Dr. Elizabeth Gray is Chief Executive Officer of the National Audubon Society, where she leads the organization’s mission to ensure a future where birds and the ecosystems they depend on thrive. She joined Audubon in 2021 as President and Chief Conservation Officer and was named CEO later that year, becoming the first woman to lead the organization since its founding in 1905. A conservation scientist and ornithologist with more than 30 years of experience, she previously served as Global Managing Director of The Nature Conservancy’s Climate Change program. Gray holds a PhD in ecology from the University of Washington and an AB with highest honors in psychology from Harvard University.

Joel R. Johnson is an award-winning conservation leader and strategist who most recently served as Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, advancing solutions to the global biodiversity crisis, including the Half-Earth vision. He previously co-founded Admirable Devil, an award-winning marketing firm whose clients included Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, The Orvis Company, and Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Earlier, he was Chief Marketing Officer at Trout Unlimited and Senior Vice President of Strategy at GMMB. Joel has also led brand strategy at agencies in Chicago, New York, and London, including Spike Lee’s Spike DDB, creating campaigns for the NBA, Pepsi, and MLB.

Fashion industry icon, acclaimed actor, entrepreneur, and environmental activist. Valletta was among the first to champion ethical and environmentally responsible practices in the industry. She founded the platform Master & Muse to promote responsibly made fashion and co-founded A Squared Films LLC, producing projects centered on social and environmental progress. She has collaborated with Karl Lagerfeld on sustainable capsule collections, served as British Vogue’s first Contributing Sustainability Editor, and worked as a Sustainability Mentor for the CFDA. Currently, she is the Sustainability Ambassador for the Fashion Institute of Technology, helping shape the future of fashion through education and advocacy.

Dr. Jennifer Watts is a research scientist at Woodwell Climate, a non-profit think tank in Massachusetts, and an affiliate professor at Montana State University. Her work focuses on ecosystem-climate interactions in the Northern Hemisphere, especially Arctic and mountain regions. Her research integrates field data, satellite remote sensing, and modeling to track ecosystem change and greenhouse gas exchange at landscape to regional levels. Dr. Watts holds a PhD in Systems Ecology from the University of Montana, a MS in Land Rehabilitation from Montana State University, and a BS in Environmental Sciences from Montana State University.

David Gruber is the Founder and President of Project CETI, the Cetacean Translation Initiative, the world’s largest interdisciplinary effort focused on understanding sperm whale communication. He is a Distinguished Professor of Biology and Environmental Sciences at the City University of New York and a National Geographic Explorer. His research spans marine biology, animal communication, climate science, microbiology, and technology. David collaborates with the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory to develop gentle underwater robotics and is a recipient of the Lagrange Prize in complex systems science.

Dana Gunders is a national expert on food waste, deemed “the woman who helped start the waste-free movement” by Consumer Reports. Her landmark 2012 report Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40% of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill sparked a national dialogue on the issue. She has since helped drive solutions across industry, policy, and households through research, testimony before Congress, and her book Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook. Dana has spoken widely, including at the TED Dilemma Series, and her work has been featured in major outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Time, and PBS Newshour.

Matt Lee-Ashley
Executive Director, Ground Shift
Matt started his career on the backroads and highways of his home state of Colorado, helping a U.S. Senator build an agenda that reflected the voices and priorities of every town and county, no matter how big or small. In the two decades since, Matt has worked to advance community-developed solutions to land, water, and resource challenges through public service in the White House, the Department of the Interior, and Congress.

Benji Backer is the Founder and CEO of Nature Is Nonpartisan, a movement redefining the environment as a nonpartisan issue once and for all. He is the founder of the American Conservation Coalition (ACC), the country's largest conservative environmental organization, which he founded during his freshman year of college. A best-selling author of The Conservative Environmentalist: Common Sense Solutions for a Sustainable Future, Benji has been named a NYTimes Changemaker, and awarded the Fortune 40 Under 40, Forbes 30 Under 30, GreenBiz 30 Under 30, and Grist 50. Benji is a fellow at The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP) — and is one of the leading youth environmental voices in the country. Above all, Backer is an avid outdoorsman who spends most of his free time in the mountains out West. He's a proud graduate of the University of Washington and resides in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Pooja was born in India, but grew up in the United States. In 2018, she graduated from American University in Washington, DC with degrees in Economics and International Studies, specializing in justice, ethics, and human rights, and South Asia. After graduating, Pooja worked on several ocean and climate-related projects at the Meridian Institute. Now, she works for the Kennebunkport Climate Initiative as a Youth Network Strategic Consultant. As their first Climate Career winner, Pooja started Youth Climate Collaborative, which makes it easier for youth to get involved and remain involved in environmental work and fosters meaningful collaboration with youth.

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Jay Lipman is Co-founder of Resilience, The NAT, and Ethic. As co-founder of Ethic, he helped grow the firm into a category-leading sustainable investing platform managing more than $8 billion in assets. That experience shaped his ability to turn ideas at the edge of finance into mainstream, investable solutions.
Today, Jay applies that same approach to climate and nature, building new asset classes that align financial returns with ecosystem restoration, housing decarbonization, and the regeneration of food systems.

Inspired by the legacy of his grandfather Jacques Cousteau and his father Philippe Sr. Philippe Cousteau has built his career around protecting and restoring our Ocean. He is a globally recognized business leader, filmmaker, and ocean innovator. He co-founded Voyacy, including Voyacy Regen, which pioneers commercial-scale coral reef restoration, and SeaVoir, a vegan, algae-based Omega-3 brand. Through Voyacy Media, he hosts and executive produces the multi-Emmy nominated series Awesome Planet and has led programs for CNN, Discovery, and the BBC. In 2005, he founded EarthEcho International, activating more than 2 million youth in 146 countries.

Olivia Watkins (she/her) is Co-Founder and President of Black Farmer Fund, a community-governed investment fund supporting Black farmers and food businesses across the Northeast. She serves on the Board of Iroquois Valley Farmland REIT and is co-recipient of the 2023 James Beard Humanitarian of the Year Award. Olivia's work focuses on creating equitable access to capital and land for farmers and food businesses building regenerative food systems.

Maggie Baird is an actor, teacher, climate activist, and mother of multiple Grammy and Academy Award-winning artists Billie Eilish and FINNEAS. A lifelong vegetarian turned vegan, she has emerged as a thought leader around the environmental impacts of our global food system, and is a frequent speaker and panelist on food and sustainability within music, catering, and climate spaces. In 2020, Baird founded Support+Feed, a nonprofit focused on increasing access to nourishing plant-based food while driving systemic change toward a more sustainable global food system; since launch, Support+Feed has provided over 2.2M plant based meals and pantry items and related education. In 2024, Baird was featured in Forbes’ 50 Over 50 list, and was honored as one of Glamour’s Women of the Year. In 2025, she received the Superhero for Earth award from the Captain Planet Foundation, and in 2026, she received the inaugural MSA Bobby Weir Sustainability Award for an individual. Baird’s series, Climate Kitchen, is premiering on public media nationwide in 2027.

Emmy (she/they/ze) is a biracial queer activist, educator, and creative who serves as the youngest Executive Director of Earth Guardians. Raised in Phoenix, Arizona, she developed a deep connection to nature through time spent outdoors with her grandparents. She graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with degrees in Environmental Sustainability Studies and Business Management and a minor in Communication. While in school, she led several organizations and earned national recognition in ethics and sustainability competitions. Emmy now travels widely to speak on climate and social justice, advocating for racial and gender equity and empowering youth to drive environmental action and change.