Larry Kopald has been a communications and branding professional for over twenty-five years, working at some of the world’s top advertising agencies. He has overseen the advertising for brands ranging from McDonalds to American Express to Honda, and has helped launch multibillion-dollar brands like Acura, Oracle, and Huggies. Larry has also been a lifelong environmentalist serving on boards like Oceana, the National Marine Sanctuaries, 1% For The Planet and others. He has done the environmental communications for the UN and the Olympics, and his work for the Earth Communications Office was seen in over 100 countries by over a billion people. Larry has been nominated for both Emmy and Grammy awards. He is Co-Founder and President of The Carbon Underground.
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Joe Libertelli directs Alumni Affairs, and helps coordinate public relations for the School of Law. He earned his B.A. from Princeton University and J.D. from Antioch School of Law. He has been Executive Director of Metro D.C. Environmental Network, and is a co-founder of the Gibson Hollow Limited Liability Company, which runs a cooperative ecological mountain retreat in the Shenandoah Mountains. He is a member of the D.C. School of Law Foundation, and was a founding National Advisory Board Member of the Progressive Democrats of America. http://www.law.udc.edu/staff/details.asp?id=10284
Jim Laurie, Restoration Ecologist at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, is a biologist from Rice University and is a pioneer in biological remediation of waste water. He was the technical manager of the world’s largest “Living Machine” project to clean raw municipal sewage with no toxic chemicals. The facility, through a grant from the EPA, processed 80,000 gallons/day using the “living machine” methodology invented by ecological visionary, and Buckminster Fuller Award recipient, John Todd. Prior to that, for twenty years Jim was a biologist and trainer in the chemical industry in Houston, TX, where his work with living machines resulted in processing effluent cleaner than possible with conventional technology. Jim has also been a passionate advocate for Holistic Management of grasslands in the past decade. He began studying with Allan Savory twenty years ago in Texas, has spoken about Holistic Management at Harvard, MIT, Tufts, the Stockholm Environment Institute, and at meetings of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN) and Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA), and has been instrumental in spreading the message in New England. Jim is also co-founder of a lively and sophisticated Google Group, Soil-Age, and he invites you to join!
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- Blessed Unrest: Growing a Future for Life on Earth
- Restoring Oceans, Restoring Climate: Facing Fire & Ice, Food & Water, Floods & Droughts
- The Power and Promise of Biodiversity: Visions of Restoring Land, Sea and Climate
- Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming, Tufts 2015
- Climate, Biodiversity, and Survival: Listening to the Voices of Nature
- Climate Reckoning: Paths to an Earth Restored
- Scenario 300: Making Climate Cool!
- Landscape Heroes: Carbon, Water and Biodiversity
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming
- Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity, and Planet!
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Greg Glenn, Farm Manager, Rockland Farms (Poolesville, MD). During his time at Virginia Tech, Greg developed a passion for farming and local food systems. He studied small business agriculture and regional food systems, was actively involved in the local food system in Blacksburg, VA, and spent time in Kenya and South Africa where he became fascinated with holistic agriculture. After graduating with a degree in Agriculture Economics, he worked and trained in various social programs for resettled refugee training, and took the first steps to begin what would become Rocklands Farm. Rocklands Farm cultivates a bountiful harvest through an ecosystem-management approach to agriculture, utilizing multi-species rotational grazing as the centerpiece for soil regeneration. Rocklands hosts tours for people to gain insight into the dynamic complexities of a farm ecosystem, it’s wider effect on the environment, and how your food choices shape the future. Rocklands has an on-farm market for people to enjoy the bounty of the farm’s harvest, including meats, produce and wine produced at Rocklands.
Gina Angiola, MD – Retired physician, Board member of Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility, Member, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, lifelong advocate for healthy environments. As a climate activist for over 12 years and a member of many large environmental organizations, most of her advocacy and action has focused on reducing emissions from the energy sector and from conventional food production. She now recognizes the urgent need to add ecological restoration and enhancement of carbon sinks to the agenda if we hope to re-establish a stable climate system and a livable planet for future generations.
Fritz Gottschalk is a recently retired Army Veteran who served for 25 years in a variety of military operations, focusing mostly on working with foreign militaries. He served in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as Panama, Haiti and throughout Western Africa. After leaving the military, he became a Maryland State Certified Compost Facility Operator and has worked with Veteran Compost in the DC Metropolitan area. His current position is in sales, research and operational development, as well as making organic compost. In addition, Fritz has begun to work on a Masters Degree in Environmental Resource Policy at George Washington University. www.veterancompost.com/
Dan Kittredge is a life-long farmer and founder of the Bionutrient Food Association. He launched The Real Food Campaign (RFC) in 2008, to empower and educate farmers towards the production of quality food for the improvement of human health. In 2008 and 2009 RFC made major strides in developing a cohesive local, national and global vision, and networked nationally to build the base to implement its mission. Under Dan’s leadership in 2009-2010 RFC began holding yearlong courses on Nutrient Dense Crop Production and building a professional team of staff.
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Mchezaji “Che” Axum is the Director of the CAUSES Center for Urban Agriculture. He is a trained environmental agronomist with over 25 years of experience in agriculture. He leads a team of Researchers at the Muirkirk Research Farm in Beltsville, Maryland, and oversees the University’s DC Master Gardener, Specialty/Ethnic Crops and Urban Agriculture certificate programs. Read about Che on the UDC website and on the UDC Just CAUSES Blog.
Anthony Torres, is a member of the Class of 2015, Leadership Program, School of Public Affairs, American University. He is pursuing a dual degree in political science and environmental studies with a focus on the intersections of social inequality and climate change. At AU, he has served as an organizer for his campus divestment campaign and is currently the Student Co-Director of the SPA Leadership Program.
In addition to his work on the COP21 Delegation, Anthony has been involved with coastal restoration and resiliency on Long Island, advocacy for organizations like the NY League of Conservation Voters, and projects aimed at encouraging positive social transformation with frontline communities in North India and the Ecuadorian Amazon.
After graduation, Anthony plans to promote just climate policies for communities of color at the national and international level. He is one of 23 US youth delegates SustainUS is sending to Paris for the 21st Session of the Conference of Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). SustainUS delegates work alongside government officials, civil society representatives, and youth from around the world while organizing direct actions, media outreach, and policy advocacy.
Annita Seckinger is a soils and water scientist who works as a consultant for a range of organizations. She is also the founder and president of the Watts Branch Watershed Alliance, an organization dedicated to the preservation and restoration of the Watts Branch Watershed in Montgomery Country, Maryland. Annita and Dr. Ray Weil are currently collaborating on projects that deal with soils, health, restoration and reforestation in an indigenous community in northern Mexico.
Additionally, Annita has worked with children – both domestically and abroad – on issues pertaining to health and nutrition.For more than ten years she has worked to bring healthy, locally sourced food back to Maryland’s elementary, middle and high schools; concurrently, she has stressed the importance of an environmental education for young people of all age groups. Annita holds degrees from the University of Maryland and the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden.
Alexis Baden-Mayer, Esq., Political Director, Organic Consumers Association. The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is an online and grassroots non-profit 501(c)3 public interest organization campaigning for health, justice, and sustainability. The OCA deals with crucial issues of food safety, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering, children’s health, corporate accountability, Fair Trade, environmental sustainability and other key topics. www.organicconsumers.org/
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Quinton Zondervan is executive director of the Climate Action Business Association and president of Green Cambridge, the conference’s two co-sponsors. He is an environmental and political activist working towards a more sustainable and peaceful future.
Mark Smith is co-founder and president of Brookwood Community Farm in Milton, Massachusetts, a non-profit organic farm bordering Boston in the Blue Hills. He is committed to growing good food with sustainable practices to improve food security for nearby residents. Previously, Mark served as communications director for Farm Aid, the national family farm organization.
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Nathan Phillips is professor of Earth and Environment at Boston University.
He studies the physiological mechanisms and processes by which plants and ecosystems regulate water loss and carbon gain, and how these processes may be altered under global environmental change. He is now applying this research to studies of urban ecology in a program called Urban Metabolism.
Eric Olson is a senior lecturer in the graduate program on Sustainable International Development at the Heller School at Brandeis. He has a background in evolutionary biology, ecology, and forest science. Among his interests are global atmospheric circulation, climate change, the sources and maintenance of soil fertility, and the pathways of nitrogen through atmosphere, soils, and waterways.
Luisa Oliveira led the municipal team that developed Somerville’s urban agriculture ordinance, the first in New England . She will tell the story of the development of the ordinance in Somerville and the successes and challenges of urban agriculture in a densely populated city.
Charlotte O’Brien is an entrepreneur and expert on pyrolysis (, biomass and bamboo. She is president and CEO of Carbon Drawdown Solutions, which supplies equipment for local biochar processing for long-term soil carbon storage, that also greatly improves soil health and productivity. She has worked with both biochar and bamboo in many situations, at many scales, around the world.
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David Morimoto is associate professor of Biology at Lesley University, where he teaches ecology, ornithology, conservation biology, and animal behavior. He has studied the effects of forest fragmentation on birds in Massachusetts and is currently involved in research on urban birds.
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Ellen Mass is president of the Friends of Alewife Reservation Inc. (FAR), a ten-year stewardship and conservation group at Alewife. FAR performs community action and citizen science, teaching forums on the effects of climate change on the floodplain. FAR also offers clean-ups, tours, summer Ecology Camps, and advocates on behalf of the Alewife wetlands and the wild space of the Department of Conservation and Recreation parkland. FAR has published a booklet of Alewife wildlife.
Jennifer Lawrence is the sustainability planner for the City of Cambridge; her responsibilities include climate communications, and collaborating on the Climate Change Adaptation and Preparedness Planning Process. She was executive director of Groundwork Somerville, has worked with Apex Green Roofs, and was a senior fellow in the Environmental Leadership Program in Greenbelt, MD.
Mel King has been active across the landscape of neighborhoods and politics of Boston for over 55 years as an educator, youth worker, social activist, community organizer, elected official, and author. As an adjunct professor at MIT and a pioneer in Boston’s community gardening effort, he was responsible for creating many community programs and institutions for low-income people in Boston.
Allison Houghton is a teacher of permaculture and gardening techniques. She manages the Greater Boston CSA for the Food Project, where she has also been the orchard manager and assistant grower for the Lincoln Farm. Before that, she was horticultural director for Green City Growers, helping Greater Boston residents, schools, and businesses grow food intensively in small urban spaces.
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Joy Gary is a grower at ReVision Urban Farm in Dorchester. She grew up on a farm, and worked on a farm in Michigan, so working with the earth and growing her own food has always been important to her. She has strong interests in urban agriculture, new foods and culinary skills. One of her passions is introducing new vegetables to customers at the farm stand.
Bruce Fulford is president of City Soil & Greenhouse LLC. For more than 30 years, he has pioneered composting, biothermal energy, four-season crop production and stormwater management practices and projects. He works closely with national and community-based organizations in land remediation, agricultural business development, fund raising, and job training.
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Eric ‘T’ Fleischer is the director of Horticulture at Battery Park City Parks Conservancy in Manhattan, where he focuses on managing public space through completely organic means. In 2007, based on a program at Battery Park, he developed the Harvard Yard Soils Restoration Project; it avoids the use of toxic pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, and builds a healthy natural nutrient cycling system in the soil by encouraging and balancing microbial activity.
Phil Colarusso, of the Ocean and Coastal Protection unit of the Boston EPA office, is a marine biologist and avid, highly experienced diver. He studies how Boston Harbor has recovered since the Deer Island wastewater treatment facility was installed. He is an expert on how offshore eelgrass metabolizes carbon, and how we can protect and restore it.
Duke Bitsko is the director of Interdisciplinary Design at Bioengineering Group in Salem, MA. On its green infrastructure and restoration projects, he works with ecologists, earth scientists and engineers to develop regenerative site-based solutions that are cost and management effective. He led a large-scale project in the Alewife area, turning a former parking lot into a reconstructed wetland.
Jonathan Bates is an ecologist and permaculture consultant. He worked with his friend Eric Tonsmeier to turn a neglected tenth of an acre in Holyoke into an urban oasis, an edible forest garden with 160 carefully chosen varieties of plants and trees. They tell the story in Paradise Lot (Chelsea Green Books). At Food Forest Farm they also sell plants and consult on permaculture.
Lenni Armstrong is a leader of DePave Somerville, a community initiative developed with Somerville Climate Action. The city’s higher than average proportion of paved areas means greater flooding. By digging up asphalt driveways and putting in permeable pavers and green space, DePave is reducing the city’s potential for floods—and beautifying the city.
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Thomas Akin is State Resource Conservationist at the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) of the US Department of Agriculture. NRCS provides technical and financial assistance to farmers to improve the health of their soils by implementing conservation practices such as cover crops, crop rotation, and reduced tillage. Healthy soils hold more water, better resist erosion and drought, and contribute significant carbon for soil biota.
Nancy Lee Wood, Ph.D. is Professor of Sociology at Bristol Community College (BCC) in Fall River, MA and Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Post-carbon Education (ISPE), which she established in 2008. She is a life-long activist, participating in the anti-Vietnam War/Peace Movement, the anti-Nuclear Movement, the anti-Apartheid Movement, the International Women’s Movement and most recently, the Climate Change/Peak Oil Movement and has taken leading roles with many other peace and sustainability organizations. Since 2007, she has organized numerous local sustainability events and has given many presentations and lectures regarding the impacts of fossil fuel depletion on industrial society. Currently she is developing an Associate Degree major in Sustainability for BCC as a model for other community colleges to adopt. In her spare time, she is training to become a Master Gardener.
Liz Wiley is the Program Manager for Round the Bend Farm, a program of the Marion Institute, where she is developing infrastructure for a Learning Center that will accommodate workshops in food and farming, sustainability, health and wellness. Trained as a biologist, she helped pioneer methods to rescue mass stranded whales and dolphins, investigated the impact of noise on killer whales in the San Juan Islands and flew thousands of miles mapping the location of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.
While passionate about environmental protection, her experience as a woman in science led to a greater commitment in improving the lives of underserved women and the need to form healthy communities that combine environmental and social needs. In 2007, she began working for Bristol Community College (BCC) where she developed the highly successful WISE Women program, implemented multiple grant initiatives focused on workforce development, developed the Master Gardener program. and helped launch eHealth, an innovative private/public partnership that brought online health oriented programs to the college. During this time, Liz received her MS in Organizational Management and Leadership from Antioch University-New England, where her thesis focused on the ‘Role of Women in Creating and Maintaining Sustainable Communities’.
After spending much of 2011 living in New Zealand, Liz returned to BCC as the Director of the Green Center, a program focused on workforce training in support of the green economy. Under Liz’s direction, the Center grew into a major force for developing the green economy in the Southcoast region. She has taught courses at Boston University and BCC and is a certified yoga teacher. Liz and her family – Dave, Luke, Nathan, and Kaia – live in Wareham.
Mark Smith is co-founder and President of Brookwood Community Farm, a non-profit organic farm bordering Boston in the Blue Hills. The farm is committed to growing good food with sustainable practices to improve food security for nearby residents. Formerly, Mark was the communications director for the national family farm organization Farm Aid.
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Ridge Shinn advocates raising beef on a 100% grass diet to change the present model of beef production and distribution in North America, resulting in an ecologically based and economically sustainable system. Large-scale implementation would lead to improved human health, energy savings, and an increase in carbon sequestration, soil fertility, and biodiversity. He has developed markets and distribution systems for grass-fed and grass-finished beef throughout the northeastern United States. Ridge has been featured in TIME Magazine, “Save the Planet, Eat More Beef (grass-feeding required)”; Atlantic Monthly, “Back to Grass”; The New York Times, “The Greening of the Herd”; and other major media outlets. His website is https://www.bigpicturebeef.com/.
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Greg Sethares is Vice President for Academic Affairs at Bristol Community College (BCC). Prior to this appointment he served over eighteen years as a BCC mathematics faculty member, as well as in a variety of leadership roles at the College, including Department Chair; founding Director of BCC’s Commonwealth Honors Program; President of the Faculty and Professional Staff Senate; President, Director, Treasurer, and Strategic Action Coordinator of the BCC Chapter of the Massachusetts Community College Council (the faculty and professional staff union). Prior to coming to BCC, he spent six years teaching high school mathematics and coaching golf, basketball, and tennis in Maine and Massachusetts.
Seeds of Sustainability is student club based in Fall River, Massachusetts at Bristol Community College whose goals are to encourage and promote education, leadership and the practice of sustainable living. SOS aims to provide the availability of fresh, local and organic food on campus, to support local organic agriculture and to foster sustainable practices throughout the surrounding community. Another of its objectives is to build a lasting relationship between the school’s administration, the student body and eventually the greater community. SOS is building a foundation for present and future members to grow in three major areas of a sustainable lifestyle. These are to be economically sound, ecologically responsible and socially equitable.
Paul Schmid is the Massachusetts State Representative for the 8th Bristol district and Vice Chair of the Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture. He is also the proprietor of River Rock Farm in Westport where he raises 100% grass-fed beef.
Adam Sacks is the Executive Director of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate. He has had careers in education, holistic medicine, computer technology, politics and advocacy. For five years he directed a non-profit that worked with communities invoking basic democratic and constitutional principles to oppose detrimental local corporate activity. He has been a climate activist for the past thirteen years and has been studying and writing about Holistic Management since 2007. On the side he is an artist, writer and student of classical piano. His primary goal is regeneration of biodiversity and a livable planet.
