Speaker Bios

Todd Ambs

Director, Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition

Todd Ambs is the Director of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition.

For more than 30 years, Todd has worked in the environmental policy field.

From 2010 until becoming Director of Healing Our Waters in July, 2013, Ambs

was President of the national conservation group River Network. Prior to that,

he ran the Water Division for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

for nearly a decade (2003-2010).

His extensive experience in both state government and nonprofit

organizations includes serving as Executive Director of two statewide river

organizations, Policy Director for the Ohio Attorney General and Senior Policy

Analyst for the Wisconsin Department of Justice .

Todd was the lead negotiator for the State of Wisconsin during the development of the Great Lakes

Compact. Todd has served on a number of water-related boards and commissions including the Great

Lakes Commission, Great Lakes Protection Fund and the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association. (WI).

He currently serves on the Coordinating Committee for the Alliance for Water Stewardship and on the

Regional Administrative Council for the North Central Region Water Network.

Todd graduated from Eastern Michigan University in 1980 with a BS in Political Science/Speech.

Marcia Argust

Officer, Pew Charitable Trusts

Marcia Argust is based in Washington, DC where she has worked on

conservation issues for nearly 25 years. Her experience comes from past work

on Capitol Hill, with associations and non-profits, and her current position with

the U.S. Public Lands program at the Pew Charitable Trusts, where she focuses

on public lands legislation and advocacy. Marcia has an MS in environmental

science from Johns Hopkins University and a BA in political science and

psychology from Binghamton University. She can be reached at margust@pewtrusts.org.

Phil Aroneanu

U.S. Managing Director and Co-Founder, 350.org

Phil Aroneanu is an organizer and political strategist advocating for solutions

to the climate crisis. He has over a decade of experience working at the local,

state, national and international levels on climate policy and politics. He co-

founded the national Step It Up campaign in early 2007, and in 2009, went on

to become a co-founder of 350.org, which organized what CNN dubbed "The most widespread day of

political action in history," with over 5200 public events in 181 countries.

Vicki Arroyo

Executive Director, Georgetown Climate Center

Vicki Arroyo is the Executive Director of the Georgetown Climate Center at

Georgetown Law where she also serves as the Assistant Dean of Centers and

Institutes, the Director of the Environmental Law Program, and a Professor

from Practice.

She oversees the Center’s work at the nexus of climate and energy policy,

supervising staff and student work on climate mitigation and adaptation at the

state and federal level. She teaches “experiential” environmental law courses

to both law and public policy students.

She previously served at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, most recently as the Pew Center’s

Vice President for Domestic Policy and General Counsel. For over a decade, she directed the Pew

Center’s policy analysis, science, adaptation, economics, and domestic policy programs. She also served

as Managing Editor of the Center’s book and oversaw publication of numerous reports and policy briefs.

Matt Barreto

Principal, Latino Decisions

Dr. Matt A. Barreto is the co-founder (with Gary Segura) of the polling and

research firm Latino Decisions, and Professor of Political Science, and adjunct

Professor of Law at the University of Washington and Professor of Political

Science and Chicano Studies at UCLA.. In 2012 Time Magazine called Latino

Decisions the “gold-standard in Latino American polling” and Barreto’s

research was recognized in the 30 Latinos who made the 2012 election by

Politic365, listed in the Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2012 by the European

Politics Magazine LDSP, and was named one of the top 15 leading Latino pundits by Huffington Post

which said Barreto was “the pollster that has his finger on the pulse of the Latino electorate.”

In 2010 Barreto implemented the first ever weekly tracking poll of Latino voters during the 2010

election, which LD continued in 2012. Working closley with Segura, he has also overseen large multi-

state election eve polls, battleground tracking polls, extensive message testing research and countless

focus groups.

Angela Becker-Dippmann

Staff Director (MIinority), Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

Ms. Becker-Dippmann is the Democratic Staff Director for the Senate Energy

and Natural Resources Committee. This committee develops legislation that

shapes U.S. energy resources and development, including regulation,

conservation, strategic petroleum reserves, and appliance standards; nuclear

energy; Indian affairs; public lands and their renewable resources; surface

mining, federal coal, oil, gas, and other mineral leasing; territories and insular

possessions; and water resources. Prior to this she was a Senior Policy Advisor

in Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Energy and Environment

Directorate from 2011-2014. Ms. Becker-Dippmann was also an Executive Vice

President with McBee Strategic Consulting, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting and public affairs firm.

She signed on with McBee in 2008, following nearly eight years of work with the U.S. Senate, which

included service as a Professional Staff Member for the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee

under Chairman Jeff Bingaman. During the 110th Congress, her portfolio at the Committee included

work on the Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007, as well as a number of legislative and

oversight initiatives on topics ranging from commodity market regulation to energy technology financing

and federal oil and gas royalty collection. She is a graduate of Carleton College (Northfield, Minn.),

where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology

Shamar Bibbins

Program Officer, Environment, The Kresge Foundation

Shamar Bibbins serves as a program officer for Environment at The Kresge

Foundation, where her grantmaking supports policies and programs that help

communities build resilience in the face of climate change.

Shamar plays a lead role in managing the Environment Program’s Climate

Resilience and Urban Opportunity Initiative. That initiative supports

community-based nonprofit organizations seeking to influence local and

regional climate resilience planning, policy development and implementation

while reflecting the priorities and needs of low-income people. She also

contributes to the development and implementation of program strategies.

Shamar joined Kresge in 2014, bringing a history of engagement in environmental efforts and a

commitment to action on climate change. She previously served as the director of national partnerships

at Green For All, a national nonprofit dedicated to building a green economy strong enough to lift

people out of poverty.

Shamar earned a bachelor’s degree in science, technology and society from Vassar College and received

a Fulbright Fellowship to Fukushima University where she conducted research on environmental social

movements in Japan.

US Congressman Rob Bishop

In November, Congressman Bishop was appointed Chairman of the House

Natural Resources Committee. Congressman Bishop also serves as Chairman

of the Public Lands and Environmental Regulation Subcommittee. He is

recognized by his colleagues in Congress for being a dedicated advocate for

public lands and natural resource issues.

A public school teacher turned public servant, Rob Bishop represents Utah’s

First Congressional District in the U.S. Congress.

Rob Bishop is a life-long resident of the First District, with the exception of two years he spent in

Germany while serving a mission for the LDS Church. He was born and raised in Kaysville, Utah, where

he graduated from Davis High School with High Honors. He later graduated magna cum laude from the

University of Utah with a degree in Political Science. He has been a resident of Brigham City since 1974.

Carol Browner

Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Carol M. Browner is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at American Progress and

senior counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group. Ms. Browner also serves on

the League of Conservation Voters board, the Bunge Limited board of

directors, the Global Ocean Commission, and Opower’s advisory board.

Browner most recently served as assistant to President Barack Obama and

director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy,

where she oversaw the coordination of environmental, energy, climate,

transport, and related policy across the federal government. During her

tenure, the White House secured the largest investment ever in clean energy

and established a national car policy that included both new automobile fuel-efficiency standards and

the first-ever greenhouse gas reductions. Previously, Browner was a founding principal of The Albright

Group LLC from 2001 to 2008.

From 1993 to 2001, Browner served as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. As

administrator, she adopted the most stringent air-pollution standards in our nation’s history, set a fine-

particle clean air standard for the first time, and spearheaded the reauthorization of the Safe Drinking

Water Act, as well as the Food Quality Protection Act. She was known for working with both

environmentalists and industry to set science-based public health protections while providing

businesses with important flexibilities in how to meet those standards. She worked across the agency to

ensure a focus on protecting the most vulnerable, particularly children.

Keya Chatterjee

Executive Director, USCAN

Keya Chatterjee is Executive Director of USCAN, and author of the book The

Zero Footprint Baby: How to Save the Planet While Raising a Healthy Baby. Her

work focuses on building a movement in support of climate action. Keya

recently appeared in the documentary 'Disruption,' promoting the People's

Climate March . Keya's commentary on climate change policy and sustainability issues has been quoted

in dozens of media outlets including USA Today, the New York Times, Fox News, the Associated Press,

The Washington Post, and NBC Nightly News. Prior to joining USCAN, Keya served as Senior Director for

Renewable Energy and Footprint Outreach at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), where she worked for

eight years. Before that, Keya was a Climate Change Specialist at USAID. Keya also worked at NASA

headquarters for four years, communicating research results on climate change. Keya was a Peace Corps

Volunteer in Morocco from 1998 to 2000. She currently serves on the board of the Washington Area

Bicycling Association. Keya received her Master's degree in Environmental Science, and her Bachelor's in

Environmental Science and Spanish from the University of Virginia.

Brennan Conaway

Procurement Analyst, U.S. General Services Administration

Brennan Conaway is a Procurement Analyst with the General Services

Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service. Mr. Conaway’s primary

responsibility is to ensure that GSA complies with federal green purchasing

requirements. He is also contributing to other federal-wide green purchasing

initiatives, such as guidelines regarding federal use of eco-labels, analyses that

prioritize federal purchasing based on their environmental impacts, and the development of a

sustainable standard for services and service providers. Mr. Conaway previously worked as a Contract

Specialist and a Contracting Officer for GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule program, the Federal Strategic

Sourcing Initiative Blanket Purchasing Agreements, and other contract vehicles. Mr. Conaway earned his

B.B.A. from James Madison University in 2003 and his M.B.A. from George Mason University in 2009.

Phyllis Cuttino

Clean Energy Initiative, The Pew Charitable Trusts

Phyllis Cuttino directs Pew’s clean energy initiative, which works to accelerate

the clean energy economy in order to seize its economic, national security and

environmental benefits for the nation. Pew advocates for national energy policies that enhance

industrial energy efficiency, expand energy research and development and deploy advanced

transportation and renewable technologies.

She joined the Pew Charitable Trusts in 2007 as project director for the Pew campaign for fuel efficiency,

which played a critical role in passage of the first increase in federal fuel efficiency standards for cars

and light trucks in more than 30 years.

Cuttino has a background in policy, strategic communications and campaigns. In the policy arena,

Cuttino worked on the senior staffs of two United States senators. In philanthropy, she served as vice

president of public affairs for Ted Turner’s $1 billion gift to U.N. causes. As a senior vice president at a

consulting firm in Washington, Cuttino helped Fortune 500 companies and nongovernmental

organizations to influence public policy and increase awareness of critical issues. Cuttino has directed

issue advocacy campaigns and served in various roles for political campaigns.

Cuttino holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and history from Furman University

Fred Ferguson

Chief of Staff, Rep. Jason Chaffetz

Fred returned to Rep. Chaffetz' office as Chief of Staff in June 2014 after a two-

year stint as Rep. Rob Bishop's Legislative Director. Fred orginally began his

career on Capitol Hill working for then-freshman Rep. Chaffetz as his Staff

Assistant. Ferguson quickly moved into a legislative role, covering the Natural

Resources and Oversight and Government Reform Committees. During his five

and a half years on Capitol Hill, Fred has been a mainstay in Utah and western

public lands and energy policy circles. He lead the Congressional Western Caucus as their Policy Director

and continues to manage the Utah delegation's multi-county Eastern Utah Public Lands Initiative. Fred

graduated from the University of Utah with a political science degree and was captain of the baseball

team. He resides in Washington, DC and is married to his beautiful wife, Nicole.

Geoffrey Garin

President, Hart Research Associates

Geoffrey Garin is the president of Hart Research Associates, one of the

nation's leading survey research firms. He became president of Hart Research

in 1984, after having worked in the firm since 1978 as a senior analyst and vice

president.

Mr. Garin has undertaken landmark policy research for many of the nation’s leading foundations and

educational institutions on a wide variety of issues, including global health, school reform, college

affordability, health care reform, global climate change, and federal fiscal policy. His clients for this

research include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Mott

Foundation, Harvard University, and the College Board.

John Gilroy

Director, U.S. Public Lands, The Pew Charitable Trusts

John Gilroy, Director, U.S. Public Lands, manages operations and planning for

the Wilderness and BLM work at Pew. Previously, he was a consultant to Pew.

He helped develop and promote regional and national campaigns to protect

old growth forests, critical habitat, and roadless areas throughout National

Forests. Prior to that, John spent a year at the Rockefeller Family Fund as a

program associate. From 1988 until 1992, he was the executive director of the Vermont Public Interest

Research Group. Earlier experience was with the Center for Study of Responsive Law, US Public Interest

Research Group, and the New York Public Interest Research Group. He has a law degree from

Georgetown University Law Center and a bachelor’s from New York University. He serves on the boards

of the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, NEO Philanthropy and the Alaska Wilderness League.

Verna Harrison

Philanthropic Advisor, Verna Harrison Associates LLC

Verna Harrison is principal of Verna Harrison Associates, LLC, a consulting and

philanthropic advising firm. Previously she was Executive Director of the Keith

Campbell Foundation for the Environment from 2003 – 2014, responsible for

its grantmaking in the Chesapeake region which focused on improving living

resources management, reducing nutrient pollution, & strengthening political

will. She also served as co-chair of the Chesapeake Bay Funders Network

during that period. For the previous 20 years she was Assistant Secretary of

the MD Dept. of Natural Resources: managing the Water Quality Monitoring,

Geologic Survey, Power Plant Assessment, Coastal Zone Management

programs (1995-2003); directed Bay policy for the MD Governor’s Office (1988-1995); managed the

Forest, Park & Wildlife Service, Tidewater Fishery Admin, Natural Resources Police, & MD Environmental

Trust (1983-1987.) Previously was the Governor’s Assistant Legislative Officer, lobbyist for the MD DOT,

& staff of the MD Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.

Nicole Hernandez Hammer

Climate Change Consultant, Moms Clean Air Force

As a sea-level researcher, Nicole Hernandez Hammer has studied how the cities and regions most

vulnerable to the effects of climate change and sea-level rise also have large Hispanic populations --

something she learned firsthand growing up in South Florida. A Guatemalan immigrant with Cuban

heritage, today Nicole works to mobilize the Latino community to better understand and address

climate change's disproportionate effects on the health of Hispanics. Most recently, that means working

with Moms Clean Air Force to increase public awareness of climate change on children's health

specifically.

Sara Kendall

DC Office Director, Western Organization of Resource Councils

Sara is a graduate of Middlebury College with a B.A. in Environmental Studies. She has represented

WORC in Washington, DC since 1994, monitoring Washington policy decisions that affect WORC’s

members, activating our organizations and leaders, and leading issue campaigns. Sara has written and

edited many WORC publications, including Uncertain Fortune, Law and Order in the Oil and Gas Fields,

and Model Oil and Gas Laws, Regulations and Ordinances.

Alison Kinn Bennett

Senior Advisor, Office of Pollution Prevention & Toxics, Environmental

Protection Agency

Alison Kinn Bennett is U.S. EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution

Prevention senior advisor for sustainable products and purchasing. She

founded and co-leads two influential networks within EPA—the Green Building

Workgroup and the Sustainable Products & Purchasing Network—which bring together policy and

technical staff to advance holistic, life cycle-based approaches to environmental and human health

protection. Kinn Bennett is currently leading the EPA effort to propose an approach and a set of

Guidelines for assessing product environmental performance standards and ecolabels for Federal

procurement. Kinn Bennett is also representing EPA on the advisory committees of the Sustainable

Purchasing Leadership Council, the Responsible Purchasing Network, and UNEP’s Sustainable Public

Procurement Initiative.

Cat Lazaroff

Managing Program Director, Resource Media

Cat Lazaroff, Managing Program Director at Resource Media, has extensive

experience supporting state, regional and national policy initiatives on water

quality, clean energy, climate change and other issues, including work with

NOAA, the IPCC, and numerous NGOs. Her work around reproductive health

and rights has helped build bridges between the conservation and family

planning communities. Cat has over fifteen years of communication and

writing experience, previously serving as the Policy Press Secretary at

Earthjustice and most recently as the Communications Director at Defenders

of Wildlife, where she led a team focused on strategically supporting the

organization’s wildlife conservation mission through both new and traditional media channels. Cat also

has worked as a science writer and environmental reporter, including serving as the D.C. Bureau Chief

for the Environment News Service, where she covered issues ranging from air and water quality to land

conservation and public health.

Matt Lee-Ashley

Director, Public Lands, Center for American Progress

Matt Lee-Ashley is the Director of Public Lands at American Progress, focusing

on energy, environment, and public lands.

Prior to joining American Progress, Lee-Ashley served as deputy chief of staff

at the Department of the Interior, overseeing policy, external,

communications, and legislative matters on behalf of Secretary Ken Salazar. In

2010 Lee-Ashley was named the Interior Department’s communications

director during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, leading the department’s

communications response to the crisis and helping undertake the aggressive

offshore oil and gas reform agenda of the Obama administration. Lee-Ashley also led an update to the

department’s communications policy to provide the first-ever protections of scientific integrity, helped

formulate and implement the administration’s America’s Great Outdoors initiative, and advised

Secretary Salazar on a wide range of land management and energy issues.

Christopher Leonard

Fellow, Schmidt Family Foundation

As a Schmidt Family Foundation Fellow, Christopher Leonard published "The

Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business," which

explores the modern American meat system. He is currently writing a book

about Koch Industries. He was a national business reporter with The

Associated Press and his work has appeared in Fortune, Businessweek, Slate

Magazine and The New Republic. He is a graduate of the University of

Missouri.

Antonio Lopez

Executive Director, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization

Born in Gary, Indiana and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Antonio Reyes López

received his doctorate in Borderlands History at the University of Texas at El

Paso. Dr. López has written extensively on anti-poverty and anti-racist social

movements in Chicago. He has also contributed to human rights,

environmental justice, and economic justice struggles in Chicago and on the

U.S./Mexico border. Prior to joining LVEJO, Lopez coordinated a mentorship program for youth

incarcerated at Illinois Youth Center, St. Charles, and contributed to the Chicago Grassroots Curriculum

Taskforce (CGCT).

Patty Lovera

Assistant Director, Food and Water Watch

Patty Lovera is the Assistant Director of Food & Water Watch. She coordinates

the food team. Patty has a bachelor’s degree in environmental science from

Lehigh University and a master’s degree in environmental policy from the

University of Michigan. Before joining Food & Water Watch, Patty was the

deputy director of the energy and environment program at Public Citizen and

a researcher at the Center for Health, Environment and Justice.

Maribeth Malloy

Director, Environmental Sustainability and Exte, Lockheed Martin

Maribeth Malloy is director for Environmental Sustainability and External

Engagements for Lockheed Martin Corp., where she is responsible for

developing the corporate strategy for environmental sustainability in

coordination with the Corporate Sustainability Office and external

communications regarding the company’s positions relative to these issues.

Malloy began her career with IBM, assuming responsibility for the chemical

management program and environmental impact assessments at a major

semi-conductor facility. During the business transitions of the 1990s when the IBM business was sold to

Lockheed Martin, Malloy progressed with responsibility for the corporate environmental safety and

health (ESH) audit program and corporate governance. After leading the ESH and medical functions in

the aeronautics line of business, Malloy returned to a corporate position with the focus on

sustainability.

Gina McCarthy

Administrator, US 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.

Brentin Mock

Author and Editor, Grist

Brentin Mock is the Justice Editor for Grist.org where he covers the

intersections between civil rights, racism, environmentalism and climate

change. He's focused on environmental justice matters since 2009, upon

completing the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting

Diversity Fellowship. He's covered these issues for a wide spectrum of outlets

including The American Prospect, GOOD Magazine, The Nation, Essence,

NAACP's The Crisis, Gawker, Colorlines and Next City.

Jennifer Morgan

Global Director, Climate Program, World Resources Institute

Jennifer is the Global Director of the Climate Program at the World Resources

Institute. In this capacity, she oversees the Institute’s work on climate change

issues and guides WRI strategy in helping countries, governments, and

individuals take positive action toward achieving a zero-carbon future. She is

responsible for day-to-day management of the 50+ person program, and

under her leadership, the program is in the process of deepening its

engagement in China, India and Brazil. In addition, Jennifer is WRI’s lead

representative at international climate meetings, including the UNFCCC

negotiations. Prior to joining WRI in 2009, Jennifer worked at E3G as Global

Climate Change Director, where she led the organization’s climate change work on its full range of global

activities, and remains a non-executive Board member. Before E3G, Jennifer led the Global Climate

Change Program of Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), growing its climate program both in size and

geography, with a focus on Asia Pacific. While at WWF, she headed its delegation to the seminal Kyoto

Protocol climate negotiations. Jennifer’s career has also included working for the US Climate Action

Network, and through the Robert Bosch Foundation, the European Business Council for a Sustainable

Energy Future and for the German Federal Ministry of Environment, supporting the head of the German

delegation to the UN climate change negotiations. Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Arts from Indiana

University in Political Science and Germanic Studies and a Masters of Arts from the School of

International Service at The American University in International Affairs. At Germanwatch’s 20th

anniversary celebration, Jennifer was named an honorary member of the organization for her long-term

commitment to international climate issues and the empowerment of civil society.

Navin Nayak

Senior Vice President, Corridor Partners

Navin Nayak has more than a decade of experience running environmental

campaigns on both the electoral and advocacy front. As Senior Vice President

for Corridor Partners, he advises clients on strategic political and policy

opportunities to address the threat of climate change. Prior to joining Corridor

Partners in 2014, he held a leadership position at the League of Conservation

Voters, where he worked for nearly eight years. During that time, he

developed LCV’s program on global warming and guided the organization to

its most successful electoral cycle ever. In 2009-2010, he served as the deputy

campaign manager on the Clean Energy Works campaign that focused on

passing comprehensive federal climate legislation. Navin holds a Bachelor Degree from McGill University

and a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University. In 2013, Politico named Navin one of 50

Politicos to Watch.

Simon Nicholson

Assistant Professor of International Relations, American University

Simon Nicholson is Assistant Professor and Director of the Global Environmental Politics Program in the

School of International Service at American University. He is also co-founder of the Forum for Climate

Engineering Assessment, a scholarly group committed to building a more open and inclusive

conversation around climate engineering ("geoengineering") proposals. Simon is co-editor of Global

Environmental Politics: From Person to Planet (Paradigm Publishers, 2014) and New Earth Politics (MIT

Press, forthcoming).

Jason Pearson

Executive Director, Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council; Principal,

TRUTHstudio

Jason Pearson is a strategist and social entrepreneur. His work focuses on how

public interest advocates can harness social innovation and democratic values

to advance a positive environmental, social, and economic future for all.

He is the President & CEO of the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council,

whose mission is to support and recognize purchasing leadership that accelerates the transition to a

prosperous and sustainable future. Previously, as President/CEO of GreenBlue (www.greenblue.org),

Jason pioneered successful approaches for enhancing private sector supply chain collaborations to

achieve sustainability objectives, such as through GreenBlue’s Sustainable Packaging Coalition

(www.sustainablepackaging.org). His consultancy, TRUTHstudio (www.truthstudio.com), specializes in

understanding, visualizing, and communicating complexity to support informed decisions in the public

interest, including through the research project, Economy Map (www.economymap.org), which

visualizes how economic demand drives environmental impacts across the entire US economy.

Jason has also held leadership positions at The Summit Foundation and the National Endowment for the

Arts.

Nick Penniman

Co-Founder and Executive Director, Issue One

Nick is the former executive director of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund,

which he founded with Arianna Huffington in 2009. Staffed by a newsroom of

veteran journalists from mainstream newspapers and magazines, the team

focused most of its energy on uncovering stories behind the financial crises

that precipitated the Great Recession. The Investigative Fund was favorably

profiled in media publications like the American Journalism Review and the

Columbia Journalism Review and later merged with the Center for Public Integrity, the largest nonprofit

investigative reporting group in the nation’s capital.

Prior to that, Nick launched the American News Project, an experiment in online video muckraking, and

served as the Washington director of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, a foundation

headed by broadcaster Bill Moyers. He has also been publisher of The Washington Monthly magazine,

where he oversaw a redesign of the magazine; the executive editor of TomPaine.com, where he

editorially focused the operation on shaping elite opinion about public-interest issues; the associate

editor of the American Prospect, where he wrote extensively about the nonprofit sector and

government reform; editor of the Lincoln Journal, a weekly newspaper; and associate editor at the

Missouri Historical Society. In the late 1990s he ran a national grassroots group called the Alliance for

Democracy, which focused on the role of money in politics and of large corporations in economic

globalization.

He has served on multiple nonprofit boards and advisory boards, including the Homeless Empowerment

Project, which publishes Spare Change News, and the Roosevelt Institute. He has appeared regularly on

MSNBC and blogs frequently on the Huffington Post. His most recent essay about money in politics was

published by the journal Democracy.

Lorette Picciano

Executive Director, Rural Coalition//Coalición Rural

Lorette Picciano has served as Executive Director of the Rural

Coalition/Coalición Rural, a Washington, DC-based alliance of more than 70

culturally diverse community based organizations representing small

producers and farmworkers in the US and Mexico, since 1992. She works with

the RC’s diverse Board and members to promote just and sustainable development in rural areas. In

2012, she is participating in her 7th Farm Bill Debate. RC has for more than 30 years been a leading

organization working to secure civil and human rights in the agriculture and trade sectors, and especially

in the movement to secure equity for all farmers and farmworkers from the US Department of

Agriculture. Rural Coalition also connects with its sister communities in North America and globally, and

is a member organization of the international farmers movement, La Via Campesina.

Ricardo Salvador

Director, Food & Environment Program, Union of Concerned Scientists

As the senior scientist and director of the Food & Environment Program at UCS,

Ricardo Salvador works with citizens, scientists, economists, and politicians to

transition our current food system into one that grows healthy foods while

employing sustainable practices.

Before coming to UCS, Dr. Salvador served as a program officer for Food,

Health, and Wellbeing with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. In this capacity, he

was responsible for conceptualizing and managing the Foundation’s food

systems programming. He partnered with colleagues to create programs that addressed the connections

between food and health, environment, economic development, sovereignty, and social justice. Dr.

Salvador also worked as an extensionist with Texas A&M University.

Nicky Sheats

Director, Center for the Urban Environment of the John S. Watson Institute for

Public Policy at Thomas Edison

Dr. Nicky Sheats, Esq., is director of the Center for the Urban Environment of

the John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy at Thomas Edison State College,

which provides support for the environmental justice (EJ) community on both

a state and national level. Among

the issues he is working on are particulate matter air pollution, climate

change, cumulative impacts, developing EJ legal strategies and increasing the

capacity of the EJ community to address these and other issues.

Sheats is a founding member of the NJ EJ Alliance, the EJ Leadership Forum on Climate Change and the

EJ and Science Initiative. He has been appointed to the NJ Clean Air Council, EPA’s Clean Air Act Advisory

Committee and the National EJ Advisory Council. He was also a co-author of the public health chapter of

the National Climate Assessment. Sheats holds an undergraduate degree in economics from Princeton

University and a law degree and Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Harvard University. He

previously practiced law for almost eight years as a public interest attorney.

Dr. Jalonne White-Newsome

Director of Federal Policy, WE ACT for Environmental Justice

Dr. Jalonne L. White-Newsome is the Director of Federal Policy for WE ACT for

Environmental Justice (WE ACT), a 26-year old community based

Environmental Justice (EJ) organization, headquartered in Harlem, New York.

Jalonne manages WE ACT’s DC Office and in this capacity, engages in advocacy

and education on a variety of environmental issues on Capitol Hill, within the

federal Agencies and the Administration to ensure an EJ perspective is included in policy conversations.

Jalonne coordinates a national coalition of environmental justice leaders called the Environmental

Justice Leadership Forum on Climate Change (EJ Forum), and also gives leadership to a regional EJ effort

in the DC-Metro region. She currently serves as a co-chair of the Urban Air Toxics Workgroup for the

Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act Advisory Committee, a federal advisory committee.

Before coming to WE ACT, Jalonne was the first Kendall Post-doctoral Fellow in Climate and Health with

the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). She published and engaged in advocacy on climate

change/extreme heat and county level adaptation, a natural progression from her doctoral work to help

prevent heat-related deaths among low income, elderly citizens in Detroit, Michigan. Jalonne is an

adjunct professor at Kettering University (Flint, Michigan), and a Professorial Lecturer at The George

Washington University in Washington, DC. A proud native Detroiter, Jalonne holds a bachelor’s degree

in chemical engineering from Northwestern University and a master’s degree in Environmental

Engineering from Southern Methodist University, and a PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from the

University Of Michigan School Of Public Health. Jalonne is a featured author for emPower Magazine.

Outside of work, Jalonne is a wife and a proud mother of 2, a Girl Scout Troup leader, residing in

Northern Virginia.

US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is fighting to reduce carbon pollution,

protect our air and water, and position America as a leader in the clean energy

economy. As a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works

Committee, he plays a key role in crafting policies addressing climate change

and environmental protection. He has earned a lifetime score of 98% on LCV’s

National Environmental Scorecard.

As Rhode Island’s U.S. Attorney, Whitehouse led the 1997 investigation into

the North Cape oil spill and secured more than $9 million in criminal penalties for restoration of

Narragansett Bay. Since his election to the Senate in 2006, he has continued to fight the big polluters,

calling on the Obama Administration to curb emissions of toxic mercury and smog, as well as interstate

pollution that harms residents in Rhode Island and other eastern states.

Senator Whitehouse understands that our economy and our way of life depend on the health of our

oceans. That’s why he joined with Democrats and Republicans to form the Senate Oceans Caucus to

respond to the pressures of pollution and commercial activity. He is also working to establish a National

Endowment for the Oceans, a dedicated funding source for ocean and coastal research and restoration.

Every week, Senator Whitehouse speaks out on the Floor of the Senate, calling on our leaders to wake

up to the threat of climate change. He co-founded the Bicameral Task Force on Climate Change and the

Senate Climate Action Task Force to further build awareness and to pursue real solutions to the alarming

challenges of a changing climate. And last month, Whitehouse introduced legislation to put a fee on

carbon pollution – establishing a market incentive to reduce emissions while generating as much as $2

trillion dollar over ten years.

Cindy Wiesner

National Coordinator, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance/Alianza Popular para

la Justicia Global

Cindy Wiesner is a queer working class Latina, originally from Hollywood, CA,

and now based in Miami, FL. Cindy has been a community organizer for the

last 20 years. Previously, she organized with HERE (Hotel and Restaurant

Employees Union) Local 2850, POWER (People Organized to Win Employment

Rights), and the Miami Workers Center. As GGJ National Coordinator, she

coordinates a broad alliance of US-based grassroots, base-building

organizations led by low-income communities, people of color, and indigenous peoples on issues of

climate justice, gender justice, new economies and militarism, and bridges US-based organizations with

global social movements.

Mary Christina Wood

Faculty Director, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center, University

of Oregon School of Law

Mary Christina Wood is the Philip H. Knight Professor of Law and Faculty

Director of the school's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program.

She teaches property law, natural resources law, public trust law, and federal

Indian law; she has also taught public lands law, wildlife law, and hazardous

waste law. She is the Founding Director of the school's nationally acclaimed

Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program and is Faculty Leader of

the Program's Conservation Trust Project, Sustainable Land Use Project, Native

Environmental Sovereignty Project, and Food Resilience Project. After

graduating from Stanford Law School in 1987, she served as a judicial clerk on the Ninth Circuit Court of

Appeals. She then practiced in the environmental/natural resources department of Perkins Coie, a

Pacific Northwest law firm. In 1994 she received the University's Ersted Award for Distinguished

Teaching, and in 2002 she received the Orlando Hollis Faculty Teaching Award. Professor Wood is a co-

author of a leading textbook on natural resources law (West, 2006), and a co-author of a textbook on

public trust law (Carolina Press, 2013). Her new book, Nature's Trust, was released in October, 2013 (by

Cambridge University Press). Professor Wood has published extensively on climate crisis, natural

resources, and native law issues. She originated the approach called Atmospheric Trust Litigation to hold

governments worldwide accountable for reducing carbon pollution within their jurisdictions, and her

research is being used in cases and petitions brought on behalf of children and youth throughout the

United States and in other countries. She is a frequent speaker on global warming issues and has

received national and international attention for her sovereign trust approach to global climate policy.

Elizabeth Yeampierre

Executive Director, UPROSE

Elizabeth Yeampierre is a nationally recognized Puerto Rican environmental

and climate justice leader of African and Indigenous ancestry born and raised

in New York City. She is Executive Director of UPROSE, Brooklyn's oldest Latino

community based organization. Her award winning vision for an inter-

generational, multi-cultural and community led organization is the driving

force behind UPROSE. She is a long-time advocate and trailblazer for

community organizing around just, sustainable development, environmental

justice and community-led climate adaptation and community resiliency in

Southwest Brooklyn.

Ethan Zindler

Head of Americas and Head of Policy, Bloomberg New Energy Finance

Ethan is Head of Policy Analysis with responsibility for managing coverage of

key policy developments globally impacting renewables, biofuels, and energy

efficiency. Ethan’s particular area of expertise is US clean energy policy and he

has testified on clean energy issues before the Senate Energy & Natural

Resources Committee as well as the US-China Economic and Security Review

Commission. Ethan previously served in the Clinton White House.