Thursday, March 27th
Welcome to The Chrysalis Project, an immersive workshop designed to ignite personal transformation and foster leadership through dynamic, collaborative artmaking. We’ll dive into wire-sculpting and reflective writing in which we weave our unique stories into a collaborative art piece. This workshop isn’t just about learning a craft, it’s about embracing our roles as leaders and change-makers in our communities. As we twist and shape wire, we’ll also weave connections with other young visionaries, collaboratively crafting art and a collective vision. Come discover how the act of making can shift us from passive onlookers to active creators of our futures. No artistic experience necessary. With Chrysalis creator Carrie Ziegler.
NOTE: This workshop will initiate the art project, which will continue with drop-in sessions on Friday & Saturday for youth to continue working on the collaborative project throughout the conference weekend.
March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Kinzie Room, Brower Center
Panelists
Carrie Ziegler
Artist
Carrie Ziegler, an international artist and leader in collaborative art initiatives, seeks to harness the collective power of art to drive social and environmental transformation. Through her Art in Action initiatives, she collaborates with local governments, organizations, and educational institutions to create multi-dimensional works that blend participant creativity with pressing societal issues, inspiring active engagement to bring communities together to create lasting change. The Chrysalis Project, now a global initiative, initially contributed to the passing of the Thurston County, WA, Climate Mitigation Plan, and the Plastic Whale Project played a pivotal role in the successful passing of a local ban on single-use plastic bags.
California has long served as a leading edge laboratory for innovative endeavors across many sectors. Building on the state’s history of leading the nation by implementing visionary environmental policies, California has enacted a suite of legislation in recent years that firmly put conservation and Nature-based Solutions at the center of the effort to mitigate and adapt to a rapidly changing climate. Given the situation at the federal level today, these bold efforts from the fifth largest economy on earth are even more essential as a model moving forward. Learn how the state is attempting to put nature first, about the challenges inherent in this work, and the incredible progress already being made. With: Clesi Bennett, Senior Environmental Scientist at the California Natural Resources Agency; Torri Estrada, Executive Director and Director of Policy at the Carbon Cycle Institute; and Juan Altamirano, Director of Government Affairs at The Trust for Public Land. Moderated by Ellie Cohen, CEO of the Climate Center.
March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Magnes Museum
Panelists
Torri Estrada
Executive Director and Director of Policy | Carbon Cycle Institute
Torri Estrada, who has worked to advance solutions to social and environmental justice, climate, and environmental issues for 30+ years, is the Executive Director at the Carbon Cycle Institute, where he directs its policy and climate justice work. Torri’s previous roles include: Program Director at the Marin Community Foundation; Program Officer at the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program; co-founder and a Senior Policy Fellow with the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water; and Program Director at Urban Habitat.
Ellie Cohen
CEO | The Climate Center
Ellie Cohen, a longtime, award-winning leader in catalyzing cross-boundary, collaborative, and just responses to the climate crisis, is CEO of The Climate Center and oversees the collaborative Climate-Safe California campaign which seeks to achieve state-wide net-negative emissions as soon as possible. Before joining The Climate Center, Ellie served for 20 years as President and CEO of Point Blue Conservation Science where she and the organization’s 160 scientists developed climate-smart conservation solutions for wildlife and people.
Clesi Bennett
Senior Environmental Scientist | California Natural Resources Agency
Clesi Bennett, an Environmental Program Manager working on climate change issues at the California Natural Resources Agency, manages that agency’s nature-based solutions portfolio, including its Climate Targets and Climate Smart Lands strategies. Clesi, who has been with the agency since 2017 working on issues related to climate change, coastal zone management, environmental justice, and outdoor access, previously worked on coastal resilience, sustainable agriculture, and energy in the non-profit and academic sectors.
Juan Altamirano
Director of Government Affairs | The Trust for Public Land
Juan Altamirano, the Director of Government Affairs for the Trust for Public Land, oversees that organization’s policies that enhance public access to land and parks and works to forge partnerships with government agencies and stakeholders to advance initiatives that protect and expand public spaces. His extensive background in public policy and his passion for conservation have driven a number of successful campaigns across various levels of government.
