Denise Fairchild is the inaugural President of Emerald Cities Collaborative, a national nonprofit network of organizations working together to advance a sustainable environment while creating a just, resilient U.S. economy. Dr. Fairchild has dedicated over 30 years to strengthening housing, jobs, businesses and economic opportunities for low-income residents and communities of color domestically and internationally. She founded the Community and Economic Development (CED) Department at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College and an affiliated nonprofit, CDTech, directed the LA office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and is credited with building the nonprofit housing and community development industry in the LA region. READ MORE
Steven Monfort is the John and Adrienne Mars Director of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) based in Front Royal, Virginia. SCBI serves provides leadership in the Smithsonian’s global effort to use science-based approaches to conserve species and the habitats they require for survival. SCBI scientists conduct research and train conservation professionals in more than 30 countries in a wide range of disciplines including wildlife ecology, forest and climate change research, genetics and genomics, reproductive sciences, and zoo biology. READ MORE
Anson "Tuck" Hines is director of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, Maryland. SERC is a global leader for research on connections among ecosystems in the coastal zone. Hines oversees a staff of scientists and an interdisciplinary team of researchers, technicians and students who conduct long-term research on global change, landscape ecology, ecosystems in coastal regions, and population and community ecology. READ MORE
Jedediah Purdy is a professor of law at Duke University who has written several popular books on issues at the intersection of law and social and political thought. These include After Nature: A Politics for the Anthropocene (Harvard University Press, 2015) and A Tolerable Anarchy: Rebels, Reactionaries, and the Making of American Freedom (2009). READ MORE
Catrina Rorke is senior fellow for energy policy with the R Street Institute, where she founded R Street’s energy program and works to clarify a well-defined and limited role for government in shaping decisions about infrastructure, wholesale and retail electricity, research and development, fuel choice and diversity, and climate adaptation and mitigation. READ MORE
Mary Evelyn Tucker is co-director of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University, where she teaches in the joint MA program between the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Divinity School. Her concern for the growing environmental crisis led her to organize with John Grim a series of ten conferences on World Religions and Ecology. They are series editors for the ten resulting volumes distributed by Harvard University Press and co-authors of Ecology and Religion (Island Press, 2014). With Brian Swimme she wrote Journey of the Universe (Yale, 2011) and is the executive director of the Emmy award-winning film that aired on PBS. She served on the International Earth Charter Drafting Committee and was a member of the Earth Charter International Council. READ MORE