Keynotes

Confirmed Keynote Speakers

NEW! Sunday Evening Welcoming Address-Maggie Fox

Sunday Night- Ed Begley, Jr.
Monday Morning- Julian Agyeman
Awards Ceremony, Monday Evening- Sylvia Earle and Mary Evelyn Tucker
Tuesday Morning- Dr. Jose Zaglul

Sunday Student Summit Keynote, Gretchen Bleiler

Maggie Fox

Maggie is currently the President and CEO for the Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 2006 by Vice President and Nobel laureate Al Gore, who currently serves as the chairman of the board of directors.

Maggie is past National President of America Votes, a progressive coalition of over 40 organizations spearheading the largest voter mobilization and education effort in the nation. America Votes and its national partner organizations worked in 12 targeted states in 2006 to raise awareness and to engage and mobilize voters on a broad range of issues including the economy, health care, the environment, and education. America Votes leads the coordinated GOTV efforts of all of the nation’s leading progressive organizations.

Previously, Maggie served as the Deputy Executive Director of the Sierra Club, the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots environmental advocacy organization. With many years of federal and state policy and electoral experience, Maggie provided strategic oversight and leadership to the Sierra Club, one of the nation’s most respected and effective institutions, according to the Aspen Institute. Maggie oversaw the start of the Sierra Club’s decadal strategic shift to focus primarily on building environmental community, and led numerous federal, state and regional policy efforts on climate change, energy policy, western public lands and water, Native American natural resource issues and agricultural reform in her 20 years with the Sierra Club.

Most recently, Maggie has consulted with a number of organizations on their energy and climate campaigns including the Energy Future Coalition, Western Resource Advocates, and the Ocean Conservancy.

Maggie began her career as a teacher and community organizer on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations of Arizona and New Mexico and worked for the Colorado, North Carolina and Northwest Outward Bound Schools for over a decade. She earned her B.A. from the University of North Carolina, a Masters in Education from the University of Colorado, and a J.D. with an emphasis in Environmental Law and Native America Natural Resources Law from Northwestern School of Law.  Maggie lives in Eldorado Canyon, Colorado with her husband and two children.

Ed Begley, Jr.

Sunday Evening, October 10, 2010

When it comes to taking personal responsibility for the environment, few individuals in Hollywood can match the 40-year record of actor and activist Ed Begley, Jr..  Begley has served as chairman of the Environmental Media Association and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and on the boards of organizations including the Thoreau Institute, the Earth Communications Office, Tree People and Friends of the Earth. His work has earned both praise and awards from numerous environmental groups including the California League of Conservation Voters, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Coalition for Clean Air, Heal the Bay, the Santa Monica Baykeeper, the Southern California Gas Company and the American Lung Association. Currently, he is the co-star of the hit Planet Green series Living with Ed, a look at the day-to-day realities of “living green” with his not so environmentalist wife Rachelle Carson.

Inspired by the works of his Academy Award-winning father, Begley became an actor. He first came to audiences’ attention for his portrayal of Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the long-running hit television series St. Elsewhere, for which he received six Emmy nominations. Since then, Begley has moved easily between feature films, television and theatre projects. Begley has appeared in A Mighty Wind, the follow-up to the American Comedy Award-winning film Best In Show starring Christopher Guest, Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy. He can also be seen in the most recent Christopher Guest film For Your Consideration. On television, Begley has had recurring roles on Six Feet Under and Arrested Development. He has also guest starred on such series as The West Wing and The Practice,

Begley lives in Studio City, CA in a small, energy efficient home with his wife and co-star Rachelle Carson and their daughter Hayden.
 

Julian Agyeman

Monday Morning, October 11, 2010

Julian Agyeman is Professor, and Chair of the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University, Boston-Medford, MA.

He is co-founder, and co-editor of the international journal 'Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability'. With

over 140 publications, his books include 'Local Environmental Policies and Strategies' (Longman 1994), ‘Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World' (MIT Press 2003), 'Sustainable Communities and the Challenge of Environmental Justice' (NYU Press 2005), Speaking for Ourselves.Environmental Justice in Canada (The University of British Columbia Press 2009) and 'Environmental Justice and Sustainability in the Former Soviet Union' (MIT Press 2009).

Professor Agyeman is a Fellow of the UK Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA), a member of the Board of the Center for Whole Communities in Vermont and is on the Editorial Boards of Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture, Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, The Journal of Environmental Education, and the Australian Journal of Environmental Education.

Awards Banquet Keynote Speakers

Monday Evening, October 11, 2010

On the same stage for one evening, a stimulating conversation with Dr. Sylvia Earle and Mary Evelyn Tucker .  Both speakers will present their unique perspectives individually, followed by a joint dialogue and discussion moderated by Unity College President and AASHE Board member, Mitchell Thomashow.

Dr. Sylvia Earle

Environmental Advocate, Oceanographer, and TED Prize Winner

Called "Her Deepness" by The New Yorker and The New York Times, and the "Carl Sagan of our Oceans" by USA Today, Dr. Sylvia Earle is a marine biologist, author, lecturer, scientific consultant, the co-founder and director of Deep Ocean Engineering, Inc., and the president of Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, Inc. Earle's impressive list of accomplishments is enhanced by her genuine love for the ocean, exploration, and science in general. She is the most important and active advocate for the research and protection of one of our most precious and largely unexplored frontiers--our seas. Formerly the chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earle is an explorer-in-residence at National Geographic. She also serves as the first female honorary president of The Explorer's Club.

Earle made her first dive in 1952 at the age of 16, in the Weekiwatchee River in Florida. She wore a borrowed copper diving helmet and breathed air pumped through a hose by a compressor. Twelve years later, when Earle was preparing for her doctorate in marine botany at Duke University, she was invited to join a six-week expedition aboard Harry Truman's old presidential yacht. She was the only woman among 70 men and quickly learned the necessity and power of self-sufficiency and a good sense of humor. Six years later, she found herself part of a group of five women unexpectedly allowed to participate in the NASA aquanaut program called Tektite II. The two weeks Earle spent in the 50-foot deep underwater habitat changed her view of the ocean forever, and further inspired her to "go deeper." In 1985, she made a daring solo descent to 3,000 feet in the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of San Diego. Earle still holds the record for the deepest untethered solo dive, and has led more than 50 expeditions worldwide involving an excess of 6000 hours underwater.

Recognized by the Library of Congress as a "Living Legend" and inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, she is the author of more than 100 publications concerning marine science and technology, including the books, Sea Change (1995) and Wild Ocean (1999). She has participated in numerous television productions and given scientific, technical, and general interest lectures in more than 60 countries. Her books for children include Hello Fish; Sea Critters; and Dive!, a winner of five awards for excellence.

Most recently, Earle became the face of Google Oceans, Google’s downloadable, interactive guide to the deepest depths of the sea. With vivid imagery and the ability to go back in time to see the evolution of 75% of the Earth’s surface, Google Oceans is visually astonishing and an incredible guide to the history of our planet.  She is also the winner of the prestigious 2009 TED Award (Technology, Entertainment, Design), which is an “annual conference bringing together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers who are challenged to give the talk of their lives” in the mission of spreading innovative ideas to the global community.

Her company, Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, continues to design advanced systems for submersibles, ultimately making the diving machines more accessible to the public. "With knowing comes caring," says Earle, "and with caring there is the hope that we will find a place for ourselves within the natural systems that sustain us."
 

Mary Evelyn Tucker

Mary Evelyn Tucker is a Senior Lecturer and Senior Scholar at Yale University where she has appointments in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies as well as the Divinity School and the Department of Religious Studies. She is a co-founder and codirector with John Grim of the Forum on Religion and Ecology. Together they organized a series of ten conferences on World Religions and Ecology at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. They are series editors for the ten volumes from the conferences distributed by Harvard University Press. She is also Research Associate at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard. She is the author of Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase (Open Court Press, 2003), Moral and Spiritual Cultivation in Japanese Neo-Confucianism (SUNY, 1989) and The Philosophy of Qi.(Columbia University Press, 2007).

She co-edited Worldviews and Ecology (Orbis, 1994), Buddhism and Ecology (Harvard, 1997), Confucianism and Ecology (Harvard, 1998), and Hinduism and Ecology (Harvard, 2000) and When Worlds Converge (Open Court, 2002). With Tu Weiming she edited two volumes on Confucian Spirituality (Crossroad, 2004). She also co-edited a Daedalus volume titled Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change? (2001). She edited several of Thomas Berry's books: Evening Thoughts (Sierra Club Books and University of California Press, 2006), The Sacred Universe (Columbia University Press, 2009), Christian Future and the Fate of Earth (Orbis Book, 2009). She is a member of the Interfaith Partnership for the Environment at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

She served on the International Earth Charter Drafting Committee from 1997-2000 and is a member of the Earth Charter International Council. B.A. Trinity College, M.A. SUNY Fredonia, M.A. Fordham University, PhD Columbia University.
 

Dr. Jose Zaglul

Tuesday Morning, October 12, 2010

José A. Zaglul is the President of EARTH University, an international, private, not-for-profit institution in Costa Rica, dedicated to preparing leaders with ethical values to contribute to the sustainable development of the tropics and to construct a prosperous and just society. Dr. Zaglul has been President of EARTH University since its inception in 1989 and has provided the vision and leadership for this innovative institution and its unique educational environment that encourages the development of responsible leadership based on values, social commitment, environmental consciousness, academic excellence and an entrepreneurial and enterprising spirit.

Born and raised in Costa Rica to parents of Lebanese descent, Dr. Zaglul obtained his B.S. in Agricultural Economics and M.S. in Animal Science from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. He later received a second M.S. in Food Science and Human Nutrition and a PhD in Meat and Muscle Biology from the University of Florida. Prior to serving as EARTH University’s President, Dr. Zaglul was Head of the Animal Production Department at the Centro Agrícola Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) in Costa Rica, an international center for tropical research and the oldest postgraduate school of agriculture in Latin America. From 1981 to 1985, Dr. Zaglul was a Food Science professor and later Vice President of Research and Extension of the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (ITCR).

Dr. Zaglul is the former President (2005-2007) and a current Executive Committee member of the Global Consortium of Higher Education and Research for Agriculture (GCHERA) and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the American University of Beirut and the Board of Directors of Citizens in Solidarity. He served as the co-chair of the five-year SEMCIT international seminar series (Sustainability, Education and the Management of Change in the Tropics) and travels extensively around the world to present EARTH University’s innovative educational model and raise funds for the institution. He speaks Spanish, English and Arabic fluently.

Student Summit Keynote Speaker

Gretchen Bleiler, Olympian

Sunday Afternoon, October 10, 2010

Gretchen Bleiler is one of the most accomplished female snowboarders in the world. As a top to her incredible list of medals and contest wins, Gretchen won the silver medal in Women’s Halfpipe at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy. During the 2007-08 season, Gretchen competed in contests with the US Snowboarding Team, winning the Abominable Snow Jam, The Breckenridge Grand Prix and the 2008 Winter X Games. In early 2010, she returned to compete in her 2nd Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, holding one of the four female spots on the US Olympic Snowboard Team.

Gretchen aspired to compete in the Olympic Games from a very young age and found her passion in snowboarding at age 11 in the mountains of Colorado. As an active spokesperson in the fight against global warming, she works closely with stopglobalwarming.org to build awareness around climate change. Her environmental awareness extends into her eco friendly outerwear line with Oakley, and new K2 EcoPop Snowboard, driving the snowsport industry toward a sustainable vision. She is now recognized as a role model, pioneer and advocate both for her sport and for raising awareness around climate change issues.