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Paula Phipps is a multi-culturalist with special interests in supporting culturally and linguistically competent programs and advocating for at-risk children and families. Her passion is developing curriculum that credits children with curiosity, creativity, openness, and a high interest in learning – and provides the knowledge and skill base needed at this time. That knowledge and skill base must now include preparation for climate change. Her new workshop, Preparing Young Children for Climate Change, was recently presented at the Cambridge Public Library.
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Jono Neiger is a founding partner of Regenerative Design Group with 24 years of professional experience in permaculture, ecological land design, site planning, community development, agroforestry, land management and conservation, and restoration. Mr. Neiger teaches widely around the northeast and southeast at colleges, workshops, and conferences on the topics of permaculture, ecological design, sustainable water use, and productive conservation, and holds a core faculty position at the Conway School of Landscape Planning and Design and is the founding Board President of the Permaculture Institute of the Northeast. Mr. Neiger worked as the land manager for Lost Valley Educational Center for five years, as the Conservation Officer for the Town of Palmer, MA for 5 years and a Restorationist with the Nature Conservancy in California for two years. He holds a B.S. degree in Forest Biology from S.U.N.Y. College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, N.Y. and a Masters in Landscape Planning and Design from Conway School of Landscape Planning and Design, Conway, MA.
William McCaffrey is a small farmer from East Taunton, MA, where his family grows cranberries, strawberries, and hay. After eight years of studying agriculture in upstate New York and abroad, William has joined his parents to expand the range of production on Spring Rain Farm. His primary interests are tree fruit and meat livestock, focusing on models replacing petroleum-based inputs with ecology.
Jim Laurie, Restoration Ecologist, is a biologist from Rice University and is a pioneer in biological remediation of waste water. He was the technical manager of the world’s largest “Living Machine” project to clean raw municipal sewage with no toxic chemicals. The facility, through a grant from the EPA, processed 80,000 gallons/day using the “living machine” methodology invented by ecological visionary, and Buckminster Fuller Award recipient, John Todd.
Prior to that, for twenty years Jim was a biologist and trainer in the chemical industry in Houston, TX, where his work with living machines resulted in processing effluent cleaner than possible with conventional technology. Jim has also been a passionate advocate for Holistic Management of grasslands in the past decade. He began studying with Allan Savory twenty years ago in Texas, has spoken about Holistic Management at Harvard, MIT, Tufts, the Stockholm Environment Institute, and at meetings of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN) and Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA), and has been instrumental in spreading the message in New England. Jim is also co-founder of a lively and sophisticated Google Group, Soil-Age, and he invites you to join! He is also chief scientist at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate.
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Emily Jodka is a life long gardener and New Englander who currently lives in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Emily Co-founded the New Urban Farmers in 2008 with Bleu Grijalva, which started as a grassroots movement in a community garden that grew into a non-profit that provides education and an opportunity to grow and eat fresh food grown without chemicals. As part of the New Urban Farmers Emily has grown everything from farm favorite crops to fruit trees, and has also used other methods such as aquaponics and mushroom cultivation. Emily is the Co-Director at the New Urban Farmers and a high school teacher in Providence.
Sarah Howard is the Executive Director of Earthos Institute in Somerville, Massachusetts. Her work has focused on building community and regional resiliency and vitality as well as ecological and justice issues. She has taught experiential environmental education and founded community learning centers in urban areas, worked for cultural institutions to develop community partnerships/education, served as an elected Housing Commissioner in Westport MA, and served as Urban Agriculture Ambassador in Somerville. To better understand the interface between people, land, and food, Sarah started walking across regions; her experiences and research led her to study architecture and public policy, focusing on sustainable design and regional resiliency. In 2009, she co-founded Earthos with the conviction that we need different kinds of knowledge and methods to support the emergence of sustaining, resilient community-to-bioregional systems. She also teaches sustainable/bioregional urbanism and experiential learning methods at the Boston Architectural College.
Zoe Hansen-DiBello is a Providence, RI native who now resides in the South Coast of Massachusetts. Zoe graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2008 and is currently working towards a PhD in Educational Leadership at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Zoe has worked for the Marion Institute since 2009 and co-founded the Grow Education Program in 2013, which she manages in New Bedford Public Schools. Grow Education seeks to empower public school teachers and students through the creation of school-based gardens. Zoe is a graduate of Leadership SouthCoast, serves on the Education Roundtable in New Bedford and has been a Big Sister to a New Bedford student for the past three years.
Rachael Furlong is a full-time student at Bristol Community College. She is a very active member of Seeds of Sustainability; a student club on the Fall River campus. Rachael will be graduating with an Associate’s degree in General Studies with a concentration in Sustainable Agriculture this Spring. In the Fall, she will continue her education at UMass Amherst studying Sustainable Food and Farming. Picture taken from her past volunteer experience on Rosasharn Farm in Rehoboth, MA.
Bruce Fulford is President of City Soil & Greenhouse LLC. He has pioneered composting, biothermal energy, four-season crop production and stormwater management practices and projects for more than 30 years. His integrated projects are models of efficient and equitable resource management that reduce greenhouse gas sources and mitigate the effects of climate change. His company operates the City of Boston’s composting site, and manufactures and delivers locally-produced composts, mulches and amended soils and technical assistance to a broad client base. He works closely with national and community-based organizations in land remediation, agricultural business development, fund raising, and job training. He is a member of the Massachusetts Audubon Society Council and its Climate committee.
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Gillian Davies is a senior wetlands and soil scientist who provides scientific and regulatory consulting to public and private sector clients, as well as expert witness testimony. Her consulting expertise encompasses state and federal permitting, wetland delineation, impact analysis, mitigation planning and design, difficult wetland soils evaluations, vernal pool evaluations, construction monitoring, and peer reviews for Conservation Commissions. She also teaches numerous workshops relating to wetlands.
Jim Corven is a professor of Sustainable Agriculture, Plant Science, and Biology at Bristol Community College. He is the faculty advisor for the student club Seeds of Sustainability (SOS), faculty member of the BCC Sustainability Committee, and serves on the Staff & Faculty Senate. Jim’s current research involves a study of sustainable agriculture educational programs at community colleges across the country. Before joining the BCC in 2006 Jim lived in Central America for 22 years working for agricultural and conservation focused non-governmental organizations. He currently lives on his small farm-homestead in Vermont.
Engin Atasay is an Assistant Professor of Education at Bristol Community College. In 2014, he received his PhD is Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education from the Department of Education, Culture and Society at the University of Utah. His research addresses dialogues for democratic learning and social equity and he uses eco-literacy as a framework for educators to question and challenge mainstream and modern categories of learning in order to encourage culturally appropriate education.
Richard Teague is Associate Resident Director and Professor of Sustainable Rangeland Management at Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center. His philosophy is that research and service must provide the linkage that enables managers to base decisions for sustainable land use on the principles of ecosystem function. He uses four key elements to enhance this linkage: a systems research program, resource accounting, long-term assessment and partnering with rancher clientele. His goal is to use a systems approach in developing land and livestock management practices that sustain natural rangeland resources and the people depending on the land. His work includes studies of holistic management practices published in professional journals.
Ridge Shinn advocates raising beef on a 100% grass diet to change the present model of beef production and distribution in North America, resulting in an ecologically based and economically sustainable system. Large-scale implementation would lead to improved human health, energy savings, and an increase in carbon sequestration, soil fertility, and biodiversity. He has developed markets and distribution systems for grass-fed and grass-finished beef throughout the northeastern United States. Ridge has been featured in TIME Magazine, “Save the Planet, Eat More Beef (grass-feeding required)”; Atlantic Monthly, “Back to Grass”; The New York Times, “The Greening of the Herd”; and other major media outlets. His website is https://www.bigpicturebeef.com/.
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Judith Schwartz is a longtime freelance writer and author of several books. Over the last several years she has written about the juncture of economics and the environment for such publications as Time,Time.com, the Christian Science Monitor, Conservation, and the UKGuardian. Most recently she is the author of Cows Save the Planet and Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013). The Organic Consumers Association calls the book “a call to action for the soil”, while author Michael Pollan says the book is “the most hopeful and surprising book on the environmental crisis I’ve read this year.” Judith has a B.A. from Brown University, an M.A. in Counseling from Northwestern, and an M.S.J. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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Vanessa Rule is co-director and lead organizer for Mothers Out Front. She has been working to address the climate crisis since the fall of 2006, as lead organizer for Somerville Climate Action, as a board member of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network, and as co-founder of Better Future Project and 350 Massachusetts. Her love of people, nature, and systems has led her to focus on building relationships and networks that enable people to take action together to build a resilient, just, and sustainable future. Vanessa holds a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and an M.S. from Antioch University New England. She splits her time between Somerville, Massachusetts and Strafford, Vermont, where she lives with her two children.
Gary Rucinski is co-founder and chairman of the Committee for a Green Economy, and is Northeast Regional Coordinator of the Citizens Climate Lobby, a grassroots nonpartisan nonprofit building the political will for a sustainable climate. Since founding CCL’s Boston chapter in 2010, Gary has become the local organization’s primary spokesperson advocating for a national tax on carbon that would return 100% of proceeds to households. He has been interviewed by Betsy Rosenberg on On The Green Front and Kathryn Lowell on Occupy Boston Radio and is a frequent contributor to the Boston Globe Letters to the Editor section. Gary holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Rochester and a BA in Physics from Brandeis University. When not advocating for a stable climate Gary lives in Newton, Massachusetts with his wife and three children.
Ethan Roland is an international expert on regenerative agriculture and permaculture design. He is the lead organizer of the 2015 Carbon Farming Course, and is launching Regenerative Real Estate LLC to transform large areas of degraded land into economically & ecologically profitable farms. Ethan is the President of the Apios Institute for Regenerative Perennial Agriculture, the founder of Regenerative Real Estate LLC, and holds an B.S. in Biochemsitry from Haverford and an M.S. in Eco-Social Design from Gaia University.
Greg Retallack is an award-winning paleobotanist at the University of Oregon, where he has been on the faculty since 1981. His research group is dedicated to the proposition that soils have a fossil record, like other living things. Past studies have considered the role of soils in ape and human evolution in Kenya, grassland evolution in North America, dinosaur extinction in Montana, angiosperm evolution in Kansas, Late Permian mass extinction in Antarctica, and evolution of trees and tetrapods in Pennsylvania. Current and future studies concern Cambrian explosion on land, Precambrian life on land and martian paleosols, with fieldwork in Newfoundland and Australia. He recently wrote a paper for the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, “Global Cooling by Grassland Soils of the Geological Past and Near Future.“
Precious Phiri is a Senior Facilitator at the Africa Center for Holistic Management (ACHM) in Zimbabwe. Precious directs training for villages in the Hwange Communal Lands region that are implementing restorative grazing programs using Holistic Land and Livestock Management. This helps rural communities in Africa to reduce poverty, rebuild soils, and restore food and water security. This nature-based solution has been successfully used on different landscapes in Africa and the Americas. Precious was born and raised in one of the communities now implementing restorative grazing.
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Charlotte O’Brien, President and CEO, Carbon Drawdown Solutions, is an entrepreneur, pyrolysis and biomass expert who has worked for years with many varieties of bamboo, a plant that improves soils and water cycles, expands habitats for many other species, and may be harvested sustainably for uses ranging from construction to food to biochar, a soil supplement. She recently founded Carbon Drawdown Solutions, supplying equipment for local biochar processing for long-term soil carbon storage and greatly improved soil health and productivity. At Bamboo Hardwoods Vietnam, Char was responsible for manufacturing and managing all production details, working with bamboo farmers and NGOs. She finalized the first International Construction Code (ICC) certification of bamboo in the western world and is founder and director of the non-profit BioBamboo. She earned her Bachelor’s of Science with high honors at Michigan State University, majoring in Crops and Soils, and received 3 years of agricultural technical training in Denmark, Norway and Austria.
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Tom Newmark has spent fourteen years in the natural vitamin and supplement industry, building New Chapter into the number one company in the industry. Tom is also the founder of Sacred Seeds and co-owner of Finca Luna Nueva, an organic farming operation in Costa Rica that administers tropical farming systems trials, collaborating with the Rodale Institute on carbon sequestration studies. He’s a trustee of the American Botanical Council, sits on numerous boards of directors, and is a contributing member of the Children’s Eternal Rainforest Organization. In his past he was a corporate attorney and entrepreneur, from which he claims to be recovering. He is Co-Founder and Chair of The Carbon Underground.
William Moomaw is Professor of International Environmental Policy at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and founding director of the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy, the Tufts Climate Initiative and co-founder of the Global Development and Environment Institute. A physical chemist with a PhD from MIT, he works to translate science and technology into policy terms. He was lead author of four IPCC reports, and an author for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. He has received numerous teaching awards and an honorary doctorate from the University of Belgrade. He has worked on forestry, energy and CFC-elimination legislation and currently serves on the boards of The Climate Group, Clean Air-Cool Planet (which he co-founded), Earthwatch Institute, Center for Ecological Technologies and the Consensus Building Institute. He and his wife, Margot have just completed a zero net energy home in Williamstown that uses no fossil fuels, one of a handful of such homes to be built in northern climates.
Hugh McLaughlin has a BS in Chemistry (Harvey Mudd College, 1976) in addition to an MS (USC, 1978) and PhD in Chemical Engineering (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1988). He is an expert in biochar and activated carbon and is a leader in the rapidly developing field of biochar, the precursor to all activated carbon products. He has developed proprietary technology in the production and characterization of these materials, with many years of experience in development and implementation of these new processing technologies on a commercial scale. He has presented at national conferences on biochar and published extensively on the characterization of biochar based on measurable physical properties of the end products. From 2009 to 2013, he served as Director of Biocarbon Research for Alterna Biocarbon, Inc.
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Mark Leighton is senior advisor in the Sustainability and Environmental Management Program at Harvard Extension School. He joined the Harvard faculty in 1983 in the department of biological anthropology, having received his PhD from the University of California, Davis focusing on rainforest ecology. Since then he has studied topics in rainforest community ecology, vertebrate behavioral ecology, sustainable forestry and land use, and conservation biology. In 1984, he founded the Cabang Panti Research Station in Borneo, which has remained a productive site for basic and applied studies carried out by many collaborating students and colleagues. He has directed several conservation and development projects in collaboration with Indonesia’s ministry of forestry. While director of the Great Ape World Heritage Species Project, he served as initial co-chair of the scientific commission of the Great Ape Survival Project, a joint effort between UNEP and UNESCO that strives to save wild ape populations and their habitats. His current research focuses on developing private-public initiatives for sustainable conservation and management of tropical forest landscapes.
Jim Laurie, Restoration Ecologist, is a biologist from Rice University and is a pioneer in biological remediation of waste water. He was the technical manager of the world’s largest “Living Machine” project to clean raw municipal sewage with no toxic chemicals. The facility, through a grant from the EPA, processed 80,000 gallons/day using the “living machine” methodology invented by ecological visionary, and Buckminster Fuller Award recipient, John Todd.
Prior to that, for twenty years Jim was a biologist and trainer in the chemical industry in Houston, TX, where his work with living machines resulted in processing effluent cleaner than possible with conventional technology. Jim has also been a passionate advocate for Holistic Management of grasslands in the past decade. He began studying with Allan Savory twenty years ago in Texas, has spoken about Holistic Management at Harvard, MIT, Tufts, the Stockholm Environment Institute, and at meetings of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN) and Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA), and has been instrumental in spreading the message in New England. Jim is also co-founder of a lively and sophisticated Google Group, Soil-Age, and he invites you to join!
Other Conferences and Vidoes
- Blessed Unrest: Growing a Future for Life on Earth
- Restoring Oceans, Restoring Climate: Facing Fire & Ice, Food & Water, Floods & Droughts
- The Power and Promise of Biodiversity: Visions of Restoring Land, Sea and Climate
- Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming, Tufts 2015
- Climate, Biodiversity, and Survival: Listening to the Voices of Nature
- Climate Reckoning: Paths to an Earth Restored
- Scenario 300: Making Climate Cool!
- Landscape Heroes: Carbon, Water and Biodiversity
- Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity, and Planet!
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming, Washington D.C. 2015
Other Vidoes
Larry Kopald has been a communications and branding professional for over twenty-five years, working at some of the world’s top advertising agencies. He has overseen the advertising for brands ranging from McDonalds to American Express to Honda, and has helped launch multibillion-dollar brands like Acura, Oracle, and Huggies.
Larry has also been a lifelong environmentalist serving on boards like Oceana, the National Marine Sanctuaries, 1% For The Planet and others. He has done the environmental communications for the UN and the Olympics, and his work for the Earth Communications Office was seen in over 100 countries by over a billion people. Larry has been nominated for both Emmy and Grammy awards. He is Co-Founder and President of The Carbon Underground.
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Dan Kittredge is a life-long farmer and founder of the Bionutrient Food Association. He launched The Real Food Campaign (RFC) in 2008, to empower and educate farmers towards the production of quality food for the improvement of human health. In 2008 and 2009 RFC made major strides in developing a cohesive local, national and global vision, and networked nationally to build the base to implement its mission. Under Dan’s leadership in 2009-2010 RFC began holding yearlong courses on Nutrient Dense Crop Production and building a professional team of staff.
