-->

For 25 years, voices of young visionaries and leaders at Bioneers have called for change, inspired us with stories, and kept our focus on future horizons. The passion and perspective that only youth can bring have not only energized Bioneers over the years but have also helped shape the conference into what it is today. To honor and celebrate these 25 years of youth participation at Bioneers, we are passing the mic to some of today’s most dynamic young movement leaders driving change in their communities. Come join the Bioneers Youth Programs for our “conference within a conference.” Moderated by Britt Gondolfi and Kuliamai Aveiro Kalaniopio.

Waileia Uluwehi Kainoa Haili-Barawis & Chazlyn Mukini, Malama Aina Compostables
Malama Aina Compostables- Recycle Hawai’i & Ka’ū Global Learning Lab
This presentation aims to illuminate the often-overlooked struggles that accompany the idealized notion of “paradise.” We will discuss the consequences of land being appropriated for factories and developments that pose a threat to our environment. Central to this discussion are the powerful voices of the youth from Kaū, who demonstrate the monumental impact of collective action. By sharing their stories, we aspire to raise awareness about the critical issues at stake—our homes, our land, and the futures of generations to come. Together, we will engage the audience in recognizing the importance of solidarity in advocating for meaningful change and protection of our environment.“

Jeremiah Magallones & Khiara Kaleiwahea, Hanai Kai Ulu
We Are the System: Indigenous Youth Reimagining Regeneration
What happens when young people are trusted not only to participate in sustainability efforts but also to design and lead them? In this presentation, Jeremiah shares his journey as a young systems builder and offers a practical framework for educators, organizers, and innovators looking to empower youth leadership in climate solutions. Participants will explore how culturally grounded systems design can simultaneously address environmental justice, food security, and workforce development, while also fostering purpose, belonging, and intergenerational connections. This presentation invites audiences to move beyond mere youth engagement toward genuine youth governance and regenerative leadership.

Jasmine Smith, Eastern Band Of Cherokee Indians
Future Matriarchs – The NAIWA Daughters Initiative
This presentation addresses the environmental and social challenges faced by tribal communities, highlighting threats to waterways, habitat loss, and cultural disconnection among the youth. With alarming rates of mental health issues and technology addiction, it is crucial to empower younger generations to preserve their heritage. The solution proposed is the establishment of NAIWA Daughter chapters across Turtle Island, aimed at nurturing a network of young Indigenous women as compassionate leaders. The mission emphasizes leadership development, cultural enrichment, and community service through four priority projects: Rights of Nature, Softball for Sovereignty, Aun” Tea” Time, and SHE-yo.  Success has been measured through community engagement in the Rights of Nature project, promoting environmental stewardship and educating community members on critical issues. These initiatives also foster cultural reconnection, empower female athletes, and facilitate intergenerational knowledge sharing. By actively engaging with tribal leaders and the community, they are promoting cultural learning and working to incorporate traditional teachings into policy, moving forward with purpose.

Anvi Sharma
Moss is Magic
This project explores the potential of moss as a sustainable urban infrastructure solution in California, emphasizing its ability to absorb water and reduce heat. Inspired by a personal fascination with moss, extensive research revealed its impressive properties, such as certain species’ capacity to absorb up to twenty times their weight in water and lower surface temperatures by 10 to 15 degrees. Modular moss walls in Europe have shown reductions in particulate pollution by up to 30%. This initiative aims to implement moss in schools, sidewalks, and public spaces, addressing urban heat islands and enhancing air quality. The project aligns with California’s existing environmental programs, offering a realistic path for community-focused implementation. Moss may be small, but its impact could be substantial.

Charlie Van Schaick
Land & Legacy Initiative
Charlie Van Schaick is a high school junior from Chappaqua, New York, who is passionate about engaging young people in ecological and community wellbeing through Bioneers’ approach. Her work centers on raising awareness of local land, particularly Buttonhook Forest, a culturally and ecologically significant area that many students are unaware of. She is developing a student-centered initiative that emphasizes education over mere exposure, aiming to illustrate the history and significance of local land. This initiative includes creating learning spaces, organizing gatherings, and inviting speakers, especially Indigenous voices, to discuss stewardship’s relational and reciprocal aspects. Charlie believes that when young people perceive land as living and meaningful, their behaviors shift from abstract notions of stewardship to personal care. By fostering a generation that cares for land through understanding and respect, she hopes to cultivate a deeper relationship between youth and their environment, guided by Indigenous stewardship principles.

Esther
Native American Running Tradition: Movement, Identity, and Youth Leadership
For many Native Nations, running has never been just a sport. It is a cultural practice rooted in ceremony, communication, healing, and relationship to land. Today, Indigenous youth continue this tradition in contemporary spaces, using running as a pathway to holistic wellness, leadership development, and cultural continuity. As the Child & Youth Program Coordinator at Wings of America, a Native-led nonprofit with more than 35 years of history, I work directly with Indigenous youth across the Southwest and beyond. Wings was founded to protect and promote Native running traditions while creating equitable access to athletic and leadership opportunities. Through community-based running and wellness programs, youth are supported not only as athletes, but as whole people—mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Because running is a land-based activity, it naturally fosters respect for place, ancestral knowledge, and environmental responsibility. Youth participants build strength and endurance while also reconnecting to cultural identity and community values. Through mentorship, leadership development, and culturally grounded practices such as breath work, grounding, reflection, and honoring individual spiritual traditions, Wings runners grow into role models and advocates for their communities. This presentation will highlight how Indigenous youth are reclaiming movement as both resilience and resistance. It will share how running supports identity formation, confidence, and leadership, while also nurturing future protectors of culture and land. By centering Indigenous knowledge systems and youth voices, this work demonstrates that solutions to today’s challenges already exist within Native communities.

Gabriel Barnett and Marlett Hernandez-Fitch
Bayou Youth Leaders
Gabriel Barnett and Marlett Hernandez-Fitch of the Bayou Youth Leadership Project will present on the initiatives of their newly formed Indigenous and youth-led organization. This session will focus on the critical role of cultural connection and ancestral practices in cultivating youth spaces that advance environmental and social justice. By taking proactive steps to unite young individuals, we can prevent the loss of vital knowledge and traditions. This presentation aims to inspire participants to rediscover and share teachings that honor Mother Earth and all living beings. Attendees will be encouraged to engage in community-building and address important yet challenging topics, all while fostering an atmosphere of enjoyment. Through integrating traditional knowledge and community engagement, youth can recognize their potential as catalysts for change.

Xa’-tle T’sing Lincoln, Native Health in Native Hands
Native Health in Native hands empowers youth to become active leaders in cultural restoration by engaging with traditional ecological knowledge from elders and mentors. Through hands-on activities such as canoe building and harvesting plants, youth learn to care for our land and waters while deepening their connections to family, community, and their personal narratives. Their efforts to restore the Eel River and practice sustainable stewardship are crucial not just for today but for future generations. By participating in workshops and community gatherings, they gain a voice in cultural engagement, asking questions and sharing experiences with other youth. Ultimately, they strive to affirm that our traditions are vibrant and alive, as they work to protect their lands, revitalize language, and foster a strong sense of cultural identity.

Stella Bongiorno, Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature
Raised in Western Europe within a worldview that framed nature as a resource to manage, extract, and control, Stella Bongiorno came to question the systems that separate humans from the living Earth. As climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, and social instability intensify, she argues these crises are not isolated but symptoms of a deeper cultural logic rooted in separation from nature. Drawing on Indigenous worldviews that understand rivers, forests, and oceans as living relatives, Stella explores the growing global movement for the Rights of Nature, which seeks to recognize ecosystems as rights-bearing entities with the legal standing to exist, regenerate, and thrive. Through her work with the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, she helps advance Earth-centered law, governance, and cultural transformation. Her talk invites audiences to reimagine humanity’s relationship with the planet—moving from extraction to reciprocity—and highlights the role of young people in transforming Western legal and cultural systems toward a more regenerative future.

---

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Tamalpais Room, Brower Center

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

The post Youth Program – Young Leaders Stories & Solutions at Bioneers: Celebrating 25 years appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/book-signings-with-pegasus-books-7/ Thu, 05 Mar 2026 19:59:11 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=13109 Dahr Jamail signing copies of We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth Dacher Keltner signing copies of Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life Raj Patel signing copies of History of the World in Seven Cheap: A Guide to Capitalism,…

The post Book Signings with Pegasus Books appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

6:15 pm: Book Signings with Pegasus Books

-->

Dahr Jamail signing copies of We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth

Dacher Keltner signing copies of Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life

Raj Patel signing copies of History of the World in Seven Cheap: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet

March 28th | 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm | Pegasus Bookstore (Lobby of Brower Center)

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Dahr Jamail

Storytelling and Communications Manager
Home Planet Fund

×

Dahr Jamail

Storytelling and Communications Manager | Home Planet Fund

Dahr Jamail, Storytelling and Communications Manager at Home Planet Fund, is a former mountaineer, guide, and rescue volunteer on Denali in Alaska who went on to work for a decade as a war correspondent in the Middle East, then for another decade as a journalist covering the global environmental crisis. The author of five books, he most recently edited We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth, which is focused on Indigenous perspectives on the polycrisis.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Dacher Keltner

Distinguished Professor of Psychology
UC Berkeley

×

Dacher Keltner

Distinguished Professor of Psychology | UC Berkeley

Dacher Keltner, a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley, is the host of the Science of Happiness Podcast and the author of many articles and books, including: Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Raj Patel

Activist, Journalist, and Filmmaker

×

Raj Patel

Activist, Journalist, and Filmmaker

Raj Patel, an award-winning author, film-maker and academic, is a Research Professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin who has worked for the World Bank and WTO but also protested against them around the world and testified about the causes of the global food crisis to the US, UK and EU governments. A member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems and of the council of Progressive International, he has written extensively for a range of scholarly journals in economics, philosophy, politics and public health and also contributes frequently to a range of other publications, including The Guardian, Financial Times, New York Times, and Scientific American. He is the author of: Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and The Value of Nothing, and co-author of: A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things and (with Rupa Marya) of: Inflamed: Deep Medicine and The Anatomy of Injustice. His first film, co-directed with Zak Piper, is the award-winning documentary The Ants & The Grasshopper. He also co-hosted the food politics podcast The Secret Ingredient.

View Speaker Page

The post Book Signings with Pegasus Books appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/book-signings-with-pegasus-books-6/ Thu, 05 Mar 2026 19:57:48 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=13107 Leah Penniman signing copies of Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land Patricia Plude signing copies of The Art of Radical Listening: Revealing Collective Wisdom for Change Kinari Webb signing copies of The Art of Radical Listening: Revealing Collective Wisdom for Change March 28th | 4:30 pm to 5:30…

The post Book Signings with Pegasus Books appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

4:30 pm: Book Signings with Pegasus Books

-->

Leah Penniman signing copies of Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land

Patricia Plude signing copies of The Art of Radical Listening: Revealing Collective Wisdom for Change

Kinari Webb signing copies of The Art of Radical Listening: Revealing Collective Wisdom for Change

March 28th | 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm | Pegasus Bookstore (Lobby of Brower Center)

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Leah Penniman

Farmer, Food Sovereignty Activist and Educator

×

Leah Penniman

Farmer, Food Sovereignty Activist and Educator

Leah Penniman, a Black Kreyol farmer, author, mother, and food justice activist who has been tending the soil and organizing for an anti-racist food system for 25 years, currently serves as founding Co-Executive Director of Farm Operations at Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York, a Black & Brown-led project that works toward food and land justice. She is the author of: Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land (2018) and Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists (2023).

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Patricia Plude

Co-Pastor
First Mennonite Church of San Francisco

×

Patricia Plude

Co-Pastor | First Mennonite Church of San Francisco

Rev. Dr. Patricia Plude, a musician, community organizer, and lifelong educator, (including twelve years as a professor at Santa Clara University), is co-pastor of First Mennonite Church of San Francisco, where for twenty-five years she and her colleagues have sought to model transformative, justice-oriented, feminine leadership. She is the co-author (with Dr. Kinari Webb) of The Art of Radical Listening: Revealing Collective Wisdom for Change.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Kinari Webb

Founder
Health in Harmony

×

Kinari Webb

Founder | Health in Harmony

Kinari Webb, MD., is a leading figure in rainforest conservation and public health who, recognizing the link between human and environmental health, founded the organization, Health in Harmony (HIH), to address rainforest devastation in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Inspired by studying orangutans in 1993, she returned after graduating from Yale School of Medicine and began work in Sukadana, West Kalimantan, Indonesia in 2007 with a focus on listening to rainforest communities’ own proposed solutions. HIH now works in 9.4 million hectares of rainforest in Indonesia, Madagascar, and Brazil. Honored with Ashoka and Rainier Arhnold Fellowships and profiled in numerous media outlets, Webb's work has garnered international recognition. She is the author of: “Guardians of the Trees: A journey of hope through healing the planet” and co-author (with Rev. Patricia Plude) of: “The Art of Radical listening: Revealing collective wisdom for change.”

View Speaker Page

The post Book Signings with Pegasus Books appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/book-signings-with-pegasus-books-5/ Thu, 05 Mar 2026 19:56:00 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=13105 Michael Pollan signing copies of A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness March 28th | 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm | Pegasus Bookstore (Lobby of Brower Center) GET DIRECTIONS VIEW EVENT PAGE Panelists   View Bio Michael Pollan Bestselling Author and Journalist × Michael Pollan Bestselling Author and Journalist Michael Pollan is a writer, teacher and…

The post Michael Pollan Book Signing with Pegasus Books appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

2:00 pm: Michael Pollan Book Signing with Pegasus Books

-->

Michael Pollan signing copies of A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness

March 28th | 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm | Pegasus Bookstore (Lobby of Brower Center)

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Michael Pollan

Bestselling Author and Journalist

×

Michael Pollan

Bestselling Author and Journalist

Michael Pollan is a writer, teacher and activist. His most recent book, A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness, was published earlier this year. He is the author of nine previous books, including: This is Your Mind on Plants, How to Change Your Mind, Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire, all bestsellers. Pollan has taught writing at Harvard and UC Berkeley and has been a Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellow. In 2010 Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

View Speaker Page

The post Michael Pollan Book Signing with Pegasus Books appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/book-signings-with-pegasus-books-4/ Thu, 05 Mar 2026 19:53:59 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=13103 Cory Doctorow signing copies of Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It Kevin John Fong signing copies of The Five Elements: An East Asian Approach to Achieve Organizational Health, Professional Growth, and Personal Well-Being Chetna Mehta signing copies of Cultivating Abundance Mentality: An Instructional + Affirmational Coloring Book: An Instructional…

The post Book Signings with Pegasus Books appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

6:15 pm: Book Signings with Pegasus Books

-->

Cory Doctorow signing copies of Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It

Kevin John Fong signing copies of The Five Elements: An East Asian Approach to Achieve Organizational Health, Professional Growth, and Personal Well-Being

Chetna Mehta signing copies of Cultivating Abundance Mentality: An Instructional + Affirmational Coloring Book: An Instructional + Affirmational Coloring Book

Erik Ohlsen signing copies of The Regenerative Landscaper: Design and Build Landscapes That Repair the Environment

March 27th | 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm | Pegasus Bookstore (Lobby of Brower Center)

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Cory Doctorow

Technology Journalist and Science Fiction Author

×

Cory Doctorow

Technology Journalist and Science Fiction Author

Cory Doctorow, a renowned, award-winning science fiction author, activist, and journalist, is the author of dozens of books, most recently, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, (nonfiction); and the novels Picks and Shovels and The Bezzle. His other notable books include the “solar-punk” novels Walkaway and The Lost Cause, and the tech policy books The Internet Con and Chokepoint Capitalism. Cory also: maintains a daily blog at Pluralistic.net; works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and is: an AD White Professor at Cornell University; an MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate; a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at Open University; a Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of North Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science; and a co-founder of the UK Open Rights Group.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Kevin John Fong

Founder
Kahakulei Institute

×

Kevin John Fong

Founder | Kahakulei Institute

Kevin John Fong, founder of the Kahakulei Institute (whose mission is to “weave people and possibilities to cultivate communities of belonging”), is the author of The Five Elements: An East Asian Approach to Achieve Organizational Health, Professional Growth, and Personal Well-Being. He has lectured about and taught the “Five Elements” approach to problem-solving to hundreds of organizations and thousands of people from Silicon Valley to rural Mississippi, from primary schools in New Mexico to the White House.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Chetna Mehta

Founder
Mosaiceye Collective

×

Chetna Mehta

Founder | Mosaiceye Collective

Chetna Mehta, a granddaughter of Indian and South African diasporas, is a multidisciplinary artist, facilitator, and “creativity doula” who seeks to weave somatic healing, decolonial/ecological frameworks, and expressive arts into a liberatory practice. The founder of Mosaiceye Collective, which provides resources, programs and spaces where women and non-binary changemakers can play, transform, and engage in expansive collaboration, Chetna is the author and illustrator of the Cultivating Compassion in Times of Fascism Coloring Book.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Erik Ohlsen

Founder
Permaculture Artisans

×

Erik Ohlsen

Founder | Permaculture Artisans

Erik Ohlsen, a master of regenerative design, internationally-recognized Permaculture teacher, landscape contractor, award-winning author, farmer, herbalist, and practitioner of Nordic folk traditions, has founded numerous organizations that regenerate ecosystems, including his award-winning landscape design and contracting firm, Permaculture Artisans, established in 2006. Erik has committed decades to repairing ecosystems and connecting people with the land throughout the globe, designing and implementing hundreds of regenerated landscapes and farms, growing food and capturing millions of gallons of water per year.

View Speaker Page

The post Book Signings with Pegasus Books appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/book-signings-with-pegasus-books-3/ Thu, 05 Mar 2026 19:52:11 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=13101 Cristina Jimenez Moreta signing copies of Dreaming of Home: How We Turn Fear into Pride, Power, and Real Change Julian Brave NoiseCat signing copies of We Survived the Night Manuel Pastor signing copies of Charging Forward Anna Malaika Tubbs signing copies of Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us March 27th | 4:30 pm…

The post Book Signings with Pegasus Books appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

4:30 pm: Book Signings with Pegasus Books

-->

Cristina Jimenez Moreta signing copies of Dreaming of Home: How We Turn Fear into Pride, Power, and Real Change

Julian Brave NoiseCat signing copies of We Survived the Night

Manuel Pastor signing copies of Charging Forward

Anna Malaika Tubbs signing copies of Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us

March 27th | 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm | Pegasus Bookstore (Lobby of Brower Center)

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Cristina Jiménez Moreta

Co-Founder
United We Dream

×

Cristina Jiménez Moreta

Co-Founder | United We Dream

Cristina Jiménez Moreta, who came to the U.S. from Ecuador in 1998 and grew up undocumented in Queens, New York, is an award-winning community organizer, bestselling author, and leading social justice activist. Co-founder and former Executive Director of  United We Dream (UWD), the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the country, she has led multiple national and local campaigns for immigrant justice, including playing a leadership role in the campaign to win and implement the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA). A distinguished lecturer at the City University of New York, Jiménez was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and named one of Time 100’s most influential people. She is the author of a bestselling debut memoir Dreaming of Home (2025).

