Co-Founder
The Biomimicry Institute

Janine Benyus, a winner of countless prestigious awards, world-renowned biologist, thought leader, innovation consultant and author of six books, including 1997’s foundational text, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, is widely considered the “godmother of Biomimicry.” In 1998, she co-founded the Biomimicry Guild, which morphed into Biomimicry 3.8, a B-Corp social enterprise providing biomimicry consulting services to a slew of major firms and institutions. In 2006, Janine co-founded The Biomimicry Institute, a non-profit institute to embed biomimicry in formal education, and over 11,000 members are now part of the Biomimicry Global Network. Among various other roles, Janine serves on the board of the U.S. Green Building Council, the advisory board for the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, the advisory board for Project Drawdown and as an affiliate faculty member at The Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University.

Keynote Address:

Janine Benyus – Becoming a Welcome Species: Biomimicry and the Art of Generous Design

March 27th | 9:50 am to 10:15 am

Panel Presentations:

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 27th | 4:30 pm to 5:15 pm

Climate Action Fellow
Student Environmental Resource Center

Shreya Chaudhuri, a senior at UC Berkeley, majoring in Environmental Science and Geography with minors in Global Poverty & Practice and Data Science, runs Project Planet, a nonprofit for decolonial environmental education, including teaching the class Decolonizing Environmentalism at Berkeley that she created. As a Climate Action Fellow at the Student Environmental Resource Center and UC Office of the President, Shreya advances equity in UC Climate Policy and leads the Decolonial Environmental Network on campus. She is also on the council for the Students of Color Environmental Collective, and, for her senior thesis, Shreya studied Indigenous ecological knowledge and climate resilience on her family’s ancestral tea farm in India.

Keynote Address:

Youth Leadership: Shreya Chaudhuri – Reclaiming Roots: The Global Fight for Indigenous Science

March 27th | 11:15 am to 11:25 am

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.

Keynote Address:

Katsi Cook – Matrilineal World-Making: Embracing for Impact

March 27th | 10:15 am to 10:40 am

Panel Presentations:

Worlds Within Us — Ancestral Wisdom, Courage, and Healing

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Artist and Land Conservationist

Haley Mellin, PhD, is an artist focusing on painting and land conservation. In 2017, she founded Art into Acres, a non-profit supporting permanent land conservation on behalf of the arts. Indigenous-led and community-led protected areas are the focus, and the initiative has supported the designation of about 70 million acres of new protection. Haley initiated the first environmental council and carbon emissions calculations at U.S. art museums, and juried the inaugural National Endowment for the Humanities climate grants. She is the co-author of Conservation Imperatives published last year in Frontiers. Her painting is observational and done outdoors. Haley advocates for environmental justice for all life, and was mentored by Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, Chandra Pai and the South African artists rosenclaire.

Keynote Address:

Haley Mellin – Creativity, Courage and Conservation

March 27th | 11:30 am to 11:58 am

Panel Presentations:

Re-Igniting a Sacred Relationship to Nature: An Emergent Conversation

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

Writer, Producer, Proud Earthling

Baratunde Thurston, a writer, communicator and Emmy-nominated host and Executive Producer of the PBS TV series America Outdoors, and creator and host of the How To Citizen podcast, is also a founding partner and writer at Puck. His newest creation is Life With Machines, a YouTube podcast focusing on the human side of the A.I. revolution. Author of the bestselling comedic memoir, How To Be Black, Baratunde also serves on the boards of Civics Unplugged and the Brooklyn Public Library and lives in Southern California. (baratunde.com)

Keynote Address:

Baratunde Thurston – From Me to We, A Story of Interdependence

March 27th | Noon to 12:20 pm

Closing by Baratunde Thurston

March 29th | 12:05 pm to 12:15 pm

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – How Indigenous Roots of American Democracy Can Regenerate the Practice of Self-Governance

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

Natural Resources Secretary
State of California

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

Keynote Address:

Wade Crowfoot – Keynote Address

March 28th | 9:55 am to 10:20 am

U.S. Poet Laureate

Joy Harjo, the 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate and member of the Muscogee Nation, is the author of ten books of poetry, several plays, children’s books, two memoirs, and seven music albums. Her honors include Yale’s 2023 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry, National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ruth Lily Prize from the Poetry Foundation, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Tulsa Artist Fellowship. She is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and Chair of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, and is the inaugural Artist-in-Residence for the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she lives.

Keynote Address:

Joy Harjo

March 28th | 11:30 am to 11:55 am

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Art and Healing—A Conversation with Joy Harjo and Cara Romero 

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

Book Signing with Pegasus Books

March 28th | 4:30 pm to 5:15 pm

Marine Science Researcher

Asa Miller, 18, a marine science researcher and Greenburgh, NY’s Youth Poet Laureate, is an international leader in marine conservation who combines an acute knowledge of the issues facing marine ecosystems with the sensibility and creativity of a poet. He has conducted coral reef conservation in both his native Cuba and in Israel, each time working with teams whose collaborations transcended conflicts and borders. His documentary short “Coral Reef Restoration” has screened and won awards at 26 international film festivals. He is a winner of the Brower Youth, National Marine Educators Association Youth Leadership in Marine Conservation, and Blue Hatchling Youth awards.

Keynote Address:

Youth Leadership: Asa Miller – Viva el Vivero: Finding the Best Nursery for Cuba’s Coral

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

Panel Presentations:

Young Leaders Program – Community of Mentors with Asa Miller

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

Executive Director
Urban Tilth

Doria Robinson, a 3rd generation resident of Richmond, California, current member of the Richmond City Council (District 3), and one of the most effective, exemplary community organizers in the nation, has been, since 2007, the Executive Director of Urban Tilth, a widely renowned community-based organization dedicated to cultivating a more sustainable, healthy, and just food system. Also co-founder of the Richmond Food Policy Council, former co-chair of the US Food Sovereignty Alliance Western Region, and member of the Climate Justice Alliance, Food Sovereignty Working Group, Doria (a Certified Permaculture Designer, Bay Friendly Gardener, Nutrition Educator and Yoga Instructor) has a strong background in farming, from working on the 350-acre Apostolic Temple of Truth Ranch on weekends in her youth to working on organic farms in Massachusetts while in college, and later at the legendary Veritable Vegetable women-owned organic produce distribution company.

Keynote Address:

Doria Robinson – Empowering Community from the Grassroots: The Richmond, CA Model  

March 28th | 9:35 am to 10:00 am

Panel Presentations:

Environmental Justice at a Difficult Crossroads

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

More Than Human Life (MOTH) Program
Founding Director

César Rodríguez-Garavito, a Professor of Clinical Law, Chair of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, and founding Director of the More Than Human Life (MOTH) Program and the Earth Rights Advocacy Program (all based at NYU School of Law), is a human rights and environmental justice scholar and practitioner whose work and publications focus on climate change, Indigenous peoples’ rights, and the human rights movement. Editor-in-Chief of Open Global Rights, César has been an expert witness of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, an Adjunct Judge of the Constitutional Court of Colombia, a member of the Science Panel for the Amazon, and a lead litigator in climate change, socio-economic and Indigenous rights cases. He has conducted field research and environmental and human rights investigations around the world.

Keynote Address:

César Rodríguez-Garavito – More-Than-Human Rights: Pushing the Boundaries of Legal Imagination to Re-Animate the World

March 28th | 11:10 am to 11:34 am

Panel Presentations:

What if We Understood What Animals are Saying?

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

Amira Diamond, Kahea Pacheco, and Melinda Kramer
Co-Directors

Women’s Earth Alliance Co-Directors Amira Diamond, Kahea Pacheco, and Melinda Kramer co-lead Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA), a global initiative dedicated to empowering women’s leadership in environmental justice and resilience. Under their guidance, WEA has equipped over 50,000 women with technical, entrepreneurial, and leadership skills, impacting over 24 million people in 31 countries. Their collaborative leadership fosters networks that enhance climate resilience and address critical issues from clean water access to regenerative agriculture.

Vision & Initiatives Partner
Taproot Earth

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

Keynote Address:

Colette Pichon Battle – Keynote Address

March 29th | 10:10 am to 10:20 am

Panel Presentations:

Biomimicry and Justice

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

Going Globalocal: Bioregional Climate Action Strategies

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

Stormy Weather: Confronting our Long Emergency

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Co-Founder and Executive Director
Ridges to Riffles Indigenous Conservation Group

Amy Bowers Cordalis (Yurok Tribe member whose ceremony family is from Rek-woi at the mouth of the Klamath River), a devoted advocate for Indigenous rights and environmental restoration as well as a fisherwoman, attorney, and mother deeply rooted in the traditions of her people, is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Ridges to Riffles Indigenous Conservation Group and leads efforts to support tribes in protecting their sovereignty, lands, and waters, including the historic Klamath Dam Removal project. A former general counsel for the Yurok Tribe and an attorney at the Native American Rights Fund, Amy has won many awards and honors, including as a UN Champion of the Earth and Time 100 climate leader.

Keynote Address:

Amy Bowers Cordalis – The Water Remembers: Year Zero

March 29th | 9:20 am to 9:45 am

Author and Talk Show Host

Thom Hartmann, a best-selling author of over 30 books in print and host of the #1 progressive talk show host in America for more than a decade, has co-written and been featured in 6 documentaries with Leonardo DiCaprio about climate change. A former psychotherapist, entrepreneur and refugee worker helping the worldwide Salem group start homes for abandoned and abused children all over the world, Thom and his wife Louise live in Portland, Oregon with a small menagerie of cats, dogs, ducks & geese.

Keynote Address:

Thom Hartmann – Supreme Oligarchy at the Gates

March 29th | 11:15 am to 11:35 am

Panel Presentations:

Supreme Oligarchy: Deconstructing the Alliance Between the Supreme Court and American Oligarchs

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Executive Director
Sierra Club

Ben Jealous, named the seventh Executive Director of the Sierra Club in 2022, has served in roles from organizer to investigative journalist to president of two of the nation’s most influential groups pursuing equity and justice and protecting democracy and the environment. From 2008 to 2013, he led the NAACP as the youngest-ever president and CEO of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization and launched the NAACP’s Climate Justice Program. More recently Ben was President of People for the American Way (PFAW). Ben began his professional trajectory as a reporter and managing editor at the black-owned community newspaper, the Jackson Advocate, exposing “cancer clusters” in Mississippi’s rural communities caused by industrial pollution. He has also been a partner at one of the nation’s premier ESG venture capital firms, has won many awards, served on the boards of the Environmental Defense Fund, the Trust for Public Lands and the Wilderness Society, taught at Princeton (and currently at the University of Pennsylvania), and is a best-selling author, including most recently of: Never Forget Our People Were Always Free: A Parable of American Healing. 

Keynote Address:

Ben Jealous – A Green Economy Lifts All Boats

March 29th | 11:35 am to Noon

Panel Presentations:

Stormy Weather: Confronting our Long Emergency

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Environmental Justice at a Difficult Crossroads

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Co-Founder
Third Act

Bill McKibben, a contributing writer to The New Yorker and a co-founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice, founded the first global grassroots climate campaign, 350.org, and serves as the Schumann Distinguished Professor in Residence at Middlebury College in Vermont. In 2014 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel,’ in the Swedish Parliament and also won the Gandhi Peace Award as well as receiving honorary degrees from 19 colleges and universities. He has written 12+ books about the environment, including his first, one of the most prescient and important books of the last 100 years, 1989’s The End of Nature. His latest book is: The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at his Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened.

Keynote Address:

Bill McKibben – Back to the Wall, Face to the Sun

March 29th | 9:45 am to 10:10 am

Panel Presentations:

Stormy Weather: Confronting our Long Emergency

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

AskNature Program Director
Biomimicry Institute

Camilo Garzón, the AskNature Program Director at the Biomimicry Institute, leads its platform, program, and publication efforts to expand access to nature-inspired innovation. A writer, editor, filmmaker, multimedia producer, interdisciplinary artist, and award-winning poet, he works in a wide range of disciplines and media, including science storytelling on such varied topics as: culinary biodiversity; leaf-cutter ants; the decolonization of space exploration; and Colombian volcanology, paleontology, and Indigenous hydraulic systems. Camilo has collaborated with many organizations, including: SFMOMA, Scientific American, NPR, and the National Geographic Society. He is also the founder and Creative Director of Cuentero Productions.

