Wednesday, March 26th
A film by Sarah Sharkey Pearce and Simon Schneider
Resident Orca tells the unfolding story of a captive whale’s fight for survival and freedom. After decades of failed attempts to bring her home, an unlikely partnership between Indigenous matriarchs, a billionaire philanthropist, killer whale experts, and the aquarium’s new owner take on the impossible task of freeing Lolita, captured 53 years ago as a baby, only to spend the rest of her life performing in the smallest killer whale tank in North American. When Lolita falls ill under troubling circumstances, her advocates are faced with a painful question: Is it too late to save her?
Come join us for a screening of this powerful testimony about what it means to honor all of our relations. After the screening, we will have a Q&A period with Raynell Morris, enrolled Lummi tribal citizen and renowned activist who played a key role in bringing home the southern resident orca (Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut) from the Miami Seaquarium.
There is a $10 screening fee, which you can select when you register.
March 26th | 6:45 pm to 9:00 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
Panelists
Raynell Morris
Events and Gatherings Producer | Children of the Setting Sun Productions
Squi-le-he-le (aka Raynell Morris), a Lhaq’temish matriarch and enrolled Lummi tribal member, is the Events and Gatherings Producer at Children of the Setting Sun Productions and a board member of the Friends of Toki. A former Vice-President of the Sacred Lands Conservancy and Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs under President Clinton, Raynell was the first Native American staffer appointed to the White House. She also served as Chief of Staff for the Chairman of the Lummi Nation, and, as Director of Lummi Nation’s Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office, she was a key strategist in the successful campaign to block a proposal to build North America’s largest coal port terminal on Lhaq’temish (Lummi) sacred ground. Her work for Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut (Toki/Tokitae), the famed orca, and to save her home waters, the Salish Sea, is the subject of the film, Resident Orca, being shown at Bioneers this year.
Thursday, March 27th
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.
As the “Godmother of Biomimicry,” Janine Benyus famously put: Nature has 3.8 billion years of design intelligence under her belt. The growth of the field of Biomimicry, which explores how to draw from that incredibly sophisticated storehouse of nature’s genius, is one of the most compelling stories of the past two decades – and the story is really just beginning. Join global Biomimicry experts for an action-based workshop designed to advance the conversation. Engage with fellow creative minds in purposeful, facilitated discussions on key topics connected to the core tenants of Biomimicry. You’ll leave feeling empowered and part of a vibrant Biomimicry community, ready to bring transformative ideas to life and make a lasting impact. This session will also provide practical strategies and insights to help you apply Biomimicry principles to your own work. Hosted by Lily Urmann, Technical Manager of the AskNature Hive at the Biomimicry Institute. With Kat Sitnikova, Development Manager at the Biomimicry Institute, Camilo Garzón, the AskNature Program Director at the Biomimicry Institute; Andrew Howley, Chief Editor at the Biomimicry Institute.
Panel Change: Amanda Sturgeon, CEO of the Biomimicry Institute, will not be appearing.
March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Crystal Ballroom, Hotel Shattuck Plaza
Panelists
Kat Sitnikova
Development Manager | Biomimicry Institute
Kat Sitnikova is Development Manager at the Biomimicry Institute, where she engages that organization’s supporters in advancing nature-inspired solutions to our most pressing environmental challenges. She is also an organizer and facilitator working at the intersection of self-awareness, community connection and nature-centric design who lives in a land-based intentional community rooted in cooperative living, shared decision-making, authentic relating, and holistic land stewardship.
Andrew Howley
Chief Editor | Biomimicry Institute
Andrew Howley, Chief Editor for the Biomimicry Institute, works to connect scientists, innovators, and conservationists with the public as well as to make the vast collection of materials from the Biomimicry Institute on AskNature.org (an ever-growing body of stories of life’s innovations and adaptations) widely available to inspire and guide sustainable innovation. Previously, Andrew spent 11 years at the National Geographic Society, connecting audiences with explorers and grantees through websites, blogs, social media, live-streamed interviews, and events; and he developed online content at America Online in the late '90s.
