Bioneers Conference Schedule
Our second annual Prairie Fire Bioneers Conference on October 26-28, 2012 features renowned speakers Julia Butterfly Hill, Paul Hawken, Carol Jenkins, Bill McKibben, Sandra Steingraber, and more.
Keynote Speaker
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Julia Butterfly Hill Julia is an environmentalist and activist who lived in a redwood tree for 738 days to promote awareness of the plight of ancient forests. She worked to permanently protect the 1,000-year-old tree and a buffer zone with the help of steelworkers and environmentalists. Julia is the author of The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods. |
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Plenary Speakers
| Note: The plenary speakers will present at the National Bioneers Conference in California the week prior to the Prairie Fire Bioneers Conference. Their presentations (more info in italics below) will be rebroadcast for our audience on a large theatre screen. | ||
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Gabor Maté, MD Gabor is a celebrated Canadian doctor who specializes in the study and treatment of addiction and Attention Deficit Disorder. He will draw crucial connections among the health of the mind, body, and human communities. His landmark book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts explores how our childhood experiences can program neurological and psychological mechanisms that can lead to addiction, abuse, ADHD, and other disorders.  Toxic Culture: How Materialistic Society Makes Us Ill |
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Gretchen Daily, Ph.D. Gretchen is an internationally renowned, award-winning pioneer in creating new approaches to harmonizing conservation and development. She also is the Bing Professor of Environmental Science at Stanford University. Gretchen co-founded The Natural Capital Project, an international partnership to improve the well-being of people and the environment by mainstreaming the values of nature into major resource decisions. Harmonizing People and Nature: A New Business Model |
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Rev. Fletcher Harper Fletcher is an Episcopal priest and the executive director of GreenFaith, an interfaith environmental coalition. He also is an award-winning writer and nationally recognized preacher. Fletcher will describe GreenFaith's Certification Program -- a transformative 2-year process where houses of worship become centers of environmental spirituality, stewardship, and justice. Greening our Faiths: From Belief into Action for the Environment and Environmental Justice |
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Nikki Henderson Nikki is the executive director of People's Grocery in Oakland, California, and an award-winning activist in the food and social justice fields. In 2009, she co-founded Live Real, a national collaboration of youth food movement organizations. Previously she worked with Van Jones and Phaedra Ellis Lamkins at Green for All and Slow Food USA in Brooklyn, New York. Flavas of a Whole Community: Ingredients for Food Access in Historically Under-Invested Communities |
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Marina Silva Marina was one of 11 children in a small, poor community of rubber tappers in the Amazon region of Acre, Brazil. She made her way through college, became a political leader, created Acre's first workers' union, worked with the legendary Chico Mendes to fight deforestation, and became the youngest senator in Brazil's history. Marina eventually became Brazil's environment minister under President Lula. The Challenge of Sustainable Development: New Models |
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Carol Jenkins Carol is an Emmy-winning former television journalist who hosted her own talk show in New York City for many years. She's a sought-after speaker and writer on issues relating to the media, specifically the participation of women and people of color, women's participation in the political and economic structures in the U.S., and the health of women in developing countries, particularly Africa. The Public Square is Empty (Aside from the Occasional Hanging) |
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Ai-jen Poo Ai-jen is the director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and has been organizing immigrant women workers since 1996. She helped start Domestic Workers United (DWU), a New York-based organization that spearheaded the passage of the state's historic Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Ai-jen serves on several boards, including Working America and the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. A Caring, Sustainable Economy for the 21st Century |
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Bill McKibben Bill is a journalist, activist, and author who co-founded 350.org with a handful of student activists and helped make it an exciting, effective global citizen movement to address climate change. He will discuss the group's campaigns, including stopping the Keystone XL pipeline for the most climate-wrecking "dirty" oil from Canada's Tar Sands. He is also the author of 12 books about the environment, including The End of Nature. The Climate Fight Gets Hotter |
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Michael Brune Michael has been the executive director of the Sierra Club since 2010 and previously was the executive director of the Rainforest Action Network. Under his leadership, the Network won more than a dozen key environmental commitments from America's largest corporations, including Home Depot, Citi, Bank of America, and Lowe's. He is the author of Coming Clean: Breaking America's Addiction to Oil and Coal. emPOWERed: Activist Successes Against Big Coal |
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Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. Sandra is a biologist, author, and 2011 recipient of a Heinz Award for her research and writing on environmental health. She donated the $100,000 cash prize to the fight against hydraulic fracturing, convening a grassroots coalition, New Yorkers Against Fracking. In 2010, her book on the environmental links to cancer, Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and Environment, was released as a documentary film. The Whole Fracking Enchilada |
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Greg Sarris, Ph.D. Greg is currently a professor of creative writing and literature at Loyola Marymount University. He also is the tribal chairman of the Federated Indians of the Graton Rancheria, which he successfully worked to establish as a federally recognized American Indian nation. Greg is a noted writer whose novel Grand Avenue was made into an HBO miniseries, which he wrote and produced with Robert Redford. The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria: Making Home Once Again |
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Paul Hawken Paul is a world-renowned environmentalist, entrepreneur, activist, journalist, and author whose work has included starting ecological businesses, writing about the impact of commerce on living systems, and consulting with heads of state and CEOs on economic development, industrial ecology, and environmental policy. He is the author/co-author of seven globally influential books, including The Next Economy and The Ecology of Commerce. Regeneration |
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