Jennie Curtis is the Executive Director of the Garfield Foundation, which addresses some of today’s most significant ecological and social justice issues. The Foundation has pioneered a collaborative, systems-oriented grant making process. Before joining the Garfield Foundation, Jennie managed a donor-advised fund at the Marion Foundation, focusing on grant making to domestic and international organizations that approached solutions to problems by dealing with their root causes. Prior to that, Jennie spent ten years managing humanitarian refugee relief programs for International Rescue Committee in Pakistan, Thailand and Bosnia-Herzegovina. She also served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand.

Omar Freilla is the Executive Director and founder of Green Worker Cooperatives, an organization that incubates worker-owned and environmentally friendly businesses in the South Bronx. He is also a board member of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, a national federation of worker-owned businesses. Formerly, he was a program director for Sustainable South Bronx and Transportation Justice Campaign Director for the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance. In 2007, Omar was awarded the Rockefeller Foundation’s inaugural Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism.

Kenneth Geiser is Professor of Work Environment and Director of the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Ken is one of the authors of the landmark Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act and served as Director of the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute from its founding in 1990 to 2003. His research and writing focus on pollution prevention and cleaner production, toxic chemicals management, international chemicals policy, safer technologies, and green chemistry. MIT Press published his book, Materials Matter: Towards a Sustainable Materials Policy, in 2001.

Michael Maniates is a professor of Political Science and Environmental Science at Allegheny University and one of the editors of the landmark book, Confronting Consumption (MIT Press, 2002). Michael founded and coordinates the Project on Teaching Global Environmental Politics and is the co-founder and member of the Advisory Board of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security. His work can be found in The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice, co-authored with John Meyer of Humboldt University (MIT Press, 2010).

Erica Priggen is an Executive Producer at Free Range Studios, where she heads the video and entertainment department, overseeing the creative and strategic development of the company’s video campaigns. With a Masters in Consciousness Studies (with a concentration on the importance of storytelling and mythology as tools for cultural transformation), she brings a deep understanding of sustainability and systems thinking to her work. She believes that film is one of the most effective ways to inspire people to action. Erica is the producer of Free Range’s award-winning The Story of Stuff, as well as other hits such as 350.org, The Good Life and the Alliance for Climate Education’s national high school assembly program. Erica is a non-voting member of the Advisory Board.

Beverly Thorpe is the International Director of Clean Production Action. Beverley has researched clean production strategies since 1989. She was the Clean Production liaison technical expert for Greenpeace International on chemical and waste issues. She initiated the first English-language campaigns against PVC plastic and waste and introduced EPR (extended producer responsibility) as a campaign strategy to waste groups in the USA. She is the author of many publications including The Citizens Guide to Clean Productionpublished by University of Massachusetts Press. Her current focus is the promotion of Green Chemistry within government chemicals policy and within businesses practices, and she is keeping a watching brief on nanotechnology.

Darryl Young is the Director of Sustainable Design at the Summit Foundation, which supports projects that advance ecologically, socially and economically sustainable community and city design. Previously, Darryl served as the Director of the California Department of Conservation, a $1.2 billion agency responsible for one of the nation’s largest and most successful recycling programs. He has also been the President of the National Recycling Coalition, Chief Consultant to the Senate Natural Resources Committee and the National Media Director for the Sierra Club.