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Seth Itzkan is a futurist and founder of Planet-TECH Associates in Somerville, Massachusetts. Planet-TECH has twenty years of experience consulting for clients in energy, urban development, youth empowerment, and futures preparedness. His other company, Charles River Web, develops Open Source web applications. His personal advocacy is climate mitigation through HM grasslands restoration. He has spent months in Africa observing Holistic Management and its extraordinary positive effects on desertified semi-arid grasslands. He produces videos and is working on a book about his experiences. Seth is co-founder of the Google Group, Soil-Age. His website is http://planet-tech.com/home.
Tom Goreau is an award-winning marine, soils and climate scientist. He is President of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, a coral reef protection non-profit, and has been involved in issues affecting the United Nations, climate change, coral reef, and small island developing states all over the world in many different capacities. He has dived longer and in more coral reefs around the world than any coral scientist and has published around 200 papers in coral reef ecology, climate and other fields. He has pioneered the study of reef preservation, and has participated in several major UN global conferences.
He works with tropical fishing communities to restore coral reefs and fisheries, especially the Kuna Indians of Panama, the only native people of the Americas who have maintained their cultural and political independence. He is a hereditary leader of the Yolngu Dhuwa aboriginal clan of Arnhem Land, Australia, who preserve the world’s oldest creation myth. He was educated in Jamaican schools, at MIT, Caltech, Yale, Woods Hole, and holds a Ph.D. from Harvard in biogeochemistry. He is a trained nuisance crocodile remover who would rather not.
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Eli Gerzon is State Divestment Organizer at Better Future Project/350 Massachusetts. His work focuses on divesting the state pension fund from fossil fuels through grassroots organizing. Before this, he ran an ultra-low-carbon landscaping business on his bicycle for 11 years. Much of his life has focused on world travel and he founded Worldschool Travel Tours for teens to Mexico and Japan. His vision was that travel experiences would develop leaders and lead to change in the world. Soon it became clear that more direct action and organizing was needed given the urgency of the climate crisis and other injustices.
Candace Ducheneaux, Hohwoju Lakota elder and long-time activist from the Cheyenne River homelands, is dedicated to preserving the Lakota way of life and the environmental integrity of our sacred mother earth. She has been at the frontlines in many grassroots battles for justice for the Lakota Oyate and against the destructive human forces threatening the existence of all humanity and the earth itself. As a mother of five and grandmother of 13, she is very concerned with the water needs of her people and the future generations. She has been working tirelessly to insure that the people of her reservation – as well as all Red Nations – will have safe water in a world in which pure water is becoming increasingly scarce.
Diana Donlon is the Director of the Center for Food Safety’s Cool Foods Campaign. which offers hope on climate by empowering the public to make the critical connection between everyday food choices and climate change. Before coming to work for CFS, Diana worked for a variety of family foundations supporting youth and sustainable agriculture programs. She is the Board Secretary of Watershed Media, which has produced such titles as Farming with the Wild and Food Fight: The Citizen’s Guide to a Food and Farm Bill. She has a Bachelor’s in History from UC Berkeley, a Master’s in Education from Harvard and served in the Peace Corps in Morocco. She lives in Marin County with her husband, two teenage sons , her super friendly cat and three chickens.
Antje Danielson is the Administrative Director at the Tufts Institute of the Environment and the graduate interdisciplinary “Water: Systems, Science and Society” (WSSS) program. She came to Tufts from Durham University (UK), where she served as the Deputy Director for Sustainability, in May 2008. Previously, she worked with the Harvard Green Campus Initiative. A long-time resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Antje also co-founded the innovative car-sharing company Zipcar. She holds a Ph.D. in Geology from Free University, Berlin.
Ronnie Cummins is founder and Director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), a non-profit, U.S.-based network of 850,000 consumers, dedicated to safeguarding organic standards and promoting a healthy, just, and sustainable system of agriculture and commerce. He has been active as a writer and activist since the 1960s, with extensive experience in human rights, anti-war, anti-nuclear, labor, consumer, environmental, and sustainable agriculture campaigns.
Over the past decades he has served as director of US and international efforts such as the Pure Food Campaign, and the Global Days of Action Against GMOs. He served as a campaign director for the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, D.C. and in 1998, organized the SOS (Save Organic Standards) Campaign, spearheading the largest consumer grassroots backlash against the US Department of Agriculture in recent history. He lives with his wife and 16-year-old son in San Miguel de Allende, headquarters of the OCA in Mexico, as well as in Finland, Minnesota.
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Dorn Cox is the director for GreenStart, and a farmer working the 250-acre family farm in Lee, New Hampshire. He has designed and constructed systems for small-scale grain and oil seeds processing and biofuel production, worked to select effective cover crops, grains and oilseed for food and energy production, and has developed no-till and low-till equipment to reduce energy use and increase soil health in New Hampshire conditions. He is also a founding member of Farm Hack, the New England Farmers’ Union, the Great Bay Grain Cooperative, the Oyster River Biofuel Initiative, and is a Vice President of the NH Association of Conservation Districts. He has a B.S. from Cornell University and a PhD from the University of New Hampshire. He continues to develop and refine open source agricultural research and development systems to improve farm productivity and resilience.
Veronika Miranda Chase is an Environmental Policy Researcher, particularly interested in issues of sustainable development, climate change and the Water-Food-Energy Nexus. She has participated in projects related to climate mitigation and adaptation in developed countries, and has also worked in developing countries with poverty alleviation and sustainable livelihoods initiatives.
She holds a Bachelors in International Relations and a Masters degree of Integrated Water Management. The main focus of her research is sustainable development in the Amazon basin. She works with Remineralize the Earth as a Research Associate and Translations Coordinator.
John E. Carroll is professor of environmental conservation in the Department of Natural Resources. In three decades at UNH, he has taught and done research on national and international environmental policy, diplomacy, ethics, and values as they pertain to sustainable agriculture and food systems. His recent books include Sustainability and Spirituality, and The Wisdom of Small Farms and Local Food.
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Steven I. Apfelbaum is principal ecologist and chairman at Applied Ecological Services of Brodhead, Wisconsin. He has conducted ecological research, designed award-winning projects, successfully navigated regulatory programs, and contributed his unique creative scientific expertise and enthusiasm to over 1,500 projects throughout North America and beyond. He is one of the leading ecological consultants in the U.S., providing technical restoration advice and win-win solutions where ecological and land development conflicts arise. He has authored hundreds of technical studies, peer-reviewed technical papers, books, reports, ecological restoration plans, and regulatory monitoring and compliance reports. He promotes using ecological and conservation design principles in developments, industrial projects and parks that help clients save money while increasing ecological functionality, improving public perception and generating award-winning outcomes. He is also a much sought after speaker at educational events focusing on ecological restoration, ecosystem assessment, alternative stormwater management and conservation development.
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Charles “Chip” Osborne, Jr. is the President of Osborne Organics, LLC, and Founder of the Organic Landscape Association. He has over 10 years experience in developing sustainable landscapes through natural turf management, and has 35 years experience as a professional horticulturist.
Chip has become a regular lecturer for the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA), is a board member of Beyond Pesticides, and Chairman of the Marblehead, Massachusetts’ Recreation and Parks Department. In 1998 Chip and Pat Beckett co-founded The Living Lawn Project in Marblehead, MA, one of the United States’ first natural lawn demonstration displays. This project is a nationally-recognized, living example that abundant, healthy grass can be grown without the use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers.
Hugh McLaughlin, PhD, PE has a professional consulting practice in Chemical Engineering. He is a biochar engineer and the inventor of the NextChar Machine. Hugh has numerous publications on biochar and biomass derived heat production. He co-authored “All Biochars are not Created Equal and How to Tell them Apart” (2009) and “U.S. Focused Biochar Report: Assessment of Biochar’s Benefits for the United States of America” (2010).
Bruce Fulford is the owner of City Soil and Greenhouse, a company based in Boston that works on agricultural projects ranging from community gardens to commercial farms. Bruce’s publications, educational outreach, and presentations have contributed to the development of more efficient and equitable resource management.
Bruce works closely with organizations focused on land remediation and agricultural business development. He chairs the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s (MAS) Boston Nature Center the Environment Committee, is a member of the MAS Council and its Climate Change committee, the Ecological Landscape Association, and the US Composting Council.
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Paul Wagner is the president of Greener Pastures Organics, a property care company located in Southampton, N.Y. He has over 15 years of experience in science-based organic tree, shrub and lawn care. Paul is a Board Certified Master Arborist, as well as a NYS Certified Nursery Professional with a degree in Ornamental Horticulture.
Jim Laurie, Restoration Ecologist, is a biologist from Rice University and a pioneer in biological remediation of waste water. He was the technical manager of the world’s largest “Living Machine” project to clean raw municipal sewage with no toxic chemicals. The facility, through a grant from the EPA, processed 80,000 gallons/day using the “living machine” methodology invented by ecological visionary, and Buckminster Fuller Award recipient, John Todd.
Prior to that, for twenty years Jim was a biologist and trainer in the chemical industry in Houston, TX, where his work with living machines resulted in processing effluent cleaner than possible with conventional technology. Jim has also been a passionate advocate for Holistic Management of grasslands in the past decade. He began studying with Allan Savory twenty years ago in Texas, has spoken about Holistic Management at Harvard, MIT, Tufts, the Stockholm Environment Institute, and at meetings of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN) and Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA), and has been instrumental in spreading the message in New England. Jim is also co-founder of a lively and sophisticated Google Group, Soil-Age, and he invites you to join!
Other Conferences and Vidoes
- Blessed Unrest: Growing a Future for Life on Earth
- Restoring Oceans, Restoring Climate: Facing Fire & Ice, Food & Water, Floods & Droughts
- The Power and Promise of Biodiversity: Visions of Restoring Land, Sea and Climate
- Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming, Tufts 2015
- Climate, Biodiversity, and Survival: Listening to the Voices of Nature
- Climate Reckoning: Paths to an Earth Restored
- Scenario 300: Making Climate Cool!
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming
- Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity, and Planet!
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming, Washington D.C. 2015
Other Vidoes
Bryan O’Hara intensively farms three acres of market vegetables in Lebanon, Connecticut, at Tobacco Road Farm. He began his career in 1990, and over the years, through trial and error, has developed an extremely successful no-till, pesticide-free system. He was named the Northeast Organic Farming Association’s (NOFA) Farmer of the Year in 2016.
O’Hara is the author of No-Till Intensive Vegetable Culture: Pesticide-Free Methods for Restoring Soil and Growing Nutrient-Rich, High-Yielding Crops. This book is a helpful guide for all aspects of gardening, with a particular focus on no-till techniques.
Eric T. Fleisher is the Director of Horticulture for the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy. Battery Park City is an urban area located in south Manhattan in New York City. This park is a 92-acre planned community created through regenerating healthy soil and reusing local materials. As the Director of Horticulture for over 25 years, Eric’s vision for Battery Park City’s ecological approach has made this community a role model for other urban and rural areas.
Courtney White is an author and regenerative land management activist. In 1997, he cofounded the Quivira Coalition, a nonprofit in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that works with progressive ranchers and farmers on regenerative agriculture, ecological restoration, and collaborative conservation. As Executive Director, he helped implement these practices as well as explain their hopefulness in numerous publications and speaking events. In 2015, Courtney left the organization to become a full-time writer. His specialty is explaining complex topics via compelling stories.
Betsy Nicholas, Executive Director, WATERKEEPERS® Chesapeake and Fair Farms, has more than 16 years of experience in environmental law and policy. Upon joining WATERKEEPERS® Chesapeake in December 2012, she saw an opportunity to help farmers develop management practices that benefited the farmers and improved water quality. With much outreach and collaboration, Fair Farms Maryland was born. Fair Farms is now a movement of Marylanders of all stripes, working together for a new food system — one that’s fair to farmers, invests in homegrown, healthy food, and restores our waterways instead of polluting them. www.waterkeeperschesapeake.com
Ling Tan is a founding member of Safe Grow Montgomery, an all-volunteer coalition that advocates for safer communities through healthy, pesticide-free lawns and outdoor spaces. Safe Grow Montgomery’s efforts has made Montgomery County, Maryland, the first county in the country to enact legislation that would restrict the use of harmful lawn pesticides on public and private properties. She is also the pesticide chair of Sierra Club Maryland, working on related state legislations and grassroots pesticide campaigns.
Alexis Baden-Mayer, Esq. Political Director, Regeneration International and Organic Consumers Association
Regeneration International, a project of the Organic Consumers Association, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to building a global network of farmers, scientists, businesses, activists, educators, journalists, governments and consumers who will promote and put into practice regenerative agriculture and land-use practices that: provide abundant, nutritious food; revive local economies; rebuild soil fertility and biodiversity; and restore climate stability by returning carbon to the soil, through the natural process of photosynthesis. Through our global network, we are connected to 3.6 million consumers, farmers, activists, scientists and policymakers in over 100 countries. http://regenerationinternational.org
Paul Tukey, Author, The Organic Lawn Care Manual, and Chief Sustainability Officer, Glenstone Museum, is credited with spearheading the movement against utilization of synthetic chemical pesticides on lawns. Paul Tukey is an internationally recognized and honored sustainability consultant, entrepreneur, author, publisher, lecturer, filmmaker, television host and producer. A dynamic leader of several high-profile organizations in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors, and a sought-after consultant and public speaker, he currently develops sustainability protocols for the Glenstone Foundation near Washington, DC.
Theodore “Tod” S. Wickersham, Jr., President of Beneficial Results LLC, focuses on assisting businesses and nonprofits improve their operations / profitability, build alliances, enhance collaboration, lead stakeholder groups, open markets, influence public policy, and achieve program objectives that also result in improved water and air quality, and reduced carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and diesel/toxics pollution. In preparation of the 2018 Farm Bill and with the new science on soil health, he is working at the intersection of Climate and Agriculture/land-use to benefit farmers, ranchers, the environment and health. He also actively collaborates with Biodiversity for a Livable Climate in Washington, DC and Maryland. www.beneficialresults.com
Ben Friton is a soil ecologist, consultant and educator from the Washington DC area. For more than a decade he was a speech professional working with politicians, heads of state, CEOs, and philanthropic icons from around the world. In 2010, with the goal of helping to increase educational awareness and hyper-local food resiliency, he co-founded a non-profit called Can YA Love. Using biomimicry and his patented vertical gardening systems, he works to help people restore degraded lands into functioning ecosystems that produce what people need. In 2014 he joined Forested to help develop the most ecologically-sound agro-ecosystem possible.
Lincoln Smith runs Forested, a 10-acre forest garden in Bowie, MD. He tests forest farming methods, educates aspiring forest farmers, consults on new forest farms and brings forest products to market. He produces a forest garden farm share, has designed food forest parks planted in the DC region, and holds forest-to-table events. Check out the National Geographic article about his forest garden in Bowie, MD (www.Forested.us).
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Claudio H. Ternieden is the Senior Director of Government Affairs and Strategic Partnerships at Water Environment Federation in Alexandria, VA. Claudio directs WEF’s legislative and regulatory efforts in Washington, DC with both Congress and federal agencies and works to represent water professionals in our nation’s capital. Before coming to WEF, Claudio worked with several other organizations on water systems and environmental regulation, including the Water Environment & Reuse Foundation (WE&RF), the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington, DC. Claudio has a doctorate in jurisprudence (JD) from Pace University School of Law (White Plains, NY), a Master Degree in Public Policy (MPP) from George Mason University (Arlington, VA), and a BA from Concordia College (Bronxville, NY).
Emily Landis is the Global Coastal Wetlands Strategy Lead at The Nature Conservancy. Her primary focus is on the role coastal wetlands play in sequestering carbon and climate adaptation. Emily comes with a marine background working for the Global Ocean Commission, Pew Charitable Trusts, and Rare. She holds a Master’s Degree in biology from University College London, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in environmental science and international policy from American University.
Daniel Medina, PhD, PE, D.WRE, is a Senior Engineer based in LimnoTech’s Washington DC office, who specializes in water resource systems planning and climate change and resilience. His experience encompasses a wide array of water resources areas, especially in urban water issues including flood risk management, water supply, watershed restoration, climate change impacts, and the application of green infrastructure for stormwater management. He led projects in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Middle East. He was invited to testify before the U.S. Senate Environment & Public Works Committee. Dan has authored over 80 publications, presentations, and workshops on urban watershed issues. He was co-editor of the latest Manual of Practice for Design of Urban Stormwater Controls published jointly by WEF and ASCE. He is a consultant for the World Bank and was formerly a professor of Civil Engineering at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.
Charlene Johnston, PE, is a professionally licensed Civil Engineer and Program Manager at AECOM. She has more than 20 years of engineering experience. Over the past 15 years, Charlene’s professional focus includes climate resiliency and control of stormwater projects and flood studies. Her passion is green infrastructure (GI) / low impact development (LID) and building resiliency in communities. Charlene was a member of ASCE’s Blue Ribbon Review Panel to review the Water Environment Federation’s Manual of Practice No. 23, Design of Urban Stormwater Controls. She is a member of the DC Chapter of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, Environmental Water Resources Institute, and the Water Environment Federation.
Nick Maravell Farmer, Buckeystown, MD, has been farming organically for more than 40 years, using a diversified grass-based farming system, with an 8- 12 year rotation. Committed to developing local and regional food systems, Nick has helped establish and operate several farmer cooperatives, has conducted on- farm organic research in cooperation with USDA and Land Grant Universities, and has worked on a national organic research agenda and legislation to fund on- farm organic systems research. He has been active in many local, state and national groups dedicated to organic and sustainable agriculture, and was instrumental in establishing the MD Dept. of Agriculture organic certification program. Nick served a five-year term on National Organic Standards Board (2011- 2016).