Let’s get serious. Life is a carnival and people sure is strange. Human folly is bottomless, and in this moment of existential climate dread, laughter is good medicine. When the Empire has no clothes, it’s open season on paradigm-busting and retiring tired old archetypes. Join this irreverent circle of satirists directing gallows humor toward a habitable, glutton-free world. Stand-up for your rights… Hosted by Andrew Slack, actor/comedian and co-founder of the Harry Potter Alliance. With author, humorist, and climate activist Andrew Boyd; Staci Roberts-Steele, Managing Director of Yellow Dot Studios; another panelist TBA.
March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
Panelists
Andrew Slack
Co-Founder | The Harry Potter Alliance
Andrew Slack is a narrative strategist and former sketch comedian whose campaigns have mobilized a number of celebrities, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, and Meryl Streep, to advance pro-democracy, climate, and Indigenous rights efforts globally. A co-founder of the Harry Potter Alliance (for which he was named an Ashoka Fellow), Andrew inspired 1 million+ fans to become first-time activists. His work has driven international action, influencing heads of state and legislative bodies to address some of the most pressing issues of our time. His videos, including Save Santa’s Home, based on a children’s book he co-authored about the climate crisis, have garnered 100 million+ views.
Andrew Boyd
Co-Founder and Chief Existential Officer | The Climate Clock
Andrew Boyd, an author, humorist, and climate activist, is co-founder and CEO (Chief Existential Officer) of the Climate Clock, a global campaign that melds art, science, technology, and grassroots organizing to get the world to #ActInTime. Boyd also co-created the grief-storytelling ritual the Climate Ribbon; founded the art-activist toolbox Beautiful Trouble; and led the 2000s-era satirical campaign “Billionaires for Bush.” His most recent book is I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope and Gallows Humor.
Staci Roberts-Steele
Managing Director | Yellow Dot Studios
Staci Roberts-Steele is the Managing Director of Yellow Dot Studios, a non-profit media studio founded by Academy Award-winning writer, director, and producer Adam McKay that seeks to raise awareness and mobilize action on the climate emergency by creating entertaining, memorable, and scientifically accurate digital media and videos that challenge the decades of disinformation pushed by big oil. Previously Co-Producer at Hyperobject Industries, Staci has also acted in many shows including Parks and Recreation, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, 90210, and in the film Vice as well as produced numerous political and comedy videos at Funny or Die.
Told through the eyes of Grammy-nominated DJ and marine biologist Jayda Guy and accompanied by a great musical score, Blue Carbon is an environmental feature documentary that spins music, science and an appreciation for world culture into a vibrant call to action to protect the planet. Blue carbon refers to coastal habitats—mangroves, salt marshes and sea grass—that soak up copious amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, while protecting coastal communities from rising seas and powerful storms. A clear-eyed look at what’s at stake that offers tangible solutions and hope that we can boost nature’s ability to heal itself, the film tracks Jayda’s quest to uncover blue carbon’s potential on a global adventure across six countries and five continents from Senegal to Colombia to Vietnam.
Blue Carbon is a Make Waves and HHMI Tangled Bank Studios production directed by Emmy/BAFTA-winning filmmaker Nicolas Brown; executive-produced by a team including Sarah Macdonald and Sean B. Carroll; supported by Conservation International and other funders. (Running time: 84 minutes)
March 27th | 9:00 pm to 10:30 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
Friday, March 28th
Join Chrysalis creator Carrie Ziegler and fellow Bioneers youth for a session of collaborative wire-sculpture artmaking. This relaxed, hands-on session is a perfect way to unwind, connect with peers, and engage in a creative, collective experience. Dive in at any stage and help bring our community project to completion by the conference’s end. No prior workshop attendance or experience required.
