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Speakers

Mustafa Ali

Mustafa Santiago Ali is a national speaker, trainer and facilitator on social justice issues with specific focuses on environmental justice, sustainability and community revitalization. He is currently the Senior Vice President of Climate, Environmental Justice & Community Revitalization at Hip Hop Caucus, a national nonprofit connecting the hip hop community to the civic process.

Mr. Ali is the former Associate Assistant Administrator for Environmental Justice at the US Environmental Protection Agency and former senior advisor to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy on Environmental Justice. During his time with EPA, Mr. Ali served as a founding member of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and as the designated federal official for the Nationally Consistent Environmental Justice Screening Approaches Work Group of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC). He also served as the National Training Manager for the Office of Environmental Justice, during which time he led an effort to expand fundamental knowledge about environmental justice impacts on vulnerable communities. Mr. Ali has worked with communities both domestically and internationally to secure environmental, health, and economic justice for the most vulnerable populations.

In addition to his work with EPA, Mr. Ali served as a Brookings Institute Congressional Fellow in the office of Congressman John Conyers, where he focused on foreign policy in Africa and South America, Homeland Security, Health Care, Appropriations and Environmental Justice. He is currently making headlines as an advocate of environmental justice amidst a changing administration.

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Dr. Thomas Lovejoy

DR. THOMAS LOVEJOY

Explorer at Large, National Geographic and Professor, George Mason University

Thomas E. Lovejoy was elected University Professor at George Mason in March 2010.  He previously held the Biodiversity Chair at the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment and was President from 2002-2008. An ecologist who has worked in the Brazilian Amazon since 1965, he works on the interface of science and environmental policy. Starting in the 1970’s he helped bring attention to the issue of tropical deforestation and in 1980 published the first estimate of global extinction rates (in the Global 2000 Report to the President). He conceived the idea for the long term study on forest fragmentation in the Amazon (started in 1978) which is the largest experiment in landscape ecology, the Minimum Critical Size of Ecosystems project (also known as the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project). He also coined the term “Biological diversity”, originated the concept of debt-for-nature swaps and has worked on the interaction between climate change and biodiversity for more than 30 years. He is the founder of the public television series “Nature”. In the past, he served as the Senior Advisor to the President of the United Nations Foundation, as the Chief Biodiversity Advisor to the World Bank as well as Lead Specialist for the Environment for the Latin American region, as the Assistant Secretary for Environmental and External Affairs for the Smithsonian Institution, and as Executive Vice President of World Wildlife Fund-US. In 2002, he was awarded the Tyler Prize, and in 2009 he was the winner of BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Ecology and Conservation Biology Category. In 2012 he received the Blue Planet Prize. He has served on advisory councils in the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton administrations. In 2009 he was appointed Conservation Fellow by the National Geographic Society. He chaired the Scientific and Technical Panel for the Global Environment Facility which provides funding related to the international environmental conventions from 2009-2013 and serves as Advisor to the current Chair. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. (Biology) from Yale University.

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Speakers

Dr. Dann Sklarew

DR. DANN SKLAREW

Associate Director, Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center

Dr. Sklarew has researched and developed numerous methods to assist environmental policy, management and compliance. For EPA’s Office of Water, he identified and characterized watershed management tools, and created a Web-based decision support system to help companies comply with industry- specific federal water pollution permitting rules. As a Smithsonian Fellow, he developed a nitrogen budget for the semi-rural Rhode River basin (MD), validating demographic and agricultural census data through local interviews with residents, farmers and even the town veterinarian.

Dr. Sklarew has investigated various ways to help diverse partnerships address common ecological problems. He documented global challenges and successes in managing coastal and marine resources as producer and scriptwriter for a video documentary, Turning the Tide: Sustaining Earth’s Large Marine Ecosystems.

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Speakers

Lois Marie Gibbs

Executive Director, Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ)

In the spring of 1978, a 27 year-old housewife named Lois Gibbs discovered that her child was attending an elementary school built on top of a 20,000 ton, toxic-chemical dump in Niagara Falls, New York.  Out of desperation, she organized her neighbors into the Love Canal Homeowners Association and struggled more than 2 years for relocation.  Opposing the group’s efforts, though, were the chemical manufacturer, Occidental Petroleum, local, state and federal government officials who insisted that the leaking toxic chemicals, including dioxin, the most toxic chemical known to man, was not the cause of high rates of birth defects, miscarriages, cancers and other health problems.  Finally, in October 1980, President Jimmy Carter delivered an Emergency Declaration, which moved 900 families from this hazardous area and signified the victory of this grassroots movement.
Once families were relocated from Love Canal, Lois’s life was changed forever.  During the crisis, she received numerous calls from people across the country who were experiencing similar problems.  This revealed to her that the problem of toxic waste went far beyond her own backyard.  She became determined to support these grassroots efforts.  In 1981, Lois created the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, (CHEJ) (formerly Citizens Clearinghouse For Hazardous Wastes), an organization that has assisted over 12,000 grassroots groups with organizing, technical, and general information nationwide.  Today, Lois serves as Lead Trainer of the Leadership Academy of CHEJ and speaks with communities nationwide and internationally about dioxin and hazardous waste pollution.  As the author of Love Canal and the Birth of the Environmental Health Movement, published in November 2010, Lois discusses how Love Canal  became synonymous with the struggle for environmental health and justice.  This is Lois’ first person account of the landmark case, now updated with insights gained over three decades. Also, she authored Achieving the Impossible, 2008, Stories of Courage, Caring and Community where she illustrates how ordinary people are creating extraordinary changes in their communities.  The stories in this book illustrate how people have stepped forward and come together to meet the challenges facing their families and communities, as well as celebrating people’s willingness to engage in our democratic system of government.  Lois along with a network of grassroots groups initiated the Stop Dioxin Exposure Campaign and published Dying from Dioxin in 1995, to support local groups with the goal of eliminating the sources of dioxin exposure, a chemical she feared most at Love Canal.
Lois has been recognized extensively for her critical role in the grassroots environmental justice movement.  She has spoken at numerous conferences and has been featured in hundreds of newspaper articles, magazine, and textbooks.  Lois has appeared on many television and radio shows including 60 Minutes, 20/20, Oprah Winfrey, Good Morning America, The Morning Show and the Today Show.  CBS produced a 2 hour prime-time movie about Lois’s life entitled “Lois Gibbs:  The Love Canal Story” staring Marsha Mason, and the 2012 Documentary “A Fierce Green Fire” which premiered at the Sundance Film.

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Speakers

Forrest Pritchard

Farmer and Writer, Smith Meadows Farm

Forrest Pritchard is a seventh generation farmer and New York Times bestselling author, holding degrees in English and Geology from the College of William & Mary. Upon returning from college in the mid 90s, he took over his grandparents’ farm ?primarily growing GMO corn and soybeans? hoping to make the land profitable for the first time in decades. On harvest day, when five tractor-trailer loads of grain reaped a meager paycheck of $18.16, he realized his family’s farm must radically change course. The following season, he devoted himself to farming organically and sustainably, raising free-range cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and chickens.

Twenty years later, his farm Smith Meadows is one of the oldest “grass finished” farms in the country, and sells at leading farmers’ markets in Washington DC. Chronicling his farming adventures, Forrest’s book Gaining Ground, A Story of Farmers’ Markets, Local Food and Saving the Family Farm was named a top read by Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post and NPR’s The Splendid Table, and made the New York Times Bestseller list.

Forrest’s new book, Growing Tomorrow, goes behind the scenes with 18 extraordinary sustainable farmers from across the country, an inspiring farm-to-table journey in story, photos and recipes.

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Gina McCarthy

Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Gina McCarthy is the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Appointed by President Obama in 2009 as Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, Gina McCarthy has been a leading advocate for common-sense strategies to protect public health and the environment. Previously, McCarthy served as the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. During her career, which spans over 30 years, she has worked at both the state and local levels on critical environmental issues and helped coordinate policies on economic growth, energy, transportation and the environment.

McCarthy received a Bachelor of Arts in Social Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts at Boston and a joint Master of Science in Environmental Health Engineering and Planning and Policy from Tufts University.

When she is not in D.C., McCarthy lives in the Greater Boston area with her husband and dog, just a short bike ride away from their three children, Daniel, Maggie, and Julie.

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Speakers

Ingrid Visseren-Hamakers, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, George Mason University

The research of Dr. Ingrid Visseren-Hamakers revolves around international biodiversity governance. Her research is theoretically embedded in the political and policy sciences, while focusing especially on the relationships between different (public and private) international policies, and questions of policy performance. Empirically, current research themes include partnerships, certification, tourism & conservation, and REDD+. An important part of her research is inter- and transdisciplinary, in collaboration, among others, with colleagues from the natural sciences and conservation organizations. Dr. Visseren-Hamakers is affiliated with the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy group at Wageningen University, the Netherlands, and reports on international environmental negotiations for the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).

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Dr. Lee Talbot

Professor- Conservation Biology and Environmental Policy and Social Sciences

Dr. Talbot is an ecologist and geographer, specialist in international environmental affairs, ecology, environmental policies and institutions, conservation biology and natural resource management, with over 50 years of professional environmental experience, approximately half spent working on environmental issues in 130 countries outside the U.S. When not at GMU he is president of Lee Talbot Associates International, advisors on environment and development; and a Senior Environmental Consultant or Advisor to the World Bank, the Asian and Inter-American Development Banks, U.N. bodies, governments and universities. Formerly Director-General of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), he also held the position of environmental advisor to three U.S. Presidents, and was head of environmental sciences at the Smithsonian Institution.
He has served on over 20 committees and panels of the National Academy of Sciences. Author of over 285 scientific, technical and popular publications including 17 books and monographs, with some translations in nine foreign languages, he has received national and international awards and recognition for his scientific accomplishments, environmental work, popular and scientific writing, and documentary film.

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Monica Bittner Marcelli

Lab and Research Specialist, Greenhouse Manager

After moving to the U.S. from her native Chile in the late eighties, Monica Bittner Marcelli graduated from the University of Maryland in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agronomy and then again in 1995 with a Master of Science Degree also in Agronomy. She held various Teaching and Research Assistant positions during her time at Maryland for both the Botany and the Agronomy departments Monica has taught Botany, Weed Science, Geology at the University of Chile and University of Maryland. After graduating, she worked for 4 years at the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy as a Research Associate.

She has contributed to over nine academic publications and has-authored several coloring books aimed to provide children and parents with education in pesticide safety, biological control, invasive weeds, monarch butterfly, turtles, and pollinators, Responsible and limited pesticide use is an issue for which Monica has a lot of passion.

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R. Chris Jones, Ph.D.

Professor & Director, Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center

Dr. R. Chris Jones is the Director of the Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center (PEREC). He is a freshwater ecologist whose research foci include tidal freshwater ecosystems (emphasizing plankton and macrophytes), stream ecology (emphasizing benthic macroinvertebrates), and watershed management. Dr. Jones teaches courses in waterscape ecology, freshwater ecology, and multivariate analysis. He has been a faculty member at Mason since 1980.