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Cleo Braver has the pleasure of living on Cottingham Farm with her husband Allie Tyler, where she and her two full-time employees produce certified organic vegetables and pastured meat and eggs in order to contribute to a year-round natural resource-based economy. She sells to grocers, restaurants and any member of the public who wishes to drive out to the farm on Thursdays-Saturdays.
She enjoyed a previous career as an environmental lawyer for a public company, and she has always advocated for ways in which the law can serve the public interest, particularly with respect to the environment. Most recently, she has been engaged in efforts to create the non-profit Eastern Shore Food Hub to aggregate, market and distribute locally and sustainably produced foods, and engage communities in growing and eating healthy foods and recognizing the direct relationship between their personal food choices, personal and public health, the environment, and the economy.
Ed Huling is a nutritionist, researcher, environmentalist and farmer. He led a research project at the USDA about fourteen years ago, and learned about the decline of nutrients in our soil and our food. He founded New Day Farms to practice regenerative agriculture to address this serious issue and provide genuinely nutrient-dense greens to the public. He is also deeply interested in the role of healthy soils in the context of climate and is actively pursuing projects that will help build our knowledge base regarding this important relationship.
Margaret Morgan-Hubbard, Founder and CEO of ECO City Farms, is an organizer, educator, activist and life-long environmentalist. Morgan-Hubbard’s prior professional experience includes: directing the Engaged University at the University of Maryland; leading the Office of Communications at the US Environmental Protection Agency; heading a national environmental organization and managing DC’s Low Income Weatherization and related Block Grant housing programs. She is a state-certified compost site manager, an active member of the Port Towns Community Health Partnership, and a recipient of the National Capital Area Chapter American Planning Association’s Distinguished Leadership of a Citizen Planner award. Morgan-Hubbard holds a BA from Bennington College, a Masters from Columbia University, and a second Masters from New School for Social Research, where she also completed her coursework for the PhD.
Gina Angiola, MD is a retired physician who has served as an educator and organizer on a wide array of issues ranging from election integrity to environmental sustainability. Most recently, she helped lead the successful campaign for a legislative ban on fracking in Maryland. As a lifelong advocate for healthy environments and a climate activist for over 14 years, she has worked to accelerate the transition to a renewable energy-based economy; she is now committed to promoting ecosystem restoration as the most urgent priority in addressing climate change. She serves as a Board Member of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate and Deputy Director of the DC Chapter, and as a Board member of Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility. She received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry at MIT and her MD from University of California, Irvine.
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Kris Nichols, Chief Scientist, Rodale Institute, examines the impacts of management such as crop rotation, tillage practices, organic production, cover crops, and livestock grazing on soil aggregation, water relationships, and glomalin at the Institute. She received a Bachelor of Science in Plant Biology and in Genetics and Cell Biology from the University of Minnesota, a Masters in Environmental Microbiology from West Virginia University, and a Ph.D. in Soil Science from the University of Maryland.
Dr. Nichols has worked as a Soil Microbiologist with the USDA for over 14 years, the first three in Beltsville, MD and then at Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory (NGPRL) in Mandan, ND for the next 11 years.
Jim Laurie, Restoration Ecologist, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, is a biologist from Rice University and is a pioneer in biological remediation of waste water. He was the technical manager of the world’s largest “Living Machine” project to clean raw municipal sewage with no toxic chemicals. The facility, through a grant from the EPA, processed 80,000 gallons/day using the “living machine” methodology invented by ecological visionary, and Buckminster Fuller Award recipient, John Todd.
Prior to that, for twenty years Jim was a biologist and trainer in the chemical industry in Houston, TX, where his work with living machines resulted in processing effluent cleaner than possible with conventional technology. Jim has also been a passionate advocate for Holistic Management of grasslands in the past decade. He began studying with Allan Savory twenty years ago in Texas, has spoken about Holistic Management at Harvard, MIT, Tufts, the Stockholm Environment Institute, and at meetings of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN) and Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA), and has been instrumental in spreading the message in New England.
Jim is also co-founder of a lively and sophisticated Google Group, Soil-Age, and he invites you to join!
Other Conferences and Vidoes
- Blessed Unrest: Growing a Future for Life on Earth
- Restoring Oceans, Restoring Climate: Facing Fire & Ice, Food & Water, Floods & Droughts
- The Power and Promise of Biodiversity: Visions of Restoring Land, Sea and Climate
- Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming, Tufts 2015
- Climate, Biodiversity, and Survival: Listening to the Voices of Nature
- Climate Reckoning: Paths to an Earth Restored
- Landscape Heroes: Carbon, Water and Biodiversity
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming
- Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity, and Planet!
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming, Washington D.C. 2015
Other Vidoes
Adam Sacks has had careers in education, holistic medicine, computer technology, politics and advocacy. For five years he directed a non-profit that worked with communities invoking basic democratic and constitutional principles to oppose detrimental local corporate activity. He has been a climate activist for the past sixteen years and has been studying and writing about Holistic Management since 2007. On the side he is an artist, writer, and student of classical piano. His primary goal is regeneration of biodiversity and a livable planet.
Other Conferences and Vidoes
- Blessed Unrest: Growing a Future for Life on Earth
- Restoring Oceans, Restoring Climate: Facing Fire & Ice, Food & Water, Floods & Droughts
- The Power and Promise of Biodiversity: Visions of Restoring Land, Sea and Climate
- Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming, Tufts 2015
- Climate, Biodiversity, and Survival: Listening to the Voices of Nature
- Climate Reckoning: Paths to an Earth Restored
- Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity, and Planet!
- Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming, Washington D.C. 2015
Other Vidoes
Philip Bogdonoff is an engineer by training and an ecologist by heart. He serves as a Board Member of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate and Director of the Washington DC Chapter. He is a past trustee and board chair of Friends Community School; a co-founder of the Sustainable Washington Alliance; a past vice president of the Millennium Institute; and has been a consultant in the Environment Department of the World Bank; and worked as research assistant in the Section of Ecology and Systematics at Cornell University, helping to model the global carbon cycle. He and Jim Laurie constructed DC’s first “Living Machine” more than 15 years ago. More recently, he facilitated the introduction of Maryland’s Healthy Soils bill (HB1063), which we expect Governor Hogan to sign any day now.
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Rev. Mariama White-Hammond serves as the Minister for Ecological Justice at Bethel AME Church in Boston and as a fellow with the Green Justice Coalition, a partnership of environmental justice groups. From 2001-2014 she was the Executive Director of Project HIP-HOP where she used the arts to help young people to find their voice and create artistic pieces on issues ranging from juvenile incarceration to funding for public transportation. They performed throughout Greater Boston in camps, homeless shelters, senior citizens homes and public transit stations as well as for leaders like the mayor and governor.
In April 2016, she was ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and in May 2017 she graduated from Boston University School of Theology with a Masters of Divinity. Rev. Mariama is very committed to engaging the faith community on social justice issues, and particularly Black churches on ecological justice. She speaks throughout the country and serves on a number of boards and committees including the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund, Union Capital Boston and the Moral Movement Massachusetts.
In 2017 she was the MC for both the Boston Women’s March and the Boston People’s Climate Mobilization. Rev. Mariama has received numerous awards including the Barr Fellowship, the Celtics Heroes Among Us, and the Boston NAACP Image Award.
Adam Sacks is the Executive Director of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate. He has had careers in education, holistic medicine, computer technology, politics, and advocacy. A climate activist since 2000, since 2007 he has been studying and writing about the power of biology to reverse global warming and restore the earth. In 2009-10 he published articles in the online magazine, Grist, which described and anticipated some of today’s climate developments. His primary goal is regeneration of biodiversity and a livable planet for his daughter, grandson, and their 7+ billion cousins. Adam’s other interests include art, classical piano, anthropology and the practice of science in the twenty-first century.
Other Conferences and Vidoes
- Blessed Unrest: Growing a Future for Life on Earth
- Restoring Oceans, Restoring Climate: Facing Fire & Ice, Food & Water, Floods & Droughts
- The Power and Promise of Biodiversity: Visions of Restoring Land, Sea and Climate
- Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming, Tufts 2015
- Climate, Biodiversity, and Survival: Listening to the Voices of Nature
- Scenario 300: Making Climate Cool!
- Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity, and Planet!
- Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming, Washington D.C. 2015
Other Vidoes
Daniel N. Robin, founder & managing partner of In3 Capital Partners, ABetterWorkplace and former adjunct professor at Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS, now Middlebury Institute), and has taught entrepreneurship, business planning, impact investing, and innovation for sustainability as faculty for the Sustainability Academy, as an independent consultant, and within a top-10 ranked international MBA program in California.
With more than 20 years financial, executive/board, impact investing and venture catalyst experience, Daniel uses holistic, integrative approaches to leading change, using biomimicry (nature-inspired), biorenewables (water/food/energy), green chemistry and clean technologies, project development, investment readiness and de-risking, and “conscious capital” formation strategies. Daniel brings diverse industry experience in renewable resources (food/water/forestry), waste-to-value, agriculture/agtech, health & nutraceuticals, biomaterials/bioplastics, clean energy / efficiency, IT/fintech, and real estate/housing.
Mr. Robin holds certificates in international business, Emerging Markets Finance (Moody’s Analytics, 2012), public speaking, coaching/facilitation, and NeuroLinguistics (NLP Comprehensive, 1991). LinkedIn
Bill Reed is an internationally recognized practitioner, lecturer, and leading authority in sustainability and regenerative planning, design and implementation. Bill is a principal in Integrative Design, Inc. and Regenesis Group – organizations working to lift green building and community planning into full integration and evolution with living systems. His work centers on creating and implementing a whole and living-systems design process. The benefits of this process include higher efficiency, lower costs, reduced waste, faster time to market, and the realization of exponential value to the social, ecological, financial and human qualities of a project, the community and its ecosystem.
Bill is an author of many technical articles and contributed to many books including co-author of the seminal work, “Integrative Design Guide to Green Building.” He is a founding Board of Director of the US Green Building Council and one of the co-founders of the LEED Green Building Rating System. In addition to being considered one of the leading thinkers in this field, Bill has also consulted on over two hundred green design commissions, the majority which are LEED Gold and Platinum and Living Building Challenge projects. He is also a keynote speaker at major building and design events as well as a guest lecturer to universities throughout Europe and North America including Harvard, MIT, Princeton and UPenn.
Paula Phipps, Associate Director at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, holds a Masters Degree from Tuft’s Eliot-Pearson School as a teacher/therapist for preschool disturbed children and their families. For 20 years she was a preschool director and Childrens’ Services Director for a Head Start program in Somerville, Massachusetts. For the past five years she has focused on raising awareness of the enormity and immediacy of the threat of climate disruption and its effects on children. She has been actively involved in Cambridge, Massachusetts politics and advocacy for many years. She has been working at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate since 2015.
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Didi Pershouse is a cross-pollinator, helping to connect the dots between soil health and human health. She is the author of The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities and the founder of the Center for Sustainable Medicine. After 22 years of clinical work with patients, she is now working with the Soil Carbon Coalition on a large-scale citizen-science program that engages schools, conservation districts, and landowners in understanding the intersections between soil health, public health, and climate resiliency. She develops learning resources on whole systems landscape function—in particular how to measure, understand, and restore the carbon and water cycles that make life on this planet possible. She also teaches workshops for community leaders on how to build trusted networks of peer support.
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Other Vidoes
Bob O’Connor is Forest & Land Policy Director for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs (EEA). Bob’s responsibilities for the Commonwealth encompass an extraordinary array of all things land conservation and forestry, plus all EEA grant programs, plus a variety of other important conservation-related initiatives, like the relatively new Land Conservation Tax Credit and Massachusetts’ Global Warming Solutions Act.
Joan Maloof is the founder and Executive Director of the Old-Growth Forest Network. Formerly on the faculty of Salisbury University, She spends her time lecturing, writing, visiting forests, assisting private landowners, and supporting local groups trying to protect community forests from development. She began her journey into the American forest as a scientist, studying the natural workings of the planet – the systems that enable the trees and flowers and animals to subsist on their own with no help from humans. But when she looked around for natural places to study she found that almost everything had been affected by humans. Joan realized that as a scientist she could do very little to ensure that at least some of the forests would be left alone, but that as a writer she could share what other scientists had learned about the importance of ancient forests. So Joan made the transition from scientist to writer, and wrote several books, including, Nature’s Temples: The Complex World of Old-Growth Forests and her latest, The Living Forest: A Visual Journey Into the Heart of the Woods.
Jim Laurie is a restoration biologist and co-founder of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate. He has been learning how to restore lands and waters for 30 years and was the manager of the Vermont “Living Machine” which treated 80,000 gallons of sewage per day and was designed by ecological visionary John Todd. For 20 years he was a biologist and technical trainer in the chemical industry in Houston, TX, where his work with ecological systems created high quality water from toxic wastewater.
Jim has studied Holistic Management of grasslands with Allan Savory and the Savory Institute in Texas, Colorado and Montana. In Maryland, he built a lab to study fungi and grow mushrooms learning from the work of Paul Stamets (fungi.com). He worked with the International Wolf Center in Minnesota learning about predators and the biology of the north woods.
Jim loves sharing about these diverse experiences with curious folks of all ages. He has really enjoyed teaching science and ecology to Homeschool students in the Boston area.
Other Conferences and Vidoes
- Blessed Unrest: Growing a Future for Life on Earth
- Restoring Oceans, Restoring Climate: Facing Fire & Ice, Food & Water, Floods & Droughts
- The Power and Promise of Biodiversity: Visions of Restoring Land, Sea and Climate
- Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming, Tufts 2015
- Climate, Biodiversity, and Survival: Listening to the Voices of Nature
- Scenario 300: Making Climate Cool!
- Landscape Heroes: Carbon, Water and Biodiversity
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming
- Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity, and Planet!
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming, Washington D.C. 2015
Other Vidoes
Since 2007 Tim LaSalle has championed his science-based hope for a regenerative food system that will mitigate climate change by carbon sequestration in place of soil carbon loss. He has served as the first CEO of Rodale Institute; Executive Director of the Northwest Earth Institute, an organization dedicated to grass roots movements; Executive Director of the Allan Savory Center for Holistic Management, an international non-profit whose mission is to restore and regenerative deteriorating landscapes; consultant, advisor, and research coordinator for the Howard Buffett Foundation in Africa on soils and food security for smallholder farmers and most recently co-founder of the Regenerative Agriculture Initiative at California State University Chico.
While serving as a professor at California Polytechnic State University, he also started and operated his own dairy farm an became involved with the California Agricultural Leadership Program. LaSalle soon became its CEO, where he arranged educational leadership programs in more than 80 countries with heads of state, ministers and community leaders, and thus became exposed and a student of many of humanity’s global challenges, of which climate change and soil loss remain our most pressing.
Dr. David C. Johnson is Director of the Institute for Sustainable Agricultural Research at NMSU currently working with local growers and collaborating with: Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories; Texas A&M; Arizona State University; California State University, Chico; University of California, Davis; USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; and the Thornburg Foundation, exploring paths to: improve food security in New Mexico, reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations. increase farm and rangeland productivity and improve water-use efficiency in agriculture through the development of beneficial soil microbial communities in agroecosystems. He also trained as a a molecular biologist at New Mexico State University, has conducted research on bio-hydrogen generation, pollution remediation processes for regional mine closures, advance oxidation processes for cleaning up MTBE and PCE contaminated super-fund sites, reverse-osmosis and electro-dialysis reversal water desalination processes, and algae cultivation processes for bio-fuel production.
Fred Jennings holds degrees in economics from Harvard (B.A.) and Stanford (Ph.D.), and taught in the economics departments at Tufts University and Bentley College before becoming a specialist in economic litigation (calculating damages, analyzing markets, and expert testimony) He is president and founder of the Center for Ecological Economic and Ethical Education (CEEEE), an organization devoted to the promulgation of new ways of framing and thinking about economic analysis and behavior from an ecological and ethical standpoint. He is also owner of Peak Dawn Anglers, which offers light tackle motorless saltwater low impact tidal fly fishing trips in an Ipswich estuarial river from May through September each year.
The Homeschool Symbiosis Team
Annie Selle studies the beautiful intricacies of nature through both art and biology, and is an advocate for animal rights and the environment. She believes that humans have the power to change our society, and is optimistic about the future of the Earth.
Jamila dePeiza-Kern has studied environmental science, chemistry, geography, and geology, She has developed a strong interest in maintaining the health of our planet. An enthusiastic learner, musician, traveler, and activist, she loves mountains, forests, rivers, and riparian zones. She is committed to raising awareness and educating the public about living sustainably.
Hayden Latimer-Ireland is a dancer, singer, and actor who is also interested in nature and restoring ecosystems. She is now exploring psychology and political science.
Lynus Erickson is passionate about the the environment, sustainable farming, and water systems. He likes to go hiking and likes to build and create. He hosts a living machine at his house and wonders how to create the balance needed for peaceful coexistence between humans and nature’s ecosystems.
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Christopher Haines is a seasoned architect licensed in both MA and NY who applies expertise in regenerative architectural design, healthy materials, preservation, renovation and specification writing to small commercial and urban projects. He has spoken for years at US and international forums as well as formally teaching sustainability and environmental management to undergraduate and graduate students. Christopher has been deeply involved in the Living Building Challenge and is certified as a Living Building Challenge and Passive House consultant.
