Speaker Series

Erick Cedeño is an explorer and historian, and on social media, he is known as the Bicycle Nomad. (IG: bicycle_nomad)

12 years ago, he embarked on a bicycle tour from Vancouver, Canada to Tijuana, Mexico. The following year he traveled from Miami Beach, FL to New York City, NY. In 2014 and 2020 he rode from New Orleans to Niagara Falls, Canada following the historic path of the Underground Railroad.

In 2022, he retraced the route and history of the All-Black, bicycle-mounted 25th Infantry to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Bicycle Corps 1897 expedition from Fort Missoula, Montana to St. Louis, Missouri. Their mission was to thoroughly test the practicability of the bicycle as a method of transportation. Erick was recently inducted into The Explorers Club in 2022 and named one of the 50 Explorers (#EC50) changing the world.

Jessie Fernandez was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. While at San Francisco State University he studied Ethnic Studies and Urban Studies and Planning. He has organized on issues ranging from educational equity, administrative accountability, immigrant workers rights, and equitable development through inclusive community planning. At PODER, he focuses on advancing environmental justice by providing low-income immigrants and BIPOC youth and families with the knowledge, tools and resources to incorporate bicycling into their everyday lives.

Alex Clark is a high school physical education teacher at Dunbar high school located in Ward 5 of the District of Columbia. He grew up in Hartford, CT where he attended East Hartford High School. In 2009, he enrolled at Central Connecticut State University, where he played football and received his Bachelor’s degree in Health & Physical Education. From 2015-2019, Clark was the physical education teacher at Eastern Senior High School where he formed the school’s first girls’ varsity soccer team and was awarded 2017 DCIAA soccer coach of the year. He also helped lead the girls basketball team to winning the 2019 DCSAA state basketball championship. After four years at Eastern, he took a position at Dunbar High School, where his career took off. Clark created Prime-Ability, a youth empowerment program geared towards building communities and inspiring young lives through fitness. His most successful project within Prime-Ability and Dunbar has been his biking program. Clark’s biking program manifested into a city-wide movement, offered to all students throughout DC, serving over 300 DC youth in 2020 and now a full circle program offered to DC students during and after school. Clark’s work has been featured in the Washington Post, The Today Show, Bicycle Magazine as well as TIME magazine. Clark was named 2023 DC teacher of the year runner up.  Clark’s motto is #Stay Prime.

Alyssa Proudfoot Siegel is the Membership & Program Coordinator at The League of American Bicyclists. As a Bay Area native who ended up learning how to wrench and winter bike in Minneapolis, Alyssa now literally only knows how to talk about bikes. She coordinated a free bike repair program during the George Floyd protests in the Twin Cities, and connected the city to bike resources in every neighborhood with a bike-shop desert. Alyssa was also a coordinator at the largest bike distribution and repair camp at Burning Man, and is a frequent contributing writer for Grease Rag Ride & Wrench Zines.

Alyssa founded Radical Joy Riding in 2022 as a WTF-focused, accessible biking group in DC, and has organized skill shares, beginner rides, and overnights to inspire marginalized cyclists to do what feels good in their bodies. As an organizer with DC Bike Party and Bikes Not Bombs DC, Alyssa strives to be the human embodiment of a no-drop ride. She believes that bikes can save the world, and whether she’s tinkering with her next bike project, teaching Safe Cycling classes, or leading biking adventures, she’s always chasing that bike utopia dream. With The League, Alyssa fights for a Bicycle Friendly America and safe streets for all.

Rozina is an energy and environmental professional with global academic and work experience. She is a Fulbright scholar who spent a year in India studying agrarian distress and then completed her Master’s degree in Environment and Sustainable Development at University College London. She currently serves as the Director of Energy Justice Partnerships at the Clean Energy Leadership Institute (CELI) as well as the Founding Executive Director of Eco.Logic. Rozina’s work takes a creative approach – recently, Rozina wrote and produced a climate comedy play called “Love in the Time of Climate Change” with the recognition that the environmental movement needs more artistic and creative expressions. Rozina strives to help build an inclusive environmental movement recognizing that the scale of the crisis requires all hands on deck.

As a member of the Marine Extension Team, Jaclyn focuses on the development of the seaweed sector in Maine, with an emphasis on sustainable production, post-harvest processing, and product development. Her work provides support for coastal communities through outreach education, technology transfer programs, and by coordinating stakeholders around Maine’s seaweed resources. Jaclyn’s background in technical seaweed aquaculture research helps to link ongoing applied research with industry capacity and opportunities, to foster robust and sustainable working waterfronts along Maine’s coast.

Jennifer Green staffs Burlington’s Sustainability Program, including work on the Legacy Action Plan, the Climate Action Plan, and other related initiatives.  Jennifer has over 30 years of community development experience, including work on gender equity, national planning, and environmental management with the Peace Corps, CARE International, Chemonics, and the World Resources Institute. Shortly after moving to Burlington in 1999, she consulted with the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation and later Efficiency Vermont. In addition to working for the City, Jennifer teaches sustainable development courses at the University of Vermont. She has a master’s in public administration from Columbia University and earned her Ph.D. in sociology from American University in 2005.
Jennifer’s work involves transitioning Burlington, VT to net zero energy (NZE) in the thermal and transportation sectors and in this capacity, supports, designs, and implements projects to move the City off of fossil fuels.  Questions?  Jennifer can be reached at [email protected].

Prior to joining the office, Jessica was the Assistant Secretary for the Environment for the State of New York, where she developed policy and programs to advance Governor Andrew Cuomo’s climate goals, with a focus on clean transportation, natural and working lands, and on the inclusion of equity and justice across all policies. Jessica has more than a decade of climate and environmental policy expertise, working with academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and local, state, and federal governments. Jessica has a Master’s degree in Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment.

Colin C. O’Brien joined Earthjustice’s San Francisco location of the California regional office in 2015, having previously worked as a staff attorney in the Alaska regional office. While there, Colin was recognized as the 2013 “Conservationist of the Year” by the Northern Alaska Environmental Center for his work to protect air quality in the Arctic and in Fairbanks, Alaska. He also successfully litigated to protect endangered Steller sea lions and the rich ocean ecosystem of the North Pacific.

Prior to joining the Alaska regional office in 2011, Colin worked for four years as an associate in the Environmental Practice Group at the New York office of Sidley Austin LLP, and then for four years as a staff attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council’s “Clean Air Project” in Washington, D.C. He also served as a law clerk for the Honorable Richard J. Cardamone of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Colin received a bachelor’s degree in political science summa cum laude from The Ohio State University. He is also a graduate of Yale Law School (J.D.) and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (Master of Environmental Management).

