Director | Othering and Belonging Institute

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

Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy | Georgetown University

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

Faculty Member and Clinician | University of Florida

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

Founder and Executive Director | Breast Friends Lactation and Support Services

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

Communications Strategist

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

Emergency Room and Pediatric RN

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

Executive Director | Amazon Watch

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

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

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

CA Policy Consultant

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

Senator | State of California

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

Managing Director | Nutrient Density Initiative

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

Restorative Food Systems Director | Bioneers

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

Executive Director | Bionutrient Food Association

Bio coming soon.

Renowned First-Nations Actor and Musician

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

Filmmaker and Author | Sugarcane

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

Award-Winning Artist

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

Executive Director | Bioneers

Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), Executive Director and Program Director of the Bioneers Indigeneity Program, previously served her Mojave-based tribe in several capacities, including as: first Executive Director at the Chemehuevi Cultural Center, a member of the tribal council, and Chair of the Chemehuevi Education Board and Chemeuevi Headstart Policy Council. Cara is also a highly accomplished photographer/artist.

Justice, Equality and Public Health Activist

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

Co-Director | New Public

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

Councilmember | Oakland City Council

Bio coming soon.

Principal | JG Insights

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

Senior Program Advisor | Earth Island Institute

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

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

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

Community Engagement Program Director | Ecology Center

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

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

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

Executive Director | Ecology Center

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

Founder | Center for Food, Faith & Justice

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

Executive Director | Healthy Black Families

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

Indigenous Rights Advocate

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

Bio coming soon.

| Klamath Tribes Youth Council

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

Youth Council Secretary | Klamath Tribes

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

Social-Media Director | Klamath Tribes Youth Council

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

Youth Paddler

Bio coming soon.

Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy | Georgetown University

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

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

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

Assistant Professor of Law | UC Irvine School of Law

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

Artist, Chef, Publisher and Author

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

Farmer, Food Sovereignty Activist and Educator

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

Director | Equity Research Institute at USC

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

Co-Founder | United We Dream

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

Author, Advocate, Consultant and Educator

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

Chief Research and Program Officer | Pacific Institute

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

President and CEO | We the People of Detroit

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

Assistant Professor | Stanford University

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

Co-Founder | United We Dream

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

Founder and Executive Director | Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA)

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

Director | Equity Research Institute at USC

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

Executive Director | Chinese Progressive Association

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

Senior Attorney | Earthjustice

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

Managing Director, Lands, Nature | NRDC

Bio coming soon.

Executive Director | Global Alliance for the Future of Food

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

Activist, Journalist, and Filmmaker

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

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

Activist, Journalist, and Filmmaker

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

Farmer, Food Sovereignty Activist and Educator

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

Founder and Executive Director | Civil Eats

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

| Rural Roots Louisiana

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

Social Media Manager and Videographer | Recycle Hawai'i

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

| Recycle Hawaii

Bio coming soon.

Founder | Spiritual Social Medicinal Apothecary (SSoMA)

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

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.

Founder | Somatic Scribing Lab

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

Founder and Executive Director | Braided Wisdom

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

Author, Community Organizer, Speaker and Facilitator

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

Facilitator, Educator, and Activist

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

Facilitator and Network Builder

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

Executive Director | Global Center for Indigenous Leadership & Lifeways

Shay Sloan Clarke, a practitioner of rites of passage, sharing circles, and embodied anti-racist practice, as well as a guide, trainer, convenor, facilitator, consultant, and educator, was previously founding Director of the Indigenous & Community Lands & Seas program for The WILD Foundation and the World Wilderness Congress and Executive Co-Director of The Ojai Foundation. She currently serves as Executive Director for the Global Center for Indigenous Leadership & Lifeways and is co-editor of: Protecting Wild Nature on Native Lands, and co-author of: Cross-Cultural Protocols in Rites of Passage: Guiding Principles, Themes and Inquiry.

President | One Fair Wage

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

Founder in Residence | PolicyLink

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

Activist, Journalist, and Filmmaker

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