Jo Banner co-founded The Descendants Project, where she channels her affection and knowledge into challenging systems, primarily legal systems that have exploited the descendants, such as herself, of those enslaved to plantations. She is now working to gain recognition of the burial grounds of the enslaved as sacred sites and aims to protect such sites and their communities from degradation, especially degradation caused by heavy industry.

Yinka N. Bode-George leads the strategy and management of Volt Energy Utility’s environmental justice and community impact practice. Prior to joining Volt’s team, she led the Environmental Health Program for the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators.

Robin Caiola is a New York-based development consultant and professional photographer. Ms. Caiola currently serves as the Chair of the Board of the Center for Science in the Public Interest the nation’s food and health watchdog which lobbies governments and corporations for a healthier food environment.

Ramón Cruz has over 20 years of experience intersecting the fields of sustainability, environmental policy, urban planning, energy and climate change. He has worked in the public sector in his native Puerto Rico as the Deputy Director of the Environmental Quality Board, the state environmental regulatory agency and as Commissioner of the Puerto Rico Energy Commission.

Mark Lichtenstein is the executive operating officer at the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), and a faculty associate in Syracuse University’s Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration.

Bill McKibben is founder and senior adviser emeritus of 350.org. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages.

Kirstie Pecci is the Executive Director of Just Zero. Previously, she was the Zero Waste Project and a Senior Attorney at Conservation Law Foundation. Kirstie is a former MASSPIRG Staff Attorney actively engaged in waste reduction and opposing the expansion of landfill and incinerator capacity.

Leslie Mintz Tamminen is the director of Seventh Generation Advisors, a nonprofit environmental organization in Santa Monica. In 2006, she founded the Clean Seas Coalition, where she spearheaded efforts to create and pass California’s SB270 law to ban single-use plastic bags.

Laurie Valeriano is Executive Director for Toxic-Free Future where she has worked since 1995. For more than 20 years, she has worked to pass strong environmental health policies at the state level.

Monica Wilson is the Associate Director of GAIA U.S. and Global Programs Coordinator. Monica has worked with GAIA since 2002 and served as GAIA’s International Co-Coordinator for five years.

Harith Wickrema is board president of Island Green Living, a nonprofit with a 21 year legacy of expanding sustainability and food security in the USVI. He currently serves on the Local Food and Farm Council and the Virgin Islands Conservation District board.

Patti Wood is founder and executive director of Grassroots Environmental Education, an award-winning not-for-profit environmental health organization whose mission is to inform the public about the health risks of common environmental exposures and to empower individuals to act as catalysts for change in their own communities. 

Dan began her career in college as a student leader with CALPIRG, where she helped to bring high-speed rail to California. In her current role she directs the national political strategy for the Student PIRGs.