Marilyn leads the climate and clean energy finance portfolio at the Hewlett Foundation. She has worked across four continents in renewable and nuclear energy and venture capital and investment. Author of Sustainability at Work: careers that make a difference, Marilyn serves on the Board of COI Energy and the Kachuwa Impact Fund. Marilyn previously led the energy practice at Village Capital, modeled and forecasted energy solutions to climate change as a Senior Research Fellow at Project Drawdown, and managed innovation projects at AREVA (now Orano). She holds a Master’s Degree with distinction in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the University of Cambridge and a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering, magna cum laude, from Princeton University.
Follow her on Twitter @WaiteMarilyn
 

Continually searching for the intersection of capitalism and sustainability, Antony has recently joined GO Lab of Belfast, Maine. GO Lab hopes to disrupt an $11B US building material marketplace currently dominated by energy-intensive and fossil fuel derived products. GO Lab is currently under contract to purchase and retrofit a decommissioned paper mill in Madison, Maine, will put 110 people back to work, and domestically produce sustainable wood fiber insulation products.

GO Lab’s overarching philosophy states that energy efficient structures should be constructed with sustainable products. Due to multiple paper mill closures, and increasing IECC building code requirements GO Lab has found a way to solve multiple problems with a single vision. www.golab.us

Antony is a graduate of the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business, has been a technology investor for over 25 years including Angel investing, and has lived and worked in Spain, Mexico as well as the United States. Until April 2019, Antony worked in the FOREX and cross-border payments sector for the past 18 years. 

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Antony has grown to view American work ethic, creativity, ingenuity, and entrepreneurship as the hope for the future.

Charlotte Streck is a co-founder and director of Climate Focus. She serves as an advisor to numerous governments and non-profit organizations, private companies, and foundations on legal aspects of climate policy, international negotiations, policy development and implementation. She is also a renowned international expert on climate change mitigation and adaptation in the agricultural and forestry sectors.

Prior to founding Climate Focus, Charlotte served from 2000 to 2005 as Senior Counsel with the World Bank in Washington, DC.

Charlotte serves on several advisory and investment committees, is a board member of Climate Strategies and is an adjunct lecturer at Potsdam University, since 2018 as honorary professor. She is a prolific writer, lecturer, and is an associate editor of the journal Climate Policy.

Concerned about communicating the complexity of environmental problems, Charlotte dedicates a part of her time to a project that uses the arts to raise awareness of environmental problems.

Charlotte holds degrees from the University of Regensburg (MSc in Biology) and Humboldt University (JD and PhD in law), and is an honorary Professor of the University of Potsdam.

Julia Bucknall is a Global Director, Environmental and Social Framework, at the World Bank.  She has worked in every region of the world on operations and knowledge relating to environment, water resources management, climate change and energy.  She was the lead author of a flagship publication on water in the Middle East “Making the Most of Scarcity” and a core team member for the 2010 World Development Report on Climate Change. She has studied at Cambridge University and MIT, where she earned a Master in Environmental Policy and Planning.

Troy has worked on environmental issues for the City of Portland since 1997.  He started his career developing and implementing solid waste management programs including the City’s successful “pay as you throw” waste collection program and curbside recycling He has also managed the City’s parks and open spaces where he led efforts to expand community agriculture and adopt low impact land management practices.   Throughout his tenure with the City, Troy has been engaged in a broad range of sustainability projects. He oversaw the completion of Portland’s greenhouse gas inventories in 2001 and 2007 and chaired the committee tasked with drafting the city’s Climate Action Plan in 2008. He became the City’s Sustainability Coordinator in April, 2016 and has focused on community resilience and energy efficiency. He led Portland’s LED streetlight conversion project and leads the city’s effort to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2040 and to reduce community wide greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050.

Ashley joined MASS in 2018, driven by a desire to address the spatial implications of our rewired culture of life, learning, and play. A licensed architect, she has worked across the spectrum of learning, public, technology, and innovative research sectors. Ashley was part of the team that wrote “The Third Teacher” one of Fast Company’s best design books of 2010, which describes ways design can transform teaching and learning. Named in 2017 by San Francisco Business Times, “40 under 40 San Francisco” rising star, she’s a seasoned facilitator and engagement strategist, with deep experience conducting human-centered user research in the built environment.

Briana specializes in utility regulation, ratemaking, and policy development. She has been in the energy industry since 2007, spending eight years in energy consulting at MRW & Associates prior to joining Vote Solar.
Briana focuses her work on distributed generation rate design, diving deep into utility rate cases to ensure that customers are treated fairly and appropriate policy mechanisms are put in place to support increasing levels of distributed energy resources that benefit customers and the planet.

Briana holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Environmental Economics and Policy from U.C. Berkeley. When separated from her spreadsheets Briana enjoys rock climbing, bike touring and traveling. She has been to over 25 countries and has lived in Italy and India.

Hi everyone, my name is Dan Huynh and I use she/her/hers pronouns. I am bike commuter living the car-free life in SoCal. Yay! If my home region was a cooler and more equitable place, it would support my neighbors by giving them the option to do the same. And because the region struggles to do this, I’m on Climate Ride to help fundraise for Active San Gabriel Valley (Active SGV), an organization that helps to create solutions with their communities.

Dirk is an ocean explorer, deploying deep diving robotic submarines to document recovery and demise in the depths beyond SCUBA. Dirk designed and built manned submersibles and robotic submarines for 17 years, and spent another 5 years at NASA integrating robotics into the International Space Station, before founding, and running Marine Applied Research and Exploration for the past 16 years.

John P. Given is an attorney in Los Angeles, California, with a solo public interest practice focusing on land use and zoning, environmental law including the California Environmental Quality Act and California Coastal Act, the California Public Records Act, and civil rights. 

Before practicing law, John was a successful composer and won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for his contributions to “Disney’s Aladdin” television series.

John is currently a Vice President of the Federation of Hillside and Federation Associations, Inc., an environmentally-minded community organization centered on issues related to the Santa Monica Mountains and other hillside areas of Los Angeles. In his free time, John is an avid cyclist and hiker. Climate Ride Bar Harbor to Boston will be his fifth Climate Ride!

Kathy Lunetta is a professor of Biostatistics at Boston University School of Public Health, where she mentors Master of Public Health students and doctoral students in biostatistics, bioinformatics, and epidemiology.  Her school’s location next to a safety net hospital and in a coastal city leads her to confront the impact of climate change on the health of vulnerable populations on a daily basis.

Phoebe S. Moore, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist who has specialized in the treatment of adults, children, teens and families affected by obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety disorders since 1998. Dr. Moore joined the faculty at Duke University Medical Center in 2004 and then came to the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2011. She is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at UMASS. Dr. Moore specializes in in exposure with response prevention (E/RP) for OCD, and she also uses exposure-focused, evidence-based cognitive-behavioral treatments to treat anxiety disorders such as social phobia, generalized anxiety, and separation anxiety. Her academic research focuses on understanding and changing family and parent processes that serve to maintain or exacerbate anxiety in children and adolescents.

