2017 Earth Optimism Summit

Octavio Aburto – Scripps Institution of Oceanography; International League of Conservation Photographers

Brad Ack – World Wildlife Fund

Yao Afantchao – University of DC

Beth Allgood – US Country Director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare

Hon. Sydney Allicock – Honorable Minister of Indigenous Peoples Affairs, Guyana

Teddy Ammon – Teens Dream Co-creator and Teen Adviser to the Global Colab Network

Ross Andersen – Senior Editor at The Atlantic

Allison Archambault – EarthSpark International

Nygiel Armada – Chief of Party of the Ecosystems Improved for Sustainable Fisheries (ECOFISH) Project

David Auerbach – Sanergy

Kara Ball – ecoAmerica

Leah Barclay – Australian Forum for Acoustic Ecology

John Beardsley – Director of Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks

Timothy Beatley – Founder and Director, Biophilic Cities

Philippe Benoit – Global Infrastructure Advisory Services 2050

Joel Berger – Senior Scientist at Wildlife Conservation Society

Dr. Birute – Robot Orangutan, Spy for Nature

Omaira Bolaños – Director, Latin America Program, Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI)

Latif Boru – Member of Norther Rangelands Trust

Mark Bouman – Chicago Region Program Director in the Keller Science Action Center of the Division of Science and Education at The Field Museum

Muriel Bowser – Mayor of Washington DC

Steve Box – Tracking artisanal fishing, Rare

Paul Bunje – Chief Scientist at XPRIZE Foundation

Rhett Butler – Founder & CEO, Mongabay

Tom Butler – Vice President of the Tompkins Conservation Family of Foundations; President, Northeast Wilderness Trust

Nora Bynum – Rowe Family Director, Keller Science Action Center at The Field Museum

Rachel Bynum – Co-owner/Manager, Waterpenny Farm

Qing Cao – Princeton University

Felipe Carazo – Executive Director, Fundecor

Alison Carlson – Founder and President, Forsythia Foundation

Kerry Cesareo – VP, Forests, WWF

Ann Mei Chang – Former Chief Innovation Officer, USAID

Kate Christen – Training Manager, Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation (SMSC), Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI)

Jamie Rappaport Clark – President & CEO, Defenders of Wildlife

Jacqueline Claudia – CEO & Co-founder, LoveTheWild

Leslie Cockburn – Writer, Producer, Filmmaker

Edwin (Todd) Cowen – Kathy Dwyer Marble and Curt Marble Faculty Director of Energy at the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future at Cornell University

David Crane – Senior Operating Executive, Pegasus Capital Advisors

Trammell S. Crow – Founder of Earth Day Texas; President of the Crow Family Foundation

Gretchen Daily – Stanford; Co-Director, The Natural Capital Project; Winner, Cosmos Prize

Crystal Davis – Director of Global Forest Watch

Alex Dehgan – CEO & Co-Founder, Conservation X Labs

Kelley Dennings – President of the Social Marketing Association of North America

Brandon Dennison – Exec. Director, Coalfield Development Corp.

Matthew Dillon – Director of Agricultural Policy and Programs, Clif Bar & Company

Eric Dinerstein – Director, WildTech

Bill Drayton – Founder & CEO, Ashoka: Innovators for the Public

Johanan Dujon – President, Algas Organics

Amtchat Edwards – US Forest Service

Paula Ehrlich – President & CEO, E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation

Kelsey Evezich – Conservation Technology Project Lead, Duke University

Peter Fearnhead – CEO African Parks

David Festa – Senior Vice President, Environmental Defense Fund

Carolyn Finney – Professor and Author, Black Faces, White Spaces

Murray Fisher – President, New York Harbor Foundation; Billion Oyster Project

Shonda Gilliland Foster – Program Director, David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship

Melissa Garren – Chief Scientific Officer, Pelagic Data Systems

Sean Gerrity – CEO American Prairie Reserve and National Geographic Explorer

Johnny Gibbons – Smithsonian

Kristin Gilliss – Mulago Foundation

Kathleen Gobush – Senior Program Officer and Wildlife Biologist, Vulcan

Barry Gold – Environment Program Director, Walton Family Foundation

Ron Gonen – CEO and Co-founder, Closed Loop Fund

Brian Gratwicke – Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

Tremaine Gregory – Conservation Biologist, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson – Former President of Iceland

David Grinspoon – Astrobiologist and Author of The Earth in Human Hands

Rachel Gross – Digital Science Editor, Smithsonian Magazine

Alexis Gutierrez – NOAA

Jeanne Haffner – Dumbarton Oaks

Mary Hagedorn – Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

Jefferson Hall – Director, Agua Salud Project, Staff Scientist Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Alasdair Harris – Executive Director of Blue Ventures

Autumn-Lynn Harrison – Research Ecologist, Migratory Bird Center, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

Drew Harvell – Ocean Health Expert at Cornell University; Author of A Sea of Glass

Denis Hayes – Founder, Earth Day Network; CEO, Bullitt Foundation

Leela Hazzah – CNN Hero; Co-Founder of Lion Guardians

Michael Healy – CEO, New Columbia Solar

Laura Helmuth – Editor for Health, Science, and Environment, The Washington Post

Ginette Hemley – Senior Vice President, WWF

Pamela Henson – Historian, Smithsonian Archives

Davida Herzl – CEO & Founder, Aclima

Oran Hesterman – President and CEO of Fair Food Network

Nigella Hillgarth – New England Aquarium

Anson “Tuck” Hines – Director, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

John Hoffman – Discovery Channel

Kali Holder – Morris Animal Foundation Global Health Fellow with Smithsonian’s Global Health Program

Jeff Holland – Riverkeeper, West and Rhode Rivers

Marshall Iliff – eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Bob Irvin – President & CEO, American Rivers

Naoko Ishii – CEO and Chairperson for the Global Environment Facility (GEF)

Jeremy Jackson – Senior Scientist, Smithsonian

Jenna Jambeck – Creator of Marine Debris Tracker; College of Engineering at the University of Georgia (UGA)

Dan Janzen – Co-founder, Area de Conservacion Guanacaste

Nilanga Jayasinghe – Senior Program Officer – Asian Species, World Wildlife Fund

JAYO – Rap Artist and Ambassador, Teens Dream

Brett Jenks – CEO of Rare

Amy Johnson – Smithsonian

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson – Founder and CEO, Ocean Collective

Kirk Johnson – Sant Director, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian

Philip Karp – Lead Knowledge Management Specialist at the World Bank

John Kasaona – Poachers as Protectors, Namibia Integrated Rural Development & Nature Conservancies

Kef Kasdin – Board Chair, Rachel’s Network; founding General Partner of Battelle Ventures

Laure Katz – Senior Director, Connected Oceans Program, Conservation International

Roland Kays – North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and NC State University

Dennis Kelly – Director, Smithsonian National Zoo

Elin Kelsey – Co-Creator of #OceanOptimism; Author of We Are Stardust

Anastasia Khoo – Chief Marketing Officer for Conservation International

Jeff Kirschner – Founder of Litterati; TED resident

David Kline – Coral Reef Ecologist, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Gary E. Knell – President and CEO of the National Geographic Society

Nancy Knowlton – Sant Chair of Marine Science, Smithsonian

John Kress – Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Gary Krupnick – Research Scientist, Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History

Robert Kunzig – Senior Environment Editor at National Geographic Magazine

Bill Kurtis – Host, producer, news anchor; Voice of Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me; Founder of Tallgrass Beef Company

Matthew C. Larsen – Director, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Michelle LaRue – Research Ecologist and Public Speaker at the University of Minnesota,

Frederic Launay – Mohamed Bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund

William Laurance – Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate at James Cook University in Cairns

Allison Leidner – Senior Support Scientist, NASA Earth Science Division/ Arctic Slope Technical Services

Peter Leimgruber – Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

Elaine Leslie – National Park Service

Jonathan Lilley – National Education Coordinator for the National Sea Grant College Program