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Other Vidoes
Tina Grotzer is a member of the faculty of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a Principal Research Scientist at Project Zero, and a faculty member at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Her research identifies ways in which understandings about the nature of causality impact our ability to deal with complexity in our world. It has four dominant strands: 1) How reasoning about causal complexity interacts with our decisions in the everyday world; 2) How causal understanding develops in supported contexts; 3) How causal understanding interacts with science learning (with the goal of developing curriculum to support deep understanding); and 4) the public understanding of science given the nature of science, the nature of causal complexity and the architecture of the human mind.
Tina directs the Causal Learning in a Complex World Research Lab. Her work is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). She was awarded a Career Award from NSF in 2009 and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from President Obama in 2011.
Ana Sofia Gonzalez is an environmentalist with chemical engineering background focused on restorative agroforestry in dry lands to increase resilience of food production systems. She is currently developing strategies that propose restorative food systems as a mitigation strategy to reduce forced migration caused by climate change. Sofia is Founder of Plantum.mx, a consultancy firm focused in design and implementation of restorative ecological systems for the mitigation and adaptation of climate change challenges in the urban and rural environments.
Dr. Anamarija Frankić is a founding director of the Green Harbors Project®, and the Biomimicry LivingLabs®, a research faculty at UMass Boston and University of Zadar, Croatia. She is a Biomimicry, Fulbright and Sea Grant Knauss Fellow. In 2014 she founded Biomimicry New England. Her educational background in biology, ecology, limnology and marine science, guided her interdisciplinary restoration research and management work in coastal, marine and fresh water ecosystems, nationally and internationally. Her work is about integrating human services with ecological services and functions in our built environments to support resiliency and sustainability. She initiated and established the “LivingLabs” for applied science education and research where students, local communities and businesses are able to “learn and teach by doing” biomimicry, applying nature’s wisdom for a resilient today and tomorrow; her premise is that “the environment sets the limits for sustainable development.”
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Herbert Dreiseitl is an internationally highly respected expert in creating Liveable Cities around the world with a special hallmark on the inspiring and innovative use of water to solve urban environmental challenges, connecting technology with aesthetics, encouraging people to take care and ownership of places. He has realized groundbreaking contemporary projects in the fields of urban design, urban hydrology, water art, stormwater management, planning and landscape architecture like Berlin Potsdamer Platz with Renzo Piano, Tanner Springs Park Portland OG USA, Bishan – Ang Mo Kio Park in Singapore. He lectures worldwide and has authored many publications including three editions of Waterscapes. As the Director of the “Liveable Cities Lab” the new thinktank at the Rambøll Group International (LCL) and as founder of Atelier Dreiseitl, he integrates the organization’s strategic design and planning efforts by demonstrating a portfolio of site-responsive interventions of urban planning, hydrology and environmental engineering. He is a Harvard Graduate School of Design Loeb Fellow and visiting Professor at NUS Singapore. To better respond to demands from cities in Summer 2017, Herbert opened a new office in Boston.
Scott Dowd is a conservation biologist at New England Aquarium in Boston, MA, USA and Executive Director of Project Piaba. He received his M.Sc. from the University of Stirling in 2003; his thesis was entitled “Observations on the cardinal tetra fishery with an emphasis on the measurement of stress.” For more than 20 years, Scott has been actively involved in conservation of the cardinal tetra fishery in the mid-Rio Negro region of the Amazon, working along the entire industry chain of Amazonian fishermen, exporters, importers, retail stores, and hobbyists. He continues to be a strong proponent of the trade in environmentally friendly aquarium fish worldwide. Scott has recently established the Home Aquarium Fish Sub-group within the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Freshwater Fishes Specialty Group (IUCN FFSG). Read more about Scott’s work in the Boston Globe.
Sally Dodge and Dale Guldbrandsen have served as Northeast Community Development Managers for Iroquois Valley Farms since 2013.
Dale worked on his grandfather’s farms near Peoria, Illinois, during his youth, and also on farms near Plymouth, Michigan. He worked in Fortune 500 companies for 30 years, and later provided performance improvement services in many economic sectors, including manufacturing, health care and education. He has now circled back to the food and farming revolution as his main passion in joining Iroquois Valley Farms.
Sally Dodge and Dale Guldbrandsen have served as Northeast Community Development Managers for Iroquois Valley Farms since 2013.
Sally was a pioneer in the locally grown foods movement beginning in the 1970s and 80s, when she managed a large beefalo operation in Vermont, and later created the Taste of Vermont, an annual event that linked farmers and chefs, and grew into the Vermont Fresh Network. Joining Iroquois Valley Farms has enabled Sally to contribute many years of experience in the promotion of organic farming, farm economics, and healthy food. Sally is a member of the board of advisors of Soil4Climate.
Kannan Thiruvengadam is the president of Eastie Farm in East Boston, MA. He is an urban farmer and environmentalist who is passionate about regenerative design.
Lenni Armstrong is a leader of DePave Somerville, a community initiative developed with Somerville Climate Action. The city’s higher than average proportion of paved areas means greater flooding. By digging up asphalt driveways and putting in permeable pavers and green space, DePave is reducing the city’s potential for floods—and beautifying the city.
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Maggie Booz is the co-chair of the Cambridge Committee on Public Planting. She is also an architect and the owner of SmartArchitecture in Cambridge, MA.
John Reinhardt is the president of the Mystic River Watershed Association. He was an environmental policy analyst for the USEPA and MassDEP for over 35 years, and served as a conservation commissioner for the City of Somerville for 19 years.
Dr. Anamarija Frankić is a founding director of the Green Harbors Project®, and the Biomimicry LivingLabs®, a research faculty at UMass Boston and University of Zadar, Croatia. She is a Biomimicry, Fulbright and Sea Grant Knauss Fellow. In 2014 she founded Biomimicry New England. Her educational background in biology, ecology, limnology and marine science, guided her interdisciplinary restoration research and management work in coastal, marine and fresh water ecosystems, nationally and internationally. Her work is about integrating human services with ecological services and functions in our built environments to support resiliency and sustainability.
She initiated and established the “LivingLabs” for applied science education and research where students, local communities and businesses are able to “learn and teach by doing” biomimicry, applying nature’s wisdom for a resilient today and tomorrow; her premise is that “the environment sets the limits for sustainable development.”
Zeyneb Magavi, Research Director for HEET and serves on the National Health Impacts Team and the Gas Leaks Task Force for Mothers Out Front.
John Pitkin, Greater Boston Group of the Sierra Club
Tom Wessels is a terrestrial ecologist and professor emeritus at Antioch University New England. He is the author of The Myth of Progress, Towards a Sustainable Future, Granite, Fire, and Fog: The Natural and Cultural History of Acadia, Reading the Forested Landscape, and other books.
Doug Zook founded and directs the Global Ecology Education Initiative (GEEI). He is biologist, naturalist, science educator, and photographic artist. He has given over 200 invited presentations and conducted scores of workshops, courses, and exhibitions around the world. He has led several trips to the remote Amazon in eastern Ecuador as well as month-long global ecology intensive field courses in New Zealand.
A recent Fulbright Distinguished Scholar recipient, during his 30 years at Boston University he served as Director of the Masters of Arts in science teaching, guiding more than 300 students to careers as science teachers. Doug was a close colleague of the renowned scientist, the late Lynn Margulis, for nearly three decades. Inspired by many of her ideas, he formed a team of public school teachers, Boston University education and biology students, artists and scientists to create the International Microocosmos Science Education program in 1987 that brought the importance of mcirobial ecology to the attention of educators and the public over more than ten years.
He is today also a nature photography artist, focused on images captured as reflections off window panes in various cities His exhibit “Earth Gazes Back’ (http://www.douglaszookphotography.com) has attracted numerous visitors at both overseas and Boston venues. Contact: douglas.zook@umb.edu.
Jon Way has a B.S. (UMass Amherst), M.S. (UConn Storrs), and doctorate (Boston College) related to the study of eastern coyotes/coywolves. He is the author of 2 books: Suburban Howls, an account of his experiences studying eastern coyotes in Massachusetts, and My Yellowstone Experience, which details – in full color – the spectacular wildlife, scenery, and hydrothermal features that can be found in the world’s first national park. Jon founded and runs his organization, Eastern Coyote/Coywolf Research, where he is continuing his goal of long-term ecological and behavioral research on coywolves. He also supplements his research with regular trips to Yellowstone National Park. He is seeking a publisher for a 3rd book project of his: “Coywolf“.
Elizabeth Thomas was born in 1931, attended Smith College and Harvard University, and spent three years in the 1950s among pre-contact San who occupied a large area in what is now Namibia and Botswana, an area that was still “unexplored.” This word is in quotation marks because archaeological studies done later found a San encampment which was occupied continuously for more than 30,000 years and another encampment which was occupied continuously for more than 80,000 years, and the San had done the exploring. There, she visited the San and also the local lions, whose relationship with the San was most interesting, and she wrote two books about the experience, The Harmless People, published in 1959, and The Old Way: A Story of the First People, published in 2006.
She also spent a summer alone on Baffin Island observing wolves. This appears in The Hidden Life of Dogs, published in 1993. She then studied mountain lions and captive circus tigers. Her findings appear in Tribe of Tiger: Cats and their Culture, published in 1995. She later did a study of the white tail deer who live on her land in New Hampshire. This was published as The Hidden Life of Deer in 2009. She has also written two novels, Reindeer Moon (1981) and The Animal Wife (1990), about people who lived in Siberia during the Paleolithic, combining what she learned from the African savannah with what she learned from Baffin Island. She has written other books as well.
She was married to Stephen Thomas (a historian and political activist) until his death in 2015. They have two children, a daughter, Stephanie Thomas (an activist for disabled civil rights), and a son, Saibhung Singh Khalsa (until recently a French mountain guide, now a musician). They have four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
B. Lorraine Smith is a writer and an independent consultant. She imagines a future where business, people and markets serve a thriving society in a healthy biosphere. In other words, she invests her time in the evolution of a regenerative economy.
As a writer, Lorraine shares her ideas through her blog, which introduces different people, places and possibilities connected to the future we want. Her forthcoming book, Where the Trees – ten human stories made possible by trees, journeys through landscapes and moments that challenge us to evolve our roles in nature. And she writes reports and articles about new mindsets and business models.
Since 2004 she has been working with global companies and leaders who are keen to shape the next phase of business. She sits on the Board of Canadian Business for Social Responsibility and is a member of the Release Council of the Future-Fit Business Benchmark, an open source tool that quantifies how businesses are contributing to a sustainable future. Originally from Toronto, Canada, Lorraine is now based in New York City where she lives with her husband, two cats and a lot of houseplants. More about Lorraine’s work at https://www.blorrainesmith.com/.
Adam Sacks is the Executive Director of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate. He has had careers in education, holistic medicine, computer technology, politics, and advocacy. A climate activist since 1999, since 2007 he has been studying and writing about the power of biology to reverse global warming and restore the earth. In 2009-10 he published articles in the online magazine, Grist, which described and anticipated some of today’s climate developments. His primary goal is regeneration of biodiversity and a livable planet for his daughter, grandson, and their 7+ billion cousins. Adam’s other interests include art, anthropology and the practice of science in the twenty-first century.
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Other Vidoes
Musician and philosopher David Rothenberg wrote Why Birds Sing, Bug Music, Survival of the Beautiful and many other books,published in at least eleven languages. He has more than twenty CDs out, including One Dark Night I Left My Silent House which came out on ECM, and most recently Berlin Bülbul and Cool Spring. He has performed or recorded with Pauline Oliveros, Peter Gabriel, Ray Phiri, Suzanne Vega, Scanner, Elliot Sharp, Iva Bittová, and the Karnataka College of Percussion. He also worked on the films SONG FROM THE FOREST and the upcoming NIGHTINGALES IN BERLIN is based on his next book.
He has also collaborated with neuroscientists on a series of projects trying to bring musical understanding to scientific methods of understanding animal sounds, and he is working on new ways to visualize animal music as he continues to bring an ever larger assortment of international collaborators together to interact with the sounds of other species. Rothenberg is Distinguished Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Nadia Nazar is a 16-year-old environmentalist. She has been an activist, a Girl Scout Senior and a vegetarian since age 12. She uses art as a tool for awareness. Nadia helped found the youth-led Climate Organization, Zero Hour. She is the Associate Director and Art Director of Zero Hour. Nadia has taken her environmental efforts to school and her local Indian community.
David Morimoto is an ecologist, conservation biologist, and animal behaviorist by training. He has studied the effects of forest fragmentation on Ovenbirds in Massachusetts and performed basic bird inventories in the tropics, most recently on the Rupununi River in Guyana, South America. He is currently involved in urban bird research studying Cambridge birds and is working on the development of citizen science initiatives and the creation of a biodiversity map of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge and Watertown.
His areas of academic focus and expertise include: ecology, ornithology, conservation biology, and animal behavior. He is very interested in Complexity Science and in unifying principles of complex systems. His teachers have included visionary scientists Lynn Margulis (symbiosis in evolution) and Richard Forman (Landsacpe Ecology). David holds a BS from Stonehill College and a MA and PhD from Boston University.
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Fred Magdoff is Emeritus Professor of Plant and Soil Science at the University of Vermont. His interests range from soil science to agriculture and food to the environment to the US economy. His research at UVM was on ecologically sound ways to improve soil fertility, especially focusing on the critical role of soil organic matter.
He is the co-author of the third edition of Building Crops For Better Soil: Sustainable Soil Management (2010) and What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism (2011), as well as a number of other books on agriculture and on the US economy. He has also written numerous articles on environmental issues, including on ecological agriculture, production and use of biofuels, ecological civilization, population and global resource depletion, and the environmental and social problems of capitalist agriculture.
Jim Laurie is a restoration biologist and co-founder of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate. He was manager of the Vermont “Living Machine” which was designed by ecological visionary John Todd. This biodiverse system treated 80,000 gallons of sewage per day. For 20 years he was a biologist and technical trainer in the chemical industry in Houston, Texas, where his work with ecological systems cleaned toxic wastewater.
Jim has studied Holistic Management of grasslands with Allan Savory and the Savory Institute in Texas, Colorado and Montana. In Maryland, he built a lab to study fungi and grow mushrooms learning from the work of Paul Stamets (fungi.com). He also worked with the International Wolf Center in Minnesota learning about predators and the biology of the north woods. Jim loves sharing about these diverse experiences with curious folks of all ages. He really enjoys teaching science and ecology to Homeschool students in the Boston area.
Other Conferences and Vidoes
- Blessed Unrest: Growing a Future for Life on Earth
- Restoring Oceans, Restoring Climate: Facing Fire & Ice, Food & Water, Floods & Droughts
- The Power and Promise of Biodiversity: Visions of Restoring Land, Sea and Climate
- Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming, Tufts 2015
- Climate Reckoning: Paths to an Earth Restored
- Scenario 300: Making Climate Cool!
- Landscape Heroes: Carbon, Water and Biodiversity
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming
- Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity, and Planet!
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming, Washington D.C. 2015
Other Vidoes
Allison Houghton is a teacher of permaculture and gardening techniques. She manages the Greater Boston CSA for The Food Project, where she has also been the orchard manager and assistant grower for Lincoln Farm. Before that, she was horticultural director for Green City Growers, helping Greater Boston residents, schools, and businesses grow food intensively in small urban spaces.
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Glenn Gall has been involved over the last decade with numerous natural solutions to restore a livable planet and reverse global warming. This began with permaculture training from Peter Bane, Darren Doherty, Dave Jacke, and Mark Shepard, and developed into small scale farming and keyline design in Northern Ohio and Michigan. He also teaches innovative agricultural methods that impact soil, water, climate, and provide nutrient rich food, such as permaculture, holistically planned grazing, keyline design, and biological farming.
Jan Lambert of Charlestown NH is an environmental journalist and editor of the Valley Green Journal who has been working closely with Michal Kravčík in promoting the New Water Paradigm via her journal and a resource book, Water, Land and Climate – The Critical Connection: How We Can Rehydrate Landscapes Locally To Renew Climates Globally, to be published in August 2015. Jan has been involved in watershed projects for many years, both professionally and as volunteer; for example she helped to organize a 5,000 tree buffer zone planting along the Connecticut River.
She has also surveyed rivers, wetlands, and vernal pools, as well as aquatic plants and amphibians, and worked for several summers manually removing invasive milfoil from lakes and rivers. She presently serves as board member of the Ascutney Mt. Audubon Society and the Upper Valley Sierra Club, and is very active in the Black River Action Team of Springfield VT. She met Michal Kravčík via Facebook in November 2014 and has since become a working partner with him in editing and co-authoring his latest writing, A Global Plan for the Restoration of Natural Water Cycles and Climate, which will be shared at the conference.
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Judith Schwartz is a longtime freelance writer and author of several books. Over the last several years she has written about the juncture of economics and the environment for such publications as Time, Time.com, the Christian Science Monitor, Conservation, and the UKGuardian. Most recently she is the author of Cows Save the Planet and Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013). The Organic Consumers Association calls the book “a call to action for the soil”, while author Michael Pollan says the book is “the most hopeful and surprising book on the environmental crisis I’ve read this year.” Judith has a B.A. from Brown University, an M.A. in Counseling from Northwestern, and an M.S.J. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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Other Vidoes
Shaun Paul is a pioneer in international social finance with expertise in regenerative finance, sustainable rural development, and indigenous peoples. His 25 years of professional experience include leading and supporting the creation and growth of dozens of innovative for-profit and non-profit companies catalyzing well-being for people and planet. He has worked on every continent, and provided consulting services to donors, investors and social purpose companies to adopt catalytic strategies regularly blending philanthropy, investments and business development. Shaun is a board member of International Funders for Indigenous Peoples and Accelerating Appalachia. He also serves as an advisor to the Mentor Capital Network. Shaun received his bachelor’s degree in International Development from the School of International Service at American University, and a master’s degree in Development Economics from the University of Michigan.
