Our Presenters

Dr. Adamson is the Associate Director of the Doctorate in Education Leadership Program and an Associate Professor of Education Leadership and Policy Studies at California State University, Sacramento. He studies the political economy of education, education privatization, education equity and opportunity, and education’s response to the climate crisis. Dr. Adamson most recently co-edited NORRAG Special Issue 10, Education for Societal Transformation: Alternatives for a Just Future, with colleagues from The Alternatives Project, an organization he co-founded and co-facilitates. He serves on the Board of the Comparative and International Education Society and as the co-chair of the 21st Century Education Alternatives: Confronting Racial Capitalism, Patriarchy, Militarism, and the Climate Crisis Special Interest Group. He has published 4 books, over 50 publications, and holds an M.A. in Sociology and a Ph.D. in International Comparative Education, both from Stanford University.

Dasein Tropic (Previously Phoenix Functions) is a transformative activator, now expressed across five fields as the legacy of Owen Allen's past 40 years work, now as: 1) The inaugural chair of The UMOJA Community Foundation, a 2022 refugee initiated organisation for community and eco-agriculture development in the Nakivale refugee camps, Uganda; 2) The designer of a model of inclusive collaborative community contemporary dance practice and performative design; 3) A Leadership trainer and mentor utilising the phenomenological / ontological method designed by Michael Jensen and Werner Erhard; 4) A physiotherapist consultant in movement training and conditioning for the person with pain, disability or age-related changes. Owen has designed an online physiotherapy clinic and self-management tool for people with pain and injury without access to physiotherapy. 5) A farmer modelling community access to food growing, rainforest ecosystem, and other collective activities e.g. arts. Owen is a founding Member and past President of SARRAH, and member of the Council of the National Rural Health Alliance 2005-2009. He is a member of the Australian Society of Performing Arts Health Care; and AusDance Qld. – LinkedIn

Ayya Ānandabodhī was born and raised in Wales, UK. Ayya first encountered the Buddha’s teaching in her early teens while reading about the Four Noble Truths. This was life-changing and from that moment she experienced a deep confidence in the Buddha’s insight and a wish to understand his teachings more deeply. At the age of 24, Ayya began monastic training at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in England under the guidance of Ajahn Sumedho. Seventeen years later she moved to the USA with a wish to create more opportunities for women monastics. In 2011 she took full Bhikkhunī Ordination, joining the worldwide revival of the Theravāda Bhikkhunī Order. Ayya Ānandabodhī loves to share the Dhamma. Ayya’s practice is guided by early Buddhist scriptures, living in community, and through nature’s pure and immediate Dhamma. – Website

Helen Atthowe has spent 35 years advancing ecological farming and conservation. She is transitioning her methods from Woodleaf Farm in Oregon to a new no-till orchard in Montana while mentoring the farm’s new owners. A pioneer in pesticide-free fruit production, she has conducted research on sustainable farming practices and contributed to organic gardening publications. – Chelsea Green Publishing Profile

Co-Founder and Co-Administrator, Regenerate Cascadia. Clare facilitates the design and building of organizational scaffolding required for whole-landscape bioregional regeneration. Her expertise in Community Cultural Development was developed during the final stages of apartheid in South Africa, where she witnessed how place-based identity serves as a critical prerequisite for long-term local sovereignty. Clare continues to employ a strategic ""weaver"" methodology, blending her background in community art with the ""bioregioning"" of complex social and ecological landscapes. She helps catalyze resilient social infrastructure by integrating polycentric governance with land-attuned practices, ensuring that identity and belonging remain the functional core of landscape regeneration.

Marisha Auerbach is an internationally recognized permaculture educator, designer and speaker based in Oregon and Washington.  Marisha has lived and practiced permaculture in both urban and rural environments.   As an avid gardener and herbalist, Marisha specializes in food production, ecology, and useful plants. Marisha is one of the most prolific, West Coast teachers of permaculture design courses and currently teaches permaculture online through Oregon State University. – Website

Rhonda Baird brings over 20 years of experience in permaculture education and design, including a decade as an editor of a leading permaculture magazine. After seven years working inside a sociocracy-based nonprofit, she now specializes in helping organizations and communities design regenerative systems—both ecological and organizational—that actually work and last. Based in the Midwest, she teaches permaculture design courses and facilitates organizational transformation for cooperatives, communities, and mission-driven groups seeking alternatives to extractive systems. She also spends time mentoring her permaculture students, and developing her relationships with the natural world. – Website1 – Website2

Clallam County. Retired ex Northstar Nurseries, Inc.

Started research on biochar in 2009. Now writing a book on biochar and permaculture. Workshop: Using biochar for soil incorporation and producing nutrient rich crops.

Green World Campaign – Washington, USA, North America

Marc Ian Barasch, bestselling author, filmmaker and founder of the Green World Campaign, leads bold efforts to restore degraded lands, combat climate change, and uplift rural communities through methods like agroforestry and reforestation. His presentation will feature a conversation with the director of GWC’s program in Kenya, highlighting grassroots solutions that connect ecological restoration with global impact. - Website

University of Florence – Italy, Europe

Ugo Bardi, professor of physical chemistry at the University of Florence, researches energy resources, sustainability, and environmental limits. A Club of Rome member and ASPO Italy co-founder, he authored The Limits to Growth Revisited and Extracted. –Wikipedia,  Resilience.org

Global Restoration Collaborative –Washington, USA, North America

Phoebe Barnard has led national biodiversity and climate programs, published over 100 works, and supports global conservation through her company, Biodiversity Strategy. She holds advanced degrees in biology and has received multiple awards for her contributions to environmental science and policy. – Website

Alexa’s work as a social permaculture designer is a synergistic blend of her studies in consciousness with emphasis on the functioning of collective consciousness and the evolution of consciousness, and permaculture. Her work lends itself to larger scale social permaculture and social movements. – Facebook

One of the leading agroforestry people in Asia. Earth System Scientist & Lead – Global Green Growth Biodiversity Action Lead, Wyld Planet PTE, Singapore Member, Karnataka Science & Technology Academy, an autonomous organization established in 2005 under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Karnataka. Member, PM-RKVY-Agroforestry Action Plan for Karnataka State International Farming System Advisor, FAO – Four Betters Model Villages International Expert, PIK, IGGAARL & RySS – Functional Food Systems Senior Advisor, Rainforest Alliance & GEF UNEP ILM Landscape Project Board Member, JSW | Advisor to 5+ Scientific Institutions & Systems Member, IAFT | Council Member, Ecosystem Restoration Alliance Scientific Advisor & Mentor, CarbonMint | KhetiValah | PASS Fintech. International Service Director- Rotary Bengaluru Skyway Chairperson, Tree-based Systems & Multifunctional Landscapes. Fellow, Global EverGreening Alliance (GEA).

Anne Biklé is an author and public speaker focusing on the intersection of agriculture with people, food, health, and the environment. She has been known to coax garden plants into rambunctious growth and nurse them back from the edge of death with her regenerative gardening practices. Her work has appeared in digital and print magazines, newspapers, and radio and her gardening practices have been featured in independent and documentary films. She is the co-author of The Hidden Half of Nature and What Your Food Ate with her husband, geomorphologist David Montgomery.

Dr. Bishaw is educated in Ethiopia, Germany and the United States. He has over 40 years of experience in forestry, natural resources and agricultural education, research, outreach and administration. He received his Ph.D. from Oregon State University in Forest Resources in 1993, and an MS in Tropical Forestry from the University of Dresden, Germany in 1985, and a B.Sc. in Plant Sciences from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia in 1979. He was the Director of the International Program in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University. He has been involved in many agroforestry, food security and capacity building projects in Africa. Before he came to the United States, he has served the Chairman of the Forestry Faculty (1987-89) at Alemaya University of Agriculture in Ethiopia. He was the President of Association for Temperate Agroforestry (AFTA) in North America from 2017-2019. Currently, he is President & CEO of the Ethiopian Environment and Sustainable Development Council (EESDC) – Website

Carrie Brausieck is the Executive Director of Agroforestry Northwest and works to advance agroforestry throughout the Puget Sound and beyond in her role. She is passionate about agroforestry as a solution to competing land use, climate adaptation & mitigation, and working land resilience. Brausieck specializes in agroecological systems, multifunctional riparian forest buffers, forest farming/food forests, and alley cropping. Agroforestry Northwest works to advance the regional understanding and adoption of agroforestry practices in Washington State through research, demonstration, and technical assistance by generating and leveraging a regional network of technical professionals, academic professionals, practitioners, and farmers. – Website

Resilience Design Co-Developer, Quail Springs Permaculture – California, USA, North America

Warren Brush, a Permaculture designer and educator, has over 25 years of experience promoting sustainable living. Co-founder of Quail Springs Permaculture and other initiatives, he mentors diverse communities globally, including youth and indigenous peoples. He teaches a wide range of courses on Permaculture, ecological restoration, and sustainable systems design. – Quail Springs Permaculture, Permaculturedesign.us

Mountain Agrobiodiversity Project – California, USA, North America

Dr. Robert L. Bugg, Ph.D., is a consulting biologist and director of the Mountain Agrobiodiversity Project, specializing in sustainable agriculture, including cover cropping, hedgerow design, and ecological soil management. With 55 scientific publications and extensive global experience, he has pioneered biologically integrated farming systems and agricultural pollution reduction projects. Dr. Bugg earned his Ph.D. in Entomology from U.C. Davis. – LinkedIn

Based out of the Institute of Geosciences in São Paulo, Brazil, Maria is a prolific researcher of paleoclimatology whose work spans from New Caledonia to the Peruvian Andes and beyond. She combines expertise in various life cycles as they have played out in the past and presence to relate climate change over millennia to provable patterns in biology. She will be presenting on the retreat of glaciers in Peru. -Academia.edu

Lewis is Woodland Cree from the Sucker Creek Cree First Nation in northern Alberta, Canada. His consulting company, Cardinal Strategic Communications, specializes in Indigenous education, communications, and project development. Currently, Lewis is Project Manager for “kihciy askiy–Sacred Land” in the City of Edmonton, Canada’s first urban Indigenous ceremony grounds. Lewis Cardinal is a communicator and educator, he has dedicated his life’s work to creating and maintaining connections and relationships that cross-cultural divides. His work has mirrored his personal vision of a socially just and responsive society. Lewis has received Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for Public Service, the IndSpire Award for Public Service (the highest award given to an Indigenous person by Indigenous people in Canada), the Province of Alberta’s Centennial Medal for his work in Human Rights and Diversity, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Grant MacEwan University, and was recently conferred the Honorary Degree of “Doctor of Sacred Letters” from St. Stephen’s College at the University of Alberta, Canada. – Website

Africa Climate Band; Climate Journalist and Activist - Russia, USA, Africa

A USA citizen based in Russia, Alex is a world touring musician, and the Foreign Correspondent on Environment for the Center for Media and Democracy (USA) since 2009. He is active in Africa with the Africa Climate Band whose concerts and press conferences propel a climate solution movement based on Plankton Restoration, and driven by his upcoming music video "AFRICA WILL BE THE LEADER", with many African stars singing cameo lines à la WE ARE THE WORLD. – Website

