Speakers
Don André is Executive Director of Northwest SEED (Sustainable Energy for Economic Development). NWSEED is a nonprofit that works to build rural economies through clean, affordable, and distributed energy and to advance energy independence for the Northwest through local, sustainable energy sources. Don worked over twenty years on low-income energy and housing and founded the Citizens Utility Alliance of Washington, a statewide citizen advocacy group focused on energy and telecommunications. He is currently Chair of the Northwest Energy Coalition Washington Caucus and a member of the BPA Non-Wires Solutions Round Table. - Sunday afternoon session -
Yoram Bauman teaches in the UW Program on the Environment and was the project economist for a recently released state-commissioned report, “Impacts of Climate Change on Washington’s Economy.” On the lighter side, he has also appeared—as “the world’s first and only stand-up economist”—at venues ranging from the New York Improv to the humor session at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. (He currently produces and performs in weekly Non-Profit Comedy benefit shows at the Comedy Underground in Seattle.) Yoram has a PhD in economics from the University of Washington, is the author of an online economics textbook called Quantum Microeconomics, and was co-author, with Alan Thein Durning, of Tax Shift (published in 1998 by Sightline Institute, formerly Northwest Environment Watch). - Friday evening session -
LeeAnne Beres is the Executive Director of Earth Ministry, an ecumenical organization that engages people of faith in environmental stewardship. LeeAnne has 17 years experience in the Seattle environmental community, with prior experience as the Associate Director of Save Our Wild Salmon, Outreach Director of the NW Energy Coalition, and in organizing positions for the Marine Fish Conservation Network and Greenpeace. Past board service includes the Washington Environmental Council (Vice President for Membership), the Washington Council of Trout Unlimited, and the NW Energy Coalition. She is active in her church, Fauntleroy Church UCC in West Seattle, where she currently serves on the Church Council, Outreach Ministry Board, and Green Congregation Committee. - Saturday evening session -
Odile Blanchard is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Grenoble, France. She currently teaches Environmental Economics as a visiting professor at Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon. Blanchard has coordinated an on-going climate friendly initiative at the University of Grenoble for almost four years with students, faculty, and staff. The initiative includes inventorying energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, auditing and upgrading buildings for energy efficiency, and raising awareness about climate change. Blanchard holds a PhD in economics from the University of Grenoble. Her research focuses on economic issues relating to international climate change negotiations. - Sunday afternoon session -
Branden Born is an Assistant Professor of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington and has spent time in Cuba. His doctoral work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison examined the ability of collaborative planning models to effect socially just planning projects. His current research interests include planning process and social justice, particularly with regard to the inclusion of marginalized populations in societal decision-making; land use planning and regionalism; and urban food systems planning and policy. He is working with faculty from Western Washington University and the University of British Columbia on a regional planning initiative called GreenHeart that focuses on smart land use, quality of life, and efficient governance for the region bounded by Seattle, Vancouver, British Columbia, Puget Sound, and the Cascades. - Saturday morning session -
Adrienne Bramhall is Executive Producer for Sierra Club Productions, the television and film division of the Sierra Club, and is On the Brink’s Executive Producer. SCP develops literary projects as well as true stories, commissions original concepts, and partners with production companies to co-produce and co-market projects. SCP’s goal is to connect films with grassroots outreach campaigns to help engage audiences. - Sunday workshop -