Sachu manages Vote Solar’s regulatory efforts, coordinating strategy and operations for our far-flung but elite team of experts and intervenors.  Prior to joining Vote Solar he served as the Director of Policy at the Center for Sustainable Energy for 5 years.

Sachu lived and worked abroad in Germany and Hungary and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana, West Africa before settling in Berkeley. In his free time he loves to cook and build slightly off-kilter woodworking projects out of whatever recycled materials he can find.

Alan comes from a Cape Cod fishing family that dates back to whaling times. He grew up out on the water surfing, diving and sailing as often as possible. He move west to attend UC Santa Cruz, and upon graduating went to teach sailing on the Sea of Cortez with the National Outdoor Leadership School. There he witnessed illegal fishing practices by huge international trawlers. These damaging practices were not only bad for the environment, but he noticed the impact it had on the small coastal communities. Local fishermen were struggling to feed their families and make a living.

He returned to California to study Marine Policy and earned an Masters in International Environmental Policy at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Drawn to fisheries as he saw a unique opportunity to reconnect our communities to our oceans as our last wild food source. He realized that the health of the environment is deeply tied to food production and what we eat.

He founded Real Good Fish (formerly Local Catch Monterey Bay in 2012) as a solution to reconnect our communities to the ocean and local fisheries. Alan has spent time working with The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International in Indonesia. He was a Sea Grant Fellow with The West Coast Governors Alliance for Ocean Health at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center and Southwest Fisheries Science Center. In 2014, he won “Entrepreneur of the Year” in Monterey County sponsored by Union Bank and KSBW.

Dan was the first Executive Director of O’Neill Sea Odyssey, a free, ocean-going science and environment program for mostly low income elementary school students, from 1999 to 2019. Over 100,000 students were served during his tenure, where he also oversaw a fundraising campaign for and the renovation of the O’Neill building at the Santa Cruz Harbor, including OSO’s education center and the Surfrider Foundation’s water quality lab.

He served as District Chief of Staff for California Senator Henry J. Mello from 1993 until 1996; Executive Director of Save Our Shores – where he worked on local laws in California aimed at onshore facilities for offshore oil and designation of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary – from 1986 to 1993; and Community Affairs Officer for PG&E in the Monterey Bay from 1997 to 1999 where he led a wetland restoration in Moss Landing. Dan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

He serves on the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council, and the Board of Directors of Catamaran Literary Reader, Save Our Shores, and the Monterey Bay Chapter of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. He previously served as Chair of the Santa Cruz County Commission on the Environment, Co-Chair of the Dominican Hospital Community Advisors, on the Santa Cruz County Conference and Visitor’s Council Board of Directors, and from 2015 to 2017 was Chair of the Advisory Committee for the successful effort to gain national monument status for the Cotoni-Coast Dairies property north of Santa Cruz. He has also published two books: 50 Years of Safe Harbor in 2014, and 40 Years of Saving Our Shores in 2019.

From April 2008 until March 2019 he and UCSC Professor Gary Griggs published a weekly ocean column in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Dan received the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce Legacy Award and was named Man of the Year by the Aptos Chamber of Commerce in 2018, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Santa Cruz County Democratic Party and from the Santa Cruz Nexties in 2019, and received the 2011 Ocean Hero Award from Save Our Shores.  He is married to Rebecca Haifley and has two grown children, Aaron and Julia, and enjoys ocean kayaking, reading, and walking.

Dr. Tiffany Wise-West is the Sustainability and Climate Action Manager for the City of Santa Cruz. With a bachelor’s degree in civil/environmental engineering from Purdue University and a doctoral degree in environmental studies from the University of California Santa Cruz, she is a licensed professional civil engineer and LEED associate professional with over 20 years of experience in municipal planning, infrastructure, and programming. Dr. Wise-West complements her technical skill set with policy, regulatory, and economic expertise in the areas of climate resilience, energy, and sustainability. Drawing on her interest in innovation and education, she specializes in collaborating across public, private and academic sectors to deliver award-winning and impactful emissions mitigation and climate adaptation policies, projects, and programs.

Jennifer Green staffs Burlington’s Sustainability Program, including work on the Legacy Action Plan, the Climate Action Plan, and other related initiatives.  Jennifer has over 30 years of community development experience, including work on gender equity, national planning, and environmental management with the Peace Corps, CARE International, Chemonics, and the World Resources Institute. Shortly after moving to Burlington in 1999, she consulted with the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation and later Efficiency Vermont. In addition to working for the City, Jennifer teaches sustainable development courses at the University of Vermont. She has a master’s in public administration from Columbia University and earned her Ph.D. in sociology from American University in 2005.
Jennifer’s work involves transitioning Burlington, VT to net zero energy (NZE) in the thermal and transportation sectors and in this capacity, supports, designs, and implements projects to move the City off of fossil fuels.  Questions?  Jennifer can be reached at [email protected].

Tim Oey runs ZeroW.org to help people learn how to tread more lightly on our earth and pursue Zero Waste – saving our environment, oceans, climate, money, and lives by reducing, reusing, and as a last resort recycling. His household of 4 humans and 3 dogs is down to about a quart of trash a month. Tim is a life member of the Adventure Cycling Association, League of American Bicyclists, and Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition. He serves on the Sunnyvale Bicycle and Pedestrian Commission and Caltrans District 4 Bicycle Committee and is president of the Friends of Stevens Creek Trail. He is a certified League Cycling Instructor who loves to teach people how to bicycle and do so safely. While Tim has a degree in Chemistry from Harvard and worked in the Harvard Bio Labs, the core of his career was 33 years building new products and information systems at Harvard, Bank of Boston, Fidelity Investments, Apple, Sun, Adobe, and Silver Spring Networks.  At the end of 2016, he left high tech to bring his systems analysis and program management expertise to public service and nonprofit environmental projects. Tim just finished a 5,000-mile self-supported Climate Ride from sea to shining sea from San Francisco to Boston during which he did 254 talks about Oceans, Plastic, and Climate Change.

Amanda Podmore works in southeast Utah as a contractor for the National Parks Conservation Association. She advocates for the protection of national park units, gateway communities, and cultural landscapes in southeast Utah from the negative impacts of adjacent oil and gas development, like light pollution. She engages closely with Tribes from the Four Corners. She is also the Vice-Chair of the Town of Bluff Planning & Zoning Commission and an organizer for the Bluff Area Mutual Aid Covid-19 response.

