Director of Policy | Maine Environmental Education Association

Amara Ifeji, 21, an award-winning (2021 National Geographic Young Explorer and 2022 Brower Youth Award) climate justice activist, Director of Policy at the Maine Environmental Education Association, has had great success in mobilizing youth-led, grassroots movements to advance climate education legislation and ensure equitable access to outdoor learning for ALL youth in Maine.

Lead Organizer | Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard

Ilana Cohen is a lead organizer of the Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard campaign and the international Fossil Free Research movement, which combats the fossil fuel industry’s dangerous influence on academia. She is also a 2022 Brower Youth Award winner and a climate journalist with bylines in outlets including The Nation, The New Republic, Teen Vogue, and Inside Climate News. Ilana is currently a senior and Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics Undergraduate Fellow at Harvard University, where she studies the ethics of climate change.

2021 Brower Youth Award Winner

Peter Pham, an undergraduate student majoring in Public Health, engages in the youth climate movement to pass climate action at the municipal, county, and state levels. He serves on the board of a youth climate nonprofit, an environmental advocacy group and an urban forestry nonprofit, and served as a 2021 redistricting commissioner. Peter won a prestigious Brower Youth Award for his activism in 2021.

Co-Founder | Start:Empowerment

Alexia Leclercq, a grassroots organizer, scholar and artist, has led dozens of environmental justice campaigns from passing legislation, fighting for clean water, addressing aggregate mining pollution to international advocacy and speaking at the UN on climate negotiations. Co-founder of the Colorado River Conservancy and of Start:Empowerment (a Queer and BIPOC-led nonprofit at the nexus of climate education and environmental justice organizing), her work has been recognized by the Brower Youth Award, Jericho Activism Prize, WWF Conservation prize and more. Currently a graduate student at Harvard, her research there focuses on the use of liberatory pedagogy to advance climate justice and air quality in communities of color.

Vice Chair | Esselen Tribe

Cari Herthel, the Vice Chair of and medicine woman for the Esselen Tribe, is a survivor leader and somatic therapist whose healing and reconciliation practice extends into mending the sacred hoop.

Director of Training and Capacity Building | National Compadres Network

Jerry Tello, of Mexican, Texan and Coahuiltecan ancestry, raised in South Central Los Angeles, has worked for 40+ years as a leading, award-winning expert in transformational healing for men and boys of color; racial justice; peaceful community mobilization; and providing domestic violence awareness, healing and support services to war veterans and their spouses. He co-founded the Healing Generations Institute and the National Compadres Network, where he is currently Director of Training and Capacity Building. He has authored numerous articles, videos, curricula, and a series of children’s books, and is a member of the Sacred Circles performance group.

Founder | Unity Through Creativity Foundation and the Singing Tree Project

Laurie Marshall, an author and artist, founder of the Unity Through Creativity Foundation and the Singing Tree Project, is a certified K-12 Art and Social Studies teacher who has worked for four decades to empower youth and adults through creative collaboration in her Peace Building through Art Inspired by Nature programs. An Arts Integration and Project-Based Learning specialist, she has served mostly low-income children, seeking to nurture creativity, a love of learning and a collaborative spirit and has made innovative use of visual art and storytelling in a wide range of consensus building, leadership training and conflict prevention initiatives with clients that have included NASA, FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Interior, the U.S. Botanical Gardens, as well as public schools, hospitals and prisons around the U.S.

Facilitator

Sweta Chawla, PharmD, a former professor of pharmacy turned leadership coach, is a certified Art of Sacred Circle, Singing Tree and Step into Your Moxie facilitator who uses art, self-awareness and vocal expression to empower her clients. She has published articles and essays in many journals and magazines, and is the author of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For...Now What? as well as a contributor to the award-winning anthology: She’s Got This: Essays on Standing Strong and Moving On.

Facilitator | Singing Tree Project

Leslie Rein, a former mental health counselor, municipal government administrator, and dancer, has, since 2019, focused on visual art, including by working on collaborative murals as a Singing Tree Project facilitator and by facilitating the creation of large, collaboratively made chalk drawings on school playgrounds and in other public spaces.