March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Terrace outside Tamalpais Room, Brower Center
Panelists
Carrie Ziegler
Artist
Carrie Ziegler, an international artist and leader in collaborative art initiatives, seeks to harness the collective power of art to drive social and environmental transformation. Through her Art in Action initiatives, she collaborates with local governments, organizations, and educational institutions to create multi-dimensional works that blend participant creativity with pressing societal issues, inspiring active engagement to bring communities together to create lasting change. The Chrysalis Project, now a global initiative, initially contributed to the passing of the Thurston County, WA, Climate Mitigation Plan, and the Plastic Whale Project played a pivotal role in the successful passing of a local ban on single-use plastic bags.
3:00 pm: Linking Global and Local: A Just Transitions Roundtable
Co-hosted by the Othering and Belonging Institute (OBI)
In this interactive breakout session, participants will explore the intersection of global and local, national and international Climate Justice movements, focusing on Just Transition principles and strategies demonstrated in Richmond, California and OBI’s African Just Transitions project. This roundtable discussion will draw from OBI’s Climate Justice Principles to foster dialogue on how these distinct efforts on different continents share common goals and challenges. Using a conversational, inclusive format, the session will highlight community-driven solutions, economic transformations, and the importance of accountability to those most impacted by the climate crisis. Hosted by Eli Moore, researcher and facilitator with the Othering and Belonging Institute. With Fadhel Kaboub, associate professor of economics at Denison University and President of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity; Elsadig Elsheikh, Director of the Global Justice Program at the Othering & Belonging Institute; Luna Angulo, a political and environmental justice activist.
March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
Panelists
Eli Moore
Researcher and Facilitator | Othering and Belonging Institute
Eli Moore is a researcher and facilitator with the Othering and Belonging Institute where he leads transformative research processes with community-based organizations and networks. His recent work has focused on community-driven Just Transition planning, co-governance and community ownership, and a belonging economy as these frameworks apply to housing, local economies, and ecosystems.
Fadhel Kaboub
President | Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity
Fadhel Kaboub, Ph.D., an expert on designing public policies to enhance economic sovereignty, build resilience, and promote equitable and sustainable prosperity in the Global South, is an associate professor of economics at Denison University and President of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity. Dr. Kaboub has held a number of research affiliations with major institutions in Africa and the U.S. and is an active member of several global commissions and initiatives, including the Independent Expert Group on Just Transition and Development, and the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. His most recent co-authored publication is Just Transition: A Climate, Energy, and Development Vision for Africa (May 2023).
Elsadig Elsheikh
Global Justice Program Director | Othering & Belonging Institute
Elsadig Elsheikh, Global Justice Program Director at the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, oversees that program’s projects portfolio and conducts research focused on: global North-global South inequity, the socio-political dynamics of climate justice, food systems, Islamophobia, nation-state citizenship issues, the structural mechanisms of othering, and global expressions of belonging.
Luna Angulo
Political and Environmental Justice Activist
Luna Angulo, a political and environmental justice activist who grew up alongside Chevron’s notoriously toxic refinery in her hometown of Richmond, CA, now works to build a future free from fossil fuels by building grassroots political power for communities most harmed by the fossil fuel industry through civic engagement and mass civil disobedience. Luna, former Co-Chair of the Path to Clean Air Community Steering Committee, received the Sierra Club’s Emerging Voices Award in 2022.
3:00 pm: Thriving Together: How Women-Led, Community-Based Solutions Are Transforming Our Planet
Hosted by the Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA)
The Women’s Earth Alliance, a global alliance working at the intersection of gender justice and environmental resilience, has as its guiding principle that “When women thrive, the Earth thrives.” This session will highlight women-led, community-based solutions to the interconnected challenges of climate change, environmental degradation, and social inequity. Through storytelling, discussion, and collaborative art-making, participants will celebrate grassroots leadership and explore actionable pathways to build a just and sustainable future in which both people and the planet thrive. With:Daniela Perez, Regional Director for North America and the Pacific at WEA; Sarita Pockell, WEA’s Senior Program Architect; and WEA leaders Crystal Cavalier-Keck Ph.D., Tashanda Giles-Jones; Morning Star Gali; Lil Milagro Henriquez.
