, a generational native of Bayou Liberty, Louisiana, is an award-winning lawyer and prominent climate justice organizer. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when Black and Indigenous communities were largely left out of federal recovery systems, Colette led the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy (GCCLP) to provide relief and legal assistance to Gulf South communities of color. After 17 years at GCCLP’s helm, as frontline communities from the Gulf South to the Global South face ever more devastating storms, droughts, wildfires, heat, and land loss, she co-founded Taproot Earth to create connections and power across issues, movements, and geographies.

Panel Presentations:

Water, Spirit, Power

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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)

Panel Presentations:

Fossil Fuel Phase-Out and a Just Transition from California to the Amazon

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Hope vs. Despair: Where Are We Really at in the Global Clean Energy Transition?

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Designing for Extremes: How Ecosystems Navigate Uncertainty

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Founder in Residence
PolicyLink

Angela Glover Blackwell, “Founder in Residence” at PolicyLink, the organization she started in 1999 to advance racial and economic equity for all, gained national prominence in the movement to use public policy to improve access and opportunity for all low-income people and communities of color, particularly in the areas of health, housing, transportation, and infrastructure. Angela is also the host of the Reimagining Democracy for a Good Life podcast and Professor of Practice at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley.

Panel Presentations:

State of Emergency: How to Engage Working People in Saving Democracy During an Affordability Crisis

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Deputy Director
Urban Tilth

Adam Boisvert has spent the past 15 years creating community garden, school garden, and food production programs with the food justice organization Urban Tilth in Richmond, California. Currently, Adam serves as Urban Tilth’s Deputy Director and is an Instructor for the Urban Agriculture Academy at Richmond High School, a year-round Farm to Table elective course rooted in hands-on, experiential learning.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – Seed Stories with Urban Tilth

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Environmental Justice, One City at a Time: The Berkeley Model

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Founder and Director
Herring Protectors

Louise Brady (Kh’asheech Tláa), a citizen 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.

Panel Presentations:

Rematriation: Returning to the Sacred Mother

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Indigenous Forum – Spirit and Science Meets the Sea: Indigenous Knowledge and Action to Protect Our Ocean Relatives

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Introducing:

Film Screening: Yaá at Wooné: Respect for All Things

March 25th | 7:05 pm to 7:40 pm

Program Manager, Indigeneity Program
Bioneers

Nazshonnii Brown-Almaweri, Program Manager for Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program, is a West Oakland-based STEAM educator who advocates for exposure and opportunities for historically excluded people, especially Black and Native youth. She has provided many middle and high school students with the space to learn about STEAM at the intersection of ancestral knowledge and their lived experiences and has worked to help Oakland youth thrive in disciplines such as engineering. Nazshonnii is also a farmer connected to the Gill Tract Community Farm in Albany and was previously a STEM tutor, media educator, and youth program assistant for the American Indian Child Resource Center.

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.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Spirit and Science Meets the Sea: Indigenous Knowledge and Action to Protect Our Ocean Relatives

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 26th | 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm

Lead Farmer
Art Farm at West Dry Creek

Sam Burris DeBoskey, a farmer, carpenter, and rites-of-passage guide dedicated to growing, building, and imagining resilient and flourishing communities, is currently the lead farmer at The Art Farm at West Dry Creek growing food at the intersection of art, agriculture, and social justice. He has been a long-time colleague of Weaving Earth, which is instrumental in creating and managing Bioneers’ youth programming.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – Community of Mentors with Raynell Morris

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Youth Program: Community of Mentors with Kyle Trefny

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Portraiture Artist

Brittany Burrows is a self-taught portraiture artist of Nomlaki/Wintun and Pomo descent whose work primarily explores the art of hyper-realism through pencil, though she enjoys experimenting with a variety of creative mediums. Driven by a deep connection to her heritage, Brittany seeks to bring faces to life in vivid detail, understanding that her artistic talent carries a responsibility to use it in a way that uplifts and honors her community.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Honoring Plant Protocol 

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

President
TU AMAZONÍA Foundation

Nadino Calapucha, a young Kichwa leader from the Shiwakucha community in the Ecuadorian Amazon, has, since his childhood championed the rights of his people and advocated for Indigenous rights and protection of the Amazon at international fora, including the UNFCCC negotiations. He has held leadership roles in multiple Indigenous organizations, including the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), and he currently serves as President of the TU AMAZONÍA Foundation. Since 2013, Nadino, who holds a law degree from the Private Technical University of Loja (UTPL), has also led the intercultural Amazonian music band KAMBAK.

Panel Presentations:

Fossil Fuel Phase-Out and a Just Transition from California to the Amazon

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Action Lead Program Manager
Narrative Initiative

Orion Camero, a queer visual storytelling educator and cultural organizer of Filipinx ancestry with roots in California’s Central Valley, is the Action Lead Program Manager for Narrative Initiative, a story-based social change organization focused on maximizing opportunities to nourish and grow narrative power, equip narrative changemakers, and bond communities to pursue long-term progress for social justice. Orion, a former Brower Youth Awards winner, Spiritual Ecology Fellow and Intercultural Leadership Institute Fellow, also stewards the California Allegory, an epic collaborative image that acts as a centerpiece for intersectional justice education and cross-movement pollination.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – Rooted, Grounded and Fluid: An Intergenerational Queer Mixer 

March 26th | 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm

Youth Program – Treesme/Chisme Circle: A Queer Talking Forest

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Co-Founder and Executive Director
Beyond Benign

Amy Cannon, Ph.D., co-founder and Executive Director of Beyond Benign, a global non-profit dedicated to green chemistry education, was the world’s first person to earn a doctorate in green chemistry and is a leading voice for systemic change in chemistry education to better prepare students and scientists to address global sustainability challenges. Prior to founding Beyond Benign, Amy worked in industry, including for Gillette and Rohm and Haas, and was an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Amy is also very active in community-based work, including the global higher education program, the Green Chemistry Commitment, comprised of over 260 Universities worldwide; and the on-line teaching and learning community platform, the Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community (GCTLC).

Panel Presentations:

Green Chemistry Innovation and Education

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Founder and Executive Director
Braided Wisdom

Carol Cano, M.A., is a multi-ethnic Indigenous dharma teacher and ecological leader bridging Buddhist practice, ancestral wisdom, and Earth-based stewardship. A Spirit Rock Residential Retreat Teacher and Core Teacher at East Bay Meditation Center, she is deeply engaged in the “Eco-Dharma” movement, which seeks to support contemplative responses to the climate crisis grounded in justice and care. She is also the founder and Executive Director of Braided Wisdom, which works to advance regenerative relationships with land, culture, and community to guide collective healing, resilience, and reciprocity for a shared future.

