Rebecca Adamson is no longer able to speak at the People’s Summit.
Alli Chagi-Starr: Sat Nov 28, New Hope Baptist Church
Alli Chagi-Starr is the Senior Community Engagement Strategist with Green For All, a national organization working to build an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. She served as the Event Chair for the organization’s launch conference, The Dream Reborn, as well as the Grassroots Publicity Coordinator for Van Jones’ bestseller, The Green Collar Economy. Formerly at the Ella Baker Center, Alli helped implement the Solutions Salon series and the Social Equity track at the United Nations World Environment Day. She is currently the Program Manager for the Senate Climate Energy Bill Campaign.
Chagi-Starr is the co-founder of Art in Action and its new Green Youth Arts & Media Center, and the CommuniTree Project – bringing together urban arts and ecology in Oakland, CA. Chagi-Starr was one of the key organizers who planned arts actions at the World Trade Organization demonstrations in 1999. A founding member of Direct Action Network, she helped organize a theatrical, skills-building road show leading up to the gathering with the group Art and Revolution. The road show offered workshops in giant puppet building, nonviolence, facts about the WTO, and media relations. She is the founder of Dancers Without Borders (formerly the Emma…Said Dance Project), and the Another World is Possible Road Shows. She presents on the green jobs movement and facilitates workshops on cultural organizing and creative tools for global/personal transformation and movement building. Her essays about innovative activism appear in multiple publications, including “Voices of the WTO” and “How to Stop the Next War Now.”
Jihan Gearon: Sat Nov 28, Seattle University
Jihan Gearon is Diné (Navajo) and African American. She is Tódích’ií’nii (Bitter Water) clan, and her maternal grandfather is Tl’ashchí’í (Red Bottom People) clan. Jihan’s family is from the community of Old Sawmill and she grew up and went to high school close by in Fort Defiance, located on the eastern part of the Navajo reservation in Arizona. She is a graduate of Stanford University with a Bachelors of Science in Earth Systems and a focus in Energy Science and Technology. Jihan is an aggressive advocate of Indigenous Peoples rights and environmental justice. She is an active organizer, speaker, and writer on Indigenous Peoples and environmental justice, energy, climate change, and climate justice. In her position as Native Energy Organizer at the Indigenous Environmental Network, Jihan works to build the capacity of communities throughout the U.S. and Canada who are impacted by energy development and climate change. Jihan is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative and the Coordinating Committee of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance. In these roles, Jihan works with broad coalitions of people of color, low-income, and Indigenous communities and organizations in connecting the issues of energy development in Indigenous communities to larger social justice movements. Her experience and expertise includes work on Indigenous Peoples rights, environmental justice, climate justice, the impacts of energy development and climate change on Indigenous Peoples and people of color, particularly in North America, but also around the world. Jihan is currently based out of Flagstaff, Arizona.
Leo Gerard: Sunday Nov 29, Town Hall (recorded greeting)
In his first full term as United Steelworkers International President, Leo W. Gerard has launched a wide range of new initiatives that have brought more than 350,000 workers into the union’s ranks — a sixty-percent increase.In addition, the union has utilized strategic bargaining to secure tens of thousands of jobs throughout North America, strengthened workers’ bargaining leverage by forging strategic alliances with unions across the globe, and advanced the USW’s historic leadership in coalitions committed to protecting the health, safety, and environment of workers, their families and their communities.
Patti Goldman: Sunday Nov 29, Town Hall
Patti Goldman is Vice President for Litigation at Earthjustice, and leads the organization’s ten regional offices in developing and implementing effective legal strategies to protect the environment for future generations. Patti works with Earthjustice’s managing attorneys to coordinate the legal program, knit together the work throughout the regions, and ensure that the organization achieves long-range goals. Early in her legal career, Patti litigated many public interest issues, including civil rights, constitutional law, governmental accountability, pesticides, and trade and the environment. When she decided to move into environmental litigation full-time, she dreamed of working for Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund (as Earthjustice was known then). That dream came true in 1994, when she joined the Northwest office as a staff attorney; she became managing attorney in 1998.
Amy Goodman: Friday Nov 27, Town Hall
Goodman is best known as the principal host of Democracy Now!a public radio,television,internet news program. Coverage of the peace and human rights movements and support of the independent media are the hallmarks of her work. As an investigative journalist, she has received acclaim for exposés of human rights violations in East Timor and Nigeria . Goodman is the first journalist to receive the Right Livelihood Award.
Walter Hayden: Sat Nov 28, New Hope Baptist Church
Walter is the marketing and sales director of Clean Greens.
Bob Hasegawa: Sat Nov 28, Seattle University
Bob Hasegawa is a longtime labor and social justice activist from Seattle. Hasegawa has been the Washington State Representative for the 11th Legislative District, Position 2, since 2005. His District includes Renton, Tukwila, and parts of Beacon Hill, where he has been a lifelong resident. He is retired from the Teamsters Union where he was a member and union leader for over 32 years. He was elected head of Teamsters Local 174, the largest Teamsters trucking local workers union in the Pacific Northwest, for three terms (9 years), and was also a leader in the national Teamsters pro-union democracy reform movement, TDU (Teamsters for a Democratic Union). He was the first Asian American to run for International Vice President of the Teamsters Union, in 2001.
Dena Hoff: Sat Nov 28, Seattle University
Dena Hoff farms with her husband Alvin in Eastern Montana on the Yellowstone River. They have four children and five and one half grandchildren. Past chair of Northern Plains Resource Council and Western Organization of Resource Council. Currently Vice President of the National Family Farm Coalition and co-cordinator of the North American Region of La Via Campesina.
Sarah van Gelder: Sat Nov 28, Seattle University
As co-founder and executive editor of YES!, Sarah leads the framing and development of each issue of YES! and writes a column introducing each issue. Sarah blogs at YES!, and Huffington Post, writes articles and does interviews for YES! magazine, and speaks on leading-edge innovations that show that another world is not only possible, it is being created. As part of her community involvement, Sarah volunteers on the Port Madison Reservation where she lives, working with the Suquamish Tribe on enhancing the quality of life for all area residents. She is co-founder of Suquamish Olalla Neighbors where she co-led a statewide effort to return the home of Chief Seattle to the Suquamish Tribe. She is also a member of the board of directors of the tribally-chartered Suquamish Foundation. Sarah has traveled and lived in Latin America, India, China, and Central America.
Eric Holt- Giménez: Sunday Nov 29, Town Hall
Eric Holt-Giménez, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy a “peoples’ think-and-do tank” dedicated to eliminating the injustices that cause hunger and environmental degradation. Previously, he worked as Latin American Program Manager at the Bank Information Center in Washington, D.C., where he monitored the projects and the policies of the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. He has held positions as a lecturer in International Development and Agroecology at the University of California and Boston University’s Global Ecology program. Throughout the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, Dr. Holt-Giménez lived and worked in Latin America where he helped organize and train farm leaders in agroecology and was a consultant to non-governmental organizations, government ministries, and foreign aid agencies. In his path-breaking participatory research, “Measuring Farmer’s Agroecological Resistance to Hurricane Mitch,” 2,000 farmers documented the superior sustainability of agroecologically-managed farms to conventional farms in Central America. His first book, “Campesino a Campesino” chronicles nearly thirty years work with Latin America’s Farmer to Farmer Movement for sustainable agriculture. In his recent book, “Food Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger for Justice,” co-authored with Raj Patel and Annie Shattuck, Dr .Holt-Giménez proposes equitable, sustainable solutions to the root causes of the global food crisis. He holds a Masters of Science in International Agricultural Development and a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies.
Rev. Robert Jeffrey Sr: Sat Nov 28, New Hope Baptist Church
Pastor at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, Founder and CEO of Black Dollar Days Task Force.
David Korten: Sat Nov 28, Seattle University
David’s latest book, Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth (published by Berrett-Koehler, Feb 2009), was inspired by an article in the YES! Magazine series, “Path to a New Economy”. David is also the author of the international bestseller When Corporations Rule the World and The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. He is co-founder and board chair of YES! Magazine, and a board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies.
Thea Lee: Sunday Nov 29, Town Hall
Thea Lee is Policy Director and Chief International Economist at the AFL-CIO, where she oversees research and strategies on domestic and international economic policy. She received a Bachelors degree from Smith College and a Masters degree in economics from the University of Michigan. Lee is co-author of “A Field Guide to the Global Economy.” Her research projects include reports on the North American Free Trade Agreement, on the impact of international trade on U.S. wage inequality, and on the domestic steel and textile industries and she has appeared on numerous national television and radio shows. She is also on the Board of Directors of the Worker Rights Consortium, United for a Fair Economy, and the National Bureau of Economic Research
Sylvia Orduño: Sunday Nov 29, Seattle University
Sylvia Orduño is the National Project Coordinator for the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit, Michigan, June 2010. She is an organizer with the National Welfare Rights Union, and online communications coordinator for the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization. Sylvia has been active in many grassroots and political campaigns to prevent and restore utility shut-offs against low income people, plus union organizing, affirmative action, and the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon.
Jim Sinclair: Sunday Nov 29, Town Hall
Jim Sinclair was elected President of the B.C. Federation of Labour on May 14, 1999, by the Federation’s governing body, its Executive Council. He was acclaimed President by Convention in 2000 and 2002 and re-elected in 2004. Jim has been an articulate and active leader in the labour movement for more than 25 years. Jim was elected 2nd Vice-President of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union/Canadian Auto Workers’ Union (UFAWU/CAW) from 1991 to 1999. As a staff member for the UFAWU since 1982, he was the lead negotiator in industry-wide negotiations with major fish processing companies. Prior to his work in the fishing industry, Jim was a reporter for the Nelson Daily News. He has been active in the labour movement in BC through his participation on the B.C. Federation of Labour Executive Council and committees since the mid seventies.Jim currently sits on the Board of Directors for Working Enterprises Ltd., the Working Opportunity Fund, and BC Citizens for Public Power.
The Yes Men: Friday Nov 27, NW Film Forum
The Yes Men is a group of culture jamming activists who practice what they call identity correction by pretending to be powerful spokespersons for prominent organizations – including the WTO! From their offices in Milwaukee, they create and maintain fake websites similar to ones they want to spoof, and then they accept invitations received on their websites to appear at conferences, symposia, and TV shows. Their new documentary, The Yes Men Fix the World, is having its Seattle premiere on Nov 27 at NW Film Forum.
Bill Aal and Margo Adair: Sunday Nov 29, Seattle University
Tools for Change has been providing consulting, facilitation, mediation and training services to movement organizations for over 25 years. We help organizations address issues of power, embrace cultural diversity and tap into creative resources. Over the years, we have worked on movement building strategy and dialog with environmental and social justice organizations around the country.
Margo Adair is a anti-oppression trainer, mediator and social justice activist. She has been in the forefront of exploring the connections between consciousness, politics and spirituality. Adair is the author of the ground breaking Working Inside Out, one of the first books integrating spirituality and social justice, and she co-authored Breaking Old Patterns/Weaving New Ties: Alliance Building and The Subjective Side of Politics.
William Aal is deeply involved in social and environmental justice work with a particular focus on agricultural sustainability and social healing. He joined forces with Margo fifteen years ago. Versed in opening the imagination, awakening people’s best thinking and inspiring group transformation, Aal works with group reflection to unleash collective genius in organizational and community settings. Currently he is a trainer for the Transition USA network, developing community resiliency in the wake of Climate Chaos, Peak Oil and the Global Food and Economic Crises.
They co-authored Practical Meditation for Busy Souls (Sourcebooks, 2008)