March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Magnes Museum
Panelists
Daniela Perez
Regional Director for North America and the Pacific | Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA)
Daniela Perez, originally from Tijuana, is the Regional Director for North America and the Pacific at Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA), overseeing programs in the U.S., U.S. Territories and Mexico that advance women’s leadership, climate justice, social equity, grassroots capacity-building, mentorship, network building, gender equity, and community resilience. With over a decade in the nonprofit sector and a proven track record in regenerative agriculture, food sovereignty, health equity, and gender and climate justice, Daniela excels at facilitating transformative dialogues, coalition-building, and leadership development for systemic change.
Sarita Pockell
Senior Program Architect | Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA)
Sarita Pockell is Senior Program Architect at Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA), where she co-designs transformative programs that equip women environmental leaders with capacity, tools and networks to drive change in their communities. With a background in education for sustainability, Sarita uses a holistic approach to create immersive, collaborative learning experiences that support regenerative solutions to social and environmental challenges. Before joining WEA, Sarita spent nearly seven years in curriculum leadership at Green School in Bali and has designed and implemented educational programs in Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Croatia, and Indonesia. A lifelong artist and storyteller, Sarita is also a musician, playwright, theater director, and devoted gardener and land-steward.
Crystal Cavalier-Keck
Co-Founder and CEO | 7 Directions of Service
Crystal Cavalier-Keck is co-founder and CEO of 7 Directions of Service (an Indigenous-led collective rooted in environmental justice and community organizing, operating on the ancestral homelands of the Occaneechi-Saponi in rural North Carolina) and of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women NC Coalition. An Adjunct Professor at Salem College, Crystal has extensive experience in the nonprofit and government sectors and has worked extensively with the Women’s Earth Alliance on a number of projects. She is also currently working toward a Master of Legal Studies in the Indigenous People’s Law Program at the University of Oklahoma School of Law.
Tashanda Giles-Jones
Co-Designer | Women’s Earth Alliance’s Black Girls/Green Futures Program
Tashanda Giles-Jones, an environmental educator cultivating a network of like-minded individuals, organizations and activists eager to support the learning and growth of urban youth in Los Angeles, develops human impact lessons adapted for her student population and provides engaging learning activities through garden-based education. She has volunteered and held positions with several nonprofit fundraising, leadership, and youth committees, and, most recently, Tashanda has been co-designing and implementing the Women’s Earth Alliance’s Black Girls/Green Futures Program in South Los Angeles.
Morning Star Gali
Director | Indigenous Justice
Morning Star Gali, a member of the Ajumawi band of the Pit River Tribe in Northeastern California, is the Director of Indigenous Justice and has served for 16 years as the California Tribal and Community Liaison for the International Indian Treaty Council, dedicated to advancing the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous Peoples. Her work focuses on the recognition and protection of Indigenous rights, treaties, traditional cultures, the fate of missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW), climate and gender justice, and the preservation of sacred places. Morning Starr is also currently a Design Team member for Women’s Earth Alliance North America Programs.
Lil Milagro Henriquez
Founder | Mycelium Youth Network
Lil Milagro Henriquez, M.A. (detribalized Nahuat Pipil), a 20-year, multiple award-winning social and environmental justice activism veteran, founded Mycelium Youth Network, a renowned organization dedicated to preparing and empowering frontline youth for climate change, in 2017. Among other achievements, she spoke as a panelist at the White House’s launch of the 5th National Climate Assessment report in 2023 and currently sits on the Advisory Board for the American Public Health Association's Center for Climate Health and Equity and the National Academy of Medicine's Climate Communities Network.
As climate breakdown escalates, communities are increasingly realizing that climate action and resilience have as much to do with actual ecological boundaries as with political boundaries on a map. The ground truth is that communities are defined by their local watersheds, foodsheds and energy sheds – as well as culture sheds. These ecological maps will increasingly redefine political maps that can engender meaningful strategic collective action. How do bioregional perspectives translate into political action? How can we build political-ecological alliances for climate action that address urgent bioregional realities and needs? This visionary group of leading-edge climate action organizers will illuminate multiple pathways for addressing both practical climate actions and emerging forms of eco-governance that center equity and justice. With: leading Rights of Nature attorney Thomas Linzey; climate justice organizer and lawyer Colette Pichon Battle whose Taproot Earth nonprofit works in the Gulf South and Appalachia; global Indigenous climate leader Eriel Deranger; OneEarth founder Justin Winters whose science-based climate solutions framework focuses on Renewable Energy, Regenerative Agriculture, and Land and Biodiversity Conservation.