Jonah is Diné from Halgaito in Monument Valley, UT. He is of the Many Arrow Bitterwater clan and born of the Redhouse clan. He was a founding Board Member for Utah Diné Bikéyah (UDB) in 2011 and serves as the Spiritual Advisor for the non-profit organization, promoting healing among people and across ancestral lands. As a Roadman, he is a traditional practitioner who helps the medicine people and herbalists to protect Mother Nature through offerings. He believes that through prayers and ceremonies, we can find harmony and balance to keep the land intact. He also works as a traditional artist, specializing in Native American beadwork and painting.

Dr. Sasha Reed is an ecologist focused on understanding how our nation’s ecosystems work and what factors determine the services they provide. The study sites and methods Sasha uses are diverse, and with each of her projects she strives to provide scientific information that helps our nation address challenges, solve problems, and maximize opportunities.

Sasha seeks to provide useful information for land managers, policy-makers, and the general public. Sasha uses both basic and applied scientific approaches to improve our understanding of the fundamental controls over our ecosystems, to determine how these systems respond to change, and to explore solutions for addressing relevant problems. Sasha works closely with a range of collaborators – including federal agency partners (BLM, NPS, DOE, DoD, BIA, USFS, USFWS) – in designing research studies, conducting information and technology transfer, and performing outreach activities. Some of her primary research interests include understanding how drought and increasing temperatures affect ecosystems, exploring a diversity of energy options for meeting national demand, assessing the consequences of exotic plant invasion and ways to combat them, and establishing novel management options for increased effectiveness and efficiency in restoration. Sasha attempts to conduct research that is innovative, collaborative, and useful.

Since 2008, David Lamfrom has worked in National Parks Conservation Association’s California desert program holding the jobs of field representative, program manager, and currently director of California Desert and Wildlife Programs. In this role, David works on policy, legislation, media, building community, and connecting desert voices to the administration and Congress. David has worked to protect tens of thousands of important acres adjacent to California desert parks from inappropriate development. He also worked over nearly a decade to designate 3 new national monuments, including the creation of a new national park service unit.  David is a published author and photographer who worked to develop the Tortoises Through the Lens program to teach diverse desert youth about the desert through photography. The result of that program was a published book of the student’s work telling the conservation story of the desert tortoise. That book was recently printed in the Spanish language. David formerly worked in the fields of wildlife biology and environmental science. He sits on the boards of several desert based organizations and knows the California desert is the most beautiful and important place on Earth.

Gary Spiers has been an amateur astronomer for 20 years and is a member of the OldTown Sidewalk Astronomers, a group of astronomers based in Pasadena and Monrovia who are interested in sharing their interest with others. Like the other sidewalk astronomers, Gary shares his passion through public events across California including at Glacier Point in Yosemite, The Huntington Library and Gardens, Descanso Gardens, local schools and libraries, and at his favorite event the Mojave National Preserve Star Party.

Employed by the California Institute of Technology he works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena where he specializes in active and passive optical remote sensing. He is the Principal Investigator for CO2LAS, an aircraft instrument that remotely measures atmospheric carbon dioxide using a laser absorption technique; is the lead for the ground optical support instrumentation for calibration and validation of the OCO-3 carbon dioxide measuring instrument due to launch to the International Space Station within 2 years, and is the instrument manager for CARBO, an aircraft demonstrator in early development for the next generation of space-based carbon dioxide measurements. He has also been known to work on laser communications for space vehicles and previously acted as the government expert during the development of the ISS docking sensor used by the SpaceX Dragon vehicle.

Mike Reynolds has worked for the National Park Service for more than 18 years and has served at Big Bend, Great Smoky Mountains, Death Valley, and Yellowstone National Parks. He also spent three and a half years as superintendent at the National Park of American Samoa. Reynolds has a BS in Math and Business Operations from Indiana University and an MS in Outdoor Recreation from Arizona State University. Reynolds will relocate to Death Valley along with his partner, Sarah Bone, and his Samoan cat named Tele. As avid outdoor enthusiasts, they look forward to running, hiking, and backpacking throughout the beautiful and wild park.

Prior to becoming the Death Valley Superintendent, Reynolds most recently served as superintendent of Lava Beds National Monument and the Tule Lake Unit of World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, both located in northeastern California. He has worked with both the local and Japanese American communities to develop the future of the new Tule Lake Unit.

Bernie Sanders is a U.S. Senator from Vermont and candidate to become the next President of the United States. In 2006, he was elected to the U.S. Senate after 16 years as Vermont’s sole congressman in the House of Representatives. Bernie is now serving his third term in the U.S. Senate after winning re-election in 2018 with 67 percent of the vote. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he attended James Madison High School, Brooklyn College, and the University of Chicago. After graduating, he moved to Vermont where he worked as a carpenter and documentary filmmaker. In 1981, he was elected as mayor of Burlington, the state’s largest city, by a mere 10 votes.

As mayor, Bernie’s leadership helped transform Burlington into one of the most exciting and livable small cities in America. Under his administration, the city made major strides in affordable housing, progressive taxation, environmental protection, child care, women’s rights, youth programs and the arts.

In Congress, Bernie has fought tirelessly for working families, focusing on the shrinking middle class and growing gap between the rich and everyone else. Bernie has been called a “practical and successful legislator” and he was dubbed the “amendment king” in the House of Representatives for passing more amendments than any other member of Congress. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Bernie worked across the aisle to “bridge Washington’s toxic partisan divide and cut one of the most significant deals in years.” In 2015, Democratic leadership tapped Bernie to serve as the caucus’ ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee.

Bernie lives in Burlington, Vermont with his wife Jane. He has four children and seven grandchildren.

Alex Clark is a high school physical education teacher at Dunbar high school located in Ward 5 of the District of Columbia. He grew up in Hartford, CT where he attended East Hartford High School. In 2009, he enrolled at Central Connecticut State University, where he played football and received his Bachelor’s degree in Health & Physical Education. From 2015-2019, Clark was the physical education teacher at Eastern Senior High School where he formed the school’s first girls’ varsity soccer team and was awarded 2017 DCIAA soccer coach of the year. He also helped lead the girls basketball team to winning the 2019 DCSAA state basketball championship. After four years at Eastern, he took a position at Dunbar High School, where his career took off. Clark created Prime-Ability, a youth empowerment program geared towards building communities and inspiring young lives through fitness. His most successful project within Prime-Ability and Dunbar has been his biking program. Clark’s biking program manifested into a city-wide movement, offered to all students throughout DC, serving over 300 DC youth in 2020 and now a full circle program offered to DC students during and after school. Clark’s work has been featured in the Washington Post, The Today Show, Bicycle Magazine as well as TIME magazine. Clark was named 2023 DC teacher of the year runner up.  Clark’s motto is #Stay Prime.

Alyssa Proudfoot Siegel is the Membership & Program Coordinator at The League of American Bicyclists. As a Bay Area native who ended up learning how to wrench and winter bike in Minneapolis, Alyssa now literally only knows how to talk about bikes. She coordinated a free bike repair program during the George Floyd protests in the Twin Cities, and connected the city to bike resources in every neighborhood with a bike-shop desert. Alyssa was also a coordinator at the largest bike distribution and repair camp at Burning Man, and is a frequent contributing writer for Grease Rag Ride & Wrench Zines.

Alyssa founded Radical Joy Riding in 2022 as a WTF-focused, accessible biking group in DC, and has organized skill shares, beginner rides, and overnights to inspire marginalized cyclists to do what feels good in their bodies. As an organizer with DC Bike Party and Bikes Not Bombs DC, Alyssa strives to be the human embodiment of a no-drop ride. She believes that bikes can save the world, and whether she’s tinkering with her next bike project, teaching Safe Cycling classes, or leading biking adventures, she’s always chasing that bike utopia dream. With The League, Alyssa fights for a Bicycle Friendly America and safe streets for all.

Amanda Podmore works in southeast Utah as a contractor for the National Parks Conservation Association. She advocates for the protection of national park units, gateway communities, and cultural landscapes in southeast Utah from the negative impacts of adjacent oil and gas development, like light pollution. She engages closely with Tribes from the Four Corners. She is also the Vice-Chair of the Town of Bluff Planning & Zoning Commission and an organizer for the Bluff Area Mutual Aid Covid-19 response.

Briana specializes in utility regulation, ratemaking, and policy development. She has been in the energy industry since 2007, spending eight years in energy consulting at MRW & Associates prior to joining Vote Solar.
Briana focuses her work on distributed generation rate design, diving deep into utility rate cases to ensure that customers are treated fairly and appropriate policy mechanisms are put in place to support increasing levels of distributed energy resources that benefit customers and the planet.

Briana holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Environmental Economics and Policy from U.C. Berkeley. When separated from her spreadsheets Briana enjoys rock climbing, bike touring and traveling. She has been to over 25 countries and has lived in Italy and India.

Cindy Jayne is an active member of Local 20/20’s Climate and Energy Action groups, is the chair of the Port Townsend/Jefferson County Climate Action Committee. She was the project manager for the Planning for Climate Change on the North Olympic Peninsula project.

Colin C. O’Brien joined Earthjustice’s San Francisco location of the California regional office in 2015, having previously worked as a staff attorney in the Alaska regional office. While there, Colin was recognized as the 2013 “Conservationist of the Year” by the Northern Alaska Environmental Center for his work to protect air quality in the Arctic and in Fairbanks, Alaska. He also successfully litigated to protect endangered Steller sea lions and the rich ocean ecosystem of the North Pacific.

Prior to joining the Alaska regional office in 2011, Colin worked for four years as an associate in the Environmental Practice Group at the New York office of Sidley Austin LLP, and then for four years as a staff attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council’s “Clean Air Project” in Washington, D.C. He also served as a law clerk for the Honorable Richard J. Cardamone of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Colin received a bachelor’s degree in political science summa cum laude from The Ohio State University. He is also a graduate of Yale Law School (J.D.) and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (Master of Environmental Management).

Dan was the first Executive Director of O’Neill Sea Odyssey, a free, ocean-going science and environment program for mostly low income elementary school students, from 1999 to 2019. Over 100,000 students were served during his tenure, where he also oversaw a fundraising campaign for and the renovation of the O’Neill building at the Santa Cruz Harbor, including OSO’s education center and the Surfrider Foundation’s water quality lab.

He served as District Chief of Staff for California Senator Henry J. Mello from 1993 until 1996; Executive Director of Save Our Shores – where he worked on local laws in California aimed at onshore facilities for offshore oil and designation of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary – from 1986 to 1993; and Community Affairs Officer for PG&E in the Monterey Bay from 1997 to 1999 where he led a wetland restoration in Moss Landing. Dan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

He serves on the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council, and the Board of Directors of Catamaran Literary Reader, Save Our Shores, and the Monterey Bay Chapter of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. He previously served as Chair of the Santa Cruz County Commission on the Environment, Co-Chair of the Dominican Hospital Community Advisors, on the Santa Cruz County Conference and Visitor’s Council Board of Directors, and from 2015 to 2017 was Chair of the Advisory Committee for the successful effort to gain national monument status for the Cotoni-Coast Dairies property north of Santa Cruz. He has also published two books: 50 Years of Safe Harbor in 2014, and 40 Years of Saving Our Shores in 2019.

From April 2008 until March 2019 he and UCSC Professor Gary Griggs published a weekly ocean column in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Dan received the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce Legacy Award and was named Man of the Year by the Aptos Chamber of Commerce in 2018, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Santa Cruz County Democratic Party and from the Santa Cruz Nexties in 2019, and received the 2011 Ocean Hero Award from Save Our Shores.  He is married to Rebecca Haifley and has two grown children, Aaron and Julia, and enjoys ocean kayaking, reading, and walking.

Dirk is an ocean explorer, deploying deep diving robotic submarines to document recovery and demise in the depths beyond SCUBA. Dirk designed and built manned submersibles and robotic submarines for 17 years, and spent another 5 years at NASA integrating robotics into the International Space Station, before founding, and running Marine Applied Research and Exploration for the past 16 years.

Dr. Tiffany Wise-West is the Sustainability and Climate Action Manager for the City of Santa Cruz. With a bachelor’s degree in civil/environmental engineering from Purdue University and a doctoral degree in environmental studies from the University of California Santa Cruz, she is a licensed professional civil engineer and LEED associate professional with over 20 years of experience in municipal planning, infrastructure, and programming. Dr. Wise-West complements her technical skill set with policy, regulatory, and economic expertise in the areas of climate resilience, energy, and sustainability. Drawing on her interest in innovation and education, she specializes in collaborating across public, private and academic sectors to deliver award-winning and impactful emissions mitigation and climate adaptation policies, projects, and programs.

Jessie Fernandez was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. While at San Francisco State University he studied Ethnic Studies and Urban Studies and Planning. He has organized on issues ranging from educational equity, administrative accountability, immigrant workers rights, and equitable development through inclusive community planning. At PODER, he focuses on advancing environmental justice by providing low-income immigrants and BIPOC youth and families with the knowledge, tools and resources to incorporate bicycling into their everyday lives.

Joel Brammeier is president and CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. He oversees a staff of 20 professionals and more than 11,000 volunteers dedicated to protecting and restoring clean water, educating citizens and youth and building a sustainable future for the Great Lakes. Joel has developed laws and regulations to prevent invasive species in several Great Lakes states and published a first-of-its-kind report describing options for permanent separation of the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River. He also advises the state governors and provincial premiers on regional implementation of the Great Lakes Water Resources Compact. Prior to his work at the Alliance, Joel worked for the American Medical Association. He received his master’s degree from the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources & Environment and his bachelor’s degree from Valparaiso University.

Jonah is Diné from Halgaito in Monument Valley, UT. He is of the Many Arrow Bitterwater clan and born of the Redhouse clan. He was a founding Board Member for Utah Diné Bikéyah (UDB) in 2011 and serves as the Spiritual Advisor for the non-profit organization, promoting healing among people and across ancestral lands. As a Roadman, he is a traditional practitioner who helps the medicine people and herbalists to protect Mother Nature through offerings. He believes that through prayers and ceremonies, we can find harmony and balance to keep the land intact. He also works as a traditional artist, specializing in Native American beadwork and painting.

Kate Williams is CEO of 1% for the Planet, a global movement that inspires action and commitment so that our planet and future generations thrive. 1% for the Planet engages businesses and individuals to support environmental nonprofit solutions through membership and everyday actions.  Started in 2002 by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, and Craig Mathews, founder of Blue Ribbon Flies, 1% for the Planet’s global network of thousands of businesses and individuals have given hundreds of millions to environmental partners to date. Kate has led significant growth in the community’s scale and impact, as well as deep work on best practices for implementing high impact giving strategies, growing a network brand, and operating as highly effective and innovative enterprise.

Kate earned a BA at Princeton University and an MS at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She has served on several nonprofit Boards, currently BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont and Shelburne Farms. Kate is a trail runner, active dog walker, and kitchen gardener. Kate lives in Vermont with her husband and two children.

Marilyn leads the climate and clean energy finance portfolio at the Hewlett Foundation. She has worked across four continents in renewable and nuclear energy and venture capital and investment. Author of Sustainability at Work: careers that make a difference, Marilyn serves on the Board of COI Energy and the Kachuwa Impact Fund. Marilyn previously led the energy practice at Village Capital, modeled and forecasted energy solutions to climate change as a Senior Research Fellow at Project Drawdown, and managed innovation projects at AREVA (now Orano). She holds a Master’s Degree with distinction in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the University of Cambridge and a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering, magna cum laude, from Princeton University.
Follow her on Twitter @WaiteMarilyn
 

Mark Wenzler serves as the inaugural director of the Climate Change Initiative at Chautauqua Institution, a non-profit dedicated to the exploration of the best in human values and the engagement of individuals in the important issues of our day. In collaboration with his colleagues, Mark develops programs that engage people in climate change from multiple unique perspectives and is guiding Chautauqua to become a national model of climate sustainability and freshwater lake conservation.
Before arriving by bike from Washington DC for his first day on the job at Chautauqua in June 2022, Mark served as Senior Vice President for Conservation Programs at National Parks Conservation Association.
Prior to that he directed the climate and energy programs at the National Environmental Trust. Mark is a lawyer who began his career prosecuting environmental cases for the New Jersey Attorney General and later joined the Public Justice law firm to represent organizations and communities in pursing environmental justice against polluters.
Mark volunteers as secretary of the board of directors of Climate Ride and as chair of the board of trustees of Experience Learning.

Michael Jamison joined NPCA’s Glacier Field Office in September 2010, following 14 years as a journalist at the Missoulian newspaper in northwest Montana. He operated the paper’s Flathead Valley Bureau, in the Glacier National Park region, providing an emphasis on natural resource/policy and science reporting.

A longtime Montana resident, Michael graduated from the University of Montana in 1990, with a degree in English (creative non-fiction writing) and an emphasis in environmental studies. He later earned a master’s degree in journalism at UM and for several years taught in the university’s School of Forestry. Prior to taking over the Missoulian’s northern bureau office in 1996, he wrote for Montana State University’s Forest Stewardship program as well as numerous national magazines, and served as managing editor of the Pulitzer-Prize winning Hungry Horse News. Michael’s most recent book project – “How the West Was Warmed” – focused on climate change in Glacier and other national parks, and was a finalist for the 2010 Eric Hoffer Award.

During his many years at the Missoulian, Michael served as the reporter of record for Glacier National Park and the transboundary Flathead, focusing attention on the park and its surrounding landscape. His reporting earned him numerous national awards, including honors from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Society of Environmental Journalists.

In 2009, the Forest History Society (Duke University) in conjunction with the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources honored him with the John M. Collier Award, recognizing his career contribution to writing about environmental and conservation history, and the interaction between people and landscapes.

As program manager for NPCA’s Crown of the Continent Initiative, Michael continues to expand his efforts to promote the narrative of the Crown and of the people who call it home.

Michael S. Stevens brings twenty years of experience in land and wildlife conservation, sustainable agriculture, conservation biology, business and non-profit leadership to his role as State Director for The Nature Conservancy in Washington. In this role, Mike is charged with vision and oversight for The Conservancy’s work with people and on landscapes across the state. As part of the world’s largest conservation organization, Mike also provides leadership and support to projects across the Northwest and internationally.

Prior to joining The Nature Conservancy in Washington, Mike was Co-Founder and Principal of Pioneer Mountain Group, where from 2007 to 2012 he led the environmental consulting firm on projects in the western United States, Canada, and South America. From 2002 to 2011, he served as President of Lava Lake Land & Livestock, based in Hailey, Idaho. During his time leading PMG and Lava Lake, Mike co-founded and led the Pioneers Alliance and co-founded the Central Idaho Rangelands Network and the Wood River Wolf Project. From 1999 to 2006, Mike worked with The Nature Conservancy in Idaho and New Hampshire.

Mike’s education includes a MS from the Field Naturalist Program at the University of Vermont and a BA in Biology from Middlebury College. He was born and lived in Spain until he was 11 and has traveled extensively in Asia, South America, and Europe.

Rozina is an energy and environmental professional with global academic and work experience. She is a Fulbright scholar who spent a year in India studying agrarian distress and then completed her Master’s degree in Environment and Sustainable Development at University College London. She currently serves as the Director of Energy Justice Partnerships at the Clean Energy Leadership Institute (CELI) as well as the Founding Executive Director of Eco.Logic. Rozina’s work takes a creative approach – recently, Rozina wrote and produced a climate comedy play called “Love in the Time of Climate Change” with the recognition that the environmental movement needs more artistic and creative expressions. Rozina strives to help build an inclusive environmental movement recognizing that the scale of the crisis requires all hands on deck.

Sachu manages Vote Solar’s regulatory efforts, coordinating strategy and operations for our far-flung but elite team of experts and intervenors.  Prior to joining Vote Solar he served as the Director of Policy at the Center for Sustainable Energy for 5 years.

Sachu lived and worked abroad in Germany and Hungary and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana, West Africa before settling in Berkeley. In his free time he loves to cook and build slightly off-kilter woodworking projects out of whatever recycled materials he can find.