Panel Presentations:

Bringing Biomimicry into Action

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

Managing Director
Biomimicry for Social Innovation

Gina LaMotte, Managing Director of Biomimicry for Social Innovation, is a social entrepreneur dedicated to the vision of a thriving, just and regenerative future who has for 25+ years been inspired by biomimicry, systems-change, social innovation, design thinking, and climate justice in her work. 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, a national initiative that provides network mapping and data visualization tools to advance health, equity, and climate resilience in K-12 schools.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Biomimicry and Social Innovation—Becoming a Nature Positive Leader

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

Culture Director
Association of Ramaytush Ohlone

Gregg Castro [t'rowt'raahl Salinan/rumsien-ramaytush Ohlone] has worked preserving his indigenous heritage for three decades as a writer-activist. He is Culture Director for the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone; the Society for California Archaeology’s ‘Native American Programs Committee’ Chair; and Adviser to the California Indian Conference, California Indian History Curriculum Coalition and American Indian Cultural District of San Francisco.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – The Power of Our Stories: Raising Consciousness Through Indigenous Media 

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Program Supervisor
Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay

Homayoon Ghanizada, the Program Supervisor at Jewish Family and Community Services East Bay, manages a team of case managers who provide both resettlement and intensive case-management services to refugees. He also troubleshoots challenges faced by families and collaborates with partner organizations and various state departments to address any barriers families face in their journey toward self-sufficiency.

Panel Presentations:

Defending Refugees and Immigrants

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Founder
The Regenerative Technology Project

Jessica Groopman, founder of The Regenerative Technology Project, a platform that seeks to encourage and accelerate the tech industry’s shift towards supporting societal and ecological health, is a technology industry analyst and author who studies the intersection of emerging technologies and regeneration, and advises forward-thinking leaders globally on disruptive innovations. She has published over 50 reports on emerging tech applications and their implications and recently co-authored The Fast Future Blur. Her previous roles include: founding the research firm, Kaleido Insights; Principal Analyst at Tractica, Harbor Research, and Altimeter Group; and Senior Innovation Advisor at Intentional Futures.

Panel Presentations:

Achieving Digital Inclusion for Social Equity and a Clean, Green Future

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

Director of Government Affairs
The Trust for Public Land

Juan Altamirano, the Director of Government Affairs for the Trust for Public Land, oversees that organization’s policies that enhance public access to land and parks and works to forge partnerships with government agencies and stakeholders to advance initiatives that protect and expand public spaces. His extensive background in public policy and his passion for conservation have driven a number of successful campaigns across various levels of government.

Panel Presentations:

Putting The Land First: Nature-based Solutions in California

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

Weaving Earth

justine epstein, a guiding council (board) member and 3-year graduate of Weaving Earth and a co-facilitator for the Ancestors & Money coaching cohort, is an organizer, facilitator, rites of passage guide and naturalist dedicated to transmuting legacies and systems of ancestral harm through wealth redistribution, social justice movement organizing, ancestral healing, cultural rites of passage, embodied community, and deep ecology.

Panel Presentations:

Young Leaders Program – Community of Mentors with Benja Mertz

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

Young Leaders Program – Community of Mentors with Asa Miller

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

Young Leaders Program – Community of Mentors with Kristen Rome, Cymone Fuller and Ghani Songster: Advancing Youth Justice

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Technical Manager
The AskNature Hive at the Biomimicry Institute

Lily Urmann, a naturalist and educator, is a Visiting Instructor at Pratt Institute where she teaches "Biology for Biomimicry,” the host of the podcast "Learning from Nature," and the Technical Manager of the AskNature Hive at the Biomimicry Institute. Her previous positions include: Commons Director at Biomimicry Frontiers; Director of Denver Programs for The Kiva Center; and Program Coordinator at the ASU Biomimicry Center. She has also led workshops at the Natural History Institute, the Desert Botanical Garden, the Highland Center for Natural History, the California and American Horticultural Society, and Girls Exploring Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (GESTEM).

Panel Presentations:

Bringing Biomimicry into Action

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

Journalist, and Director of Audience Engagement
San Francisco Public Press

Bio coming soon.

Panel Presentations:

Supreme Oligarchy: Deconstructing the Alliance Between the Supreme Court and American Oligarchs

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Political and Environmental Justice Activist

Luna Angulo, a political and environmental justice activist who grew up alongside Chevron’s notoriously toxic refinery in her hometown of Richmond, CA, now works to build a future free from fossil fuels by building grassroots political power for communities most harmed by the fossil fuel industry through civic engagement and mass civil disobedience. Luna, former Co-Chair of the Path to Clean Air Community Steering Committee, received the Sierra Club’s Emerging Voices Award in 2022.

Panel Presentations:

Linking Global and Local: A Just Transitions Roundtable

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

Human Rights Legal Advisor and Adjunct Professor
UC College of the Law, San Francisco

Nicole Phillips is a human rights legal advisor and adjunct professor at UC College of the Law, San Francisco, where she co-teaches Human Rights and Rule of Law in Haiti. Certified as an expert witness on conditions in Haiti in dozens of U.S. immigration cases, she has appeared before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and several UN bodies on a variety of issues. From 2020 to 2024, Ms. Phillips was Legal Director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for fair and humane immigration policies for Haitian and other Black migrants. Based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti from 2010 to 2018, Ms. Phillips worked as a staff attorney with the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (“IJDH”). She also regularly provides legal and human rights analysis to U.S. and international media.

Panel Presentations:

Defending Refugees and Immigrants

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Weaving Earth

Sam Burris-Debosky, a farmer, carpenter, and rites-of-passage guide dedicated to imagining and building resilient, flourishing communities, co-founded and directed Village Farm at Stanley, in Aurora, Colorado, an urban farm dedicated to food-justice and education. Sam is working at this year’s Bioneers Conference as part of the Weaving Earth team to help host the Community of Mentors sessions.

Panel Presentations:

Young Leaders Program – Community of Mentors with Benja Mertz

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

Young Leaders Program – Community of Mentors with Asa Miller

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

Young Leaders Program – Community of Mentors with Kristen Rome, Cymone Fuller and Ghani Songster: Advancing Youth Justice

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Immigration Attorney and Project Coordinator
Project ANAR

Sara Kohgadai, a first-generation Afghan-American, is an immigration attorney and Project Coordinator with Project ANAR (the Afghan Network for Advocacy and Resources), an Afghan community immigration justice organization formed and led by Afghan-American women. Before joining Project Anar in 2023, she had already been actively involved in the immigration field for many years, first volunteering with nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area, then establishing a solo practice, then, in response to the arrival of Afghan parolees in 2021, partnering with the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant to prepare affirmative asylum petitions for newly arrived Afghans.

Panel Presentations:

Defending Refugees and Immigrants

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Artist, Writer, and Filmmaker

Siku Allooloo (Inuk/Haitian/Taíno), an award-winning interdisciplinary artist, writer, and filmmaker from Yellowknife, NT, Canada (by way of Mittimatalik, Nunavut and Haiti), has had her film and artwork widely featured, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The National Arts Centre, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, and DOXA. Her independent journalism, poetry, and creative writing have also been widely published, including in The Guardian, Canadian Art Magazine, and Truthout. A 2025 Artist in Residence at Western Front, Siku is currently leading the production of her first documentary feature, Indigena, as the writer, director and co-producer.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – The Power of Our Stories: Raising Consciousness Through Indigenous Media 

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Co-Founder and Program Director
Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education

Will Scott, a co-founder and Program Director at the Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education, is a nature-based educator and guide. He has been involved with Bioneers in a variety of capacities since he was a youth in the Youth Program himself and is now Co-coordinator of the Bioneers Young Leaders Program, working with his Weaving Earth team to coordinate and host all the youth-centered activities at the conference.

Cultural Outreach and Education Manager
Two Feathers NAFS

Ernie Albers, a Yurok tribal member as well as a Karuk and Hupa descendant, comes from a long line of traditional storytellers and has been deeply rooted in culture and ceremony from a very young age. A former chef and a co-founder of Lifted Arcata, a functional fitness group training gym in Arcata, he has certifications in CrossFit levels 1 and 2, Functional Movement Systems (FMS), and Frederick Stretch Therapy (FST) levels 1 and 2. After 10 years in the gym coaching group fitness classes, Ernie is now working with Native youth for Two Feathers NAFS as their Cultural Outreach and Education Manager.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Places and Spaces: Establishing Cultural Hubs for Native Communities

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

Producer
From Soil to Soul Documentary Series

Rachel Allen, MFA, a recovering advertising executive passionate about triple-bottom-line filmmaking, has produced such award-winning projects as 'Wish Upon A Disco Ball' and ‘BIPOCalypse,' with notable screen credits including 'Amend: The Fight for America' and 'Promising Young Woman.' With a background in design, storytelling, and literary management, Rachel is dedicated to creating media that uplifts underrepresented communities, fosters environmental consciousness, and inspires positive social change. She is the producer of the From Soil to Soul documentary series, the pilot episode of which, Food Justice in LA, is being shown at Bioneers this year.

Introducing:

Film Screening: Food Justice in LA

March 28th | 8:35 pm to 9:00 pm

Founder
International Cultural Arts and Healing Sciences Institute

Amikaeyla, founder of the International Cultural Arts and Healing Sciences Institute, is an educator, author and award-winning singer/performer who has served as a Cultural Arts Ambassador for the State Department working on inter-cultural literacy and restorative justice programs with political refugees, war survivors, and at-risk populations worldwide. She has also studied the healing effects of music with many traditional healers and cultural artists and was invited by HH the Dalai Lama to sing at the commemorative Golden Buddha performance in India.

Keynote Address:

Drumming by Deb Lane, Debbie Fier and Amikaeyla

March 27th | 9:00 am to 9:15 am

Drumming by Deb Lane, Debbie Fier and Amikaeyla

March 28th | 8:55 am to 9:10 am

Drumming by Deb Lane, Debbie Fier and Amikaeyla

March 29th | 8:55 am to 9:10 am

Internationally Touring Folk Ensemble

Rising Appalachia, the brainchild of Atlanta-raised sisters Leah Song and Chloe Smith, rooted in the rich musical traditions of their family and region, is an internationally touring folk ensemble with a passionate global following. Eschewing industry norms, they have independently forged their own exemplary, deeply ethical, value-driven path for 16 years, producing seven albums and conducting tours around the world while simultaneously immersing themselves in community-building, cultural exchange programs, and music gathering and sharing everywhere they go. Their most recent album (their first of carefully curated cover songs) is: Folk & Anchor.

Keynote Address:

Performance by Rising Appalachia

March 27th | 11:05 am to 11:15 am

Performance by Rising Appalachia

March 28th | 10:45 am to 11:00 am

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – The Power of Art and Sound—Beauty in the Face of Hardship and Disaster

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

Member
Hummingbird Farm Collective

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:

Young Leaders Program – Youth of Color Caucus

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

Cinematographer
From Soil to Soul Documentary Series

Eldon Arena, a Los Angeles-based Filipino cinematographer and editor, co-founded Studio SAKA, a creative studio dedicated to social impact and climate education, and has led film projects with organizations such as LA Compost and Off Their Plate. An expert in cinema cameras and an experienced drone and FPV pilot, he is passionate about crafting meaningful stories. Eldon is the cinematographer of the From Soil to Soul documentary series, the pilot episode of which, Food Justice in LA, is being shown at Bioneers this year.

Introducing:

Film Screening: Food Justice in LA

March 28th | 8:35 pm to 9:00 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.

Keynote Address:

Welcome by Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons, Bioneers founders

March 27th | 9:15 am to 9:30 am

Welcome by Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons, Bioneers founders

March 28th | 9:10 am to 9:17 am

Opening Remarks by Kenny Ausubel

March 28th | 9:15 am to 9:35 am

Welcome by Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons, Bioneers founders

March 29th | 9:10 am to 9:20 am

Introducing:

Janine Benyus – Becoming a Welcome Species: Biomimicry and the Art of Generous Design

March 27th | 9:50 am to 10:15 am

Thom Hartmann – Supreme Oligarchy at the Gates

March 29th | 11:15 am to 11:35 am

Founder
Our Bodhi Project

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:

Sacred Activism: Reimagining Awakened Action

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

Queering Kinship:  Widening the Lens of Liberation and Belonging

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

President and CEO
Women Donors Network

Leena Barakat, a Los Angeles-based activist, strategist and Palestinian-American leader, is the President & CEO of Women Donors Network and its 501c4 affiliate, WDN Action. She began her career as a grassroots activist and cross-movement organizer and has since spanned the nonprofit, tech, and philanthropic sectors with the goal of creating a more just, joyful, and liberated future for all. Leena also serves on the board of Donors of Color Network.