Panel Presentations:

Wisdom from the Nonbinary: Medicines of Wholeness for Fractured Times

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Ecological and Social Healing: Weaving Ancestral Knowledge into Our Lives

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Professor
University of San Francisco

Kimberly Carfore, Ph.D., a professor in both the Environmental Studies and Theology and Religious Studies departments at the University of San Francisco, is the co-chair of the Religion and Ecology unit at the American Academy of Religion. She has published numerous articles on the topics of ecopsychology, ecofeminism, and nature immersion and wilderness experiences. Also a wilderness guide for universities and her nonprofit Wild Women, she hosts the podcast Return to the Fire with Wild Women.

Panel Presentations:

The Living Earth

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Fossil Fuel Phase-Out and a Just Transition from California to the Amazon

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Director of The Fellowship Initiative (TFI)
Kingmakers of Oakland

Kahlil Chatmon, an Oakland-based educator and advocate, is Director of The Fellowship Initiative (TFI) at Kingmakers of Oakland, where he directs a college access program supporting Black and Latino high school males in their academic, personal, and professional growth, and leads other initiatives, such as the Kingmakers Music project. Kahlil has represented youth voices at a number of national platforms, including the White House Youth Summit.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program: Youth Mixer Hosted by Kingmakers of Oakland

March 27th | 6:45 pm to 8:30 pm

Founder
Native Like Water

Marc Chavez, of Nahua, Michoacán and New Mexican-Spanish descent, founded the Young Native Scholars and InterTribal Youth programs in San Diego in 2000. Now in their 26^th year, these widely-recognized initiatives have engaged youth and mentors from across North America, Hawaii, Panama, Jamaica, and Mexico in programs that enhance knowledge in such domains as technology, culture, health, environmental science, and self-sustainability, and that also help link young people to universities and career paths. Chavez has also worked on major art exhibits, murals, overland journeys, music, dance and theater productions along the U.S.-Mexico border region and internationally. In 2014, he founded the nonprofit Native Like Water, and he recently wrote, directed and produced Haagua, a film about a new wave of Indigenous surfers.

Panel Presentations:

Film Screening: Haaguaa: Native Like Water

March 25th | 6:35 pm to 7:05 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Bio coming soon.

Panel Presentations:

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Executive Director
Nourishing Futures

Shay Sloan Clarke, Executive Director for Nourishing Futures and Interim ED for the Maidu Summit Consortium, is a practitioner of rites of passage, circle, and embodied anti-racism as well as a guide, trainer, convenor, facilitator, consultant, and educator. Shay, whose past positions have included: founding Director of the Indigenous & Community Lands & Seas program for The WILD Foundation and the World Wilderness Congress, and Executive Director of both The Ojai Foundation and the Global Center for Indigenous Leadership & Lifeways, is co-editor of: Protecting Wild Nature on Native Lands, and co-author of: Cross-Cultural Protocols in Rites of Passage: Guiding Principles, Themes and Inquiry.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Unlearning Whiteness and Turning Toward the Joy of Greater Belonging

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Hope vs. Despair: Where Are We Really at in the Global Clean Energy Transition?

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Women at the Center: A Call to Interdependence

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Women at the Center: A Call to Interdependence

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Fighting for the Human Right to Water in the U.S.

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Poet, Educator and Organizer

Gabriel Cortez, a widely published, award-winning Bay Area-based poet, educator, and organizer, is the inaugural poet-in-residence at The Ecology Center, Shelterwood Collective, and Art Farm at West Dry Creek, where he uses poetry to uplift local legacies of resistance rooted in environmental justice and food and land sovereignty. A long-time arts educator who brings 15+ years’ experience working with youth and adult writers, he regularly leads writing and performance workshops, provides one-on-one coaching, and offers professional development opportunities for educators.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – Leaves and Turning: Poetry Writing with Gabriel Cortez

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Natural Resources Secretary
State of California

Wade Crowfoot, on the frontlines of environmental leadership throughout his long career in the public and non-profit sectors, California’s Natural Resources Secretary since 2019, leads efforts to conserve California’s environment and natural resources, overseeing an agency of 25,000+ employees spread across 26 departments, commissions, and conservancies charged with stewarding the state's forests, natural lands, rivers, water supplies, coasts, wildlife and biodiversity, as well as helping oversee its world-leading clean energy transition, including a commitment to conserve 30% of its land and coastal waters by 2030. Secretary Crowfoot has led efforts to navigate California’s record-breaking droughts, floods, and wildfires and has initiated a new era of partnerships with the state's Native American tribes.

Panel Presentations:

Taking Nature’s Solutions to Scale: Intersectional Governance and Bioregional Regeneration

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Networking for Educators

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Where Children Play: The Green Schoolyards Movement

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Founder and Chair
DNC’s Environment and Climate Crisis Council

Michelle Regalado Deatrick, the Michigan-based founder and Chair of the Democratic National Committee’s first-ever Environment and Climate Crisis Council, is a longtime labor and environmental leader, farmer, and battleground state organizer. Vice President of the Huron Valley Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, she is the recent former Vice Chair of the Washtenaw County Commission where she beat a three-term Republican to win her rural seat. Michelle founded her county’s first Environmental Council and serves on many nonprofit boards and advisory councils, including: Jane Fonda Climate PAC, OnePointFive Climate Strategy Group, Climate Power, the Ecology Center, and the Huron Valley Workers Organizing Center.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – Community of Mentors with Michelle Regalado Deatrick

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief
Atmos

Willow Defebaugh, Brooklyn-based co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Atmos Magazine, an award-winning climate and culture media platform that tells stories about the environment through a lens of creativity, is also the author of The Overview, a deep ecology newsletter and book. A lifelong student of nature who graduated with a degree in creative writing from the University of Michigan, her work has been widely published, including in: Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Teen Vogue, V Magazine, Interview, i-D, BBC, The Guardian, them, and New York Magazine.

Panel Presentations:

Wisdom from the Nonbinary: Medicines of Wholeness for Fractured Times

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Keynote Address:

Performance by Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company

March 28th | 10:43 am to 10:53 am

Co-Founder and Executive Director
One Step Closer (OSC)

Lara Dickinson, a thought leader in the natural products industry for some 30 years, has catalyzed many collaborations that have reshaped that sector and continue to do so. As co-founder and Executive Director of One Step Closer (OSC), Lara has helped a number of purpose-driven CEOs build and refine regenerative business models. Lara’s long career has included many multiple executive leadership roles, including with the Climate Collaborative, J.E.D.I. Collaborative, OSC Packaging Collaborative, OSC Women’s Circles, and the Purpose Pledge.