Sam Grant has been organizing around the intersection of economic, cultural and environmental justice since working on his college campus for divestment from South Africa and working for passage of legislation ensuring that both workers and communities have the right to know about toxic chemicals in their workplaces and communities. Sam brings decades of nonprofit leadership, transformative organizing, and love to the work of MN350. He looks forward to engaging all Minnesotans in a movement that delivers sufficient reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and brings all our creativity together in a just transition that promotes a healthier future for all of us on our beautiful earth home, which all of us come to respect and honor with the way we live our lives well together.

Tim Sullivan is the Climate Director for the North American Region of The Nature Conservancy. He oversees work in all 50 states to develop a climate change program including work on state-level policy; land-based emissions mitigation, and communication and outreach projects.

Prior to this, he was the State Director for The Conservancy’s Colorado Chapter. As State Director he was responsible for the strategic vision and direction of the chapter, overseeing a diverse staff of professionals across the state, and reaching across borders to support the Conservancy’s work in other states and countries. Tim was earlier Conservation Initiatives Director for the Colorado program, managing programs in Science, Fire, Water, and Land Protection. He led the development of The Conservancy’s whole-system Colorado River Program.

Tim has more than 25 years of leadership experience in international, national, and local conservation efforts. Prior to joining The Nature Conservancy, he served as Regional Director for the Environmental Defense Fund, guiding their programs in seven states in the Rocky Mountain west. Tim was Deputy Director for Conservation Programs for the Chicago Zoological Society and worked for the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN) Species Survival Commission. He also served as an aide to Senator Tim Wirth with responsibility for environmental and public lands issues. He served on the Board of the Quivira Coalition from 2005 to 2015.

He has an undergraduate degree in Biology and History from Cornell University and a master’s degree in Conservation Biology from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Torrey grew up in Carbondale, Colorado where he forged an early and lasting connection to the ski mountain and the outdoors. As Development Director, Torrey manages POW’s development strategy, including cultivation of industry partners, foundations, major donors, and execution of events. Additionally, Torrey oversees POWs finances and budget, bookkeeping, and compliance.

Before joining POW in 2016, Torrey worked for three years as a strategic advisor to Jim Collins, author of the international bestseller GOOD TO GREAT, and gained unique insight into the practices of building great organizations diagnosing organizational challenges and opportunities with Fortune 500 corporations, leading social sector enterprises, and executive teams.

Torrey is the descendant of a line of adventurers and conservationists. Torrey’s grandfather and great-uncle, Morris and Stewart Udall, each played significant roles in conserving natural landscapes throughout the United States. Torrey’s maternal grandfather, Dick Emerson, was part of the first successful American expedition to Everest in 1963.

Abel Gustafson, PhD, is Assistant Professor at University of Cincinnati, Co-Founder XandY Analytics, and a Research Affiliate at Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. He specializes in using social scientific research to understand how people think and act regarding science, technology, and sustainability and uses his research to develop communication strategies that can shift opinions and behaviors. Abel is co-author of the 2020 research paper, “Personal Stories Can Shift Climate Change Beliefs and Risk Perceptions: The Mediating Role of Emotion” and of the 2020 research study, “Leveraging Social Science to Generate Lasting Engagement with Climate Change Solutions.” Abel also loves riding his bike!

Ashley joined MASS in 2018, driven by a desire to address the spatial implications of our rewired culture of life, learning, and play. A licensed architect, she has worked across the spectrum of learning, public, technology, and innovative research sectors. Ashley was part of the team that wrote “The Third Teacher” one of Fast Company’s best design books of 2010, which describes ways design can transform teaching and learning. Named in 2017 by San Francisco Business Times, “40 under 40 San Francisco” rising star, she’s a seasoned facilitator and engagement strategist, with deep experience conducting human-centered user research in the built environment.

Renowned author, educator, and environmentalist, Bill McKibben is founder and senior adviser emeritus of 350.org. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages. He’s gone on to write many more books, and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the New Yorker to Rolling Stone. He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 19 colleges and universities. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the alternative Nobel, in the Swedish Parliament. Foreign Policy named him to its inaugural list of the world’s 100 most important global thinkers.

McKibben helped found 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, and has organized on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action.

Foreign Policy named him to their inaugural list of the world’s 100 most important global thinkers, and the Boston Globe said he was “probably America’s most important environmentalist.”

Daniel Fagre is Research Ecologist and Climate Change Research Coordinator for the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center of the U. S. Geological Survey. He is stationed at Glacier National Park, Montana and is a faculty affiliate at the University of Montana, Montana State University, and several other universities. He’s worked for the past 24 years with many staff, partners and collaborators in the Northern Rocky Mountains to understand how global-scale environmental changes will affect our mountain ecosystems. His diverse research programs have addressed glaciers, avalanches, amphibians, alpine plants, paleoclimates, snow chemistry and ecosystem dynamics of bioregions. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, and has held positions in universities and several federal agencies. He helped establish the Western Mountain Initiative, a program to tie mountain science across different areas, and is active in several international science networks that address mountain issues. He co-authored a book on national parks and protected areas published in 2005 and another on mountain ecosystems in 2007. He recently received the Director’s Award for Natural Resource Research from the National Park Service and serves on the Montana governor’s advisory board for climate change.

I’ve had the good fortune to be a part of archaeological and coastal ecology research and diving operations throughout the world for nearly the past two decades. I’ve worked as the Diving Safety Officer for the University of Southern California, the Caribbean Marine Research Center, the Aquarium of the Pacific, the Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology, Washington State University Vancouver, The Albanian Center for Marine Research, and the Coordination of Scientific Divers of Croatia. I’m currently the President-Elect of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences and the STEM Director for the San Juan Island School District. I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology at UC Santa Cruz, my Masters in Zoology at the University of Hawai’i, and my PhD in Biology at the University of Washington. In my spare time, I like to sail and knit. Sometimes I knit while sailing.

Dirk is an ocean explorer, deploying deep diving robotic submarines to document recovery and demise in the depths beyond SCUBA. Dirk designed and built manned submersibles and robotic submarines for 17 years, and spent another 5 years at NASA integrating robotics into the International Space Station, before founding, and running Marine Applied Research and Exploration for the past 16 years.

Elizabeth (Lisa) A. Del Buono, MD trained at the University of Michigan as a surgical pathologist and has practiced in Traverse City, Michigan since 2000.  In 2013, out of concern for her son’s future, Lisa became an active volunteer in the Grand Traverse Area Citizens’ Climate Lobby for which she has served as co-leader, CCL liaison to Rep. Bergman (MI-01), and a member of CCL’s Health Action Team. Lisa has given numerous presentations about CCL’s Carbon Fee & Dividend proposal and the health impacts of climate change. While Lisa spends time looking through her microscope, her husband and son have participated in several climate rides and hikes. Someday, she hopes to have the time to get in shape and join you guys on a ride or a hike!