Panel Presentations:

Exploring Three Innovative Donor Networks

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 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 – How Indigenous Roots of American Democracy Can Regenerate the Practice of Self-Governance

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

Artistic Director
Kearny Street Workshop

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

Panel Presentations:

Community Conversations – Toxic Homelands: On the Frontlines of Ecological Grief, Anxiety & Action

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

Community Conversations: Compassionate Bridging for Genuine Ecological and Social Transformation

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Impact Producer
Sugarcane

Jade Begay (Tesuque Pueblo and Dine), who has worked with Indigenous-led organizations and tribes from the Amazon to the Arctic to advance Indigenous-led solutions and self-determination through advocacy campaigns, research, storytelling and narrative strategies, works at the intersections of Indigenous rights and climate and environmental justice to help shape national and international policy. Jade, who was appointed by President Biden to serve on the first ever White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and was National Engagement Native American Director for the Harris Walz Campaign, is an Impact Producer for the Oscar-nominated film Sugarcane.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – The Power of Our Stories: Raising Consciousness Through Indigenous Media 

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Film Screening: Sugarcane

March 29th | 6:45 pm to 9:00 pm

Senior Environmental Scientist
California Natural Resources Agency

Clesi Bennett, an Environmental Program Manager working on climate change issues at the California Natural Resources Agency, manages that agency’s nature-based solutions portfolio, including its Climate Targets and Climate Smart Lands strategies. Clesi, who has been with the agency since 2017 working on issues related to climate change, coastal zone management, environmental justice, and outdoor access, previously worked on coastal resilience, sustainable agriculture, and energy in the non-profit and academic sectors.

Panel Presentations:

Putting The Land First: Nature-based Solutions in California

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

Social Justice Advocate

Tenika Blue, a fourth-generation Bay Area native with 20+ years’ experience advocating for anti-violence initiatives, social justice reform, and community healing, organizes sacred circles as a central part of her work, employing a heart-centered approach to foster community resilience, empower individuals to connect with their roots, and embrace transformative healing.

Panel Presentations:

Community Conversations – Toxic Homelands: On the Frontlines of Ecological Grief, Anxiety & Action

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

Executive Director
Green Science Policy Institute

Arlene Blum Ph.D., biophysical chemist, author, and mountaineer is Executive Director of the Green Science Policy Institute and a Research Associate at UC Berkeley.  Her science and policy work with government and business has contributed to preventing the use of PFAS, flame retardants and other classes of harmful chemicals in products world-wide.  Arlene also led the first American—and all-women’s—ascent of Annapurna I and the first women’s climb of Denali.  She is the author of Annapurna: A Woman’s Place and Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life.

Panel Presentations:

Living In the Toxic Soup: Solutions to the Legacy of Forever Chemicals

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

Founder
Biohabitats

Keith Bowers, FASLA, PLA, a landscape architect and restoration ecologist, is the founder of Biohabitats, a multidisciplinary organization with a mission to restore the Earth and inspire ecological stewardship through cutting-edge nature-based, regenerative design, operating at the crossroads of biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation, regenerative water strategies, and environmental justice.  Keith’s relentless advocacy for wild nature also led him to recently establish Biohabitats Purpose Trust, a non-charitable perpetual purpose trust with the explicit purpose of ‘restoring nature, protecting and conserving biodiversity, and inspiring love for wild places.’

Panel Presentations:

CANCELLED – Cities, Landscapes and Biodiversity: The Rise of Nature-Based Resilient Planning

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

Co-Founder and Chief Existential Officer
The Climate Clock

Andrew Boyd, an author, humorist, and climate activist, is co-founder and CEO (Chief Existential Officer) of the Climate Clock, a global campaign that melds art, science, technology, and grassroots organizing to get the world to #ActInTime. Boyd also co-created the grief-storytelling ritual the Climate Ribbon; founded the art-activist toolbox Beautiful Trouble; and led the 2000s-era satirical campaign “Billionaires for Bush.” His most recent book is I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope and Gallows Humor.

Panel Presentations:

May the Farce Be with You… Climate Comedy Is Good Medicine

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

Book Signing with Pegasus Books

March 27th | 6:15 pm to 7:00 pm

Intercultural Conversations Program Manager, Indigeneity Program
Bioneers

Nazshonnii Brown-Almaweri (Diné), Program Manager for Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program, is an STEM educator from West Oakland 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 at the Gill Tract Community Farm was previously a STEM tutor, media educator, and youth program assistant for the American Indian Child Resource Center.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Places and Spaces: Establishing Cultural Hubs for Native Communities

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

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 – Indigenous Regenerative Land Management

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Founder and CEO
Mongabay

Rhett Ayers Butler is the founder and CEO of Mongabay, a non-profit news organization that covers issues at the intersection of people and nature via a network of about 1,000 journalists in more than 80 countries. Beyond Mongabay, Rhett has advised a range of organizations and institutions, while his writing and photography have appeared in hundreds of publications. Rhett's work has been recognized with the Heinz Award and the Parker/Gentry Award, among other honors.

Panel Presentations:

Building International Solidarity to Protect Tropical Forests and Climate

March 27th | 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:

Young Leaders Program – Respect + Protect Our Peace: A Queer Talking Circle 

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Young Leaders Program – Our Radiant Legacy: An Intergenerational Queer Mixer 

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

Writer and Community Activist

Anneke Campbell, a writer and community activist who has worked as a midwife, nurse, English professor, yoga teacher and death educator, co-authored (with Thomas Linzey): We The People: Stories from the Community Rights Movement in the U.S. and edited Nina Simons' book, Nature, Culture and the Sacred: One Woman Listens for Leadership. Anneke also publishes essays and articles and writes and co-produces the Bioneers newsletter: Leading From The Feminine: Weaving The World Anew and has facilitated grief sessions at the conference for the past 5 years.

Panel Presentations:

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

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

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

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

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

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

Jeanine M. Canty, Ph.D., a 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 both editor and contributor to the books Ecological and Social Healing: Multicultural Women’s Voices and Globalism and Localization: Emergent Approaches to Ecological and Social Crises. Her newest book (April ’25) is an expanded, second edition of Ecological and Social Healing: Multicultural Women’s Voices. (ciis.edu)

Panel Presentations:

Community Conversations: Compassionate Bridging for Genuine Ecological and Social Transformation

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 29th | 4:30 pm to 5:15 pm

Hip-Hop artist and Community Organizer

Jada Imani Carter, a hip-hop artist, community organizer, and longtime member of the Bioneers Youth Program, has deep roots in the East Bay arts and activism scene, in which she often curates transformative spaces where young people can share their voices, connect, and build power through creativity. Jada has spent over a decade leading workshops, curating events, and fostering intergenerational dialogue through music and storytelling. At Bioneers 2025, she is on the Youth Program Design Team co-hosting the Youth Orientation and hosting the Bioneers Open Mic to provide a platform for self-expression and connection.

Panel Presentations:

Young Leaders Program – Open Mic

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Executive Director
Rainforest Action Network

Ginger Cassady, Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and board member of Amazon Frontlines, has, for more than 25 years, been a leader at the intersection of environmental and social justice, leading global campaigns to hold some of the world’s largest corporations and financial institutions accountable for their impact on communities, human rights and our planet. Her vision and drive have scaled innovative philanthropic initiatives — such as RAN’s Community Action Grants, providing core funding for Indigenous and frontline communities — to create transformational, systemic positive social change.

Panel Presentations:

Building International Solidarity to Protect Tropical Forests and Climate

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

Co-Founder and CEO
7 Directions of Service

Crystal Cavalier-Keck is co-founder and CEO of 7 Directions of Service (an Indigenous-led collective rooted in environmental justice and community organizing, operating on the ancestral homelands of the Occaneechi-Saponi in rural North Carolina) and of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women NC Coalition. An Adjunct Professor at Salem College, Crystal has extensive experience in the nonprofit and government sectors and has worked extensively with the Women’s Earth Alliance on a number of projects. She is also currently working toward a Master of Legal Studies in the Indigenous People’s Law Program at the University of Oklahoma School of Law.

Panel Presentations:

Thriving Together: How Women-Led, Community-Based Solutions Are Transforming Our Planet

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

Music Educator, “Eco-Hip-Hop” Pioneer and Vegan Chef

Ietef “DJ Cavem” Vita, PhD., 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:

Young Leaders Program – DJ Cavem’s “Beet Lab” & Song Production

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Co-Founder and Executive Director
Advance Native Political Leadership

Anathea Chino (Acoma Pueblo), co-founder and Executive Director of Advance Native Political Leadership, is a queer feminist leader and champion for Native voices with 20 years’ experience as a political strategist, fundraiser, and operative, works to advance Indigenous representation through investment in infrastructure development, strategy, research, and relationship building. She has co-founded a number of state and national organizations, including: Women’s Democracy Lab, Indigenous Women Rise, and Emerge New Mexico, and also serves on the boards of Americans for Indian Opportunity, California Native Vote Project, and Emergent Fund.

Panel Presentations:

Civic Participation and Running for Office: From Inspiration to Action

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

Interactive Session – Catalyst for Change—Building Personal Roadmaps for Civic Participation

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

Director
Indigenous Justice

Morning Star Gali, a member of the Ajumawi band of the Pit River Tribe in Northeastern California, is the Director of Indigenous Justice and has served for 16 years as the California Tribal and Community Liaison for the International Indian Treaty Council, dedicated to advancing the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous Peoples. Her work focuses on the recognition and protection of Indigenous rights, treaties, traditional cultures, the fate of missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW), climate and gender justice, and the preservation of sacred places. Morning Starr is also currently a Design Team member for Women’s Earth Alliance North America Programs.

Panel Presentations:

Thriving Together: How Women-Led, Community-Based Solutions Are Transforming Our Planet

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

CEO
The Climate Center

Ellie Cohen, a longtime, award-winning leader in catalyzing cross-boundary, collaborative, and just responses to the climate crisis, is CEO of The Climate Center and oversees the collaborative Climate-Safe California campaign which seeks to achieve state-wide net-negative emissions as soon as possible. Before joining The Climate Center, Ellie served for 20 years as President and CEO of Point Blue Conservation Science where she and the organization’s 160 scientists developed climate-smart conservation solutions for wildlife and people.

Panel Presentations:

Putting The Land First: Nature-based Solutions in California

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

Pikyav Field Institute Program Manager
Karuk Department of Natural Resources

Aja Conrad, a Karuk woman from her ancestral village of Katimiin in Northern California, currently works as the Pikyav Field Institute Program Manager at the Karuk Department of Natural Resources. A first-generation college student, Gates Millennium Scholar, and a proud mother of two young girls, Aja is also a traditionally trained fire practitioner and fire educator, as well as an experienced wildland firefighter.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Indigenous Regenerative Land Management

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Teacher
Seven Sacred Ceremonies

Loretta Afraid of Bear Cook (Oglala Lakota, Pine Ridge, South Dakota), endowed with extraordinary memory, curiosity and intelligence, was chosen by her elders to uphold and teach the Seven Sacred Ceremonies to coming generations. Her lifelong leadership in Sun Dance ceremonial cycles and in mentorship among women follow the teachings of her mother, renowned spiritual elder Beatrice Long Visitor Holy Dance, who for fifty+ years guided many Lakota families (tiospaye) in the preservation of their traditional lifeways. Loretta is currently at the forefront of the struggle over the central cultural issue of her people—the resolution of use and ownership of the sacred Black Hills.

Panel Presentations:

Worlds Within Us — Ancestral Wisdom, Courage, and Healing

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Co-Director
Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN)

Christine Cordero, raised by a Filipino immigrant family in the working class town of Pittsburg, CA, is Co-Director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), organizing with immigrants and refugees for a healthy environment and thriving economy for all communities. For 20+ years, Christine has strategized, organized, and built coalitions across environmental health and justice, workers rights, and economic and racial justice issues. Previously, she was Executive Director at the Center for Story-based Strategy, training 2,000+ people and working with 200+ groups to reinvigorate narrative strategies for social justice. An alumnus of Rockwood Institute’s Leading from the Inside Out Fellowship, one of the nation’s leading executive leadership programs for experienced social change trailblazers, Christine is also an ordained priest of the Chozen-ji line of Rinzai Zen.