Steven I. Apfelbaum is principal ecologist and chairman at Applied Ecological Services of Brodhead, Wisconsin. He has conducted ecological research, designed award-winning projects, successfully navigated regulatory programs, and contributed his unique creative scientific expertise and enthusiasm to over 1,500 projects throughout North America and beyond. He is one of the leading ecological consultants in the U.S., providing technical restoration advice and win-win solutions where ecological and land development conflicts arise.
He has authored hundreds of technical studies, peer-reviewed technical papers, books, reports, ecological restoration plans, and regulatory monitoring and compliance reports. He promotes using ecological and conservation design principles in developments, industrial projects and parks that help clients save money while increasing ecological functionality, improving public perception and generating award-winning outcomes. He is also a much sought after speaker at educational events focusing on ecological restoration, ecosystem assessment, alternative stormwater management and conservation development.
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Scott Horsley has 30 years of professional experience in the fields of watershed planning and water resources management and holds degrees in biology and marine policy. He has worked as a consultant to federal, state, and local jurisdictions, and private industry throughout the United States, Central America, the Caribbean, the Pacific Islands, and China.
Scott has served as an instructor for a nationwide series of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) workshops on groundwater protection and coastal resources management. He has also served on numerous advisory boards to the EPA, the National Academy of Public Administration, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA), National Groundwater Association, and Massachusetts Audubon Society. Scott has received national (EPA) and local awards (Mashpee Conservation Commission) for his work in the wetlands and stormwater management fields.
The Homeschool Advanced Placement Biology / Restoration Ecology Class is taught by Jim Laurie and Jane Hammer in Arlington Massachusetts. Students Annie Selle, Lynus Erickson, Jamila dePeiza-Kent, and Elizabeth Owens will perform a short play, “Symbiosis”, as part of Jim Laurie’s Saturday morning talk, “Nature Wants to be Wet”.
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Jim Laurie, Restoration Ecologist, is a biologist from Rice University and is a pioneer in biological remediation of waste water. He was the technical manager of the world’s largest “Living Machine” project to clean raw municipal sewage with no toxic chemicals. The facility, through a grant from the EPA, processed 80,000 gallons/day using the “living machine” methodology invented by ecological visionary, and Buckminster Fuller Award recipient, John Todd.
Prior to that, for twenty years Jim was a biologist and trainer in the chemical industry in Houston, TX, where his work with living machines resulted in processing effluent cleaner than possible with conventional technology. Jim has also been a passionate advocate for Holistic Management of grasslands in the past decade. He began studying with Allan Savory twenty years ago in Texas, has spoken about Holistic Management at Harvard, MIT, Tufts, the Stockholm Environment Institute, and at meetings of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN) and Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA), and has been instrumental in spreading the message in New England. Jim is also co-founder of a lively and sophisticated Google Group, Soil-Age, and he invites you to join!
Other Conferences and Vidoes
- Blessed Unrest: Growing a Future for Life on Earth
- Restoring Oceans, Restoring Climate: Facing Fire & Ice, Food & Water, Floods & Droughts
- The Power and Promise of Biodiversity: Visions of Restoring Land, Sea and Climate
- Climate, Biodiversity, and Survival: Listening to the Voices of Nature
- Climate Reckoning: Paths to an Earth Restored
- Scenario 300: Making Climate Cool!
- Landscape Heroes: Carbon, Water and Biodiversity
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming
- Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity, and Planet!
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming, Washington D.C. 2015
Other Vidoes
Jon Griggs is the ranch manager for Maggie Creek Ranch in Elko, Nevada. Maggie Creek is a beef-cattle operation running on both public and private lands in the high desert of Northeastern Nevada. Public lands in the west and the endangered species that inhabit them are hot button topics, but Jon and the folks at Maggie Creek have formed great working relationships with state and federal agencies and user groups to collaborate on conservation projects. They have embraced the opportunities created from listed or potential listings of endangered species to enhance riparian habitat for fish and amphibians and upland habitat as well. This also, as Jon says, makes great cow habitat.
Carol Evans, Nevada BLM fisheries biologist for the Elko District of the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada, joined the U.S. Forest Service in the late 1980’s and helped survey over 1,000 miles of streams in NE Nevada. She began her career with BLM in Elko in 1988 and since that time BLM and local ranchers have been working together developing grazing practices to improve the water cycle, restore wildlife populations, and support ranching activities and communities. Nevada averages 10 inches or less of erratic rainfall per year and recent drought years have required land managers be flexible to protect the watershed. On Maggie and Susie Creeks, the water table has been rising over the last two decades. Grazing practices promoting functionality at a watershed scale are yielding impressive results in water quality, water storage, habitat for wildlife and sustainability of livestock operations. Since 2005, beaver have been increasing in many streams on the Elko District. Beaver build dams and dig deep channels and their activity has helped keep the water tables high even during drought years.
Ranchers are very happy to see them return. Carol’s work has been featured in the film The Beaver Whisperers, highlighting her deep involvement in monitoring the impact that planned grazing and returning beaver have had on restoring watersheds, and she emphasizes that good grazing practices are critical to beaver survival in such a dry area. Improving riparian areas has brought more good news as the rare Lahontan cutthroat trout is making a comeback. Trout Unlimited is partnering with ranchers and BLM to monitor their progress. Carol Evans now wants to see improved grazing expanded to increase infiltration into the uplands. The symbiosis of beavers and ranchers creating wetlands might be essential to restoring lands and waters throughout the American West. Rehydrating Nevada will teach us a lot about rehydrating North America.
Tom Goreau is an award-winning marine, soils and climate scientist. He is President of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, a coral reef protection non-profit, and has been involved in issues affecting the United Nations, climate change, coral reef, and small island developing states all over the world in many different capacities. He has dived longer and in more coral reefs around the world than any coral scientist and has published around 200 papers in coral reef ecology, climate and other fields.
He has pioneered the study of reef preservation, and has participated in several major UN global conferences. He works with tropical fishing communities to restore coral reefs and fisheries, especially the Kuna Indians of Panama, the only native people of the Americas who have maintained their cultural and political independence. He is a hereditary leader of the Yolngu Dhuwa aboriginal clan of Arnhem Land, Australia, who preserve the world’s oldest creation myth. He was educated in Jamaican schools, at MIT, Caltech, Yale, Woods Hole, and holds a Ph.D. from Harvard in biogeochemistry. He is a trained nuisance crocodile remover who would rather not.
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Walter Jehne is a leading Australian soil and climate scientist and Director of Healthy Soils Australia. He has extensive experience in industry and has worked overseas with Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, focusing on the microbial ecology of soil regeneration, the availability and cycling of nutrients, and how these govern the health, productivity, and resilience of biosystems. Walter is very interested in catalyzing urgent regional action by local communities and land managers to practically and profitably create on-farm microclimates to offset warming and restore rainfalls and to draw down carbon from past emissions safely into our soils and ensure opportunities and stability for all.
Precious Phiri is the Founding Director of EarthWisdom Consulting Company. She was formerly a Senior Facilitator at the Africa Center for Holistic Management (ACHM) in Zimbabwe where she directed training for villages in the Hwange Communal Lands region that are implementing restorative grazing programs using Holistic Land and Livestock Management. She helps rural communities in Africa to reduce poverty, rebuild soils, and restore food and water security. This nature-based solution has been successfully used on different landscapes in Africa and the Americas. Precious was born and raised in one of the communities now implementing restorative grazing.
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Foster Brown, senior scientist at Woods Hole Research Center and recipient of the Chico Mendes Forest Citizenry prize, is an environmental geochemist whose research interests focus on global environmental change and sustainable development in the southwestern Amazon Basin. He coordinates the Center’s program dealing with climate change and land use in the trinational southwestern Amazonia. Dr. Brown spent over twenty years as a faculty member of the Graduate Program in Environmental Geochemistry at the Federal Fluminense University in Niteroi, Brazil, and is currently on the faculty of the Federal University of Acre, Brazil. He earned his doctorate in environmental geochemistry at Northwestern University.
Maude Barlow, best-selling Canadian author and human rights activist, is the chair of the board of Food & Water Watch. She is also an executive member of the San Francisco–based International Forum on Globalization, founder of the Blue Planet Project, and a Councillor with the Hamburg-based World Future Council. Maude is the recipient of ten honorary doctorates as well as many awards, including the 2005 Right Livelihood Award, the Citation of Lifetime Achievement at the 2008 Canadian Environment Award, and the 2009 Earth Day Canada Outstanding Environmental Achievement Award. In 2008 and 2009, she served as Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd President of the United Nations General Assembly.
Michal Kravčík is an internationally recognized Slovak water scientist, ASHOKA fellow, and co-author of A New Water Paradigm: Water for the Recovery of the Climate, which emphasizes hydrologic cycles in addressing climate change. He is also a founding member and chairman of Slovakia’s NGO People and Water. In 1999, Kravčík was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for his contributions to the water management of the Torysa River after galvanizing support to halt a dam planned during the Communist era by proposing effective democratic alternatives, including smaller dams, decentralized water management, and restored farmlands.
Kravčík took his ideas to the national level in 1998, helping to organize a non-partisan national voter education campaign that resulted in unprecedented citizen participation in national elections. People and Water organized the Village and Democracy project in 164 villages in the Levoca mountain region to support democratic processes and build a sustainable open society. Kravčík and People and Water have continued to work toward integrated river basin management in the region via the sustainable development programs “Villages for the Third Millennium”, “Water for the Third Millenium” and “Blue Alternative”. And check out Michal’s Global Action Plan for the Restoration of Natural Water Cycles and Climate!
Philip Tanimoto is the Executive Director of the The Cloud Forest Conservation Initiative. Tanimoto ‘discovered’ the little-known Cerro El Amay Cloud Forest Ecosystem during his doctoral research on cloud forest birds in 2006. He founded the Cloud Forest Conservation Initiative in 2009, and since then, he has guided its projects and expanded its conservation approach. CFCI builds lasting relationships with local communities to implement sustainable visions for the future. Our mission is to help poor farmers to stay on their land and not have to sell to speculators who plan to log the forest. CFCI is introducing macadamia–a specialized nut crop that grows optimally under local conditions. With macadamia comes a wealth of new skills and opportunities to protect the cloud forest.
Ridge Shinn is the founder and CEO of Big Picture Beef and a leader in the shift away from feedlot beef to raising cattle on 100% grass and forages – no corn ever – using regenerative pasture and grazing management that sequesters carbon deep underground. Currently he is developing a large-scale supply of 100% grass-fed and grass-finished beef in the Northeast U.S. This program will provide economic opportunities for existing small farmers in the region and safe, nutritionally superior Northeast beef for Northeast markets, all while improving soil fertility and water retention and combating climate change.
Ridge was founding director of the New England Livestock Alliance, co-founder of Hardwick Beef, and co-founder of Rotokawa Cattle Company. He has consulted all over the US, and in New Zealand, Uruguay, and Argentina on beef production and ecosystem restoration through grazing. His work has been recognized in Time Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, Wine Spectator, and Smithsonian. He is also on the Advisory Board of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate.
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Dwayne Shaw is the Executive Director of the Downeast Salmon Federation, where he has led the development of the Federation’s fisheries and land conservation programs since 1989, beginning with the removal of the Pleasant R. Dam and the renovation of the facility as a hatchery and fisheries research center in Columbia Falls. He holds a B.S. in Environmental Studies / Fisheries Concentration from UM Machias (1984), has conducted research at UM Darling Marine Center and was Manager and Research Director at the Beals Island Regional Shellfish Hatchery for 10 years. Dwayne also served as a fisheries biologist in the U.S. Peace Corps / Nepal.
Eric W. Sanderson is a landscape ecologist for the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo, director of the Mannahatta Project (themannahattaproject.org) and the author of Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City. In 2013 his new book Terra Nova: The New World After Oil, Cars, and Suburbs was published. Sanderson earned his B.A.S. and Ph.D. in ecology from the University of California, Davis. He is a Senior Conservation Ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society where he has worked since 1998.
Adam Sacks is the Executive Director and co-founder of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate. He has had careers in education, holistic medicine, computer technology, politics and advocacy. For five years he directed a non-profit that worked with communities invoking basic democratic and constitutional principles to oppose detrimental local corporate activity. He has been a climate activist for the past fifteen years and has been studying and writing about Holistic Management since 2007. On the side he is an artist, writer and student of classical piano. His primary goal is regeneration of biodiversity and a livable planet.
Other Conferences and Vidoes
- Blessed Unrest: Growing a Future for Life on Earth
- Restoring Oceans, Restoring Climate: Facing Fire & Ice, Food & Water, Floods & Droughts
- Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming, Tufts 2015
- Climate, Biodiversity, and Survival: Listening to the Voices of Nature
- Climate Reckoning: Paths to an Earth Restored
- Scenario 300: Making Climate Cool!
- Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity, and Planet!
- Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming, Washington D.C. 2015
Other Vidoes
Didi Pershouse is a cross-pollinator, helping to connect the dots between soil health and human health. She is the author of The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities and the founder of the Center for Sustainable Medicine. After 22 years of clinical work with patients, she is now working with the Soil Carbon Coalition on a large-scale citizen-science program that engages schools, conservation districts, and landowners in understanding the intersections between soil health, public health, and climate resiliency.
She develops learning resources on whole systems landscape function—in particular how to measure, understand, and restore the carbon and water cycles that make life on this planet possible. She also teaches workshops for community leaders on how to build trusted networks of peer support.
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Other Vidoes
Alyssa Novak isa coastal ecologist who uses a combination of theoretical and empirical approaches to understand the characteristics of marine ecosystems that enhance their resilience to stressors. She has worked extensively in seagrass systems and their restoration. Recently she expanded her work to salt marsh systems and is investigating marsh-edge subsidence and its relationship to the invasive European green crab. She received her Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire and is an Assistant Professor at BU.
Sharon McGregor is a biologist, environmental policy administrator, educator, and consultant, most recently serving as Assistant Secretary for the Environment (Biological Conservation and Ecosystem Protection) for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (MA EOEEA). As Assistant Secretary and chief policy advisor for natural resources protection, she administered a pioneering biodiversity conservation and ecosystem protection program.
Sharon convened an interagency group of restoration ecologists that led to the MA Division of Ecological Restoration. She also served as Director of Water Policy and Planning for the MA EOEEA, was the first director of the New England Aquarium’s conservation program. The rapid loss of Sharon’s hometown nature to development inspired her to research and propose legislation that became the Massachusetts Community Preservation Act (2000).
Peter Lawrence is President and Co-founder of Biomimicry New England and a Biomimicry Specialist. BNE is a nonprofit organization dedicated to establishing nature and natural systems as an important resource for education and innovation in New England. From 1985 to 2014 Peter was Chairman & Founder of the Corporate Design Foundation, whose mission was to improve the quality of life and the effectiveness of organizations through design. Prior to that he was Director of the Design Management Institute in Boston. He has taught design at business schools including: Babson, London Business School, Boston University School of Management and UT Austin’s School of Business. He received a degree in economics from Lafayette College and a degree in architecture from Rhode Island School of Design.
Jim Laurie, Restoration Ecologist, is a biologist from Rice University and is a pioneer in biological remediation of waste water. He was the technical manager of the world’s largest “Living Machine” project to clean raw municipal sewage with no toxic chemicals. The facility, through a grant from the EPA, processed 80,000 gallons/day using the “living machine” methodology invented by ecological visionary, and Buckminster Fuller Award recipient, John Todd.
Prior to that, for twenty years Jim was a biologist and trainer in the chemical industry in Houston, TX, where his work with living machines resulted in processing effluent cleaner than possible with conventional technology. Jim has also been a passionate advocate for Holistic Management of grasslands in the past decade. He began studying with Allan Savory twenty years ago in Texas, has spoken about Holistic Management at Harvard, MIT, Tufts, the Stockholm Environment Institute, and at meetings of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN) and Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA), and has been instrumental in spreading the message in New England. Jim is also co-founder of a lively and sophisticated Google Group, Soil-Age, and he invites you to join!
Other Conferences and Vidoes
- Blessed Unrest: Growing a Future for Life on Earth
- Restoring Oceans, Restoring Climate: Facing Fire & Ice, Food & Water, Floods & Droughts
- Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming, Tufts 2015
- Climate, Biodiversity, and Survival: Listening to the Voices of Nature
- Climate Reckoning: Paths to an Earth Restored
- Scenario 300: Making Climate Cool!
- Landscape Heroes: Carbon, Water and Biodiversity
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming
- Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity, and Planet!
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming, Washington D.C. 2015
Other Vidoes
Beth Lambert is the Aquatic Habitat Restoration Program Manager at Division of Ecological Restoration (DER), MA Dept. of Fish and Game. She has been working in ecological restoration since 2000, and has been River Restoration Program Manager in Massachusetts, Coastal Restoration Coordinator with the New Hampshire Coastal Program, and a member of the Watershed Extension Faculty, North Coast Oregon Sea Grant. She has a BA from Carleton College and an MS from Oregon State. Beth will discuss the full range of DER’s on-the-ground aquatic habitat work, encompassing dam removal, freshwater wetland restoration, and salt marsh restoration.
