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Paul Fischer is a film producer who studied social sciences at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris and film at the University of Southern California and the New York Film Academy. Paul’s first feature film, the documentary Radioman, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Doc NYC film festival and was released to critical and commercial acclaim. A Kim Jong-Il Production is his first book.

Laurence Ralph is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Anthropology and African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He is the author of Renegade Dreams: Living Through Injury in Gangland Chicago (University of Chicago Press). His scholarly work explores how the historical circumstances of police abuse, mass incarceration, and the drug trade naturalize disease, disability, and premature death for urban residents, who are often seen as expendable. Theoretically, his research resides at the nexus of critical medical and political anthropology, African American studies, and the emerging scholarship on disability. He combines these literatures to show how violence and injury play a central role in the daily lives of black urbanites. Laurence explored these diverse themes in Anthropological Theory, Disability Studies Quarterly, Transition, and Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power. Laurence earned a PhD Master of Arts degree in Anthropology from the University of Chicago, and a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgia Institute of Technology where he majored in History, Technology and Society.

**Gavin Schmidt** is a climate scientist who works on understanding past, present, and future climate change. He is the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and an adjunct faculty member with the Earth Institute of Columbia University. He is committed to communicating science to the general public, making sure that the non-scienctists have access to the basics of climate change. His TED talk (2014) was focused on simulating the emergent patterns of climate change. He is the author, with Josh Wolfe, of \_Climate Change: Picturing the Science\_ (2009), co-founder on the website RealClimate.org, and was awarded the American Geophysical Union's inaugural Climate Communications Prize in 2011. On Twitter he is @ClimateOfGavin.

Nigel Purvis is the founder and president of Climate Advisers, a Washington, DC based consultancy specializing in US climate change policy, international climate change cooperation, global carbon markets, and climate related forest conservation. The firm's clients include philanthropic foundations, think tanks, and environmental groups, governments, international organizations, companies, and financial institutions. Nigel directed US environmental diplomacy in the William J. Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, most recently as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, Environment, and Science. In that capacity he shaped US Foreign policy relating to climate change, biodiversity conservation, forests, toxic substances, ozone depletion, and environmental aspects of international trade. He worked closely with senior officials in the White House, Congress, key federal agencies, and negotiated internationally with ministers and ambassadors from around the world. Currently, Nigel holds climate change and international affairs research appointments at Resources for the Future, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the Brookings Institution. From 2005 to 2007, Nigel served as the global vice president for policy and external affairs at the Nature Conservancy. From 2002 to 2005, he was a senior scholar in the foreign policy program of the Brookings Institution and an International affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a prize-winning honors graduate of Harvard Law School.

Julian Agyeman is a professor of urban and environmental policy and planning a Tufts University. He is the originator of the concept of "just sustainabilities," the full integration of social justice and sustainability, defined as "the need to ensure a better quality of life for all, now and in the future, in a just and equitable manner, whilst living within the limits of supporting ecosystems." He is an environmental social scientist who thrives at the boarders and the intersections of a wide range of knowledge and methodologies and utilizes these in creative and original ways. His research interests critically explore some aspect(s) of the complex and embedded relations between humans and the environment, whether mediated by institutions or social movement organizations, and the effects of this on public policy and planning processes and outcomes, particularly in relation to notions of justice and equity. He is co-founder and editor-in-chief of the international journal \_Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability\_. With over 160 publications, his recent books include \_Cultivating Food Justice: Race, Class, and Sustainability\_ (MIT Press 2011), \_Introducing Just Sustainabilities: Policy, Planning, and Practice\_ (Zed Books 2013) and \_Incomplete Streets: Processes, Practices, and Possibilities\_ (Routledge 2014).

**Ai-jen Poo** is director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) and co-director of the Caring Across Generations campaign, has been organizing immigrant women workers since 1996. In 2000 she co-founded Domestic Workers United, the New York organization that spearheaded the successful passage of the state’s historic Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in 2010. In 2007, DWU helped organize the first national domestic workers’ convening, out of which formed the NDWA. As co-director of Caring Across Generations, Ai-jen leads a movement that is inspiring thousands of careworkers, parents,grandparents, grandchildren, and lawmakers to work together to ensure that all people can mature in this country with dignity, security, and independence. Ai-jen serves on the Board of Directors of Momsrising, National Jobs with Justice, Working America, and the National Council on Aging. She is a 2014 MacArthur Fellow, a 2013 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and was named to TIME’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2012. Other accolades include the Ms. Foundation Woman of Vision Award, the Independent Sector American Express NGen Leadership Award, and \_Newsweek’s\_ 150 Fearless Women list.

**Mary Anne Hitt** is director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, which is working to eliminate coal pollution, stop climate disruption and re-power the nation with clean energy. In 2012, \_Mother Jones\_ described the campaign as "a grassroots rebellion [that] is winning the biggest victory yet on climate change." Mary Anne was named one of the 10 most influential people of 2013 by SNL Energy and she was listed in 2013 by the \_Washingtonian\_ as part of "The New Guard: People Who Are Shaping Washington" in Obama's second term. In 2014, she and the Beyond Coal Campaign were featured in the Showtime climate series Years of \_Living Dangerously\_. She previously served as executive director of Appalachian Voices and other grassroots organizations. She received her master of science from the University of Montana and her bachelors degree from the University of Tennessee, where she later received the 2008 Notable UT Woman Award. She grew up in the mountains of east Tennessee and now lives in West Virginia with her family.

Gar Alperovitz is a historian and political economist. He is the author most recently of \_What Then Must We Do?\_—a book about democratized economic institutions that suggest possibilities for transformative change. His most well-known historical works include \_The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb and Cold War Essays\_. His political-economic books range from studies of localist economics (\_Making a Place for Community\_) and system-wide restructuring (\_America Beyond Capitalism\_) to theoretical work on distributive justice and technological change (\_Unjust Deserts\_). Alperovitz’s popular writings appear regularly in the \_New York Times\_, \_the Nation\_, and many print and online venues. A former Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, and of Harvard’s Institute of Politics, he has served as legislative director in both Houses of Congress and as special assistant on UN matters in the Department of State. He is also co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative, an institute developing democratic ownership strategies. This past July he stepped down as Lionel R. Bauman Professor at the University of Maryland to co-chair with environmentalist Gus Speth \_The Next System Project\_, a new initiative involving current and recent presidents of several of the nation’s academic associations, along with labor, environmental, and other activist leaders. Alperovitz has appeared as a guest on \_Meet the Press\_, \_Charlie Rose\_, \_The O’Reilly Factor\_, and numerous other television shows.

**Jonathan Foley** is the executive director of the California Academy of Sciences, where he is also the William R. and Gretchen B. Kimball Chair. In this role, he leads one of the world's greenest and most future-focused scientific institutions. His work concentrates on global sustainability and the ecosystems and natural resources on which we depend. Foley joined the Academy in 2014 after spending over two decades leading university- based programs focused on global environmental issues. Most recently, he was the director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, where he was also a professor and McKnight Presidential Chair of Global Environment and Sustainability. Foley has published numerous scientific articles, including highly cited works in\_Science\_, \_Nature\_,and the \_Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences\_. He has also written many popular articles, op-eds, and essays for \_National Geographic\_, the \_New York Times\_, \_Scientific American\_, and the \_Guardian\_, among others. His research has been featured on the covers of \_Nature\_, \_National Geographic\_, and \_Scientific American\_. A noted science communicator, Foley’s presentations on global environmental issues have been featured at hundreds of venues, including the Aspen Environmental Forum, the Chautauqua Institution, and TED. Foley has won numerous awards and honors, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (awarded by President Bill Clinton), the National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development Award, and the Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological Society of America. In 2014, he was named winner of the Heinz Award for the Environment. 

**Andrew Winston** is a globally recognized expert on how companies can navigate and profit from humanity’s biggest challenges. Andrew’s first book, Green to Gold, was the top-selling green business title of the last decade, selling over 100,000 copies in seven languages. Inc. magazine included Green to Gold on its all-time list of 30 books that every manager should own. His new book, \_The Big Pivot\_, provides a practical roadmap to help leaders build resilient, thriving companies and communities in a volatile world. He is also author of the Harvard Business Review cover story “Resilience in a Hotter World.” His views on strategy have been sought after by many of the world’s leading companies, including Boeing, HP, J&J, Kimberly-Clark, PepsiCo, PwC, and Unilever. His earlier career included advising companies on corporate strategy while at the Boston Consulting Group and strategy and marketing roles at Time Warner and MTV. Today, Andrew is also a highly respected and dynamic speaker, reaching audiences of thousands at high-profile events like TED with an entertaining message of practical optimism: the world’s challenges are great, but business has the tools, resources, and creativity to build a prosperous world. He received his BA in economics from Princeton, an MBA from Columbia, and a Master of Environmental Management from Yale.

**Haile Johnston** is a Philadelphia-based social entrepreneur who works to improve the vitality of rural and urban communities through food systems reform and policy change. As a father of three, he actively pursues his core purpose to “repair the earth for our children and prepare our children for the earth.” Along with his wife, Tatiana, he is the co-director and a founder of the Common Market, a nonprofit distribution enterprise that connects communities in the mid-Atlantic region to sustainable, locally grown farm food. The two have also teamed up to found the East Park Revitalization Alliance in their community of Strawberry Mansion, where they have resided for eleven years. Haile is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business where he concentrated in entrepreneurial management and is proud to have served recently as a Food and Community Fellow with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

Mikko Nissinen became Artistic Director of Boston Ballet and Boston Ballet School in 2001. Born in Helsinki, Finland, Nissinen began his dance training at age ten with The Finnish National Ballet School, and launched his professional dance career at age 15 with The Finnish National Ballet. In 1978, he won First Prize at The National Ballet Competition in Kuopio, Finland. He continued his studies at The Kirov Ballet School for one year. Nissinen went on to dance with Dutch National Ballet, Basel Ballet and San Francisco Ballet, where he held the position of principal dancer for ten years. During Nissinen's performance career his vast repertoire ranged from classical to contemporary works. As a guest artist, he danced with many different companies and partners and at numerous international galas.