Panel Presentations:

Environmental Justice at a Difficult Crossroads

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Introducing:

Doria Robinson – Empowering Community from the Grassroots: The Richmond, CA Model  

March 28th | 9:35 am to 10:00 am

Organizer, Strategist, and Movement-Builder

Stosh Cotler, an organizer, strategist, and movement-builder with over three decades’ experience in social change work, has launched and scaled organizations at local, state, and national levels, mobilizing diverse communities—from faith leaders to sex workers, rural coalitions to urban formations—to counter racial and religious nationalism, advance multi-racial democracy, and build safe and inclusive communities. She is currently completing an MS in Biomimicry at Arizona State University and participating in the 2026–2028 Biomimicry Professional Program.

Panel Presentations:

Biomimicry and Justice

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

Co-Director
The Belonging Resident Company

Sarah Crowell, a Black, biracial, lesbian/queer dancer/choreographer and artistic collaborator, sees her work in the world as the bringing of mindfulness and physical embodiment into movements for social justice and racial healing. A leader at Oakland’s Destiny Arts Center for 30 years who now does consulting work with the Othering and Belonging Institute, Dance Mission Theater and other organizations, Sarah is currently the Co-Director of the The Belonging Resident Company, a performance ensemble that centers BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ artists, facilitators, and musicians and aims to foster embodied experiences of belonging and dismantle systems of oppression.

Panel Presentations:

Queering Kinship:  Widening the Lens of Liberation and Belonging

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Interactive Session – Moving Towards Belonging: A Dance/Theater Experience

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Lawyer, Journalist and Author

Claire Hope Cummings is a lawyer, journalist, and author of Uncertain Peril, an award-winning critique of biotechnology and a vision for the future of food and farming. Her work has been widely featured in print, films, public radio and television, and, as a lawyer, she has represented a number of traditional Indigenous groups in defense of their sacred places. Her current work focuses on the complex relationships among natural and cultural systems and spirituality.

Panel Presentations:

A.I. and the Ecocidal Hubris of Silicon Valley

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

CEO and Co-Founder
Spherical

Dawn Danby, whose life’s work has been dedicated to investigating the paradoxical roles of design and technology in supporting the integrity of Earth’s living systems, is CEO and co-founder of Spherical, an Oakland-based integrative research and design studio that has been working with Accelerate Resilience L.A. and a network of L.A. collaborators to develop the Living Infrastructure Field Kit, a freely available community-mapping and co-design platform that integrates visualization technology with community engagement to address watershed health, bioregional understanding, and climate resilience.

Panel Presentations:

Living Infrastructure: Co-Designing Thriving Communities in Los Angeles

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

Founder
Catharsis Holistic Healing

Ashira Darwish, who began her career as a journalist in Palestine and then worked for 15 years as TV and Radio journalist and researcher for the BBC, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, is the founder of Catharsis Holistic Healing, a trauma therapy project in Palestine, which uses the Ashira Active Meditation approach that she pioneered to help people suffering from continuous trauma. Her personal journey of healing from full body paralysis with a severed spinal cord in 2012 has given her a deep insight into the process of recovery, allowing her to offer a highly specialized and culturally sensitive approach to trauma healing.

Panel Presentations:

CANCELLED – Palestine: A Community Conversation & Healing Circle

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Founder and Executive Director
Photographers Without Borders

Danielle Khan Da Silva is an award-winning queer South-Asian/Portuguese photographer, director, writer, intersectional conservationist and National Geographic Explorer. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of Photographers Without Borders and co-founder of the Sumatran Wildlife Sanctuary, Reclaim Power mentorship program, and other initiatives. Danielle holds Hons. BSc. degrees in conservation biology, psychology and global studies, as well as an MSc. in Environment & Development from the London School of Economics. She is passionate about Indigenous science, rematriation, Indigenous land and water stewardship, and their applications to orca/humpback whale conservation.

Panel Presentations:

Defending the Living World

March 29th | 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:

Re-Igniting a Sacred Relationship to Nature: An Emergent Conversation

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

Queering Kinship:  Widening the Lens of Liberation and Belonging

March 29th | 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 29th | 10:40 am to 10:50 am

Co-Founder and Executive Director
Indigenous Climate Action

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

Panel Presentations:

Going Globalocal: Bioregional Climate Action Strategies

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

Stormy Weather: Confronting our Long Emergency

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director
Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA)

Amira Diamond, co-founder and Co-Executive Director of the Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA), where she collaborates with frontline communities, global NGOs, investors, and philanthropists to implement environmental programs focused on nature-based solutions, clean energy, advocacy campaigns, replicable models, resilient communities and justice across environmental, health, and LGBTQ rights, is a seasoned social entrepreneur with over two decades’ experience designing and leading rights-based programs at the intersection of climate solutions, gender equity, and economic development. Previously, she served as the West Coast Director of Democracy Matters and directed organizations such as Julia Butterfly Hill’s Circle of Life.

Keynote Address:

Amira Diamond, Kahea Pacheco and Melinda Kramer (Women’s Earth Alliance) – Rising Together: Women’s Leadership for a Resilient Future

March 28th | 12:07 pm to 12:30 pm

Co-Director of the WATER Institute
Occidental Arts & Ecology Center

Brock Dolman co-founded (in 1994) the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center where he co-directs the WATER Institute. A wildlife biologist and watershed ecologist, he has been actively promoting “Bringing Back Beaver in California” since the early 2000s. He was given the Salmonid Restoration Federation’s coveted Golden Pipe Award in 2012: “…for his leading role as a proponent of "working with beavers" to restore native habitat.

Introducing:

Wade Crowfoot – Keynote Address

March 28th | 9:55 am to 10:20 am

Investigative Journalist

Mark Dowie, a major figure in American journalism who has won countless prestigious awards for his work over four decades recently retired from teaching at UC’s Graduate School of Journalism. His many previous roles over the decades have included Editor-at-Large of InterNation and Publisher/Editor of Mother Jones magazine, and he has penned 200+ investigative reports for many leading publications as well as several highly influential books, including: Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at the Close of The Twentieth Century (nominated for a 1995 Pulitzer Prize); American Foundations: An Investigative History; and: Conservation Refugees: The Hundred Year Conflict Between Global Conservation and Native Peoples. Dowie has also served on the advisory boards of many non-profits and is co-founder and Chair of the Marin Media Institute.

Global Justice Program Director
Othering & Belonging Institute

Elsadig Elsheikh, Global Justice Program Director at the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, oversees that program’s projects portfolio and conducts research focused on: global North-global South inequity, the socio-political dynamics of climate justice, food systems, Islamophobia, nation-state citizenship issues, the structural mechanisms of othering, and global expressions of belonging.

Panel Presentations:

Linking Global and Local: A Just Transitions Roundtable

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

Executive Director and Director of Policy
Carbon Cycle Institute

Torri Estrada, who has worked to advance solutions to social and environmental justice, climate, and environmental issues for 30+ years, is the Executive Director at the Carbon Cycle Institute, where he directs its policy and climate justice work. Torri’s previous roles include: Program Director at the Marin Community Foundation; Program Officer at the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program; co-founder and a Senior Policy Fellow with the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water; and Program Director at Urban Habitat.

Panel Presentations:

Putting The Land First: Nature-based Solutions in California

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

Vocalist, Drummer and Teacher

Debbie Fier, a vocalist, drummer, pianist, composer, percussionist and teacher, has performed throughout the U.S. and internationally and spent years as a mentor and teacher in the Institute of Music, Health and Education. Among other areas of endeavor, Debbie teaches drumming, body percussion and rhythm to children and adults, has been the musical prayer leader at Kehilla Community Synagogue for 20 years, is a sound therapy practitioner, and is a member of the Piano Technicians Guild. Her original compositions are available on four recordings — In Your Hands, Firelight, Coming Home and most recently: Waterways.

Keynote Address:

Drumming by Deb Lane, Debbie Fier and Amikaeyla

March 27th | 9:00 am to 9:15 am

Drumming by Deb Lane, Debbie Fier and Amikaeyla

March 28th | 8:55 am to 9:10 am

Drumming by Deb Lane, Debbie Fier and Amikaeyla

March 29th | 8:55 am to 9:10 am

Founder and CEO
Paloma Flores Consulting Agency (PFCA)

Paloma Flores, a member of the Pit River Tribe of Northern California and P'urhepecha de Michoacan, Mexico, who has 15 years’ experience working with intertribal communities in California, is the founder and CEO of Paloma Flores Consulting Agency (PFCA), which specializes in transformative speaking and storytelling, cross-cultural collaboration and partnership building, cultural education, supporting the shifting of consciousness through professional development in Indian communities, developing the next generation of youth leaders, and boosting American Indian voices and representation in the arts .

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Places and Spaces: Establishing Cultural Hubs for Native Communities

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

Indigenous Forum – The Power of Our Stories: Raising Consciousness Through Indigenous Media 

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Chairwoman
Women in Cleantech and Sustainability

Sara Eve Fuentes, Chairwoman of Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, is the founder and President of SmartWaste, a minority women-owned and operated start-up with a focus on Waste Technologies, Waste Systems and Vendor Management for Zero Waste programs with core values of “transparency, circularity, and people." With 10 years of experience in the waste and recycling industry, Sara has become a dynamic leader in abating commercial waste as well as a passionate advocate for women.

Panel Presentations:

Achieving Digital Inclusion for Social Equity and a Clean, Green Future

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

Senior Director, Restorative Justice
Equal Justice USA

Cymone Fuller, who began her career as a community organizer and spent many years focused on systemic reforms in the youth criminal justice legal system, currently serves as the Senior Director of Restorative Justice at Equal Justice USA, where she supports the spread of community-held restorative justice diversion initiatives across the country.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Restoring Justice: Ecological Teachings for Evolving Youth Justice

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

Biomimicry and Justice

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

Young Leaders Program – Community of Mentors with Kristen Rome, Cymone Fuller and Ghani Songster: Advancing Youth Justice

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Director of Programs
Tech Exchange

Claudia Garcia, a dedicated advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion in education and workforce development, is the Director of Programs at Tech Exchange, where she leads strategic initiatives to promote digital equity, career readiness, and STEM access for underrepresented communities across California. With over a decade of experience in student advising, program management, and partnership development, Claudia has designed and implemented impactful initiatives that have helped first-generation college students and marginalized communities succeed in higher education and beyond.

Panel Presentations:

Achieving Digital Inclusion for Social Equity and a Clean, Green Future

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

Co-Designer
Women’s Earth Alliance’s Black Girls/Green Futures Program

Tashanda Giles-Jones, an environmental educator cultivating a network of like-minded individuals, organizations and activists eager to support the learning and growth of urban youth in Los Angeles, develops human impact lessons adapted for her student population and provides engaging learning activities through garden-based education. She has volunteered and held positions with several nonprofit fundraising, leadership, and youth committees, and, most recently, Tashanda has been co-designing and implementing the Women’s Earth Alliance’s Black Girls/Green Futures Program in South Los Angeles.

Panel Presentations:

Thriving Together: How Women-Led, Community-Based Solutions Are Transforming Our Planet

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

Author and Activist

Hilary Giovale, a ninth-generation American settler, descended from Celtic, Germanic, Nordic, and Indigenous peoples of ancient Europe, is an active “reparationist” who seeks to “divest from whiteness” and seeks to follow Indigenous and Black leadership in support of human rights, environmental justice and equitable futures.  She is the author of Becoming a Good Relative: Calling White Settlers toward Truth, Healing, and Repair.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Modern Matriarchy: Remembering our Kinship with the Earth

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Young Leaders Program – Unraveling Whiteness, Reweaving Humanity: A White Caucus Space for Youth*

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

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 29th | 4:30 pm to 5:15 pm

Founder
The Chocolate Rebellion

Gillian Goddard, a community organizer and chocolate-maker, founded the Alliance of Rural Communities, a non-profit focused on “circular economy” principles, regenerative farming, and sustainable rural livelihood creation, in 2014. In 2021, she founded the Cross Atlantic Chocolate Collective, which unites farming communities from Africa, the Caribbean, North America, the UK and Europe. Goddard’s work seeks not only to enhance the wellbeing of rural populations, but to explore complex issues around power, decolonization and emancipation in grassroots, commercial, and academic spaces.

Panel Presentations:

Chocolate Rebellion: Creating a Global Value Chain Based on Economic Justice 

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

The Delicious Allure of Chocolate: A Chocolate Tasting

March 27th | 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Rights of Nature Project 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:

Indigenous Forum – Shifting the Tides of Justice: Advancing the Rights of Fish and Aquatic Mammals

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

Introducing:

Amy Bowers Cordalis – The Water Remembers: Year Zero

March 29th | 9:20 am to 9:45 am

Co-Founder and Lead Organizer
Sogorea Te’ Land Trust

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:

Corrina Gould – Opening Ceremony

March 27th | 9:30 am to 9:38 am

President and CEO
Minorities in Shark Sciences

Jasmin Graham, an award-winning young shark scientist and environmental educator who specializes in elasmobranch (shark and ray) ecology and evolution, serves on the board of the American Elasmobranch Society, is President and CEO of Minorities in Shark Sciences (an organization dedicated to supporting gender minorities of color in shark sciences) and is Project Coordinator for the MarSci-LACE project focused on promoting best practices to recruit, support and retain minority students in marine science. Jasmin is also the author of Sharks Don't Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist and directed/hosted the PBS Terra series, Sharks Unknown with Jasmin Graham.

