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2007 Presenter Bios
 Abelson is a communications manager for EPA’s ENERGY STAR Program, and a nationally-known expert on energy efficiency and green marketing.
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 Akuetteh is a widely published author and frequent speaker on African affairs in the United States, Europe and Africa; serves as a Member of TransAfrica Forum’s Scholars Council; and was an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown’s University’s School of Foreign Service from 1987-1996. A Ghanaian, he has served as the Founder of the Democracy and Conflict Research Institute, based in Accra, Ghana. He has also served as the Executive Director of the Open Society Insititute West Africa.
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 A human rights and social justice supporter for more than 20 years, Medea Benjamin is coeditor of Stop the Next War Now and a cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK. Click here to see her talk.
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 An entrepreneur at heart and an advocate of following one’s true passion, Warren Brown opened CakeLove in March of 2002 after leaving a successful career as a federal attorney litigating health care fraud for the Department of Health and Human Services. After the birth of CakeLove on 1506 U St., NW, Washington, D.C., Love Café was opened directly across the street and just recently, another CakeLove on 935 Ellsworth Dr., Silver Spring, MD joined the CakeLove family.
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 The single most articulate and passionate advocate of citizen action to remedy the nuclear and environmental crises, Dr. Helen Caldicott, has devoted the last 35 years to an international campaign to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age and the necessary changes in human behavior to stop environmental destruction.
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 James M. Carter is a resident of the Shaw neighborhood in Ward 2 of DC active in building community wherever he can contribute. He has volunteered with Organizing Neighborhood Equity DC (ONE DC formerly Manna CDC) since 2002 advocating for increased affordable housing, and in general, organizing to increase community awareness amidst the rapid revitalization and development in the neighborhood.
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 Steve Coleman is the co-founder and director of Washington Parks & People, DC's award-winning grassroots alliance of community park partnerships. Parks & People has dramatically transformed once crime-ridden innercity DC parks from Meridian Hill/Malcolm X to Marvin Gaye Park, galvanizing tens of thousands of people to rebuild green communities in the heart of the city.
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 Kevin Danaher is a co-founder of Global Exchange, the noted human rights organization based in San Francisco. Dr. Danaher received his PhD in sociology (1982) from the University of California at Santa Cruz. His areas of expertise include: Elite Globalization vs. People's Globalization; The World Trade Organization: Secret Global Government ; Fixing the Main Flaw in US Foreign Policy ;Building the Local Green Economy
Dr. Danaher has appeared on television and radio shows around the country. He has published articles in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the International Herald Tribune, Harvard Educational Review, The Nation, The Progressive, and many others. Click here to see Kevin speak at the San Francisco Green Festival.
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 Elena Day is a long-time activist in Central Virginia and works with the People's Alliance for Clean Energy. PACE is a grassroots community group who has been challenging Dominion Powers proposed new nuclear reactor at North Anna, VA for the past four years. The group emerged solely to represent the anti-nuclear sentiment in Virginia. They are the central Virginia Chapter of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.
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 DeGraaf will explore the role of economy as he introduces a new national campaign that compares economic policies in the U.S. to those in other rich countries. How are these countries stacking up when it comes to the areas of health, justice, sustainability and quality of life? You will also find out how policies that address overwork can, in fact, improve health, social relationships and the environment.
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 Dr. Michael K. Dorsey is professor of global environmental policy at Dartmouth College. In 1992 he was an official delegate on the US State Department Delegation to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, “The Earth Summit.” His most recent publications on climate change include “Green Market Hustlers,” in Foreign Policy In Focus (June 2007, Washington, DC) as well as “Climate Knowledge and Power: Tales of Skeptic Tanks, Weather Gods and Sagas for Climate (in)Justice” in Capitalism, Nature, Socialism (June 2007).
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.jpg "Image") Riane Eisler is an eminent social scientist, attorney, keynote speaker, and social activist best known as author of the international bestseller The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future, now in 22 languages, including most European languages and Chinese, Russian, Korean, Hebrew, Arabic, and Japanese.
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 Imagine networks of community gardens in our towns and cities where people are working together three hours each week, and the gardens are producing real food for families. It’s called Coordinated Community Agriculture, and Elliott will focus on the beginnings of this program here in the Chesapeake region and plans to expand it. Learn how these local gardens create community, cooperation, friendship and fresh, organic produce.
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 For over eight years Everette has been the Director of Global Exchange's popular and rapidly expanding Reality Tours program. During her tenure at Reality Tours she has overseen the growth and development of alternative travel programs, study seminars and fact finding human rights delegations to 30 countries around the world. From the US, to Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and the Caribbean, Malia promotes in-depth experiential education and socially responsible travel as an alternative to the type of "sun and fun" tourism that often results in cultural homogenization.
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 Allison Fisher is the Organizer for Public Citizen's Energy Program. She works on issues associated with nuclear power and promotes renewable energy and energy efficiency as a means to displace the need for dirty energy sources. Allison earned her master's degree in social work-community organizing from the University of Connecticut.
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 Emma Fofanah, Senior Social Investment Research Analyst, from Institutional Shareholder Services. Ms. Fofanah conducts social screening of major corporations in areas such as labor relations and diversity, consumer product safety, and animal welfare issues. She will provide an overview of Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), discuss key SRI topics, and highlight some of the latest trends in corporate policies affecting workers and consumers.
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 Senior vice president for social research and policy, Freeman manages Calvert's Social Research Development and directs its research and advocacy work.
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 Combining vibrant images, linguistic brilliance, hip-hop rhythms, and unflappable honesty, the work of Rha Goddess-- artist/social activist is legendary. Her work has been internationally featured in several compilations, anthologies, forums and festivals. Rha’s debut project, “Soulah Vibe”, received rave industry reviews from Ms. Magazine, The Source, XXL, Interview, among many others..Time Magazine called it ”..one of the year’s coolest records.”
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 Amy Goodman began her career in community radio in 1985 at Pacifica Radio's New York Station, WBAI. She produced WBAI's Evening News for 10 years. In 1990 and 1991, Amy traveled to East Timor to report on the US-backed Indonesian occupation of East Timor. There, she and colleague Allan Nairn witnessed Indonesian soldiers gun down 270 East Timorese. Indonesian soldiers beat Amy and Allan, fracturing Allan's skull. Their documentary, "Massacre: The Story of East Timor" won numerous awards, including the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting, the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Silver Baton, the Armstrong Award, the Radio/Television News Directors Award, as well as awards from the Associated Press, United Press International, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Click here to see Amy speak at the San Francisco Green Festival.
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 Alisa Gravitz is Co-op America's executive director and national expert on climate change, solar energy and economic solutions to social and environmental problems.
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 A well-respected pediatrician and author of the acclaimed Raising Baby Green, Greene brings with him a wealth of expertise on the science of going organic.
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Donna Grigsby is Executive Director of the Washington Area Community Investment Fund (WACIF) , a nonprofit community development financial institution dedicated to providing below market-rate financing for developing and preserving affordable housing and community-based facilities in the Washington metropolitan area.
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 Paul Gunter covers all aspects of the nuclear fuel chain with a special focus on reactor operations. He previously served for 16 years as the Director of the Reactor Watchdog Project for Nuclear Information and Resource Service. He is a lead spokesperson on nuclear reactor hazards and security issues and acts as the regulatory watchdog over the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the nuclear power industry.
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Denise Hamler is Director of the Green Festivals and Co-op America’s Business Network. As a co-founder of Co-op America, she has held senior positions in the marketing and publications divisions. As a community activist she is part of a local organization which fought the introduction of a Wal-Mart into their community and has subsequently been in negotiations with the company to lessen its environmental impact.
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 Thom Hartmann is a nationally syndicated radio host and bestselling author.
His national program, syndicated by Air America Radio, is carried on more than 80 radio stations across the US and draws some 3 million listeners.
Thom is the author of 17 books, including The Last Hours of AncientSunlight; We the People; Unequal Protection; What Would Jefferson Do and his most recent book; Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class˜And What We Can Do About It. Hartmann has been featured in countless media outlets, including NPR and BBC radio, CNN television, the front page of TheWall Street Journal, and Time Magazine. Click here to see Thom speak.
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 Owner of Harvey Coachworks, co-founder and board member of the Potomac Electric Vehicle Association Harvey has built off the success of his first electric vehicle conversion in 1992. His company, located in Knoxville, MD, now focuses not only on EV conversions, but also plug-in hybrid conversions, and 3 wheel personal electric vehicle manufacturing sales and service.
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.jpg "Image") Jim Hightower is a twice-elected Texas Agriculture Commissioner (1982-1990), a best-selling author, and populist sparkplug. His syndicated radio commentaries and columns can be heard and seen throughout the country. He is also the editor of The Hightower Lowdown, a monthly political newsletter.
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 Founder of TreeHugger.com, Hill is alternately described as serial entrepreneur, do-gooder and designer. In three short years, TreeHugger.com has become one of the most respected and trafficked environmental sites on the web.
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 Molly Houlahan, 15, a tenth-grader at Agnes Irwin School in Rosemont, PA, and Carly Houlahan, 13, a seventh-grader at Agnes Irwin School, started a bee-product business that has raised more than $25,000 by selling honey, honeycomb, and beeswax candles and lip balm. Molly and Carly launched “Hives for Lives” three years ago after their grandfather died of throat cancer. “We wanted to do something to remember him and to make sure others would not get sick and die like he did,” they said.
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 Evin Isaacson is a board member of Jews United for Justice (JUFJ), an organization that partners with the Jewish Community to pursue social and economic justice in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Through JUFJ, she chaired the organization's successful Eviction Prevention advocacy campaign and co-chaired a campaign to pass mixed-income housing legislation through the District of Columbia City Council. She has worked in the Housing and Legislative departments of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington-based fiscal think tank. Currently, she works as Research Analyst for the Long Term Care Division of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), helping state and county governments develop sustainable Medicaid homecare programs.
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 National Organizer for Student Labor Action Project, Jimenez became an activist as a student around access to higher education and immigrant rights. He went on to do community organizing in Orange County around housing and tenant rights before moving into a campaign to unionize health care workers in Oregon and Southern California.
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 Karen Johns is the Executive Director of the Diversity Pipeline AllianceSM based in Mclean, Virginia. The Diversity Pipeline AllianceSM a national network of leading organizations who share a mission of preparing people of color for leadership and management in the 21st century workforce.
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 Andrew Kimbrell is founder and executive director of the Washington D.C. based Center for Food Safety and the International Center for Technology Assessment. As an author, lawyer, and activist for more than twenty years, he has been at the forefront of legal and grassroots efforts to protect the environment and promote sustainable agricultural production methods.
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 Russell Klein is the Community Environmental Education Specialist with the D.C. Department of Public Works Office of Recycling (DPW/OR). With an emphasis on the District of Columbia’s recycling regulations and services, Russell visits local businesses and schools giving presentations designed to raise the level of awareness of his audience about matters of environmental sustainability, waste management and recycling program implementation.
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 Kuapa Kokoo was set up with the help of UK NGO Twin Trading, starting with 22 villages and 200 farmers.
Its mission is to empower its members, increase their income level and raise their standard of living. Central to achieving this goal is Kuapa Kokoo's belief in democracy, advocacy, transparency, self-reliance and essentially a co-operative model.
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 Linda Leaks is the Co-director of Empower DC and a long time advocate for affordable and humane housing in the district. Empower DC’s mission is to enhance and improve the self-advocacy of low income and working people in the District of Columbia in order to bring about sustained self improvement in their quality of life. Leaks will spotlight the role of public land in public housing and the imperative for public land to be used exclusively for public good.
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 As Executive Director of TransAfrica Forum Lee helps further the organizations mission of the emancipation of all African peoples everywhere physically, economically, and socially. Prior to joining TransAfrica Forum, Nicole was the Managing Director of Global Justice. Nicole has also dedicated her time and efforts to human rights in Haiti working with the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux.
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 Eric Liu is the author of Guiding Lights: How to Mentor | |
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