March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Freight & Salvage
Panelists
Thomas Linzey
Senior Legal Counsel | Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights
Thomas Linzey, Senior Legal Counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, widely recognized as the founder of the contemporary community rights movement, drafted the very first “rights of nature” law in the world (in Pennsylvania in 2006), and consulted on the very first rights of nature constitutional provisions (in Ecuador). Linzey co-founded the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, sits on the Board of Advisors of the New Earth Foundation and is the author of several books, including: Be The Change: How to Get What You Want in Your Community and On Community Civil Disobedience in the Name of Sustainability. Linzey’s work has been featured widely, including in leading publications including the NY Times, Mother Jones and the Nation magazine.
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger
Co-Founder and Executive Director | Indigenous Climate Action
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger (Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation), a leading global figure in Indigenous Rights and Climate Justice activism, is the co-founder and Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action and is a member of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change. She also sits on a number of boards of notable non-profit organizations (including Bioneers) and activist groups. She has organized divest movements, lobbied government officials, led mass mobilizations against the fossil fuel industry, written extensively for a range of publications and been featured in documentary films (including Elemental).
Colette Pichon Battle
Vision & Initiatives Partner | Taproot Earth
Colette Pichon Battle, a generational native of Bayou Liberty, Louisiana, is an award-winning lawyer and prominent climate justice organizer. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when Black and Indigenous communities were largely left out of federal recovery systems, Colette led the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy (GCCLP) to provide relief and legal assistance to Gulf South communities of color. After 17 years at GCCLP’s helm, as frontline communities from the Gulf South to the Global South face ever more devastating storms, droughts, wildfires, heat, and land loss, she co-founded Taproot Earth to create connections and power across issues, movements, and geographies.
Justin Winters
Co-Founder and Executive Director | One Earth
Justin Winters is the co-founder and Executive Director of One Earth, a nonprofit organization that works to prove that we can solve the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss through three pillars of collective action: renewable energy, nature conservation, and regenerative agriculture. One Earth generates educational content, inspiring storytelling, and innovative digital tools to equip people to drive change across Earth’s 185 Bioregions. Prior to One Earth, Justin served as Executive Director of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, where she built the organization’s grant-making program that awarded over $100 million in grants across 60 countries, and grew its digital media community to 80 million followers. Justin’s goal has always been to use a collaborative, inclusive, and entrepreneurial approach to build a broad public movement of engaged change-makers to help solve the climate crisis and build a just future for all.
Saturday, March 29th
Join Chrysalis creator Carrie Ziegler and fellow Bioneers youth for a session of collaborative wire-sculpture artmaking. This relaxed, hands-on session is a perfect way to unwind, connect with peers, and engage in a creative, collective experience. Dive in at any stage and help bring our community project to completion by the conference’s end. No prior workshop attendance or experience required.
March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Terrace outside Tamalpais Room, Brower Center
Panelists
Carrie Ziegler
Artist
Carrie Ziegler, an international artist and leader in collaborative art initiatives, seeks to harness the collective power of art to drive social and environmental transformation. Through her Art in Action initiatives, she collaborates with local governments, organizations, and educational institutions to create multi-dimensional works that blend participant creativity with pressing societal issues, inspiring active engagement to bring communities together to create lasting change. The Chrysalis Project, now a global initiative, initially contributed to the passing of the Thurston County, WA, Climate Mitigation Plan, and the Plastic Whale Project played a pivotal role in the successful passing of a local ban on single-use plastic bags.