Panel Presentations:

Defending the Living World

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 29th | 6:15 pm to 7:00 pm

President
Bioneers

Teo Grossman, President of Bioneers, previously worked on a range of projects from federal range management to state-level assessments of long-range planning to applied research on topics including climate change adaptation, ecosystem services, biodiversity, and ecological networks. A Doris Duke Conservation Fellow during graduate school, Teo holds an MS in Environmental Science & Management from UC-Santa Barbara.

Panel Presentations:

What if We Understood What Animals are Saying?

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

CANCELLED – Cities, Landscapes and Biodiversity: The Rise of Nature-Based Resilient Planning

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

Introducing:

César Rodríguez-Garavito – More-Than-Human Rights: Pushing the Boundaries of Legal Imagination to Re-Animate the World

March 28th | 11:10 am to 11:34 am

Founder and President
Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative)

David Gruber is the founder and President of Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative), a nonprofit organization and interdisciplinary scientific and conservation initiative that is applying advanced machine learning and state-of-the-art gentle robotics to translate the communication of sperm whales. David is also Distinguished Professor of Biology at the City University of New York and a National Geographic Explorer.

Panel Presentations:

What if We Understood What Animals are Saying?

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

Facilitator, Educator and Activist

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

Panel Presentations:

Young Leaders Program – Unraveling Whiteness, Reweaving Humanity: A White Caucus Space for Youth*

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

Co-Founder
Quiet

Sol Guy, an award-winning producer and director whose career in filmmaking, music, community-building, and support of artists seeks to demonstrate the power of art to heal and to catalyze social change, is the co-founder of Quiet, an artist-led community seeking a new approach to creative practice and support anchored in value alignment, artistic sovereignty, spiritual well-being, and reciprocity. Honored by National Geographic as an “Emerging Explorer,” Sol most recently directed the documentary about his family, The Death of My Two Fathers. He has also co-produced and directed a number of highly acclaimed projects in music, film, and TV, including the Oscar-nominated film Bobi Wine: The People’s President.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Cultural Currency: Redefining Exchange in a Creative Economy

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

Author, Trainer, Practitioner

Kazu Haga, a trainer and practitioner of nonviolence and restorative justice who works with incarcerated people, youth, and activists from around the country and has over 25 years’ experience in nonviolence and social change work, is a core member of Building Belonging, the Ahimsa Collective, and the Fierce Vulnerability Network. Kazu is also a Jam facilitator and the author of Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm. He and his family are residents of the Canticle Farm community on Lisjan Ohlone land, Oakland, CA.

Panel Presentations:

Young Leaders Program – Healing Resistance: Creating Change in an Interdependent World

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

Sacred Activism: Reimagining Awakened Action

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

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 28th | 6:15 pm to 7:00 pm

Co-Founder
Tree-Range Farms

Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, co-founder and CEO of Tree-Range® Farms, a pioneer of the “Poultry-Centered Regenerative Agriculture System,” founder of the Regenerative Agriculture Alliance, and owner of Salvatierra Farms LLC, a 63-acre regenerative poultry farm in Northfield, MN, is an award-winning agroecology innovator who began working on economic development in Guatemala in 1988, then moved to the US and founded Peace Coffee, a Minnesota-based fair-trade coffee company, in 1995.

Panel Presentations:

Tree-Range Farms: Stewarding a Regenerative Future

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

Founder
Biomimicry for Social Innovation

Toby Herzlich, founder/Director of Biomimicry for Social Innovation, a non-profit dedicated to applying nature’s genius to leadership and social change, is a trainer and facilitator focused on progressive leadership development and building diverse multidisciplinary networks for changemaking. A certified Biomimicry Specialist and educator, Toby’s 30+ years of experience have included: Senior Trainer with the Rockwood Leadership Institute; co-founder of the Cultivating Women’s Leadership training intensives; organizational consulting with such clients as the Sierra Club, Ford Foundation, AgroEcology Fund, National Hispanic Cultural Center, and the Navajo Nation; and the launching of several national collaborative networks, including the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable and the Young Climate Leaders Network. She is also a facilitator with the Volgenau Climate Initiative and Project Positive.

Panel Presentations:

Biomimicry and Justice

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

Interactive Session – Biomimicry and Social Innovation—Becoming a Nature Positive Leader

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

Researcher and Advocate for Media Literacy Education

Renee Hobbs, a researcher and advocate for media literacy education, is one of the nation's leading authorities on media literacy education and has authored 12 books and more than 300 scholarly and professional articles to advance the theory and practice of digital and media literacy education. She has helped train a generation of scholars and teachers on four continents through her scholarship and community service, receiving more than $7 million in grants to support research, education and community outreach efforts.

Panel Presentations:

Misinformation, “Truthiness,” and Critical Thinking: Seeing Through the Madness by Enhancing Media Literacy for All 

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

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 28th | 6:15 pm to 7:00 pm

Chief Editor
Biomimicry Institute

Andrew Howley, Chief Editor for the Biomimicry Institute, works to connect scientists, innovators, and conservationists with the public as well as to make the vast collection of materials from the Biomimicry Institute on AskNature.org (an ever-growing body of stories of life’s innovations and adaptations) widely available to inspire and guide sustainable innovation. Previously, Andrew spent 11 years at the National Geographic Society, connecting audiences with explorers and grantees through websites, blogs, social media, live-streamed interviews, and events; and he developed online content at America Online in the late '90s.

Panel Presentations:

Bringing Biomimicry into Action

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

Founder and CEO
The Guild

Nikishka Iyengar, a social entrepreneur, community organizer and media-maker with over a decade of experience building economic democracy, is the founder and CEO of The Guild, where she develops community-owned models of land, housing, and real estate to foster self-determination for Black, working-class, and other marginalized communities. She also leads Groundcover, a $30M fund dedicated to investing in shared equity land models. A current Loeb Fellow at Harvard, Nikishka co-hosts the Road to Repair podcast focused on moving beyond a "business-as-usual" economy toward solidarity and collective liberation.

Panel Presentations:

Community Wealth Building: A Conversation with Beloved Economies, Full Spectrum Capital Partners, and The Guild 

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Law Clerk
Native Law Group

Juliette Jackson, J.D., LLM, an enrolled member of the Klamath Tribes, Law Clerk at Patterson Real Bird & Wilson LLP, Native Law Group, a firm focused exclusively on federal Indian and tribal law, has, over the course of her career, worked on public health policy and tribal environmental justice at several non-profits and government agencies, including a clerkship with the U.S. EPA Honors Law Clerk Program, where she drafted the section on Traditional Ecological Knowledge in a proposed national policy on sustainability. Juliette has also guest lectured at George Washington University Law School, Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, University of Cuenca in Ecuador, and the Bioneers online course, Indigenizing the Law: Tribal Sovereignty and the Rights of Nature.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Shifting the Tides of Justice: Advancing the Rights of Fish and Aquatic Mammals

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

Arts & Community Hub Programming

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

Networking: Setting Intentions and Building Support

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

Arts & Community Hub Programming

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

Arts & Community Hub Programming

March 29th | 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Gwich’in Eco and Indigenous Rights Activist and Legacy Leader

Sarah James, (Neets’aii Gwich’in), an award-winning, world-renowned activist who been at the forefront of the struggle to defend the rights of the Indigenous peoples and the natural world and all its creatures in the far northern world of interior Alaska for decades, has traveled globally to advocate for the protection of the Porcupine Caribou herd from oil development and climate catastrophe. Sarah, a deeply respected Legacy Leader, still works from her village and remains devoted to passing on ancestral teachings to younger generations.

Panel Presentations:

Worlds Within Us — Ancestral Wisdom, Courage, and Healing

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Co-Founder and Curator
Full Spectrum Labs

Taj James, co-founder and Curator at Full Spectrum Labs, a Principal with Full Spectrum Capital Partners, and co-founder and a Senior Advisor at Movement Strategy Center, is a father, poet, strategist, designer, and philanthropic and capital advisor. Taj seeks in his work to connect community stewards with capital stewards in order to bring financial value into alignment with sacred values in ways that build community wealth.

Panel Presentations:

Community Wealth Building: A Conversation with Beloved Economies, Full Spectrum Capital Partners, and The Guild 

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Rural Roots Louisiana

Lael “Kylin” Judson, a sophomore 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:

Community Conversations – Toxic Homelands: On the Frontlines of Ecological Grief, Anxiety & Action

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

President
Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity

Fadhel Kaboub, Ph.D., an expert on designing public policies to enhance economic sovereignty, build resilience, and promote equitable and sustainable prosperity in the Global South, is an associate professor of economics at Denison University and President of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity. Dr. Kaboub has held a number of research affiliations with major institutions in Africa and the U.S. and is an active member of several global commissions and initiatives, including the Independent Expert Group on Just Transition and Development, and the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. His most recent co-authored publication is Just Transition: A Climate, Energy, and Development Vision for Africa (May 2023).

Panel Presentations:

Linking Global and Local: A Just Transitions Roundtable

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

Program Director, Bioneers Learning
Bioneers

patience kamau, born and raised in central Kenya, a self-described “peacebuilder-conservationist,” is the Program Director of the Bioneers Learning program, a new online course and connection platform for activists, innovators, and anyone seeking knowledge and tools to manifest solutions for people and planet.

Panel Presentations:

Re-Igniting a Sacred Relationship to Nature: An Emergent Conversation

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

Program Manager
Chapter 510

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

Panel Presentations:

CANCELLED – Palestine: A Community Conversation & Healing Circle

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Clean Technology Entrepreneur and Activist

Danny Kennedy, a Senior Adviser to the Sunrise Project, Wollemi Capital and various startups, was the founding CEO of New Energy Nexus, a global platform organization for funds and incubators with chapters in a dozen countries from 2015-2024. He continues as a Venture Partner with the New Energy Nexus' Catalyst Fund, but his focus has moved from innovating new climate solutions to building and deploying the ones we've got!

Panel Presentations:

Stormy Weather: Confronting our Long Emergency

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Executive Assistant
Bioneers

Asha Kohli, a life coach, movement artist, and practitioner of herbal medicine with ancestral lineages in the Andes and India, facilitates grief circles, embodiment immersions, and communal rituals. She is the founder of Kohlibri Creative, a healing arts project that weaves artistry and ancient ways to guide others in their journey of self-healing and empowerment through artistic expression and earth-based rituals.

Panel Presentations:

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

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

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

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

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director
Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA)

Melinda Kramer, co-founder (in 2006) and Co-Executive Director of the Women’s Earth Alliance (inspired by the resilience of women in impacted communities around the world and the desire to bridge the resource gap for these frontline women tackling urgent climate challenges), is a passionate advocate for social justice, the environment, and women’s rights. An environmentalist and cultural anthropologist, she has worked globally, learning from grassroots leaders on the frontlines of environmental crises. Her career has spanned sustainable agriculture work in Kenya with CARE International, capacity-building initiatives in the North Pacific Rim with Pacific Environment, and co-founding the Global Women’s Water Initiative.

Keynote Address:

Amira Diamond, Kahea Pacheco and Melinda Kramer (Women’s Earth Alliance) – Rising Together: Women’s Leadership for a Resilient Future

March 28th | 12:07 pm to 12:30 pm

Co-Director
Belonging Resident Company

Sangita Kumar, an organizational development consultant and somatic coach, is the founder of Be The Change Consulting, a human-centered consulting firm that seeks to support organizations and movements to bring liberatory practices into their work. She is also the Co-Director of the The Belonging Resident Company, a performance ensemble that centers BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ artists, facilitators, and musicians and aims to foster embodied experiences of belonging and dismantle systems of oppression.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Moving Towards Belonging: A Dance/Theater Experience

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 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, Debbie Fier and Amikaeyla

March 27th | 9:00 am to 9:15 am

Drumming by Deb Lane, Debbie Fier and Amikaeyla

March 28th | 8:55 am to 9:10 am

Drumming by Deb Lane, Debbie Fier and Amikaeyla

March 29th | 8:55 am to 9:10 am

Director of Philanthropic Transformation
Solidaire Network

Daniel Lee, M.Div., is the Director of Philanthropic Transformation at Solidaire, whose mission is to “nurture relationships between social movements and donor members to create regenerative systems rooted in love and justice” and to “transform philanthropic culture and practice toward long-term structural change.” His previous roles have included: Executive-in-Residence at the Council on Foundations; Executive Director at the Levi Strauss Foundation (where he also led its award-winning Pioneers in Justice initiative); and Senior Program Officer for Asia Pacific at Outright Action International. Daniel also serves on the boards of several leading foundations.