Paul Cereghino has worked for 35 years regenerating the Salish Sea, most recently cultivating local, state, federal and tribal partnerships to support biocultural restoration as a useful reframing of the restoration of riverscapes. He is currently building a network of infrastructure to empower community-led restoration, and is the founder of The Ecosystem Guild, the Salish Sea Restoration Platform, and the Skykomish Biocultural Restoration Field Station, in addition to institutional work in regional restoration planning, ecosystem service quantification, cartography, regional restoration planning, and funding program development. – Website

Robin is a part-time Senior Fellow in the Forests Program of the World Resources Institute. She provides expertise on forest regeneration and ecosystem services of forests to several ongoing programs within the Global Restoration Initiative including initiative 20x20, Monitoring Framework, and also contributes to Global Forest Watch Climate and the Economics of Restoration. Robin was a professor of ecology at the University of Connecticut for 28 years, where she taught field ecology, functional ecology, and regular seminars on ecosystem services and biodiversity issues. She has conducted long-term research on natural regeneration of forests in Costa Rica for over 30 years, and works with collaborators to study forest successional pathways in Brazil, Mexico, and other regions. She has worked with colleagues in Brazil over the past 4 years on forest restoration and regeneration projects. She is the director of an interdisciplinary research network that focuses on understanding the socio-ecological drivers of reforestation. She is also the Executive Director of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation and a Research Professor at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia where she works with the Tropical Forests and People Center. Robin holds a BA in Biology from Grinnell College and a PhD in Ecology from Cornell University. Robin divides her residence between Boulder, CO and Bailey, CO with her husband Rob and enjoys both urban and rural living, hiking, and restoring forests on the property. She is still actively engaged in research, publication, and advocacy for science-based policy and practice in conservation and restoration. Robin will present on Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR). She is a world leader in ANR. – Website

Jonathan is Executive Director of Possible Planet and author of the book, Possible Planet: Pathways to a Habitable Future. Possible Planet Lab is a global commons for research, coordination, and cultural transformation using AI. Possible Planet Lab is open to collaborators, volunteers, donors, and sponsors. – Website

Director, Buckminster Fuller Institute – California, USA, North America

Dr. Stuart Cowan, Executive Director of the Buckminster Fuller Institute, has 25 years of experience in regenerative design, systems thinking, and sustainable finance. Co-founder of Autopoiesis LLC, he has led the Regenerative Communities Network and held roles at Smart Cities Council and Ecotrust. Co-author of Ecological Design, he holds a doctorate in Applied Mathematics from U.C. Berkeley. – LinkedIn, Website

Robert Dash is an award-winning photographer, author, and science educator who uses a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to highlight foods, pollen, seeds, and other objects with significant climate and biodiversity stories. His work has been published by National Geographic, TIME, Lenswork, Geographic, and Resurgence/Ecologist. Food Planet Future: The Art of Turning Food and Climate Perils Into Possibilities (Papadakis, UK), based on Dash’s traveling exhibition, launched in 2024. – Website

Sonia Demiray is the Director of the Climate Communications Coalition and a strong advocate for the permanent protection of lands and waters with a focus on forest ecosystems, for the recovery of biodiversity and rebalancing of Earth systems processes. Sonia builds regional and national coalitions to advance environmental health and climate justice, works on public education, and on the development of grassroots movements such as Down to Earth. In addition to leading the Climate Communications Coalition, she is a member of the Environmental Paper Network’s Steering Committee, which coordinates International Biomass Action Network for the Americas. – Website

Occidental Arts and Ecology Center – California, USA, North America

Brock Dolman, co-director of the WATER Institute, is a restoration ecologist and educator specializing in watershed regeneration and ecological literacy. A global consultant and TEDx speaker, he promotes solutions like “Conservation Hydrology” to foster resilient communities and ecosystems. – Website

Earth Law Center – Washington, USA, North America

Elizabeth M. Dunne, Esq., is a leading Earth Law expert with 20 years of experience advancing Rights of Nature laws and landmark ecosystem cases. Her advocacy, featured in Invisible Hand and Last Stand: Saving the Elwha River’s Legacy Forests, focuses on systemic legal change and forest conservation. – Website

Emergent Dialogue and Social Permaculture. Organizations: Abundant Earth Foundation, Weaver Network, Permaculture Magazine. Hannah has studied permaculture and other regenerative practices for much of her life. Her passion to inspire others to do all they can on behalf of the planet has led to a career in environmental journalism and philanthropy. She is the co-founder of Permaculture Magazine, North America and the Abundant Earth Foundation. – Website – Website2 – Facebook – Instagram

Debra Ellers grew up on a family farm growing crops and livestock, near the Chesapeake Bay in Eastern Virginia, where she developed a love of salt water and its creatures. She received her B.S. in Economics with High Honors from the University of Tennessee, where she was Phi Beta Kappa, and J.D. at the University of Virginia School of Law. In 1985, Debra moved to Idaho, where she worked as a business attorney for 30 years. Her professional employers included a large regional law firm, a major technology company, and a public university. In Idaho, she was an avid skier and backpacker in Idaho’s pristine mountains, and involved with many conservation issues, including public lands grazing, wolf reintroduction, and salmon recovery. Debra has also been an adjunct instructor teaching introductory environmental law classes. Debra and her spouse moved to Port Townsend in 2016, where she co-founded the orca advocacy group North Olympic Orca Pod. Regionally, Debra has attended many orca advocacy events and presented workshops about the importance of breaching the 4 Lower Snake River Dams to save salmon, orcas and more. – Facebook

University of Bern, Sustainable Land Management – Switzerland, Europe

David Ellison, a researcher and consultant, focuses on forests, water, and climate policy, working with institutions like the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Ellison Consulting. He contributes to global climate initiatives, exploring forest-water interactions and sustainable development, including a project on resilience in the Sahel. Widely published, Ellison’s work informs policy and addresses critical environmental challenges. – Website

Maya Elson is a guest instructor at UC Santa Cruz and MS student at San Jose State University who explores the interplay between fire, fungi and humans. As co-founder of Radical Mycology and founder of MycoPsychology Experiences, they foster connections with fungi for personal and planetary transformation. Maya has contributed to four studies on microbial inoculation for wildfire resilience with CoRenewal, and consults on post-fire bioremediation. They hold a BA in Environmental Studies from The Evergreen State College and a graduate certificate in Ecopsychology from the Holos Institute. – Website

Fine Arts graduate from Saint Martin’s, artist and poet, and the Founder of Eternal Forest: ‘I am a visual artist and poet working at the intersection of ecology, language, and collective memory. My practice explores how we relate to land through ritual, storytelling, and co-creation with place. I work across visual calligraphy, installations, films, artist books, and site-specific ecological artworks that engage directly with forests, seeds, soil, and the cyclical nature of time. Since 2018, my central focus has been Eternal Forest — a long-term art and ecology project creating an interconnected network of forest sanctuaries to be protected for 1,000 years by local communities. It is both a conceptual framework and a grounded practice, evolving through research, land-based work, and creative collaboration with scientists, local and traditional knowledge holders, and forest ecosystems. I approach each place through the practice of deep listening — spending extended time walking, observing, and gathering stories of the land and people. This embodied research informs my studio process, where poetry and visual language merge into works that echo the rhythms of nature. In my calligraphic practice, text often dissolves into organic forms, revealing the interconnectedness of language and landscape.’ – Website

The Wenatchee Valley has been home to Ric since 1989. He is a descendant of the Wixárika people from the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains in what is today known as Mexico. Ric is a Strategy Consultant with a special focus on Indigenous-lead Conservation Initiatives, community/ tribal engagements and workforce developments in Clean Hydrogen Economies. He is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice with a focus on healing intergenerational trauma, complex trauma, and addictions. His service is community-centered specifically with migrant agricultural workers, indigenous communities and combat veterans. As a former Public Service Employee, Ric provided mental health services, advocacy and reengagement to tribal and migrant agricultural youth. During the summer months, he led outreach to migrant camps along-side regional community health clinics. Ric and his family live in and are caretakers of a small farm in Leavenworth. He enjoys family activities like hiking with pets, swimming, dancing daily with daughter, physical fitness, and motorcycling. Ric is honored to be a Board Member with WRI. The mission of WRI aligns with Ric’s practice and vision of, seeing folk’s transformation through reconnection to the natural world and creating leaders in action to help facilitate conservation and sustainable growth. – Website

Hummingbird Films.

John Feldman is a multi-talented filmmaker known for his unique blend of documentary filmmaking, education, and cinematic storytelling. With a background including a BA in biology and numerous international awards, he creates impactful films addressing ecological and scientific topics, such as "Regenerating Life" and "Symbiotic Earth". - Website

Foundation for Climate Restoration – California, USA, North America

Peter Fiekowsky, an MIT-educated physicist and entrepreneur, is dedicated to restoring a thriving climate for future generations. Founder of the Foundation for Climate Restoration, he works with scientists and policymakers to advance scalable solutions like methane reduction. With 30 years of advocacy experience, he continues to drive innovation for environmental restoration. – Website

Regenerate Canada – Canada, North America

Ananda Fitzsimmons is an advocate for soil and water, president of Regeneration Canada, and vice president of the EcoRestoration Alliance. She founded Concentric Agriculture, producing microbial soil amendments, and authored Hydrate the Earth and Restoring the Pillars of Life, promoting regenerative solutions for climate resilience. – LinkedIn

After decades of dependency on synthetic chemicals and tillage, we have forgotten that agriculture depends on a complex biological web. Back in 2012, long before soil health, regenerative agriculture or carbon farming became cool, Kansas farmer Gail Fuller and soil scientist Dr. Jill Clapperton invited a fringe group of farmers, researchers and community leaders to share ideas, innovate, and build relationships. This informal gathering of renegades came to be known as ‘Fuller Field School’ where "we partner with the natural world: soil, insects, fungi, and, pollinators. It’s so much more fulfilling to farm in partnership with Mother Earth!" – Website

Stable Planet Alliance, Sydney, Australia.

www.StablePlanetAlliance.org.

