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.

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.

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.

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.

President | TU AMAZONÍA Foundation

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

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)

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.

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

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

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.

Councilmember | Oakland City Council

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

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.

Product Director, Public Spaces Incubator | New_ Public

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

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.

Co-Convenor | Gray Panthers Berkeley-East Bay

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

Founder and Editor | The Lever

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

Host | KALW’s Your Call

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

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.

First Descent Youth Paddler

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

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.

First Descent Youth Paddler

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

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.

Development and Partnership Director | San Francisco Public Press

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

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.

Indigenous Youth Climate Leader

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

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.

Development and Partnership Director | San Francisco Public Press

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

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.

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

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

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.

Senior Advisor | Chinese Progressive Association

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

Founder and Director | Herring Protectors

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

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

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

Events and Gatherings Producer | Children of the Setting Sun Productions

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

Co-Director, Indigeneity Program | Bioneers

Alexis Bunten, Ph.D., (Aleut/Yup’ik), Co-Director of Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program, has been a researcher, media-maker, manager, consultant, and curriculum developer for organizations including the Sealaska Heritage Institute, Alaska Native Heritage Center, and the FrameWorks Institute. She has published widely about Indigenous and environmental issues, and is the author of So, how long have you been Native?: Life as an Alaska Native Tour Guide.

Professor of Law | Fordham Law School

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

Technology Journalist and Science Fiction Author

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

Freelance Writer

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

Science and Environmental Health Network | Science Director

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

Senior Scientist | Science and Environmental Health Network

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

Senior Attorney | Earthjustice

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

Managing Director, Lands, Nature | NRDC

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

Oceans Program Director | Center for Biological Diversity

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

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).

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.

Indigeneity Special Programs Coordinator | Bioneers

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

Leading Indigenous Rights Advocate and Attorney

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

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.

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

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

Co-Founder | Taproot Earth

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

Owner and Lead Artist | Phoenix Rose Artistry LLC

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

Elder Advisor | SpiritHouse

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

Healer, Educator and Grandmother

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

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 | Nourishing Futures

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

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.