Founder | Earth Uprising International

Alexandria Villaseñor co-founded the U.S. Youth Climate Strike movement (part of the youth-led international Fridays for Future movement) at age 13. Now 17, Alexandria has become an internationally-recognized, prestigious award-winning activist, speaker, author and founder of several initiatives, including Earth Uprising International. A contributing author to All We Can Save, an anthology of women climate leaders, and a child petitioner for the groundbreaking international complaint to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Children vs. Climate Crisis, Alexandria serves on the advisory board of Evergreen Action, is a youth spokesperson for the American Lung Association, and is the youngest Junior Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Lead Circle Member | Youth vs Apocalypse

Aniya Butler is a 16 year old spoken word poet and organizer from Oakland, CA. She works with a youth-led climate justice group, Youth Vs Apocalypse where she directs the Hip Hop & Climate Justice Initiative and coordinates the No One Is Disposable campaign. Using poetry and organizing, Aniya emphasizes the importance of acknowledging that climate change is a direct result from the same oppressive systems responsible for the social injustices frontline people experience every day.  Aniya wants to help rebuild a world with foundations of equity, sustainability, and love so that every living thing can truly thrive.

Co-Founder | Start:Empowerment

Alexia Leclercq, a grassroots organizer, scholar and artist, has led dozens of environmental justice campaigns from passing legislation, fighting for clean water, addressing aggregate mining pollution to international advocacy and speaking at the UN on climate negotiations. Co-founder of the Colorado River Conservancy and of Start:Empowerment (a Queer and BIPOC-led nonprofit at the nexus of climate education and environmental justice organizing), her work has been recognized by the Brower Youth Award, Jericho Activism Prize, WWF Conservation prize and more. Currently a graduate student at Harvard, her research there focuses on the use of liberatory pedagogy to advance climate justice and air quality in communities of color.

Founder | Reserva: The Youth Land Trust

Callie Broaddus, a Washington, DC-based conservation photographer and the founder of Reserva: The Youth Land Trust, a nonprofit empowering youth to conserve threatened species and habitats around the world, has focused since 2019 on the Ecuadorian Tropical Andes, Earth’s most unique biodiversity hotspot, where Reserva is working with partners to prevent gold mining in the fragile Dracula Reserve ecological corridor. Callie also serves on the advisory councils and boards of several leading conservation organizations.

Action Lead Program Manager | Narrative Initiative

Orion Camero (they, their), a Filipinx queer visual storytelling educator and cultural organizer who honors the stories of their ancestors from the Central Valley farmworkers’ movements to Indigenous Babaylan resistance against the Spanish empire, is Action Lead Program Manager for Narrative Initiative (a story-based social change organization) and stewards the California Allegory, an epic collaborative image that acts as a centerpiece for intersectional justice education and cross-movement pollination.

Anuhea "BB" Haruki Hoshide Cooke, a māhū wahine (trans femme) of Kānaka Maoli, Japanese, Choctaw, Chinese, Irish and English ancestry, is a drag/burlesque performer, poet, dancer and Indigenous/queer rights activist working to protect the lands and waters of their people, and is also a core contributor to Lonoikamakahiki, a Native-led and intertribal Hawaiian prayer journey. Anuhea has organized alongside many movements, including Extinction Rebellion, Black Lives Matter, and the Run4Salmon. 

Youth Program | Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY)

RJOY Youth Program participants consist of young people ages 16 - 25-yrs-old. During their 1 or 2 year internship, they learn about social justice, with our Coming To The Table and Truth-telling work; food justice in partnership with Planting Justice and our Ubuntu Farming; and restorative justice community building and addressing harm and conflict. Young people have the opportunity to join our Summer or 8-month school year program.

Lead Organizer | Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard

Ilana Cohen is a lead organizer of the Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard campaign and the international Fossil Free Research movement, which combats the fossil fuel industry’s dangerous influence on academia. She is also a 2022 Brower Youth Award winner and a climate journalist with bylines in outlets including The Nation, The New Republic, Teen Vogue, and Inside Climate News. Ilana is currently a senior and Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics Undergraduate Fellow at Harvard University, where she studies the ethics of climate change.

Director of Policy | Maine Environmental Education Association

Amara Ifeji, 21, an award-winning (2021 National Geographic Young Explorer and 2022 Brower Youth Award) climate justice activist, Director of Policy at the Maine Environmental Education Association, has had great success in mobilizing youth-led, grassroots movements to advance climate education legislation and ensure equitable access to outdoor learning for ALL youth in Maine.

Intercultural Conversations Program Manager | Bioneers

Nazshonnii Brown-Almaweri, Intercultural Conversations Program Manager for Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program, is a West Oakland-based STEAM educator who advocates for exposure and opportunities for historically excluded people, especially Black and Native youth. She has provided many middle and high school students with the space to learn about STEAM at the intersection of ancestral knowledge and their lived experiences and has worked to help Oakland youth thrive in disciplines such as engineering. Nazshonnii is also a farmer connected to the Gill Tract Community Farm in Albany and was previously a STEM tutor, media educator, and youth program assistant for the American Indian Child Resource Center.

Co-Facilitator | Ancestors & Money coaching cohort

justine epstein (she/they) is an organizer, facilitator, rites of passage guide, naturalist and activist dedicated to transmuting legacies and systems of harm through wealth redistribution, social justice movement building, ancestral healing, cultural rites of passage, embodied community and deep ecology. A guiding council (board) member of Weaving Earth, justine is also co-facilitator for the Ancestors & Money coaching cohort. 

Co-Founder | Village Farm at Stanley

Sam Burris-Debosky, a farmer, carpenter, rites-of-passage guide and lifelong student of the natural world, co-founded and directed Village Farm at Stanley, in Aurora, Colorado, an urban farm dedicated to food-justice and education. Sam is part of the Weaving Earth team co-hosting/facilitating the Community of Mentors at this year's Bioneers Conference.

Community Organizer | BAY-Peace

Development/Communications | Bay Peace: Better Alternatives for Youth

Julianna Horcasitas currently works on development and communications for Bay Peace: Better Alternatives for Youth, a non-profit organization that offers "holistic youth leadership programs to empower Bay Area youth to transform and heal from militarism, systemic violence and intergenerational trauma.” Born and raised in the East Bay in a Hispanic family with several generations of strong women mentors, Julianna, who is working toward a psychology degree, has used her media and communications skills for a number of Bay Area non-profits. (http://www.baypeace.org/)

Immigrant Advocate

Noor Almusahwi, a refugee for most of his life and raised by a foster family, was able to succeed academically and to become an effective advocate for immigrants by public speaking, writing, working with nonprofits, and even briefing members of Congress on best practices to handle the humanitarian crisis at the border.

Co-Founder | Afghan Friends Network

Humaira Ghilzai, who immigrated to the US in 1979 after the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, is a writer, consultant and cultural producer who co-founded Afghan Friends Network and instituted the Sister City relationship between Hayward, California and Ghazni, Afghanistan where she has done extensive work to improve education for girls, boys, and women. Humaira has worked with professional theatres, authors, playwrights, and artists for over a decade, utilizing her extensive knowledge of Afghan people, culture, religion, and history to bring authenticity to their creative work. Humaira made her Broadway debut with the stage production of Kite Runner in 2022 and her first play, Pilgrimage, will have a world premiere in 2024.

Refugee Activist

Mahjabin Khanzada, born and raised in Kabul, Afghanistan, began working as an interpreter for the U.S. Army in Kabul at age 18 and was able, in August 2021, to get on an emergency evacuation flight to the U.S., 6 days later the Taliban seized all of Afghanistan. Today, Mahjabin lives with her family in the Bay Area, working hard to rebuild their lives with courage and resilience and grateful to be able to share her story so more people can learn about the realities of what is happening to the Afghan community, both in Afghanistan and abroad. 

Bio coming soon.

Community Organizer

Hilary Giovale, descended from Celtic, Germanic, and Nordic peoples and a “ninth-generation settler” is a “reparative philanthropist” and community organizer who seeks to follow Indigenous and Black leadership in support of human rights, environmental justice and an equitable future. She uses storytelling and ritual in her work with groups of fellow Euro-descended settlers to understand the impacts of colonialism, rekindle ancestral memory, divest from whiteness, and make reparations.

Undergraduate Student | UC Davis

Joe Sweeney is currently an undergraduate studying Wildlife, Fish & Conservation Biology at UC Davis. While in high school, he participated in the Bioneers Intercultural Conversations program that seeks to create a safe space for Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth to share their cultures and develop the skills to better support and uplift Indigenous voices and communities. The experience elicited in him the desire to explore the intersections between climate change, ecology, activism and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). He hopes to pursue a career as a wildlife biologist, working on community based management solutions to the climate crisis.

National Director | The Butterfly Movement

Brandi Mack, Director of Community Engagement with Designing Justice+Designing Spaces (an Oakland-based architecture and real estate development non-profit working to end mass incarceration), Co-National Director for The Butterfly Movement (dedicated to providing personal/professional development for black women and girls), and on the faculty of Biomimicry for Social Innovation’s “Living Systems Leadership” retreat for women, is also a holistic health educator, therapeutic massage therapist, permaculture designer, living systems thought leader, and mother of three daughters.

Coordinator | California Farmer Justice Collaborative

Minkah Smith, a community organizer and multifaceted artist from South Central Los Angeles, currently serves as the Coordinator for the California Farmer Justice Collaborative and as Program Coordinator for Sankofa Gardens, a project of The Butterfly Movement. Her intentions within these organizations include: supporting collaborative processes focused on reclaiming land to build wellness, feeding melanated communities, and enhancing resource networks between urban and rural farmers throughout the state. 

Program Associate and Co-Lead of Communications and Social Media Teams | I Am Why

Alondra Aragon, Program Associate and Co-lead of Communications and Social Media Teams at I Am Why, an organization founded in 2018 to “bring young women and gender expansive activists together with researchers and other partners to increase young activists’ individual and collective power," is a mother, a community organizer, land steward, youth advocate, and plant medicine promoter who has dedicated the past decade to working in the environmental and youth justice sectors. Alondra also works with the Hummingbirds Urban Farm collective.

Action Lead Program Manager | Narrative Initiative

Orion Camero (they, their), a Filipinx queer visual storytelling educator and cultural organizer who honors the stories of their ancestors from the Central Valley farmworkers’ movements to Indigenous Babaylan resistance against the Spanish empire, is Action Lead Program Manager for Narrative Initiative (a story-based social change organization) and stewards the California Allegory, an epic collaborative image that acts as a centerpiece for intersectional justice education and cross-movement pollination.

Performing Arts Director | Destiny Arts Center

Rashidi Omari, affiliated with Oakland’s renowned Destiny Arts Center since 2003, is its Performing Arts Director and the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company's Co-Director. He also teaches dance and spoken word in school and community spaces throughout the Bay Area and presents on Destiny’s Creative Youth Development model nationally and internationally. Rashidi, whose passion for and profound knowledge of hip hop and related dance styles were kindled by his youth during the “golden age” of the genre, has been dancing since the age of three and has been performing extensively since 1993 with a wide array of companies.

The Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company (DAYPC) is a diverse group of teens that collaborates with professional artists to create dynamic, original productions. Combining hip hop, modern and aerial dance, theater, song, and rap, company members take the stage to tell stories that stem from their lived experiences and express their visions for a world transformed. Since 1993, DAYPC has performed original work for up to 25,000 audience members annually, garnering critical acclaim and widespread community support for both their technical prowess and their commitment to advancing inclusivity, equity, and justice.

Internationally Touring Appalachian and World Folk Ensemble

Rising Appalachia, an internationally touring Appalachian and world folk ensemble founded by Atlanta-raised, New Orleans-based sisters Leah and Chloe Smith whose soulful folk-roots sound traces back to their open-minded musician parents and to grassroots music communities in the hills and valleys of the Deep South as well as urban Atlanta, has consistently used its platform to activate, organize and support frontline justice work and community organizations. Fifteen years into an adventure that has taken this self-made, stubbornly independent band around the globe, they have recently released a new master-work, their seventh album, Leylines, recorded in California in a studio overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Co-Facilitator | Ancestors & Money coaching cohort

justine epstein (she/they) is an organizer, facilitator, rites of passage guide, naturalist and activist dedicated to transmuting legacies and systems of harm through wealth redistribution, social justice movement building, ancestral healing, cultural rites of passage, embodied community and deep ecology. A guiding council (board) member of Weaving Earth, justine is also co-facilitator for the Ancestors & Money coaching cohort. 

Co-Founder | Village Farm at Stanley

Sam Burris-Debosky, a farmer, carpenter, rites-of-passage guide and lifelong student of the natural world, co-founded and directed Village Farm at Stanley, in Aurora, Colorado, an urban farm dedicated to food-justice and education. Sam is part of the Weaving Earth team co-hosting/facilitating the Community of Mentors at this year's Bioneers Conference.

Facilitator

Sweta Chawla, PharmD, a former professor of pharmacy turned leadership coach, is a certified Art of Sacred Circle, Singing Tree and Step into Your Moxie facilitator who uses art, self-awareness and vocal expression to empower her clients. She has published articles and essays in many journals and magazines, and is the author of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For...Now What? as well as a contributor to the award-winning anthology: She’s Got This: Essays on Standing Strong and Moving On.

Facilitator | Singing Tree Project

Leslie Rein, a former mental health counselor, municipal government administrator, and dancer, has, since 2019, focused on visual art, including by working on collaborative murals as a Singing Tree Project facilitator and by facilitating the creation of large, collaboratively made chalk drawings on school playgrounds and in other public spaces.

Poet and Activist

Myra Estrada, a poet and activist of African-American and Mexican ancestry, was a 2021 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate, and is a Youth Speaks SPOKES Member and a 2023 Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam finalist.

Hip-Hop and R&B Artist

Jada Imani, a Hip-Hop and R&B artist immersed in the Soul, Funk and Jazz traditions, is a community activator who started (at age 15!) curating creative spaces for local artists at cafes, community centers and festivals, including Oakland's First Friday, Life is Living, and Fridays at Oakland’s Museum of California.