Panel Presentations:

The Purpose Pledge: New Visions for “Green” Business

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

The Cutting Edges of Psychedelics Research: Potentials and Pitfalls 

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Extraordinary Explorations in Interspecies Exchange

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Co-Coordinator
Bioneers Young Leaders Program

Kayla Douglass, who works with the Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education, which is Bioneers’ producing partner for our youth programs at the conference, is now in her 5th year as a Co-Coordinator of the Bioneers Young Leaders Program. A local queer artist who specializes in set design and event production, she has worked with a wide variety of nonprofits curating intentional, meaningful events.

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.

Panel Presentations:

Connected – The Deep Ecology of Being Human

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Founder, Cascadia Bioregion Program
Earth Law Center

Elizabeth​ Dunne, an attorney with 20+ years’ experience representing communities, nonprofits, innovative businesses, and Nature herself, founded the Cascadia Bioregion Program at the Earth Law Center and has advanced many of the groundbreaking “Rights of Nature” laws in the US, including serving as counsel and advisor on the first court cases filed on behalf of ecosystems. Some of her cases have been featured in a few award-winning documentaries, including: Invisible Hand and Last Stand: Saving the Elwha River’s Legacy Forests. She was also closely involved in advocating for breaching of dams on the lower Snake River, authored a published law review article on the US Army Corps' executive authority to breach the dams, and co-launched a campaign with ELC and partners to recognize the rights of the Snake River and the Southern Resident Orcas.

Panel Presentations:

Film Screening: The Snake and The Whale 

March 25th | 7:40 pm to 10:00 pm

Hawaiian Youth Leadership Collective

E Ala e Kohala/R.I.S.E. Initiative is a Hawaiian youth leadership collective propagating the traditional culture and values of their ancestors rooted in stewardship, aloha ʻāina, and the Rights of Nature. Their initiative brings together students and youth groups from throughout the islands to connect, build relationships and engage in activism.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – Ōpio Dance Collective: Hula + Line-Dancing with R.I.S.E. Initiative

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

First Descent Youth Paddler

Taeliah Eggsman, 16, an enrolled Klamath and Modoc tribal member from Chiloquin, Oregon, who was exposed to kayaking with the Rios to Rivers organization as a child, was a participant in the historic, 310-mile “first descent” of the newly (almost) undammed Klamath River by young Indigenous kayakers from a number of tribes in the region.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – First Return: Youth Paddlers and the Rebirth of the Klamath

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Board Member
Weaving Earth

justine epstein, an organizer, facilitator, and rites of passage guide whose work focuses on transforming legacies and systems of ancestral harm through ancestral/cultural healing, wealth redistribution, social justice organizing, embodiment and deep ecology, is the founder of The Mending Circle as well as a board member and graduate of Weaving Earth's adult program.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – Community of Mentors with Raynell Morris

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Youth Program: Community of Mentors with Kyle Trefny

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Director
Center for Ethical Land Transition

Cassandra Ferrera, Director 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.

Panel Presentations:

Expanding the Rights of Nature by Enabling Land to Own Itself

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Cultivating Collective Harmony in Turbulent Times: A Five Elements Framework

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 27th | 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm

California Indian Artist

Leah Mata Fragua is a California Indian artist whose work has been exhibited at the UCLA Fowler and the Autry museums and is held in major museum collections. She delves in her art into environmental degradation, coastal stewardship and cultural continuity, predominantly using handmade paper and sculptural installation. Grounded in her coastal homelands, her practice centers “kin-centric” relationships between land, water, and community. Leah also serves as a Traditional Ecological Knowledge representative on the Chumash Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council, contributing to marine conservation efforts rooted in Indigenous science.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Honoring Plant Protocol 

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Extraordinary Explorations in Interspecies Exchange

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Introducing:

Film Screening: Two Short Films by Elodie Freymann

March 27th | 6:40 pm to 7:25 pm

Founder and Director
International Cultural Arts and Healing Sciences Institute

Amikaeyla Gaston, founder/Director of the International Cultural Arts and Healing Sciences Institute, is an award-winning virtuosic vocalist and master teacher who has collaborated with a number of renowned artists including Bobby McFerrin, Pete Seeger, Wyclef, Dave Matthews, Esperanza Spalding, and Sheila E. Artistic Director of the Voices of A Dream ensemble, Amikaeyla’s work in musical healing and cultural diplomacy has garnered her a number of prestigious honors including the United Nations Global Woman Award.

Panel Presentations:

Workshop: Sonic Roots of Resilience with Amikaeyla

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Confronting the Global Crisis in Maternal Care & Children’s Health

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Local Stories, Local Impact: Community as Antidote

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Author, Community Organizer, Speaker and Facilitator

Hilary Giovale, a community organizer, speaker, facilitator and self-described ninth-generation American settler, seeks to follow Indigenous and Black leadership in support of human rights, environmental justice and equitable futures. As an active “reparationist,” she seeks to divest from “whiteness” and to bridge divides with truth, healing, apology, and forgiveness. She is the author of the award-winning book Becoming a Good Relative: Calling White Settlers toward Truth, Healing, and Repair.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Unlearning Whiteness and Turning Toward the Joy of Greater Belonging

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Youth Program – Caucus Space for White-Identifying Youth

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.”

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – Young Leaders Stories & Solutions at Bioneers: Celebrating 25 years

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Introducing:

Samantha Skenandore – Re-Evolving Indigeneity to Save our Planet

March 28th | 11:14 am to 11:36 am

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.

Keynote Address:

Opening Ceremony by Corrina Gould (Lisjan Ohlone), the Chair and Spokesperson for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan

March 26th | 9:25 am to 9:33 am

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.

Panel Presentations:

Where Children Play: The Green Schoolyards Movement

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Experiential Session – Our Wild Center

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Experiential Session – Singing Our Bones

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Facilitator, Educator, and Activist

Lauren Gucik is a facilitator, event coordinator, educator, and food sovereignty and social justice activist dedicated to weaving connections between people, land, and ancestral wisdom and designing experiences that nourish joy, deepen reflection, and cultivate liberation.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Unlearning Whiteness and Turning Toward the Joy of Greater Belonging

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Youth Program – Caucus Space for White-Identifying Youth

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Senior Adjunct Faculty
California Institute of Integral Studies

Saleena Gupte, DrPH, MPH, Senior Adjunct Faculty, California Institute of Integral Studies, is an integrative well-being practitioner and public health leader specializing in trauma-informed care, resilience-based approaches, and relational health. She designs and facilitates systems-level and individualized programs that support care professionals in cultivating relational practices, mindfulness, emotional well-being, and compassionate leadership. She also provides traditional wisdom medicine and healing services for underserved communities at Life-Long Medical Care in Berkeley and Oakland.