Lily Urmann
Technical Manager | The AskNature Hive at the Biomimicry Institute
Lily Urmann, a naturalist and educator, is a Visiting Instructor at Pratt Institute where she teaches "Biology for Biomimicry,” the host of the podcast "Learning from Nature," and the Technical Manager of the AskNature Hive at the Biomimicry Institute. Her previous positions include: Commons Director at Biomimicry Frontiers; Director of Denver Programs for The Kiva Center; and Program Coordinator at the ASU Biomimicry Center. She has also led workshops at the Natural History Institute, the Desert Botanical Garden, the Highland Center for Natural History, the California and American Horticultural Society, and Girls Exploring Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (GESTEM).
Camilo Garzón
AskNature Program Director | Biomimicry Institute
Camilo Garzón, the AskNature Program Director at the Biomimicry Institute, leads its platform, program, and publication efforts to expand access to nature-inspired innovation. A writer, editor, filmmaker, multimedia producer, interdisciplinary artist, and award-winning poet, he works in a wide range of disciplines and media, including science storytelling on such varied topics as: culinary biodiversity; leaf-cutter ants; the decolonization of space exploration; and Colombian volcanology, paleontology, and Indigenous hydraulic systems. Camilo has collaborated with many organizations, including: SFMOMA, Scientific American, NPR, and the National Geographic Society. He is also the founder and Creative Director of Cuentero Productions.
In this session, several leading activists and advocates for tropical forests and the Indigenous people who inhabit them (and are usually their best stewards and protectors), will share their perspectives on the current status of these threatened ecosystems that are among the most biodiverse and critically important in maintaining the biosphere’s climatic stability. They will also share their ongoing campaigns, successes, and strategies going forward, including in the lead-up to the fall 2025 COP 30 meetings in Belém, Brazil (the closest major city to the mouth of the Amazon). With: Leila Salazar-López, Executive Director of Amazon Watch; Jettie Word, Executive Director of the Borneo Project; Ginger Cassady, Executive Director of the Rainforest Action Network. Moderated/hosted by: Rhett Butler, founder of Mongabay, the exemplary conservation and environmental science news platform.
March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
Panelists
Leila Salazar-López
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.
Rhett Butler
Founder and CEO | Mongabay
Rhett Ayers Butler is the founder and CEO of Mongabay, a non-profit news organization that covers issues at the intersection of people and nature via a network of about 1,000 journalists in more than 80 countries. Beyond Mongabay, Rhett has advised a range of organizations and institutions, while his writing and photography have appeared in hundreds of publications. Rhett's work has been recognized with the Heinz Award and the Parker/Gentry Award, among other honors.
Jettie Word
Director | The Borneo Project
Jettie Word has dedicated her career to empowering rural communities globally, advocating for environmental justice and addressing threats to livelihoods and resources. Since 2014, she has led The Borneo Project, which works to advance Indigenous managed forest protection in Sarawak. Previously, she worked with the Oakland Institute, supporting community-driven land rights campaigns in Papua New Guinea and Senegal. She began her journey in social justice at a community education program in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Ginger Cassady
Executive Director | Rainforest Action Network
Ginger Cassady, Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and board member of Amazon Frontlines, has, for more than 25 years, been a leader at the intersection of environmental and social justice, leading global campaigns to hold some of the world’s largest corporations and financial institutions accountable for their impact on communities, human rights and our planet. Her vision and drive have scaled innovative philanthropic initiatives — such as RAN’s Community Action Grants, providing core funding for Indigenous and frontline communities — to create transformational, systemic positive social change.
It’s been nearly two decades since human civilization crossed a threshold: a majority of us now live in urban areas. And as climate-driven events increasingly threaten cities across the planet, the idea of the city as a fortress, disconnected from its local ecology and watershed, always an illusion in any case, has become obviously untenable. Fortunately, a number of urban areas are working to re-integrate with nature, engaging in large-scale urban forestry and ecological restoration as core components of nature-based resilience strategies. In this session, Teo Grossman, President of Bioneers, will engage in conversation with one of the visionary thought leaders of this burgeoning movement, Keith Bowers, the founder of Biohabitats, one of the country’s leading ecological restoration and regenerative design firms for the past forty years.
March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Magnes Museum
Panelists
Keith Bowers
Founder | Biohabitats
Keith Bowers, FASLA, PLA, a landscape architect and restoration ecologist, is the founder of Biohabitats, a multidisciplinary organization with a mission to restore the Earth and inspire ecological stewardship through cutting-edge nature-based, regenerative design, operating at the crossroads of biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation, regenerative water strategies, and environmental justice. Keith’s relentless advocacy for wild nature also led him to recently establish Biohabitats Purpose Trust, a non-charitable perpetual purpose trust with the explicit purpose of ‘restoring nature, protecting and conserving biodiversity, and inspiring love for wild places.’
Teo Grossman
President | Bioneers
Teo Grossman, President of Bioneers, previously worked on a range of projects from federal range management to state-level assessments of long-range planning to applied research on topics including climate change adaptation, ecosystem services, biodiversity, and ecological networks. A Doris Duke Conservation Fellow during graduate school, Teo holds an MS in Environmental Science & Management from UC-Santa Barbara.
A transformative movement is emerging at the intersection of Tribal Sovereignty and the Rights of Nature, as Indigenous Nations lead efforts to recognize the inherent rights of fish, aquatic mammals, and the ecosystems they inhabit. This panel explores how Tribal Nations are adopting Rights of Nature policies in a centuries-long effort to protect marine life and the ecosystems essential to all beings. This panel highlights the visionary leadership of Indigenous leaders who have spearheaded innovative laws and grassroots movements to integrate Indigenous values into Western legal systems. Their work serves as a global call to action, urging a reimagining of legal frameworks that honor Indigenous wisdom and foster a world where the rights of nature and human rights are interconnected and respected. Moderated by Britt Gondolfi. With: Raynell Morris (Lummi Nation) and Juliette Jackson, JD (Klamath).
Panel Change: Amy Bowers Cordalis (Yurok) will not be appearing.
March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Berkeley Ballroom, Residence Inn
Panelists
Britt Gondolfi
Rights of Nature Project Coordinator | Bioneers
Britt Gondolfi, JD (Houma Descendant), a community organizer and mother, has worked with the Bioneers Indigeneity Program since 2017 as a facilitator for the Intercultural Conversation Program. She joined the Bioneers Rights of Nature initiative as an intern while in law school and subsequently as a Special Projects Coordinator to bring together tribal organizers, youth, and allies to advocate for the “Rights of Nature” in Indian Country. Britt, who recently ran for State Senate in Louisiana on a women’s rights platform, is the author of the children’s book, “Look Up! Fontaine the Pigeon Starts a Revolution.”
Raynell Morris
Events and Gatherings Producer | Children of the Setting Sun Productions
Squi-le-he-le (aka Raynell Morris), a Lhaq’temish matriarch and enrolled Lummi tribal member, is the Events and Gatherings Producer at Children of the Setting Sun Productions and a board member of the Friends of Toki. A former Vice-President of the Sacred Lands Conservancy and Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs under President Clinton, Raynell was the first Native American staffer appointed to the White House. She also served as Chief of Staff for the Chairman of the Lummi Nation, and, as Director of Lummi Nation’s Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office, she was a key strategist in the successful campaign to block a proposal to build North America’s largest coal port terminal on Lhaq’temish (Lummi) sacred ground. Her work for Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut (Toki/Tokitae), the famed orca, and to save her home waters, the Salish Sea, is the subject of the film, Resident Orca, being shown at Bioneers this year.
Juliette Jackson
Law Clerk | Native Law Group
Juliette Jackson, J.D., LLM, an enrolled member of the Klamath Tribes, Law Clerk at Patterson Real Bird & Wilson LLP, Native Law Group, a firm focused exclusively on federal Indian and tribal law, has, over the course of her career, worked on public health policy and tribal environmental justice at several non-profits and government agencies, including a clerkship with the U.S. EPA Honors Law Clerk Program, where she drafted the section on Traditional Ecological Knowledge in a proposed national policy on sustainability. Juliette has also guest lectured at George Washington University Law School, Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, University of Cuenca in Ecuador, and the Bioneers online course, Indigenizing the Law: Tribal Sovereignty and the Rights of Nature.
Bioneers is delighted to be able to offer you this “sneak peak” preview of a soon-to-be-released episode of Tangled Bank Studios’ widely acclaimed Wild Hope Series (www.wildhope.tv) that tells the inspiring story of how the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, landless since they suffered the worst massacre in U.S. history in 1863, managed to purchase their ancestral homeland and begin, using ancient wisdom and modern science and technology, restoring the now degraded land back to its pre-colonial lush, vibrant biodiversity, helping revitalize their culture, language and traditions in the process. (Running time: 15 minutes)
March 27th | 6:40 pm to 6:55 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
An immersive and poetic film centered on iconic shaman Davi Kopenawa and the Yanomami community of Watoriki in the Brazilian rainforest, based on the book co-authored by Davi Kopenawa and anthropologist Bruce Albert, invites us to participate in the sacred ritual of Reahu, and challenges all of us in the industrialized world whose economic structures exploit nature for financial gain to rebel against the damage wrought by predatory extractive industries on the Amazon rainforest. Directed by Eryk Rocha and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha. (Running time: 110 minutes)
March 27th | 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
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
Recent advances in technology have made it possible to understand some of the communication of a few animal species. Leading interdisciplinary initiatives such as Project CETI (the Cetacean Translation Initiative) are developing cutting-edge advancements in machine learning, robotics, natural language processing, linguistics, cryptography, complexity science, and marine biology to record and begin to understand the fundamental elements of some nonhuman animal communication, beginning with that of sperm whales. While these technologies hold significant promise for enhancing the well-being and rights of nonhuman animals, they also present serious risks of further manipulation and exploitation of animals. This conversation will delve into the innovative collaboration between the NYU More-Than-Human Life (MOTH) Program and Project CETI to establish ethical and legal guardrails that can permit us to harness the potential of these technologies while minimizing their risks. With David Gruber and César Rodríguez-Garavito. Moderated by Teo Grossman, President of Bioneers.
March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Freight & Salvage
Panelists
César Rodríguez-Garavito
More Than Human Life (MOTH) Program | Founding Director
César Rodríguez-Garavito, a Professor of Clinical Law, Chair of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, and founding Director of the More Than Human Life (MOTH) Program and the Earth Rights Advocacy Program (all based at NYU School of Law), is a human rights and environmental justice scholar and practitioner whose work and publications focus on climate change, Indigenous peoples’ rights, and the human rights movement. Editor-in-Chief of Open Global Rights, César has been an expert witness of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, an Adjunct Judge of the Constitutional Court of Colombia, a member of the Science Panel for the Amazon, and a lead litigator in climate change, socio-economic and Indigenous rights cases. He has conducted field research and environmental and human rights investigations around the world.
David Gruber
Founder and President | Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative)
David Gruber is the founder and President of Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative), a nonprofit organization and interdisciplinary scientific and conservation initiative that is applying advanced machine learning and state-of-the-art gentle robotics to translate the communication of sperm whales. David is also Distinguished Professor of Biology at the City University of New York and a National Geographic Explorer.
Teo Grossman
President | Bioneers
Teo Grossman, President of Bioneers, previously worked on a range of projects from federal range management to state-level assessments of long-range planning to applied research on topics including climate change adaptation, ecosystem services, biodiversity, and ecological networks. A Doris Duke Conservation Fellow during graduate school, Teo holds an MS in Environmental Science & Management from UC-Santa Barbara.
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.
Growing in Southeast Louisiana near a corridor callously but accurately dubbed Cancer Alley means growing up with the ecological grief and anxiety that accompanies knowing your home and ecosystem are harming you and your community’s health. When your connection to home and family binds you to a place riddled with toxic pollution and politics, what is the antidote? Leave and find a safe community, or stay and take up the work of your ancestors to resist these toxic industries? For those living in and around Cancer Alley, these choices can be a daily battle, but the best elixir for ecological grief is action.
This youth-led community conversation is for anyone living on the frontlines of endemic pollution or climate catastrophe who has wrestled with the choice of staying and fighting or leaving to find a better place to call home—and for anyone who wants to learn from and support them. With: Lael Kylin Judson from Rural Roots Louisiana; and Skye Williams. Facilitated by David Shaw, Santa Cruz Permaculture and UCSC Right Livelihood Center; and Tenika Blue, an advocate for anti-violence initiatives, social justice reform, and community healing. “Harvester:” Jason Bayani, author, theater performer, Artistic Director, Kearny Street Workshop.
March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Ashby Room, Residence Inn
Panelists
David Shaw
Founder | Santa Cruz Permaculture and the UCSC Right Livelihood College
David Shaw, a whole systems designer, facilitator, educator, and musician, founded Santa Cruz Permaculture and the UCSC Right Livelihood College, a partnership with the “Alternative Nobel Prize.” He supports communities locally and globally to transform their shared future through strategic dialogue and collective action.
Tenika Blue
Social Justice Advocate
Tenika Blue, a fourth-generation Bay Area native with 20+ years’ experience advocating for anti-violence initiatives, social justice reform, and community healing, organizes sacred circles as a central part of her work, employing a heart-centered approach to foster community resilience, empower individuals to connect with their roots, and embrace transformative healing.
Lael Kylin Judson
| Rural Roots Louisiana
Lael “Kylin” Judson, a sophomore honor student at The Dunham School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and a resident of Ascension Parish, has lost loved ones to pollution-related illnesses and works with Rural Roots Louisiana on Environmental Justice issues centered around Cancer Alley, a region disproportionately impacted by industrial toxicity. Kylin aspires to becoming an Environmental Lawyer dedicated to addressing systemic inequities and protecting vulnerable communities.
Skye Williams
Activist | Rural Roots Louisiana
Skye Williams, a soon-to-be graduate of Donaldsonville High School in Louisiana is an activist with the Environmental Justice, Eco-Literacy, Earth-care advocacy and community-building organization, Rural Roots Louisiana. Skye plans a career in nursing as well as Environmental Justice activism.
Jason Bayani
Artistic Director | Kearny Street Workshop
Jason Bayani, MFA, a theater performer and author, is Artistic Director of the Kearny Street Workshop, the oldest multi-disciplinary Asian Pacific-American arts organization in the country. A Kundiman Fellow, his published works include: Locus (a 2019 Norcal Book Award finalist) and Amulet. He has written for World Literature Today, Muzzle Magazine, Lantern Review, and other publications and performs regularly around the country. His first solo theater show was 2016’s Locus of Control.
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.
This powerful film by award-winning documentary filmmakers Josh and Rebecca Tickell and their company, Big Picture Ranch, fuses journalistic exposé with deeply personal stories from those on the front lines of movements fighting for healthy and equitable food systems to unveil the dark webs of money, power, and politics behind our toxic, destructive, and dysfunctional agriculture. The film, which features many past speakers at Bioneers, reveals how unjust practices forged our current system in which farmers of all backgrounds are literally dying to feed us and profiles a hopeful and uplifting movement of white, Black, and Indigenous farmers who are using alternative “regenerative” models of agriculture that could balance the climate, save our health, and stabilize America’s economy…before it’s too late. (Running time: 105 minutes)
March 28th | 9:05 pm to 10:30 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
Saturday, March 29th
3:00 pm: The Vegetal Mind: From Plant Neurobiology to Panpsychism?
Co-sponsored by Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School
Cutting edge research is radically expanding our understanding of plants’ and fungi’s capacities to perceive their environments and make complex decisions in response. The groundbreaking cross-disciplinary Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative at Harvard was recently founded to draw from biology, ecology and the humanities to explore how inquiry into plant and fungal life could illuminate the nature of mind and matter and humans’ relationships to the more-than-human world. This session will delve into some of the most recent scientific findings on plant cognition and their implications for our own species as well as venture into more philosophical terrain, exploring such topics as the nature of intelligence and traditions that speculate about whether consciousness in some latent form might permeate the universe (i.e., “Panpsychism”). Hosted by Rachael Petersen, program lead for the Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School. With Luke Roelofs, Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, working on the ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology of consciousness; and Kristi Onzik, anthropologist of science, currently researching the field of PNCB (Plant Neurobiology, Cognition, and Behavior).
March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
Panelists
Rachael Petersen
Program Lead | Harvard's Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative
Rachael Petersen, MDiv, Program Lead for Harvard's Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative, an interdisciplinary exploration into how cutting-edge science on plants is challenging our notions of mind and matter, previously worked for a decade in environmental policy, with expertise in climate mitigation, forest protection, and Indigenous rights, conducting fieldwork in the Amazon, Borneo, and Arctic Canada. She served as Senior Advisor to National Geographic Society and founding Deputy Director of Global Forest Watch at the World Resources Institute. A writer and translator, her work has been published in many publications, including Aeon, The Sun, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Tricycle Magazine, Peripheries Poetry Journal, The Rumpus, The Outline.
Luke Roelofs
Assistant Professor | University of Texas at Arlington
Luke Roelofs is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, working on the ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology of consciousness. Their first book, Combining Minds (2019), explores the possibility that minds in general, and the human mind in particular, might be collectives of many mental parts. Their more recent work has explored the possibility of conscious minds outside humans and animals, the mechanisms of imagination, and the role of empathy in morality.
Kristi Onzik
Anthropologist
Kristi Onzik, Ph.D., a student of plants and an anthropologist of science, is currently doing ethnographic research exploring a small, interdisciplinary community of cutting-edge scientists working in the emerging and controversial field of Plant Neurobiology, Cognition, and Behavior (PNCB).
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.
In this session, California Indian leaders will share success stories of collaborations implementing traditional values and practices to restore land and water, including the revitalization of fire management, plant knowledge and regenerative harvesting. Panelists will also share practical guidance on forming innovative partnerships, setting mutually beneficial goals, and maintaining long-term, effective relationships. Moderated by Alexis Bunten. With: Aja Conrad (Karuk); Elizabeth Paige (Cahuilla); Ali Meders-Knight (Mechoopda); Jordan Reyes, Tribal EcoRestoration.
March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Berkeley Ballroom, Residence Inn
Panelists
Elizabeth Paige
Education and Stewardship Program Manager | Native American Land Conservancy
Elizabeth Paige, a desert naturalist, cultural educator, and member of the Torres Martinez Band of Cahuilla Indians, has extensive experience in public conservation lands management, volunteer organization, and restoration of Indigenous ecosystems. Currently the Education and Stewardship Program Manager for the Native American Land Conservancy, her team manages four preserves in California and provides educational programs and community outreach focused on Indigenous Land Management, collaborative restoration with local and state agencies, and reconnecting Native people with their cultural landscapes.
Aja Conrad
Pikyav Field Institute Program Manager | Karuk Department of Natural Resources
Aja Conrad, a Karuk woman from her ancestral village of Katimiin in Northern California, currently works as the Pikyav Field Institute Program Manager at the Karuk Department of Natural Resources. A first-generation college student, Gates Millennium Scholar, and a proud mother of two young girls, Aja is also a traditionally trained fire practitioner and fire educator, as well as an experienced wildland firefighter.
Jordan Reyes
Field Coordinator | Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance
Jordan Reyes (tribal member of the Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians, affiliated as Lake Miwok with descendancy from Round Valley tribes, affiliated as Yuki, Little Lake, and Wailak) is a land steward with a background in tribal Government, including working on historic preservation and serving on the Tribal Gaming Regulatory Commission and the Tribal Council. He currently serves as the Field Coordinator with the Tribal Eco-Restoration Alliance, where his main priority is bridging the gaps between tribes, agencies and the wider community to better understand each other and work together in stewarding the land.
Ali Meders-Knight
Executive Director | California Open Lands
Ali Meders-Knight, a Mechoopda tribal member, is the Executive Director of California Open Lands, where she works to form partnerships for federal forest stewardship contracting and tribal restoration programs on public lands. A Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) practitioner for 20+ years, she has collaborated on environmental education and land restoration projects with, among others, Chico State, the City of Chico, and Tehama County. She serves on the Tribal Relations Strategic Planning and Implementation committee for the U.S. Forest Service in Region 5 and has testified in Congress on the merits of TEK in wildfire management and forest regeneration. Ali was recently conferred an honorary doctorate by Syracuse University.
Alexis Bunten
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.
4:45 pm: Defending the Living World
Co-sponsored with the Safina Center’s Fellowship Programs
We will never be able to address climate change and ensure healthy, just human communities unless we protect and defend the entire web of life. The Safina Center, founded by renowned ecologist and author Carl Safina, has for more than 20 years drawn from science, art and literature to advance the case for Life on Earth. Among its most inspiring and effective endeavors are its senior and junior fellowship programs, which help support and highlight the work of a small cohort of brilliant early- and mid-career scientists, researchers, activists and artists whose work addresses conservation, the environment, and/or social justice in unique ways. This session will feature three recent, extraordinary Safina Fellows: Danielle Khan Da Silva, award-winning documentary photographer, director, conservation activist, founder/Executive Director of Photographers Without Borders, and co-founder of the Sumatran Wildlife Sanctuary; Jasmin Graham, a young shark scientist and environmental educator, President/CEO of Minorities in Shark Sciences, an organization dedicated to supporting gender minorities of color in shark sciences; Katlyn Taylor, passionate marine biologist and conservationist, naturalist, guide, and widely traveled Coast Guard licensed captain, co-creator of The Whalenerds Podcast.
March 29th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
Panelists
Danielle Khan Da Silva
Founder and Executive Director | Photographers Without Borders
Danielle Khan Da Silva is an award-winning queer South-Asian/Portuguese photographer, director, writer, intersectional conservationist and National Geographic Explorer. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of Photographers Without Borders and co-founder of the Sumatran Wildlife Sanctuary, Reclaim Power mentorship program, and other initiatives. Danielle holds Hons. BSc. degrees in conservation biology, psychology and global studies, as well as an MSc. in Environment & Development from the London School of Economics. She is passionate about Indigenous science, rematriation, Indigenous land and water stewardship, and their applications to orca/humpback whale conservation.
Jasmin Graham
President and CEO | Minorities in Shark Sciences
Jasmin Graham, an award-winning young shark scientist and environmental educator who specializes in elasmobranch (shark and ray) ecology and evolution, serves on the board of the American Elasmobranch Society, is President and CEO of Minorities in Shark Sciences (an organization dedicated to supporting gender minorities of color in shark sciences) and is Project Coordinator for the MarSci-LACE project focused on promoting best practices to recruit, support and retain minority students in marine science. Jasmin is also the author of Sharks Don't Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist and directed/hosted the PBS Terra series, Sharks Unknown with Jasmin Graham.
Katlyn Taylor
Marine Biologist
Katlyn Taylor, a marine biologist who works as a naturalist, guide, and U.S. Coast Guard licensed captain, has a driving passion for marine mammals and facilitating meaningful experiences with them all over the world. She got her start working in ecotourism in Monterey CA before following the whales seasonally around the U.S. and beyond and has guided expeditions in the polar regions for several years giving lectures about marine mammals and guiding people in remote areas. While in Monterey she worked for several years with the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council’s vessel disturbance working group at NOAA, served on the Monterey Sustainable Hospitality Collective, and served on the board of the American Cetacean Society’s Monterey Bay Chapter. She is also the co-creator of The Whalenerd’s Podcast and co-author/co-editor of the 2024 book Wild Monterey Bay.
