Christiana Figueres

Christiana Figueres is an internationally recognized leader on climate change. She was Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from 2010 to 2016, where she oversaw the delivery of the historic Paris Agreement. Today she is the co-founder of Global Optimism, co-host of the podcast Outrage & Optimism, and is the co-author of the recently published book, The Future We Choose.

Learn more about Christiana and her work at outrageandoptimism.org/.

Camille Seaman

Camille Seaman (Shinnecock, born 1969, Huntington, New York) makes photographs with a concentration on the fragile and fleeting Polar regions, creating landscape photography on the verge of portraiture as each iceberg appears to have its own spirit and personality. These stunning and intimate images break down any notions of separation between humans and nature. Born to a Native American father and African American mother, Camille’s sense of connection with landscape stems from growing up on Long Island and in New York City, not far from the Shinnecock Indian Nation. Her grandfather taught her how the Shinnecock saw the natural world, a knowledge and reverence vital to her international practice. Of her polar work, Seaman says, “I’m just there to press the shutter. I understand that it’s a calling. Sometimes I’m weeping as I take the picture because I feel like this is all I can do: push this button.”

Learn more about Camille and her work at camilleseaman.com.

Xiye Bastida

Xiye Bastida is a climate justice activist who advocates for the centering of frontline communities in climate policy. She is an organizer for Fridays For Future NYC and during the 2019 climate strikes, she helped mobilize up to 300,000 people. In 2020, she co-founded Re-Earth Initiative, a youth-led climate justice education organization. As a public speaker and writer, she advocates for youth and Indigenous rights, and highlights the intersectionality of the climate crisis. She currently attends the University of Pennsylvania where she is pursuing a BA in Environmental Studies with a concentration in policy.

Learn more about Xiye and her work at xiyebeara.com.

Dekila Chungyalpa

Dekila Chungyalpa is the founder and director of the Loka Initiative, a capacity-building and outreach platform at the University of Wisconsin, Madison for faith leaders and culture keepers of Indigenous traditions who work on environmental and climate issues. Its mission is to support faith-led environmental and climate action efforts, locally and around the world, through collaborations on project design and management, capacity-building, training, media, and public outreach. Dekila began her career in 2001 working on community-based conservation in the Himalayas and went on to work on climate adaptation and free-flowing rivers in the Mekong region for the World Wildlife Fund in 2004.

In 2008, she helped establish Khoryug, an association of over 50 Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and nunneries implementing environmental projects across the Himalayas. In 2009, Dekila founded and led WWF Sacred Earth, a 5-year pilot program that built partnerships with faith leaders and religious institutions towards conservation and climate results in the Amazon, East Africa, Himalayas, Mekong, and the United States. She received the prestigious Yale McCluskey Award in 2014 for her innovative work with faith leaders and moved to the Yale School of Environmental Studies as an associate research scientist, where she researched, lectured, and designed the prototype for what is now the Loka Initiative.

Dekila is originally from the Himalayan state of Sikkim in northeast India and is of Bhutia origin. She is the daughter of the late Tsunma Dechen Zangmo, a Tibetan Buddhist nun and teacher. She speaks five languages: Sikkimese, Tibetan, Nepali, Hindi, and English.

Learn more about Dekila and her work at centerhealthyminds.org/programs/loka-initiative.

Dr. Gail Bradbrook and Skeena Rathor

Dr. Gail Bradbrook has been researching, planning and training for mass civil disobedience since 2010 and is a co-founder of the social movement Extinction Rebellion (XR), which has spread internationally since its launch in October 2018: there are more than 1150 XR groups in 75 countries. Gail has been arrested several times for acts of civil disobedience, and for these actions she faces a potential jail sentence of up to 10 years. She has trained in molecular biophysics, and her talk on the science of the ecological crisis, the psychology of active participation, and the need for civil disobedience has gone viral and inspired many to join XR. She is from Yorkshire, the mother of two boys, the daughter of a coal miner, and was named by GQ as one of the top 50 influencers in the UK, and honoured in a Women’s Hour Power list for her part in instigating a rebellion against the British Government. Learn more at extinctionrebellion.uk

Skeena Rathor is of Sufi Kashmiri lineage. She’s a mother of 3 girls and married into a Jewish family. Her Father introduced her to community organizing at the age of 9. At 15 she found racial and social justice work and at 17 she stood for her first election for political office. In the endeavor for understanding what is breaking our hearts (OPEN) she holds 18 qualifications in psycho-sensory and neuro-developmental healing and trauma integration. She sits as Global Chair of Activism for The Restorative Practices Alliance. She is the Co-Founder of the Vision and Guardianship of Extinction Rebellion and the Co-Founder of Co Liberation – becoming free together and Being The Change. Her present moment call is “For the mothering principle in heart coherence to guide a paradigmatic shift in; relationship, activating; repair, resistance, adaptation and earth democracy towards ‘great healings’ and ‘great reconciliations’ of our mother earth and all that she has born in beauty and unconditional love including the human family. Learn more at extinctionrebellion.uk/.