Panel Presentations:

Networking for Health Care and Healing Arts Practitioners

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:45 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Extraordinary Explorations in Interspecies Exchange

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

The Cutting Edges of Psychedelics Research: Potentials and Pitfalls 

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

A Wild Love for The World: Honoring Joanna Macy & Her Legacy

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Co-Facilitator of The Fellowship Initiative
Kingmakers of Oakland

Alonzo Henderson, an educator and artist, is Co-Facilitator of The Fellowship Initiative at Kingmakers of Oakland, as well as on the A&R team of Kingmakers Music. Through his dual passions for music and mentorship, Alonzo is dedicated to empowering young men to pursue higher education and self-discovery.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program: Youth Mixer Hosted by Kingmakers of Oakland

March 27th | 6:45 pm to 8:30 pm

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).

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Women at the Center: A Call to Interdependence

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Networking for Activists and Organizers 

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Co-Director and Program Lead
Center for Ethical Land Transition

Abi Huff is the Co-Director and Program Lead 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.

Panel Presentations:

Expanding the Rights of Nature by Enabling Land to Own Itself

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Graduate Academic Advisor
California Institute of Integral Studies

Christine Imfeld, on the faculties of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP), seeks to bridge the worlds of higher education, project management, health coaching, and biopsychosocial approaches to systemic wellness in her work.

Panel Presentations:

Networking for Health Care and Healing Arts Practitioners

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:45 pm

Hip-Hop Artist and Community Organizer

Jada Imani Carter, a longtime member of the Bioneers Youth Program, is this year on the Program’s Design Team and is co-hosting the Youth Orientation as well as hosting the renowned Open Mic session. Jada, a hip-hop artist and community organizer with deep roots in the Berkeley and Oakland arts and activism scenes, creates transformative spaces where young people can share their voices, connect, and build power through creativity. She has spent over a decade leading workshops, curating events, and fostering intergenerational dialogue through music and storytelling.

Panel Presentations:

Young Leaders Program – Youth Open Mic: Hosted by Jada Imani 

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – First Return: Youth Paddlers and the Rebirth of the Klamath

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Founder and Executive Director
Bay Area Mural Program (BAMP)

André Jahmora (aka Natty Rebel), a graphic designer, illustrator, muralist, and mentor whose arts career spans 20+ years, blends Afrocentric themes, Rastafarian philosophy, and community storytelling in his work. The founder and Executive Director of the Bay Area Mural Program (BAMP), he has dedicated his life to using public art as a tool for community engagement, cultural preservation, and youth empowerment. His murals can be found in Oakland, San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York, and internationally in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Zanzibar. Beyond painting, he is also the creator of the clothing brand Natty Rebel and host of the Urban Artist Talk Podcast.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – Collective Art with Bay Area Mural Program

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Youth Program – Bay Area Mural Program Drop-in Session

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Youth Program – Bay Area Mural Program Drop-in Session

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations

March 26th | 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations

March 27th | 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations

March 28th | 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Thursday Throwdown

March 26th | 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm

Storytelling and Communications Manager
Home Planet Fund

Dahr Jamail, Storytelling and Communications Manager at Home Planet Fund, is a former mountaineer, guide, and rescue volunteer on Denali in Alaska who went on to work for a decade as a war correspondent in the Middle East, then for another decade as a journalist covering the global environmental crisis. The author of five books, he most recently edited We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth, which is focused on Indigenous perspectives on the polycrisis.

Panel Presentations:

Rematriation: Returning to the Sacred Mother

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 28th | 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Where Children Play: The Green Schoolyards Movement

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Neighbors and Allies: Solidarity in a Time of Distress

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Rural Roots Louisiana

Lael “Kylin” Judson, a junior honor student at The Dunham School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and a resident of Ascension Parish, has lost loved ones to pollution-related illnesses and works with Rural Roots Louisiana on Environmental Justice issues centered around Cancer Alley, a region disproportionately impacted by industrial toxicity. Kylin aspires to becoming an Environmental Lawyer dedicated to addressing systemic inequities and protecting vulnerable communities.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Youth Versus Plastic: Challenging Plastic Pollution Across Turtle Island

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

The Hardest Problem: What is Consciousness? Michael Pollan and Dacher Keltner in Conversation

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 28th | 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm

Introducing:

Michael Pollan – A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness

March 28th | 11:39 am to 12:01 pm

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.

Keynote Address:

Brett KenCairn – Nature-based Climate Solutions—Centering Life to Heal the Planet

March 27th | 9:20 am to 9:43 am

Panel Presentations:

Networking for Nature-Based Solutions

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Biodiversity, Social Diversity, and the Future of Nature in Cities

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Taking Nature’s Solutions to Scale: Intersectional Governance and Bioregional Regeneration

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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).

Panel Presentations:

Global and Indigenous Women-Led Movements for Climate Justice

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Rematriation: Returning to the Sacred Mother

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Confronting the Global Crisis in Maternal Care & Children’s Health

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Executive Director
Bionutrient Food Association

Dan Kittredge, founder and Executive Director of the Bionutrient Food Association & The Bionutrient Institute, is a lifelong farmer, educator, and passionate advocate for growing nutrient-dense food. With decades of experience in regenerative agriculture and soil science, he has made it his mission to empower farmers, gardeners, and consumers to unlock the full potential of their crops and landscapes based on the inseparability of soil health, plant vitality, and human well-being, and a fundamental understanding of food quality as the central tenet of health and sustainability.

Panel Presentations:

How Farming Affects the Nutritional Quality of Food and Human Health

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Certified Fitness Coach

Amir Lacy got into fitness at age 16. He started with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and won multiple local and national tournaments. He went on to learn under the tutelage of world class teachers, and, at age 20, became a certified fitness coach.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – Self Defense with Amir Lacy and East Bay Area Fitness

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Global and Indigenous Women-Led Movements for Climate Justice

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Designing for Extremes: How Ecosystems Navigate Uncertainty

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Keynote Address:

Drumming by Deb Lane and Afia Walking Tree

March 26th | 8:50 am to 9:05 am

Drumming by Deb Lane and Afia Walking Tree

March 27th | 8:50 am to 9:05 am

Drumming by Deb Lane and Afia Walking Tree

March 28th | 8:50 am to 9:05 am

Panel Presentations:

Performance: Drumming Activation with Afia Walking Tree, Deb Lane, and friends        

March 27th | 12:40 pm to 1:10 pm

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.