Andrew Gaines is a driving force behind the Stable Planet Alliance, dedicated to inspiring transformative change towards a compassionate, just, and ecologically sustainable world. He champions the concept of the 'Evolutionary Catalyst' – individuals who facilitate personal and collective shifts in thinking through powerful and practical communication tools that use systems thinking to foster the mindset needed for profound societal evolution. - Website

Morag Gamble is a permaculture educator, speaker, and ecological thinker whose work connects living systems, education, and cultural change. She is founder of the Permaculture Education Institute, where she teaches permaculture educators, designers and leaders around the world. She hosts the International Permaculture Festival of Wild Ideas and Sense-Making in a Changing World podcast, in conversation with leading ecological thinkers. She is based at Crystal Waters ecovillage - living what she teaches - and connecting internationally from her hand-built solar powered studio in the midst of her forage garden. – Website

Howard is a member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Whale Research, and President of the Board of Directors of Orca Network. After growing up in Northern California, he studied Sociology at the University of New Mexico and UC Berkeley before graduating from Colorado College. In 1995, he helped launch a campaign to return the captive Southern Resident orca Tokitae to her native habitat in the Salish Sea. His primary focus is the sophisticated cultural capabilities demonstrated by Orcinus orca. In 1980, his brother Ken Balcomb invited him to assist with his ORCA SURVEY photo-ID research on San Juan Island. From his first encounters with orcas, he knew that he too had found his life’s work. In 2020, the Center for Whale Research purchased a 45-acre ranch bordering both sides of Washington’s Elwha River, in a stretch of the mainstream river where a majority of the remnant native Chinook salmon now spawn. The ranch, smack in the middle of the recovering Elwha Valley habitat, has been renamed: Balcomb Big Salmon Ranch. – Website – Website – Website

Jim Garrison, PhD, has had a lifetime of social and political activism beginning in the 1960s with the anti-war, anti-nuclear, citizen diplomacy and environmental movements. He founded Ubiquity University having served as President of Wisdom University from 2005 – 2012 which was acquired by Ubiquity in 2013. He has spent his entire professional life in executive leadership, including as co-founder and president of the Gorbachev Foundation/USA (1992 – 1995) and State of the World Forum (1995 – 2004) with Mikhail Gorbachev serving as convening chairman. Jim received his BA in History from the University of Santa Clara, an MA in History of Religion from Harvard University, and a PhD in Philosophical Theology from the University of Cambridge. He has written numerous books, including “The Plutonium Culture,” “The Darkness of God: Theology after Hiroshima,” “The Russian Threat,” “Civilization and The Transformation of Power,” and, “America as Empire.” Jim teaches a range of courses at Ubiquity in philosophy, history and global affairs. – Website

Since October 1991, Steve Gatewood has spearheaded development of The Nature Conservancy’s Disney Wilderness Preserve, a landmark mitigation project that will result in the protection of more than 11,500 acres of prime central Florida wetlands and surrounding uplands. He currently serves as Director of the project, developing and guiding state-of-the-art restoration and land management activities. In addition to establishing and managing the Florida Natural Areas Inventory, Steve has served as chairman of the council that developed Florida’s non-game wildlife program, as a staff member of the Lake Okeechobee and Kissimmee River restoration programs, and as the governor-appointed chairman of the committee that developed and recommended changes to Florida’s wetlands jurisdiction rules. He most recently served as The Conservancy’s Protection Ecologist for Florida and has been assuming a greater role in developing large-scale mitigation projects throughout the state.

Working with Upper Columbia United Tribes for over 20 years, Marc’s hands-on experience in forest management, wildlife biology & conservation offer a unique perspective on real opportunities to protect the ecosystem. – Website

Associate Professor of Forestry (Practice) and Extension Agent, Oregon State University. Research Interests include Forest Ecology, Forest Regeneration, Forest Restoration, Carbon Management, Dry Forest and Forest Biomass. – Website

Ian grew up surfing the shores of Australia but has called the Pacific Northwest home for most of his life. He works at the intersection of complex, ambitious ideas and tangible results as a social entrepreneur, non-profit leader and writer. His work involves building new ways to support bioregionalism, Indigenous community development, conservation and fairness. Ian's passion is articulating the idea of Nature States. Nation States are on the way out and Nature States are on the way in. Ian is a social entrepreneur and non-profit leader who has been at the forefront of conservation economics, bioregionalism and Indigenous community development for more than three decades. He is A founding partner of Salmon Nation Trust, an LLC investing in bioregionalism from Northern California to the north slope of Alaska, Founding director of Magic Canoe, a solutions-focused storytelling platform, Co-founder of Upstart & Crow, a literary incubator and non-profit that reimagines and invests in storytelling in diverse forms, Co-founder of The Winnipeg Boldness Project, a social innovation vehicle that explored new ideas for improving early childhood development outcomes in that city’s North End, Former president of Discourse Media, a digital media startup, Former Senior Fellow at McConnell Foundation, with a focus on Indigenous development and media and communications, Former President & CEO of Ecotrust US and founder, CEO and President of Ecotrust Canada and Ecotrust Australia. At Ecotrust, Ian helped build and run multi-million dollar non-profits with more than 100 staff across three countries, launching original, innovative programming in collaboration with boards that included Jane Jacobs, Terri-Lynn Williams Davidson, C.S. “Buzz” Holling, Ric Young, Thomas Berger, Patrick Dodson, Don Henry, Dalee Sambo Dorough and many more. Ecotrust Canada’s impact ranged from the creation of the Aboriginal Mapping Network; management of Iisaak Forest Resources, then an Indigenous-owned, FSC-certified forest company; facilitating the return to the Haíłzaqv (Heiltsuk) Nation of the Koeye River Lodge, now home to one of the most effective land-based language, science and culture camps on the coast; the incubation of ThisFish and Climate Smart Business; the design and launch of a unique revolving loan fund, Ecotrust Canada Capital, which disbursed millions of dollars to conservation-based businesses with private and public capital; capitalising Canada’s first conservation fisheries licence bank; and the launch of Ecotrust Australia. Ecotrust and Ecotrust Canada worked closely with dozens of Indigenous Nations across the Pacific Northwest, building trusted relationships and contributing to significant, measurable results. Ian is responsible for raising more than $50 million in operating and capital resources over the course of his career. Prior to joining Ecotrust, Ian worked as an award-winning writer and broadcaster at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and as a senior reporter and editor at The Vancouver Sun. He is a contributing editor at The Tyee, and contributor to The Narwhal, Hakai Magazine and others. He wrote and hosted documentary reports for CBC’s The National, The Journal, Venture and its Vancouver newsroom, along with CTV and History Television. His books include No News is Bad News: Canada’s Media Collapse and What Comes Next (2016); All That We Say Is Ours: Guujaaw and the Reawakening of the Haida Nation (2009; reprinted in 2022); Haida Gwaii: Journeys Through the Queen Charlotte Islands (1997); and Hiking on the Edge: Canada's West Coast Trail (1995). Ian has also acted as director of Vancity Credit Union, ShoreBank Pacific, the Na na Kila Institute and the Clayoquot Biosphere Project; a member of the Forest Faculty Advisory Committee at the University of British Columbia; and an Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Sustainable Community Development at Simon Fraser University. He lives with his wife Zoe Grams on unceded Nuučaan̓ułʔatḥ (Nuu-Chah-Nulth) territory and on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territories, where Upstart & Crow works its magic. – Website

Co-Founder, Kinship Earth – Oregon, USA, North America

Stephen Gomes, Founder and President of Gomes & Company, brings a diverse background shaped by his service in the U.S. Peace Corps in Brazil and work across 108 countries. As an entrepreneur, MBA professor, and advisor, he specializes in start-ups, technology commercialization, Indigenous relations, decentralized organizations, and regenerative systems. Stephen is also a blockchain and cryptocurrency enthusiast, with a focus on fostering innovation and sustainable ventures. – Website, LinkedIn

Global Coral Reef Alliance – Massachusetts, USA, North America

Dr. Tom Goreau, President of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, is a coral reef and climate expert with over 200 publications and pioneering restoration technologies. Educated at MIT, Caltech, and Harvard, he collaborates globally to restore coral reefs, fisheries, and ecosystems, contributing to UN climate initiatives. – Website

Groundswell International and Senior Fellow of the Global Evergreening Alliance.

Peter Gubbels is a seasoned expert in rural development, serving as Senior Advisor for West Africa at Groundswell International and co-founder of the organization. With over 30 years of experience and deep roots in West Africa, he has championed agroecology and community-driven development. Co-author of From the Roots Up and numerous policy briefs, Peter has helped build equitable, sustainable local economies across the region. He continues to lead advocacy and action research through Groundswell’s network, advancing resilient food systems in West Africa. - Website

Hart Hagan is an environmental reporter and consultant based in Louisville, KY, known for his expertise in climate change solutions. As the founder of Water & Climate on Facebook and host of 347 episodes of The Climate Report, he has dedicated over a decade to educating the public on ecological restoration. His focus on forests, farms, and landscapes as key to climate salvation is central to his work, which includes teaching workshops on water management, wildfire misinformation, and earth repair. Hagan combines reporting, education, and advocacy to promote practical solutions for a sustainable future. - Website

Inga Foundation Founder and Director Mike Hands has been working to halt the destruction of the rainforest for over 40 years. An experienced tropical ecologist and scientific researcher, Mike divides his time between his farm in Cornwall, UK, and the Inga Foundations chief project, the Land for Life Project in Honduras. Mike developed the revolutionary agricultural system of Inga Alley Cropping through years of scientific research into slash and burn farming and founded the Inga Foundation to help popularise this method. He is now working closely with families to implement this sustainable method in place of slash and burn practices. For Honduran campensinos (subsistence farmers), changing farming methods is a huge and difficult decision. Given that their lives depend on the food they produce, these farmers have good reason to be conservative in their decision-making. Mike, a Cornish farmer as well as an ecologist, has always emphasised the importance of establishing trust, understanding and compassion when working together with the local people. – Website

Shaayí Indrayani is a local Coastal Indigenous member of the Tlingit, Haida, and Aishihik nations. She also has Japanese, European, and mixed ancestry. She received her Masters in praxis-based Buddhist Studies with a strong orientation to social, interdisciplinary, and ecological engagement. While her academic, ancestral, and personal experiences are varied, her primary heart vision is to help our human and non-human kin through collective cultivation of meditative spiritual and liberative ecology. She now organizes and facilitates groups and finds great joy in sharing in the simple, yet profound, awareness of Being with others.

Second-generation high-density, low-duration herder using herds for land management. Chris Henggeler is a student of eco-system function; his study takes place in the field where physics and biology blend in complex and dynamic life-shaping processes. From , He is founder of the 78,000-hectare Kachana Station Project in one of the most remote places in Australia. John D. Liu has commented “Kachana Station Project is one of the most interesting projects I have learned about and it could be a great conceptual 'Collaborative Inquiry for Collective Intelligence at the Global Earth Restoration Convergence.'" – Website

Eliza Herald is a visionary leader blending media production with environmental philosophy, dedicated to awakening humanity’s relationship with water. As a 27-year media professional and founder of the Tahoe International Film Festival, she leverages her expertise in content creation to drive transformative change. Herald’s work centers on fostering water wisdom through innovative storytelling, advocating for a global shift in consciousness to address water-related crises. She combines decades of media production experience with her profound commitment to elevating water as a sacred element of ecological balance. - Website - LinkedIn

Brian Von Herzen Ph.D. is the founder and executive director of the Climate Foundation, which upholds the vision and the mission to regenerate life in the ocean using Marine Permaculture technology. As Executive Director, Brian leads Climate Foundation’s large-scale seaweed mariculture programs to develop sustainable food, feed and fertilizer value chains, provide ecosystem life support, and sustain blue carbon sinks. Brian graduated magna cum laude in three years from Princeton University with a degree in Physics. He holds a Ph.D. in planetary science from California Institute of Technology where he was awarded the prestigious Hertz Fellowship, and has been awarded numerous patents. After two decades developing system solutions for companies such as Intel, Disney, Pixar, Microsoft, HP, and Dolby, Brian launched the Climate Foundation in order to investigate groundbreaking nature-based solutions to the climate and other environmental challenges. Brian leads an international team of scientists, engineers, technicians, social scientists and seaweed farmers. Currently and most importantly, Brian is leading a successful Marine Permaculture seaforestation demonstration project in the Philippines. – Website

Wout Hoff is a key figure at Groasis, a Dutch company founded by his father, Pieter Hoff, which focuses on innovative, water-efficient reforestation and tree-planting technologies, specifically the Waterboxx and Growboxx. Wout continues his father’s legacy, often conducting Q&A sessions and providing updates on reforestation projects, such as those in Spain and the "Green Musketeer" initiatives aimed at educating children about tree planting. – Website – YouTube

Co-founder of Permaculture – Victoria, Australia

David Holmgren, co-originator of permaculture, has shaped the movement since co-authoring Permaculture One in 1978. Based at Melliodora, Australia, he practices and promotes sustainable living through influential works like Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability and RetroSuburbia. – Website

Executive Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which wrote the first rights of nature law in the United States and has assisted hundreds of communities to resist corporate and government harms. Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF): We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth. – Website

Lifelong Indigenous human rights and environmental defender, Former tribal council member (between 2000-2015) for her two Māori peoples of Ngāti Kurī and Te Rarawa, and co-founder of Te Waka Hourua (Māori climate justice activists and allies).