Maya Lin – Artist and Environmentalist, Founder, What is Missing? and GREENPRINT

David Lodge – Director, Cornell’s Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future

Jessica Long – Managing Director, Accenture

Thomas Lovejoy – University Professor George Mason University and Senior Fellow United Nations Foundation

Jayde Lovell – Host of SciQ, Young Turks Network

Jane Lubchenco – Oregon State University, Former Under Secretary of Commerce for NOAA

Mike Mace – Curator of Birds, San Diego Zoo Safari Park

Krishna Makineni – Graduate Student, Conservation Science and Public Policy Program, George Mason University

Kurt Mann – Executive Producer for the NOAA/Smithsonian Ocean Today Program

Paul Marinari – Senior Curator, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

Pete Marra – Center Head, Migratory Bird Center, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

Barbara Martinez – Open Innovation Director for Conservation X Labs

Javier Mateo-Vega – Research Fellow, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

William McDonough – Founder of William McDonough + Partners, Architects

Melanie McField – Director, Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative, Smithsonian Institution

Kevin McGovern – Chairman and CEO, McGovern Capital & The Water Initiative

Winsome McIntosh – President of The McIntosh Foundation

Douglas McKenzie-Mohr – Science of community-based social marketing

Paul McMahon – Managing Partner, SLM Partners

John McMurdy – Director of Emerging Markets, CropLife International

Bill McShea – eMammal, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

Chris Miller – President, The Piedmont Environmental Council

Eric Miller – Executive Director, Saint Louis Zoo’s WildCare Institute

Gregory Miller – President & CEO, NatureServe

James Miller – Conserving plants for people, Missouri Botanical Garden

Ben Mirin – Wildlife DJ

Tom Mitchell – Cambridge Associates

Steven Monfort – John and Adrienne Mars Director, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute; Deputy Director, Smithsonian’s National Zoo

Margarita Mora – Conservation Stewards Program at Conservation International

Jeff Moyer – Executive Director, Rodale Institute

Jennifer Nagashima – Smithsonian Institution Postdoctoral Fellow

Fred Nelson – Founder and Executive Director of Maliasili Initiatives

Zoe Nyssa – Cultural Anthropologist

Margaret O’Gorman – President, Wildlife Habitat Council

Joanna Ogburn – Consultant, Expert in building multi-stakeholder collaboration

Matthew Ogburn – Marine Ecologist, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Randy Olson – author, “Houston, We Have A Narrative”; Prairie Starfish Productions

Peggy Olwell – Plant Conservation Program Lead for the Bureau of Land Management; Founder of Native Plant Materials Development Program

Hank Oppenheimer – Maui Nui Coordinator for the Plant Extinction Prevention Program

Chris Palmer – Distinguished Film Producer in Residence, American University

Stephen Palumbi – Director, Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford; Author, Life and Death of Monterey Bay

Kyung-Ah Park – Managing Director, Head of Environmental Markets, Goldman Sachs

John Parker – Senior Scientist and Research Ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Ana Luz Porzecanski – Director, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, American Museum of Natural History

Nora Pouillon – Initiator of FRESHFARM Markets; Champion of Organic, Environmentally Conscious Cuisine

James Prosek – Painter; Founder of World Trout

Nick Pyenson – Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History

Kristin Rechberger – CEO, Dynamic Planet

Sarah Redmond – entrepreneur, innovator, and seaweed farmer, Sorrento Seaweed

Clarissa Redwine – Design and Technology Outreach Lead, Kickstarter

Andrew Revkin – Senior Reporter, Pro Publica

Damon Rich – Partner, Hector urban design, planning & civic arts

Rick Ridgeway – Patagonia’s Vice President of Public Engagement

Jon Paul Rodríguez – Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission; Professor at the Center for Ecology of the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Investigations; Founder and President of Provita

Erin Rogers – Program Officer in the Hewlett Foundation’s Environment Program

Kathleen Rogers – President of Earth Day Network

David Rosenberg – CEO and Co-founder of AeroFarms

Dale Ross – Mayor of Georgetown, Texas

Debra Rowe – President, U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development