Introducing:

Raj Patel – Food Solidarity vs Fascism

March 28th | 10:00 am to 10:22 am

Engagement & Learning Lead
Biomimicry for Social Innovation

Capri LaRocca, an educator and designer, formerly served as Director of Experiential Learning at the Minerva Project and is now a facilitator at The Strother School for Radical Attention and the Engagement and a Learning Lead at Biomimicry for Social Innovation.  For over a decade, she has partnered with universities and change-makers globally to reimagine learning in the light of living systems thinking.

Panel Presentations:

Designing for Extremes: How Ecosystems Navigate Uncertainty

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Founder and CEO
Rana Sana LLC

Diana Leal, a 28 year old land and seed steward from Richmond CA, leads the Seed Saving and Herbal Medicine projects at Urban Tilth, and is the founder and CEO of Rana Sana LLC. For the past 9 years Diana has worked to reclaim and restore land-based knowledge in the city of Richmond by saving locally-adapted seeds and cultivating herbal medicine for her community.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – Seed Stories with Urban Tilth

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Activist, Educator and Urban Farming Practitioner

Lú Ledesma is a Richmond, CA-based community activist, educator and urban farming practitioner. With an academic background in Global Environmental Studies and having grown up in a highly polluted Contra Costa County refinery town, Lú is a passionate advocate for expanding green spaces in historically disenfranchised neighborhoods and in combating “food deserts” by growing nutritious, healthy food in local communities.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – Seed Stories with Urban Tilth

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Producer
The Snake and the Whale

Scott Levy, a longtime (three decades!) tireless advocate to protect and restore Idaho’s salmon runs and the greater Northwest’s terrestrial and marine ecosystems and their species, is the Producer of the film, The Snake and the Whale, which traces the multi-decade struggle to remove the dams impeding the river flows that are the cornerstones of ecological health of the entire region. He is also serving as an amicus-curiae in thirty-year litigation on this issue.

Panel Presentations:

Film Screening: The Snake and The Whale 

March 25th | 7:40 pm to 10:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Fighting for the Human Right to Water in the U.S.

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Expanding the Rights of Nature by Enabling Land to Own Itself

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Senior Advisor
Chinese Progressive Association

Shaw San Liu, Senior Advisor 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.

Panel Presentations:

Neighbors and Allies: Solidarity in a Time of Distress

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Freelance Writer

Wendy Liu, a freelance writer based in San Francisco, is the author of Abolish Silicon Valley: How to Liberate Technology from Capitalism, published in 2020 by Repeater Books. She writes a column about tech billboards for Bay Area Current.

Panel Presentations:

Resisting Enshittification: From Monopolies and Mediocrity to Reviving Democracy

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Holistic Health Educator

Brandi Mack, a traditional ecological designer with a deep passion for personal growth and community building, is deeply committed to creating a healthier, more sustainable world for future generations. A holistic health educator, therapeutic massage therapist, permaculture designer, living systems thought leader, and mother of three daughters, she has a long track record of facilitating transformative experiences and blending nature-based solutions with mindful practices to foster connection, reflection, and growth.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – Youth of Color Caucus

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

CEO
Yerba Madre

Ben Mand, the CEO of Yerba Madre, is the driving force behind Yerba Madre’s regenerative mission, leading initiatives to certify more of their products and ingredients to the ROC Gold level, conserve and restore Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, and improve the livelihoods of producers and harvesters. Previously, as the CEO of Harmless Harvest, Ben restructured the company’s supply chain, achieving 100% zero waste, converting to 100% rPET bottles, and implemented regenerative agricultural practices across 50% of their farms. Prior to Harmless Harvest, Ben worked in various brand-marketing and innovation roles at leading companies including Plum Organics, General Mills, Johnson & Johnson, and Interbrand.

Panel Presentations:

The Purpose Pledge: New Visions for “Green” Business

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

How Farming Affects the Nutritional Quality of Food and Human Health

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Regenerative Landscaping

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Confronting the Global Crisis in Maternal Care & Children’s Health

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Product Director, Public Spaces Incubator
New_ Public

Kasiana McLenaghan, Product Director, Public Spaces Incubator, New_ Public, a non-profit dedicated to providing communities with healthy digital public spaces, has spent the last decade working at the intersection of journalism and technology. Before joining New_ Public, she built subscriber management platforms and led growth initiatives at The New York Times and oversaw a full site redesign at Axios. Earlier in her career, she served as an Executive Fellow at the California Energy Commission and worked with Silicon Valley startups focused on energy efficiency and smart city platforms.

Panel Presentations:

Local Stories, Local Impact: Community as Antidote

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – First Return: Youth Paddlers and the Rebirth of the Klamath

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Experiential Session – Coloring for Compassion and “Interbeing”

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 27th | 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Experiential Session – Using Play and Creativity to Expand and Inspire Our Collaborative Partnerships

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Experiential Session – Playscape: Intentional Cavorting to Inspire, Ignite and Sustain

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Expanding the Rights of Nature by Enabling Land to Own Itself

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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).

Panel Presentations:

Networking for Food System Professionals and Advocates

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

First Descent Youth Paddler

Coley Kakols Miller, a citizen of the Klamath Tribes, is a Modoc and Klamath youth born and raised at the headwaters of the Klamath River watershed. A high school freshman living on her tribal territory in Southern Oregon and Northern California, Coley was among more than 30 young people who participated in the historic first descent of the Klamath River after the largest dam removal in history. She remains a passionate advocate for removing the last two dams on the Klamath River, working to ensure the Klamath Tribes’ treaty-protected resources are restored to provide for future generations.

Keynote Address:

Young Leaders: Coley Kakols Miller – Undam the Klamath: The Fight Isn’t Over Yet 

March 26th | 11:00 am to 11:10 am

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – First Return: Youth Paddlers and the Rebirth of the Klamath

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Founder
Somatic Scribing Lab

Kate Morales braids visual media, performance art, ritual, theater and play in the pursuit of collective eco-social healing. Founder (in 2022) of the Somatic Scribing Lab, a hub for politicized artists and facilitators, Kate also hosts and produces the Somatic Scribing Podcast; directs Playlab, an intergenerational embodied research ensemble; and is a writer and convener of transnational conversations about queer pedagogy.