Author, Tai Tokerau Climate Project – New Zealand

Peter Bruce, a Northland-based researcher and educator, specializes in sustainability, stakeholder engagement, and regenerative food systems. He has led significant research projects, authored Better Business for a Better World, and developed innovative elearning methods. Passionate about community-focused solutions, Peter combines teaching, research, and advocacy to promote sustainable development. – Website

Home Planet Fund – Alaska, USA, North America

Dahr Jamail, an award-winning journalist, is renowned for his unembedded reporting during the 2003 Iraq invasion, documented in Beyond the Green Zone. A recipient of the Martha Gellhorn Prize and the Izzy Award, he has written extensively on war, climate change, and global crises. His 2019 book, The End of Ice, reflects on the impact of climate disruption through his mountaineering experiences. Jamail continues to advocate for independent journalism and environmental awareness. – Wikipedia

Regenerate Earth – Australia

Walter Jehne is a renowned soil microbiologist and innovation strategist with expertise in soil microbes, plant root ecology, and regenerative bio-systems. With decades of experience at CSIRO, the UN, and globally, he specializes in soil carbon formation, hydrological cycles, and climate impacts. His recent work focuses on scaling bio-innovations to restore agro-ecosystems and urban agriculture to support the growing global population. – Website

Dr. Lyla June Johnston (aka Lyla June) is a poet, singer-songwriter, hip-hop artist, human ecologist, public speaker and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages. Her multi-genre presentation style has engaged audiences across the globe towards personal, collective and ecological healing. Her messages focus on Indigenous issues and solutions, supporting youth, inter-cultural healing, historical trauma, and traditional land stewardship practices. She blends her study of Human Ecology at Stanford, graduate work in Indigenous Pedagogy, and the traditional worldview she grew up with to inform her music, perspectives and solutions. Her doctoral research focused on the ways in which pre-colonial Indigenous Nations shaped large regions of Turtle Island (aka the Americas) to produce abundant food systems for humans and non-humans. Her internationally acclaimed live performances are conveyed through the medium of speech, hip-hop, poetry, and acoustic music. Her personal goal is to grow closer to Creator by learning how to love deeper. Lyla June will talk about Indigenous Regenerative Food Systems. – Website

Tiffany Joseph is an advocate for the wellbeing of W̱SÁNEĆ territory through her learning and teaching of the interconnectedness of W̱SÁNEĆ people, SENĆOŦEN language, pollinators, sea-life, and terrestrial flora and fauna that are Indigenous to the W̱SÁNEĆ ÁLEṈENEȻ. This learning and teaching intertwines SENĆOŦEN language, feminism, biodiversity, trauma-informed healing, environmental science, and more which have been shared with her through intergenerational teachings, and relationships with environmental scientists, anthropologists, linguists, counsellors, and more through her own learning and healing journey. She shares this knowledge in alignment with the elders’ teachings to share what you know. – Website

Kalapa Wisdom School for Changemakers – Washington, USA, North America

Rafa, a bilingual and bicultural leader, has spent over 30 years teaching and coaching for harmony within ourselves, with others, and the Earth. Founder of the Kalapa Wisdom School for Changemakers, he offers workshops on nature-inspired best practices and essential collaboration skills to strengthen teamwork in Earth Repair projects. – Website

Erik is responsible for the leadership and direction of Jefferson Land Trust’s stewardship program. He works directly with landowners, volunteers, and other partners to monitor, protect, and restore conservation easement protected properties, and supports the Preserve Manager with stewardship of Land Trust-owned preserves. Erik has been working in land conservation since 1999, and has been the Stewardship Director for Jefferson Land Trust since 2008. He has been an active leader in the Washington Association of Land Trusts since its founding, and was President from 2013-2014. With a BA in Environmental Education and an MA in Environmental Politics, he also created and annually operates the Land Trust’s popular Tidelands to Timberline adult natural history course, and supervises other On-The-Land-Learning community engagement programs of the Land Trust. Erik is a really great dad, pretty good naturalist, and alright musician. – Website

Dr. David C. Korten is the founder and president of the Living Economies Forum; co-founder and board chair emeritus of YES! Magazine; and a full member of the Club of Rome. He is best known for his seminal books framing a new economy for the Ecological Civilization to which humanity must now transition. Korten worked for more than thirty-five years in preeminent business, academic, and international development institutions before he turned away from the establishment to become a leading critic of what he calls global suicide economy. He now devotes his life to advancing the global transition now underway to a living Earth economy organized around deeply democratic self-governing living communities in which people work in co-productive partnership with the rest of nature to meet the needs of all. – Website

Michal Kravčík is an internationally recognized Slovak water scientist, water management engineer, 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. – Website

Naiome Krienke is a community leader, and a descendant of Chemakum, S'Klallam, and Makah tribes. She is involved in a project where family and friends are in the process of building a traditional style longhouse with traditional first foods gardens on tribal land. The project, Longhouse for the People, is led by Naiome and located on 11.68 acres in the Quilecene area. "This project is to bring back our history. From 1910 to 2019 it was illegal to own or build a longhouse in Chemakum territory. We plan on bringing back longhouses while simultaneously creating a gathering space in our community for indigenous and non-indigenous people to gather. This will be a space for spiritual healing, sacred space, education, potlatches and celebrations, and more.”

‘Womb Visionary’, Red Moon School of Empowerment for Women & Girls – California, USA, North America

DeAnna, fondly known as the “Womb Visionary,” is a global expert in menstrual empowerment, with over 30 years of work empowering women in 30+ countries. Founder of Red Moon – School of Empowerment for Women & Girls, she helps women reclaim menstruation as a source of guidance and renewal. DeAnna also coaches mothers and trains women to create Red Tents, fostering community and empowerment. – Website, Instagram

Rainwater Harvesting – Arizona, USA, North America

A specialist in permaculture and water harvesting, Brad has run a successful regenerative design business since 1993, focusing on sustainable landscapes and resource stewardship. Based in the Sonoran Desert, he harvests over 100,000 gallons of rainwater annually on his urban lot, transforming it into vibrant, shade-producing food forests. Through his Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond book series and NeighborhoodForesters.org, Brad empowers communities to regenerate ecosystems and turn resource consumption into resource generation. – Website

Author, European Climate Pact, University of Amsterdam – The Netherlands, Europe

Born in 1956, Dutch philosopher and former eco-tourism operator, focuses on protecting the Amazon and fostering an ecological civilization. Advocating for urgent reinvention to limit harm to Earth, they emphasize strategic interventions in unstable systems. Their vision includes projects like growing a “Great Green Wall” for the Amazon to restore rainfall, boost vegetation, and draw down carbon. – LinkedIn

Wetland and stream Restoration, BC, Canada. Gregoire is a permaculture designer, consultant and teacher and the director of the Kootenay Permaculture Institute. He holds a Permaculture Diploma in Education, Design, Site Development and Community Service from the Permaculture Institute USA. He has actively worked with permaculture systems for over 25 years and taught courses in many parts of the country since 1991. Gregoire taught the Permaculture Design Course as a Summer Session at the University of Manitoba in 2005. He has also been teaching the Permaculture Design Course with Selkirk College in Nelson, BC for the last 10 years. He has served on the Board of Directors of Seeds of Diversity Canada for seven years. He is a founding member of Kootenay Organic Growers Society and was on the Certifying Committee for three years. – Website – Website2

Women’s Earth & Climate Action Network (WECAN) – California, USA, North America

Osprey founded and directs WECAN International, an organization that champions the leadership of women in climate justice and a socially equitable transition to clean energy. Co-leading global initiatives like the Indigenous Women’s Divestment Delegations, Women’s Climate Action Agenda, and The Rights of Nature Tribunals, she has also authored several books and worked with leaders and policy-makers throughout the grassroots environmental movement. – Website

Freddie Lane, Lummi First Nation, He organizes the annual Gathering of the Eagles canoe journey through the San Juan Islands each May. A speaker, activist, and event organizer, Freddie is also part of the totem pole journeys undertaken by House of Tears carvers. Freddie is advising us and will be helping moderate and assisting communication.

Roger Leakey has served as Vice President at the International Tree Foundation, where he has dedicated over a decade to supporting sustainable tree planting initiatives by rural communities in Africa. With a distinguished career spanning more than 50 years, he has contributed extensively to environmental development through roles at James Cook University, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge. His expertise includes tropical ecology, sustainable agriculture, and agroforestry, as evidenced by his influential publications, such as “Living with the Trees of Life” and “Multifunctional Agriculture.” - LinkedIn

Movement builder, bioregionalist, Cascadian & participatory democracy advocate. Wheezy sneezy proprietor of Horizon Books. Grumpy Sasquatch. Brandon is an administrator at Regenerate Cascadia, producer of the Cascadia Northwest Arts and Music Festival, and executive director of the Department of Bioregion. He is the founding director of CascadiaNow!, before stepping back in 2017, former board member of the People’s Harm Reduction Alliance, the largest peer run and managed needle exchange program in the United States, and co-founder of the Seattle Street Medical Collective. His journey to learn more about democratic ways of living, human rights and sustainability have taken him around the world, from ecocamp and medical infrastructure building in Germany in 2008, and Scotland in 2005, to living in Tunisia after the Arab Spring during their constituent assembly process in 2011, to living and working in Beijing for the Audi, Volkswagen, as well as the French and German Chambers of Commerce in 2012. – Website

Writer, The Climate According to Life –Washington, USA, North America

Rob Lewis is a poet, writer, and activist dedicated to amplifying the voice of the more-than-human world. His work has appeared in publications like Resilience, Dark Mountain, and Atlanta Review, as well as anthologies such as Singing the Salmon Home and For the Love of Orcas. Author of The Silence of Vanishing Things, he writes about viewing the climate as a living system requiring healing through restraint and restoration. – Substack, Resilience.org

Filmmaker, Founder of Ecosystem Restoration Communities – USA, North America

John D. Liu, a filmmaker and ecologist, founded Ecosystem Restoration Camps to advance large-scale ecosystem restoration globally. Through films like Hope in a Changing Climate and Green Gold, he demonstrates the potential of restoring degraded landscapes to address climate change and biodiversity loss. Liu also advocates for prioritizing ecosystems in global sustainability efforts. – Wikipedia, Website, YouTube

Regenerative Design Institute – California, USA, North America

Penny Livingston-Stark, an internationally recognized permaculture teacher and designer, holds a Master’s in Eco-Social Regeneration and three Diplomas in Permaculture Design. She co-founded multiple sustainability initiatives and co-created ecological design programs while studying directly with permaculture pioneers Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. Penny also co-manages the 17-acre Commonweal Garden in Bolinas, California. – Website

Physicist and Author, Climate Water Project – USA, North America

Alpha Lo, a physicist and permaculture educator, publishes the Climate Water Project newsletter and podcast, exploring the water cycle’s role in ecology and climate. His work focuses on soil hydration, groundwater replenishment, restoring rainfall, mitigating floods, and addressing climate change, alongside teaching water-related topics in Permaculture Design Courses. – Substack, LinkedIn