A zoologist whose work for the past 30 years has focused on writing and lecturing on the environment, Peter Bunyard has received Master’s Degrees from Cambridge and Harvard. He helped found and currently serves as science editor of The Ecologist and helped launch the Industry and Environment Review of the United Nations Environment Programme in Paris. He is the author of The Breakdown of Climate: Human Choices or Global Disaster, co-author of Imperiled Planet: The Politics of Self-Sufficiency, editor and author of The Green Alternative Guide to Good Living and Health Guide for the Nuclear Age, and editor of Gaia in Action: A Science of the Living Earth. At the request of the Indigenous Affairs Department of Colombia, he also carried out research into the impact of the 1992 Constitution on the affairs and responsibilities of indigenous communities in the Colombian Amazon. Peter is currently lecturing in Colombia on the relationship between the Amazon and climate. His latest book, Extreme Weather, was published in October, 2006 (Floris Books). - Friday evening session -
Eric Cheney is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington. His major interests in teaching and research for more than four decades have been (1) the geology and societal relevance of mineral and fuel resources and (2) the regional geology of the Pacific Northwest and of South Africa. He posits that due to science, technology, and economics, instead of a Hubbert-like “peak”, world oil (natural and manufactured) will plateau, which could be societally disruptive. He is a past President of the Northwest Geological Society, which he encourages all amateur and professional geologists to join. - Saturday morning session -
Sweet Crude director Sandy Cioffi is a Seattle-based film and video artist. She has produced and/or directed several films, including the critically acclaimed Crocodile Tears, Terminal 187 and Just Us. She has worked with human rights organizations, using video as a documentation and verification tool - specifically providing video evidence during the 1998 Marching Season in Northern Ireland. She documented the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride in 2003. She has worked with young people extensively as an artist in residence and through the mentor/apprentice film program at the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center. Sandy has created media design for live performance at the Annex Theater, Hugo House, The Seattle Repertory Theater and On the Boards. Sweet Crude, her documentary about the Niger Delta, is due to be completed in the spring of 2007. She is a tenured professor at Seattle Central Community College in the Film and Video Communications Department. - Saturday afternoon session and Saturday workshop -
John de Graaf has worked with KCTS-TV, the Seattle PBS affiliate, for 24 years, as an independent producer of television documentaries, with a special focus on the environment. More than 15 of his programs have been broadcast in Prime Time nationally on PBS. He is also the recipient of more than 100 regional, national, and international awards for filmmaking. He produced the popular PBS specials Running Out of Time, an examination of overwork and time pressure in America, and Affluenza, a humorous critique of American consumerism. He directed and wrote Buyer Be Fair: The Promise of Product Certification. John was the first recipient of the de Graaf Environmental Filmmaking Award, now presented annually in his name at the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival in Nevada City, California, and is a co-founder of the Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival. - Sunday workshop -
Wendy Gardner has spent 12 years working as a zoo keeper in Colorado, Montana, Georgia, and Washington working with primates, canines, felines, and ursids. She also worked as a volunteer with an Andean bear researcher in Venezuela. Working with Andean bears, Asiatic black bears, brown bears, American black bears, and giant pandas has enabled Wendy to compare and contrast the various bear species. Wendy has acted as the Bear TAG institutional representative and collaborated with Chinese colleagues on giant panda husbandry and operant conditioning. She has several giant panda articles in publication. Bear conservation, education, and outreach are extremely important parts of her work and what she is most passionate about. Wendy is currently a keeper at Woodland Park Zoo. - Thursday evening at the zoo -
K.C. Golden is Policy Director for Climate Solutions and Director of the NW Climate Connections program. Climate Solutions accelerates the development of practical, profitable solutions to global warming. From 1999 to 2002, KC was a special assistant to the Mayor of Seattle. In that capacity he helped to engineer Seattle City Light’s commitment to become the nation’s first climate neutral electric power utility and the City’s commitment to exceed the goals of the Kyoto protocol. In the late 90s, K.C. was Energy Policy Director for the State of Washington. From 1989 to 1995, he was Executive Director of the Northwest Energy Coalition. K.C. serves on numerous board and commissions, including the Executive Board of Energy Northwest. K.C. received a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where he was a Kennedy Fellow. He writes a monthly column, worships rivers, and lives in Seattle with his wife and 2 teenagers. - Saturday evening session -
Suzanne Harle is the Founder and Executive Director of Green Planet Films, a non-profit distributor of nature and environmental DVDs from around the globe. Green Planet Films mission is promoting environmental education through film. We seek to preserve and protect our planet by collecting and distributing documentaries which can be used to educate the public about the science, beauty, and fragility of the natural world. Our goal is to continuously expand a web-based DVD library and provide a channel that connects these films and the producers who made them to schools, organizations, businesses, and individuals worldwide. - Sunday distribution workshop -
Ann Hedreen is a filmmaker and writer specializing in social and environmental issues. Her career has spanned TV news and documentary production, radio and print journalism and a wide range of public affairs assignments, ranging from working with Resource Media as a media advisor to environmental groups to two years with the Seattle Art Museum. Her long list of awards includes three Emmys and a Telly. She is also a writer of fiction and essays. Ann is a graduate of Wellesley College. She began her career at City News Bureau of Chicago and United Press International. She is a member of Women in Film Seattle. - Saturday lunch session -
Doug Howell has worked on public policy issues for over 20 years, most of which has been focused on climate change. He currently is a Special Projects Manager for Department of Natural Resources and Parks in the King County government in Seattle, Washington. In that capacity he manages the Air Quality and Climate Initiative for the County. Previously he was a strategic advisor for Seattle City Light and managed the Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Program for the electric utility. In addition, Doug was an attorney with the Environmental and Energy Study Institute in Washington DC, working on federal transportation and climate change policy. He also has worked for the California Energy Commission and the U.S. Senate. - Sunday afternoon session -
Renée Klosterman has been involved in film, video, and multimedia for over twenty-five years and was honored with an Emmy Nomination for the project “Journey to the Healing Circle.” She is now committing her work to projects that illuminate social and environmental justice for indigenous nations and their people. A recent graduate of the Evergreen State College Master’s program in Tribal Governance, Renée is a co-author of “Climate Change and Pacific Rim Indigenous Nations: A Report to the Leadership of Indigenous Nations,” published through the Northwest Indian Applied Research Institute (NWIARI) at the Evergreen State College. She is a producer for Northwest Indian News. - Saturday afternoon session -
Michael Lazarus is a Senior Scientist with the Stockholm Environment Institute and directs the Seattle office of SEI-US. His research focuses on energy and international climate change policy and on state and local energy and climate change initiatives within the US. - Sunday afternoon session -
Michael McGinn, the founder of the Seattle Great City Initiative, has experience as a lawyer, an environmental advocate, and as a neighborhood leader. He has been frequently selected to represent neighborhood and environmental concerns on City of Seattle advisory boards and commissions. - Sunday afternoon session (moderator) -
Chris Morgan has worked over the last 15 years as a wildlife researcher and educator on every continent where bears exist. From icy polar bear country at 81° North to tropical Andean bear forests sitting on the equator, Chris has sought adventure among the focus animals of his life – the bears of the world. His passion for wild areas, bears, and people resulted in the evolution of BEARTREK – a film through which Chris hopes to share the magic of wilderness, culture, and the human spirit. He will be describing the plan for this epic undertaking, including some little known facts about our own local population of grizzly bears here in the North Cascades. See www.insightwildlife.com and www.BEARTREK.org. - Thursday evening special presentation -
Robert Nelson is a co-organizer of Seattle Peak Oil Awareness, a citizens action group focused on confronting the consequences of oil depletion in a reality-based, non-partisan atmosphere. Robert has been with the group since the summer of 2005 after becoming aware of the peak oil theory in 2003. The group meets monthly to talk about issues ranging from oil depletion to finance, from geopolitics to local living, from organic gardening to energy industry modeling, from trends in human history to local solutions for the present. - Saturday morning session -
David Roberts is Grist’s staff writer. He was raised in the South, but after a revelatory summer working in Yellowstone National Park, he moved out West. After way too many years in Montana pursuing graduate degrees in philosophy (no, really), he was lured out of the academy by the siren song of the heralded internet “boom” — about six months too late. He was sinking ever further into the Seattle swamp of tech work, having already hit Amazon.com, IMDb.com, and Microsoft, when the fine folks at Grist threw him a life preserver in December 2003. (Total profits from stock options: $57. Meaningful work: priceless.) He now spends his free time playing in his new house with his new sons and his not-so-new but still-wonderful wife. He loves them, loves Seattle, loves Grist, and still, despite himself, loves the internet. - Saturday evening session -
Sean Schmidt (a.k.a. “Sustainable Sean”) is a sustainability advocate based in Seattle, Washington. With a strong background in science and business, Sean understands the pressing social and environmental challenges facing our world, but believes efforts to address these challenges must be forward-thinking and positive. Sean’s unique ability to make sustainability “fun, positive, cheap, and easy” has helped people from all walks of life make more sustainable personal lifestyle choices. Sean co-founded the Sustainable Style Foundation in 2003 and now leads an interdepartmental Sustainability and Medicine committee at UW Medical Center. Sean’s latest project, The Smart Set, works to increase interest, literacy, and involvement in science, design, and culture. - Saturday evening session -
Joe Scott is International Programs Director for Conservation Northwest. In that role his main focus is a collaborative campaign with Canadian and US conservation groups to protect the globally unique Inland Temperate Rainforest and its poster child, the highly endangered mountain caribou. Joe also heads up CNW’s endangered species and carnivore programs, focused predominantly on recovering grizzly bears in the North Cascades. Conservation Northwest, based in Bellingham, WA, protects and connects old-growth forests and other wild areas from the Washington Coast to the BC Rockies. - Thursday evening special presentation -
Jim Scrivano is the Director of Acquisitions and Sales for the Video Project. The Video Project provides educational videos on the environment, science, and social studies. It distributes over ten thousand programs every year to a diverse and growing network that includes thousands of schools, colleges, community groups, public libraries, churches, businesses, government agencies and individuals. - Sunday distribution workshop -
Jill Simmons is the Climate Protection Program Manager for the City of Seattle. Prior to focusing on climate, Jill served as a fiscal and policy analyst in the Department of Finance, working primarily on the City’s Environmental Action Agenda. Jill has worked with the Washington State Transportation Center on transportation and land use planning, and she spent three years at the Northwest Area Foundation working on community development initiatives. Jill is a graduate of the University of Washington School of Law, and holds a Masters from the Evans School of Public Affairs. - Sunday afternoon session -
Amy K. Snover is a research scientist with the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group. Dr. Snover performs integrated assessment of the impacts of both natural climate variability and future human-caused climate change on the natural and human systems of the Pacific Northwest. Dr. Snover received a BA in Chemistry from Carleton College in 1990 and a PhD in Analytical/Environmental Chemistry from the UW in 1998. She is currently editing a book, Rhythms of Change: Climate Impacts on the Pacific Northwest and is collaborating with King County to write a guidebook for local governments for preparing for climate change. - Friday evening session -
Rustin Thompson is an independent director, writer, editor, and director of photography. He has more than 20 years of broadcast experience as a cameraman, producer and editor with CBS, PBS, ABC, NBC, ESPN, CNN, the Learning Channel and several local stations. Rustin has shot and co-produced documentaries in locations ranging from Haiti to Bangladesh to Moscow to Central America and has won nine Emmys and a host of other awards for his work. Rus also writes occasionally for MovieMaker magazine, and is an on-air programmer for KBCS radio. He graduated from the University of Washington. - Saturday lunch session -
Chris Vondrasek is an artist, furniture maker, and small woodworking contractor. He also works as independent radio producer with KBCS, and has aired stories on a range of environmental, education, food security, transportation, as well as peace and justice topics. He has been active in forest protection work, anti-nuclear organizing, renovating housing for Native American elders, efforts to reform globalization, as well as media reform. - Saturday morning session (moderator) -