Panel Presentations:

Wisdom from the Nonbinary: Medicines of Wholeness for Fractured Times

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Co-Convenor
Gray Panthers Berkeley-East Bay

Betsy Morris, Ph.D., a co-convenor of Gray Panthers Berkeley-East Bay, a multi-generational membership organization created in 1975 to educate the public on the needs of low-income seniors and disabled adults, with particular attention to health, worked with think tanks, foundations, and community development corporations in low-income neighborhoods before founding Planning for Sustainable Communities, and later, Cohousing California, with her husband. Betsy is also an Ambassador of the Global Ecovillage Network and for the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Panel Presentations:

Environmental Justice, One City at a Time: The Berkeley Model

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Spirit and Science Meets the Sea: Indigenous Knowledge and Action to Protect Our Ocean Relatives

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Youth Program – Community of Mentors with Raynell Morris

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Film Screening: The Snake and The Whale 

March 25th | 7:40 pm to 10:00 pm

Introducing:

Film Screening: Free Leonard Peltier

March 28th | 8:30 pm to 10:30 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Saving the Commons: The Fight to Preserve Our Public Lands and Waters

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Zero Waste Youth Advocate
Recycle Hawai`i/Ka`u Global Learning Lab

Chazlyn Mukini, a senior at Kau High and Pahala Elementary School (founded in 1881, the first high school established on the Big Island of Hawaii and the third public high school established in Hawaii), is a Zero Waste Youth Advocate and part of the marketing and public relations teams at Recycle Hawai`i/Ka`u Global Learning Lab.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Youth Versus Plastic: Challenging Plastic Pollution Across Turtle Island

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Managing Director
RMI’s Third Derivative

Rushad Nanavatty is the Managing Director of RMI’s Third Derivative, the world’s leading early-stage climate tech accelerator, which has helped 100+ startups, each with gigaton-scale emissions abatement potential, raise over $500 million in funding. Rushad’s previous roles have included: establishing the Global Cooling Prize global innovation competition; working with the Energy Web Foundation (EWF), a partnership between RMI and Grid Singularity; founding COO of WeGen Energy, an off-grid energy start-up in the Philippines and Vietnam; and working internationally on sustainability and infrastructure at McKinsey and Company.

Panel Presentations:

Hope vs. Despair: Where Are We Really at in the Global Clean Energy Transition?

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Confronting the Global Crisis in Maternal Care & Children’s Health

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Regenerative Landscaping

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 27th | 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm

Post-Conference Regenerative Landscaping Workshop

March 29th | 10:30 am to 5:30 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Fighting for the Human Right to Water in the U.S.

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Facilitator and Network Builder

Darcy Ottey is a “cultural practitioner,” facilitator, network builder, and co-founder and former Co-Director of Youth Passageways, an intergenerational and cross-cultural network supporting the regeneration of healthy passages into mature adulthood for today’s youth. Darcy’s work focuses on: supporting white people and others with privilege in dismantling systems of oppression internally and externally; building resilient networks of relationships across lines of difference; and building community capacity for meaningful acts of redistribution, reparations, and “rematriation” with people in the global majority.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Unlearning Whiteness and Turning Toward the Joy of Greater Belonging

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Neighbors and Allies: Solidarity in a Time of Distress

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 27th | 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm

Introducing:

Cristina Jiménez Moreta – Mass Deportations: A Tipping Point Moment for All of Us

March 27th | 10:38 am to 11:00 am

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.

Panel Presentations:

Environmental Justice, One City at a Time: The Berkeley Model

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Executive Director
Spruce Root

Alana Peterson, whose Tlingit name is Gah Kith Tin (from Diginaa Hit, Luknahadi), grew up and currently lives in Sitka, a small island community in Southeast Alaska, where she is Executive Director at Spruce Root, an Indigenous institution that provides all Southeast Alaskans with access to business development resources including loans, coaching, workshops and more, seeking to catalyze local communities and empower small businesses. Alana who has a Master’s in Business Administration, also worked with the Peace Corps in southern Peru on economic development projects for two years.

Panel Presentations:

Rematriation: Returning to the Sacred Mother

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Evolution, Mind, Embodiment, and the Environment

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Experiential Session – Listening for Life: The Art of Radical Listening

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 28th | 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm

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.

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.

Panel Presentations:

How Farming Affects the Nutritional Quality of Food and Human Health

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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).

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.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Soul Care for a Time of Collapse and Emergence

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 26th | 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Resistance to Reaction in this “New Jane Crow” Era

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Postdoctoral Scholar
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley

Jenny Rempel is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley. She combines community-engaged and data-driven research approaches to understand the patterns and drivers of resource and exposure disparities. As a public scholar from California’s San Joaquin Valley, Jenny collaborates with community-based organizations, coalitions, and policymakers to generate knowledge that informs environmental policy and climate adaptation efforts. Jenny’s latest work examines implementation of California’s human right to water law from local to statewide scales.

Panel Presentations:

Fighting for the Human Right to Water in the U.S.

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Rights of Nature: Rivers as Roads to an Indigenized Legal Future

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Entrepreneur and Author

Eric Ries, creator of the Lean Startup method and the author of the bestselling books: The Lean Startup; The Leader’s Guide; The Startup Way; and, most recently, Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad…and How Great Companies Stay Great, has been a highly influential advocate for long-term thinking and continuous innovation in business for two decades. He has founded a number of successful enterprises in a variety of domains and hosts a very popular podcast, The Eric Ries Show, that features world-class technologists, visionaries, and executives working to build profitable companies for the long-term benefit of society.

Panel Presentations:

The Purpose Pledge: New Visions for “Green” Business

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – We Survived Apocalypse: Lessons in Resilience

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Indigenous Forum – Honoring Plant Protocol 

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Introducing:

Gary Farmer – A Change Has Gotta Come

March 26th | 10:01 am to 10:23 am

Julian Brave NoiseCat – The Epic Misadventures of the Trickster Coyote

March 27th | 11:24 am to 11:46 am

Indigenous grandmother and elder

Delubina Romero, an Indigenous grandmother and elder, works with the Sacred Contract initiative, a project of the Center for Ethical Land Transition, the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, and Regenerative Earth, whose purpose is to enable land and ecosystems to "own themselves" and be represented by Indigenous-led, multi-cultural guardianship councils. She is on the Guardian Council that tends to Pyramid Mountain in Colorado, the first mountain in the U.S. to “own itself.” She has also worked with the Kogi people of Colombia and is an active participant in Sun Dance ceremonies.