David M. Rubenstein – Chair, Smithsonian Board of Regents

Daniel Runde – Center for Strategic and International Studies

Brooke Runnette – Executive Vice President, National Geographic Society

Enric Sala – National Geographic Explorer; Founder of Pristine Seas

Jean Pierre Santos – Instituto Pro-Carnivoros

Andrea Santy – Director, Russell E. Train Education for Nature Program (EFN), World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

Ted Schmitt – Senior Program Manager, Vulcan

Simran Sethi – Journalist and Educator: Author of Bread, Wine, Chocolate

Afroz Shah – World’s Largest Beach Clean-Up; 2016 UNEP Champion of the Earth

Jigar Shah – President & Co-Founder of Generate Capital; Founder & CEO of SunEdison

Justin Shaifer – Creator of Fascinate

Brendan Shane – C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group

Howard-Yana Shapiro – Mars Advanced Research Institute Fellow

David Shaw – Black Point Group LP

Deirdre Shelly – 350.org

Fern Shepard – President, Rachel’s Network

Daniel Sherrard – Provost, Earth University, Costa Rica

Debra Shier – Brown Endowed Associate Director of Recovery Ecology at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research

Scott Sklar – President, The Stella Group

David J. Skorton – Secretary, Smithsonian Institution

Erik Solheim – Executive Director; UN Environment Program

Melissa Songer – Conservation Ecologist, Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

Sean Southey – PCI Media

International Space Station – Crew

Marty Spitzer – Senior Director, Climate and Renewable Energy, World Wildlife Fund

Linda Staheli – Founding Director of the Global Co Lab Network

Ricardo Stanoss – Academic Program Manager, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

Robert Stanton – Former Director of the National Park Service

Joe Starinchak – USFWS

Bob Steneck – University of Maine

Eleanor Jane Sterling – Chief Conservation Scientist, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, American Museum of Natural History

Phyllis Stiles – Founder/director of Bee City USA® and Bee Campus USA

Ruth Anna Stolk – Founding Executive Director, Smithsonian Conservation Commons

Suzanne Asha Stone – Co-founder of the Wood River Wolf Project and Senior Northwest Representative for Defenders of Wildlife

Tristram Stuart – Founder, Feedback and Toast Ale Ltd.

Terry Sunderland – Principal Scientist, Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

Ron Swaisgood – San Diego Zoo Global

Pablo Taborga – PERU LNG

Doug Tallamy – Restoring Native Plant Communities; Author of Bringing Nature Home

Trey Taylor – Co-Founder & Director, Verdant Power

Joshua Tewksbury – Future Earth Global Hub Director, Colorado and Executive Editor of Anthropocene Innovation in the Human Age

Raquel Thomas – Director of Resource Management and Training at the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development

Mike Trizna – Technical Lead, DNA Barcode of Wildlife Project, Smithsonian

Sebastian Troeng – Senior Vice President, Americas Field Division, Conservation International

Juli Trtanj – One Health and Integrated Climate and Weather Extremes Research Lead, NOAA

Ann Tutwiler – Director General, Bioversity International

Elaine Ulrich – SunShot Program Manager, Department of Energy

Steven VanRoekel – Maker, Investor, Philanthropist

Ali Velshi – MSNBC Anchor and Business Correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC

Diogo Veríssimo – David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow; Society for Conservation Biology

Marilyn Waite – Energy Lead, Village Capital Author, Sustainability at Work

Lauren Ward – Digital Producer and Science Writer for the Ocean Portal at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Ed Warner – Sand County Foundation

Sam Wasser – Director, Conservation Biology, University of Washington

Kinari Webb – Founder of Health In Harmony

Jeff Weiss – Distributed Sun

John Weller – Antarctic Photographer; Co-Founder of The Last Ocean Project

Dennis Whigham – Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Patricia Wright – MacArthur Fellow, Madagascar Conservationist, SUNY Stony Brook

Ed Yong – Journalist, The Atlantic

Dawn Zimmerman – Smithsonian’s Global Health Program