Live Keynote Speakers
We are very happy to present the following Keynote Speakers. All Keynotes will take place at the Zeiterion Theatre in downtown New Bedford, MA. If you would like more information please visit the schedule of events or click here if you need directions.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22nd
VAN JONES
Van Jones is a globally recognized, award-winning pioneer in human rights and the clean-energy economy. Van is a co-founder of three successful non-profit organizations: the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change and Green For All. He is the best-selling author of the definitive book on green jobs: The Green-Collar Economy. He served as the green jobs advisor in the Obama White House in 2009. Van is currently a senior fellow at the Center For American Progress. Additionally, he is a senior policy advisor at Green For All. Van also holds a joint appointment at Princeton University, as a distinguished visiting fellow in both the Center for African American Studies and in the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
DIANE WILSON
Diane Wilson, a fourth-generation shrimper, began fishing the bays off the Gulf Coast of Texas at the age of eight. By 24 she was a boat captain. In 1989, while running her brother's fish house at the docks and mending nets, she read a newspaper article that listed her home of Calhoun County as the number one toxic polluter in the country. She set up a meeting in the town hall to discuss what the chemical plants were doing to the bays and thus began her life as an environmental activist. Threatened by thugs and despised by her neighbors, Diane insisted the truth be told and that Formosa Plastics stop dumping toxins into the bay.
Her work on behalf of the people and aquatic life of Seadrift, Texas, has won her a number of awards including: National Fisherman Magazine Award, Mother Jones's Hell Raiser of the Month, Lois Gibbs' Environmental Lifetime Award, Louisiana Environmental Action (LEAN) Environmental Award, Giraffe Project, Jenifer Altman Award, and the Bioneers Award. She is a founding member of CODEPINK and continues to lead the fight for social justice.
ALAN KHAZEI
Alan Khazei has pioneered ways to empower citizens to make a difference. In 1987 he co-founded a nonprofit organization called City Year with his friend, Michael Brown. City Year unites young adults ages 17-24 from all backgrounds for an intensive year of full-time community service mentoring, tutoring, and educating children. It served as the model and inspiration for President Clinton’s AmeriCorps program and now operates in 20 U.S. cities and Johannesburg and London.
In June 2003, when AmeriCorps faced a drastic funding cut, Alan joined with other service leaders to organize the “Save AmeriCorps” coalition, an effort that led to an increase of $100 million dollars. Inspired by the success of the Save AmeriCorps campaign, in 2007, Alan launched Be the Change, Inc., a nonprofit that creates national issue based campaigns by organizing coalitions of non-profits, social entrepreneurs, policymakers, private sector leaders, academics, and citizens. In 2009, ServiceNation, the first campaign to be launched from this platform, played a key role in the enactment of the strongly bi-partisan Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act.
Alan has served on the boards of leading national non-profits and has received numerous awards, including the Reebok Human Rights Award, the Jefferson Award for Public Service, and the Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur Award. In 2006, US News and World Report named him one of America's “25 Best Leaders.” Alan is also the author of a new book, Big Citizenship: How pragmatic idealism can bring out the best in America, which will come out at the end of August. Alan lives in Brookline, Massachusetts with his wife, Vanessa Kirsch, and their two children.
ADEOLA A. OREDOLA
Adeola A. Oredola is the Executive Director at Youth In Action, a 12 year old non-profit in Providence where over 1,000 young leaders have been at the forefront of creating positive social change throughout their city. Adeola grew up Providence, attended Providence Public Schools, then Brown University, and now lives in the Washington Park area of the city. As a product of the community in which she works, Adeola is truly dedicated to every aspect of youth and community development in Providence. In 2006, she completed a three year term as a member of the Providence School Board through which she worked to ensure that both youth and the community have stronger voices in policy and school improvement initiatives. She currently serves as a Board Member with AS220, the Women’s Fund of RI, and the Providence Plan.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23rd
Annie Leonard is the author and host of The Story of Stuff video. She is author of The Story of Stuff, the book, published by Free Press of Simon and Schuster on March 9, 2010. Annie has spent nearly two decades investigating and organizing on environmental health and justice issues. She has traveled to 40 countries, visiting literally hundreds of factories where our stuff is made and dumps where our stuff is dumped. Witnessing first hand the horrendous impacts of both over- and under- consumption around the world, Annie is fiercely dedicated to reclaiming and transforming our industrial and economic systems so they serve, rather than undermine, ecological sustainability and social equity. Annie is currently the Director of The Story of Stuff Project. Prior to this, most recently, Annie coordinated the Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption, a funder collaborative seeking to address the hidden environmental and social impacts of current systems of making, using and throwing away all the stuff of daily life. She has also worked with GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives), Health Care Without Harm, Essential Action and Greenpeace International. Annie is currently on the boards of International Forum for Globalization and GAIA and has previously served on the Boards of the Grassroots Recycling Network, the Environmental Health Fund, Global Greengrants India and Greenpeace India. She did her undergraduate studies at Barnard College, Columbia University and graduate work in City and Regional Planning at Cornell, both in New York. She is currently based in the Bay Area, California.
SETH GOLDMAN
Seth Goldman is President and TeaEO of Honest Tea, the company he co-founded out of his home in 1998 with Professor Barry Nalebuff of the Yale School of Management. Honest Tea is the nation’s best-selling organic bottled tea company, with products distributed through more than 30,000 outlets in every state, as well as overseas. Over the past twelve years the company has thrived with an annual compound growth rate of over 60 percent, as consumers have shifted toward healthier and more sustainable diets. In 2008, The Coca-Cola Company purchased a minority interest in Honest Tea, fueling further growth as Honest became the first organic and Fair Trade brand to move into the world’s largest beverage distribution system. Recently, Honest Tea was included on The Better World Shopping Guide’s list of "ten best companies on the planet based on their overall social and environmental record." Prior to co-founding Honest Tea, Goldman held management positions at theCalvert Group, a socially-responsible mutual fund company. He serves on the boards of the American Beverage Association, Bethesda Green, The Calvert Foundation and Happy Baby. In 2008, Goldman was named Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year for Greater Washington D.C.”
ANTWI AKOM PH.D.
Founded the Wangari Maathai Center for Economic, Educational and Environmental Design in 2010, an organization that harnesses the expertise and imagination of leading academics, community leaders, and decision-makers to address policy and planning issues like energy, education, waste, water, advanced manufacturing, and design. The WMC’s most recent project is “Greening the Educational Industrial Complex” which is pioneering “Green STEM” curricular pathways that combine art and social media with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to create college and career pathways in environmental and clean energy fields for low-income and vulnerable youth. In 2009, Dr. Akom co-founded the Environmental Sustainability Planning Network (ESPN), a national learning network that drafts local and regional climate action plans to reduce carbon emissions, secure land tenure, improve economic opportunities, build infrastructure, and improve environmental health. The culmination of this work will be a Climate Justice Youth Bill of Rights to be unveiled on Earth day 2012. Dr. Akom is a 2010 recipient of a RIMI Investigator Award supported by the National Center on Minority and Health Disparities. He is currently co-editing a solution-oriented book with Dr. Jason Corburn on Race, Climate Justice, and the Politics of Pollution in Cities and Schools. Dr. Akom earned a BA from the University of California Berkeley, an MA from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in Sociology. He is currently an Associate Professor of Environmental Sociology, Urban Education (STEM), and African American Studies at San Francisco State University and has been a research fellow at UC Berkeley’s Institute for the Study of Social Change and at the University of San Francisco’s Institute for Health Policy Studies.
MICHAEL BEN-ELI
Is founder of the Sustainability Laboratory, established in order to develop and demonstrate breakthrough approaches to sustainability practices, expanding prospects and producing positive, life affirming impacts on people and ecosystems in all parts of the world.
An international management consultant, Michael pioneered applications of Systems Thinking and Cybernetics in management and organization. Over the years he worked on synthesizing strategy issues in many parts of the world and in diverse institutional settings, ranging from small high technology firms to multinational enterprises, manufacturing companies, financial institutions, health care and educational organizations, government agencies, NGOs, and international multilateral organizations.
In recent years, he has focused primarily on issues related to sustainability and sustainable development, working to help inspire leaders in business, government, community, and youth accelerate a peaceful transition to a sustainable future.
Dr. Ben-Eli graduated from the Architectural Association in London and later received a Ph.D. from the Institute of Cybernetics at Brunel University, where he studied under Gordon Pask. He was a close associate of R. Buckminster Fuller, with whom he collaborated on projects involving research on advanced structural systems and exploration of issues related to the management of technology and world resources for the advantage of all.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24th
GREG MORTENSON
Greg Mortenson is the co-founder of nonprofit Central Asia Institute www.ikat.org, founder of Pennies For Peace www.penniesforpeace.org, co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Three Cups of Tea www.threecupsoftea.com, and author of bestseller Stones into Schools www.stonesintoschools.com. In 2009, Mortenson received Pakistan’s highest civil award, Sitara-e-Pakistan (“Star of Pakistan”) for his dedicated and humanitarian effort to promote education and literacy in rural areas for fifteen years. Several bi-partisan U.S. Congressional representatives nominated Mortenson for the Nobel Peace Prize in both 2008 and 2009. The award recipient is chosen by a secret process and announced in October the following year.
ANYA KAMENETZ
Anya Kamenetz is a staff writer for Fast Company magazine. DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs and the Coming Transformation of HIgher Education, her new book, was called a "thoughtful" "methodical" "bombshell" by Publisher's Weekly, and Naomi Wolf said "Anya Kamenetz shows a way to shake up education to release more potential at every level." The Village Voice nominated her for a Pulitzer Prize for contributions to the feature series Generation Debt, which became a book in 2006. She has written for the New York Times, appeared on CNN and National Public Radio, and been featured as a “Yahoo Finance Expert.” A frequent speaker nationwide, Kamenetz blogs at Fastcompany.com, The Huffington Post, and anyakamenetz.blogspot.com. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband.
DAVID DE ROTHSCHILD
David is an adventurer, environmentalist and the founder of myoo.com a group that primarily uses exploration and storytelling as a way to give nature a voice. David’s passion and commitment to action has seen him ski, dogsled and kite to both the North and South poles as well as visiting some of the world’s most remote and fragile regions in order to bring wide-spread media attention and, moreover, solutions to urgent global environmental issues. From March to July 2010, David and a crew of five undertook the latest expedition, the Plastiki, sailing across the Pacific Ocean on a catamaran made buoyant by 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles to beat waste. (www.theplastiki.com). David is recognized as a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, Clean up the World Ambassador, UNEP Climate Hero and a Young Global Leader respectively.
NIKKI HENDERSON
Nikki Henderson is the Executive Director of People's Grocery in West Oakland, CA. Under Nikki's leadership, the organization has launched a new strategic campaign strongly focusing on: revitalizing the economy of West Oakland through all aspects of the food system, from production to distribution, and leveraging the power of local nutrition education and major health institutions to reduce obesity, diabetes, and other major health ailments in West Oakland.
Before People's Grocery, Nikki worked closely with Van Jones and Phaedra Ellis Lamkins at Green for All, fighting for a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. She also worked for Slow Food USA, in Brooklyn, NY where President Josh Viertel came to regard her as an "extraordinary leader with a vision for how food and urban farming can be tools of empowerment". In 2010, Nikki was featured in ELLE Magazine as one of the five Gold Awardees. She has a Master's Degree in African American Studies from UCLA, and is originally from Los Angeles, CA.
*All days and times are subject to change