Panel Presentations:

Exploring Three Innovative Donor Networks

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Visual Artist

Devin Lee is a visual artist with a focus on tattooing whose work reflects a keen interest in plants, ancestral communication, healing across generations, and connecting to our diverse lineages and visions for collective liberation.

Panel Presentations:

Young Leaders Program – Relief Printmaking (Block Carving) with Devin Lee

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

Executive Director
Donors of Color Network

Isabelle H. Leighton, Executive Director of the Donors of Color Network and Donors of Color Action, has decades’ experience in social justice fundraising, community organizing, business development, urban planning, and fighting antidemocratic forces. Her previous positions include Development Director at Political Research Associates and founding Director of the Equality Fund at Asian Americans for Equality.

Panel Presentations:

Exploring Three Innovative Donor Networks

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Executive Director
Work For America

Caitlin Lewis, Executive Director of Work for America, a nonprofit seeking to make public service a more desirable, accessible, and stable career path that uplifts families and communities, has a long track record working in the public, private and non-profit sectors, including: developing social impact strategies for global brands; being a philanthropic advisor to Van Jones; helping launch an affordable housing fund; serving in local, state and federal governments, including at NYC’s City Hall and in the White House Liaison Office of USDA; working on several political campaigns and managing external affairs for the organization that manages Times Square.

Panel Presentations:

Civic Participation and Running for Office: From Inspiration to Action

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

Interactive Session – Catalyst for Change—Building Personal Roadmaps for Civic Participation

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

Going Globalocal: Bioregional Climate Action Strategies

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

Founder
Accelerate Resilience L.A.

Andy Lipkis, the founder of TreePeople and its President from 1973 to 2019, a renowned, groundbreaking figure in Urban and Community Forestry and Urban Watershed Management, has demonstrated how individuals, communities, and governments can collaboratively reshape urban forests, soil, and water infrastructure to create a more livable future. After retiring from TreePeople in 2019, Andy launched Accelerate Resilience L.A. to advance living infrastructure principles and climate resilience in Los Angeles.

Panel Presentations:

Living Infrastructure: Co-Designing Thriving Communities in Los Angeles

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

Transformational Coach, Philanthropic Advisor, and Eco-Artist

Laura Loescher is a transformational coach, philanthropic advisor, and eco-artist with home bases in Oregon and Vermont. Living a semi-nomadic lifestyle, she creates Earth Altars—impermanent nature art crafted from natural objects gathered in beautiful outdoor settings. Deeply committed to personal, community, and planetary well-being, Laura developed Resiliency Cards: 64 Simple Practices for Resilient Living, a unique card deck that combines her nature-inspired art with practical exercises to calm the nervous system, energize the body, spark new possibilities, and foster self-awareness.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Resilience Resources Playshop

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Member Chief
Onondaga Council of Chiefs

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

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – How Indigenous Roots of American Democracy Can Regenerate the Practice of Self-Governance

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

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:

Interactive Session – The “EcoYou” Workshop: Recharge, Reconnect, Realign

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Young Leaders Program – Youth of Color Caucus

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

Chocolate Rebellion: Creating a Global Value Chain Based on Economic Justice 

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

Co-Founder
From Soil to Soul Documentary Series

Jahnavi Mange, a San Jose-based climate and social justice activist with expertise in sustainability, regenerative strategies, permaculture, and community-building, has worked with a number of grassroots organizations, local governments and global corporations to drive equity and environmental impact. Jahnavi is a co-founder of the From Soil to Soul documentary series, the pilot episode of which, Food Justice in LA, is being shown at Bioneers this year.

Introducing:

Film Screening: Food Justice in LA

March 28th | 8:35 pm to 9:00 pm

Host
Tech Won't Save Us podcast

Paris Marx, a tech critic and host of the “Tech Won’t Save Us” podcast, also writes the Disconnect newsletter and is the author of Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages, and he speaks internationally about the politics of technology.

Panel Presentations:

A.I. and the Ecocidal Hubris of Silicon Valley

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

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 27th | 4:30 pm to 5:15 pm

Dirtroad Organizing
Co-Founder

Chloe Maxmin, co-founder (with her best friend, Canyon Woodward) of Dirtroad Organizing and co-founder of and advisor to JustME for JustUS, a Maine-based organization focused on rural youth civic engagement and climate justice, also runs Begin Again Farm with her partner, Bill Pluecker, growing organic vegetables for her community. Chloe’s political engagement has included co-founding Divest Harvard when she was a student there, serving in the Maine House of Representatives in 2018, and in the Maine State Senate in 2020, when she was the youngest woman ever to serve in that body. Chloe is also co-author (with Canyon Woodward) of Dirt Road Revival.

Panel Presentations:

Civic Participation and Running for Office: From Inspiration to Action

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

Interactive Session – Catalyst for Change—Building Personal Roadmaps for Civic Participation

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

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 28th | 6:15 pm to 7:00 pm

Woman Stands Shining

Pat McCabe, (aka “Woman Stands Shining”), of Diné ancestry, was adopted into the Lakota spiritual way of life. She is currently beginning the stewardship of a piece of land at one of the four sacred mountains of her people, as part of the “Rematriation Movement.” McCabe, a proud grandmother, has long spoken and taught widely, nationally and internationally, sharing cultural and spiritual insights.

Panel Presentations:

Re-Igniting a Sacred Relationship to Nature: An Emergent Conversation

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

Sacred Activism: Reimagining Awakened Action

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

Co-founder and Resident Cosmographer
Spherical

David McConville, Ph.D., is co-founder of, and “Resident Cosmographer” at, Spherical, an Oakland, CA-based integrative research and design studio. Together with Accelerate Resilience L.A. and a network of L.A. collaborators, Spherical has developed the Living Infrastructure Field Kit, a freely available community mapping and co-design platform that integrates visualization technology with community engagement to address watershed health, bioregional understanding, and climate resilience.

Panel Presentations:

Living Infrastructure: Co-Designing Thriving Communities in Los Angeles

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

Executive Director
California Open Lands

Ali Meders-Knight, a Mechoopda tribal member, is the Executive Director of California Open Lands, where she works to form partnerships for federal forest stewardship contracting and tribal restoration programs on public lands. A Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) practitioner for 20+ years, she has collaborated on environmental education and land restoration projects with, among others, Chico State, the City of Chico, and Tehama County. She serves on the Tribal Relations Strategic Planning and Implementation committee for the U.S. Forest Service in Region 5 and has testified in Congress on the merits of TEK in wildfire management and forest regeneration. Ali was recently conferred an honorary doctorate by Syracuse University.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Indigenous Regenerative Land Management

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Performer, Educator, Folklorist, and Song-Leader

Benja Mertz, a performer, educator, public speaker, folklorist, and song-leader, is Board Chair of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, an immigrant rights and anti-incarceration nonprofit organization. Also founder and Director of Joyful Noise! Gospel Singers in Sonoma County, Benja trained in song-leading through legendary programs such as Dr. Ysaye Barnwell's Vocal Community and Bobby McFerrin's CircleSong Schools and is part of a long tradition of writers and musicians at the forefront of social change in America.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Practicing Joy and Grief in Challenging Times

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

Young Leaders Program – Community of Mentors with Benja Mertz

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

Founder
Mycelium Youth Network

​Lil Milagro Henriquez, M.A. (detribalized Nahuat Pipil), a 20-year, multiple award-winning social and environmental justice activism veteran, founded Mycelium Youth Network, a renowned organization dedicated to preparing and empowering frontline youth for climate change, in 2017. Among other achievements, she spoke as a panelist at the White House’s launch of the 5th National Climate Assessment report in 2023 and currently sits on the Advisory Board for the American Public Health Association's Center for Climate Health and Equity and the National Academy of Medicine's Climate Communities Network.

Panel Presentations:

Thriving Together: How Women-Led, Community-Based Solutions Are Transforming Our Planet

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

Researcher and Facilitator
Othering and Belonging Institute

Eli Moore is a researcher and facilitator with the Othering and Belonging Institute where he leads transformative research processes with community-based organizations and networks. His recent work has focused on community-driven Just Transition planning, co-governance and community ownership, and a belonging economy as these frameworks apply to housing, local economies, and ecosystems.

Panel Presentations:

Linking Global and Local: A Just Transitions Roundtable

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

Events and Gatherings Producer
Children of the Setting Sun Productions

Squi-le-he-le (aka 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. Her work for Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut (Toki/Tokitae), the famed orca, and to save her home waters, the Salish Sea, is the subject of the film, Resident Orca, being shown at Bioneers this year.

Panel Presentations:

Pre-Conference Event – Film Screening of Resident Orca

March 26th | 6:45 pm to 9:00 pm

Indigenous Forum – Shifting the Tides of Justice: Advancing the Rights of Fish and Aquatic Mammals

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

Co-Founder
Safer Made

Marty Mulvihill, Ph.D., a chemist and advisor at the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry (where he served as the initial Executive Director), has developed technologies and created safer chemicals and materials for the personal care, construction, electronics, and textile industries. He is also co-founder of and a managing partner in Safer Made, a mission-driven venture capital fund investing in companies and technologies that: reduce human exposure to harmful chemicals, bring safer products and technologies to market, tell a unique story, have the potential to change their sectors, and protect human health and the natural world.

Panel Presentations:

Living In the Toxic Soup: Solutions to the Legacy of Forever Chemicals

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

Designer and Grief Worker
Studio O

Liz Ogbu, a designer and grief worker, is an expert on transforming unjust urban environments. Her multidisciplinary design practice, Studio O, operates at the intersection of racial and “spatial” justice. She collaborates with/in communities in need to leverage design to address collective harm and catalyze community healing. Her honors include IDEO.org Global Fellow, Aspen Ideas Scholar, and Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Resident. Her TED Talks, which share a creative practice rooted in community wisdom and healing, have been viewed over a million times.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Practicing Joy and Grief in Challenging Times

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

Anthropologist

Kristi Onzik, Ph.D., a student of plants and an anthropologist of science, is currently doing ethnographic research exploring a small, interdisciplinary community of cutting-edge scientists working in the emerging and controversial field of Plant Neurobiology, Cognition, and Behavior (PNCB).

Panel Presentations:

The Vegetal Mind: From Plant Neurobiology to Panpsychism?

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Co-Executive Director
Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA)

Kahea Pacheco (Kanaka ’Ōiwi), Co-Executive Director of the Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA), is a passionate advocate for Indigenous people’s rights and climate justice that puts aloha ʻāina at the heart of solutions. She joined WEA in 2011 after receiving her law degree with a focus on Environmental and Federal Indian Law. With WEA, Kahea has facilitated legal advocacy partnerships for Indigenous women-led environmental campaigns and co-led the development of the “Violence on the Land, Violence on our Bodies” initiative. She also serves on the Advisory Councils for the World Economic Forum’s 1t.org and Daughters for Earth. (womensearthalliance.org)

Keynote Address:

Amira Diamond, Kahea Pacheco and Melinda Kramer (Women’s Earth Alliance) – Rising Together: Women’s Leadership for a Resilient Future

March 28th | 12:07 pm to 12:30 pm

Education and Stewardship Program Manager
Native American Land Conservancy

Elizabeth Paige, a desert naturalist, cultural educator, and member of the Torres Martinez Band of Cahuilla Indians, has extensive experience in public conservation lands management, volunteer organization, and restoration of Indigenous ecosystems. Currently the Education and Stewardship Program Manager for the Native American Land Conservancy, her team manages four preserves in California and provides educational programs and community outreach focused on Indigenous Land Management, collaborative restoration with local and state agencies, and reconnecting Native people with their cultural landscapes.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Indigenous Regenerative Land Management

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Co-Founder
Tech Critics Network

Koohan Paik-Mander, a journalist, author and peace and environmental activist, is a co-founder of the Tech Critics Network and serves on the board of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. Her articles appear in The Nation, The Progressive, Foreign Policy in Focus, and other publications. Her article “Whales Will Save the World’s Climate — Unless the Military Destroys Them First” was named by Project Censored as one of the top 25 censored stories of 2021-2022. She is also co-author of The Superferry Chronicles: Hawaii’s Uprising Against Militarism, Commercialism and the Desecration of the Earth.