Elisabeth Cianciola has a B.S. in Environmental Science from Trinity College, where she conducted research in areas as diverse as water quality sampling in urban rivers, rain garden design, and the taxonomy of algae. She recently completed an M.S. in Natural Resources at the University of New Hampshire, where she taught courses focused on wetland and freshwater resources. Her Master’s thesis research focused on the development of a protocol for monitoring algae in Great Bay Estuary. She is currently an Aquatic Scientist at the Charles River Watershed Association.
John E. Carroll is professor of environmental conservation in the Department of Natural Resources. In three decades at UNH, he has taught and done research on national and international environmental policy, diplomacy, ethics, and values as they pertain to sustainable agriculture and food systems. His recent books include Sustainability and Spirituality, and The Wisdom of Small Farms and Local Food.
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Sarah Zeiberg is a junior at Hamilton College where she is an Environmental Studies and Theatre double major. When not on stage, she enjoys learning about the interaction between governments, people, and environmental issues. Zeiberg has had a lifelong appreciation for the Atlantic, and has recently interned at the New England Aquarium and the Conservation Law Foundation.
Brian von Herzen is the Executive Director of The Climate Foundation, addressing gigaton-scale carbon balance on land and in the sea. With a Ph.D. in computer science from CalTech he spent several years working for leading high-tech companies. Brian and his partner Becky Truman flew a twin Cessna 337 across the Atlantic several times and observed melt ponds across the Greenland ice cap for glaciologists. From small and difficult to find in 2001 they became 97% of the surface of the ice sheet (1.7 million square km) in 2012. These observations led to the founding of the Climate Foundation in order to find sustainable solutions to carbon balance through a deep understanding of natural processes and how to restore them.
Since then Brian’s work has included restoring global primary productivity, cooling coral reefs, turning human waste biomass into biochar to bring much-needed sanitation to third-world communities, and creating grid-scale energy storage systems. His interest and love of the oceans resulted in his leading the Discovery Channel Project Earth documentary titled “Hungry Oceans.” His work has led to many honors and achievements, including a startup, TinyHerds, to develop non-traditional sustainable protein sources through award-winning automated cricket ranching technology.
John Todd has been a pioneer in the field of ecological design and engineering for nearly five decades. He is the founder and president of John Todd Ecological Design, and holds degrees covering the fields of agriculture, parasitology, tropical medicine, fisheries and ethology. In addition to new paradigms in an academic setting, he is the founder and president of Ocean Arks International, a non-profit research and education organization and co-founder of New Alchemy Institute, a research center that has done pioneering investigation into organic agriculture, aquaculture and bioshelters.
In 2008 he received the Buckminster Fuller Award for the best idea/concept to help save the planet/humanity. In 2007 he was named one of the top 100 visionaries of the 20th century by “Resurgence & Ecologist” magazine, and in the “Genius Issue” of Esquire he was profiled as one of top 35 figures in “Inventing Modern America.”
Judith Schwartz is a longtime freelance writer and author of several books. Over the last several years she has written about the juncture of economics and the environment for such publications as Time, Time.com, the Christian Science Monitor, Conservation, and the UKGuardian. She is the author of the ground-breaking book, Cows Save the Planet and Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013). Her latest book, just published in July 2016, is Water in Plain Sight: Hope for a Thirsty World. Judith has a B.A. from Brown University, an M.A. in Counseling from Northwestern, and an M.S.J. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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Adam Sacks is the Executive Director of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate. He has had careers in education, holistic medicine, computer technology, politics, and advocacy. A climate activist for the past 16 years, since 2007 he has been studying and writing about the power of biology to reverse global warming and restore the earth. In 2009-10 he published articles in the online magazine, Grist, which described and anticipated today’s climate developments. His primary goal is regeneration of biodiversity and a livable planet for his daughter, grandson, and their 7 billion cousins. Adam’s other interests include art, classical piano, anthropology and the practice of science in the twenty-first century.
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Other Vidoes
Randi Rotjan is a researcher at the New England Aquarium and professor in Boston University’s Marine Program. She studies coral reefs and climate change in the remote Phoenix Islands, the largest marine protected area in the Pacific Ocean, where she coordinates their science-related mission in her role as Chief Scientist. At Boston University she teaches Coral Reef Dynamics, Ecology, and Marine Urban Ecology. She helps students trace the water impacting the Boston Harbor, with an emphasis on watersheds and rivers from source to sea. Known as “Dr. Mom,” she lives in Medford with her husband and two children, who are rumored to be growing fins.
Joe Roman is a conservation biologist, author, and Fellow in the Gund Institute. His broad research interests span endangered species policy, marine mammals, and biodiversity and human health. Joe teaches marine ecology and graduate workshops (ateliers) on emerging problems of conservation interest, such as marine spatial planning and the disease ecology of bats. Joe came to the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics as an Environmental Policy Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
He is the author of Listed: Dispatches from America’s Endangered Species Act (Harvard University Press, 2011), the recipient of the 2012 Rachel Carson Environment Book Award, and Whale (Reaktion 2006), a cultural and population history of whales and whaling. His science and nature writing has appeared in The New York Times, New Scientist, Audubon, Conservation, among others. His research has been covered by the Associated Press, National Public Radio, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and other outlets. Joe has also completed work related to invasive species genetics and heads a public online forum, Eat the Invaders.
Alfredo Quarto is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Mangrove Action Project. He is a veteran campaigner with over 35 years experience working on international environmental and social justice issues. His experiences range over many different countries and several environmental organizations, with a long-term focus on marine ecology, wildlife, forestry and human rights. Alfredo has spoken on mangrove conservation issues at the United Nations, the American Museum of Natural History international meetings and workshops, universities and colleges, high schools and grade schools, churches and other organizations.
A former engineer, in 1980 he left Boeing to work on environmental issues, spending time at Greenpeace (1977-1984), as Project Director for the human rights group, Freedom Fund (1984-1989), and then Executive Director of the Ancient Forest Chautauqua (1990-91) supporting old-growth forests and indigenous forest dwellers. He is also a freelance photojournalist whose published works on mangrove forest/shrimp aquaculture issues have appeared in numerous magazines and books.
Mark McMenamin is a Professor of Geology at Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Whether he’s teaching an introductory course on the History of Life or embarking on an archeological expedition, geologist and paleontologist Mark McMenamin maintains a spirit of discovery. In 1994, he introduced the theory that life forms that moved from the sea to the land diversified to a far greater extent than marine life did. Explained in Hypersea: Life on Land, the “hypersea” theory was called one of “seven ideas that could change the world” by Discover magazine.
On other fronts, McMenamin presented groundbreaking evidence that mariners of ancient Carthage made it to America long before Eriksson and Columbus, some time around 350 BC. And in 1997 he edited an annotated edition of The Biosphere, the paradigm-shifting work of Russian scientist Vladimir Vernadsky (1863-1945) who led development of the field of biogeochemistry and the concept that living things are intricately connected to the lithosphere and atmosphere, and have molded planet earth into a blue-green planet over the past 3.5 billion years.
Jim Laurie, Restoration Ecologist, is a biologist from Rice University and a pioneer in biological remediation of waste water. He was the technical manager of the world’s largest “Living Machine” project to clean raw municipal sewage with no toxic chemicals. The facility, through a grant from the EPA, processed 80,000 gallons/day using the “living machine” methodology invented by ecological visionary, and Buckminster Fuller Award recipient, John Todd.
Prior to that, for twenty years Jim was a biologist and trainer in the chemical industry in Houston, TX, where his work with living machines resulted in processing effluent cleaner than possible with conventional technology. Jim has also been a passionate advocate for Holistic Management of grasslands in the past decade. He began studying with Allan Savory twenty years ago in Texas, has spoken about Holistic Management at Harvard, MIT, Tufts, the Stockholm Environment Institute, and at meetings of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN) and Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA), and has been instrumental in spreading the message in New England. Jim is also co-founder of a lively and sophisticated Google Group, Soil-Age, and he invites you to join!
Other Conferences and Vidoes
Other Vidoes
The Homeschool Symbiosis Team:
Hayden Latimer-Ireland is a dancer, singer and actor who somehow got interested in all this cool stuff and is now exploring marine biology and medicine. Lynus Erickson is excited about creating mechanisms to make the world a wetter (and better!) place. Jamila dePeiza-Kern thinks a lot about how we can improve the world is an overall enthusiastic person (especially about Star Trek). Annie Selle is a caretaker of chickens, an environmental advocate and a vegan activist.
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Tom Goreau is an award-winning marine, soils and climate scientist. He is President of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, a coral reef protection non-profit, and has been involved in issues affecting the United Nations, climate change, coral reef, and small island developing states all over the world in many different capacities. He has dived longer and in more coral reefs around the world than any coral scientist and has published around 200 papers in coral reef ecology, climate and other fields. He has pioneered the study of reef preservation, and has participated in several major UN global conferences.
He works with tropical fishing communities to restore coral reefs and fisheries, especially the Kuna Indians of Panama, the only native people of the Americas who have maintained their cultural and political independence. He is a hereditary leader of the Yolngu Dhuwa aboriginal clan of Arnhem Land, Australia, who preserve the world’s oldest creation myth. He was educated in Jamaican schools, at MIT, Caltech, Yale, Woods Hole, and holds a Ph.D. from Harvard in biogeochemistry. He is a trained nuisance crocodile remover who would rather not.
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Peter Girguis is a leader in the research of deep oceans, with several scientific dives on the iconic deep-sea submersible, Alvin. His laboratory at Harvard studies the physiology and biochemistry of deep sea microorganisms, with an emphasis on carbon and nitrogen metabolism, to better understand their role in mediating local and global biogeochemical cycles. They also study the physiological relationships (such as nutrient exchange and immune responses) between microbes and animals in deep sea environments.
His research is at the crossroads of microbial ecology, physiology, and biogeochemistry, and as such is highly interdisciplinary. He and his lab have developed novel instruments and samplers that enable them to better study microbial-geochemical relationships. He is also passionate about educating and inspiring young people to learn about oceans and the fascinating life within them.
Dr. Anamarija Frankić is a founding director of the Green Harbors Project®, and the Biomimicry LivingLabs®, a research faculty at UMass Boston and University of Zadar, Croatia. She is a Biomimicry, Fulbright and Sea Grant Knauss Fellow. In 2014 she founded Biomimicry New England. Her educational background in biology, ecology, limnology and marine science, guided her interdisciplinary restoration research and management work in coastal, marine and fresh water ecosystems, nationally and internationally.
Her work is about integrating human services with ecological services and functions in our built environments to support resiliency and sustainability. She initiated and established the “LivingLabs” for applied science education and research where students, local communities and businesses are able to “learn and teach by doing” biomimicry, applying nature’s wisdom for a resilient today and tomorrow; her premise is that “the environment sets the limits for sustainable development.”
Dan Distel received his B.S. in Biology from Cook College, Rutgers, University and Ph.D. in Marine Biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD. He held postdoctoral appointments at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, MA at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD, and at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. He held joint appointments, first as Assistant then as Associate Professor, in the School of Marine Science and the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Molecular Biology at the University of Maine, Orono. At present he is the Director of the Ocean Genome Legacy Center of New England Biolabs at Northeastern University and a Professor in the Department of Marine and Environmental Science.
Mick Devin is a two-term state representative in the Maine Legislature. He is also the shellfish hatchery manager at the University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center in Walpole, where he focuses on aquaculture research. He is a Knauss Marine Policy and Henry Toll Fellow. In the legislature he sits on the Marine Resources Committee, where he advocates for all things marine, including commercial fisheries, marine environmental issues and protection of working waterfront. He was the sponsor of the legislation to establish an Ocean Acidification Commission in Maine, the first of its kind on the east coast. He has also sponsored legislation to address sea level change and marine debris.
Katharine Deuel coordinates public outreach and grassroots organizing for The Pew Charitable Trusts’ ocean campaigns across New England. She educates about the science and policy of ocean conservation, engaging stakeholders in managing the nation’s marine resources. Recently she helped to ensure the designation of the first marine national monument in the U.S. Atlantic Ocean, protecting 4,913 square miles of home to corals, whales and seabirds. Before joining Pew in 2009, she spent several years at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, highlighting the aquarium’s work on ocean conservation and sustainable seafood. She is currently finishing a graduate degree in Sustainability and Environmental Management from Harvard Extension School.
George Buckley is the Assistant Director of Sustainability at Harvard Extension School, with decades of broad experience with oceans and ocean life. He began his career by winning the state science fair in high school with a study of snail teeth. He earned a degree in biology at Suffolk University with further study at Tufts and Boston Universities. He has done extensive research on land snails, freshwater clams, coral reefs, and is an expert scuba diver who has led hundreds of students to study the sea.
He has worked on a series of curriculum programs on coastal ecology, river ecology, the earth sciences, astronomy and science education. He has been a long-time Associate at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and chief scientist on some two dozen Earthwatch Expeditions. As an activist he was instrumental in the creation of the Massachusetts bottle bill and the stopping a second pilgrim nuclear power plant. In recognition of his ocean work he received the “Diver of the Year Award” and with the award-winning NOVA TV program, “The Sea Behind the Dunes,” began a career in environmental filmmaking. His most recent film, Bonaire Bonanza, produced in collaboration with in collaboration with Dutch filmmaker Edward Snijders, is a success story of good reef management on the Caribbean island of Bonaire; it won the Palme d’Or Award in Marseilles.
Rajendra Singh has been listed among The Guardian‘s “50 People Who Could Save the Planet“. Better known as the Water Man of India, Singh was recently named the 2015 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate for his innovative water restoration efforts, improving water security in rural India, and for showing extraordinary courage and determination in his quest to improve the living conditions for those most in need.
Singh has dedicated himself for several decades to defeating drought and empowering communities in Rajasthan, the driest state in one of the world’s most populous nations. The results of his tireless work are without equal: in close cooperation with local residents, he and his organization Tarun Bharat Sangh have revived several rivers, brought water, and life, back to a thousand villages and given hope to countless people. Rajendra’s methods are modernizations of traditional Indian ways of collecting and storing rainwater, dating back thousands of years, and he believes this work offers “a way to solve both floods and droughts globally”, emphasizing the impact of water restoration at the local, national, and international level.
Frédérique Apffel-Marglin is founder of the Sachamama Center for Biocultural Regeneration, and is the author of five books, the editor or co-editor of an additional eight books and the author of more than fifty five articles and book chapters. Her interests cover ritual, gender, political ecology, critiques of development, science studies and Andean-Amazonian shamanism. Her areas of specialization are South Asia and the Amazonian Andes. You may view an excellent video on her work here.
Simon Garnier is an Assistant Professor in the Federated Department of Biological Sciences at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. There he is the head of the Swarm Lab, an interdisciplinary research lab that studies the mechanisms underlying Collective Behaviors and Swarm Intelligence in natural and artificial systems. His lab works toward ‘reverse engineering’ these mechanisms in systems as diverse as slime mold, ant colonies, goat and sheep herds, baboon troops, and human groups.
Simon’s goal is to understand the origin and development of these collective behaviors, to measure their efficiency and adaptability, and to determine the conditions of their success and failure. His work is also to translate these findings into the language of applied sciences, where they might serve to design new solutions to human-related and societal issues. Watch one of Simon’s videos here.
Betsey Dexter Dyer is a professor of biology at Wheaton College in Norton Massachusetts. She earned her PhD at Boston University in the lab of Lynn Margulis, and is the author of A Field Guide to Bacteria (Cornell Press) and a lecturer for the audiobook Unseen Diversity: The World of Bacteria (Modern Scholar).
Her research area is microbial evolution, which she approaches as a generalist and naturalist. Among her favorite microbes are the charismatic, mega-microbes of termite hindguts. Betsey also has had many interdisciplinary collaborations including with a professor of religion on the topic of fermented foods (Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery) and a professor of computer science on DNA sequence analysis: Perl for Exploring DNA (Oxford Press).
Rev. Dele is a grandmother, author and pastor, who uses her skills as a permaculturist and contemplative to train the next generation of mission leaders in faith, ecology and economic empowerment. She serves on the UN Decade of African Diaspora-Earthcare Coalition; UCC Council for Climate Justice, as regional liaison for Green the Church; council member for the National Congress of Black American Indians. She has convened Soil &Souls to train 300 mission leaders from 30 U.S. communities that need the most assistance in climate resilience. Mission partners are emerging in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, D.C. and Atlanta. She is planting the Heaven to Earth Fellowship in Virginia to provide spiritual nurture to individuals involved in the mission enterprises. Pastor Dele also co- hosts the Spirit of Resilience radio show that shares inspiration and information for our changing social and weather climates. Professionally Dele has been an entrepreneurial manager in California, Oklahoma, Washington DC and Virginia, designing and launching programs with national impact for over 40 years.When she moved to Washington DC in 1993, Dele joined other national leaders working in cultural, spiritual and policy circles for a better tomorrow. She taught Permaculture at College of William & Mary and currently teaches Eco-theology at Virginia Union University. In 2015, the invitation from Bishop Griselda Delgado to return to Cuba and teach climate science to clergy and lay leaders, has birthed a global root that unifies her diverse expressions of ministry. You may read more about her work here and here , and by all means visit her website on your cyber-travels.
