Lorna Li has 10 years of experience in social cause marketing for nonprofits. Her background includes event production, program development, fundraising, strategic alliances, and scaling startup social ventures. Lorna has also worked on diverse social justice issues, such as Tibetan cultural preservation, globalization, indigenous rights, and environmental conservation. She has produced a number of public programs on environmental sustainability, including former Vice President Al Gore’s groundbreaking presentation on climate change for UN World Environment Day 2005, in San Francisco.
Kimberly Newton-Klootwyk was born in El Salvador to a Costa
Rican-Guatemalan father and a U.S.-Italian American mother. This
bi-cultural mix, along with her upbringing in many worlds, extensive
travels, and focus on cultural anthropology and subaltern history in
college, provides a unique foundation for her work as a cultural
liaison. Kimberly's expertise is in inter-American relations, with a
special focus on North-South relations and the defense of indigenous
people’s rights.
Jaime A. Chaves is a Biologist from Ecuador. He is currently pursuing his third year in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department (EEB) at the UCLA doctoral program. He obtained his Masters degree in 2004 at San Francisco State University and moved to Los Angeles to pursue his PhD.
Jaime was recently advanced to PhD candidacy presenting his research on
the evolution and phylogeography of hummingbirds in the Andes in South
America.
He is also the author of several papers on bird frugivory, cloud forest
avifauna, and life history and distribution of birds in Ecuador.
Josiah Clark is a professional birding guide, naturalist and consulting ecologist. He leads international birding tours, teaches environmental stewardship to urban youth and writes on environmental issues. An expert on the urban-wildlife interface, Josiah has investigated natural processes and the specific needs of wildlife in the urban setting for the last fifteen years. Through his company, Habitat Potential, which he founded in 2002, he offers environmental consulting services and naturalist expertise based on an intimate knowledge of local ecosystems and strategies in landscape stewardship.
Robert Tindall is a writer and inveterate traveler, whose publications include journeys into Zapatista-held Mexico, along the Camino to Santiago, and through the Santo Daime and Barquinha churches of Acre, Brazil. Influenced by the medieval genre of the quest, as well as his years of practice of Zen Buddhism at Ring of Bone Zendo, Robert views travel as a spiritual discipline, and writes with the intention of reintroducing sacred exploration back into travel writing. He is presently completing his first book, tentatively entitled “The Jaguar that Roams the Mind, a Pilgrimage into the Medicines of the Amazon.”
Multimedia artist Amy Seidman has been working for over 20 years with
non-profits, museums, as well as government and private entities to
develop media products in support of deep ecology, environmental
education and inspiration toward sustainable solutions. Historically,
Amy has developed photo essays, education programs, documentaries, and
numerous other media projects such as interactive exhibitions, visual
music, environmental art, and written articles.
Tarek E. Milleron was born in Berkeley, CA. He studied biology at Oberlin College, spent several seasons as a field research assistant in Panama and French Guiana and went on to complete a Ph.D. in Ecology at Utah State University. Based in the Ye'kwana community of Edowinña, he conducted research on tropical tree regeneration along the Nichare River, in the Caura River Basin in Venezuela. Participation in day-to-day Ye'kwana life there for months at a time over a six-year period left a deep impression. Tarek founded the non-profit conservation group, Caura Futures , to work on ecosystem conservation rooted in indigenous culture in the Caura Basin. While his axe technique remains at the level of a local thirteen-year-old, he had more success climbing palms for sustainable fruit harvests.
Julia Droste Stege is an artist, writer, and an avid consumer of
sustainably harvested rainforest plants. Since beginning her rainforest
herb program over seven years ago, Julia has experienced a
transformation in her body, mind and spirit. She values the strength
and wellness that rainforest herbs have offered her. Because of her
desire to ‘give back to the rainforest,’ Julia has become a Rainforest
Ambassador for the Amazon Herb Company and represents rainforest herbs
to the world. As a Rainforest Ambassador, Julia helps other
environmentalists and rainforest herb lovers to earn income while
saving the rainforest.
Award-winning investigative journalist (and dad) Peter Gorman has spent
more than 20 years tracking down stories from the streets of Manhattan
to the slums of Bombay. Specializing in Drug War issues, he is credited
as a primary journalist in the medical marijuana and hemp movements, as
well as in property forfeiture reform. His work has appeared in over
100 national and international magazines and newspapers.
Frankie Mullin is a freelance journalist from England. Her fascination with the world and its people let her to study Cultural Anthropology in university, and then travel extensively in Europe, S.E Asia, Africa, North and South America. She recently completed a post-graduate diploma in journalism, and has worked for the 2 British magazines: the Ecologist and the Geographical.