Panel Presentations:

A.I. and the Ecocidal Hubris of Silicon Valley

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

Executive Director
For Freedoms & Center for Justice at UCLA

Claudia Peña, Executive Director of For Freedoms, an artist collective that centers art and creativity as a catalyst for transformative connection and collective liberation, serves on the faculty at UCLA School of Law and in that school’s Gender Studies Department. She is also the founding Co-Director of the Center for Justice at UCLA, home of the Prison Education Program, which creates innovative courses that enable faculty and students to learn from and alongside currently incarcerated participants. Claudia has devoted her life to justice work through community organizing, transformative and restorative justice, consciousness-raising across silos, coalition-building, teaching, advocacy through law and policy, and the arts.

Introducing:

Baratunde Thurston – From Me to We, A Story of Interdependence

March 27th | Noon to 12:20 pm

Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity
University of Southern California

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:

Environmental Justice at a Difficult Crossroads

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 29th | 6:15 pm to 7:00 pm

Regional Director for North America and the Pacific
Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA)

Daniela Perez, originally from Tijuana, is the Regional Director for North America and the Pacific at Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA), overseeing programs in the U.S., U.S. Territories and Mexico that advance women’s leadership, climate justice, social equity, grassroots capacity-building, mentorship, network building, gender equity, and community resilience. With over a decade in the nonprofit sector and a proven track record in regenerative agriculture, food sovereignty, health equity, and gender and climate justice, Daniela excels at facilitating transformative dialogues, coalition-building, and leadership development for systemic change.

Panel Presentations:

Thriving Together: How Women-Led, Community-Based Solutions Are Transforming Our Planet

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

Musician, Storyteller and Cultural Educator

Grayhawk Perkins, a renowned musician, storyteller, and cultural educator whose work has earned him recognition as a living treasure of Louisiana, is an internationally recognized authority on Southeastern Native American and Colonial history who regularly shares his knowledge at festivals, museums, and educational institutions. Grayhawk, whose music blends blues, jazz, and Indigenous rhythms and who has performed widely in Louisiana and in Europe, is also an accomplished educator, teaching visual and performing arts through artist residencies in schools across Louisiana, engaging students in storytelling, songwriting, and mural creation, bringing history to life through creative expression.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Art and Healing—A Conversation with Joy Harjo and Cara Romero 

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

Founder and CEO
One Small Planet

Will Peterffy, the founder and CEO of One Small Planet, has spent his life building a bridge between the natural and financial worlds. His passion for nature and his innate understanding of systems thinking have shaped his vision for the future, and in 2020 he committed his full attention to building One Small Planet, his most comprehensive effort to create an authentically holistic, mission-first organization that works to promote solutions that bring the economy back in service to Life and to the health of our only home, our One Small Planet.

Panel Presentations:

Exploring Three Innovative Donor Networks

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Program Lead
Harvard's Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative

Rachael Petersen, MDiv, Program Lead for Harvard's Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative, an interdisciplinary exploration into how cutting-edge science on plants is challenging our notions of mind and matter, previously worked for a decade in environmental policy, with expertise in climate mitigation, forest protection, and Indigenous rights, conducting fieldwork in the Amazon, Borneo, and Arctic Canada. She served as Senior Advisor to National Geographic Society and founding Deputy Director of Global Forest Watch at the World Resources Institute. A writer and translator, her work has been published in many publications, including Aeon, The Sun, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Tricycle Magazine, Peripheries Poetry Journal, The Rumpus, The Outline.

Panel Presentations:

The Vegetal Mind: From Plant Neurobiology to Panpsychism?

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Senior Program Architect
Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA)

Sarita Pockell is Senior Program Architect at Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA), where she co-designs transformative programs that equip women environmental leaders with capacity, tools and networks to drive change in their communities. With a background in education for sustainability, Sarita uses a holistic approach to create immersive, collaborative learning experiences that support regenerative solutions to social and environmental challenges.  Before joining WEA, Sarita spent nearly seven years in curriculum leadership at Green School in Bali and has designed and implemented educational programs in Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Croatia, and Indonesia. A lifelong artist and storyteller, Sarita is also a musician, playwright, theater director, and devoted gardener and land-steward.

Panel Presentations:

Thriving Together: How Women-Led, Community-Based Solutions Are Transforming Our Planet

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

Director
Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter

Sarah Ranney, Director of the Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter, also chaired the Club’s Climate Literacy Committee and co-founded the California Youth Climate Policy Program. In 2024 she left a 20-year corporate career to devote her time to helping guide the chapter into its second century. A Berkeley resident and mother of two, Ranney champions environmental advocacy, climate justice, and coalition-building to expand the Sierra Club's local impact during this decisive decade for climate action.

Introducing:

Ben Jealous – A Green Economy Lifts All Boats

March 29th | 11:35 am to Noon

Environmental Journalist and Webcast Host
Sustain What

Andrew Revkin, a prize-winning environmental journalist and webcast host who has spent 40 years scouring the world to identify and convey sustainable human pathways, began reporting on global warming in 1988 and never stopped, filing dispatches from the North Pole, Amazon rainforest, White House, etc., including 20 years at The New York Times (14 as a reporter and 6 as an online commentator through his groundbreaking Dot Earth blog). Andy also served on the Anthropocene Working Group and helped build programs, curricula and initiatives at the National Academy of Sciences, Columbia and Pace universities, and the National Geographic Society, where he has been a member of the Committee on Research and Exploration since 2018. Since 2020 he has run a live video webcast, Sustain What, that has reached several million viewers and included more than a thousand guests through some 550 episodes. Revkin is also a longtime performing songwriter and has written five books.

Panel Presentations:

Misinformation, “Truthiness,” and Critical Thinking: Seeing Through the Madness by Enhancing Media Literacy for All 

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

Co-Leader
Collaborative for Narrative Infrastructure

Jess Rimington is a next-economy strategist, practitioner, and scholar focused on supporting businesses and organizations to step out of extractive capitalism. She is co-author of Beloved Economies: Transforming How We Work –winner of the Porchlight’s Business Book Award in Management & Workplace Culture. She was Co-Director of the Beloved Economies research initiative from 2015-2022, and currently co-leads the Collaborative for Narrative Infrastructure –a 15-organization coalition that seeks to increase progressive movements’ storytelling capacities to help bring about shifts in how we work and build an economy that works for all.

Panel Presentations:

Community Wealth Building: A Conversation with Beloved Economies, Full Spectrum Capital Partners, and The Guild 

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 29th | 6:15 pm to 7:00 pm

Managing Director
Yellow Dot Studios

Staci Roberts-Steele is the Managing Director of Yellow Dot Studios, a non-profit media studio founded by Academy Award-winning writer, director, and producer Adam McKay that seeks to raise awareness and mobilize action on the climate emergency by creating entertaining, memorable, and scientifically accurate digital media and videos that challenge the decades of disinformation pushed by big oil. Previously Co-Producer at Hyperobject Industries, Staci has also acted in many shows including Parks and Recreation, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, 90210, and in the film Vice as well as produced numerous political and comedy videos at Funny or Die.

Panel Presentations:

May the Farce Be with You… Climate Comedy Is Good Medicine

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

Field Coordinator
Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance

Jordan Reyes (tribal member of the Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians, affiliated as Lake Miwok with descendancy from Round Valley tribes, affiliated as Yuki, Little Lake, and Wailak) is a land steward with a background in tribal Government, including working on historic preservation and serving on the Tribal Gaming Regulatory Commission and the Tribal Council. He currently serves as the Field Coordinator with the Tribal Eco-Restoration Alliance, where his main priority is bridging the gaps between tribes, agencies and the wider community to better understand each other and work together in stewarding the land.

Panel Presentations:

Indigenous Forum – Indigenous Regenerative Land Management

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Assistant Professor
University of Texas at Arlington

Luke Roelofs is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, working on the ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology of consciousness. Their first book, Combining Minds (2019), explores the possibility that minds in general, and the human mind in particular, might be collectives of many mental parts. Their more recent work has explored the possibility of conscious minds outside humans and animals, the mechanisms of imagination, and the role of empathy in morality.

Panel Presentations:

The Vegetal Mind: From Plant Neurobiology to Panpsychism?

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Co-Founder
Sustainable Progress and Equality Collective (SPEC)

Rhianna C. Rogers, Ph.D., is a global leader in digital equity, public policy, and interdisciplinary research with 20+ years’ experience in the federal, academic, and non-profit sectors. Formerly the Biden-Harris Administration's Counselor to the Assistant Secretary for Management and Chief DEIA Officer at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, she led initiatives in diversity, AI policy, and digital equity. Also a co-founder of the Sustainable Progress and Equality Collective (SPEC), former Director of RAND's Center to Advance Racial Equity Policy, and an Ernest Boyer Presidential Fellow at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, she has spearheaded multimillion-dollar research and community-engagement projects on equity in technology, health, infrastructure, and education.

Panel Presentations:

Achieving Digital Inclusion for Social Equity and a Clean, Green Future

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

Executive Director
Louisiana Center for Children's Rights

Kristen Rome, JD, a Louisiana-based attorney, doula, and writer, currently serves as Executive Director of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, a client-centered nonprofit law office that represents youth in the juvenile and criminal legal systems. A proud native of New Orleans and a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, Kristen received her Juris Doctor from Loyola University of New Orleans’ College of Law. (lakidsrights.org)

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Restoring Justice: Ecological Teachings for Evolving Youth Justice

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

Biomimicry and Justice

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

Young Leaders Program – Community of Mentors with Kristen Rome, Cymone Fuller and Ghani Songster: Advancing Youth Justice

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Program Director, Bioneers Indigeneity Program
Bioneers

Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), 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 – Art and Healing—A Conversation with Joy Harjo and Cara Romero 

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

Introducing:

Joy Harjo

March 28th | 11:30 am to 11:55 am

Communications Director
Future Caucus

Elizabeth Rosen, Communications Director for Future Caucus, the largest nonpartisan organization of young lawmakers in the U.S., previously supported global democracy movements with Freedom House, mobilized young voters with NextGen America, worked on public diplomacy at NATO, and held numerous odd jobs, including ski instructing in Park City, pizza delivery in Fort Myers Beach, and fact-checking for a New York Times writer in Paris.

Panel Presentations:

Civic Participation and Running for Office: From Inspiration to Action

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

Interactive Session – Catalyst for Change—Building Personal Roadmaps for Civic Participation

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

Founder
ReParentive Therapy

Pamela Rosin, MFT, the founder of ReParentive Therapy (an intergenerational trauma healing model), is an adjunct faculty member at the Integral Counseling Psychology Department at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and a Certified Hakomi Therapist who utilizes experientially-based modalities and a synergy of Buddhist and Somatic psychologies to cultivate healing in her patients. In her therapy, teaching and leading of groups, Pamela draws from her extensive and varied background, which apart from her formal studies, includes professional acting, a decade as a bodyworker, and many years of teaching Shakespeare in prison.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Responsive Leadership and Fractals of Healing: Mending Toxic Spirals in Our Bodies, Communities and Planet

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

Social Change Facilitator

Kristin Rothballer, a social change facilitator working at the intersection of personal, social and ecological healing and transformation, consults on strategy, programs, equity and organizational development for nonprofits, foundations, and social and land-based enterprises, while also serving as a Senior Fellow with the Center for Whole Communities Collective and a guide for Ecology of Awakening. She also co-founded and was Managing Director of Green for All; helped design FIREROCK, a musical to engage people around climate change; and has led the development and management of earth-based retreat centers, including Whispertree (formerly Bell Valley Retreat ) and Tunitas Creek Ranch. Kristin, a former Director of Programs at Bioneers, has also stewarded the Tyler Rigg Foundation for 20+ years, and serves on the Board of Keep Tahoe Blue.

Panel Presentations:

Queering Kinship:  Widening the Lens of Liberation and Belonging

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 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:

Building International Solidarity to Protect Tropical Forests and Climate

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

Co-Founder
From Soil to Soul Documentary Series

Ankur Shah, born in Mumbai where he witnessed food insecurity and pollution firsthand, is a geospatial data scientist using satellite data to assess climate hazards and environmental issues and is the Director of Operations at Mycelium, where he has designed sustainable food systems and taught workshops on food resilience. Currently studying biomimicry at Arizona State University, Ankur is also co-founder of the From Soil to Soul documentary series, the pilot episode of which, Food Justice in LA, is being shown at Bioneers this year.