3:00 pm: Stormy Weather: Confronting our Long Emergency
Advancing Climate Action and a Just Transition
As the effects of our rapidly unraveling climate are now barreling down on us, this unparalleled crisis is being dramatically compounded by the assault on our democracy by authoritarians in the pockets of fossil fuel interests. At the same time, the competitive economics of renewable energy continue to gain significant momentum in the global marketplace. How do we navigate the urgent, imperative need to transition to renewable energy as rapidly as possible while bucking the corporate-led backlash to delay it? And how can we make that transition just and equitable in the face of “disaster capitalism,” entrenched racism, and the takeover of governments by the far right? With: Bill McKibben, world-renowned climate leader; Ben Jealous, Executive Director, Sierra Club; Eriel Deranger, global Indigenous climate organizer; attorney and major figure in the Climate Justice movement, Colette Pichon Battle, co-founder, Taproot Earth. Moderated by leading clean technology entrepreneur and activist, Danny Kennedy.
March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Freight & Salvage
Panelists
Bill McKibben
Co-Founder | Third Act
Bill McKibben, a contributing writer to The New Yorker and a co-founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice, founded the first global grassroots climate campaign, 350.org, and serves as the Schumann Distinguished Professor in Residence at Middlebury College in Vermont. In 2014 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel,’ in the Swedish Parliament and also won the Gandhi Peace Award as well as receiving honorary degrees from 19 colleges and universities. He has written 12+ books about the environment, including his first, one of the most prescient and important books of the last 100 years, 1989’s The End of Nature. His latest book is: The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at his Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened.
Ben Jealous
Executive Director | Sierra Club
Ben Jealous, named the seventh Executive Director of the Sierra Club in 2022, has served in roles from organizer to investigative journalist to president of two of the nation’s most influential groups pursuing equity and justice and protecting democracy and the environment. From 2008 to 2013, he led the NAACP as the youngest-ever president and CEO of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization and launched the NAACP’s Climate Justice Program. More recently Ben was President of People for the American Way (PFAW). Ben began his professional trajectory as a reporter and managing editor at the black-owned community newspaper, the Jackson Advocate, exposing “cancer clusters” in Mississippi’s rural communities caused by industrial pollution. He has also been a partner at one of the nation’s premier ESG venture capital firms, has won many awards, served on the boards of the Environmental Defense Fund, the Trust for Public Lands and the Wilderness Society, taught at Princeton (and currently at the University of Pennsylvania), and is a best-selling author, including most recently of: Never Forget Our People Were Always Free: A Parable of American Healing.
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger
Co-Founder and Executive Director | Indigenous Climate Action
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger (Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation), a leading global figure in Indigenous Rights and Climate Justice activism, is the co-founder and Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action and is a member of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change. She also sits on a number of boards of notable non-profit organizations (including Bioneers) and activist groups. She has organized divest movements, lobbied government officials, led mass mobilizations against the fossil fuel industry, written extensively for a range of publications and been featured in documentary films (including Elemental).
Colette Pichon Battle
Vision & Initiatives Partner | Taproot Earth
Colette Pichon Battle, a generational native of Bayou Liberty, Louisiana, is an award-winning lawyer and prominent climate justice organizer. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when Black and Indigenous communities were largely left out of federal recovery systems, Colette led the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy (GCCLP) to provide relief and legal assistance to Gulf South communities of color. After 17 years at GCCLP’s helm, as frontline communities from the Gulf South to the Global South face ever more devastating storms, droughts, wildfires, heat, and land loss, she co-founded Taproot Earth to create connections and power across issues, movements, and geographies.
Danny Kennedy
Clean Technology Entrepreneur and Activist
Danny Kennedy, a Senior Adviser to the Sunrise Project, Wollemi Capital and various startups, was the founding CEO of New Energy Nexus, a global platform organization for funds and incubators with chapters in a dozen countries from 2015-2024. He continues as a Venture Partner with the New Energy Nexus' Catalyst Fund, but his focus has moved from innovating new climate solutions to building and deploying the ones we've got!
Environmental Justice movements, despite the enormous inequities and challenges they faced, had been making major progress these past few decades in raising awareness, mobilizing at the grassroots, and getting some positive laws passed and regulations put in place at various levels of government, but the current reactionary political moment has put much of that forward motion in dire jeopardy. Also, the shift to cleaner energy has too much global market momentum to be reversed (even with fossil fuel lobbyists calling the shots at U.S. federal agencies), but how can we assure that it is a just and inclusive transition, not another driver of corporate wealth extraction? In this session, three major Environmental Justice advocates will explore these difficult issues and share their thoughts on how to keep making progress at the local, regional, and global levels in the context of the intense authoritarian, racist backlash now underway. With: Sierra Club Executive Director, Ben Jealous; Richmond City Councilwoman Doria Robinson; and Manuel Pastor, Director of the Equity Research Institute at USC, one of the nation’s greatest scholars of social movements. Moderated by: Christine Cordero, Co-Director, Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN).
March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Freight & Salvage
Panelists
Ben Jealous
Executive Director | Sierra Club
Ben Jealous, named the seventh Executive Director of the Sierra Club in 2022, has served in roles from organizer to investigative journalist to president of two of the nation’s most influential groups pursuing equity and justice and protecting democracy and the environment. From 2008 to 2013, he led the NAACP as the youngest-ever president and CEO of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization and launched the NAACP’s Climate Justice Program. More recently Ben was President of People for the American Way (PFAW). Ben began his professional trajectory as a reporter and managing editor at the black-owned community newspaper, the Jackson Advocate, exposing “cancer clusters” in Mississippi’s rural communities caused by industrial pollution. He has also been a partner at one of the nation’s premier ESG venture capital firms, has won many awards, served on the boards of the Environmental Defense Fund, the Trust for Public Lands and the Wilderness Society, taught at Princeton (and currently at the University of Pennsylvania), and is a best-selling author, including most recently of: Never Forget Our People Were Always Free: A Parable of American Healing.
Doria Robinson
Executive Director | Urban Tilth
Doria Robinson, a 3rd generation resident of Richmond, California, current member of the Richmond City Council (District 3), and one of the most effective, exemplary community organizers in the nation, has been, since 2007, the Executive Director of Urban Tilth, a widely renowned community-based organization dedicated to cultivating a more sustainable, healthy, and just food system. Also co-founder of the Richmond Food Policy Council, former co-chair of the US Food Sovereignty Alliance Western Region, and member of the Climate Justice Alliance, Food Sovereignty Working Group, Doria (a Certified Permaculture Designer, Bay Friendly Gardener, Nutrition Educator and Yoga Instructor) has a strong background in farming, from working on the 350-acre Apostolic Temple of Truth Ranch on weekends in her youth to working on organic farms in Massachusetts while in college, and later at the legendary Veritable Vegetable women-owned organic produce distribution company.
Manuel Pastor
Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity | University of Southern California
Manuel Pastor, Ph.D., a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, currently directs the Equity Research Institute at USC. The inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change at USC, Pastor’s research has generally focused on issues of the economic, environmental and social conditions facing low-income urban communities – and the social movements seeking to change those realities. He has won countless awards for his scholarship and advocacy and is the author or co-author of many books, including: Just Growth; Solidarity Economics; and, most recently (with Chris Benner), Charging Forward: Lithium Valley, Electric Vehicles, and a Just Future.
Christine Cordero
Co-Director | Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN)
Christine Cordero, raised by a Filipino immigrant family in the working class town of Pittsburg, CA, is Co-Director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), organizing with immigrants and refugees for a healthy environment and thriving economy for all communities. For 20+ years, Christine has strategized, organized, and built coalitions across environmental health and justice, workers rights, and economic and racial justice issues. Previously, she was Executive Director at the Center for Story-based Strategy, training 2,000+ people and working with 200+ groups to reinvigorate narrative strategies for social justice. An alumnus of Rockwood Institute’s Leading from the Inside Out Fellowship, one of the nation’s leading executive leadership programs for experienced social change trailblazers, Christine is also an ordained priest of the Chozen-ji line of Rinzai Zen.