Abi is a co-founder and non-profit administrator for Standing for Washington, who led the successful passage of Everett Initiative 24-03 in November 2024, granting rights and legal standing to the Snohomish River Watershed before it was later overturned through litigation. Her work is informed by Indigenous ways of knowing that recognize ecosystems as living systems with inherent rights, and by direct experience navigating the legal and political challenges of implementing Rights of Nature at the municipal level. This experience continues to inform her efforts to support durable, defensible Rights of Nature frameworks through community-based local and state initiatives in Washington State. – Website

United Earth Networks – Washington, USA, North America

Richard Lukens is a producer specializing in concerts and festivals with causes like world peace, human rights, and environmental protection. A pioneer in communication technologies, he has simulcasted landmark events globally, bridging cultural divides. With connections to leaders, artists, and sponsors, Lukens creates transformative live experiences that foster understanding and connection. – Website

Paul Lynn is a fascinating mycologist and educator who makes complex mushroom cultivation techniques accessible and engaging. His expertise shines through in his innovative approaches, like demonstrating how simple liquid culture methods can rapidly transform small petri dish cultures into dense mycelium when properly aerated and nutritionally managed. Paul's practical insights into optimizing mycelium growth and vitality – from using activated charcoal to maintaining vigorous cultures with diverse "diets" – make his YouTube videos and blog essential resources for anyone exploring the world of fungi. - Substack

Anastassia Makarieva graduated from Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, Faculty of Physics and Mechanics, in 1996 and obtained her PhD in atmospheric physics from St. Petersburg State University in 2000. She is a senior scientist in the Theoretical Physics Division of Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, where she investigates the life-environment interactions in the framework of the biotic regulation concept founded by Prof. Victor Gorshkov. In co-authorship with V.G. Gorshkov, Anastassia formulated the concept of the biotic pump of atmospheric moisture highlighting key ecological feedbacks on atmospheric moisture transport (2007) and, in cooperation with an international team of colleagues, demonstrated the existence of life’s metabolic optimum (broadly universal rate of energy consumption across life’s kingdoms) (2008). Combining theoretical work with field observations, Anastassia spent 5 years doing forest research in the Russian wilderness. She is a recipient of the 2008 L’Oréal-UNESCO prize “For Women in Science” and is currently (since 2021) an Anna Boyksen fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, where her research interests focus on deepening the physical understanding of ecosystem feedbacks on the water cycle and moisture transport. – LinkedIn

Peter speaks on behalf of the fungi, the most overlooked and misrepresented organisms in the web of life. An interdisciplinary, systems-oriented mycology educator with 17 years of experience, Peter is the founder of MYCOLOGOS, the world’s first mycology school, and Radical Mycology, a grassroots mycological advocacy organization and social movement. In 2016, Peter released Radical Mycology: A Treatise on Seeing & Working With Fungi, a 650-page book on mycology that has been hailed as one of the best texts on theoretical and applied mycology written to date, and a milestone for the progress of mycology as a people’s science. – Website

Global Center for Indigenous Leadership and Lifeways – Alaska, USA, North America

Kuuyux, an Unangan Elder and visionary, is the Founder & President of GCILL and Co-Founder of Wisdom Weavers of the World. Guided by a mission to share Indigenous wisdom, he carries the legacy of his traditional name, meaning “carrier of ancient knowledge.” In 2017, Kuuyux convened Indigenous Elders worldwide in Kauai, Hawaii, to address the state of the world and the actions needed, continuing to share their vital messages globally. – Website

Oregon State University – Oregon, USA, North America

Andrew Millison, a Permaculture educator since 1996, teaches at Oregon State University and specializes in climate resilience, water management, and sustainable development. With over 20 years of design experience, he focuses on rainwater harvesting, greywater systems, and large-scale Permaculture planning, sharing his expertise through teaching, media, and online education. – YouTube, OSU Profile, Website

Neuroscientist, Climate Change & Consciousness Author – USA, North America

Dr. Stephanie Mines, neuroscientist and author, has dedicated over 30 years to researching trauma and resilience. Founder of The TARA Approach, she promotes regenerative health and leads Climate Change & Consciousness to inspire climate action. An award-winning poet, her 2023 works include The Secret of Resilience and The Great Physician. Dr. Mines provides tools for healing personal and planetary trauma. – Website

Championing Community-Led Restoration | Director, Dryland Solutions | Building Regenerative Futures in Somalia. Dryland Solutions' mission is to rejuvenate the semi-desert grassland ecosystem in Somalia, envisioning a transformed Somalia where the semi-desert grassland ecosystem flourishes. Yasmin, the driving force behind Dryland Solutions Community, has dedicated efforts to collaboratively overcome food and water insecurity, ecosystem degradation, and the impacts of climate change. This dedication is rooted in a mission to foster social and ecological prosperity in frontline communities. Holding key positions as Director at Dryland Solutions Community and Coordinator for the Ecosystem Restoration Community in Somalia, Yasmin's expertise spans ecosystem restoration, management of drylands, and regenerative development. These roles underscore a commitment to addressing a range of challenges, from climate to social and environmental issues, particularly in Somalia. Under Yasmin's leadership, the Camp Dryland Solutions initiative has been established, focusing on transformative actions to address climate and environmental challenges. Additionally, a significant landscape restoration project in Somalia, aimed at promoting sustainable land practices and rejuvenating the desert ecosystem, stands as a testament to Yasmin's commitment to ecological restoration and sustainable development within the region. – Website

David R. Montgomery is a MacArthur Fellow and professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington. He is an internationally recognized geologist who studies the effects of geological processes on ecological systems and human societies. His work has been featured in documentary films, network and cable news, TV, and radio including NOVA, PBS NewsHour, Fox and Friends, and All Things Considered. He is the co-author of The Hidden Half of Nature and What Your Food Ate with his wife, biologist Anne Biklé as well as several other solo-authored titles. – Website

Montana Co-op, Kids Co-op – Montana, USA, North America

Jason Moore is a seasoned furniture services professional with experience managing relocation projects and furniture installations in Toronto, Calgary, and Dallas/Ft. Worth. As part of InstallNET, North America’s largest office furniture installation network, he supports multi-location projects using proprietary software to coordinate over 1,000 jobs monthly. Based in Hot Springs, MT, Jason is also deeply involved in building thriving communities and strengthening the local food system. – LinkedIn

Rosemary Morrow trained in agricultural science at Sydney University, rural sociology at the Sorbonne in Paris, development at Reading UK and horticulture at TAFE but, after spending time in Africa, she realized there needed to be a better alternative to conventional agricultural practices. She found this in the ethics and integrated applied science of permaculture, and has been teaching permaculture ever since. She is the author of numerous publications including Permaculture Teaching Matters, The Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture, which has been translated into many languages, and The Earth User’s Guide to Teaching Permaculture. For almost 40 years Rosemary has worked extensively with farmers and villagers in Africa, Central and South East Asia and Eastern Europe. Rosemary has especially dedicated much of her efforts to refugees the people of war-torn nations such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Kurdistan and East Timor, and to communities experiencing the serious effects of climate change like the Solomon Islands, and the effects of the GFC, like Spain, Greece and Portugal. – Website

Researcher, Voices of Water – Slovakia, Europe and USA, North America

Zuzka, originally from Czechoslovakia and now based in New Jersey, merges her finance expertise with ecological advocacy. A collaborator with People and Water NGO and Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, she champions ecosystem-based water renewal and sustainable, community-driven solutions as a Laudato Sí animator and educator. – Instagram, Bio4Climate

Megan is a clairaudient channel, author, crafter of plant medicines, and perennial agroforestry farmer. She has brought forth an ‘Inner Garden’ holistic wellness framework to empower individuals to care for their gut microbiomes and unique constitutions - in addition to remembering how to reconnect and align with their heart's guidance. Megan and her family live in central Illinois on her family’s centennial farm. – Website

From the Chief Joseph Band Of Wallowa, Nez Perce, and Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington State, Dan has been an advocate/teacher for indigenous culture, community unity, youth empowerment, racial equality, and peace for several decades; a man who lives a life of prayer, ceremony and helping the people. He is founder of the Young Warriors Society, an educational resource to share, learn, listen and grow, taking steps toward food security in our communities, growing gardens, learning to gather sacred plant medicines, learning how to protect our environment and natural resources, working together to learn herbal medicines, green renewable energy, self resiliency, outdoor survival skills, cultural survival skills, self sufficiency and develop trade net works, seed saving, sharing resources and upcoming trainings and warrior camps. Colville Indian Reservation, WA. – Website – Facebook

Co-Director of PocketForestsNW, Artist and Lobbyist for Education Concerning Climate Change Solutions. Anne Nesse of PocketForestsNW facilitates the creation of Miyawaki-style pocket forests in the Pacific Northwest, focusing on engaging schools and communities in biodiversity, climate resilience, and hands-on environmental restoration. These dense, native plantings improve air quality, manage stormwater, and create small wildlife habitats, often in urban areas. Methodology: Utilizes the Miyawaki method, which involves planting high-density, native, multi-layered forests that grow rapidly, often within just a few years. Purpose: Focused on restoring soil health, increasing biodiversity, and reducing urban heat islands. Community Involvement: The initiatives emphasize community and school engagement in planning and planting to foster environmental stewardship. "Increased income inequality is the underlying illness of an ill-adaptive economy that cannot possibly meet the future needs of a more sustainable world. Our economy must be based on regenerative and renewable processes on a finite planet." Contact Anne to schedule a pocket forest tour: SustainableEconomiesNW@gmail.com

Rivers Above the Canopy – Brazil, South America

Antonio Donato Nobre, a scientist at INPE and INPA, studies the Amazon’s role in global climate stability, focusing on its hydrology and biosphere-atmosphere interactions. His work highlights the forest’s delicate balance and the risks of human impact, as detailed in El Futuro Climático de la Amazonía. He advocates for sustainability and nature-inspired solutions. – LinkedIn, TedTalks

Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute – Colorado, USA, North America

Jerome Osentowski, founder of the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute, has over 30 years of experience designing greenhouses and teaching permaculture. Living in a passive solar home in Colorado, he hosts the world’s longest-running Permaculture Design Course. His book, The Forest Garden Greenhouse, highlights his work in sustainable systems and heritage fruit tree conservation. – Website, GERF Profile

Peter Paap was an Agroforestry advisor for FarmTree in the Netherlands and West and Central Africa. Peter is an expert on holistic Landscape Restoration via agroforestry and social forestry. He has co-chaired the Council of Fellows of the Global Evergreening Alliance for a number of years, focusing on promoting evergreening practices like agroforestry. Peter is currently working on helping people get their start in agroforestry. He will be teaching an online workshop on the applications of fungi in agroforestry. - LinkedIn

Pramod Parajuli is a visionary thought leader and educator pioneering regenerative leadership and earth repair, now working with Nepal’s top practitioners to bridge online convergence with in-person collaboration. A founding faculty at Prescott College and Southwestern College, he has designed transformative doctoral and master’s programs, educating over 100 students worldwide in pathways toward regeneration. With a focus on integrative socio-ecological regeneration (ISER) and drawing from his trans-disciplinary background in education, anthropology, and political ecology, Parajuli champions upcycling to regenerative ways of living, creating fertile ground for transformative change. - Academia - LinkedIn