Introducing:

Film Screening: Food Justice in LA

March 28th | 8:35 pm to 9:00 pm

Public Health and Lifestyle Medicine Professional

Nisha Arcadia Shah, MDiv, MPH, RDN, a public health and lifestyle medicine professional, social movement and eco-chaplain, literary activist, and doctoral student in transformative studies, works on projects supporting literary, health, and social change initiatives and specializes in lifestyle research. She is also an avid land walker, backyard farmer, voracious reader, nature lover, and library volunteer.

Panel Presentations:

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

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

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

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

Tending Our Grief: A Conversation and Ritual

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Founder
Santa Cruz Permaculture and the UCSC Right Livelihood College

David Shaw, a whole systems designer, facilitator, educator, and musician, founded Santa Cruz Permaculture and the UCSC Right Livelihood College, a partnership with the “Alternative Nobel Prize.” He supports communities locally and globally to transform their shared future through strategic dialogue and collective action.

Panel Presentations:

Community Conversations: Compassionate Bridging for Genuine Ecological and Social Transformation

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Community Conversations – Toxic Homelands: On the Frontlines of Ecological Grief, Anxiety & Action

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

CANCELLED – Palestine: A Community Conversation & Healing Circle

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm

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:

Nina Simons – Remembering our Inter-relatedness to Navigate Dangerous Times

March 27th | 9:35 am to 9:50 am

Welcome by Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons, Bioneers founders

March 27th | 9:15 am to 9:30 am

Welcome by Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons, Bioneers founders

March 28th | 9:10 am to 9:17 am

Welcome by Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons, Bioneers founders

March 29th | 9:10 am to 9:20 am

Panel Presentations:

Sacred Activism: Reimagining Awakened Action

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

Introducing:

Amira Diamond, Kahea Pacheco and Melinda Kramer (Women’s Earth Alliance) – Rising Together: Women’s Leadership for a Resilient Future

March 28th | 12:07 pm to 12:30 pm

Katsi Cook – Matrilineal World-Making: Embracing for Impact

March 27th | 10:15 am to 10:40 am

Development Manager
Biomimicry Institute

Kat Sitnikova is Development Manager at the Biomimicry Institute, where she engages that organization’s supporters in advancing nature-inspired solutions to our most pressing environmental challenges. She is also an organizer and facilitator working at the intersection of self-awareness, community connection and nature-centric design who lives in a land-based intentional community rooted in cooperative living, shared decision-making, authentic relating, and holistic land stewardship.

Panel Presentations:

Bringing Biomimicry into Action

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

Co-Founder
The Harry Potter Alliance

Andrew Slack is a narrative strategist and former sketch comedian whose campaigns have mobilized a number of celebrities, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, and Meryl Streep, to advance pro-democracy, climate, and Indigenous rights efforts globally. A co-founder of the Harry Potter Alliance (for which he was named an Ashoka Fellow), Andrew inspired 1 million+ fans to become first-time activists. His work has driven international action, influencing heads of state and legislative bodies to address some of the most pressing issues of our time. His videos, including Save Santa’s Home, based on a children’s book he co-authored about the climate crisis, have garnered 100 million+ views.

Panel Presentations:

May the Farce Be with You… Climate Comedy Is Good Medicine

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

Chief Operating Officer & Philanthropic Lead
One Small Planet

Bradley Smith, an environmental scientist by training and community bridge-builder and facilitator by experience, is the Chief Operating Officer & Philanthropic Lead at One Small Planet. He has worked on climate and resilience issues at the local government level, international outdoor and traditional education, and operating his own business as a death doula for a decade, and is now focusing his efforts on resourcing a “movement of movements.”

Introducing:

Haley Mellin – Creativity, Courage and Conservation

March 27th | 11:30 am to 11:58 am

Transformative Healing & Restorative Justice Manager
Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth (CFSY)

Kempis ‘Ghani’ Songster who spent 30 years in prison starting at age 15, is the Transformative Healing & Restorative Justice Manager for the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth (CFSY), which seeks to: “Catalyze the just and equitable treatment of children in the United States by demanding a ban on life without parole and other extreme sentences for children…and create opportunities for formerly incarcerated youth to thrive as adults and lead in their communities.” A founding member of Right to Redemption, the Redemption Project, and the Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration (CADBI), as well as a co-founder and director of Ubuntu Philadelphia, Ghani has emerged, since his release in 2017, as an outspoken voice in Philadelphia’s movement to create transformative, restorative responses to harm and violence, including as leader of Philadelphia’s first Restorative Justice Diversion program for youth, Healing Futures.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Restoring Justice: Ecological Teachings for Evolving Youth Justice

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

Young Leaders Program – Community of Mentors with Kristen Rome, Cymone Fuller and Ghani Songster: Advancing Youth Justice

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

CEO
The Biomimicry Institute

Amanda Sturgeon, FAIA, an award-winning architect, author and thought leader, is the CEO of The Biomimicry Institute, where she fosters a thriving eco-system of innovators, educators and change-makers to bring about a world that works in harmony with nature and natural systems.  Her previous roles have included: inaugural CEO of Built by Nature; Regenerative Design Lead at global consultancy Mott MacDonald; and CEO of the International Living Future Institute. She currently serves on the board of Climate Action Network Australia, is on the Biophilic Cities Advisory Group, and is the author of Creating Biophilic Buildings.

Director of Sustainability and Strategic Sourcing
TCHO Chocolate

Laura Ann Sweitzer, who grew up on a farm in the Midwest and is passionate about sustainability, equity, and flavor in food, is Director of Sustainability and Strategic Sourcing at TCHO Chocolate, a Berkeley-headquartered Fair Trade, B Corp certified company, where she manages “TCHO Source,” the firm’s unique program for addressing challenges in the cocoa supply chain, working directly with farmers, cooperatives and scientists in Africa and South America. Prior to joining TCHO in 2014, Sweitzer spent 5 years working on coffee quality improvement projects in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Panel Presentations:

Chocolate Rebellion: Creating a Global Value Chain Based on Economic Justice 

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

House Majority Leader
New Mexico House of Representatives

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:

Civic Participation and Running for Office: From Inspiration to Action

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

Coordinator
California Farmer Justice Collaborative

Minkah Taharkah is a multidisciplinary artist, environmental justice advocate, land steward, and designer from Leimert Park in Los Angeles, CA. She is the Coordinator for the California Farmer Justice Collaborative, where she supports BIPOC growers across the state to get access to resources and build connections,  as well as Director of Land + Programming with the Butterfly Movement and a co-facilitator with the B Healthy B Holistic Consultancy.

Panel Presentations:

Young Leaders Program – Youth of Color Caucus

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

Marine Biologist

Katlyn Taylor, a marine biologist who works as a naturalist, guide, and U.S. Coast Guard licensed captain, has a driving passion for marine mammals and facilitating meaningful experiences with them all over the world. She got her start working in ecotourism in Monterey CA before following the whales seasonally around the U.S. and beyond and has guided expeditions in the polar regions for several years giving lectures about marine mammals and guiding people in remote areas. While in Monterey she worked for several years with the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council’s vessel disturbance working group at NOAA, served on the Monterey Sustainable Hospitality Collective, and served on the board of the American Cetacean Society’s Monterey Bay Chapter. She is also the co-creator of The Whalenerd’s Podcast and co-author/co-editor of the 2024 book Wild Monterey Bay.

Panel Presentations:

Defending the Living World

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Co-Founder
From Soil to Soul Documentary Series

Margaret To, a Los Angeles-based multimedia artist and filmmaker, is the founder of Studio SAKA, a creative studio dedicated to social impact and climate education, and co-leads the LA Chapter of Climate Designers, hosting community events and curating climate resources, jobs, and volunteer opportunities for the LA community. She is a co-founder of the From Soil to Soul documentary series, the pilot episode of which, Food Justice in LA, is being shown at Bioneers this year.

Introducing:

Film Screening: Food Justice in LA

March 28th | 8:35 pm to 9:00 pm

Program Manager
ETC Group

Soledad Vogliano is an Argentina-based Program Manager at the ETC Group, a small international research and action collective committed to social and environmental justice, human rights and the defense of the web of life. For the last 4 years, she has been developing ETC’s program on Digitalization, coordinating capacity building and strategic outreach locally and internationally. Before ETC, Soledad worked for years with Ecuadorian Indigenous and peasant movements on the defense of territories, biodiversity and rights. Also passionate about agroecological education, she has developed several initiatives for local food production and community-led communications.

Panel Presentations:

A.I. and the Ecocidal Hubris of Silicon Valley

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

Author and Consultant

Maija Danilova West, a retired attorney, author, and consultant with 25+ years’ experience advising nonprofits, businesses, tribes, and government agencies, specializes in utilizing reconciliation strategies to foster strong agreements within diverse communities. Her Latvian heritage has deeply influenced her leadership vision, emphasizing the importance of relationships, traditions, and honoring life's transitions. This cultural grounding, combined with her extensive professional experience, informs her work as a peacemaker.  Maija's recent book, "Matriarch Makeover, a 30-Day Invitation," is an ecological call to action for women leaders.

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Modern Matriarchy: Remembering our Kinship with the Earth

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Book Signings with Pegasus Books

March 29th | 4:30 pm to 5:15 pm

Activist
Rural Roots Louisiana

Skye Williams, a soon-to-be graduate of Donaldsonville High School in Louisiana is an activist with the Environmental Justice, Eco-Literacy, Earth-care advocacy and community-building organization, Rural Roots Louisiana. Skye plans a career in nursing as well as Environmental Justice activism.

Panel Presentations:

Community Conversations – Toxic Homelands: On the Frontlines of Ecological Grief, Anxiety & Action

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

Lead Advisor
Third Act

Akaya Windwood, a widely renowned, highly experienced, award-winning activist, leadership trainer and facilitator who served as President of the Rockwood Leadership Institute for ten years, is the founder of the New Universal Wisdom and Leadership Institute, which centers human wisdom in the wisdom of brown womxn. She is also: on the faculty of the Just Economy Institute; Lead Advisor at Third Act; and director of the Thriving Roots Fund. Akaya is the author of: Leading with Joy: Practices for Uncertain Times (2022).

Panel Presentations:

Interactive Session – Practicing Joy and Grief in Challenging Times

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

Introducing:

Bill McKibben – Back to the Wall, Face to the Sun

March 29th | 9:45 am to 10:10 am

Co-Founder and Executive Director
One Earth

Justin Winters is the co-founder and Executive Director of One Earth, a nonprofit organization that works to prove that we can solve the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss through three pillars of collective action: renewable energy, nature conservation, and regenerative agriculture. One Earth generates educational content, inspiring storytelling, and innovative digital tools to equip people to drive change across Earth’s 185 Bioregions. Prior to One Earth, Justin served as Executive Director of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, where she built the organization’s grant-making program that awarded over $100 million in grants across 60 countries, and grew its digital media community to 80 million followers. Justin’s goal has always been to use a collaborative, inclusive, and entrepreneurial approach to build a broad public movement of engaged change-makers to help solve the climate crisis and build a just future for all.

Panel Presentations:

Going Globalocal: Bioregional Climate Action Strategies

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

Director
The Borneo Project

Jettie Word has dedicated her career to empowering rural communities globally, advocating for environmental justice and addressing threats to livelihoods and resources. Since 2014, she has led The Borneo Project, which works to advance Indigenous managed forest protection in Sarawak. Previously, she worked with the Oakland Institute, supporting community-driven land rights campaigns in Papua New Guinea and Senegal. She began her journey in social justice at a community education program in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Panel Presentations:

Building International Solidarity to Protect Tropical Forests and Climate

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

Artist

Carrie Ziegler, an international artist and leader in collaborative art initiatives, seeks to harness the collective power of art to drive social and environmental transformation. Through her Art in Action initiatives, she collaborates with local governments, organizations, and educational institutions to create multi-dimensional works that blend participant creativity with pressing societal issues, inspiring active engagement to bring communities together to create lasting change. The Chrysalis Project, now a global initiative, initially contributed to the passing of the Thurston County, WA, Climate Mitigation Plan, and the Plastic Whale Project played a pivotal role in the successful passing of a local ban on single-use plastic bags.

Panel Presentations:

Young Leaders Program – The Chrysalis Project: Collaborative Art-Making to Drive Social Change

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

Young Leaders Program – Chrysalis Collaborative Art Project Drop-in Sessions

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

Young Leaders Program – Chrysalis Collaborative Art Project Drop-in Sessions

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm