Architect

Al Tozer, a Bend, Oregon-based pioneering figure in “deep green,” “net zero energy,” “biophilic” architecture with 25+ years’ experience in the field whose firm, Tozer Design, designed the world’s first certified Living Building residential project, recently served as the Living Building Challenge Director at the International Living Future Institute in Seattle. Al has also served as a City of Bend Planning Commissioner and co-authored Bend’s General Plan.

Practice Leader and Ecological Engineer | Biohabitats Inc.

Erin English, PE, Practice Leader and Ecological Engineer at Biohabitats Inc., leads Biohabitats’ Integrated water strategies planning and engineering efforts. Combining engineering and her passion for water and ecology, she helps clients throughout the world design and build innovative water infrastructure, including some award-winning projects that have achieved the Living Building Challenge’s uniquely rigorous Net Zero Water benchmark.

Principal | Shepley Bulfinch

Sonja Bochart, IIDA, a principal with Shepley Bulfinch, has 20+ years’ experience as a wellness focused designer. Her work includes education, healthcare and workplace design, including Living Building Challenge™, LEED®, WELL™, and SITES™ Platinum certified projects. Sonja also leads immersive and experientially based biophilic design workshops, focused on fostering human-nature connection and promoting designs that support human and ecological vitality and health.

CEO and Founder | Bioneers

Kenny Ausubel, CEO and founder (in 1990) of Bioneers, is an award-winning social entrepreneur, journalist, author and filmmaker. Co-founder and first CEO of the organic seed company, Seeds of Change, his film (and companion book) Hoxsey: When Healing Becomes a Crime helped influence national alternative medicine policy. He has edited several books and written four, including, most recently, Dreaming the Future: Reimagining Civilization in the Age of Nature.

Founder | Project Drawdown

Paul Hawken, one of the most important environmental authors, activists, thinkers and entrepreneurs of our era, has dedicated his life to sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the environment. His many bestselling books include such massively influential texts as: The Next Economy; The Ecology of Commerce; Blessed Unrest; and most recently, Drawdown, The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming.

Leader | SolutionCraft

Brennan Blazer Bird, an ecological educator, natural builder, water harvester, and “appropriate techie,” has led a diverse array of artistic and ecological projects around the world. He founded the Peace On Earthbench Movement (POEM), which seeks to inspire youth to transform plastic waste into art, and is currently leading an ecological design, build, and education venture called SolutionCraft. (earthbench.org, solutioncraft.org)

Indigenous Climate Action | Executive Director and Co-Founder

Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, a Denesuline Indigenous activist, member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) of Alberta, Canada, is Executive Director and co-founder of Indigenous Climate Action (ICA), Canada’s premier Indigenous-led climate justice organization. Deranger, who previously spent 6 years building-up the highly successful international Indigenous Tar Sands campaign, has become widely known as one of the world’s most effective organizers and coalition builders to defend Indigenous people’s rights locally, nationally and globally.

Senior Climate and Sustainability Coordinator | City of Boulder

Brett KenCairn, Boulder, Colorado’s Senior Policy Advisor for Climate, Sustainability and Resilience, coordinates that city’s climate action and resilience initiatives, including a soil sequestration R+D project. Co-founder of several organizations, including the Rogue River Institute for Ecology and Economy, Veterans Green Jobs, and Community Energy Systems, he has worked across the western U.S. in community-based initiatives in rural, Native American and other marginalized communities.

Director | Hillary Institute of International Leadership

Mark Prain spent 15 years as a professional actor, playwright and opera singer, but has spent the last 25 years working globally in leadership roles in organizations working on sustainability and climate issues. Director of the Hillary Institute of International Leadership since 2006, he is also Executive Director of the Untouched World Foundation and an advisor to the Katerva Challenge (Canada) and Climate Changers (U.S.).

Former Chair | California State Water Resources Control Board

Felicia Marcus, JD, until recently Chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board, has, in her long, illustrious career, served in many leading positions in government, the non-profit world, and the private sector, including, to mention only a few, as Regional Administrator of the U.S. EPA Region IX, head of the Los Angeles Department of Public Works, Western Director for the NRDC, and Executive VP/COO of the Trust for Public Land.

Poet

Ishmael Hope, an Inupiaq and Tlingit poet, actor and Indigenous scholar, served as the lead writer for the video game, Never Alone (Upper One Games); has published two poetry collections, including Rock Piles Alone the Eddy (Ishmael Reed Publications); and played the character Atka in a feature film, Frontera Azul (The Blue Frontier).

Founder | Project Drawdown

Paul Hawken, one of the most important environmental authors, activists, thinkers and entrepreneurs of our era, has dedicated his life to sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the environment. His many bestselling books include such massively influential texts as: The Next Economy; The Ecology of Commerce; Blessed Unrest; and most recently, Drawdown, The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming.

Director of Policy and Systems Design | Schumacher Center for a New Economics

Greg Watson, Director of Policy and Systems Design at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics, has spent four decades seeking to apply systems thinking to achieve a just and sustainable world. His long CV includes stints as Massachusetts’ Commissioner of Agriculture, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust and of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, and founding the Cuba-U.S. Agroecology Network, among many other prestigious positions.

Director | Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society

john a. powell is Director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society and Professor of Law, African American, and Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. His many previous roles have included Executive Director at the Kirwan Institute at Ohio State; National Legal Director of the ACLU; and teaching at numerous law schools including Harvard and Columbia. His latest book is Racing to Justice: Transforming our Concepts of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society.

Founder | 350.org

Bill McKibben, our nation’s most significant environmental activist, is also a leading journalist, author and academic. A Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, Bill’s The End of Nature (1989) was the first book for a general audience about climate change. A founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, he has won slews of prestigious awards, including the Right Livelihood Award and the Gandhi Prize and Thomas Merton prizes.

Author

Kim Stanley Robinson, one of the world’s leading science fiction writers, is the award-winning author of 20+ books, including the bestselling Mars trilogy, and more recently Red Moon, New York 2140, Aurora, Shaman, Green Earth, and 2312. Named a “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine, he works with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute, the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, and UC San Diego’s Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination. In 2016 asteroid 72432 was named “Kimrobinson.”

Executive Director | Women's Earth and Climate Action Network International

Osprey Orielle Lake, founder/Executive Director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International, works with grassroots and Indigenous leaders, policy-makers and scientists to promote climate justice, resilient communities, and a just transition to a clean energy future. Osprey serves on the Executive Committee of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, co-directs the DIVEST, INVEST, PROTECT campaign, and authored the award-winning, Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature. (wecaninternational.org)

Leader | SolutionCraft

Brennan Blazer Bird, an ecological educator, natural builder, water harvester, and “appropriate techie,” has led a diverse array of artistic and ecological projects around the world. He founded the Peace On Earthbench Movement (POEM), which seeks to inspire youth to transform plastic waste into art, and is currently leading an ecological design, build, and education venture called SolutionCraft. (earthbench.org, solutioncraft.org)

Mauricio Rivera integrates a background in civil engineering with a passion for regenerative systems. He designs small and large scale water systems in Sonoma County, California, pushing the effectiveness of low impact development, rainwater harvesting, decentralized onsite water reuse, and habitat restoration.

Deputy Director of Equity, Jobs & Climate | California Workforce Development Board

Sarah L. White, Ph.D., Senior Advisor for Jobs and the Economy in Governor Gavin Newsom’s Office of Planning and Research, is working on California’s efforts to make an equitable transition to carbon neutrality. Sarah has a long track record of public service at the highest levels in both governmental and non-profit sectors. One of the nation’s leading experts on jobs and training in the low-carbon economy, she has written widely on inequality, de-carbonization, and social change.

| Truong & Associates

Vien Truong, JD, a leading expert on building an equitable green economy, has helped develop many major energy, environmental and economic justice policies and programs at the state, federal, and local levels. A former President/CEO of the Dream Corps, her firm, Truong & Associates, advises lawmakers and organizations globally on developing sustainable, equitable environmental policies. Among her many award-winning achievements Vien co-led the coalition to pass California’s law creating the biggest fund in history for the most polluted communities.

Labor & Coal Coordinator | Sierra Club Labor Program

Larry Williams Jr., Labor Coordinator for the Sierra Club's Labor and Economic Justice Program, works domestically and internationally as a strategist and organizer seeking to revive the labor movement's influence and strengthen working class voices in climate, economic and racial justice struggles. President Emeritus of Progressive Workers Union (PWU), Williams is known globally as the founder of UnionBase.org, the first secure social networking platform for unions and union workers.

Co-Founder and Executive Director | New Consensus

Demond Drummer is the Chicago-based co-founder and Executive Director of New Consensus, a nonprofit working to develop and promote the Green New Deal that has advised many progressive leaders and organizations, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Sunrise Movement. Demond’s other notable projects include CoderSpace, a computer science learning lab where youths develop leadership skills, and LargeLots.org, a community-driven effort to reclaim and city-owned vacant lots in Chicago.

Founder & Strategist | Innate Strategies

Scott Spann works with businesses, NGOs, foundations and government institutions to bring stakeholders together to seek solutions to complex problems. His remarkably varied CV includes being a practicing trauma psychotherapist, doing consulting work for a number of leading corporations, founding the Texas office of The Nature Conservancy, heading the Rolf Institute, working with former guerrilla and indigenous leaders in Guatemala, and stints as a a cowboy, sailor, and competitive athlete.

President/CEO | United Way of the Wine Country

Lisa G. Carreño, formerly a practicing attorney in Maryland and California, is the President/CEO of United Way of the Wine Country. She also chairs the board for Forget Me Not Farm Children's Services and serves on the boards for Los Cien Sonoma County, Community Foundation Sonoma County, and Rebuild North Bay Foundation. Among her previous positions, she directed the Maryland Commission for Women, YWCA Sonoma County, and 10,000 Degrees.

Assistant Director | Sonoma County Human Services Department

Oscar Chavez, the Assistant Director of the Sonoma County Human Services Department, oversees the county’s Upstream Investments Initiative, the Department’s planning, research, and evaluation functions, and community and client engagement. He is a recipient of a Sonoma County Jefferson Award and a North Bay Business Journal Non-Profit Leadership Award, and was named one of North Bay’s “40 under 40” leaders by the North Bay Business Journal in 2008.

Chairman Emeritus | Kashia Band of Pomo

Reno Keoni Franklin, Chairman Emeritus of the Kashia Band of Pomo was Tribal Chairman from 2013 to 2018. His long life of service has included serving as the Chairman of: the California Rural Indian Health Board; the National Indian Health Board; and the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers. He also led the effort to buy back the 880-acre Kashia Coastal Reserve for his tribe.

Founder/Director | Daily Acts

Trathen Heckman, founder/Director of the NGO, Daily Acts (dedicated to “transformative action that creates connected, equitable, climate resilient communities"), serves on the board of the California Water Efficiency Partnership, the advisory board of Norcal Community Resilience Network and co-founded Climate Action Petaluma. Trathen lives in the Petaluma River Watershed where he grows food, medicine and wonder while composting apathy and lack.

CEO and President | Pepperwood Foundation

Lisa Micheli, Ph.D., CEO and President of the Pepperwood Foundation, also co-chairs Pepperwood's Terrestrial Biodiversity Climate Change Collaborative, chairs the Golden Gate Biosphere Reserve team of the international Large Landscape Conservation Peer Network, directs the Rebuild North Bay Foundation, and is a science advisor to: the Sempervirens Fund, the Chile-California Conservation Network, the Bay Area Open Space Council, and the Water Research Foundation.