Forum Network

Markus Klute joined MIT in 2009, and in 2020 he was also awarded the prestigious Humboldt Professor of Physics at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany). Professor Klute’s research in particle physics represents the energy frontier in the design, construction and commissioning of particle detectors, and also in the analysis of the data collected. In 2012 his group played a central role in the discovery of the Higgs boson using the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The discovery of the Higgs boson will help to determine the origin of mass in matter as well as various symmetry mechanisms. Dr. Klute is also involved in the LHC search for physics beyond the Standard Model. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a reviewer for the National Science Foundation and a member of the scientific advisory board of the PRISMA+ cluster of excellence in Mainz.

**Ruth Rubio Marín** is Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Sevilla, Director of the Gender and Governance Programme at the School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute, Florence, and a member of the Faculty of The Hauser Global Law School Program at New York University. Her research represents an attempt to understand how public law creates categories of inclusion and exclusion around different axis including gender, citizenship, nationality and ethnicity. Professor Rubio is the author of over 40 articles and author, editor and co-editor of 8 books (plus two in press). She is currently working on the book The Disestablishment of Gender in the New Millennium Constitutionalism. As a consultant and activist, Rubio has worked for several national and international institutions and agencies including with the UN and the EU, and has extensive in-country experience in dealing with reparations in post-conflict societies, including in Morocco, Nepal and Colombia. Her image will be included in the Legacy Wall to be installed in the new building of the International Criminal Court in The Hague to honor her lifelong commitment to gender justice.

**Chad Brown**, decorated US Navy veteran who received multiple honors after serving in Desert Storm Gulf War and Operation Restore Hope, Somalia, struggles today with PTSD. The illness nearly drove him to suicide before he found solace in fly fishing. Brown’s discovery of nature as medicine inspired him to launch Soul River, Inc., a nonprofit that aims to share the healing power of rivers with veterans and inner-city youth. Soul River Inc. has held successful deployments taking youth and veterans on local rivers in Oregon, Washington, Utah, Florida, and far off destinations in Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. These opportunities promote healing and learning through many facets of outdoors education and advocacy leadership development mentored by veterans while breaking barriers and building new communities. Brown’s work as the Founder and President of Soul River Inc. has taken him across the country, including multiple times to our nation’s capital, to speak about connecting people of the inner city, particularly youth of color, to the outdoors. Additionally, Brown has presented to key city leaders, state representatives, and officials about diversity, conservation, and building collaborative relationships between nonprofit and for-profit businesses. Brown also sits on the National Wildlife Refuge Association’s Board of Directors.  

**Greg Asbed** is a 2017 MacArthur Fellow and a co-founder of the Fair Food Program (FFP) and the Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) model, a breakthrough approach to verifiable corporate accountability recognized by observers from the United Nations to the White House for its unique effectiveness in combatting forced labor, sexual violence, and other longstanding human rights violations in agriculture. Mr. Asbed spearheads the development of the FFP’s market-based enforcement mechanisms, rights standards, and worker education processes.  He coordinates relations amongst transnational corporate buyers (including Sodexo, Walmart, and McDonalds), industry suppliers, and farmworkers.  He also consults with other industries, both nationally and internationally, on the adaptation of the FFP to other contexts. On behalf of the FFP, Mr. Asbed accepted the 2015 Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts in Combatting Human Trafficking at the White House.  He is the recipient of the 2014 Clinton Global Citizen

**Byron Auguste** is CEO of Opportunity@Work, a social enterprise that aims to re-wire the U.S. labor market by creating pathways for overlooked and underrepresented job seekers in the innovation economy.  Before co-founding Opportunity@Work, Byron served as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council in the Obama administration. His portfolio included job creation, labor markets, research and development, innovation, capital investment, infrastructure, transportation, and goods movement. As a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, he led McKinsey's High Tech Services sector from 2002 to 2006, and its global Social Sector from 2007 to 2012. Over his 20 years at McKinsey, Byron worked primarily in technology and communications, information and media, services-based businesses, education, economic development and innovation. Byron has served as board chairman of Hope Street Group, and on the boards of trustees of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Yale University.

**Lucy Cooke** is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and best-selling author with a Masters in zoology from Oxford university (where she was tutored by Richard Dawkins). Lucy has written, produced and presented natural history programmes for BBC, PBS, Animal Planet and National Geographic Wild (‘Freaks and Creeps’). Her ‘Meet the Sloths’ documentary (Animal Planet) won the coveted Panda popular documentary award at Wildscreen 2014 and went on to become a major international series for Discovery International. Lucy’s love of sloths led her to found the Sloth Appreciation Society which now has over 10,000 members and over 60,000 avid followers. Lucy’s viral sloth videos have featured on every show from Ellen to John Oliver and earned her the reputation of ‘the Steven Spielberg of sloth filmmaking’ (the Atlantic). Her first book, A Little Book of Sloth, was a New York Times best-seller.