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Julian Brave NoiseCat

Filmmaker and Author
Sugarcane

×

Julian Brave NoiseCat

Filmmaker and Author | Sugarcane

Julian Brave NoiseCat (member, Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen, and descendant, Lil'Wat Nation of Mount Currie), formerly a political strategist, policy analyst and cultural organizer who played a major role, in, among other achievements, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Alcatraz Occupation and getting Deb Haaland appointed Interior Secretary (the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history), is a writer, journalist, and the first Indigenous North American filmmaker ever nominated for an Academy Award (for his co-direction of Sugarcane). NoiseCat’s journalism has appeared in dozens of leading national publications and has been recognized with many awards. His first book, We Survived the Night, was a national bestseller in Canada and an indie bestseller in the U.S., and Julian is also a champion powwow dancer who played hockey for three of the oldest teams in the game: Columbia University, the Oxford University Blues and the Alkali Lake Braves.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Manuel Pastor

Director
Equity Research Institute at USC

×

Manuel Pastor

Director | Equity Research Institute at USC

Manuel Pastor, Ph.D., a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, currently directs the Equity Research Institute at USC. The inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change at USC, Pastor’s research has generally focused on issues of the economic, environmental and social conditions facing low-income urban communities – and the social movements seeking to change those realities. He has won countless awards for his scholarship and advocacy and is the author or co-author of many books, including: Just Growth; Solidarity Economics; and, most recently (with Chris Benner), Charging Forward: Lithium Valley, Electric Vehicles, and a Just Future.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Anna Malaika Tubbs

Author, Advocate, Consultant and Educator

×

Anna Malaika Tubbs

Author, Advocate, Consultant and Educator

Anna Malaika Tubbs, Ph.D., a bestselling author and leading multidisciplinary expert on race, gender, and equity, translates her academic knowledge into clear and engaging stories that have been widely published in major magazines and newspapers. She is the author of: The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of MLK Jr, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation (2021) and Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden From Us (2025). Anna is also a frequent speaker whose TED Talk has been viewed some 2 million times.

View Speaker Page

The post Book Signings with Pegasus Books appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/book-signings-with-pegasus-books-2/ Thu, 05 Mar 2026 19:50:23 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=13099 Danielle Hill & Alexis Bunten signing copies of Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun’s Thanksgiving Story Ferris Jabr signing copies of Becoming Earth: A Journey Through the Hidden Wonders that Bring Our Planet to Life Suzanne Simard signing copies of When the Forest Breathes: Renewal and Resilience in the Natural World March 26th | 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm…

The post Book Signings with Pegasus Books appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

6:15 pm: Book Signings with Pegasus Books

-->

Danielle Hill & Alexis Bunten signing copies of Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun’s Thanksgiving Story

Ferris Jabr signing copies of Becoming Earth: A Journey Through the Hidden Wonders that Bring Our Planet to Life

Suzanne Simard signing copies of When the Forest Breathes: Renewal and Resilience in the Natural World

March 26th | 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm | Pegasus Bookstore (Lobby of Brower Center)

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Ferris Jabr

Bestselling Author and NY Times Magazine Writer

×

Ferris Jabr

Bestselling Author and NY Times Magazine Writer

Ferris Jabr, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, is the author of the bestselling Becoming Earth, which reviewers have described as an “infectiously poetic” “masterwork” that “earns its place alongside the best of today’s essential popular science books.” Ferris has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and Scientific American and has received fellowships and grants from Yale, MIT, UC Berkeley, the Pulitzer Center, and the Whiting Foundation. His work has been anthologized in four editions of The Best American Science and Nature Writing series.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Suzanne Simard

Project Lead
Mother Tree Project and Program

×

Suzanne Simard

Project Lead | Mother Tree Project and Program

Suzanne Simard, Ph.D., is a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia and leads the Mother Tree Project and Program. Her research—showing that forests are cooperative, connected networks—has revolutionized forest ecology. Her TED Talk has reached millions, and her bestselling book Finding the Mother Tree continues to capture global interest. Named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2024, she champions regenerative forestry rooted in Indigenous knowledge.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Alexis Bunten

Co-Director, Indigeneity Program
Bioneers

×

Alexis Bunten

Co-Director, Indigeneity Program | Bioneers

Alexis Bunten, Ph.D., (Aleut/Yup’ik), Co-Director of Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program, has been a researcher, media-maker, manager, consultant, and curriculum developer for organizations including the Sealaska Heritage Institute, Alaska Native Heritage Center, and the FrameWorks Institute. She has published widely about Indigenous and environmental issues, and is the author of So, how long have you been Native?: Life as an Alaska Native Tour Guide.

View Speaker Page

The post Book Signings with Pegasus Books appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/book-signings-with-pegasus-books/ Thu, 05 Mar 2026 19:48:54 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=13097 Terry Tempest Williams signing copies of The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary Liza Rankow signing copies of Soul Medicine for a Fractured World March 26th | 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm | Pegasus Bookstore (Lobby of Brower Center) GET DIRECTIONS VIEW EVENT PAGE Panelists   View Bio Terry Tempest Williams Award-Winning Author and Naturalist…

The post Book Signings with Pegasus Books appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

4:30 pm: Book Signings with Pegasus Books

-->

Terry Tempest Williams signing copies of The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary

Liza Rankow signing copies of Soul Medicine for a Fractured World

March 26th | 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm | Pegasus Bookstore (Lobby of Brower Center)

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Terry Tempest Williams

Award-Winning Author and Naturalist

×

Terry Tempest Williams

Award-Winning Author and Naturalist

Terry Tempest Williams, a writer, educator, and environmental activist known for her lyrical and impassioned prose, is the author of over twenty creative nonfiction books including the environmental literature classic, Refuge – An Unnatural History of Family and Place, and: The Open Space of Democracy, Finding Beauty in a Broken World, When Women Were Birds, and Erosion – Essays of Undoing. Her most recent book is the The Glorians – Visitations from the Holy Ordinary (spring ’26). A Recipient of Guggenheim and Lannan literary fellowships, Ms. Williams’ work has appeared widely, including in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Progressive, and Orion, and has been translated worldwide. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she is currently Writer-in-Residence at the Harvard Divinity School.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Liza Rankow

Interfaith Minister, Educator, Activist and Author

×

Liza Rankow

Interfaith Minister, Educator, Activist and Author

Liza J. Rankow, Ph.D., an interfaith minister, educator, activist, and author whose lifework centers the deep healing that is essential to personal and social transformation, has been a spiritual counselor and teacher for more than three decades, working with individual clients, facilitating healing retreats, and offering classes and workshops in a variety of community and academic settings. Her new book is Soul Medicine for a Fractured World: Healing, Justice, and the Path of Wholeness.

View Speaker Page

The post Book Signings with Pegasus Books appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/shelterwood-collective-short-film-on-fire-stewardship/ Wed, 04 Mar 2026 22:23:29 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=13079 Introduction by Brandon Jones and Yomi Young, of ShelterwoodThis brand-new short by the Shelterwood Collective, a community rooted in a commitment to restoration, sustainability, and new life, describes their fire stewardship efforts on the 900-acre forest they caretake. Climate Action Film Screening Restoring Ecosystems and Biodiversity March 27th | 7:25 pm to 7:35 pm | Goldman…

The post Film Screening: Shelterwood Collective short film on Fire Stewardship appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

7:25 pm: Film Screening: Shelterwood Collective short film on Fire Stewardship

-->

Introduction by Brandon Jones and Yomi Young, of Shelterwood
This brand-new short by the Shelterwood Collective, a community rooted in a commitment to restoration, sustainability, and new life, describes their fire stewardship efforts on the 900-acre forest they caretake.

Climate Action Film Screening Restoring Ecosystems and Biodiversity

March 27th | 7:25 pm to 7:35 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Film Screening: Shelterwood Collective short film on Fire Stewardship appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/hope-vs-despair-where-are-we-really-at-in-the-global-clean-energy-transition/ Wed, 25 Feb 2026 21:26:31 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12922 The clean energy transition is in a moment of tremendous flux. Here in the U.S., the current administration is doing its best to derail progress, ending tax credits meant to spur development of renewables, creating arbitrary regulatory barriers, and propping up dirty coal plants. These setbacks are deeply alarming for anyone who cares about the…

The post Hope vs. Despair: Where Are We Really at in the Global Clean Energy Transition? appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

3:00 pm: Hope vs. Despair: Where Are We Really at in the Global Clean Energy Transition?

-->

The clean energy transition is in a moment of tremendous flux. Here in the U.S., the current administration is doing its best to derail progress, ending tax credits meant to spur development of renewables, creating arbitrary regulatory barriers, and propping up dirty coal plants. These setbacks are deeply alarming for anyone who cares about the climate crisis, but around the world, and even here at home, the transition is still moving forward in hopeful ways. Thanks primarily to falling costs, almost all new power generation in the U.S. is now carbon-free. Meanwhile, China is flooding the world with cheap solar panels and Europe is about to start building the largest offshore wind installation yet. The influx of good and bad news can be hard to make sense of even for those paying close attention. In this session, several leading clean energy experts will walk us through the data and offer their big-picture takes on where things really stand. Hosted by Wendy Becktold of Canary Media. With: Victoria Chu, Partner at Industrious Labs; Rushad Nanavatty, Managing Director of RMI’s Third Derivative.

Climate Action Design and Clean Tech Economics

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Wendy Becktold

Managing Editor
Canary Media

×

Wendy Becktold

Managing Editor | Canary Media

Wendy Becktold is the Berkeley, CA-based Managing Editor at Canary Media, a national nonprofit news outlet that covers the clean energy transition and solutions to climate change. Before joining Canary Media, Wendy was Story Editor at Sierra magazine.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Victoria Chu

Director of Analytics and Chief Impact Officer
Industrious Labs

×

Victoria Chu

Director of Analytics and Chief Impact Officer | Industrious Labs

Victoria Chu, an analyst, technologist, and data visualization expert with 13+ years’ experience in climate and electric sector analytics, is the Director of Analytics and Chief Impact Officer at Industrious Labs, responsible for ensuring that the organization delivers measurable impacts in achieving its mission to transform the industrial sector for climate, justice, and jobs. Before joining Industrious Labs, Victoria led the development of data systems and evaluation models for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Rushad Nanavatty

Managing Director
RMI’s Third Derivative

×

Rushad Nanavatty

Managing Director | RMI’s Third Derivative

Rushad Nanavatty is the Managing Director of RMI’s Third Derivative, the world’s leading early-stage climate tech accelerator, which has helped 100+ startups, each with gigaton-scale emissions abatement potential, raise over $500 million in funding. Rushad’s previous roles have included: establishing the Global Cooling Prize global innovation competition; working with the Energy Web Foundation (EWF), a partnership between RMI and Grid Singularity; founding COO of WeGen Energy, an off-grid energy start-up in the Philippines and Vietnam; and working internationally on sustainability and infrastructure at McKinsey and Company.

View Speaker Page

The post Hope vs. Despair: Where Are We Really at in the Global Clean Energy Transition? appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/film-screening-sequoias-of-the-seas/ Wed, 25 Feb 2026 21:20:48 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12919 Introduction by directors Natasha Benjamin and Ana Blanco Sequoias of the Sea follows Northern California communities as they confront the loss of 95% of their kelp forests—an ecological disaster fueled by climate change. The film dives into the lives of fishermen, local tribes, scientists, and coastal communities who are joining forces to urgently restore this vital…

The post Film Screening: Sequoias of the Seas appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

8:40 pm: Film Screening: Sequoias of the Seas

-->

Introduction by directors Natasha Benjamin and Ana Blanco

Sequoias of the Sea follows Northern California communities as they confront the loss of 95% of their kelp forests—an ecological disaster fueled by climate change. The film dives into the lives of fishermen, local tribes, scientists, and coastal communities who are joining forces to urgently restore this vital underwater ecosystem.

Film Screening Restoring Ecosystems and Biodiversity

March 26th | 8:40 pm to 10:00 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Film Screening: Sequoias of the Seas appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/film-screening-yanuni/ Wed, 25 Feb 2026 21:14:13 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12917 This powerful film follows the life and activism of Juma Xipaia, an extraordinary Indigenous leader from the Brazilian Amazon whose activism against illegal mining, land-grabbing, and corporate exploitation caused her to endure multiple assassination attempts but ultimately took her from her remote community in the rainforest  to becoming Brazil’s first Secretary of Articulation and Promotion…

The post Film Screening: Yanuni appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

6:40 pm: Film Screening: Yanuni

-->

This powerful film follows the life and activism of Juma Xipaia, an extraordinary Indigenous leader from the Brazilian Amazon whose activism against illegal mining, land-grabbing, and corporate exploitation caused her to endure multiple assassination attempts but ultimately took her from her remote community in the rainforest  to becoming Brazil’s first Secretary of Articulation and Promotion of Indigenous Rights.

Directed by Richard Ladkani, produced in association with Malaika Pictures and Leonardo DiCaprio. 

Activism/Justice/Human Rights Climate Action Film Screening Indigeneity

March 26th | 6:40 pm to 8:40 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Introduced by

 

View Bio

Leila Salazar-López

Executive Director
Amazon Watch

×

Leila Salazar-López

Executive Director | Amazon Watch

Leila Salazar-López has worked for 25+ years to defend the world’s rainforests, human rights and climate through grassroots organizing and international advocacy campaigns. She has been the Executive Director of Amazon Watch since 2015, leading that organization’s work to protect and defend the bio-cultural and climate integrity of the Amazon rainforest in solidarity with Indigenous and forest peoples.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Eric Terena

Indigenous Youth Climate Leader

×

Eric Terena

Indigenous Youth Climate Leader

Eric Terena, from the Cachoeirinha Indigenous Territory in the Pantanal of Brazil, is an Indigenous Youth Climate Leader; co-founder of Midia Indigena; film producer and sound designer; and an internationally recognized DJ, blending ancestral roots with modern electronic elements. He is the executive producer of the award-winning film Yanuni, screened at Bioneers.

View Speaker Page

The post Film Screening: Yanuni appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/film-screening-gaslit/ Wed, 25 Feb 2026 21:11:49 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12915 This brand-new film produced by Greenpeace USA follows Jane Fonda on a road trip through Texas oil fields and Gulf Coast communities, meeting the incredibly diverse people who are fighting back against the oil and gas extraction and plastics production booms poisoning their communities. Director: Katie Camosy Activism/Justice/Human Rights Climate Action Film Screening March 27th…

The post Film Screening: Gaslit appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

8:45 pm: Film Screening: Gaslit

-->

This brand-new film produced by Greenpeace USA follows Jane Fonda on a road trip through Texas oil fields and Gulf Coast communities, meeting the incredibly diverse people who are fighting back against the oil and gas extraction and plastics production booms poisoning their communities.

Director: Katie Camosy

Activism/Justice/Human Rights Climate Action Film Screening

March 27th | 8:45 pm to 10:30 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Film Screening: Gaslit appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/farming-while-black/ Wed, 25 Feb 2026 21:07:57 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12911 This film, which features Leah Penniman, co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, one of the keynote speakers at this year’s Bioneers conference, examines the historical dispossession of Black farmers in the US and a rising generation reclaiming their rightful ownership to land and reconnecting with their ancestral roots. Director: Mark Decena; producer: Liz Decena. Activism/Justice/Human Rights…

The post Film Screening: Farming While Black appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

7:35 pm: Film Screening: Farming While Black

-->

This film, which features Leah Penniman, co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, one of the keynote speakers at this year’s Bioneers conference, examines the historical dispossession of Black farmers in the US and a rising generation reclaiming their rightful ownership to land and reconnecting with their ancestral roots.

Director: Mark Decena; producer: Liz Decena.

Activism/Justice/Human Rights Film Screening Food And Farming

March 27th | 7:35 pm to 8:45 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Introduced by

 

View Bio

Leah Penniman

Farmer, Food Sovereignty Activist and Educator

×

Leah Penniman

Farmer, Food Sovereignty Activist and Educator

Leah Penniman, a Black Kreyol farmer, author, mother, and food justice activist who has been tending the soil and organizing for an anti-racist food system for 25 years, currently serves as founding Co-Executive Director of Farm Operations at Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York, a Black & Brown-led project that works toward food and land justice. She is the author of: Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land (2018) and Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists (2023).

View Speaker Page

The post Film Screening: Farming While Black appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/two-short-films-by-elodie-freymann/ Wed, 25 Feb 2026 21:05:16 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12909 Unquantifiable is a satirical but deceptively profound observational study of one Homo Sapiens by a renowned primatologist. Waiting for Alstonia, Elodie’s most recent, just released film, tracks some of her groundbreaking work studying chimpanzees’ use of medicinal plants in Uganda’s Budongo Forest. Film Screening Intelligence in Nature Restoring Ecosystems and Biodiversity March 27th | 6:40…

The post Film Screening: Two Short Films by Elodie Freymann appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

6:40 pm: Film Screening: Two Short Films by Elodie Freymann

Unquantifiable + Waiting for Alstonia

-->

Unquantifiable is a satirical but deceptively profound observational study of one Homo Sapiens by a renowned primatologist. Waiting for Alstonia, Elodie’s most recent, just released film, tracks some of her groundbreaking work studying chimpanzees’ use of medicinal plants in Uganda’s Budongo Forest.

Film Screening Intelligence in Nature Restoring Ecosystems and Biodiversity

March 27th | 6:40 pm to 7:25 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Introduced by

 

View Bio

Elodie Freymann

Primatologist, Botanist, Social Anthropologist, and Conservation Activist

×

Elodie Freymann

Primatologist, Botanist, Social Anthropologist, and Conservation Activist

Elodie Freymann, Ph.D., a primatologist, botanist, social anthropologist, filmmaker, scientific illustrator, and conservation activist, recently attracted global attention with her groundbreaking research on how wild chimpanzees in Uganda's Budongo Forest self-medicate with medicinal plants and how that use overlaps with local traditional healers’ pharmacopeias. She is now following up that research with the first systematic study of non-human self-medication in the Peruvian Amazon. Much of Elodie’s work blends the worlds of science and art to document how people interact and co-exist with the flora and fauna around them and how anthropogenic disturbances are disrupting these symbiotic relationships. She has received several awards for her work and is a Fellow at both The Explorers Club and The Linnean Society.