Panel Presentations:

Expanding the Rights of Nature by Enabling Land to Own Itself

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Owner and Lead Artist
Phoenix Rose Artistry LLC

Phoenix Rose, a first-generation Jamaican-American New Orleans-based artist, beauty professional, and Ìyánifá (a priestess in the Yorùbá Ifá-Òrìṣà tradition), is the owner and lead artist of Phoenix Rose Artistry LLC. She has long worked as a makeup and hair artist in a wide range of settings including film and theater, and is also a dancer and singer/songwriter who performs under the name Huebian.

Panel Presentations:

Water, Spirit, Power

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Networking for Activists and Organizers 

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Jess Rouse, of Illmawi/Pit River Nation, Wintu, Miwok and Hupa ancestry, is, among other things: the elected Cultural Representative of her band, the youngest Cultural Bearer of her tribe, a traditional ceremonial dancer, basket-maker, bear-grass weaver, sweat-lodge leader, bird whisperer, and mother of three.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Honoring Plant Protocol 

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Biodiversity, Social Diversity, and the Future of Nature in Cities

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Development and Partnership Director
San Francisco Public Press

Lisa Rudman, Development and Partnership Director at the San Francisco Public Press, a local investigative newsroom, is a lesbian feminist journalist, media professional and environmentalist. She led Making Contact for 17 years, where she helped to build a national radio/podcast production and training hub, delivering documentary programs to public radio and community stations across the U.S. and Canada. Lisa has volunteered with many organizations including San Francisco Women Against Rape and Women Against Imperialism and is currently an advisor to San Francisco Baykeeper.

Panel Presentations:

Challenging Oppression at its Deepest Roots

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Resistance to Reaction in this “New Jane Crow” Era

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Oceans Program Director
Center for Biological Diversity

Miyoko Sakashita is the Oceans Program Director at the Center for Biological Diversity where she works to secure protections for imperiled marine life and ecosystems from threats ranging from global warming and ocean acidification to fisheries and pollution. Miyoko, who holds a law degree from UC Berkeley, also earned BS degrees in Conservation and Resource Studies.

Panel Presentations:

Saving the Commons: The Fight to Preserve Our Public Lands and Waters

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Ecological and Social Healing: Weaving Ancestral Knowledge into Our Lives

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Fossil Fuel Phase-Out and a Just Transition from California to the Amazon

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Introducing:

Film Screening: Yanuni

March 26th | 6:40 pm to 8:40 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Global and Indigenous Women-Led Movements for Climate Justice

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Restoring the Ecology of Health in the Anthropocene’s “Polycrisis”

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Co-Coordinator
Bioneers Young Leaders Program

Will Scott, the co-founder and Adult Program Director at the Sonoma County-based Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education, first attended Bioneers as a youth himself and now serves as one of the co-coordinators of the Young Leaders Program at Bioneers. Will seeks in all his endeavors to "work at the crossroads of personal, social and environmental systems-change through restoring, remembering and cultivating an embodied awareness of our interrelationship with people and planet." 

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.

Panel Presentations:

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Women at the Center: A Call to Interdependence

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Executive Director
Marin Resource Conservation District

Nancy Scolari has led the Marin Resource Conservation District since 1998, partnering with local ranchers to protect and enhance natural resources in western Marin County. In 2008, she co-founded the Marin Carbon Project to advance research and implementation of climate-smart agriculture on local rangelands. During her tenure, more than 20 miles of streams have been restored, water quality has improved, and fish populations are rebounding. The district is progressing toward Marin County’s 2030 climate goals, with Nancy emphasizing collaboration as the foundation for lasting environmental stewardship.

Panel Presentations:

Taking Nature’s Solutions to Scale: Intersectional Governance and Bioregional Regeneration

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

The Cutting Edges of Psychedelics Research: Potentials and Pitfalls 

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

The Living Earth

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 26th | 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm

Introducing:

Ferris Jabr – Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life 

March 26th | 9:40 am to 10:00 am

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.

Keynote Address:

Opening Remarks by Nina Simons

March 28th | 9:22 am to 9:38 am

Panel Presentations:

Nature, Culture and the Sacred: Terry Tempest Williams in Conversation with Nina Simons

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Introducing:

Terry Tempest Williams – The Glorians Are Among Us

March 26th | 11:48 am to 12:10 pm

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).

Panel Presentations:

How Our Democracy Became a Kleptocracy and How to Reclaim It [Cancelled]

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Founder and Chair
NAIWA Daughters

Jasmine Smith, 16, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is an internationally recognized Indigenous youth leader, poet, and Founder and Chair of NAIWA Daughters, a youth-led nonprofit advancing Indigenous young women’s leadership, advocacy, and civic power. Jasmine has delivered keynote addresses at the Model United Nations Conference, working with Italian ambassadors, spoken before the Tennessee State Senate, working with Knox County representatives, and introduced the nation’s first all-female, second youth-led Rights of Nature resolution. A two-time Tennessee Civic Essay Award winner, she is a guest lecturer at the University of Tennessee, United World College in Costa Rica, and other academic institutions. Through her work, Jasmine bridges Indigenous knowledge, youth leadership, and environmental justice.

Keynote Address:

Young Leaders: Jasmine Smith – Living Our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams, While Being the Voice of the Voiceless

March 28th | 10:50 am to 11:00 am

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Rights of Nature: Rivers as Roads to an Indigenized Legal Future

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Social Media Manager and Videographer
Recycle Hawai'i

Kona Smith, a young activist from Kaʻū, the southernmost and largest district of the island of Hawaiʻi (one of the six original districts of ancient Hawaii on the island, known as moku), is part of a youth group, Recycled Hawai'i, focused on achieving “zero waste” in their community and protecting and preserving its culture and historical memory. Kona is the social media manager and videographer of the group.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Youth Versus Plastic: Challenging Plastic Pollution Across Turtle Island

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Environmental Justice, One City at a Time: The Berkeley Model

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Resistance to Reaction in this “New Jane Crow” Era

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Food Justice from the Local to the Global: Raj Patel and Leah Penniman in Conversation

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Restoring the Ecology of Health in the Anthropocene’s “Polycrisis”

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Keynote Address:

Performance by Garth Stevenson

March 26th | 10:43 am to 10:56 am

Panel Presentations:

Extraordinary Explorations in Interspecies Exchange

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Chief Strategy & Impact Officer
Dr. Bronner’s

Les Szabo, Chief Strategy & Impact Officer at Dr. Bronner’s, the top-selling natural brand of soap in North America, joined the company in 2013. He leads its strategic planning, supports key business initiatives that enhance organizational capabilities and drive growth, and oversees Dr. Bronner’s Planning, Philanthropy & Impact Investing, International Markets, and E-Commerce departments, as well as serving on Dr. Bronner’s Executive Council and Board of Directors. His work is informed by over twenty years’ experience working in the natural products and apparel industries, including as a co-founder of the Living Harvest, Dunderdon, and Infinity Sport brands.

