Meet the Speakers For Fall Retreat 2012 Anna Aurilio Anna Aurilio is the Director of the Washington DC office for Environment America, a federation of 29 state-based, citizen-funded environmental advocacy organizations. Ms Aurilio oversees a team of advocacy staff and is responsible for policy and strategy development for campaigns on clean water, clean air, energy, global warming and preservation issues. She has testified in Congress numerous times and has been named a top lobbyist by The Hill. Ms. Aurilio received a bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1986 and a Master's degree in Environmental Engineering and Water Resources from MIT in 1992 where she published several papers on water pollution in Woburn Massachusetts. Prior to receiving her Master's degree, Ms. Aurilio was a Staff Scientist with the National Environmental Law Center where she investigated major water polluters and provided technical expertise for Clean Water Act citizen suits. Harriet Barlow Harriet Barlow is the Director of the HKH Foundation, an advisor to a number of individual donors and is the founder and Executive Director of the Blue Mountain Center, a working place for cultural workers and other activists. Harriet has been on the Board of Directors of an embarrassingly large number of non-profits and is the founder or co-founder of 15 community-based and national non-profits. Other qualities: Quaker, walker, singer, movie feaster, fascinated parent and grandparent, lover of laughter and productive struggle. Jamie Baxter Jamie worked for 8 years with Chesapeake Bay Foundation leading education and environmental restoration programs and 4 years as the Director of the Tributary Strategies Program for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. In this role he led state efforts to develop and implement the State water quality restoration plans through policy development, extensive inter- agency coordination and the engagement of key stakeholders that served as the foundation for the current regulatory framework governing water quality protection in the region today. In 2007 Jamie joined the Chesapeake Bay Trust as Program Director charged with increasing the impact of the Trust’s grant programs. As Program Director, Jamie leads initiatives with funding partners and community leaders to increase the effectiveness of non-profit organizations in the Chesapeake region. Jamie also develops and implements strategies that help advance policies critical to leveraging impact of the Trust’s programs. In 2011, he helped establish a precedent setting High School Graduation Requirement in Environmental Literacy for Maryland public schools. Shamar Bibbins As a Senior Political Associate for Green For All, Shamar develops and executes opportunities to elevate Green For All’s agenda by supporting policy priorities of Congressional leaders. She educates and informs Members of Congress and their staff on key issues around energy efficiency, water infrastructure, transportation, and clean air regulations. She also works in collaboration with Federal agencies and The Administration on workforce development strategies. Ms. Bibbins attended Vassar College, where she majored in Science, Technology and Society, with a concentration in environmental studies. She received distinction on her senior thesis, "Race, Class and Environmental Justice." Post graduation, she was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Japan where she studied social movements surrounding unprecedented mercury dumping in southern Japan. A native both of Detroit, MI, and the Washington, D.C.-metropolitan area, Shamar has been committed to numerous organizations that service and empower at-risk youth and homeless men and women. Mr. Björn Beeler For the last ten years, Björn Beeler has served as the IPEN International Coordinator, and as IPEN General Manager since 2008. Prior to becoming the IPEN International Coordinator in 2003, Mr. Beeler worked for the international NGO Earth Council (now Earth Council Alliance), within their National Councils for Sustainable Development (NCSD) Program and its global network, based in Costa Rica. After participating in the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa, Mr. Beeler shifted his focus and joined IPEN to work on the global impact of toxic chemicals. Mr. Beeler earned a master’s Degree from Lund University's International Masters in Environmental Science, Sweden. His master’s thesis focused on the economic, social, and environmental opportunities and threats to local sustainable development associated with the introduction of “eco-tourism” on Venado Island, Costa Rica. David Brancaccio Broadcast journalist David Brancaccio hosts a program about innovation and technology produced by American Public Media's "Marketplace." He is the co-producer and host of “Fixing the Future,” a documentary film that premiered this summer exploring local economies. He led Marketplace’s Economy 4.0 coverage and contributes to the program’s Wealth & Poverty Desk. From 2005 to 2010, David was host and senior correspondent of investigative news program "Now on PBS." He is holder of the top honors in broadcasting including the Emmy, the Peabody, the duPont-Columbia, and the Walter Cronkite Award. He is author of a book on money and values entitled “Squandering Aimlessly.” Angie Chen Angie manages the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation’s Environmental Literacy Program, which increases the environmental knowledge and attitudes of Californians. Before joining the Foundation, Angie was the program officer at the Stewardship Council, where she oversaw grantmaking and evaluation to connect California’s youth with the outdoors. She was also an associate program officer at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, where her work focused on youth development, children’s health insurance, and paid leave policies. Angie previously worked as an interpreter at Yosemite National Park, providing environmental education to the public. She has served on the national board of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy, and she was selected as a 2011 American Express NGen Fellow. Angie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard University and a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Roberta Combs Roberta Combs is the President and CEO of Christian Coalition and Christian Coalition of America. She has served as a founding member and has been the only woman on the board of directors for the Christian Coalition of America, which offers pro-family Americans a vehicle to policies that serve to strengthen and preserve, rather than threaten, our families and our values. Under Roberta’s leadership, the Christian Coalition of America has worked to provide education and political training to thousands of Christian activists around the country in order to challenge and equip individuals and churches to make a difference at all levels of government.She has served as a pro-family advisor to many US Congressmen, US Senators and Governors as well as President George W. Bush and has also testified before Congress on behalf of pro-family issues for the Christian Coalition of America.Roberta broadened the Christian Coalition's mission to help impoverished nations and to promote an energy policy that increases national security as well as providing clean air for this country and around the world. William Cronon William Cronon studies American environmental history. His research seeks to understand the history of human interactions with the natural world: how we depend on the ecosystems around us to sustain our material lives, how we modify the landscapes in which we live and work, and how our ideas of nature shape our relationships with the world around us. He is currently President of the American Historical Association, the largest professional organization of historians in the world, and also sits on the boards of the Wilderness Society and the Trust for Public Land. Jess Daniel Jess Daniel a PhD candidate at Michigan State University focusing on the role of entrepreneurship and network capital in Detroit's good food movement. She's also founder and coordinator of FoodLab, a network helping to grow the good food business ecosystem in the Detroit area. Since completing her BA in English and MA in Education at Stanford in 2006, she's made movies about integrated pest management for a local NGO in Cambodia; processed chickens on a small farm off the coast of Washington; organized congressional briefings about sustainable ag; designed a national incubation laboratory to develop local food distribution businesses, and operated a pop-up restaurant serving Southeast Asian food. Bhairavi Desai Bhairavi Desai, a native of India, has been organizing taxi drivers since 1996. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of the 15,000- member New York Taxi Workers Alliance since 1998. Through organizing, direct action, legal and health services, media presence, political advocacy and the cultivation of allies and supporters – NYTWA, a multi- ethnic, multi-generational union - builds power for one of the most vulnerable and visible immigrant workforces in New York City. In 2012, NYTWA won a livable income raise, first-time regulations of taxi companies, and a Health and Disability Fund for drivers, the first for taxi drivers nationwide and one of the first for independent contractors. In 2011, NYTWA was chartered to build the National Taxi Workers Alliance, the 57th union of the AFL-CIO. The NTWA is