View Speaker Page

The post Film Screening: Two Short Films by Elodie Freymann appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/bioneers-2026-after-party/ Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:58:35 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12893 Join us for the ultimate Bioneers 2026 After Party to celebrate, connect, and keep the eco-friendly vibes going! Welcome to the **Bioneers 2026 After Party**! Get ready to unwind and celebrate after an inspiring three days of learning and networking at the Bioneers conference. Join us on Sat, Mar 28, 2026 at 8:00 PM at…

The post Bioneers 2026 After Party appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

8:00 pm: Bioneers 2026 After Party

Hosted by Visit Berkeley

-->

Join us for the ultimate Bioneers 2026 After Party to celebrate, connect, and keep the eco-friendly vibes going!

Welcome to the **Bioneers 2026 After Party**! Get ready to unwind and celebrate after an inspiring three days of learning and networking at the Bioneers conference.

Join us on Sat, Mar 28, 2026 at 8:00 PM at Gather, where we’ll have music, drinks, and good vibes all night long. This is your chance to connect with like-minded individuals, share ideas, and dance the night away. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to keep the conversation going and make new friends.

Pre-registration is highly encouraged as this event will sell out!

All pre-registered attendees will receive one (1) free drink ticket. Register here!

Interested in dinner beforehand? Make a reservation at Gather; dinner will be served up until 9:30 PM.

Other Locations open late night:

• BreakRoom
• Study Hall
• Eureka

Interactive Networking

March 28th | 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm | Gather

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Bioneers 2026 After Party appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/film-screening-free-leonard-peltier/ Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:25:30 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12891 Free Leonard Peltier outlines the decades-long efforts to free the world-renowned Indigenous activist from prison, culminating in the commutation of his sentence at age 80 in January 2025. The film presents essential history about the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) and the ongoing, never-ending fight for Indigenous resistance. Introduced by Children of the Setting Sun Outreach…

The post Film Screening: Free Leonard Peltier appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

8:30 pm: Film Screening: Free Leonard Peltier

-->

Free Leonard Peltier outlines the decades-long efforts to free the world-renowned Indigenous activist from prison, culminating in the commutation of his sentence at age 80 in January 2025. The film presents essential history about the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) and the ongoing, never-ending fight for Indigenous resistance. Introduced by Children of the Setting Sun Outreach Producer, Raynell Morris (Lummi).

Film Screening

March 28th | 8:30 pm to 10:30 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Introduced by

 

View Bio

Raynell Morris

Events and Gatherings Producer
Children of the Setting Sun Productions

×

Raynell Morris

Events and Gatherings Producer | Children of the Setting Sun Productions

Raynell Morris, a Lhaq’temish matriarch and enrolled Lummi tribal member, is the Events and Gatherings Producer at Children of the Setting Sun Productions and a board member of the Friends of Toki. A former Vice-President of the Sacred Lands Conservancy and Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs under President Clinton, Raynell was the first Native American staffer appointed to the White House. She also served as Chief of Staff for the Chairman of the Lummi Nation, and, as Director of Lummi Nation’s Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office, she was a key strategist in the successful campaign to block a proposal to build North America’s largest coal port terminal on Lhaq’temish (Lummi) sacred ground.

View Speaker Page

The post Film Screening: Free Leonard Peltier appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/film-screening-remaining-native/ Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:21:42 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12889 Remaining Native is a coming-of-age documentary told from the perspective of Kutoven (Ku) Stevens, a 17-year-old Native American runner, struggling to navigate his dream of becoming a collegiate athlete as the memory of his great-grandfather’s escape from an Indian boarding school begins to connect past, present, and future. Introduced by Dustin Martin (Dine’), Executive Director…

The post Film Screening: Remaining Native  appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

7:00 pm: Film Screening: Remaining Native 

-->

Remaining Native is a coming-of-age documentary told from the perspective of Kutoven (Ku) Stevens, a 17-year-old Native American runner, struggling to navigate his dream of becoming a collegiate athlete as the memory of his great-grandfather’s escape from an Indian boarding school begins to connect past, present, and future. Introduced by Dustin Martin (Dine’), Executive Director of Wings of America.

Film Screening

March 28th | 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Film Screening: Remaining Native  appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/film-screening-tiger/ Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:20:05 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12887 From a 1980s boom to near-collapse, Tiger chronicles Indigenous artist, Dana Tiger’s decades-long journey of resilience as she and her family transform grief and hardship into the revival of their iconic Tiger T-shirt. Film Screening March 28th | 6:30 pm to 7:00 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center GET DIRECTIONS VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Film Screening: Tiger appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

6:30 pm: Film Screening: Tiger

-->

From a 1980s boom to near-collapse, Tiger chronicles Indigenous artist, Dana Tiger’s decades-long journey of resilience as she and her family transform grief and hardship into the revival of their iconic Tiger T-shirt.

Film Screening

March 28th | 6:30 pm to 7:00 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Film Screening: Tiger appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/how-our-democracy-became-a-kleptocracy-and-how-to-reclaim-it/ Tue, 24 Feb 2026 20:07:34 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12880 David Sirota, an award-winning journalist, author, podcaster, founder of the invaluable investigative news outlet, The Lever, and a one-time speechwriter for Bernie Sanders, is one of the nation’s most penetrating analysts of the corruption of our political system. For anyone interested in social movements and momentum for change, it’s hard to think of a more…

The post How Our Democracy Became a Kleptocracy and How to Reclaim It [Cancelled] appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

4:45 pm: How Our Democracy Became a Kleptocracy and How to Reclaim It [Cancelled]

-->

David Sirota, an award-winning journalist, author, podcaster, founder of the invaluable investigative news outlet, The Lever, and a one-time speechwriter for Bernie Sanders, is one of the nation’s most penetrating analysts of the corruption of our political system. For anyone interested in social movements and momentum for change, it’s hard to think of a more urgently important systems-level conversation in this critical moment in our history. In this session, David will be interviewed by Rose Aguilar, renowned Bay Area journalist, host of KALW’s Your Call, the Bay Area’s premiere public affairs program, as he draws from his profoundly revelatory audio series and book, Master Plan, to elucidate the history of the corporate capture of our political system, where we stand today, and what we can do to begin to reclaim our democracy before it’s too late.

Activism/Justice/Human Rights Economics Media and Technology

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

David Sirota

Founder and Editor
The Lever

×

David Sirota

Founder and Editor | The Lever

David Sirota, an award-winning journalist and bestselling author of four books who served as Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign speechwriter in 2020, is founder and Editor of The Lever, a reader-supported investigative news outlet, and host of the weekly podcast Lever Time and the audio series Master Plan, whose first season won the 2025 National Press Club and the Signal awards. He also created Audible’s financial crisis podcast series Meltdown, named one of the best podcasts of the year by The Atlantic. Sirota also co-won the Writers Guild of America’s 2022 award for best original screenplay (with Adam McKay).

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Rose Aguilar

Host
KALW’s Your Call

×

Rose Aguilar

Host | KALW’s Your Call

Rose Aguilar, the longtime host of KALW’s Your Call, considered by many to be the Bay Area’s best public affairs program, has written for Al Jazeera English, The Guardian, Truthout, The Nation, and AlterNet. A member of the Native American Journalists Association and mentor-editor for The OpEd Project, an organization that works to increase the range of voices in the media, she is the author of Red Highways: A Journey into the Heartland. Before joining KALW, Rose published a newsletter about women's issues and was a technology reporter for CNET Radio. In college, she ran the TV and radio news departments and DJ'd a heavy metal show.

View Speaker Page

The post How Our Democracy Became a Kleptocracy and How to Reclaim It [Cancelled] appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/strange-exchange-the-joy-of-reshuffling-3/ Mon, 23 Feb 2026 16:34:34 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12847 Strange Exchange (SE) is a hyper-local, community-focused project that extends the useful life of small household items, reduces waste and knits local non-profits and individuals together through reuse. SE is an “exchange” only in the aggregate, i.e., people don’t need to bring something to take something. All items are free. To-date, 6,700+ lbs of items…

The post Strange Exchange: The Joy of “Reshuffling” appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

1:30 pm: Strange Exchange: The Joy of “Reshuffling”

-->

Strange Exchange (SE) is a hyper-local, community-focused project that extends the useful life of small household items, reduces waste and knits local non-profits and individuals together through reuse. SE is an “exchange” only in the aggregate, i.e., people don’t need to bring something to take something. All items are free. To-date, 6,700+ lbs of items have been “reshuffled!” Come participate in the non-monetary economy and experience the thrill of reshuffling. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to start a Strange Exchange of your own.

Strange Exchange will be accepting the following items (please bring in clean and in good condition): eyewear (sunglasses, prescription glasses, eyeglass cases, soft cloths and repair kits); small pet items (bowls, leashes, collars, toys); paper products (greeting cards, postcards, envelopes, unused journals and notebooks, post-its & 2026 calendars); costume jewelry (including broken jewelry and single earrings); small hardware (hooks, nails, screws, knobs, tools, locks) and accessories (shoelaces, wallets and men’s belts). Some of these items will be offered back to the community (for free, of course!) and others will be delivered to our non-profit partners.

March 28th | 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm | On Allston Way just outside of the Marsh Theater

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Strange Exchange: The Joy of “Reshuffling” appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/strange-exchange-the-joy-of-reshuffling-2/ Mon, 23 Feb 2026 16:34:23 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12848 Strange Exchange (SE) is a hyper-local, community-focused project that extends the useful life of small household items, reduces waste and knits local non-profits and individuals together through reuse. SE is an “exchange” only in the aggregate, i.e., people don’t need to bring something to take something. All items are free. To-date, 6,700+ lbs of items…

The post Strange Exchange: The Joy of “Reshuffling” appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

1:30 pm: Strange Exchange: The Joy of “Reshuffling”

-->

Strange Exchange (SE) is a hyper-local, community-focused project that extends the useful life of small household items, reduces waste and knits local non-profits and individuals together through reuse. SE is an “exchange” only in the aggregate, i.e., people don’t need to bring something to take something. All items are free. To-date, 6,700+ lbs of items have been “reshuffled!” Come participate in the non-monetary economy and experience the thrill of reshuffling. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to start a Strange Exchange of your own.

Strange Exchange will be accepting the following items (please bring in clean and in good condition): eyewear (sunglasses, prescription glasses, eyeglass cases, soft cloths and repair kits); small pet items (bowls, leashes, collars, toys); paper products (greeting cards, postcards, envelopes, unused journals and notebooks, post-its & 2026 calendars); costume jewelry (including broken jewelry and single earrings); small hardware (hooks, nails, screws, knobs, tools, locks) and accessories (shoelaces, wallets and men’s belts). Some of these items will be offered back to the community (for free, of course!) and others will be delivered to our non-profit partners.

March 27th | 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm | On Allston Way just outside of the Marsh Theater

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Strange Exchange: The Joy of “Reshuffling” appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/young-leaders-jasmine-panther/ Sun, 22 Feb 2026 23:29:46 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12838 Born of resistance, resilience, and ancestral strength, Indigenous women are rising, reclaiming leadership, re-aligning with nature, and challenging the imposed dysfunctions of colonial patriarchy. Jasmine Smith, 16, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee and founder and Chair of NAIWA Daughters, has lived this movement since birth, appearing before tribal and state legislatures all the…

The post Young Leaders: Jasmine Smith – Living Our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams, While Being the Voice of the Voiceless appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

10:50 am: Young Leaders: Jasmine Smith – Living Our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams, While Being the Voice of the Voiceless

-->

Born of resistance, resilience, and ancestral strength, Indigenous women are rising, reclaiming leadership, re-aligning with nature, and challenging the imposed dysfunctions of colonial patriarchy. Jasmine Smith, 16, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee and founder and Chair of NAIWA Daughters, has lived this movement since birth, appearing before tribal and state legislatures all the way to the UN, embodying her refusal of the exclusion of Indigenous youth voices in the struggle for our collective future. She issues a bold call to restore Indigenous youth to their rightful place as valued leaders, knowledge-holders, and essential advocates for the living world.

Indigeneity Rights of Nature Youth Leadership

March 28th | 10:50 am to 11:00 am | Zellerbach Hall

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

 

View Bio

Jasmine Smith

Founder and Chair
NAIWA Daughters

×

Jasmine Smith

Founder and Chair | NAIWA Daughters

Jasmine Smith, 16, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is an internationally recognized Indigenous youth leader, poet, and Founder and Chair of NAIWA Daughters, a youth-led nonprofit advancing Indigenous young women’s leadership, advocacy, and civic power. Jasmine has delivered keynote addresses at the Model United Nations Conference, working with Italian ambassadors, spoken before the Tennessee State Senate, working with Knox County representatives, and introduced the nation’s first all-female, second youth-led Rights of Nature resolution. A two-time Tennessee Civic Essay Award winner, she is a guest lecturer at the University of Tennessee, United World College in Costa Rica, and other academic institutions. Through her work, Jasmine bridges Indigenous knowledge, youth leadership, and environmental justice.

View Speaker Page

The post Young Leaders: Jasmine Smith – Living Our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams, While Being the Voice of the Voiceless appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/film-screening-the-snake-and-the-whale/ Fri, 20 Feb 2026 22:50:00 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12831 Over the past fifty years, four federal dams impounding the Lower Snake River in Washington State have been identified as the root cause for the demise of all of Idaho’s anadromous fish. The Snake and the Whale reveals the corrupt deals behind the dams’ construction and the subsequent campaigns to hide their role in this…

The post Film Screening: The Snake and The Whale  appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

7:40 pm: Film Screening: The Snake and The Whale 

-->

Over the past fifty years, four federal dams impounding the Lower Snake River in Washington State have been identified as the root cause for the demise of all of Idaho’s anadromous fish. The Snake and the Whale reveals the corrupt deals behind the dams’ construction and the subsequent campaigns to hide their role in this ongoing ecological disaster. Additionally, the dams have profoundly impacted a group of Killer Whales off the coast of Washington, known as the Southern Resident Orca, which rely on Snake River salmon as a primary food supply. These majestic creatures are now at the top of the Endangered Species list. Introduced by Outreach Producer, Raynell Morris (Lummi). Q&A to follow film screenings with Elizabeth Dunne, Scott Levy and Raynell Morris.

Film Screening

March 25th | 7:40 pm to 10:00 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Raynell Morris

Events and Gatherings Producer
Children of the Setting Sun Productions

×

Raynell Morris

Events and Gatherings Producer | Children of the Setting Sun Productions

Raynell Morris, a Lhaq’temish matriarch and enrolled Lummi tribal member, is the Events and Gatherings Producer at Children of the Setting Sun Productions and a board member of the Friends of Toki. A former Vice-President of the Sacred Lands Conservancy and Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs under President Clinton, Raynell was the first Native American staffer appointed to the White House. She also served as Chief of Staff for the Chairman of the Lummi Nation, and, as Director of Lummi Nation’s Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office, she was a key strategist in the successful campaign to block a proposal to build North America’s largest coal port terminal on Lhaq’temish (Lummi) sacred ground.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Elizabeth​ Dunne

Founder, Cascadia Bioregion Program
Earth Law Center

×

Elizabeth​ Dunne

Founder, Cascadia Bioregion Program | Earth Law Center

Elizabeth​ Dunne, an attorney with 20+ years’ experience representing communities, nonprofits, innovative businesses, and Nature herself, founded the Cascadia Bioregion Program at the Earth Law Center and has advanced many of the groundbreaking “Rights of Nature” laws in the US, including serving as counsel and advisor on the first court cases filed on behalf of ecosystems. Some of her cases have been featured in a few award-winning documentaries, including: Invisible Hand and Last Stand: Saving the Elwha River’s Legacy Forests. She was also closely involved in advocating for breaching of dams on the lower Snake River, authored a published law review article on the US Army Corps' executive authority to breach the dams, and co-launched a campaign with ELC and partners to recognize the rights of the Snake River and the Southern Resident Orcas.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Scott Levy

Producer
The Snake and the Whale

×

Scott Levy

Producer | The Snake and the Whale

Scott Levy, a longtime (three decades!) tireless advocate to protect and restore Idaho’s salmon runs and the greater Northwest’s terrestrial and marine ecosystems and their species, is the Producer of the film, The Snake and the Whale, which traces the multi-decade struggle to remove the dams impeding the river flows that are the cornerstones of ecological health of the entire region. He is also serving as an amicus-curiae in thirty-year litigation on this issue.

View Speaker Page

The post Film Screening: The Snake and The Whale  appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/yaa-at-woone-respect-for-all-things/ Fri, 20 Feb 2026 22:43:54 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12827 Yáa at Wooné: Respect for All Things explores the crucial role herring have played for thousands of years for many Indigenous coastal peoples, the risks this vital species currently faces from overfishing and other threats, and how to move forward centering Indigenous sovereignty and traditional ecological knowledge. Introduced by the founder and director of the…

The post Film Screening: Yaá at Wooné: Respect for All Things appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

7:05 pm: Film Screening: Yaá at Wooné: Respect for All Things

-->

Yáa at Wooné: Respect for All Things explores the crucial role herring have played for thousands of years for many Indigenous coastal peoples, the risks this vital species currently faces from overfishing and other threats, and how to move forward centering Indigenous sovereignty and traditional ecological knowledge. Introduced by the founder and director of the Herring Protectors, Louise Brady (Tlingit). Q&A after the film screenings with Louise Brady.

Film Screening

March 25th | 7:05 pm to 7:40 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Introduced by

 

View Bio

Louise Brady

Founder and Director
Herring Protectors

×

Louise Brady

Founder and Director | Herring Protectors

Louise Brady (Kh’asheech Tláa), a citizen of the Sitka Tribe of Alaska, previously served as the tribe’s Director of Social Services and Tribal Court Administrator. She is the founder and Director of the Herring Protectors, a grassroots movement led by Indigenous women that uses the original teachings of the Kiks.ádi women’s ceremony and collective organizing to stand up to legacies of colonization and genocide that have led to the devastation of the yaaw (herring). She also serves on the Advisory Board of Native Movement; has co-produced and directed two award-winning films; and was the recipient of a 2022 – 2023 NDN Changemaker Fellowship.

View Speaker Page

The post Film Screening: Yaá at Wooné: Respect for All Things appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/haaguaa-native-like-water/ Fri, 20 Feb 2026 22:34:08 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12825 An Indigenous surf film that celebrates the timeless bond between humanity and the ocean, Haagua follows a group of Indigenous surfers as they revive ancestral traditions, blending cultural resilience with the art of surfing to honor the past and inspire the future. Followed by a presentation by the Native Like Water Founder, Marc Chavez (Nahua,…

The post Film Screening: Haaguaa: Native Like Water appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

6:35 pm: Film Screening: Haaguaa: Native Like Water

-->

An Indigenous surf film that celebrates the timeless bond between humanity and the ocean, Haagua follows a group of Indigenous surfers as they revive ancestral traditions, blending cultural resilience with the art of surfing to honor the past and inspire the future. Followed by a presentation by the Native Like Water Founder, Marc Chavez (Nahua, Michoacán and New Mexican-Spanish descent) and Sophia Uribe, Native Like Water’s Chief Operations Officer.

Film Screening

March 25th | 6:35 pm to 7:05 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Marc Chavez

Founder
Native Like Water

×

Marc Chavez

Founder | Native Like Water

Marc Chavez, of Nahua, Michoacán and New Mexican-Spanish descent, founded the Young Native Scholars and InterTribal Youth programs in San Diego in 2000. Now in their 26^th year, these widely-recognized initiatives have engaged youth and mentors from across North America, Hawaii, Panama, Jamaica, and Mexico in programs that enhance knowledge in such domains as technology, culture, health, environmental science, and self-sustainability, and that also help link young people to universities and career paths. Chavez has also worked on major art exhibits, murals, overland journeys, music, dance and theater productions along the U.S.-Mexico border region and internationally. In 2014, he founded the nonprofit Native Like Water, and he recently wrote, directed and produced Haagua, a film about a new wave of Indigenous surfers.

View Speaker Page

The post Film Screening: Haaguaa: Native Like Water appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/networking-for-health-care-and-healing-arts-practitioners/ Thu, 19 Feb 2026 20:21:31 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12782 Inviting all healers—therapists, counselors, doctors, herbalists, acupuncturists, facilitators, coaches, chaplains, and more! Come and share your stories and commitments and lay the foundation for future partnerships. This will be lightly facilitated with ample time for organic connections as well. Facilitated by: Christine Imfeld, on the faculty of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and…

The post Networking for Health Care and Healing Arts Practitioners appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

3:00 pm: Networking for Health Care and Healing Arts Practitioners

Hosted by Integrative Health Studies at CIIS

-->

Inviting all healers—therapists, counselors, doctors, herbalists, acupuncturists, facilitators, coaches, chaplains, and more! Come and share your stories and commitments and lay the foundation for future partnerships. This will be lightly facilitated with ample time for organic connections as well. Facilitated by: Christine Imfeld, on the faculty of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point; and Dr. Saleena Gupte, Senior Adjunct Faculty, CIIS and Integrative Health & Medicine Practitioner-Healer-Mentor.

Ecological Medicine Networking

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:45 pm | Ashby Room, Residence Inn

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Christine Imfeld

Graduate Academic Advisor
California Institute of Integral Studies

×

Christine Imfeld

Graduate Academic Advisor | California Institute of Integral Studies

Christine Imfeld, on the faculties of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP), seeks to bridge the worlds of higher education, project management, health coaching, and biopsychosocial approaches to systemic wellness in her work.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Saleena Gupte

Senior Adjunct Faculty
California Institute of Integral Studies

×

Saleena Gupte

Senior Adjunct Faculty | California Institute of Integral Studies

Saleena Gupte, DrPH, MPH, Senior Adjunct Faculty, California Institute of Integral Studies, is an integrative well-being practitioner and public health leader specializing in trauma-informed care, resilience-based approaches, and relational health. She designs and facilitates systems-level and individualized programs that support care professionals in cultivating relational practices, mindfulness, emotional well-being, and compassionate leadership. She also provides traditional wisdom medicine and healing services for underserved communities at Life-Long Medical Care in Berkeley and Oakland.

View Speaker Page

The post Networking for Health Care and Healing Arts Practitioners appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/recycled-materials-puppet-making-a-collaborative-workshop-2/ Tue, 17 Feb 2026 18:52:17 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12727 Join artist Toni Mikulka-Chang for a special two-hour afternoon workshop on Friday at The Marsh Theater exploring how giant puppet theater can embody and advance Bioneers principles. This collaborative session will focus on developing the concept for a giant puppet theater work rooted in the values at the heart of Bioneers: ecological wisdom, biomimicry, Indigenous…

The post Giant Puppets Save the World: Visioning Puppet Theater for Bioneers appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

1:00 pm: Giant Puppets Save the World: Visioning Puppet Theater for Bioneers

-->

Join artist Toni Mikulka-Chang for a special two-hour afternoon workshop on Friday at The Marsh Theater exploring how giant puppet theater can embody and advance Bioneers principles.

This collaborative session will focus on developing the concept for a giant puppet theater work rooted in the values at the heart of Bioneers: ecological wisdom, biomimicry, Indigenous knowledge, systems change, environmental justice, interdependence, and community resilience. Together, participants will brainstorm themes, symbols, characters, and stories that could be shaped into a future large-scale puppet theater piece that reflects the vision of Bioneers and its role in inspiring cultural transformation.

Through guided discussion, collective imagination, and creative concept development, we will explore how giant puppets can help translate complex ideas into powerful visual storytelling that moves people emotionally, spiritually, and socially. This workshop is an invitation to think together about how art can serve as a living vessel for hope, activism, ecological awareness, and collective action.

No prior experience is needed — only a willingness to participate, imagine boldly, and help dream up a giant puppet theater vision in service of a more just and life-centered future.

Arts and Performances Interactive

March 27th | 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm | The Marsh Cabaret

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Giant Puppets Save the World: Visioning Puppet Theater for Bioneers appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/a-wild-love-for-the-world-honoring-joanna-macy-her-legacy/ Fri, 13 Feb 2026 20:40:27 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12688 Join us for an immersive presentation and participatory workshop honoring the life and legacy of the visionary teacher, eco-philosopher, and founder of The Work That Reconnects, Joanna Macy, who passed away in July last year, leaving behind a profound body of work devoted to helping us metabolize planetary grief and source courage from a fierce and…

The post A Wild Love for The World: Honoring Joanna Macy & Her Legacy appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

4:45 pm: A Wild Love for The World: Honoring Joanna Macy & Her Legacy

With Lydia Violet Harutoonian

-->

Join us for an immersive presentation and participatory workshop honoring the life and legacy of the visionary teacher, eco-philosopher, and founder of The Work That Reconnects, Joanna Macy, who passed away in July last year, leaving behind a profound body of work devoted to helping us metabolize planetary grief and source courage from a fierce and enduring love for the living world.

Guided by facilitator, musician, and Macy scholar Lydia Violet, this gathering will weave performance, reflection, community singing, and collective experience into a shared act of remembrance. Drawing on Joanna Macy’s Council of All Beings practice, we will be invited to widen our perspective beyond the human story and reconnect with the larger community of life — listening for the voices, wisdom, and grief of Earth’s creatures themselves.

Audio of Joanna Macy’s own voice will be interlaced throughout the program, offering a living thread of guidance and remembrance. Her words call us back, again and again, to a central truth: even in times of great peril, the beauty and wonder of Earth endures — and so does our capacity to respond with love. Come as you are.

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Campanile Room, 6th Floor, Hotel Shattuck Plaza

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Lydia Violet Harutoonian

Founder and Director
The School for The Great Turning

×

Lydia Violet Harutoonian

Founder and Director | The School for The Great Turning

Lydia Violet Harutoonian, an Iranian-Armenian-American facilitator-scholar, grief-worker, and folk music multi-instrumentalist, studied and worked with the renowned deep ecology elder and Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy for 17 years and founded and runs The School for The Great Turning based on Macy’s legacy. In her musical pursuits, Lydia has collaborated with a number of leading socially engaged performers, including Climbing PoeTree, MaMuse, Lyla June, and Rising Appalachia, with whose co-leader, Leah Song, she teaches the course, Singing the Bones, a project that brings artists together to explore and share folk music from their ancestries, encouraging cultural revitalization and diasporic healing.

View Speaker Page

The post A Wild Love for The World: Honoring Joanna Macy & Her Legacy appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/resisting-enshittification-from-monopolies-and-mediocrity-to-reviving-democracy/ Wed, 11 Feb 2026 22:30:32 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12682 The monopolistic dominance of the technosphere and media ecosystem by a handful of immense corporations has led to extraordinary erosions of privacy, dignity and sanity, and may threaten the very survival of those democratic institutions we still have. In light of these realities, what can we do to resist what Cory Doctorow has brilliantly tagged…

The post Resisting Enshittification: From Monopolies and Mediocrity to Reviving Democracy appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

4:45 pm: Resisting Enshittification: From Monopolies and Mediocrity to Reviving Democracy

Cory Doctorow and Zephyr Teachout in Conversation

-->

The monopolistic dominance of the technosphere and media ecosystem by a handful of immense corporations has led to extraordinary erosions of privacy, dignity and sanity, and may threaten the very survival of those democratic institutions we still have. In light of these realities, what can we do to resist what Cory Doctorow has brilliantly tagged as the “Enshittification” of online reality and its nefarious impacts on the larger cultural and socio-political context? In this conversation, Cory, one of the world’s leading, long-time warriors for a truly functional internet that genuinely serves our needs, joins Zephyr Teachout, attorney, law professor, author, political leader, pioneering anti-monopoly and internet activist, and one of the nation’s leading experts on democracy and antitrust law, as they delve deeply into the best strategies we can employ to reclaim what should be our information and communication commons. Moderated by: Wendy Liu, author of Abolish Silicon Valley: How to Liberate Technology from Capitalism.

Activism/Justice/Human Rights Economics Media and Technology

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Freight & Salvage

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Zephyr Teachout

Professor of Law
Fordham Law School

×

Zephyr Teachout

Professor of Law | Fordham Law School

Zephyr Teachout, Professor of Law at Fordham Law School, is a renowned and influential expert on the intersection of corporate and political power. She is the author of Corruption in America, which traces the history of what corruption has meant at different times in our history and, most recently of: Break 'em Up, which makes a case for reimagining the relationship between democracy and antimonopoly law. Zephyr also ran for Governor and Attorney General of New York State, getting the New York Times endorsement in the latter race, and is a leading figure in national antimonopoly and democracy defense movements.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Cory Doctorow

Technology Journalist and Science Fiction Author

×

Cory Doctorow

Technology Journalist and Science Fiction Author

Cory Doctorow, a renowned, award-winning science fiction author, activist, and journalist, is the author of dozens of books, most recently, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, (nonfiction); and the novels Picks and Shovels and The Bezzle. His other notable books include the “solar-punk” novels Walkaway and The Lost Cause, and the tech policy books The Internet Con and Chokepoint Capitalism. Cory also: maintains a daily blog at Pluralistic.net; works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and is: an AD White Professor at Cornell University; an MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate; a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at Open University; a Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of North Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science; and a co-founder of the UK Open Rights Group.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Wendy Liu

Freelance Writer

×

Wendy Liu

Freelance Writer

Wendy Liu, a freelance writer based in San Francisco, is the author of Abolish Silicon Valley: How to Liberate Technology from Capitalism, published in 2020 by Repeater Books. She writes a column about tech billboards for Bay Area Current.

View Speaker Page

The post Resisting Enshittification: From Monopolies and Mediocrity to Reviving Democracy appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/outdoor-drum-circle-community-activation-with-afia-walking-tree-friends/ Mon, 09 Feb 2026 20:13:48 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12555 Afia Walking Tree, who has come all the way from her home in Jamaica to be back in her old Bay Area stomping grounds of many decades and perform for us on Bioneers’ main-stage, will also lead a large ensemble of local drummers in what should be an awe-inspiring, full-bodied, transcendental musical journey and a…

The post Outdoor Drum Circle/Community Activation with Afia Walking Tree + friends appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

1:15 pm: Outdoor Drum Circle/Community Activation with Afia Walking Tree + friends

-->

Afia Walking Tree, who has come all the way from her home in Jamaica to be back in her old Bay Area stomping grounds of many decades and perform for us on Bioneers’ main-stage, will also lead a large ensemble of local drummers in what should be an awe-inspiring, full-bodied, transcendental musical journey and a powerful community uplift and healing ritual.

Arts and Performances Interactive

March 28th | 1:15 pm to 2:15 pm | On Allston Way just outside of the Marsh Theater

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Outdoor Drum Circle/Community Activation with Afia Walking Tree + friends appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/performance-sambafunk/ Mon, 09 Feb 2026 20:12:16 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12553 Oakland’s own SambaFunk! brings their unique brand of joyful, dynamic dance and powerful drumming rooted in African carnival dance and rhythm traditions to move our bodies and raise our voices. Arts and Performances March 28th | 12:40 pm to 1:10 pm | Zellerbach Theater Lobby & Patio GET DIRECTIONS VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Performance: SambaFunk! appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

12:40 pm: Performance: SambaFunk!

-->

Oakland’s own SambaFunk! brings their unique brand of joyful, dynamic dance and powerful drumming rooted in African carnival dance and rhythm traditions to move our bodies and raise our voices.

Arts and Performances

March 28th | 12:40 pm to 1:10 pm | Zellerbach Theater Lobby & Patio

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Performance: SambaFunk! appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/performance-drumming-activation-with-afia-walking-tree-deb-lane-and-friends/ Mon, 09 Feb 2026 20:10:50 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12551 After a morning of intense presentations, there is nothing like reconnecting to our bodies before lunch by dancing to the rhythms of great percussionists, and there are none better than Educator, Ritualist, Cultural Drummer, Ambassador, Spiritual Earth Activist Steward, Community Advocate-Trainer, and founder of Spirit Drumz and Raise Yuh Voice Jamaica, Afia Walking Tree; and…

The post Performance: Drumming Activation with Afia Walking Tree, Deb Lane, and friends         appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

12:40 pm: Performance: Drumming Activation with Afia Walking Tree, Deb Lane, and friends        

-->

After a morning of intense presentations, there is nothing like reconnecting to our bodies before lunch by dancing to the rhythms of great percussionists, and there are none better than Educator, Ritualist, Cultural Drummer, Ambassador, Spiritual Earth Activist Steward, Community Advocate-Trainer, and founder of Spirit Drumz and Raise Yuh Voice Jamaica, Afia Walking Tree; and Deb Lane, formerly of the Santa Cruz World Beat Band, Pele Juju; and their cohorts.

Arts and Performances Interactive

March 27th | 12:40 pm to 1:10 pm | Zellerbach Theater Lobby & Patio

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Afia Walking Tree

Percussionist, Educator and Facilitator

×

Afia Walking Tree

Percussionist, Educator and Facilitator

Afia Walking Tree, M.Ed., a Jamaican-born feminist percussionist, educator, and facilitator working at the “crossroads of rhythm, land, and liberation,” is an adjunct professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), an Artist-in-Residence with the African American Policy Forum, and One Billion Rising/V-Day’s Jamaica Coordinator. Afia has returned to Jamaica to steward a 25-acre regenerative land-based sanctuary and learning hub (Solidarity Yaad), where she curates nature-immersed healing journeys and eco-experiences rooted in ancestral wisdom, agroforestry, food security, and community care, prioritizing BIPOC women, and gender-expansive, queer, and trans-masculine people.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Deb Lane

Drummer and Water Conservation Administrator

×

Deb Lane

Drummer and Water Conservation Administrator

Deb Lane has been playing the drums for most of her life. Formerly a member of the Santa Cruz World Beat Band, Pele Juju, she performs with artists throughout the Bay Area and beyond. In addition to her musical endeavors, Deb is a leader in water-use efficiency and works as a Water Conservation Administrator.

View Speaker Page

The post Performance: Drumming Activation with Afia Walking Tree, Deb Lane, and friends         appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/performance-peoples-circus-theatre/ Mon, 09 Feb 2026 20:09:23 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12549 Celebrate nature in movement!  People’s Circus Theatre, a bold, cutting-edge performing arts organization whose fusion of circus arts and storytelling has a unique power to touch audiences mentally, emotionally, and viscerally will explore the beauty of nature through their unique acrobatic style. You will be invited to join in the fun! Arts and Performances March…

The post Performance: People’s Circus Theatre appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

12:40 pm: Performance: People’s Circus Theatre

-->

Celebrate nature in movement!  People’s Circus Theatre, a bold, cutting-edge performing arts organization whose fusion of circus arts and storytelling has a unique power to touch audiences mentally, emotionally, and viscerally will explore the beauty of nature through their unique acrobatic style. You will be invited to join in the fun!

Arts and Performances

March 26th | 12:40 pm to 1:10 pm | Zellerbach Theater Lobby & Patio

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Performance: People’s Circus Theatre appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/workshop-sonic-roots-of-resilience-with-amikaeyla/ Mon, 09 Feb 2026 20:07:59 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12547 What if the medicine for our broken hearts has been within us all along, waiting in the depths of our own voice? Internationally acclaimed singer, renowned vocal coach, peace activist, and master healer Amikaeyla will, in this transformative session, share ancient practices and cutting-edge techniques she has taken to war-torn regions and centers of collective…

The post Workshop: Sonic Roots of Resilience with Amikaeyla appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

3:00 pm: Workshop: Sonic Roots of Resilience with Amikaeyla

-->

What if the medicine for our broken hearts has been within us all along, waiting in the depths of our own voice? Internationally acclaimed singer, renowned vocal coach, peace activist, and master healer Amikaeyla will, in this transformative session, share ancient practices and cutting-edge techniques she has taken to war-torn regions and centers of collective trauma to literally “synchronize hearts” through sound. Come discover how your voice can be a foundational technology for nervous system regulation. Through gentle tones and shared rhythms, we’ll activate our body’s natural pathway to resilience and interrelatedness, shifting us from isolation to connection, depletion to wholeness and grounded presence. No musical experience needed—your willingness to participate is enough —just bring your heart and voice!

Arts and Performances

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | The Marsh Main Stage

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Amikaeyla Gaston

Founder and Director
International Cultural Arts and Healing Sciences Institute

×

Amikaeyla Gaston

Founder and Director | International Cultural Arts and Healing Sciences Institute

Amikaeyla Gaston, founder/Director of the International Cultural Arts and Healing Sciences Institute, is an award-winning virtuosic vocalist and master teacher who has collaborated with a number of renowned artists including Bobby McFerrin, Pete Seeger, Wyclef, Dave Matthews, Esperanza Spalding, and Sheila E. Artistic Director of the Voices of A Dream ensemble, Amikaeyla’s work in musical healing and cultural diplomacy has garnered her a number of prestigious honors including the United Nations Global Woman Award.

View Speaker Page

The post Workshop: Sonic Roots of Resilience with Amikaeyla appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/mending-with-wead-women-eco-artists-dialog/ Mon, 09 Feb 2026 20:03:09 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12541 Stop by to learn “visible” mending techniques for your clothes and household fabrics. Come and darn socks, embroider, sew ashiko-style patches, and more. WEAD will provide samples and tutorials on stitching. Feel free to bring an item that you would like repaired. Instruction will focus on learning skills, rather than a final product. Needles, thread,…

The post Mending with WEAD (Women Eco Artists Dialog)   appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

1:30 pm: Mending with WEAD (Women Eco Artists Dialog)  

-->

Stop by to learn “visible” mending techniques for your clothes and household fabrics. Come and darn socks, embroider, sew ashiko-style patches, and more. WEAD will provide samples and tutorials on stitching. Feel free to bring an item that you would like repaired. Instruction will focus on learning skills, rather than a final product. Needles, thread, buttons and patches will be available for use during the instructions, or bring your knitting and join the mending community!

Arts and Performances

March 28th | 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm | The Marsh Cabaret

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Mending with WEAD (Women Eco Artists Dialog)   appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/biodiversity-social-diversity-and-the-future-of-nature-in-cities/ Mon, 09 Feb 2026 19:59:16 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12537 A growing body of evidence clearly shows that the health of urban dwellers and the health of the natural systems they live within are directly linked. Historically, privileged parts of urban landscapes have been managed primarily for aesthetic beauty and property value, not for their integral ecological role in the more-than-human world, and disenfranchised communities have…

The post Biodiversity, Social Diversity, and the Future of Nature in Cities appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

3:00 pm: Biodiversity, Social Diversity, and the Future of Nature in Cities

-->

A growing body of evidence clearly shows that the health of urban dwellers and the health of the natural systems they live within are directly linked. Historically, privileged parts of urban landscapes have been managed primarily for aesthetic beauty and property value, not for their integral ecological role in the more-than-human world, and disenfranchised communities have been burdened with toxic sites and deprived of parks and tree cover. How can we create cooler, far less polluted and far healthier, safer and fairer urban spaces? In this session, three visionary urban activists and thought leaders from different parts of the country will share their stories and strategies that reveal how we can marshal biodiversity, social diversity, and human/nature collaborations to protect, enliven and empower our cities. Hosted by Brett KenCairn, founding Director of the Center for Regenerative Solutions and Senior Division Manager for Nature-based Climate Solutions for the City of Boulder. With: Elliott J. Royal, Executive Director of Charlotte, North Carolina’s West Blvd Neighborhood Coalition (WBNC); Tanner Yess, a co-founder of Groundwork Ohio River Valley who led the creation of one of the nation’s largest youth green workforce programs.

Design and Clean Tech Economics Nature-based Solutions Restoring Ecosystems and Biodiversity

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Golden Bear Room, Hotel Shattuck Plaza

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Brett KenCairn

Founding Director
Center for Regenerative Solutions

×

Brett KenCairn

Founding Director | Center for Regenerative Solutions

Brett KenCairn, founding Director of the Center for Regenerative Solutions and Senior Division Manager for Nature-based Climate Solutions for the City of Boulder’s Climate Initiatives Department, has throughout his career supported community-based initiatives across the western U.S., particularly in rural, Native American, and other marginalized communities. He also co-founded several organizations, including: the Rogue River Institute for Ecology and Economy; Indigenous Community Enterprises; Veterans Green Jobs; and Community Energy Systems.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Elliott Royal

Executive Director
West Blvd Neighborhood Coalition

×

Elliott Royal

Executive Director | West Blvd Neighborhood Coalition

Elliott J. Royal, Executive Director of Charlotte, North Carolina’s West Blvd Neighborhood Coalition (WBNC), spearheads initiatives aimed at advancing equity, education, and economic mobility along Charlotte’s West Boulevard Corridor. She has long been deeply engaged in her community, working to strengthen resident involvement and build partnerships. Among other projects, Elliott oversees the Seeds for Change farm and its youth honey enterprise, is establishing a Youth Advisory Council, and is leading the launch of Three Sisters Market, a community-owned food cooperative designed to improve food access and health equity for the Black community, which has been without a full-service grocery store for 36+ years.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Tanner Yess

Youth and Workforce Officer
Groundwork USA

×

Tanner Yess

Youth and Workforce Officer | Groundwork USA

Tanner Yess, a co-founder of Groundwork Ohio River Valley and Groundwork USA’s Youth and Workforce Officer, has led the creation of one of the nation’s largest youth green workforce programs and brought Climate Safe Neighborhoods to Cincinnati. An alumnus of the Peace Corps who worked on a fishing vessel in the Bering Sea after earning a degree in ecology and co-founded Cincinnati’s Tri-State Trails Coalition, he is also a National Park Service “Mountains to Main Street” Ambassador; SHIFT Emerging Leader; and recipient of the 2018 Murie Center Rising Leader Award.

View Speaker Page

The post Biodiversity, Social Diversity, and the Future of Nature in Cities appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/designing-for-extremes-and-uncertainty-learning-from-ecosystems/ Mon, 09 Feb 2026 19:45:33 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12532 Climate volatility, political upheaval, and disruptive technologies are driving increased uncertainty in our lives, but across the planet life not only survives but can thrive in extreme conditions prone to dynamic fluctuations from volcano-forged forests to intertidal zone communities adapted to constant flux to desert creatures that have to optimize scarcity. Some species even thrive…

The post Designing for Extremes: How Ecosystems Navigate Uncertainty appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

3:00 pm: Designing for Extremes: How Ecosystems Navigate Uncertainty

-->

Climate volatility, political upheaval, and disruptive technologies are driving increased uncertainty in our lives, but across the planet life not only survives but can thrive in extreme conditions prone to dynamic fluctuations from volcano-forged forests to intertidal zone communities adapted to constant flux to desert creatures that have to optimize scarcity. Some species even thrive in extreme, deep-sea hydrothermal vents and inside the nuclear reactor of Chernobyl! In this session, we will engage in guided group activities to explore how such ecosystems can serve as teachers, inspiring us to find our own adaptive strategies for navigating extremes, including flexible niche-finding, frugality, opportunism, mutualism, and modularity. We’ll leave equipped with a nature-inspired toolkit for building resilience, clarity, and adaptability in turbulent times. Hosted by Biomimicry for Social Innovation (BSI), with: Gina LaMotte, BSI’s Managing Director, Capri LaRocca, BSI Engagement & Learning Lead; and Deb Bidwell, Science Advisor and Senior Instructor.

Design and Clean Tech Restoring Ecosystems and Biodiversity

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Campanile Room, 6th Floor, Hotel Shattuck Plaza

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Gina LaMotte

Managing Director
Biomimicry for Social Innovation

×

Gina LaMotte

Managing Director | Biomimicry for Social Innovation

Gina LaMotte, Managing Director of Biomimicry for Social Innovation, has 25 years’ experience working in biomimicry, systems-change, social innovation, design thinking, and climate justice. In 2008, she founded EcoRise, a nonprofit supporting thousands of K-12 schools nationwide with programs centering youth leadership to advance climate action, sustainability and environmental justice. She also created Gen:Thrive, which provides network mapping and data visualization tools to advance health, equity, and climate resilience in K-12 schools.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Deb Bidwell

Science Advisor
Biomimicry for Social Innovation

×

Deb Bidwell

Science Advisor | Biomimicry for Social Innovation

Deborah (Deb) Bidwell is a Senior Biology Instructor at College of Charleston, a science advisor at Biomimicry for Social Innovation, and a freelance consultant at Chickadee Biomimicry. A Certified Biomimicry Professional, Deb specializes in translating biology for regenerative design, biomimicry pedagogy, and curriculum development. Her recent projects include: The Nature of Trust, Nature Positive Practices, Beloved Economies, and Biomimicry on The Ray.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Capri LaRocca

Engagement & Learning Lead
Biomimicry for Social Innovation

×

Capri LaRocca

Engagement & Learning Lead | Biomimicry for Social Innovation

Capri LaRocca, an educator and designer, formerly served as Director of Experiential Learning at the Minerva Project and is now a facilitator at The Strother School for Radical Attention and the Engagement and a Learning Lead at Biomimicry for Social Innovation.  For over a decade, she has partnered with universities and change-makers globally to reimagine learning in the light of living systems thinking.

View Speaker Page

The post Designing for Extremes: How Ecosystems Navigate Uncertainty appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/thursday-throwdown/ Wed, 04 Feb 2026 21:12:20 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12517 Who is participating in Bioneers this year?  What magic might materialize when we come together? Meet and mix with your fellow attendees in a spirit of welcome, curiosity, and connection. Set intentions, let go of expectations, share stories, and find supportive partners in this playful environment. All conference attendees are welcome! This event is especially…

The post Thursday Throwdown appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

7:00 pm: Thursday Throwdown

Hosted by Shilpa Jain

-->

Who is participating in Bioneers this year?  What magic might materialize when we come together? Meet and mix with your fellow attendees in a spirit of welcome, curiosity, and connection. Set intentions, let go of expectations, share stories, and find supportive partners in this playful environment. All conference attendees are welcome! This event is especially for those who prefer spaces free of too much ambient noise, so that they can engage in conversation without having to shout to be heard. This will be lightly facilitated with ample time for organic engagement. Note: Food will not be provided, but the café at Freight and Salvage will be open.

Interactive Networking

March 26th | 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm | Freight & Salvage

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Shilpa Jain

Researcher, Writer and Workshop Leader

×

Shilpa Jain

Researcher, Writer and Workshop Leader

Shilpa Jain, a researcher, writer and workshop leader on topics including globalization, creativity, ecology, democratic living and innovative learning, has facilitated dozens of transformative leadership gatherings around the world and worked with hundreds of young leaders from 50+ countries. Her past positions include: Executive Director of YES! (for 11 years); Education and Outreach Coordinator of Other Worlds; and learning activist with Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development in Udaipur, India.

View Speaker Page

The post Thursday Throwdown appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/networking-for-creatives-and-artists/ Wed, 04 Feb 2026 21:04:40 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12498 Facilitated by Nandita Batheja and Austin Willacy, this session invites all artists and creatives, and people who want to bring more arts and creativity into their environmental/climate work! Come and share your projects and passions and lay the foundation for future partnerships. This will be lightly facilitated with ample time for organic connections as well.…

The post Networking for Creatives and Artists appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

3:00 pm: Networking for Creatives and Artists

-->

Facilitated by Nandita Batheja and Austin Willacy, this session invites all artists and creatives, and people who want to bring more arts and creativity into their environmental/climate work! Come and share your projects and passions and lay the foundation for future partnerships. This will be lightly facilitated with ample time for organic connections as well. Austin Willacy is a staff member at Youth in Arts (based in San Rafael, CA) and Nandita Batheja is the co-executive director of the SOULL (School of Unusual Life Learning). Together, they facilitate the annual YES! Arts and Social Change Jam, a co-creative gathering of activists at the meeting point of inner, interpersonal, and systematic transformation.

Arts and Performances Interactive Networking

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Ashby Room, Residence Inn

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Nandita Batheja

Co-Executive Director
SOULL (School of Unusual Life Learning)

×

Nandita Batheja

Co-Executive Director | SOULL (School of Unusual Life Learning)

Nandita Batheja, a facilitator, somatics practitioner, and multi-disciplinary artist, is Co-Director of the School of Unusual Life Learning and a facilitator of InterPlay, an improvisational creative arts practice designed to unlock the wisdom of the body.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Austin Willacy

Community Organizer and Singer/Songwriter
Youth in Arts

×

Austin Willacy

Community Organizer and Singer/Songwriter | Youth in Arts

Austin Willacy, a community organizer, award-winning singer/songwriter and a longtime member of the renowned a cappella group, The House Jacks (https://www.housejacks.com/), seeks to use music to foster peacebuilding and social justice and bridge divides. He has toured globally, released numerous albums, and facilitated workshops internationally, including in Turkey, India, and Israel/Palestine. (austinwillacy.com)

View Speaker Page

The post Networking for Creatives and Artists appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/lunchtime-networking-cross-pollinating-seeding-collaborations-3/ Wed, 04 Feb 2026 20:46:08 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12505 What will help you make the most of your time at Bioneers? Are you hoping to clarify and/or get support with your projects and dreams? Are you looking for collaborators / co-conspirators / companions in the journey? Join this lunchtime networking experience to engage with fellow travelers on shared roads. It will be lightly facilitated…

The post Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

1:30 pm: Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations

-->

What will help you make the most of your time at Bioneers? Are you hoping to clarify and/or get support with your projects and dreams? Are you looking for collaborators / co-conspirators / companions in the journey? Join this lunchtime networking experience to engage with fellow travelers on shared roads. It will be lightly facilitated with ample time for organic connections. Bring your lunch to the Dharma College and make surprising connections with other conference attendees. Note: Food will not be provided, but, maybe like the school cafeteria, your buddies will share some of their treats with you. Facilitated by Shilpa Jain, Zi Terrence-Smith, and Marisa Villarreal.

Interactive Networking

March 28th | 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm | Lotus Cafe, Dharma College

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Shilpa Jain

Researcher, Writer and Workshop Leader

×

Shilpa Jain

Researcher, Writer and Workshop Leader

Shilpa Jain, a researcher, writer and workshop leader on topics including globalization, creativity, ecology, democratic living and innovative learning, has facilitated dozens of transformative leadership gatherings around the world and worked with hundreds of young leaders from 50+ countries. Her past positions include: Executive Director of YES! (for 11 years); Education and Outreach Coordinator of Other Worlds; and learning activist with Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development in Udaipur, India.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Zi Terrence-Smith

Bay Area Basecamp Coordinator
Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots

×

Zi Terrence-Smith

Bay Area Basecamp Coordinator | Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots

Zi Terrence-Smith, the Bay Area Basecamp Coordinator for Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots, has, over the past decade, mobilized hundreds of volunteers and developed partnerships across sectors to move ideas into coordinated action. Committed to building networks rooted in justice that can adapt and endure, his work centers intergenerational leadership and regenerative infrastructure to build environmental justice initiatives grounded in shared leadership and collective responsibility.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Marisa Villarreal

Director
GRID Alternatives

×

Marisa Villarreal

Director | GRID Alternatives

Marisa Villarreal, Director at GRID Alternatives (a national renewable energy nonprofit), has 15 years’ experience in developing intersectional climate and social justice programs in a wide range of contexts, as well as in seeking to create restorative spaces for transformation, healing, dreaming, and play.

View Speaker Page

The post Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/lunchtime-networking-cross-pollinating-seeding-collaborations-2/ Wed, 04 Feb 2026 20:44:44 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12503 What will help you make the most of your time at Bioneers? Are you hoping to clarify and/or get support with your projects and dreams? Are you looking for collaborators / co-conspirators / companions in the journey? Join this lunchtime networking experience to engage with fellow travelers on shared roads. It will be lightly facilitated…

The post Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

1:30 pm: Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations

-->

What will help you make the most of your time at Bioneers? Are you hoping to clarify and/or get support with your projects and dreams? Are you looking for collaborators / co-conspirators / companions in the journey? Join this lunchtime networking experience to engage with fellow travelers on shared roads. It will be lightly facilitated with ample time for organic connections. Bring your lunch to the Dharma College and make surprising connections with other conference attendees. Note: Food will not be provided, but, maybe like the school cafeteria, your buddies will share some of their treats with you. Facilitated by Shilpa Jain, Zi Terrence-Smith, and Marisa Villarreal.

Interactive Networking

March 27th | 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm | Lotus Cafe, Dharma College

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Shilpa Jain

Researcher, Writer and Workshop Leader

×

Shilpa Jain

Researcher, Writer and Workshop Leader

Shilpa Jain, a researcher, writer and workshop leader on topics including globalization, creativity, ecology, democratic living and innovative learning, has facilitated dozens of transformative leadership gatherings around the world and worked with hundreds of young leaders from 50+ countries. Her past positions include: Executive Director of YES! (for 11 years); Education and Outreach Coordinator of Other Worlds; and learning activist with Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development in Udaipur, India.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Zi Terrence-Smith

Bay Area Basecamp Coordinator
Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots

×

Zi Terrence-Smith

Bay Area Basecamp Coordinator | Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots

Zi Terrence-Smith, the Bay Area Basecamp Coordinator for Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots, has, over the past decade, mobilized hundreds of volunteers and developed partnerships across sectors to move ideas into coordinated action. Committed to building networks rooted in justice that can adapt and endure, his work centers intergenerational leadership and regenerative infrastructure to build environmental justice initiatives grounded in shared leadership and collective responsibility.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Marisa Villarreal

Director
GRID Alternatives

×

Marisa Villarreal

Director | GRID Alternatives

Marisa Villarreal, Director at GRID Alternatives (a national renewable energy nonprofit), has 15 years’ experience in developing intersectional climate and social justice programs in a wide range of contexts, as well as in seeking to create restorative spaces for transformation, healing, dreaming, and play.

View Speaker Page

The post Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/lunchtime-networking-cross-pollinating-seeding-collaborations/ Wed, 04 Feb 2026 20:42:43 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12499 What will help you make the most of your time at Bioneers? Are you hoping to clarify and/or get support with your projects and dreams? Are you looking for collaborators / co-conspirators / companions in the journey? Join this lunchtime networking experience to engage with fellow travelers on shared roads. It will be lightly facilitated…

The post Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

1:30 pm: Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations

-->

What will help you make the most of your time at Bioneers? Are you hoping to clarify and/or get support with your projects and dreams? Are you looking for collaborators / co-conspirators / companions in the journey? Join this lunchtime networking experience to engage with fellow travelers on shared roads. It will be lightly facilitated with ample time for organic connections. Bring your lunch to the Dharma College and make surprising connections with other conference attendees. Note: Food will not be provided, but, maybe like the school cafeteria, your buddies will share some of their treats with you. Facilitated by Shilpa Jain, Zi Terrence-Smith, and Marisa Villarreal.

Interactive Networking

March 26th | 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm | Lotus Cafe, Dharma College

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Shilpa Jain

Researcher, Writer and Workshop Leader

×

Shilpa Jain

Researcher, Writer and Workshop Leader

Shilpa Jain, a researcher, writer and workshop leader on topics including globalization, creativity, ecology, democratic living and innovative learning, has facilitated dozens of transformative leadership gatherings around the world and worked with hundreds of young leaders from 50+ countries. Her past positions include: Executive Director of YES! (for 11 years); Education and Outreach Coordinator of Other Worlds; and learning activist with Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development in Udaipur, India.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Zi Terrence-Smith

Bay Area Basecamp Coordinator
Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots

×

Zi Terrence-Smith

Bay Area Basecamp Coordinator | Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots

Zi Terrence-Smith, the Bay Area Basecamp Coordinator for Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots, has, over the past decade, mobilized hundreds of volunteers and developed partnerships across sectors to move ideas into coordinated action. Committed to building networks rooted in justice that can adapt and endure, his work centers intergenerational leadership and regenerative infrastructure to build environmental justice initiatives grounded in shared leadership and collective responsibility.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Marisa Villarreal

Director
GRID Alternatives

×

Marisa Villarreal

Director | GRID Alternatives

Marisa Villarreal, Director at GRID Alternatives (a national renewable energy nonprofit), has 15 years’ experience in developing intersectional climate and social justice programs in a wide range of contexts, as well as in seeking to create restorative spaces for transformation, healing, dreaming, and play.

View Speaker Page

The post Lunchtime Networking: Cross-Pollinating & Seeding Collaborations appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/where-children-play-the-green-schoolyards-movement/ Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:26:28 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12478 Outdoor learning and exposure to nature are not simply nice ideas: a cascade of physical, emotional and academic benefits accompany even basic outdoor activities such as recess. For purposefully built models of outdoor and experiential learning, the results are even greater. During the COVID-19 pandemic a long-simmering movement around green schoolyards and outdoor education went…

The post Where Children Play: The Green Schoolyards Movement appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

3:00 pm: Where Children Play: The Green Schoolyards Movement

-->

Outdoor learning and exposure to nature are not simply nice ideas: a cascade of physical, emotional and academic benefits accompany even basic outdoor activities such as recess. For purposefully built models of outdoor and experiential learning, the results are even greater. During the COVID-19 pandemic a long-simmering movement around green schoolyards and outdoor education went from niche to increasingly mainstream. Today, thousands of school districts are working to transform the modern schoolyard from a monoculture of lawns and asphalt to verdant and resilient environments. A movement that is both interdisciplinary and systemic, the goal is to leverage school communities, education systems and school properties in order to restore and regenerate urban ecological systems while transforming how students learn along the way. In this session, visionary movement leaders will share their insights and strategies as to how they are using nature-based solutions to build resilience and transform education. With: Sharon Gamson Danks, founder and CEO of Green Schoolyards America; Rosey A. Jencks, environmental planner and water management expert; Julia Gowin, Urban Forestry Supervisor at CAL FIRE.

Climate Action Environmental Education Nature-based Solutions Restoring Ecosystems and Biodiversity

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Campanile Room, 6th Floor, Hotel Shattuck Plaza

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Sharon Gamson Danks

Founder and CEO
Green Schoolyards America

×

Sharon Gamson Danks

Founder and CEO | Green Schoolyards America

Sharon Gamson Danks, MLA-MCP, an environmental city planner, social entrepreneur, and author, founded Green Schoolyards America in 2013 and is its CEO. She has been a leading figure in the “green schoolyard” field for 25+ years, helping build a movement to transform school grounds at scale into vibrant, nature-rich public spaces that engage the community and nurture children as they learn and play. Sharon is the author of Asphalt to Ecosystems and also co-founded the International School Grounds Alliance.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Rosey Jencks

Environmental Planner

×

Rosey Jencks

Environmental Planner

Rosey A. Jencks, MLA/EP, an environmental planner with over two decades of experience, leads technical teams in developing community-centered programs and plans for stormwater, wastewater, flood resilience, and sea level rise. Rosey, who has helped numerous communities re-envision their future by integrating green and nature-based infrastructure, believes climate resilience requires a “one water” mindset, focusing on land management and balancing green and grey infrastructure.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Julia Gowin

Urban Forestry Supervisor
CAL FIRE

×

Julia Gowin

Urban Forestry Supervisor | CAL FIRE

Julia Gowin, Ph.D., the Northern California Urban Forestry Supervisor for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), co-leads CAL FIRE’s Green Schoolyards Program. Julia is an International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) Certified Arborist, a California Registered Professional Forester, the incoming President for the Western Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA), and a founding member of the California Schoolyard Forest System Initiative.

View Speaker Page

The post Where Children Play: The Green Schoolyards Movement appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/fossil-fuel-phase-out-and-a-just-transition-from-california-to-the-amazon/ Thu, 29 Jan 2026 22:45:09 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12461 In a time of climate crisis, wars for oil, and rising authoritarianism threatening people and planet, we find hope in resistance and in solutions led by Indigenous peoples and local communities calling for phasing out fossil fuels and a just transition to local, clean and renewable energy. We are also encouraged by subnational and international…

The post Fossil Fuel Phase-Out and a Just Transition from California to the Amazon appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

3:00 pm: Fossil Fuel Phase-Out and a Just Transition from California to the Amazon

-->

In a time of climate crisis, wars for oil, and rising authoritarianism threatening people and planet, we find hope in resistance and in solutions led by Indigenous peoples and local communities calling for phasing out fossil fuels and a just transition to local, clean and renewable energy. We are also encouraged by subnational and international commitments, including California’s investigation of its imports of oil from the Amazon and its plans to phase out its use of fossil fuel by 2045, as well as Colombia’s announcement during COP30 that it won’t license any new oil extraction. Colombia will, in fact, host the First International Conference for the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels this April together with the Netherlands and several other countries. In this session, some local, national and international leaders in the Just Transition Movement will delve into the challenges and opportunities and share their strategies. With: Michelle Chan, Co-Executive Director of Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN); Katie Valenzuela, CA Policy Consultant & former Sacramento City Council Member; Josh Becker, CA State Senator (D-13) and author of SR 51, a unanimously approved CA state resolution to review imports of crude oil from the Amazon rainforest and an eventual phase-out; and Nadino Calapucha, a young Kichwa leader from the Shiwakucha community in the Ecuadorian Amazon and President of the TU AMAZONÍA Foundation. Hosted by Leila Salazar-López, Executive Director of Amazon Watch.

Activism/Justice/Human Rights Climate Action Indigeneity

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Michelle Chan

Co-Executive Director
Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN)

×

Michelle Chan

Co-Executive Director | Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN)

Michelle Chan is the Co- Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), a California-based environmental justice organization that builds the power of Asian immigrant and refugee communities and advances climate resilience, affordable housing and a just transition off fossil fuels. Prior to joining APEN, Michelle was the VP of Programs for Friends of the Earth (FOE) US, where she provided strategic leadership for campaigns on climate, energy, oceans, food and economic justice. Previously, she led FOE’s Economic Policy team, and campaigned to hold Wall Street accountable for its environmental impacts.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Nadino Calapucha

President
TU AMAZONÍA Foundation

×

Nadino Calapucha

President | TU AMAZONÍA Foundation

Nadino Calapucha, a young Kichwa leader from the Shiwakucha community in the Ecuadorian Amazon, has, since his childhood championed the rights of his people and advocated for Indigenous rights and protection of the Amazon at international fora, including the UNFCCC negotiations. He has held leadership roles in multiple Indigenous organizations, including the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), and he currently serves as President of the TU AMAZONÍA Foundation. Since 2013, Nadino, who holds a law degree from the Private Technical University of Loja (UTPL), has also led the intercultural Amazonian music band KAMBAK.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Katie Valenzuela

CA Policy Consultant

×

Katie Valenzuela

CA Policy Consultant

Katie Valenzuela, a policy consultant based in Sacramento, CA, has empowered communities, organizations, and coalitions to engage in state and local policy for 25+ years. She has built legislative campaigns for education justice, civil rights, food access, public safety, public health, housing access, and environmental justice. Katie’s experience includes serving as a member of the Sacramento City Council from December 2020 to 2024, as Policy and Political Director for the California Environmental Justice Alliance, as Principal Consultant for the California Legislature’s Joint Legislative Committee on Climate Change Policies, and as a founding board member of the Sacramento Community Land Trust. She has shared her expertise as an invited speaker and training session leader at major venues across the country.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Josh Becker

Senator
State of California

×

Josh Becker

Senator | State of California

Senator Josh Becker, JD/MBA, a public policy innovator working at the nexus of community activism, technology and social justice, was elected to the California State Senate in 2020, representing the 13^th District, which comprises most of San Mateo County and northern Santa Clara County. Among his many accomplishments, Josh worked with refugees in war-torn Central America in the 90s; later created Full Circle, a community leadership and policy innovation organization; served 7 years on the California State Workforce Development Board; was a founding trustee at UC Merced; co-founded New Cycle Capital, a pioneer in building socially responsible businesses; founded a legal tech accelerator to support innovative entrepreneurs in the public policy realm; and, while still a student, co-founded the Stanford Board Fellows program, which trains students to serve on the boards of local nonprofits. (sd13.senate.ca.gov)

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Leila Salazar-López

Executive Director
Amazon Watch

×

Leila Salazar-López

Executive Director | Amazon Watch

Leila Salazar-López has worked for 25+ years to defend the world’s rainforests, human rights and climate through grassroots organizing and international advocacy campaigns. She has been the Executive Director of Amazon Watch since 2015, leading that organization’s work to protect and defend the bio-cultural and climate integrity of the Amazon rainforest in solidarity with Indigenous and forest peoples.

View Speaker Page

The post Fossil Fuel Phase-Out and a Just Transition from California to the Amazon appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/eco-drag-show-palace-of-trash/ Thu, 22 Jan 2026 23:25:35 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12350 Palace of Trash spins a solar-punk fantasy where family of raccoons navigate the end of “the world as we know it.” With the help of the last sentient human artifact, they examine the mistakes of the past, learn their place in the present and co-create an integrative, sustainable future in which nature and technology work…

The post Eco Drag Show: T.R.A.S.H. and the Coming of the Second Sun appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

6:30 pm: Eco Drag Show: T.R.A.S.H. and the Coming of the Second Sun

-->

Palace of Trash spins a solar-punk fantasy where family of raccoons navigate the end of “the world as we know it.” With the help of the last sentient human artifact, they examine the mistakes of the past, learn their place in the present and co-create an integrative, sustainable future in which nature and technology work in harmony, supporting one another as they move into the next chapter, offering hope for a new life.

Arts and Performances

March 28th | 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm | The Marsh Main Stage

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Eco Drag Show: T.R.A.S.H. and the Coming of the Second Sun appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/shadow-play-on-contact/ Thu, 22 Jan 2026 23:23:18 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12348 Shadow Play is an immersive experience that invites audience members into self-reflection, co-creation, and communal storytelling—merging music, psychology, and performance in a way that feels both intentional and playful. This Bioneers Shadow Play workshop + performance explores the theme CONTACT—how we crave it, resist it, and experience it in our lives. Through live music and…

The post Shadow Play: ON CONTACT appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

3:00 pm: Shadow Play: ON CONTACT

-->

Shadow Play is an immersive experience that invites audience members into self-reflection, co-creation, and communal storytelling—merging music, psychology, and performance in a way that feels both intentional and playful. This Bioneers Shadow Play workshop + performance explores the theme CONTACT—how we crave it, resist it, and experience it in our lives. Through live music and storytelling, Mia Pixley, Claire Calderon, and Nikbo will engage audience members in a collective exploration of these questions via their audience-drawn Song Tarot deck.

Arts and Performances Interactive

March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | The Marsh Main Stage

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Shadow Play: ON CONTACT appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/lunchtime-performance-the-gathering-tree/ Thu, 22 Jan 2026 23:21:49 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12346 As The Gathering Tree, Brian Wood & Emily Lorena create intimate, lyrically-driven music that blends the rawness of folk with the soulfulness of R&B and the rhythmic undercurrent of hip-hop. Their songs are spacious, heartfelt, and disarmingly honest—inviting listeners into a space of warmth, depth, and reflection. Arts and Performances March 28th | 1:30 pm…

The post Lunchtime Performance: The Gathering Tree appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

1:30 pm: Lunchtime Performance: The Gathering Tree

-->

As The Gathering Tree, Brian Wood & Emily Lorena create intimate, lyrically-driven music that blends the rawness of folk with the soulfulness of R&B and the rhythmic undercurrent of hip-hop. Their songs are spacious, heartfelt, and disarmingly honest—inviting listeners into a space of warmth, depth, and reflection.

Arts and Performances

March 28th | 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm | The Marsh Main Stage

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Lunchtime Performance: The Gathering Tree appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/trashion-show/ Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:47:06 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12343 An epic eco-fashion show featuring a line-up of local designers, including Natalie Walsh, Ash Rex Something, Susan Goldie, Amanda Hayami, Sophia Chen, Aurie Stetzel, Minkah Taharkah and more! Arts and Performances March 27th | 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm | The Marsh Main Stage GET DIRECTIONS VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Regenerate the Runway: Eco Fashion Show appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

6:30 pm: Regenerate the Runway: Eco Fashion Show

-->

An epic eco-fashion show featuring a line-up of local designers, including Natalie Walsh, Ash Rex Something, Susan Goldie, Amanda Hayami, Sophia Chen, Aurie Stetzel, Minkah Taharkah and more!

Arts and Performances

March 27th | 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm | The Marsh Main Stage

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Regenerate the Runway: Eco Fashion Show appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/performance-fever-pitch-by-taina-asili/ Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:45:33 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12341 Fever Pitch, a powerful multimedia performance by Taína Asili, channels two decades of art and activism into a visionary call for climate justice. This one-hour experience fuses live music, dance, and cinematic visuals to explore the intersectional issues related to the urgency of climate change, and to uplift the frontlines of movements rising with courage…

The post Performance: Fever Pitch by Taína Asili appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

3:00 pm: Performance: Fever Pitch by Taína Asili

-->

Fever Pitch, a powerful multimedia performance by Taína Asili, channels two decades of art and activism into a visionary call for climate justice. This one-hour experience fuses live music, dance, and cinematic visuals to explore the intersectional issues related to the urgency of climate change, and to uplift the frontlines of movements rising with courage and creativity. Featuring Asili’s original music, the show integrates emotionally-charged songs and choreography and projected video drawn from her award-winning films and music videos. Fever Pitch invites audiences into an immersive journey of resistance and renewal, while offering a creative space to imagine and embody a more just and sustainable world.

Arts and Performances

March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | The Marsh Main Stage

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Performance: Fever Pitch by Taína Asili appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/artist-showcase/ Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:42:47 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12339 Come get a taste of the variety of performances at the Marsh! This casual cabaret is perfect for anyone who wants to sample some of what the Arts Hub of the Bioneers Conference has to offer this year. Bring your lunch and enjoy! Arts and Performances March 27th | 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm |…

The post Artist Showcase appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

1:30 pm: Artist Showcase

-->

Come get a taste of the variety of performances at the Marsh! This casual cabaret is perfect for anyone who wants to sample some of what the Arts Hub of the Bioneers Conference has to offer this year. Bring your lunch and enjoy!

Arts and Performances

March 27th | 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm | The Marsh Main Stage

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Artist Showcase appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/bad-art-club-presents-mutual-bad-portraits/ Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:41:29 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12337 Sit across from a stranger and draw each other…badly. In this playful Bad Art Club workshop, we invite participants to pair up with a stranger to create intentionally bad portraits in order to help us slow down, make eye contact, and let go of perfection in favor of connection. Come draw badly and leave with…

The post Bad Art Club presents “Mutual Bad Portraits” appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

1:30 pm: Bad Art Club presents “Mutual Bad Portraits”

-->

Sit across from a stranger and draw each other…badly. In this playful Bad Art Club workshop, we invite participants to pair up with a stranger to create intentionally bad portraits in order to help us slow down, make eye contact, and let go of perfection in favor of connection. Come draw badly and leave with a portrait and a new friend. Low-pressure, drop-in friendly, and accessible for all abilities.

Arts and Performances Interactive

March 27th | 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm | The Marsh Cabaret

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Bad Art Club presents “Mutual Bad Portraits” appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/artists-and-art-lovers-mixer/ Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:38:40 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12333 For all artists, people employed in the arts and art enthusiasts of all stripes: Come meet some of the artists whose work is featured at Bioneers this year and mingle and connect in this casual space. You are welcome to bring your lunch, pop in and out, or stay the whole time. This is an…

The post Artists’ and Art Lovers’ Mixer appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

1:30 pm: Artists’ and Art Lovers’ Mixer

-->

For all artists, people employed in the arts and art enthusiasts of all stripes: Come meet some of the artists whose work is featured at Bioneers this year and mingle and connect in this casual space. You are welcome to bring your lunch, pop in and out, or stay the whole time. This is an unstructured mixer, and not a facilitated networking event.

Arts and Performances Networking

March 26th | 1:30 pm to 2:45 pm | The Marsh Cabaret

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Artists’ and Art Lovers’ Mixer appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/lunchtime-performance-nekajun/ Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:37:07 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12331 Music for Defenders of Land and Life is a musical set by Nēkajun, an Iranian American musician, organizer, and farmer. Through original songs and storytelling, she examines how extractive systems shape people’s livelihoods, ecosystems, and futures, while uplifting movements working to defend land and life. The performance centers frontline narratives and uses music to connect…

The post Lunchtime Performance: Nēkajun appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

1:30 pm: Lunchtime Performance: Nēkajun

-->

Music for Defenders of Land and Life is a musical set by Nēkajun, an Iranian American musician, organizer, and farmer. Through original songs and storytelling, she examines how extractive systems shape people’s livelihoods, ecosystems, and futures, while uplifting movements working to defend land and life. The performance centers frontline narratives and uses music to connect political struggle, ecological survival, and collective responsibility. Grounded in real struggles for land, food, and dignity, this set is offered in solidarity with those working to protect life on earth.

Arts and Performances

March 26th | 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm | The Marsh Main Stage

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Lunchtime Performance: Nēkajun appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/indigenous-forum-opening-ceremonial-protocol-with-hawaiin-youth/ Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:33:13 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12329 Guided by their Kumu, students offer a ceremonial protocol through oli (chant) to open the Indigenous Forum with ancestral intention and connection. The ceremony begins with “E Ala E,” a calling of the sun by Pualani Kanahele, inviting clarity, awakening, and presence as we gather. This is followed by “E Hō Mai,” a pule asking…

The post Indigenous Forum – Opening Hula with E Ala e Kohala, Hānai Kaiāulu, Mālama ʻĀina Compostables, Hui Hoʻāuhuli, Molokaʻi Future Farmers of America appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

2:45 pm: Indigenous Forum – Opening Hula with E Ala e Kohala, Hānai Kaiāulu, Mālama ʻĀina Compostables, Hui Hoʻāuhuli, Molokaʻi Future Farmers of America

-->

Guided by their Kumu, students offer a ceremonial protocol through oli (chant) to open the Indigenous Forum with ancestral intention and connection. The ceremony begins with “E Ala E,” a calling of the sun by Pualani Kanahele, inviting clarity, awakening, and presence as we gather. This is followed by “E Hō Mai,” a pule asking for guidance, ʻike, and collective wisdom throughout the conference. The protocol concludes with “Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī,” calling upon Indigenous youth to stand in pride, honor their origins, and commit to aloha ʻāina—care for land, community, and one another.

Indigeneity

March 27th | 2:45 pm to 3:00 pm

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Indigenous Forum – Opening Hula with E Ala e Kohala, Hānai Kaiāulu, Mālama ʻĀina Compostables, Hui Hoʻāuhuli, Molokaʻi Future Farmers of America appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/tea-lounge-2/ Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:27:26 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12326 Visit our upstairs tea lounge in the Marsh for a relaxing cup of tea and conversation! Accessibility notes: low lighting, ambient noise from the main stage, seating on the ground, and a flight of stairs for access (elevator available upon request). Interactive March 26th | 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm | Upstairs in The Marsh…

The post Tea Lounge appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

6:30 pm: Tea Lounge

-->

Visit our upstairs tea lounge in the Marsh for a relaxing cup of tea and conversation! Accessibility notes: low lighting, ambient noise from the main stage, seating on the ground, and a flight of stairs for access (elevator available upon request).

Interactive

March 26th | 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm | Upstairs in The Marsh

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Tea Lounge appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/tea-lounge/ Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:25:24 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12324 Visit our upstairs tea lounge in the Marsh for a relaxing cup of tea and conversation! Accessibility notes: low lighting, ambient noise from the main stage, seating on the ground, and a flight of stairs for access (elevator available upon request). Interactive March 26th | 1:00 pm to 2:45 pm | Upstairs in The Marsh…

The post Tea Lounge appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

1:00 pm: Tea Lounge

-->

Visit our upstairs tea lounge in the Marsh for a relaxing cup of tea and conversation! Accessibility notes: low lighting, ambient noise from the main stage, seating on the ground, and a flight of stairs for access (elevator available upon request).

Interactive

March 26th | 1:00 pm to 2:45 pm | Upstairs in The Marsh

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Tea Lounge appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/strange-exchange-the-joy-of-reshuffling/ Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:18:47 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12322 Strange Exchange (SE) is a hyper-local, community-focused project that extends the useful life of small household items, reduces waste and knits local non-profits and individuals together through reuse. SE is an “exchange” only in the aggregate, i.e., people don’t need to bring something to take something. All items are free. To-date, 6,700+ lbs of items…

The post Strange Exchange: The Joy of “Reshuffling” appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

1:30 pm: Strange Exchange: The Joy of “Reshuffling”

-->

Strange Exchange (SE) is a hyper-local, community-focused project that extends the useful life of small household items, reduces waste and knits local non-profits and individuals together through reuse. SE is an “exchange” only in the aggregate, i.e., people don’t need to bring something to take something. All items are free. To-date, 6,700+ lbs of items have been “reshuffled!” Come participate in the non-monetary economy and experience the thrill of reshuffling. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to start a Strange Exchange of your own.

Strange Exchange will be accepting the following items (please bring in clean and in good condition): eyewear (sunglasses, prescription glasses, eyeglass cases, soft cloths and repair kits); small pet items (bowls, leashes, collars, toys); paper products (greeting cards, postcards, envelopes, unused journals and notebooks, post-its & 2026 calendars); costume jewelry (including broken jewelry and single earrings); small hardware (hooks, nails, screws, knobs, tools, locks) and accessories (shoelaces, wallets and men’s belts). Some of these items will be offered back to the community (for free, of course!) and others will be delivered to our non-profit partners.

Arts and Performances

March 26th | 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm | On Allston Way just outside of the Marsh Theater

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

The post Strange Exchange: The Joy of “Reshuffling” appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/networking-for-those-working-on-nature-based-solutions/ Wed, 21 Jan 2026 23:56:43 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12304 This session will be facilitated by Brett KenCairn, founding Director of the Center for Regenerative Solutions and Senior Policy Advisor for Climate and Resilience in the City of Boulder’s Climate Initiatives Team. We will gather those working in a wide range of ways to design and implement Nature-based Solutions towards solving critical problems. Climate Action Interactive Nature-based Solutions Networking…

The post Networking for Nature-Based Solutions appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

4:45 pm: Networking for Nature-Based Solutions

-->

This session will be facilitated by Brett KenCairn, founding Director of the Center for Regenerative Solutions and Senior Policy Advisor for Climate and Resilience in the City of Boulder’s Climate Initiatives Team. We will gather those working in a wide range of ways to design and implement Nature-based Solutions towards solving critical problems.

Climate Action Interactive Nature-based Solutions Networking Restoring Ecosystems and Biodiversity

March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Ashby Room, Residence Inn

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Brett KenCairn

Founding Director
Center for Regenerative Solutions

×

Brett KenCairn

Founding Director | Center for Regenerative Solutions

Brett KenCairn, founding Director of the Center for Regenerative Solutions and Senior Division Manager for Nature-based Climate Solutions for the City of Boulder’s Climate Initiatives Department, has throughout his career supported community-based initiatives across the western U.S., particularly in rural, Native American, and other marginalized communities. He also co-founded several organizations, including: the Rogue River Institute for Ecology and Economy; Indigenous Community Enterprises; Veterans Green Jobs; and Community Energy Systems.

View Speaker Page

The post Networking for Nature-Based Solutions appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/networking-for-educators/ Wed, 21 Jan 2026 23:53:51 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12302 Facilitated by Sharon Gamson Danks, MLA-MCP, founder of Green Schoolyards America, in this session, educators of all stripes will have the chance to meet others in this noble profession. Environmental Education Interactive Networking March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Ashby Room, Residence Inn GET DIRECTIONS VIEW EVENT PAGE Panelists   View Bio Sharon Gamson…

The post Networking for Educators appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

4:45 pm: Networking for Educators

-->

Facilitated by Sharon Gamson Danks, MLA-MCP, founder of Green Schoolyards America, in this session, educators of all stripes will have the chance to meet others in this noble profession.

Environmental Education Interactive Networking

March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Ashby Room, Residence Inn

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Sharon Gamson Danks

Founder and CEO
Green Schoolyards America

×

Sharon Gamson Danks

Founder and CEO | Green Schoolyards America

Sharon Gamson Danks, MLA-MCP, an environmental city planner, social entrepreneur, and author, founded Green Schoolyards America in 2013 and is its CEO. She has been a leading figure in the “green schoolyard” field for 25+ years, helping build a movement to transform school grounds at scale into vibrant, nature-rich public spaces that engage the community and nurture children as they learn and play. Sharon is the author of Asphalt to Ecosystems and also co-founded the International School Grounds Alliance.

View Speaker Page

The post Networking for Educators appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/networking-for-those-in-food-related-professions/ Wed, 21 Jan 2026 23:52:18 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12300 Jeanne Merrill, Executive Director of The Berkeley Food Institute, will facilitate a conversation among a wide range of food professionals, farmers and those interested in transforming the food system who will have the opportunity to share their experiences and make new contacts. Food And Farming Interactive Networking March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm…

The post Networking for Food System Professionals and Advocates appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

4:45 pm: Networking for Food System Professionals and Advocates

-->

Jeanne Merrill, Executive Director of The Berkeley Food Institute, will facilitate a conversation among a wide range of food professionals, farmers and those interested in transforming the food system who will have the opportunity to share their experiences and make new contacts.

Food And Farming Interactive Networking

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Ashby Room, Residence Inn

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Jeanne Merrill

Executive Director
Berkeley Food Institute

×

Jeanne Merrill

Executive Director | Berkeley Food Institute

Jeanne Merrill, M.Sc., Executive Director of the Berkeley Food Institute (an interdisciplinary research, education and policy institute working to advance just and sustainable food systems), has 25+ years’ experience in food systems advocacy, policy analysis and development, and nonprofit leadership. A co-founder and former Policy Director with the California Climate and Agriculture Network (CalCAN), she led policy initiatives that established the state’s Climate Smart Agriculture Programs, resulting in nearly $1 billion invested in financial incentives and technical assistance. Jeanne has also held several state and federal appointments, most recently to the U.S. EPA’s Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Advisory Committee (2023).

View Speaker Page

The post Networking for Food System Professionals and Advocates appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/networking-for-activists-and-organizers/ Wed, 21 Jan 2026 23:49:15 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12298 Facilitated by Earth Island Institute, this session will offer activists and organizers, especially those working in the non-profit realm a congenial space. The intentions are to come together, meet each other, compare notes, and hopefully forge new connections. Facilitators: Bridget Hughes, Earth Island Institute Senior Program Advisor, and Jovida Ross, Food Culture Collective Co-Director. Activism/Justice/Human Rights…

The post Networking for Activists and Organizers  appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

3:00 pm: Networking for Activists and Organizers 

-->

Facilitated by Earth Island Institute, this session will offer activists and organizers, especially those working in the non-profit realm a congenial space. The intentions are to come together, meet each other, compare notes, and hopefully forge new connections. Facilitators: Bridget Hughes, Earth Island Institute Senior Program Advisor, and Jovida Ross, Food Culture Collective Co-Director.

Activism/Justice/Human Rights Networking

March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Ashby Room, Residence Inn

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Bridget Hughes

Senior Program Advisor
Earth Island Institute

×

Bridget Hughes

Senior Program Advisor | Earth Island Institute

Bridget Hughes, a Senior Program Advisor at the Earth Island Institute, has worked for 30+ years in social, environmental, economic and racial justice organizations and public agencies, including working on: mental health, housing, unlearning oppression, women's health/HIV, community/school gardening and labor. She is a deeply experienced facilitator and coach with a long track record in capacity-building and organizational development.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Jovida Ross

Co-Director of the Food Culture Collective
Earth Island Institute

×

Jovida Ross

Co-Director of the Food Culture Collective | Earth Island Institute

Jovida Ross, Co-Director of the Food Culture Collective at Earth Island Institute, has 20+ years’ experience working with a wide range of groups to creatively develop proactive, visionary, whole-systems solutions to complex problems. She designs participatory, generative processes and experiential learning to support organizations and teams from small restorative justice circles to large multi-stakeholder strategic initiatives, community organizations and public entities to philanthropic institutions, to meet their goals.  Her history spans efforts to generate community-based solutions to violence, queer liberation, reproductive justice, ecologically-responsive and just economies, and climate resilience.

View Speaker Page

The post Networking for Activists and Organizers  appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/the-cutting-edges-of-psychedelics-research-potentials-and-pitfalls/ Wed, 21 Jan 2026 22:48:32 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12293 Psychedelic substances, long used by a number of Indigenous cultures, have been on a strange, jagged trip for nearly a century in the Western world, from experimentation by a few anthropologists and some elite and bohemian circles and early promising research, to an explosion of interest and experimentation in mass popular culture, to demonization, prohibition…

The post The Cutting Edges of Psychedelics Research: Potentials and Pitfalls  appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

4:45 pm: The Cutting Edges of Psychedelics Research: Potentials and Pitfalls 

Co-Hosted by the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics

-->

Psychedelic substances, long used by a number of Indigenous cultures, have been on a strange, jagged trip for nearly a century in the Western world, from experimentation by a few anthropologists and some elite and bohemian circles and early promising research, to an explosion of interest and experimentation in mass popular culture, to demonization, prohibition and the cessation of studies, to, most recently, renewed interest, nascent stabs at decriminalization, and the resumption of serious scientific exploration. We at Bioneers are honored to be able to host two of the most accomplished scientists at the leading edges of contemporary research in this field, both affiliated with the Center for the Science of Psychedelics, right here at UC Berkeley: Dr. Gül Dölen, a world-renowned neuroscientist leading the effort to understand the molecular mechanisms through which the brain engages with psychedelic substances; and Professor Michael Silver, an expert in visual perception and attention doing groundbreaking work on the effects of psychedelics on vision and brain function. They will discuss their research, their views on psychedelics’ potentials in mental health and furthering our understanding of consciousness, as well as what some of the potential pitfalls might be in seeking to work with these trickster molecules in our contentious culture. Moderated by J.P. Harpignies, Bioneers senior producer. 

Nature/Culture/Spirit

March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Magnes Museum

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Panelists

 

View Bio

Gül Dölen

Professor
UC Berkeley

×

Gül Dölen

Professor | UC Berkeley

Gül Dölen, Ph.D., is a Professor and the Bob & Renee Parsons Endowed Chair in the Department of Neuroscience, and Department of Psychology, the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at UC Berkeley. Dr Dölen, who has won many prestigious awards for her teaching and research, also maintains an Adjunct Professorship in Neuroscience and Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Michael Silver

Director
UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics

×

Michael Silver

Director | UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics

Michael Silver is a Professor of Optometry and Vision Science and Neuroscience and the Director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. The research goals of Michael Silver's laboratory are to better understand how the human brain constructs representations of the world around us and how these representations are modified by cognitive processes such as attention, expectation, and learning. His team addresses these questions by applying a combination of behavioral, brain imaging, modeling, and pharmacological techniques.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

J.P. Harpignies

Senior Producer
Bioneers

×

J.P. Harpignies

Senior Producer | Bioneers

J.P. Harpignies, Bioneers Senior Producer, affiliated with Bioneers since 1990, is a Brooklyn, NYC-based consultant, conference producer, copy-editor and writer. A former Program Director at the New York Open Center and a senior review team member for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge from 2010 to 2017, he has authored or edited several books, including Political Ecosystems, Delusions of Normality, Visionary Plant Consciousness, and, most recently, Animal Encounters.

View Speaker Page

The post The Cutting Edges of Psychedelics Research: Potentials and Pitfalls  appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/michael-pollan-a-world-appears-a-journey-into-consciousness/ Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:09:21 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12287 Michael Pollan, one of the nation’s most influential non-fiction writers and investigative journalists, is the author of nine previous bestselling books, including How to Change Your Mind; In Defense of Food; The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and The Botany of Desire. Today, he will trace his six-year quest to solve the greatest mystery in nature: how, and…

The post Michael Pollan – A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

11:39 am: Michael Pollan – A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness

-->

Michael Pollan, one of the nation’s most influential non-fiction writers and investigative journalists, is the author of nine previous bestselling books, including How to Change Your Mind; In Defense of Food; The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and The Botany of Desire. Today, he will trace his six-year quest to solve the greatest mystery in nature: how, and why, are we conscious? That Odyssey, which he describes in his newest book, A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness, is an enthralling tale that begins in a brain lab in Seattle, and ends, of all places, in a cave in the mountains of New Mexico, where he discovers that explaining consciousness may be less important than learning to practice it, fully, in our everyday lives.

Intelligence in Nature Nature/Culture/Spirit

March 28th | 11:39 am to 12:01 pm | Zellerbach Hall

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Introduced by

 

View Bio

Dacher Keltner

Distinguished Professor of Psychology
UC Berkeley

×

Dacher Keltner

Distinguished Professor of Psychology | UC Berkeley

Dacher Keltner, a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley, is the host of the Science of Happiness Podcast and the author of many articles and books, including: Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Michael Pollan

Bestselling Author and Journalist

×

Michael Pollan

Bestselling Author and Journalist

Michael Pollan is a writer, teacher and activist. His most recent book, A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness, was published earlier this year. He is the author of nine previous books, including: This is Your Mind on Plants, How to Change Your Mind, Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire, all bestsellers. Pollan has taught writing at Harvard and UC Berkeley and has been a Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellow. In 2010 Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

View Speaker Page

The post Michael Pollan – A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/samantha-skenandore-keynote-address/ Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:07:47 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12285 If we are to have a chance of reversing the destructive path our world is currently on and ushering in a genuinely nature-honoring era in which decisions will be made based on their effects seven generations in the future, we need to empower the extraordinary crop of young leaders, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, now emerging on…

The post Samantha Skenandore – Re-Evolving Indigeneity to Save our Planet appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

11:14 am: Samantha Skenandore – Re-Evolving Indigeneity to Save our Planet

-->

If we are to have a chance of reversing the destructive path our world is currently on and ushering in a genuinely nature-honoring era in which decisions will be made based on their effects seven generations in the future, we need to empower the extraordinary crop of young leaders, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, now emerging on the scene. Samantha Skenandore, of Ho-Chunk and Oneida ancestry, one of the nation’s leading practitioners of and experts in Federal Indian law and tribal law, will delve into the living legacies of her people’s guardianship of water, springs, trails, portals, and burial and sacred sites to illustrate the types of values we need to ground ourselves in, and describe some of her legal battles to highlight some of the types of struggles we must wage. But, above all, she will exhort us to do everything we can to support a new generation of change-makers that is combining the deep wisdom of ancestral TEK (Traditional Ecological Knowledge) with the best of contemporary science and technology to address our complex modern problems. 

Activism/Justice/Human Rights Indigeneity Rights of Nature

March 28th | 11:14 am to 11:36 am | Zellerbach Hall

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Introduced by

 

View Bio

Britt Gondolfi

Indigeneity Special Programs Coordinator
Bioneers

×

Britt Gondolfi

Indigeneity Special Programs Coordinator | Bioneers

Britt Gondolfi, JD (Houma Descendant), a community organizer and mother, has worked with the Bioneers Indigeneity Program since 2017 as a facilitator for the Intercultural Conversation Program. She joined the Bioneers Rights of Nature initiative as an intern while in law school and subsequently as a Special Projects Coordinator to bring together tribal organizers, youth, and allies to advocate for the “Rights of Nature” in Indian Country. Britt, who recently ran for State Senate in Louisiana on a women’s rights platform, is the author of the children’s book, “Look Up! Fontaine the Pigeon Starts a Revolution.”

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Samantha Skenandore

Leading Indigenous Rights Advocate and Attorney

×

Samantha Skenandore

Leading Indigenous Rights Advocate and Attorney

Samantha Skenandore, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation who previously served as a Tribal Attorney for the Ho-Chunk Nation’s Department of Justice and clerked for the United States Department of Justice, Indian Resources Section, is a founding partner of Skenandore Wilson LLP with 20+ years’ multi-jurisdictional legal experience working with tribal governments and enterprises to build governmental and economic infrastructures across Indian Country. She works in a wide range of legal domains, including: tribal and corporate governance, business transactions, economic development, real estate, cultural resources, water rights, labor issues, and representing clients before members of Congress, congressional committees and federal agencies. Samantha has also been integral to the Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program, helping develop a toolkit to help frame legal considerations for tribal nations to consider adoption of “Rights of Nature" laws.

View Speaker Page

The post Samantha Skenandore – Re-Evolving Indigeneity to Save our Planet appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/performance-by-destiny-arts-youth-performance-company/ Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:03:43 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12283 Activism/Justice/Human Rights Arts and Performances March 28th | 10:43 am to 10:53 am | Zellerbach Hall GET DIRECTIONS VIEW EVENT PAGE   View Bio The Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company × The Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company The Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company (DAYPC) is a diverse group of teens that collaborates with professional artists…

The post Performance by Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

Activism/Justice/Human Rights

Arts and Performances

March 28th | 10:43 am to 10:53 am

| Zellerbach Hall

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

 

View Bio

The Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company

×

The Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company

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.

View Speaker Page

The post Performance by Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/young-leaders-coley-miller/ Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:39 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12280 After the largest dam removal project in U.S. history in which four out of six dams were removed from the Klamath River, an intertribal cohort of Indigenous youth became the first people in over a century to descend a 310-mile stretch of the river. In this talk, Coley will share her personal story of participating…

The post Young Leaders: Coley Kakols Miller – Undam the Klamath: The Fight Isn’t Over Yet  appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

11:00 am: Young Leaders: Coley Kakols Miller – Undam the Klamath: The Fight Isn’t Over Yet 

-->

After the largest dam removal project in U.S. history in which four out of six dams were removed from the Klamath River, an intertribal cohort of Indigenous youth became the first people in over a century to descend a 310-mile stretch of the river. In this talk, Coley will share her personal story of participating in that journey as one of the paddlers from the Klamath Tribes, while also raising the alarm about the imminent environmental issues facing her community, animal relatives, and sacred waters.

activ Indigeneity Restoring Ecosystems and Biodiversity Youth Leadership

March 26th | 11:00 am to 11:10 am | Zellerbach Hall

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

 

View Bio

Coley Kakols Miller

First Descent Youth Paddler

×

Coley Kakols Miller

First Descent Youth Paddler

Coley Kakols Miller, a citizen of the Klamath Tribes, is a Modoc and Klamath youth born and raised at the headwaters of the Klamath River watershed. A high school freshman living on her tribal territory in Southern Oregon and Northern California, Coley was among more than 30 young people who participated in the historic first descent of the Klamath River after the largest dam removal in history. She remains a passionate advocate for removing the last two dams on the Klamath River, working to ensure the Klamath Tribes’ treaty-protected resources are restored to provide for future generations.

View Speaker Page

The post Young Leaders: Coley Kakols Miller – Undam the Klamath: The Fight Isn’t Over Yet  appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/raj-patel-food-solidarity-vs-fascism/ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 23:58:22 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12278 As we today once again face the aggression of authoritarian oligarchy, there is a great deal we can learn from how food workers confronted fascism a century ago. Socialist and anarchist movements around the world gave birth to innovative solidarity strategies that permitted them to survive a fascist onslaught, care for their communities, and put…

The post Raj Patel – Food Solidarity vs Fascism appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

10:00 am: Raj Patel – Food Solidarity vs Fascism

-->

As we today once again face the aggression of authoritarian oligarchy, there is a great deal we can learn from how food workers confronted fascism a century ago. Socialist and anarchist movements around the world gave birth to innovative solidarity strategies that permitted them to survive a fascist onslaught, care for their communities, and put food on the table in times of disease and war. Raj Patel, one of the world’s leading experts on sustainable food systems and a tireless advocate for food justice, will share what his research about these inspiring movements tells us about how we too can draw on the best human impulses to build economic systems built on solidarity and mutual aid.

Activism/Justice/Human Rights Economics Food And Farming

March 28th | 10:00 am to 10:22 am | Zellerbach Hall

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Introduced by

 

View Bio

Anna Lappé

Executive Director
Global Alliance for the Future of Food

×

Anna Lappé

Executive Director | Global Alliance for the Future of Food

Anna Lappé, Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, a strategic alliance of philanthropic foundations working together and with partners globally for food system transformation, has, for 25+ years, been an advocate and funder for justice and sustainability across the food chain. The founder or co-founder of three U.S.-based organizations, including Real Food Media, a communications strategy nonprofit, and the Small Planet Fund, which supports food and farming advocacy movements worldwide, Anna is a national bestselling author who has contributed to more than a dozen books and is the author or co-author of three, including the critically acclaimed Diet for a Hot Planet.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Raj Patel

Activist, Journalist, and Filmmaker

×

Raj Patel

Activist, Journalist, and Filmmaker

Raj Patel, an award-winning author, film-maker and academic, is a Research Professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin who has worked for the World Bank and WTO but also protested against them around the world and testified about the causes of the global food crisis to the US, UK and EU governments. A member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems and of the council of Progressive International, he has written extensively for a range of scholarly journals in economics, philosophy, politics and public health and also contributes frequently to a range of other publications, including The Guardian, Financial Times, New York Times, and Scientific American. He is the author of: Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and The Value of Nothing, and co-author of: A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things and (with Rupa Marya) of: Inflamed: Deep Medicine and The Anatomy of Injustice. His first film, co-directed with Zak Piper, is the award-winning documentary The Ants & The Grasshopper. He also co-hosted the food politics podcast The Secret Ingredient.

View Speaker Page

The post Raj Patel – Food Solidarity vs Fascism appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/john-warner-biomimicry-at-the-molecular-level-inventing-a-sustainable-future/ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 23:14:07 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12271 John Warner, one of the co-founders of the entire field of “Green Chemistry” who co-authored its defining text and co-articulated its core principles, works to create commercial technologies inspired by nature. An inventor with over 300 patents who has received countless prestigious awards, he has also been, with his wife, Amy Cannon, a thought leader…

The post John Warner – Biomimicry at the Molecular Level—Inventing a Sustainable Future appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

9:38 am: John Warner – Biomimicry at the Molecular Level—Inventing a Sustainable Future

-->

John Warner, one of the co-founders of the entire field of “Green Chemistry” who co-authored its defining text and co-articulated its core principles, works to create commercial technologies inspired by nature. An inventor with over 300 patents who has received countless prestigious awards, he has also been, with his wife, Amy Cannon, a thought leader and prime mover of green chemistry education. In this talk, he will share his vision of how we can draw from the molecular design genius of nature, which has been running countless rigorous chemistry experiments for nearly 4 billion years, to create benign products and technologies that provide for human needs without contaminating the biosphere and endangering our health.

Design and Clean Tech Economics Environmental Education

March 28th | 9:38 am to 10:00 am | Zellerbach Hall

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Introduced by

 

View Bio

Kenny Ausubel

CEO and Co-Founder
Bioneers

×

Kenny Ausubel

CEO and Co-Founder | Bioneers

Kenny Ausubel, CEO and co-founder (in 1990) of Bioneers, is an award-winning social entrepreneur, journalist, author and filmmaker. Co-founder and first CEO of the organic seed company, Seeds of Change, his film (and companion book) Hoxsey: When Healing Becomes a Crime helped influence national alternative medicine policy. He has edited several books and written four, including, most recently, Dreaming the Future: Reimagining Civilization in the Age of Nature.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

John Warner

Inventor and Co-Founder of the Field of Green Chemistry

×

John Warner

Inventor and Co-Founder of the Field of Green Chemistry

John Warner, Ph.D., one of the founders of the field of Green Chemistry who co-authored its defining text “Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice” (with Paul Anastas), is a chemistry inventor and entrepreneur who works to create commercial technologies inspired by nature consistent with the principles of green chemistry. He holds over 350 industrial chemistry patents, and his inventions have served as the basis for several new companies in photovoltaics, neurochemistry, construction materials, water harvesting, and cosmetics. John, who has received many prestigious awards from within the chemistry industry, government, academia and civil society organizations, has had a distinguished academic career, including as a tenured full-professor at UMASS Boston and Lowell. In 2007 he co-founded (with Amy Cannon) Beyond Benign, a non-profit dedicated to sustainability and green chemistry education. He holds academic appointments at Monash University in Australia, Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, Somaiya University in India, University of Birmingham in the UK, Rochester Institute of Technology in the US, and Technical University of Berlin in Germany where they have named the “John Warner Center for Start Ups in Green Chemistry.” John also currently serves as CEO and CTO of Technology Greenhouse.

View Speaker Page

The post John Warner – Biomimicry at the Molecular Level—Inventing a Sustainable Future appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/opening-remarks-by-nina-simons/ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 23:12:33 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12269 Nature/Culture/Spirit Women’s Leadership March 28th | 9:22 am to 9:38 am | Zellerbach Hall GET DIRECTIONS VIEW EVENT PAGE   View Bio Nina Simons Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Strategist Bioneers × Nina Simons Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Strategist | Bioneers Nina Simons, co-founder of Bioneers and its Chief Relationship Strategist is also co-founder of Women…

The post Opening Remarks by Nina Simons appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

Nature/Culture/Spirit

Women’s Leadership

March 28th | 9:22 am to 9:38 am

| Zellerbach Hall

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

 

View Bio

Nina Simons

Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Strategist

Bioneers

×

Nina Simons

Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Strategist

| Bioneers

Nina Simons, co-founder of Bioneers and its Chief Relationship Strategist is also co-founder of Women Bridging Worlds and Connecting Women Leading Change. She co-edited the anthology book, Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart, and most recently wrote Nature, Culture & The Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership. An award-winning social entrepreneur, Nina teaches and speaks internationally, and previously served as President of Seeds of Change and Director of Strategic Marketing for Odwalla.

View Speaker Page

The post Opening Remarks by Nina Simons appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/drumming-by-deb-lane-and-afia-walking-tree-3/ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 23:10:38 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12267 Arts and Performances March 28th | 8:50 am to 9:05 am | Zellerbach Hall GET DIRECTIONS VIEW EVENT PAGE   View Bio Deb Lane Drummer and Water Conservation Administrator × Deb Lane Drummer and Water Conservation Administrator Deb Lane has been playing the drums for most of her life. Formerly a member of the Santa…

The post Drumming by Deb Lane and Afia Walking Tree appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

Arts and Performances

March 28th | 8:50 am to 9:05 am

| Zellerbach Hall

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

 

View Bio

Deb Lane

Drummer and Water Conservation Administrator

×

Deb Lane

Drummer and Water Conservation Administrator

Deb Lane has been playing the drums for most of her life. Formerly a member of the Santa Cruz World Beat Band, Pele Juju, she performs with artists throughout the Bay Area and beyond. In addition to her musical endeavors, Deb is a leader in water-use efficiency and works as a Water Conservation Administrator.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Afia Walking Tree

Percussionist, Educator and Facilitator

×

Afia Walking Tree

Percussionist, Educator and Facilitator

Afia Walking Tree, M.Ed., a Jamaican-born feminist percussionist, educator, and facilitator working at the “crossroads of rhythm, land, and liberation,” is an adjunct professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), an Artist-in-Residence with the African American Policy Forum, and One Billion Rising/V-Day’s Jamaica Coordinator. Afia has returned to Jamaica to steward a 25-acre regenerative land-based sanctuary and learning hub (Solidarity Yaad), where she curates nature-immersed healing journeys and eco-experiences rooted in ancestral wisdom, agroforestry, food security, and community care, prioritizing BIPOC women, and gender-expansive, queer, and trans-masculine people.

View Speaker Page

The post Drumming by Deb Lane and Afia Walking Tree appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/cory-doctorow-the-enshittification-of-everything/ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 22:58:37 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12265 Renowned science fiction author, activist and journalist Cory Doctorow coined the term “enshittification” in 2022 to describe the degradation of online platforms. Today, he will draw from his most recent nonfiction book, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, to assure us that it’s not our imaginations: the internet does…

The post Cory Doctorow – The “Enshittification” of Everything appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

11:46 am: Cory Doctorow – The “Enshittification” of Everything

-->

Renowned science fiction author, activist and journalist Cory Doctorow coined the term “enshittification” in 2022 to describe the degradation of online platforms. Today, he will draw from his most recent nonfiction book, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, to assure us that it’s not our imaginations: the internet does indeed suck now. And this isn’t the result of great historical forces or iron laws of economics: it’s caused by specific policy choices made in living memory by named individuals, but Cory will argue that we aren’t helpless prisoners of the depraved foolishness of early 21st century policymakers. We can – and we must – break free of the prison they built for us, consigning their terrible ideas to the scrap-heap of history, so we can create a new, good internet that is fit to serve as the digital nervous system of this fraught young century.

Design and Clean Tech Economics Media and Technology

March 27th | 11:46 am to 12:08 pm | Zellerbach Hall

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Introduced by

 

View Bio

Zephyr Teachout

Professor of Law
Fordham Law School

×

Zephyr Teachout

Professor of Law | Fordham Law School

Zephyr Teachout, Professor of Law at Fordham Law School, is a renowned and influential expert on the intersection of corporate and political power. She is the author of Corruption in America, which traces the history of what corruption has meant at different times in our history and, most recently of: Break 'em Up, which makes a case for reimagining the relationship between democracy and antimonopoly law. Zephyr also ran for Governor and Attorney General of New York State, getting the New York Times endorsement in the latter race, and is a leading figure in national antimonopoly and democracy defense movements.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Cory Doctorow

Technology Journalist and Science Fiction Author

×

Cory Doctorow

Technology Journalist and Science Fiction Author

Cory Doctorow, a renowned, award-winning science fiction author, activist, and journalist, is the author of dozens of books, most recently, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, (nonfiction); and the novels Picks and Shovels and The Bezzle. His other notable books include the “solar-punk” novels Walkaway and The Lost Cause, and the tech policy books The Internet Con and Chokepoint Capitalism. Cory also: maintains a daily blog at Pluralistic.net; works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and is: an AD White Professor at Cornell University; an MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate; a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at Open University; a Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of North Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science; and a co-founder of the UK Open Rights Group.

View Speaker Page

The post Cory Doctorow – The “Enshittification” of Everything appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/julian-brave-noisecat-keynote-address/ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 22:56:03 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12263 In many North and Central American Indigenous peoples’ oral traditions the “Trickster Coyote” is a crucially important mythic ancestor, and the stories surrounding him illuminate vital truths. In his presentation, Julian Brave NoiseCat, activist, journalist, champion powwow dancer, co-director of the award-winning film Sugarcane, author of We Survived the Night, and multi-hyphenate storyteller and artist from the…

The post Julian Brave NoiseCat – The Epic Misadventures of the Trickster Coyote appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

11:24 am: Julian Brave NoiseCat – The Epic Misadventures of the Trickster Coyote

-->

In many North and Central American Indigenous peoples’ oral traditions the “Trickster Coyote” is a crucially important mythic ancestor, and the stories surrounding him illuminate vital truths. In his presentation, Julian Brave NoiseCat, activist, journalist, champion powwow dancer, co-director of the award-winning film Sugarcane, author of We Survived the Night, and multi-hyphenate storyteller and artist from the Secwépemc and St’at’imc nations, will dramatically make the ancient but ever potent “Coyote Story” archetype, one of the most significant oral traditions in human history, come to vivid life to shed light on our current situation and possible paths forward in these trying times. 

Indigeneity

March 27th | 11:24 am to 11:46 am | Zellerbach Hall

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

Introduced by

 

View Bio

Cara Romero

Executive Director
Bioneers

×

Cara Romero

Executive Director | Bioneers

Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), Executive Director and Program Director of the Bioneers Indigeneity Program, previously served her Mojave-based tribe in several capacities, including as: first Executive Director at the Chemehuevi Cultural Center, a member of the tribal council, and Chair of the Chemehuevi Education Board and Chemeuevi Headstart Policy Council. Cara is also a highly accomplished photographer/artist.

View Speaker Page

 

View Bio

Julian Brave NoiseCat

Filmmaker and Author
Sugarcane

×

Julian Brave NoiseCat

Filmmaker and Author | Sugarcane

Julian Brave NoiseCat (member, Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen, and descendant, Lil'Wat Nation of Mount Currie), formerly a political strategist, policy analyst and cultural organizer who played a major role, in, among other achievements, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Alcatraz Occupation and getting Deb Haaland appointed Interior Secretary (the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history), is a writer, journalist, and the first Indigenous North American filmmaker ever nominated for an Academy Award (for his co-direction of Sugarcane). NoiseCat’s journalism has appeared in dozens of leading national publications and has been recognized with many awards. His first book, We Survived the Night, was a national bestseller in Canada and an indie bestseller in the U.S., and Julian is also a champion powwow dancer who played hockey for three of the oldest teams in the game: Columbia University, the Oxford University Blues and the Alkali Lake Braves.

View Speaker Page

The post Julian Brave NoiseCat – The Epic Misadventures of the Trickster Coyote appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/young-leaders-kyle-trefny-when-orange-skies-clear/ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 22:54:08 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12259 Kyle Trefny was 18 years old in 2020 when skies in the San Francisco Bay Area and much of the Pacific Coast turned orange with wildfire smoke. He will share how that moment led him to become a wildland firefighter and to join other youth in creating FireGeneration Collaborative (FireGen), dedicated to imagining and building…

The post Young Leaders: Kyle Trefny – When Orange Skies Clear appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

11:00 am: Young Leaders: Kyle Trefny – When Orange Skies Clear

-->

Kyle Trefny was 18 years old in 2020 when skies in the San Francisco Bay Area and much of the Pacific Coast turned orange with wildfire smoke. He will share how that moment led him to become a wildland firefighter and to join other youth in creating FireGeneration Collaborative (FireGen), dedicated to imagining and building a future beyond intense wildfires and their devastating health impacts, a future of healthy communities and livelihoods that recenters Indigenous leadership in land management. Kyle will reflect upon the power of questions, of friendship, of breaking negative cycles, of art, of mentors and elders, and of taking leaps of faith in life.

Climate Action Restoring Ecosystems and Biodiversity Youth Leadership

March 27th | 11:00 am to 11:09 am | Zellerbach Hall

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

 

View Bio

Kyle Trefny

Co-Founder
FireGeneration Collaborative (FireGen)

×

Kyle Trefny

Co-Founder | FireGeneration Collaborative (FireGen)

Kyle Trefny is an organizer, artist, wildland firefighter, and co-founder of FireGeneration Collaborative (FireGen), which started out with a GoFundMe campaign and a petition and became a dynamic, influential youth-led organization that has helped bring about the historic involvement of firefighters and Indigenous fire management practitioners in governance processes and engaged hundreds of young people in fire research. A faculty research assistant at the University of Oregon’s Ecosystem Workforce Program, Kyle is also active in movements for Indigenous sovereignty, queer rights, and climate justice and was a recipient of a 2025 Brower Youth Award.

View Speaker Page

The post Young Leaders: Kyle Trefny – When Orange Skies Clear appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]> https://conference.bioneers.org/performance-by-destani-wolf/ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 22:47:46 +0000 https://conference.bioneers.org/?p=12255 Arts and Performances March 27th | 10:28 am to 10:38 am | Zellerbach Hall GET DIRECTIONS VIEW EVENT PAGE   View Bio Destani Wolf Singer and Musical Educator × Destani Wolf Singer and Musical Educator Destani Wolf, a Berkeley, CA-based singer and musical educator, celebrated by Jazz Times as “one of the West Coast’s most inventive vocalists…and an…

The post Performance by Destani Wolf appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>

Arts and Performances

March 27th | 10:28 am to 10:38 am

| Zellerbach Hall

GET DIRECTIONS

VIEW EVENT PAGE

 

View Bio

Destani Wolf

Singer and Musical Educator

×

Destani Wolf

Singer and Musical Educator

Destani Wolf, a Berkeley, CA-based singer and musical educator, celebrated by Jazz Times as “one of the West Coast’s most inventive vocalists…and an accomplished improviser,” has gained renowned for her powerful, soulful voice, impeccable control, effortless vocal range, and original, genre-defying songs. Hers has been a remarkable musical trajectory from performing at 15 at the Great American Music Hall to recording on over 40 albums including 3 that were GRAMMY-nominated, to being a lead vocalist of Cirque du Soleil, to currently being a Professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a member of the legendary Bobby McFerrin's MOTION.

View Speaker Page

The post Performance by Destani Wolf appeared first on Bioneers Conference.

]]>