**Tara Houska** (Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe) is a tribal attorney, the National Campaigns Director of Honor the Earth, and a former advisor on Native American affairs to Bernie Sanders. She advocates on behalf of tribal nations at the local and federal levels on a wide range of issues impacting indigenous peoples. Houska spent six months on the frontlines in North Dakota fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline, and is heavily engaged in the movement to defund fossil fuels and a years-long struggle against Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline. She is a co-founder of Not Your Mascots, a non-profit committed to educating the public about the harms of stereotyping and promoting positive representation of Native Americans in the public sphere. 

**Rodney Foxworth** is a nonprofit leader and social entrepreneur, who serves as Executive Director of BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies), a network of entrepreneurial ecosystem builders, financial activists, and philanthropy leaders building inclusive economic opportunities through entrepreneurship and local business ownership in communities throughout the U.S. and Canada. Previously, he was CEO and Founder of Invested Impact, a consulting firm focused on economic development, philanthropy, and social innovation, and co-founder and Strategy Advisor of Impact Hub Baltimore. Prior to founding Invested Impact, Rodney was community manager at BMe, a national network of black male leaders and entrepreneurs. Rodney has also served as program manager at Job Opportunities Task Force, a policy advocacy and workforce development organization. Additionally, he has been a consultant to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Calvert Impact Capital, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, among others. Rodney is a BALLE Fellow, Next City Vanguard, and Baltimore Business Journal “40 under 40” honoree. He is featured in the Washington Post bestseller, “Reach: 40 Black Men Speak on Living, Leading, and Succeeding.” Rodney serves on the board of Justice Funders, SOCAP, and Thread, Inc.

**Yorman Nuñez** is advancing economic development models that use shared ownership and collective governance as a means to address the root causes of intergenerational poverty. Yorman is currently the Director of the Just Urban Economies program at MIT CoLab, an effort to co-develop economic infrastructure for economic democracy and self-determination in marginalized communities across the US. His commitment to radical economic transformation emerged out of his work as a community organizer with the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, where he organized young people around issues of sustainable economic development, education reform, and voter education. It was during this time that Yorman co-founded the Urban Youth Collaborative, a city-wide youth organization working on education reform, and the Leadership Institute, a small school in the Bronx, where he taught community organizing and spoken word at the high-school level. Yorman has been recognized by The Democracy At Work Institute, Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, and Grist for his efforts to build economic democracy. Yorman is originally from the Dominican Republic but calls the Bronx his second home.

Jesse Mermell joined the Alliance for Business Leadership as President in January of 2015, having previously served as a member of Governor Deval L. Patrick’s senior staff. As Governor Patrick’s Communications Director, Mermell was responsible for communications strategy and for overseeing the press operations of the Governor’s office. Mermell is the former State Director of the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired. She has also held positions as the Vice President for External Affairs at Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, and as the Executive Director of FairTest and of the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus. Bio via https://alliancebl.org/jesse-mermell/

Stacey Beuttell manages the technical assistance programs at WalkBoston that provide support to municipalities across the state to improve the safety and quality of the pedestrian environment. She conducts training programs that describe the health, economic and community benefits of walking, and leads walk audits to identify infrastructure deficiencies, recommend solutions, and build community support for walking. She has developed research and policy guidance on specific walkability-related issues including: walkable campus design for elementary schools, low cost pedestrian infrastructure, and pedestrian safety awareness for law enforcement. Prior to joining WalkBoston, Stacey was a Senior Associate at Sasaki Associates where she practiced as an urban designer and planner for over thirteen years. She holds a Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Michigan and Bachelor of Arts in American Studies/Environmental Studies from Dickinson College.

A Jamaica Plain resident who specializes in percussion, Karen Young's passion for taiko drumming was ignited the first time she heard it 30 years ago. Young's approach to taiko aims to inspire marginalized populations to reclaim voice, culture, power, and a sense of belonging. Influenced by Japanese-American taiko activists of the 1960's, Young is the founder of The Genki Spark, a multi-generational, pan-Asian women's arts and advocacy organization that uses taiko drumming, personal stories, and creativity to build community, develop leadership, and advocate respect for all.