Erich is a Physical Scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center in West Glacier, Montana. His research focuses on snow, ice, and avalanches, primarily in and around Glacier National Park. He completed his Master of Science and is finishing his PhD in Snow Science at Montana State University. When not trying to figure out the puzzles of the frozen world, he can be found chasing his two young sons around the mountains.

Erick Cedeño is an explorer and historian, and on social media, he is known as the Bicycle Nomad. (IG: bicycle_nomad)

12 years ago, he embarked on a bicycle tour from Vancouver, Canada to Tijuana, Mexico. The following year he traveled from Miami Beach, FL to New York City, NY. In 2014 and 2020 he rode from New Orleans to Niagara Falls, Canada following the historic path of the Underground Railroad.

In 2022, he retraced the route and history of the All-Black, bicycle-mounted 25th Infantry to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Bicycle Corps 1897 expedition from Fort Missoula, Montana to St. Louis, Missouri. Their mission was to thoroughly test the practicability of the bicycle as a method of transportation. Erick was recently inducted into The Explorers Club in 2022 and named one of the 50 Explorers (#EC50) changing the world.

Kathy Lunetta is a professor of Biostatistics at Boston University School of Public Health, where she mentors Master of Public Health students and doctoral students in biostatistics, bioinformatics, and epidemiology.  Her school’s location next to a safety net hospital and in a coastal city leads her to confront the impact of climate change on the health of vulnerable populations on a daily basis.

Conservation scientist Phillip Levin is the Lead Scientist for The Nature Conservancy in Washington and Professor of Practice at the University of Washington’s College of the Environment. Prior to taking the newly created joint position with UW and the Conservancy, Levin was at NOAA Fisheries Science Center in Seattle where he was Senior Scientist and Director of the Conservation Biology Division.

Levin has received the Department of Commerce Silver Award and NOAA’s Bronze Medal for his work on marine ecosystems, and the Seattle Aquarium’s Conservation Research Award for his work in Puget Sound. He has published over 150 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and technical reports, and his work has been featured in such news outlets as NPR, PBS, the BBC, MSBNC, The Economist, among others. His research into Puget Sound’s sixgill sharks was recently featured on “Wildlife Detectives: Mystery Sharks of Seattle” on KCTS-9.

Levin is an editor of the scientific journal, Conservation Letters, recently served as President of the Western Society of Naturalists, and has served on numerous editorial boards and scientific advisory panels. He received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of New Hampshire in 1993 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina.

Phoebe S. Moore, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist who has specialized in the treatment of adults, children, teens and families affected by obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety disorders since 1998. Dr. Moore joined the faculty at Duke University Medical Center in 2004 and then came to the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2011. She is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at UMASS. Dr. Moore specializes in in exposure with response prevention (E/RP) for OCD, and she also uses exposure-focused, evidence-based cognitive-behavioral treatments to treat anxiety disorders such as social phobia, generalized anxiety, and separation anxiety. Her academic research focuses on understanding and changing family and parent processes that serve to maintain or exacerbate anxiety in children and adolescents.

Sandy Aylesworth advocates for policies that protect and restore our oceans. Sandy’s work at NRDC focuses on seafood traceability as a means to combat Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated fishing, and defending our coasts from new offshore oil drilling. Prior to joining NRDC, she worked on climate change mitigation through the Montreal Protocol at the U.S. Department of State and was a Knauss Marine Policy Fellow at NOAA’s Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs. Over the course of her nine-year career as a captain and mate, she became intimately familiar with the oceans on voyages in French Polynesia, Mexico, the United States, and the Caribbean. Aylesworth also served in the U.S. Antarctic Program on seven oceanographic cruises. She holds a master’s of environmental management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a 500 Ton Ocean Master license. She is based in San Francisco.

Dr. Sasha Reed is an ecologist focused on understanding how our nation’s ecosystems work and what factors determine the services they provide. The study sites and methods Sasha uses are diverse, and with each of her projects she strives to provide scientific information that helps our nation address challenges, solve problems, and maximize opportunities.

Sasha seeks to provide useful information for land managers, policy-makers, and the general public. Sasha uses both basic and applied scientific approaches to improve our understanding of the fundamental controls over our ecosystems, to determine how these systems respond to change, and to explore solutions for addressing relevant problems. Sasha works closely with a range of collaborators – including federal agency partners (BLM, NPS, DOE, DoD, BIA, USFS, USFWS) – in designing research studies, conducting information and technology transfer, and performing outreach activities. Some of her primary research interests include understanding how drought and increasing temperatures affect ecosystems, exploring a diversity of energy options for meeting national demand, assessing the consequences of exotic plant invasion and ways to combat them, and establishing novel management options for increased effectiveness and efficiency in restoration. Sasha attempts to conduct research that is innovative, collaborative, and useful.

Sony Ton-Aime is a Haitian poet, essayist, and translator. He is the Michael I. Rudell Director of Literary Arts at Chautauqua Institution. In addition to his chapbook, LaWomann (Ironworks Press, 2019), he is the author of the Haitian Creole translation of the book Olympic Hero: The Lennox Kilgour’s Story. He has with other Haitian scholars put together a Haitian Creole course in Duolingo. Sony’s works have appeared in poetry publications throughout the U.S. Sony leads the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, the Chautauqua Writers’ Center, the literary journal Chautauqua, two national literary prizes, and the Poetry Makerspace in partnership with Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center.

Tim Sullivan is the Climate Director for the North American Region of The Nature Conservancy. He oversees work in all 50 states to develop a climate change program including work on state-level policy; land-based emissions mitigation, and communication and outreach projects.

Prior to this, he was the State Director for The Conservancy’s Colorado Chapter. As State Director he was responsible for the strategic vision and direction of the chapter, overseeing a diverse staff of professionals across the state, and reaching across borders to support the Conservancy’s work in other states and countries. Tim was earlier Conservation Initiatives Director for the Colorado program, managing programs in Science, Fire, Water, and Land Protection. He led the development of The Conservancy’s whole-system Colorado River Program.

Tim has more than 25 years of leadership experience in international, national, and local conservation efforts. Prior to joining The Nature Conservancy, he served as Regional Director for the Environmental Defense Fund, guiding their programs in seven states in the Rocky Mountain west. Tim was Deputy Director for Conservation Programs for the Chicago Zoological Society and worked for the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN) Species Survival Commission. He also served as an aide to Senator Tim Wirth with responsibility for environmental and public lands issues. He served on the Board of the Quivira Coalition from 2005 to 2015.

He has an undergraduate degree in Biology and History from Cornell University and a master’s degree in Conservation Biology from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.