Panel Presentations:

The Purpose Pledge: New Visions for “Green” Business

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Local Stories, Local Impact: Community as Antidote

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Director of Arts Programming
California Farmer Justice Collaborative

Minkah Taharkah, a Leimert Park/Los Angeles-based self-described “earth steward, multiplicitous artist and intuitive healer,” works with the California Farmer Justice Collaborative on network building, resource sharing, and overall support for new and established BIPOC farmers. Minkah also works with The Butterfly Movement, an enterprise dedicated to empowering Black women and girls through comprehensive pathways of personal development, fostering entrepreneurship via small business incubation, and advocating for social equity and justice.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – Youth of Color Caucus

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Founding Artistic Director
Dancing Earth

Rulan Tangen, after an international dance career in ballet, modern dance, opera, circus, film and TV, and surviving cancer, became the Founding Artistic Director of Dancing Earth, dedicated to nurturing new generations of global Indigenous performing artists to become cultural ambassadors and conduits for social change as well as creating theater that functions as contemporary transformative ritual. Rulan has more recently launched EARTH BODY: Movement for all, a project open to people of all ages, backgrounds and capacities that encompasses eco-somatic workshops, retreats, coaching, and creative process facilitation, all in the spirit of regenerative worldmaking.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – EARTHBODY Movement with Rulan Tangen

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Resisting Enshittification: From Monopolies and Mediocrity to Reviving Democracy

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Introducing:

Cory Doctorow – The “Enshittification” of Everything

March 27th | 11:46 am to 12:08 pm

Indigenous Youth Climate Leader

Eric Terena, from the Cachoeirinha Indigenous Territory in the Pantanal of Brazil, is an Indigenous Youth Climate Leader; co-founder of Midia Indigena; film producer and sound designer; and an internationally recognized DJ, blending ancestral roots with modern electronic elements. He is the executive producer of the award-winning film Yanuni, screened at Bioneers.

Introducing:

Film Screening: Yanuni

March 26th | 6:40 pm to 8:40 pm

Bay Area Basecamp Coordinator
Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots

Zi Terrence-Smith, the Bay Area Basecamp Coordinator for Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots, has, over the past decade, mobilized hundreds of volunteers and developed partnerships across sectors to move ideas into coordinated action. Committed to building networks rooted in justice that can adapt and endure, his work centers intergenerational leadership and regenerative infrastructure to build environmental justice initiatives grounded in shared leadership and collective responsibility.

Panel Presentations:

Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations

March 26th | 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations

March 27th | 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations

March 28th | 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

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.

Introducing:

Leah Penniman – Free the People! Free the Land!

March 27th | 9:40 am to 10:01 am

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 2025 Brower Youth Award.

Keynote Address:

Young Leaders: Kyle Trefny – When Orange Skies Clear

March 27th | 11:00 am to 11:09 am

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program: Community of Mentors with Kyle Trefny

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Challenging Oppression at its Deepest Roots

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 27th | 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm

Managing Director, Lands, Nature
NRDC

Katie Umekubo, JD, Managing Director, Lands, Nature at the NRDC’s (National Resources Defense Council) San Francisco office, advocates for policies that encourage the environmentally responsible development of renewable energy on western public lands as well as sustainable land-use planning and wildlife preservation in Southern California. Her recent work has focused on avian protection policies and collaborative research efforts to address wildlife interactions at renewable energy projects. Prior to joining NRDC, she worked as a legislative specialist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, starting as a Presidential Management Fellow and detailing with the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Panel Presentations:

Saving the Commons: The Fight to Preserve Our Public Lands and Waters

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Fossil Fuel Phase-Out and a Just Transition from California to the Amazon

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations

March 26th | 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations

March 27th | 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations

March 28th | 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Music Educator and Vegan Chef

Ietef “DJ Cavem” Vita, Ph.D., a Grammy-nominated music educator, “eco-hip-hop” pioneer, and celebrity vegan chef with a doctorate in Urban Ecology, fuses hip-hop with sustainability, using music as a catalyst for social and environmental change. He has performed at the White House; shared stages with Mos Def, Public Enemy, Snoop Dogg, and Wyclef Jean; delivered six TEDx talks; and been profiled in many publications, including Oprah Magazine, Forbes, and People. His albums include The Produce Section, BIOMIMICZ and KONCRETE GARDEN.

Panel Presentations:

Youth Program – DJ Cavem’s Beet Lab & Song Production

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Keynote Address:

Drumming by Deb Lane and Afia Walking Tree

March 26th | 8:50 am to 9:05 am

Drumming by Deb Lane and Afia Walking Tree

March 27th | 8:50 am to 9:05 am

Drumming by Deb Lane and Afia Walking Tree

March 28th | 8:50 am to 9:05 am

Panel Presentations:

Performance: Drumming Activation with Afia Walking Tree, Deb Lane, and friends        

March 27th | 12:40 pm to 1:10 pm

Councilmember
Oakland City Council

Charlene Wang, the Oakland City Councilmember representing District 2, has had a career spanning local, state, and federal governments, leading complex reforms in housing, homelessness, transportation, education, public safety, and environmental justice policies, including leading the $4 billion federal Reconnecting Communities initiative, a landmark infrastructure program repairing the damage caused by highways that displaced and divided disenfranchised communities nationwide. Earlier in her career, she restructured homeless response systems, helped implement universal preschool and Head Start programs and advanced environmental justice and civil rights enforcement at the U.S. EPA. Shaped by firsthand exposure to gender-based violence, Charlene has made combating violence against women and vulnerable people a core focus of her work. On the City Council, she chairs the Public Safety Committee and chairs Oakland’s anti-human-trafficking task force. Charlene centers community, especially voices that are often left out of policy spaces, in her mission to help build an Oakland where safety, opportunity, and justice are lived realities for every resident.

Panel Presentations:

Local Stories, Local Impact: Community as Antidote

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Spirit and Science Meets the Sea: Indigenous Knowledge and Action to Protect Our Ocean Relatives

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

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.”

Panel Presentations:

Experiential Session – Listening for Life: The Art of Radical Listening

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 28th | 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm

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)

Panel Presentations:

Networking for Creatives and Artists

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm