Thursday, March 28th

Join dynamic, transformative thought leaders in healthcare and planetary health as they offer us a story of the future and some systemic, on-the-ground antidotes to the devastating impacts of the Anthropocene, the age of human-centric systems and structures we are living in. They will offer vital, impactful innovations grounded in the power of spiritual and social transformation, reframing healthcare for people, planet, and all relations. With: Odessa Flores-Vasquez, Senior Associate, Devoted Health; Susan Prescott, Director, Nova Network; Heidi Honegger Rogers, FNP, advanced practice holistic nurse; and Sonali Sangeeta Balajee, founder, Spiritual Social Medicinal Apothecary (SSoMA).

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Golden Bear Room, Hotel Shattuck Plaza

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Panelists


Sonali Sangeeta Balajee
Founder
Our Bodhi Project
Odessa Flores-Vasquez
Senior Associate
Devoted Health
Susan Prescott
Professor of Pediatrics and Planetary Health
University of Western Australia
Heidi Honegger Rogers
Associate Professor
University of New Mexico College of Nursing

This intimate room will provide Bioneers attendees with a gently curated healing space for connection, contemplation and experiencing the transformative power of communal grieving. All the sessions held here will be facilitated by death midwives /community gatherers/educators Anneke CampbellBirgitta Kastenbaum and Amber Deylon

The room will be open from 2 to 3 pm, before the day’s two sessions begin at 3pm, for those who want to come and sit quietly and/or write messages for the altar, but the room will be closed once each session begins to assure privacy. The communal altar invites you to honor loved ones by bringing offerings including photos and/or responsibly foraged gifts from nature. 

Cultures worldwide practice rituals deeply intertwined with the natural world to mark transitions and losses of life. Come join us in a circle to explore how resilience and thriving in these difficult times require expanding our ability to be present with grief and getting to know it for its gift potential of regeneration and transformation. Through intimate sharing and group conversation, anchored in breath, embodied practices and offerings to our communal altar, we will connect with the strength and healing available when we honor our grief in community.

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Insight Room, Dharma College

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Panelists


Amber Deylon
Creator
Grieve and Breathe
Anneke Campbell
Writer and Community Activist
Birgitta Kastenbaum
Co-Founder
Bridging Transitions

This session will build off of conversations held at last year’s Bioneers Conference about the relationships between the Environmental Justice and Reproductive Justice movements. The war on Mother Earth is rooted in the war on the bodies of women and gender-non binary people’s bodily autonomy, which is accelerating as the dying patriarchal cultural system feels threatened and lashes out ever more desperately. But, as people rise up to defend abortion access, reproductive rights and justice, the deepening collaboration between the environmental justice and reproductive and birth justice communities is helping us unite to defend the rights to bodily autonomy and self-determination. Come hear from reproductive health justice leaders working to defend access to abortion and reproductive healthcare and to push back the overall attack on democracy we are facing. Hosted by: Taj James. Facilitated by Eveline Shen, former director of Forward Together and founder/President of Leading Courageously. With: Elisa Batista, Campaign Director, UltraViolet; Mariko Miki, Interim Executive Director at If/When/How; Cynthia Gutierrez, Program Manager for UCSF’s Hub of Positive Reproductive and Sexual Health (HIVE) and Team Lily programs.

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | The Marsh Theater

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Panelists


Elisa Batista
Campaign Director
UltraViolet
Eveline Shen
Leading Courageously
Founder and President
Mariko Miki
Interim Executive Director
If/When/How
Cynthia Gutierrez
Program Manager
UCSF's Hub of Positive Reproductive and Sexual Health (HIVE)
Taj James
Full Spectrum Labs
Co-Founder and Curator

Bioneers brings together a very diverse, discerning, engaged and reflective community, and the curated conversations around crucial topics we have been hosting recently (“Conversation Cafes”) have proven highly popular and stimulating. Each session begins with a very brief presentation by one of the conference presenters as a “conversation starter” to frame the topic, followed by structured group discussion. At the end of each session, a “harvester” who has carefully witnessed and “absorbed” what has transpired, offers us a poetic synopsis/recapitulation of the highlights of our time together.

Our conversation starter, Zuleikha, a renowned dance performer and movement awareness teacher, will discuss the practice of “Body Listening,” a technique that permits us to access our inner wisdom through a subtle attunement to what our body is communicating to us. She will share methods we can use to reclaim our embodied wholeness and revivify and heal our body/mind/spirit. The conversations will be facilitated by: David Shaw, Santa Cruz Permaculture and UCSC Right Livelihood Center. “Harvester:” Jason Bayani, author, theater performer, Artistic Director, Kearny Street Workshop.

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Lotus Cafe, Dharma College

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Panelists


Zuleikha
Executive Director and CEO
The Storydancer Project
David Shaw
Founder
Santa Cruz Permaculture and the UCSC Right Livelihood Center
Jason Bayani
Artistic Director
Kearny Street Workshop

Friday, March 29th

Bioneers brings together a very diverse, discerning, engaged and reflective community, and the curated conversations around crucial topics we have been hosting recently (“Conversation Cafes”) have proven highly popular and stimulating. Each session begins with a very brief presentation by one of the conference presenters as a “conversation starter” to frame the topic, followed by structured group discussion. At the end of each session, a “harvester” who has carefully witnessed and “absorbed” what has transpired, offers us a poetic synopsis/recapitulation of the highlights of our time together.

Our conversation starter Aya de Leon, longtime activist, novelist and Berkeley’s current Poet Laureate, will frame our topic: How can the climate and environmental movements mobilize to maintain the democracy that allows us to keep fighting for a livable planet? As the climate crisis escalates and the window for action to save our species narrows, it can seem critical to stay focused exclusively on climate, but what about threats of authoritarianism? We count on a functional yet flawed and limited form of democracy to do our organizing. In 2024, when that foundation is threatened, can we pivot our energies toward maintaining a democratic context in which we can keep working for people and planet? How do we move to a greater vision of liberation? Are there progressive folks on the ground we can support in building climate-friendly power beyond November of this year? The conversations will be facilitated by: David Shaw, Santa Cruz Permaculture and UCSC Right Livelihood Center. “Harvester:” Jason Bayani, author, theater performer, Artistic Director, Kearny Street Workshop.

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Lotus Cafe, Dharma College

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Panelists


Aya de Leon
Author and Activist
David Shaw
Founder
Santa Cruz Permaculture and the UCSC Right Livelihood Center
Jason Bayani
Artistic Director
Kearny Street Workshop

As climate impacts are increasingly felt on the ground in communities around the world, our collective mental health is also being deeply affected. Integrating work and perspectives from the emerging field of Climate Psychology, this session will use a broad lens to look at the emotional impact of climate change on our personal and collective well-being, nested within societal, spiritual, and ecological contexts. We will come at the subject from a range of perspectives including: emotional correlates of climate distress, emotionally intelligent climate curriculum, moving through grief and eco-anxiety, climate-informed trauma therapy, supporting frontline communities, movement/activists’ well-being and more.  Moderated by Eva Jahn, co-founder of the Climate Emotional Resilience Institute.  With: Leslie Davenport, CIIS Climate Psychology Lead Faculty; Adrián Villaseñor-Galarza, Founder, Bio-alchemy Institute; Theopia Jackson, Chair, Humanistic Psychology at Saybrook University.

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Crystal Ballroom, Hotel Shattuck Plaza

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Panelists


Eva Jahn
Co-Founder
Climate Emotional Resilience Institute
Leslie Davenport
Author, Professor, Climate Psychology Consultant
Adrián Villaseñor
Core Faculty, East West Psychology Department
California Institute of Integral Studies
Theopia Jackson
Chair, Department of Humanistic Clinical Psychology
Saybrook University

This intimate room will provide Bioneers attendees with a gently curated healing space for connection, contemplation and experiencing the transformative power of communal grieving. All the sessions held here will be facilitated by death midwives /community gatherers/educators Anneke CampbellBirgitta Kastenbaum and Amber Deylon

The room will be open from 2 to 3 pm, before the day’s two sessions begin at 3pm, for those who want to come and sit quietly and/or write messages for the altar, but the room will be closed once each session begins to assure privacy. The communal altar invites you to honor loved ones by bringing offerings including photos and/or responsibly foraged gifts from nature. 

Cultures worldwide practice rituals deeply intertwined with the natural world to mark transitions and losses of life. Come join us in a circle to explore how resilience and thriving in these difficult times require expanding our ability to be present with grief and getting to know it for its gift potential of regeneration and transformation. Through intimate sharing and group conversation, anchored in breath, embodied practices and offerings to our communal altar, we will connect with the strength and healing available when we honor our grief in community.

March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Insight Room, Dharma College

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists


Anneke Campbell
Writer and Community Activist
Birgitta Kastenbaum
Co-Founder
Bridging Transitions
Amber Deylon
Creator
Grieve and Breathe

International performer/wellness pioneer Zuleikha will guide us through free movement and pauses within a weaving of world music, all designed to stabilize our body’s dynamic ecosystem, bring us to a state of deep embodied awareness, and build up our reserves for rejuvenation. Zuleikha will also be sharing easy-to-learn but powerful practices that help us melt knots of physical and psychic tension, allowing our bodies to restore their natural balance and become energetically revitalized. You will leave this session equipped with a simple, enjoyable toolkit you can access anytime, anywhere to cultivate sustainable balance and inner resilience.

March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Skillful Means Center, Dharma College

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Panelists


Zuleikha
Executive Director and CEO
The Storydancer Project

Saturday, March 30th

This intimate room will provide Bioneers attendees with a gently curated healing space for connection, contemplation and experiencing the transformative power of communal grieving. All the sessions held here will be facilitated by death midwives /community gatherers/educators Anneke CampbellBirgitta Kastenbaum and Amber Deylon

The room will be open from 2 to 3 pm, before the day’s two sessions begin at 3pm, for those who want to come and sit quietly and/or write messages for the altar, but the room will be closed once each session begins to assure privacy. The communal altar invites you to honor loved ones by bringing offerings including photos and/or responsibly foraged gifts from nature. 

Cultures worldwide practice rituals deeply intertwined with the natural world to mark transitions and losses of life. Come join us in a circle to explore how resilience and thriving in these difficult times require expanding our ability to be present with grief and getting to know it for its gift potential of regeneration and transformation. Through intimate sharing and group conversation, anchored in breath, embodied practices and offerings to our communal altar, we will connect with the strength and healing available when we honor our grief in community.

March 30th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Insight Room, Dharma College

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists


Birgitta Kastenbaum
Co-Founder
Bridging Transitions
Amber Deylon
Creator
Grieve and Breathe
Anneke Campbell
Writer and Community Activist