Other Conferences and Vidoes
Other Vidoes
Arielle Martinez Cohen is a 17-year-old singer, songwriter, producer, and activist from Los Angeles, CA. She has been working in the music business since she was nine years old, singing back-up vocals for artists such as Macklemore, Imagine Dragons, Frank Ocean, and Foster The People, and appearing on the Jimmy Kimmel Show and Conan O’Brien Show, among others. At 15, she was selected to attend Grammy Camp for Songwriting. In January 2018, her song, “Two Minutes to Midnight” was used by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in their announcement of the Doomsday Clock, and in March 2018, she sang her song “Why” at the March For Our Lives rally in downtown Los Angeles. This led to interviews on Buzzfeed News and ABC 7 News, which in turn, led to her being selected by Instagram for their #captureconfidence campaign, featuring teen girls who are using their talents to affect positive change. The campaign was launched on Good Morning America with the release of the book Confidence Code for Girls. Arielle also sang at the National Die In Day rally in Los Angeles and at the Zero Hour Youth Climate March in Washington DC.
Other Conferences and Vidoes
Charles C. Chester loves bats! He teaches global environmental politics at Brandeis University and at the Fletcher School of Tufts University. He serves on the board of Bat Conservation International and is Chair of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Council. He is currently building the website, GEP-guide.net, an online guide to global environmental politics. He co-edited the volume Conservation & Climate Change: Landscape and Seascape Science, Planning and Action (Island Press 2012) and authored Conservation Across Borders: Biodiversity in an Interdependent World (Island Press 2006), which examined the global phenomenon of transboundary collaboration for conservation biodiversity protection, with a focus on the Sonoran Desert (USA-Mexico) and the Northern Rockies of Canada and the United States (Yellowstone to Yukon).
He previously served on the board of Root Capital and consulted for the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Henry P. Kendall Foundation. His current work includes research on the concept of “spatial subsidies” resulting from wildlife migration, on the Appalachian Trail and large landscape conservation, and on the interwoven histories of gorilla conservation, American taxidermy, European royalty, protected area philosophies, and climate change.
Gay A. Bradshaw is the Executive Director of The Kerulos Center in Jacksonville, Oregon. She holds doctorate degrees in ecology and psychology, and has published, taught, and lectured widely in these fields both in the U.S. and internationally. She is the author of Pulitzer Prize-nominated Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us about Humanity, published by Yale University Press, an in-depth psychological portrait of elephants in captivity and in the wild. Dr. Bradshaw’s work focuses on trans-species psychology, the theory and methods for the study and care of animal psychological well-being and multi-species cultures. Her research expertise includes the effects of violence on and trauma recovery for elephants, grizzly bears, chimpanzees, and parrots, and other species in captivity. View one of Gay’s video interviews here.
Heather Barnett is an artist, researcher and educator working with natural phenomena, complex systems and biological design, often in collaboration with scientists, artists, participants and organisms. Using diverse media including printmaking, photography, animation, video, installation and participatory experimentation, and working with living materials and imaging technologies, her work explores how we observe, represent and understand the world around us. Current work includes ‘The Physarum Experiments’, an ongoing ‘collaboration’ with an intelligent slime mould; Animal Collectives Leverhulme Artist in Residence with Swansea University; and ‘Nodes and Networks’, a series of collective interdisciplinary biosocial experiments. Watch her TED Talk here.
Steve Weinberg champions win-win solutions with a focus on initiatives that cultivate vibrant and sustainable communities and businesses. In the late 1990s Steve learned about Paul Hawken’s work with a sustainability framework, The Natural Step, which informed Steve about systems thinking and a change process adopted by small and large business and communities alike. Steve’s successive visits to tour Susatinable Sweden and its Eco-Muncipalities in 2001 and 2002, completely changed his perception about what a dedicated citizenry could accomplish aided by effective sustainability knowhow. Steve organized speaking engagements and roundtables which introduced Philadelphia civic leaders to Eco-Municipalities and best practices and guided Philadelphia’s Sustainable Business Network (SBN) to a broader focus on creating a green economy. Steve represented SBN on a Green Economy coalition which SBN created and which was regarded as one of the most effective in the US.With actions that any small business person could take, Steve made his small industrial-sector business a founding B Corp, audited for social, enviornmental and governance practices, and became one of the first For Benefit companies. He helped grow and then co-chaired Philadelphia’s SBN, doubling its membership as it became one of the largest and most vibrant networks of its kind. At the same time, Steve served for 7 years as Treasurer and board member of a NJ solar developer that pioneered the use of Power Purchase Agreements, making solar much more affordable throughout the industry. The solar company was instrumental in its collaboration with the State of NJ in its development of one of the most aggressive energy master plans at the time, a codified commitment to 80% renewables by 2050.
Steve is excited to be participating at this Blessed Unrest Conference, finding much inspiration in all that has been shared.
Adam Sacks is the Executive Director of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate. He has had careers in education, holistic medicine, computer technology, politics, and advocacy. A climate activist since 1999, since 2007 he has been studying and writing about the power of biology to reverse global warming and restore the earth. In 2009-10 he published articles in the online magazine, Grist, which described and anticipated some of today’s climate developments. His primary goal is regeneration of biodiversity and a livable planet for his daughter, grandson, and their 7+ billion cousins. Adam’s other interests include art, anthropology and the practice of science in the twenty-first century.
Other Conferences and Vidoes
- Restoring Oceans, Restoring Climate: Facing Fire & Ice, Food & Water, Floods & Droughts
- The Power and Promise of Biodiversity: Visions of Restoring Land, Sea and Climate
- Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming, Tufts 2015
- Climate, Biodiversity, and Survival: Listening to the Voices of Nature
- Climate Reckoning: Paths to an Earth Restored
- Scenario 300: Making Climate Cool!
- Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity, and Planet!
- Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming, Washington D.C. 2015
Other Vidoes
Florence Reed is a prize-winning thought leader, innovative practitioner, and deeply engaging speaker who believes that when people work together, things can change for the better. This belief led her to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras in the early nineties. In 1997, Reed founded Sustainable Harvest International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to working with rural Central American communities to implement sustainable farming practices and preserve tropical forests. As the organization’s chief visionary and networker, Florence spends her time in rich conversations with internal and external stakeholders, bringing together farmers, donors, volunteers and others to catalyze changes for a better future.
Nick Rabb is a PhD student at Tufts University jointly studying computer science and cognitive science. His research areas have included explanatory and scientific reasoning, and computational social simulations including ideology-driven population-level behavior and its interaction with “fake news.” He organizes with the Sunrise Movement’s Boston hub as well as with Massachusetts Peace Action, and frequently writes about political philosophy revolving around a Green New Deal and the peace effort.
Sven Pihl, founder of CT Edible Ecosystems, LLC is a Regenerative Land Planner/Designer and Permaculture educator based in Connecticut. Sven designs multifunctional Edible Landscapes and Forest Gardens for homes, commercial properties, campuses and public spaces. He’s passionate about regenerative landscape design to create productive agro-ecosystems.
Sven’s beginnings were with the financial crash of 2008 where he Urban Homesteaded for 5 years. Sven is a Certified Permaculture Designer and teacher, a member of the USDA’s Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Agroforestry Steering Committee, a member of the Association for Temperate Agroforestry and both a Master Composter and a NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professional. His education ranges from landscape design and horticulture courses to Agroforestry through the University of Missouri’s, Center for Agroforestry and the Yale School of Forestry. He has worked on design projects from New Jersey to New Hampshire.
Precious Phiri is a smallholder farmer, regenerative agriculture practitioner and trainer based in Zimbabwe. She is also an accredited Field Professional in Holistic Management education for communities with the Savory Institute. She works with rural communities through her organization EarthWisdom Consulting and other partners both in southern and east Africa to regenerate degraded communal lands. Precious is involved with Regeneration International as part of their steering committee and as their African Coordinator. Her role is to connect with other work going on in the African region and to continue plugging this work into the global movement.
At the conference she will share with us stories of hope from frontline communities dealing with weather insecurities and climate emergency. She will also emphasize the value of local tribal communities in regeneration and how can the world support these small efforts to have a meaningful impact on people’s lives.
Other Conferences and Vidoes
Holly M. Paar is the Advancement Director for Dogwood Alliance, a Southern US based nonprofit mobilizing diverse voices to protect southern forests and communities from destructive industrial logging. Her work involves coordinating with frontline communities and partners at the intersection of climate, forests and justice, including Dogwood’s participation in the Justice First Tour, launched by Reverend Leo Woodberry in 2018. She and her team at Dogwood have also created Stories Happen in Forests, ongoing opportunities for unique, diverse voices to share stories with the general public about their physical, emotional and spiritual ties to the forest.
An LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS activist since age 13, Holly has integrated a life of service and spiritual reflection into careers that have spanned health, social justice, youth empowerment, outdoor leadership and now, forest protection. She is an avid painter, musician and composer and runs an occasional series of creativity, leadership and storytelling workshops.
Elizabeth Monson, PhD, is the Spiritual Co-Director of Natural Dharma Fellowship and the Managing Teacher at Wonderwell Mountain Refuge, a Buddhist meditation retreat center in Springfield, NH. Elizabeth holds a Doctorate in Religious Studies with a focus in Tibetan Buddhism and Ethics from Harvard University. She has been studying, practicing, and teaching Buddhism for over thirty years and has been ordained as Lama in the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Elizabeth’s teachings focus on accessing the energy and open awareness found in the natural world for awakening in everyday life. Elizabeth has just completed a biography of Drukpa Kunley, the mad yogi of Bhutan, for Shambhala Publications (to be published in April of 2021). Elizabeth also regularly leads pilgrimages to Bhutan and has lectured at the Harvard Divinity School.
Dr. Pablo Suarez’s research focuses on the use of information for reducing vulnerability. He is associate director of programs for the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre, and an advisor for Oxfam America’s Private Sector Team. He has consulted for the United Nations Environment Programe, the World Bank, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany and other international organizations, working in more than 30 countries.
Dr. Suarez is a visiting scholar at Boston University and a guest scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). He has worked and published on a diverse range of issues including transportation modeling, food security implications of changing rainfall patterns, microinsurance instruments for subsistence farmers, and the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on disaster management organizations. His current work addresses adaptation to climate change, institutional innovation and integration, and the use of video and other communication tools for awareness, advocacy and capacity building.
Janot Mendler de Suarez is aTechnical Advisor & Caribbean focal point for the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, a consultant to the World Bank for the Caribbean CREWS (Climate Risk Early Warning Services), and a Visiting Research Fellow at Boston University Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. She is an innovator in the use of serious games and creative arts for effective learning and dialogue, and has designed and facilitated game-enabled processes to support the World Bank Green Economy launch in SE Asia. A lead author of Global Oceans Forum climate policy briefs, she is a researcher the Pardee Center and spent over a decade developing the Global Environment Facility’s International Waters knowledge-sharing program involving 182 countries.
Janot piloted an internet-mediated MSc program for developing country students as Senior Lecturer in Geography at Royal Holloway University of London, and serves as a reviewer for Elsevier, Springer and Nature journals, and as Nature Publishing Group Editorial Board member for Scientific Reports. She has consulted with the World Food Programme, Rockefeller Foundation, Oxfam-America, Singapore Civil Service College and National University of Singapore among others. She spearheads public conversations on race and sustainability in greater Boston.
Jim Laurie is a restoration biologist and co-founder of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate. He was manager of the Vermont “Living Machine” which was designed by ecological visionary John Todd. This biodiverse system treated 80,000 gallons of sewage per day. For 20 years he was a biologist and technical trainer in the chemical industry in Houston, Texas, where his work with ecological systems cleaned toxic wastewater. Jim has studied Holistic Management of grasslands with Allan Savory and the Savory Institute in Texas, Colorado and Montana. In Maryland, he built a lab to study fungi and grow mushrooms learning from the work of Paul Stamets (fungi.com). He also worked with the International Wolf Center in Minnesota learning about predators and the biology of the north woods. Jim loves sharing about these diverse experiences with curious folks of all ages. He really enjoys teaching science and ecology to Homeschool students in the Boston area.
Other Conferences and Vidoes
- Restoring Oceans, Restoring Climate: Facing Fire & Ice, Food & Water, Floods & Droughts
- The Power and Promise of Biodiversity: Visions of Restoring Land, Sea and Climate
- Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming, Tufts 2015
- Climate, Biodiversity, and Survival: Listening to the Voices of Nature
- Climate Reckoning: Paths to an Earth Restored
- Scenario 300: Making Climate Cool!
- Landscape Heroes: Carbon, Water and Biodiversity
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming
- Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity, and Planet!
- Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming, Washington D.C. 2015
Other Vidoes
Jan Lambert is an environmental writer and editor of The Valley Green Journal www.valleygreenjournal.com , which addresses connections of agriculture, nature and communities. She has been a working partner with internationally recognized hydrological scientist Michal Kravčík, in promoting awareness of the central role of water cycles for environmental sustainability, via her journal and her book, Water, Land and Climate–The Critical Connection, published in October 2015. Included in the book is “A Global Plan for the Restoration of Natural Water Cycles and Climate,” co-authored with Kravčík, which was presented at the COP21 Climate Summit in Paris. She is a cofounder of Voices of Water for Climate, www.vow4climate.org , an organization promoting the infiltration of rainwater into land to alleviate floods, droughts, pollution, and climate change manifested as severe storms and heat waves. Jan lives on a secluded homestead in New Hampshire and has extensive hands-on experience with landscape restoration and wildlife monitoring in her region, as well as working with diverse groups including youth and the faith community.
Other Conferences and Vidoes
Susan Jennings became Executive Director of The Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions (AMICS) in 2014. Since that time, she has partnered with the AMICS board to implement a new strategic plan oriented toward the support of resilient communities. She also led AMICS in the 2017 purchase of Agraria, a 128-acre farm on the outskirts of Yellow Springs which is being developed into a Center for Regenerative Practice. Susan serves on The Village of Yellow Springs’ Economic Sustainability Commission, the Board of the Greater Dayton Conservation Fund, and on the national Council for Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching on behalf of Central State University. She also facilitates a Community Climate Resilience class for the University of Dayton’s lifelong learning institute.
Hayat Imam is an American-Muslim of Bangladeshi origin. She is a feminist-activist committed to building global social justice movements. Her efforts have been directed towards nuclear disarmament, renewable energy, and economic opportunities for women. Former Executive Director of the Boston Women’s Fund, she has written and organized extensively on violence against women, and is co-author of Watermelons Not War – Parenting in the Nuclear Age. As former Chair of the Board of Grassroots International, she led efforts to organize for human rights to land, water and food. Hayat was an activist with Clamshell Alliance, and part of the Occupation of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant site in 1978. She is an active member of Mass Peace Action and Dorchester People for Peace and presently offers a four part Course called UNDERSTANDING ISLAM: A Muslim Woman’s Perspective on the Essence of Islam, the Diversity of the Muslim World, and its Relationship with the West.
Claire Hedberg is a 15-year-old climate justice activist with Zero Hour and Polluters Out. She was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, but resides in Richmond, Virginia. Through her work, she hopes to spread awareness about the current crisis and empower communities of color and indigenous peoples.
Anna Gilbert-Muhammad is the Food Access Coordinator of NOFA/Mass and lives in Springfield. She was born in New York City but, being the child of a Marine Corps father, lived in various places in California as well as Baltimore. While in California, although she was raised as a Roman Catholic, Anna became interested in the Nation of Islam and ultimately converted. She says, “I enjoyed the whole idea that prayer is a conversation between you and God. There are no intermediaries. You know the Catholics have saints, priests, a whole bunch of people between you and God. I went along with it but it was very confusing for me. In Islam there is a direct communication between you and God. You don’t need anybody else, which I appreciated. . . . I also appreciated the community work,” she continues, “that the Nation of Islam does, in the restoration of people of color. It is some of the hardest work, but it gives me a sense of purpose.”
Anna began to garden and discovered NOFA. Anna is responsible for the alliances of NOFA/Mass with groups working on food access issues. This includes a large number of indigenous urban farming organizations like GtC: community gardens and youth training programs as well as food policy and food sovereignty efforts. “I’ve been working with the Urban Farm Institute in Mattapan,” she explains, “teaching people how to raise food. It’s in the inner city of Boston. They’re trying to build healthy soil so that they can grow more nutritious food. NOFA is helping with our soil technical assistance program. We’ll work with you, train you up, and when we go away you can continue on your way. That is the best kind of relationship groups like NOFA can have. “ (This bio adapted from The Natural Farmer, published by NOFA Mass.)
Rev. Dele is a grandmother,author and pastor who opens the environmental narrative to include the voice of Mother Nature so we create JOY with our Impact. Trained as a Climate Reality Leader and spiritual director, she supports spiritual leaders and Earthkeepers who are struggling with burnout and rage. As grandmother, theologian and permaculture professor Dele teaches that justice begins with the inner balance experienced in Nature and then flows throughout human relationships in social, political and economic systems.
Dele is developing two national initiatives to calm our social and weather chaos. The Spirit of Resilience radio show, www.spiritofresilience.com, will raise a platform for women environmental leaders all over the globe as we clock our rise instead of our demise. Segments also highlight Indigenous culture and on the ground collaborators. We extend open arms to tech savvy workers who wish to assist in the launch.The emerging Soil & Souls cooperative, www.revdele.com/soil-and-souls, is training young adult leaders who strengthen resilience in communities that need it most. Resilience hubs are forming in North Carolina and the native plan