As CEO of Envisionation, Bru Pearce is at the forefront of driving the organization’s mission to restore Earth’s biosphere and create a sustainable future for all. With a visionary approach and a deep understanding of environmental science and sustainable development, Bru leads a multidisciplinary team of experts dedicated to implementing the Biosphere Restoration Plan (BRP). Under his leadership, Envisionation is forging global partnerships, advancing innovative solutions, and mobilizing resources to regenerate vital ecosystems, stabilize the climate, and promote a green economy. Bru’s strategic direction and commitment to collaborative action are pivotal in guiding Envisionation’s efforts to restore degraded lands, protect oceans, and revitalize the natural world, ensuring that humanity can thrive in harmony with nature. – Website

Alberta Pedroja spent over 30 years in systems design, change management, and performance improvement, first in healthcare and now in climate action and grassroots solutions to the problems of our time. With a team from the Prout Institute, she helped to develop disaster scenarios that bring the community together to identify their shared values, design the community they wish to create based on those values, and define the steps that can be taken during blue sky times. The communities learn that those involved in global repair become key players in the design and implementation which need not wait for the disaster to hit. – Website

Stable Planet Alliance – Washington, USA, North America

Lora is an elder of the Upper Skagit Tribe and a teacher of the Lushootseed language and culture in the region around the Salish Sea. She works with young people to spread and preserve her tribal language and traditions and has been honored as an Indigenous cultural bridge. – Website

Land and Leadership Initiative, Author, Ecology of Care – USA, North America

Didi Pershouse, founder of the Land and Leadership Initiative, is an author and educator focused on soil health, climate resilience, and regenerative leadership. Known for The Ecology of Care, she engages communities and policymakers globally to restore ecosystems and the soil sponge. Pershouse co-founded Rehydrate California and works to address societal challenges through collaboration with nature and sustainable land management. – Website

Savory Institute, Regeneration International – Zimbabwe, Africa

Precious Phiri, African Coordinator for Regeneration International and founding trustee of IGugu Trust, is a trainer in Holistic Management with 18 years of experience in regenerative agriculture and community organization. She supports global regenerative projects, contributes to networks like PELUM and AFSA, and teaches with Ecosystem Restoration Camps, advocating for solutions to poverty, desertification, and climate change. – Instagram, LinkedIn

Friends of the Trees, Global Earth Repair Foundation – Washington, USA, North America

Michael Pilarski, farmer, wildcrafter, and educator, has worked with over 1,000 plant species and founded Friends of the Trees Society in 1978. With 35 years of experience in Permaculture, he has taught 34 design courses worldwide and promotes sustainable wildcrafting as a tool for earth repair and local resilience. Pilarski’s work integrates ethnobotany, agroforestry, and traditional land stewardship to restore ecosystems and increase natural abundance. – Website, GERF Profile

George Pletnikoff is a Unangan elder and close friend of Ilarion Merculieff. George speaks for the sea and the sea-beings.

A recent graduate of Washington State University with a BS in Agricultural Education, Molly Quade is now bridging her hands-on experience as a lab technician and beekeeper with advanced study, focusing on entomopathogenic fungi as a promising sustainable solution for apiculture and broader agricultural systems. Driven by a fascination with honey bees and the potential of fungi, Molly’s research specifically targets Varroa mites – a major threat to honey bee health – by identifying strains of entomopathogenic fungi with improved thermal tolerance necessary for effective use within hive environments. Her work represents an important step toward developing biological controls for critical agricultural pests. - LinkedIn

Tracker is Chiricahua Apache, Ute Aztec and Pasquale Yaqui. Tracker is Co-chair of the Leonard Peltier Committee and associated with the IOAT (Indians of all Tribes). She is the creator of the International Indigenous Unity Flag. She will help facilitate the Indigenous Caucus. "I am 'Tracker' Ginamarie, I’m from the Chiricahua Apache, Ute Aztec and Pasquale Yaqui. We have a right to Nature. Nature does not own us, we do not own Nature. We have a right to take care of Nature, Nature is not separate from us, we are one with Nature, we are all united. We have a symbiotic relationship with Nature, with the trees, the water, the land, Earth and life force. Nature has Rights and no one owns it. I have the authority and the right and responsibility to speak to Nature." – Website

Mazin Qumsiyeh is a scientist, author and activist, and is the founder and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History (PMNH) and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS) at Bethlehem University where he teaches. He started off in the field of medicine working in the USA, but returned to Palestine in 2008. Qumsiyeh formerly worked at Duke University and Yale in the medical field. He returned to Palestine in 2008, where he established the PMNH. Today the Museum has 8 employees, and Mazin and his wife, Jessie, where they are employed full-time as volunteers. The associated PIBS currently works with women entrepreneurs and also has a native animal rehabilitation facility. Over the course of his career he has published well over 150 scientific papers on topics ranging from cultural heritage to biodiversity in addition to several books. In some of his writings, Mazin describes the catastrophic environmental impact of Israeli settler colonialism on the land of Palestine. He also shares how Palestinian civil society organizations are working to research, educate about, and conserve Palestine’s natural world, culture and heritage in the face of the current Israeli state’s human rights and environmental abuses. Meanwhile, he does not demonize the people of Israel, themselves, and his works reflect this. Rather, he strives for Peace, education, wellness and prosperity for all the Peoples sharing of that land. –Website

Co-Founder, Advocacy Director, Mangrove Action Project

With over 40 years’ experience in environmental communication and mobilization, former aerospace engineer Alfredo is the Co-Founder of the Mangrove Action Project (1992). Prior to this, he directed the Ancient Forest Chautauqua, a multimedia traveling forum on old-growth forests and indigenous dwellers. He has published numerous articles, book chapters, and conference papers on mangrove forest ecology, community-managed sustainable development, and shrimp aquaculture. – Website

Internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter, educator, and activist, Libby Roderick is a recipient of numerous honors for her artistic achievements and work with difficult dialogues. As Director of the Difficult Dialogues Initiative and a recognized expert in Indigenous ways of teaching and learning, she facilitates transformative conversations and has authored/co-authored several key publications on the topic. A lifelong Alaskan, she skillfully merges her acclaimed music, grounded in social commentary, with her dedicated work fostering respectful discourse and advocating for meaningful change. - Website - Presenter Profile from 2019

Dr. Katie Ross is a sustainability expert and transformational learning leader with extensive experience in environmental management and regenerative agriculture. She has held leadership positions at Soils for Life and the University of Technology Sydney, driving impactful sustainability initiatives and mentoring the next generation of sustainability leaders. With a PhD focused on transformative sustainability learning, Dr. Ross combines rigorous research with practical application to foster significant environmental and social change. Her work spans diverse sectors including government, academia, and non-profits, demonstrating her versatility and commitment to creating sustainable solutions. - Substack‍ ‍LinkedIn

Mitch.earth – Alberta, Canada, North America

Mitch Rawlyk is an earth systems and meteorological data scientist dedicated to nature-based regenerative solutions. As a farmer and advocate, he grows his family’s food at Moose’s Groovy Grove and helps others understand their climate to improve food production. Mitch develops AI frost prediction models, climate visualization tools, and collaborates with permaculture organizations as an educator, consultant, and researcher to promote regenerative practices globally. – Website, LinkedIn

Tony Rinaudo, known as the “Forest Maker,” pioneered the Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) technique in Niger, enabling farmers to regrow over 50 million trees across 50,000 square kilometers using existing root systems and local vegetation. His simple method, which involves pruning and protecting dormant shrubs to grow into trees, empowers communities to restore degraded land sustainably. Rinaudo’s approach has regenerated land for millions while challenging unsustainable farming practices, proving that ecological repair is possible through local knowledge and farmer-led action. - Hall of Fame

Permaculture Action Network, Eco Social Design – California, USA, North America

Ryan Rising, a community organizer and permaculture educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area, co-founded the Permaculture Action Network and Gill Tract Community Farm. He has led over 93 Permaculture Action Days across the U.S., creating regenerative systems in community spaces. Ryan also consults for Ecosystem Restoration Camps, organizes urban commons, and teaches social permaculture and community organizing. – Instagram, Website

Margo Robbins is the co-founder and president of the Cultural Fire Management Council (CFMC). She is one of the key planners and organizers of the Cultural Burn Training Exchange(TREX) that takes place on the Yurok Reservation twice a year. She is also a co-lead and advisor for the Indigenous People’s Burn Network. Margo comes from the traditional Yurok village of Morek, and is an enrolled member of the Yurok Tribe. She gathers and prepares traditional food and medicine, is a basket weaver and regalia maker. She is the Indian Education Director for the Klamath-Trinity Joint Unified School district, a mom, and a grandma. The Yurok live in a landscape that used to be over 50% prairie land. After gold was discovered in California in 1848, the use of fire by Native Americans was outlawed and fire was suppressed. Older forests were logged, and Douglas fir trees were planted by settlers to support a continuous supply of timber for their growing population, and trees took over the places the Yurok peoples had long maintained. – Website – Facebook

Jim is a social innovator and Director of the Center for Wise Democracy. He is a speaker, seminar leader and author of the book, “Society’s Breakthrough! Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People.”(2002). Jim developed “Dynamic Facilitation” and “The Wisdom Council Process,” which have many applications including whole-system transformation. - Website - 2019 Presenter Profile

Steve Ruden owns Raven Works Design, where he applies analysis, design, and strategy implementation. With a background in woodwork and community organizing, Steve combines technical skills with a passion for environmental awareness and sustainable futures. He has dedicated over four decades to community engagement, environmental consulting, and geopolitical analysis, fostering meaningful change in regions like Seattle and British Columbia. Steve’s multidisciplinary approach merges entrepreneurship, counseling, and ecological stewardship to drive impactful solutions. - LinkedIn

Drew Ryan, an experienced mycologist and founder of Harmonic Hyphae, focuses on medicinal mushrooms, herbal allies, and fostering harmony between humans and nature. With over a decade of expertise, Drew’s workshop explores the healing mechanisms of local and renowned medicinal mushrooms, their benefits for the Earth and our bodies, and the ethics of wildcrafting to stay in reciprocity with nature. – Instagram

My Salish name is sqʷəlcnqin, and my English name is Cody Saint. I am the nsəlxcin language, culture, and Native American history teacher at PSIS. In 2024, I was honored as E3 Teacher of the Year for Environmental Sustainability Education, integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and tribal ethics into the classroom. Through our work at Native Ways 501(c)(3), we uplift Indigenous knowledge and foster cultural resilience.

Brenda Salgado is a Mayan Toltec Curandera specializing in Toltec Energy Healing and Personal/Ancestral Healing. She is Program Director of the Racial Healing Initiative, and the Healer’s Council, Decolonizing Wealth Project. She is working on a land-based restoration project and center in southern California.

Tribes and Natures Defenders – Philippines

Datu Lanelio Sangcoan, founder of Tribes and Natures Defenders Inc., is an eco-warrior protecting indigenous tribes and biodiversity in the Philippine rainforests. He collaborates with tribes on regenerative agriculture and forest gardening while advocating for their rights, ancestral lands, and sustainable development. – LinkedIn, Website, GERF Profile

The Desert to Grassland Team – USA, North America and Africa

Rodger Savory, a rancher and Holistic Management specialist since 1987, has managed cattle ranches and wildlife properties across Africa, Canada, Australia, and the U.S. Known for pioneering the Biological Carpeting Method, he restores desertified lands while balancing profits with environmental and social responsibility. Born in Africa and a U.S. Army veteran, Rodger holds a degree from the University of New Mexico. – Website, Instagram

Sergio is passionate about living lightly on this wonderful blue orb we call home, the kingdom of flora, natural building, water harvesting (rainwater and greywater), composting toilets, Permaculture, and land management practices. – Website

EcoRestoration Alliance – New York, USA, North America

Dr. Jon Schull, founder of e-NABLE, is a biological psychologist, entrepreneur, and innovator. He created a global network providing free 3D-printed prosthetics to underserved communities. A former professor and inventor with 19 patents, Schull now applies his expertise to climate solutions, advocating for habitat restoration and community-driven action. – LinkedIn, Website

Church of the Earth Society – BC, Canada, North America

Tass Two Crows Flying, an eco-therapist, shaman, and spiritual counselor, helps individuals achieve deep healing and spiritual growth through reconnection with nature. Rooted in eco-spirituality and shamanic wisdom, Tass’s workshops explore Terrapsychology, viewing the psyche as intertwined with Earth, and Earth’s archetypes, linking landscapes to universal energies. Both sessions include rituals and reflective questions to deepen connection and understanding. – Website

Author, The Reindeer Chronicles – Vermont, USA, North America

Judith D. Schwartz, an author and journalist, explores environmental, economic, and social challenges through stories that highlight solutions in natural systems. Her latest book, The Reindeer Chronicles, is a global journey of earth repair. With degrees from Brown, Columbia, and Northwestern, she writes for publications like The Guardian and Scientific American while living in Vermont, where she gardens, skis, and practices Uechi-Ryu karate. – Website, GERF Profile

Henning Sehmsdorf had a lifelong dream to be a farmer. Growing up in economically distressed post-war Germany in a large family, he and his siblings survived by growing food in a sizable home garden and by gleaning surrounding fields in exchange for food. Elizabeth grew up on a farm in Hood River, Oregon and was always involved with gardening, canning, freezing and making jam. In high school, Henning participated in “harvesting vacations,” where groups of schoolchildren worked the fields and the farmer delivered produce to the school cafeteria in return. As a young man he moved to the U.S., first earning a PhD and teaching at the University of Washington before a trip to Lopez Island brought him back to his dream of farming. Starting with 10 acres in 1970, Henning began to build the infrastructure of the farm while he continued to work at UW. Henning became a full-time farmer in 1994. He joined Washington State University as an adjunct professor at the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources in 1999. He serves on numerous boards and committees related to sustainable agriculture, farming, land stewardship and education. Henning chairs the Future Farm Council which meets monthly to review projects, work plans and budgets to transition the farm to community ownership. Since 2012, Henning has been a Mentor Farmer under the apprenticeship program offered by the Biodynamic Farming Association. Elizabeth received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Oregon and her Ph.D. from the University of Washington, where she later taught and met Henning. In 1994 when Henning’s youngest child left home for college, Henning and Elizabeth decided to make the switch to full-time farming. Research and education continues to be an integral part of her life. In addition to farming, Elizabeth teaches English and sustainable farming classes as a part-time faculty member at Lopez High School. Elizabeth serves as a member of the Future Farm Council.

Ecosystem Restoration Practitioner, Policy Consultant, Environmental first responder - Firefighter. Works with John D. Liu at Ecosystem Restoration Communities. – Website

Cândida Shinn is a sustainability expert coordinating the European segment of the upcoming Global Earth Repair Summit satellite event in Brazil. Based in Portugal, she drives initiatives with Ecotopias and Paraíso Tipu Tipu, blending research, permaculture, and community work. Fluent in Portuguese and Spanish, her focus includes Indigenous issues, building on her experience fostering regeneration and connection across continents. - LinkedIn - Website

Executive Director, Project Beaver – USA, North America

Jakob is a wildlife biologist, entrepreneur, and storyteller with over a decade of experience restoring habitats in Oregon’s waterways. An expert in mitigating beaver conflicts, he blends scientific rigor, community values, and optimism to advance habitat restoration. Jakob’s work is inspired by a deep connection to his rural roots in the Siskiyou Mountains and a commitment to resilient human and non-human ecosystems. – Website

Katie Singer, author of An Electronic Silent Spring, explores the ecological and health impacts of our electronics. Inspired by stewardship principles, she investigates the unsustainable energy use, resource extraction, water consumption, and waste generation inherent in the technosphere. Katie advocates for protective solutions to safeguard both human health and the natural world. - Website

Ali Bin Shahid is an engineer with a deep background in permaculture, a passion for modelling and one of the very few people using data and engineering approaches to tackle critical questions about regeneration. He puts numbers to abstract ideas like slowing water down, spreading it, and soaking it. What does “slow” actually mean? How do we measure it—by kilometres per hour, or some other metric? How much regeneration is required to restore rivers or trigger rains in a given landscape? And, for example, where globally do we have the biggest potential? Where is the biggest gap between the forest and water potential and the current situation on the ground? Ali is at the forefront, bridging the gap between philosophical principles of water cycle restoration and practical, data-driven solutions. – Website

Singh is an ambitious neurodivergent polymath, community educator, and Dharmic pollinator. His podcast "Political Hope with Indy Rishi Singh", reaches thousands of listeners every week. Indy recently stepped into the role of Executive Director with the 501c3 nonprofit, Cultivating Self, which is expanding the framework of healthcare to include ecological medicines, food and nature as medicines, spirituality as medicine, and regenerative Doughnut economics as medicine. – Website

Flora Northwest – Washington, USA, North America

Alex Slakie is a restoration ecologist, botanist, and herbalist specializing in willow coppicing, medicinal plants, and habitat restoration in the Pacific Northwest. With 17 years of experience, he integrates ecological restoration with social justice, seeking pathways to heal both the environment and communities. Alex also develops systems for fire mitigation using coppicing and biochar production while connecting people to the land through restoration and plant propagation. – Website

Sarah is Director, Conservation and Strategic Partnerships at the Jefferson Land Trust. She grew up in the Northwest, in Seattle and the San Juan Islands. She received her undergraduate degree in marine biology from Western Washington University and a graduate degree in coastal zone management from the School of Marine Affairs at the University of Washington. Sarah was originally hired as a project coordinator in 1996 for what was then called the North Quimper Peninsula Wildlife Corridor. She has served as Jefferson Land Trust’s Executive Director, and now oversees projects and partnerships in her role as Director of Conservation. She works closely with landowners and community members, as well as governmental and non-profit agencies to shepherd land projects through to protection. Prior to working at Jefferson Land Trust, she served as a marine consultant with the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, along with a long stint working on natural history charter boats in Southeast Alaska. – Website

Jan Spencer is an advocate of paradigm shift – moving past capitalism and the consumer culture. Paradigm shift is not the future, it is now. Jan has been transforming his 1/4 acre suburban property for 25 years. He has ongoing contact with many pioneers of a preferred future and writes about inspiring aspects of paradigm shift in the book he is writing, “A Primer For Paradigm Shift.” – Website

Howard Sprouse, Founder of The Remediators Incorporated and long time resident of the Olympic Peninsula is known for his contribution to the remediation industry as an early commercializer of mycoremediation. A former research consultant to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and well known speaker at Washington based universities on environmental cleanup and restoration Howard is involved in a variety of environmentally based projects in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. – Website

Reishi Strauss, an herbalist and mycologist from the Appalachian Mountains, blends her Bastyr University training with a passion for connecting science and spirit. Her workshop, Stewarding Psilocybe Fungi, teaches propagation techniques for native Psilocybe species, including spore prints, mycelium transfer, and woodchip pasteurization, to support their growth as native entheogens in the PNW bioregion. – Website

Gene Tagaban/Guuy Yaau (he/him) - Cherokee, Tlingit, Filipino - Over the last 40 years Gene has worked nationally and internationally creating a world in which we want to belong. Gene's passion is mentoring, speaking, performing, facilitation and healing. Gene is a board member and trainer with the Native Wellness Institute, an organization to keep our ancestral wisdom alive and healing from historical trauma. Gene facilitates PROJECT SKODEN, a male wellness, healing and mentorship program to end Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, Hurt and Harm. Gene is a specialty instructor and honorary uncle with the Wilderness Awareness School, has been featured at storytelling festivals nationally and internationally and performs with Khu'eex, a Native Funk band based out of seattle. Gene is always open to sharing stories, spirit and inspiration with people of all ages, genders and ethnicities. In the words of one participant,  "Gene has the ability to make the audience feel safe while holding our hearts in his hands." – Website

John is the founder of Center for Sustainable Economy and currently serves as both President and Senior Economist. John coordinates consulting work with non-profits, businesses, universities, and government agencies seeking environmental economics expertise and analysis to support their sustainability initiatives and programs. He also leads work on CSE’s Wild and Working Forests, Genuine Progress, and Green Infrastructure Programs. John holds a Ph.D. in International and Environmental Economics from the University of New Mexico and an M.A. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon. His areas of expertise include non-market valuation, international trade, public policy, benefit-cost analysis, forest management, sustainable development, sustainability indicators and land use planning. He has published articles in several peer reviewed journals including Ecological Economics, Contemporary Economic Policy, Natural Resources Journal and Environment, Development and Sustainability as well as several book chapters. – Website

Cliff Taylor, an enrolled member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, is a celebrated poet, writer, speaker, and storyteller. He shares his unique Indigenous perspective on the natural world through powerful poetry and inspired discussion, offering attendees "Our Indigenous Earth: A Poetry Reading and Inspired Discussion About Our Mother the Earth." - Website

Misha is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Director of Greenpop. Since co-founding the organisation in 2010, he has driven its mission to connect people with nature and restore ecosystems across Sub-Saharan Africa. He is the principal visionary behind Greenpop's unique blend of large-scale environmental action, celebratory events, and community mobilisation. As CEO, he focuses on defining the long-term strategic direction, securing major partnerships, and amplifying the organisation's voice globally. Misha is recognized for his leadership as a YALI Fellow, a Mail & Guardian Top 200 Young South African, and TEDx Speaker. He lives in Greyton with his wife, Lauren, and their two children. – Website

Andhra Pradesh Community-Managed Natural Farming – India, Asia

Vijay Thallam is the Executive Vice Chairman of Rythu Sadhikara Samstha and an advisor on agriculture to Andhra Pradesh’s government. With 37 years in government, he has led initiatives empowering 11.5 million rural women and championed climate-resilient, community-managed natural farming. He also served as Vice Chair (Productions) for the UN Food Systems Summit in 2021. – CIFOR-ICRAF, APCNF

Don is a leader in designing and implementing solutions to foster resilient agrarian communities. Siskiyou Seeds is a farm based seed company Don founded and operates where we trial, grow, breed and offer over 700 varieties of bioregionally adapted certified organic vegetable, flower, herb and small grain seeds. Siskiyou Seeds operates at Seven Seeds Farm which has been growing seeds, berries, tree crops, sheep and productive woodlands. – Website

As a founding pioneer and current leader in ecological design, Dr. John Todd has championed innovative, nature-inspired solutions for water and waste treatment for over 50 years. His work, recognized globally with numerous awards including a Presidential Recognition, blends cutting-edge engineering with ecological principles to create sustainable, affordable, and integrated solutions for diverse environments worldwide. - Website

Matthew Trumm is a Permaculture educator, designer, and consultant, speaker, and regenerative landscape contractor (Treetop Industries, lic#1126298) from Oroville California, in Butte County. Matthew started to study Permaculture in 2011, and immediately made it his life's mission to share the blessings of Permaculture to as many people as possible. Matthew has now pioneered countless Permaculture based projects throughout the State, which all dwell in the ever expanding web of projects and businesses under the umbrella, Treetop Permaculture / Treetop Industries. Treetop specializes in Education, demonstration, and consultation of Permaculture design. – Website

Andrew Tuttle and Mary Marshall of Redtail Edge Design are regenerative agriculture experts specializing in innovative landscape design and farming education. Combining practical experience with cutting-edge technology, they create sustainable and productive environments for farms, homesteads, and ecological restoration. As instructors for upcoming permaculture workshops and farm education sessions, they empower communities with accessible knowledge and tools to advance sustainable agriculture. Based out of Bellingham and Arlington, WA, Redtail Edge Design serves the Pacific Northwest through their innovative design approach and commitment to regenerative practices. - Website

Raskal Turbeville, an innovative mycologist and citizen scientist, explores the profound connections between fungi, death, and life. He cultivates mushrooms for food, medicine, and ecological remediation while working to break down stigmas surrounding fungi. Turbeville brings an integrative approach to mycology, combining scientific study with community education, permaculture consultation, and business development in the field. - Instagram

Nancy Jean Turner CM OBC FRSC FLS is a Canadian ethnobiologist, originally qualified in botany, who has done extensive research work with the indigenous peoples of British Columbia, the results of which she has documented in a number of books and numerous articles. She obtained her doctorate in Ethnobotany after studying the Bella Coola, Haida and Lillooet indigenous groups of the Pacific North-West. She works by interviewing the groups' elder members to identify their names for plants and their uses. Comparison and scientific analysis of this data has enabled her to draw conclusions. Turner's research documented not only the role that plants have had in these groups' cultures but also the effects that Indigenous peoples have had historically on the landscape of Canada. As a pioneer in ethnobiology, her more than 25 years of research have focused on the diverse interactions of First Peoples in British Columbia with the ecosystems they depended on and the critical role of plant resources for foods, medicines and materials. Her research will be seen as a most valuable compendium of aboriginal culture and plant lore in British Columbia. The Government of British Columbia admitted Nancy Turner to the Order of British Columbia in 1999. – Website

Salix Cooperative – Washington, USA, North America

Tuck, a restoration ecologist, applies a holistic and Gaian approach to cultivating resilient forests, meadows, and rivers, embracing animism and an earthen perspective. His talk weaves poetic science with Gaia Theory, exploring the relationships that sustain life—seashells and mountains, forests and rain, microbes and cooperation. Through stories of Earth’s interwoven systems, Tuck calls for radical participation in the unfolding creativity of our living planet. – LinkTree

Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP) — Restoring functional native plant communities | Creating conditions needed by beavers | Involving youth in restoration. Julie has worked at the intersection of ecological restoration and education for over 25 years. I graduated from the British Columbia Institute of Technology in environmental technology and from Barstow College in child development / education. I’ve invested in teaching in outdoor and ecological education and public school contexts, working with all ages in Southern British Columbia, Northern California, South Eastern Quebec, and North Central Washington. As a Career and Technical Education High School Teacher, I worked with students to start a native plant nursery and a farm to table program. I also coordinated work-based learning and involved students in all phases of stream restoration. – LinkedIn

Co-Executive Director, Co-Founder, The Farmers Land Trust. Kristina Villa is a farmer, communicator, and community coordinator who believes that our connection to the soil is directly related to the health of our bodies, economy, and society. With over a decade of farming, communication, and fundraising experience, Kristina enjoys using her skill sets to share photos, stories, and information in engaging ways which help to inspire change in human habits and mindsets, causing the food system, climate, and overall well-being of the world to improve. Kristina has spent the last several years of her professional career saving farmland from development and securing it in nonprofit land holding structures that give farmers, stewards and ranchers long-term and affordable access and tenure to it. Most of her work in the land access space has focused on equitable land security for BIPOC growers, addressing the inequities and disparities in how land is owned and accessed in this country. – Website

Sea Plants Solutions – Washington, USA, North America

Tim Visi, a marine biologist with decades of experience, began his career studying lemon sharks in the Bahamas and later served as a Marine Fisheries Observer for NMFS and NOAA. His lecture introduces proprietary Land-based Modular SSTC Systems—innovative, sustainable seaweed production systems that bioremediate thousands of gallons of acidified water daily while offering a new income-generating model. – Website

Imagineer, creative strategist, village builder. Founder of EarthSkyLab, a village building consultancy. To thrive humanity needs to reimagine how we organise, our collaboration structures, learning, work, leadership, community, economy and society to function regeneratively. My life is devoted to building the technology and culture for a wise society to humanity growing up to be a thriving, creative, evolving species in harmony with the planet, dreaming of a galactic future. Currently I am doing this by launching The Coherence Company - a startup to build AI powered tools for collective sense making and scaling collaboration. I am also the founder/source of The Gathering - a global, co-created gathering bringing together organisations and communities working to create a better future for people and the planet. – Website

Paul Chiyokten Wagner is an internationally performing presenter of traditional songs and stories of his Coast Salish tribal ancestors. Chiyokten is a member of the W̱SÁNEĆ (Saanich) Tribe of southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. An award-winning Native American flutist & Storyteller his songs have come to him with visions of healing and prayer for all relations (tree people, animal people and human people). Chiyokten's debut Native flute CD "Journey of the Spirit" has been honored with the Best Native American Album of 2009 JPF Award, a CD-Baby-affiliated international award. Chiyokten has shared the stage and collaborated with many prominent artists such as Eyvind Kang, Gina Sala, Bill Frisell, Andre Feriante, Kitaro and Seattle Symphony Orchestra. His CDs are widely used by practitioners of meditation, massage and tai chi. ​ Nature is where his music comes from-- the deep silence and spirit that lives in the ancient waters and forests of the Salish Sea bioregion are a gift directly from Spirit to help us heal on this path we walk through life. Chiyokten's music has this same breath and soul inside each note and each silence, allowing us to better understand and realize the ancient Coast Salish belief that we are a part of the Nature which Spirit placed on the lands and waters. We are helped to remember that we have come to this place, Mother Earth, to heal and to bring reciprocal relationships with all things around us. Letting this ancient wisdom enter the intelligence of our hearts will place us inside of the circle of life, to create long lasting innate harmony and peace around us and within us. ​ As a Traditional Coast Salish Storyteller Chiyokten brings us on a wonderful, profound and humorous journey to the world of Mermaids, Leprechauns, Grandmother cedar trees and marauding giant ogresses in traditional story, song and Native American flute music of his Coast Salish territory. We don’t simply listen to the story… we are part of the story! We will travel to the ancient forests, meadows and waters of the Salish Sea and experience the eternal connective sounds of nature with masterful deliverance of Coast Salish Native flute music and storytelling. Chiyokten is also the founder of Protectors of the Salish Sea of who actively stand up for the tree, plant and animal peoples as well as our human peoples of Mother Earth and the livable future for all children. ​ In addition to his performing and recording work, Chiyokten creates traditional Coast Salish frame drums and flutes and teaches workshops on drum making and flute playing. He also creates Coast Salish form wood carvings, and is a videographer and photographer of Nature's phenomenal spiritual gifts.

Rosalee is a Chemakum Elder and Chairperson of the Chemakum Tribal Council. Indigenous to Chemakum Territory, she is a graduate of the University of Washington, and Antioch University, holding an M.A. In Whole Systems Design. While she had a career in human resources; her passion was serving on the Seattle Indian Health Board for 20+ years with several years as its president. She has been an executive coach and is a writer, and she wrote the text for Still Here: Portraits (by Brian Goodman) of the Chemakum. – Website

I work with Mollison Permaculture Design methodology, Holzer Permaculture techniques and traditional European Permaculture patterns, 20+ years in designing home, garden, farm and community environments for ecological sustainability. I apply Permaculture Design to wetland enhancement, mitigation and restoration projects and bioremediation. I am an integrated designer with years of design/build experience from community master planning to residential and commercial, interior and exterior, remodel and new construction. My work in land-use planning includes the whole systems design of natural resource production and management. In this sector I can help farmers and natural resource managers achieve high yields sustainably with lowered inputs and improved quality whether certified organic or conventional.

Decolonizing Water, Water Stories, Elemental Ecosystems – Montana, USA, North America

Zach Weiss, the first Holzer Practitioner certified by Sepp Holzer, founded Elemental Ecosystems to restore watersheds and regenerate ecosystems globally. His firm specializes in water retention landscapes, agroforestry, aquaculture, and natural building, creating abundant, resilient systems across 19 countries and five continents. Zach’s approach blends systems thinking and ecological expertise to transform landscapes into thriving oases. – Website, GERF Profile, Instagram

Paula Westmoreland and Lindsay Rebhan of Ecological Design are visionary leaders combining decades of technical expertise with profound spiritual understanding of ecological systems. Paula founded the consultancy in 1999 and serves as lead designer, bringing a Master's degree in Ecology and pioneering work in regenerative agriculture. Lindsay, as CEO, leads the organization with a background in environmental studies and international research on food systems. Together, they merge scientific knowledge with land-based wisdom, empowering diverse clients from farmers to Tribal Nations through their specialized design and consulting services, and fostering a holistic approach to land stewardship. - Website

Rebecca Wildbear, renowned soul guide and Earth advocate with over 15 years of experience integrating animism and nature connection, invites you to "Wild Remembering: Animism for the Modern Soul." This transformative workshop guides you to deepen your perception and relationship with the natural world, empowering you to see and engage with nature as conscious. You'll learn practical ways to enter direct, reciprocal conversations with the Earth – offering praise, sharing questions and feelings, and listening for responses with all your senses. Join Rebecca to reawaken your animistic perception and become a participatory partner in the vibrant, conscious community of life. - Website

Coakee integrates western science with modern and ancestral agroecology and land management traditions. He studied the Miyawaki method of reforestation with Afforestt (@afforestt), and combines syntropic agroforestry and other systems of agroecology, Elaine Ingham soil science, landscape water retention, and his studies in mycology, ecology, botany, and Indigenous agroforestry and ecological land management systems into a single school of thought.

Church of the Earth – Washington, USA, North America

Robin Tekwelus Youngblood, Okanagon/Tsalagi, is a shamanic practitioner, teacher, and author who shares Indigenous wisdom through healing practices, workshops, and ceremonies worldwide. A founder of Grandmothers Circle the Earth, she promotes sustainable, earth-honoring lifestyles and teaches online shamanic courses. Robin authored Path of the White Wolf and travels globally to share her teachings. – Website, Facebook

Tiffany is a relational activation designer and facilitative steward of intentional spaces to practice relating. This interdisciplinary practice uses activations aka “catalyst containers” which are experiential, immersive, social learning spaces. Social ecological worldview; community cultivation, and cultural development, engagement, and navigation with 20+ years inform Tiffany's responsive design for community wellbeing. This aligned livelihood has enabled partnerships ranging from nonprofits to municipalities who are instigating social, environmental, economic, and cultural outcomes. Tiffany holds two interdisciplinary degrees centered on addressing complex social issues, and multiple certificates and recognitions for additional training as a practitioner ranging from facilitation to navigating organizational change to climate resilience planning. This kindred's resonant call-to-action is ”Let's get to relating for a better world.” – Website