Plenaries | 2012
FRIDAY PLENARIES
GREG SARRIS
Greg Sarris is among the most dynamic leaders working to reestablish the rights of California's Native American tribes and revitalize their cultures and economies. He is a member and current Tribal Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria in Northern California, a college professor, author and screenwriter. With his leadership, the Graton Rancheria Nation have helped create innovative, large-scale multi-stakeholder land conservation successes in Northern California. He was chosen in 2005 to fill the Endowed Chair in Native American Studies at Sonoma State University. He was formerly the Fletcher Jones Professor of Creative Writing and Literature at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, and a full professor at UCLA for ten years.
NIKKI HENDERSON
Nikki Henderson is executive director of the groundbreaking Oakland, California-based People's Grocery, among the West Coast's most significant on-the-ground food justice organizations. People's Grocery helps West Oakland residents with community gardens, access to fresh organic food, education on diet-related disease and food justice, small business incubation, and leadership trainings. Nikki is currently collaborating with Michael Pollan and Alice Waters on an Edible Education course at UC Berkeley, co-teaching with Pollan on the rise and future of the food movement with guest lecturers Eric Schlosser, Alice Waters, and Carlo Petrini. She has worked closely with Van Jones and Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins at Green for All for a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. In 2009, Nikki co-founded Live Real, a national collaborative of food movement organizations committed to strengthening and expanding the youth food movement in the U.S. She has a Master's degree in African American Studies from UCLA.
CAROL JENKINS
Carol Jenkins is a leading advocate for women's rights around the world, and an award-winning writer, producer and media analyst. As an Emmy-winning former television journalist and now head of her own production company, Carol Jenkins Media, she was founding president of the groundbreaking non-profit the Women's Media Center,co-founded by Gloria Steinem. The Center was created to increase coverage and participation of women in the media in the U.S. and worldwide. Her current service focus is on the health of girls and women globally, and she chairs the board of the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF USA). She takes an active role on several boards and advisory councils, including with Humane Farm Animal Care, the national certification organization; Out of the Blue Films, a non-profit nurturing documentaries on important topics; The Alliance of Women Film Journalists; and The Center for Partnership Studies.
MIKE BRUNE
Executive Director of the Sierra Club. What most excites him about his work is
the opportunity to help provide political will. Anyone who follows the news or
understands environmental issues knows that we face an unprecedented series of
environmental challenges on our planet. But we also have pragmatic, practical,
very tangible solutions to those same problems.
Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben is the author of a dozen books about the environment, beginning
with The End of Nature in 1989, which is regarded as the first book for a general
audience on climate change. He is a founder of the grassroots climate campaign
350.org, which has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 189 countries since 2009. Time
Magazine called him 'the planet's best green journalist' and the Boston Globe
said in 2010 that he was 'probably the country's most important
environmentalist.' Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College, he holds
honorary degrees from a dozen colleges, including the Universities of
Massachusetts and Maine, the State University of New York, and Whittier and
Colgate Colleges. In 2013 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences.
Fletcher Harper is an Episcopal priest and executive director of GreenFaith, a dynamic action-oriented interfaith environmental coalition. An award-winning spiritual writer and nationally recognized preacher on the environment, he has developed a range of innovative programs to make GreenFaith a leader in the fast-growing religious-environmental movement. Founded in 1992, GreenFaith inspires, educates and mobilizes people of diverse religious backgrounds as environmental leaders. Through religious-environmental education programs, greening the operations of religious institutions and the homes of its members, and legislative advocacy and values-based environmental activism, GreenFaith helps religious institutions and people of all faiths put their belief into action for the Earth. A graduate of Princeton University and Union Theological Seminary, Fletcher served as a parish priest for ten years and in leadership positions in the Episcopal Church prior to joining GreenFaith.
Maria Osmarina Marina Silva Vaz de Lima is a Brazilian environmentalist and politician. Ms. Silva was a colleague of Chico Mendes, who was assassinated for defending the Amazon environment. She was a member of the Partido dos Trabalhadores until August 19, 2009 and served as a senator before becoming environmental minister in 2003. In 1996, Ms. Silva won the Goldman Environmental Prize for South & Central America. In 2007, the United Nations Environment Program named her one of the Champions of the Earth and the 2009 Sophie Prize. Running in the 2010 Brazilian elections, she won 19.4% of the popular votes.
In 2010, she along with four others, were named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top global thinkers, for taking Green mainstream. Image from Wikipedia
An ecologist by training, Daily's work spans scientific research, teaching, public education, and working with leaders to advance practical approaches to environmental challenges. Daily's scientific research is on countryside biogeography and the future dynamics of biodiversity change; on the scope for harmonizing biodiversity conservation and agriculture; on quantifying the production and value of ecosystem services across landscapes; and on new policy and finance mechanisms for integrating conservation and human development in major decisions.
Gabor Mate, MD
in-the-realm-of-hungry-ghosts/
Gabor Maté is a Hungarian-born Canadian physician who specializes in the study
and treatment of addiction and is also widely recognized for his unique
perspective on Attention Deficit Disorder and his firmly held belief in the
connection between mind and body health.
A sought-after speaker and seminar leader on these topics, he is a regular
columnist for the Vancouver Sun and the Globe and Mail and has authored four
books: In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction, Hold on to
Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers (co-authored with
developmental psychologist Gordon Neufeld), When the Body Says No: The Cost of
Hidden Stress, and Scattered Minds: A New Look at the Origins and Healing of
Attention Deficit Disorder. The latter two have become bestsellers, translated
into nine languages.
Ecologist, author, and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. is an
internationally recognized authority on the environment links to cancer and human
health.
Steingraber's highly acclaimed book, Living Downstream: An Ecologist's Personal
Investigation of Cancer and the Environment presents cancer as a human rights
issue. Originally published in 1997, it was the first to bring together data on
toxic releases with data from U.S. cancer registries and won praise from
international media including The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, The Lancet,
and The London Times.
Ai-jen Poo, co-director of Caring Across Generations, is one of the most dynamic young leaders working to include new constituencies in the labor movement and to build broad coalitions and alliances. Caring Across Generations is a national coalition of 200 advocacy organizations working together for a dignified quality of life for all Americans. Ai-jen is also director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, a national alliance of domestic workers in 19 cities and 11 states, working to gain respect, recognition, and protections for America's 2.5 million domestic workers, among the most disenfranchised groups in the nation.
Ethan Nadelmann is the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy
Alliance, the leading organization in the United States promoting alternatives to
the war on drugs.
Nadelmann was born in New York City and received his BA, JD, and PhD from
Harvard, and a master's degree in international relations from the London School
of Economics. He then taught politics and public affairs at Princeton University
from 1987 to 1994, where his speaking and writings on drug policy-in publications
ranging from Science and Foreign Affairs to American Heritage and National
Review-attracted international attention. He authored Cops Across Borders, the
first scholarly study of the internationalization of U.S. criminal law
enforcement, and co-authored another book entitled Policing the Globe:
Criminalization and Crime Control in International Relations, published by Oxford
University Press in 2006.
Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and author.
Starting at age 20, he dedicated his life to sustainability and changing the
relationship between business and the environment. His practice has included
starting and running ecological businesses, writing and teaching about the impact
of commerce on living systems, and consulting with governments and corporations
on economic development, industrial ecology, and environmental policy.
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SATURDAY PLENARIES
BILL MCKIBBEN
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FLETCHER HARPER
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MARINA SILVA 
GRETCHEN DAILY
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GABOR MATE MDSUNDAY PLENARIES
SANDRA STEINGRABER
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AI-JEN POO
ETHAN NADELMANN
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PAUL HAWKEN
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