Greening the City Conference Keynote Speakers and Presenters

Fostering Inspired and Innovative Leadership for Just and Sustainable Urban Communities

• Professor Julian Agyeman http://www.tufts.edu/~jagyem01/
  Julian Agyeman is Professor and Chair of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University. He is the originator of the concept of 'just sustainability' the integration of social justice and sustainability and defined as 'the need to ensure a better quality of life for all, now and into the future, in a just and equitable manner, whilst living within the limits of supporting ecosystems.' He is co-founder, and co-editor of the international journal 'Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability'. With over 135 publications, his books include 'Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World' (MIT Press 2003) and 'Sustainable Communities and the Challenge of Environmental Justice' (NYU Press 2005). He 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.
• Frances Moore Lappé www.smallplanet.org
  Frances Moore Lappé is a democracy advocate and world food and hunger expert who has authored or co-authored 16 books. She is the co-founder of three organizations, including Food First: The Institute for Food and Development Policy and, more recently, the Small Planet Institute, which she leads with her daughter Anna Lappé. In 1987 she received the Right Livelihood Award (a.k.a, the 'Alternative Nobel.') Her first book, Diet for a Small Planet, has sold three million copies and is considered 'the blueprint for eating with a small carbon footprint since long before the term was coined' [JM Hirsch, Associated Press].
  
  Her most recent book is Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad, awarded the Nautilus Gold/'Best in Small Press' award. In June 2008, that book and Diet for a Small Planet were designated as must-reads for the next U.S. president (by Barbara Kingsolver and Michael Pollan, respectively) in The New York Times Sunday Review of Books. Other recent books include Hope's Edge, written with Anna Lappé, about democratic social movements worldwide, as well as You Have the Power and Democracy's Edge. Lappé has received 17 honorary doctorates from distinguished institutions including The University of Michigan and was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000-2001. She received the 2008 James Beard Foundation Humanitarian of the Year Award for her lifelong impact on the way people all over the world think about food, nutrition, and agriculture. See the JBF's video introduction to Frances and her work here. In 2008, Gourmet Magazine named Lappé among 25 people (including Thomas Jefferson, Upton Sinclair, and Julia Child), whose work has changed the way America eats. The same year, Diet for a Small Planet was selected as one of 75 Books by Women Whose Words Have Changed the World by members of the Women's National Book Association in observance of its 75th anniversary.
• Christopher Leahy
  Christopher Leahy holds the Gerard A. Bertrand Chair of Natural History and Field Ornithology at the Mass Audubon. He has been a professional conservationist for more than thirty years, most recently as the Director of Mass Audubon's Center for Biological Conservation.
  
  His interests in natural history are comprehensive and he is a recognized authority on birds and insects. His natural history books owe their popularity to his ability to describe the living world with clarity and wit. His published works include The Birdwatcher's Companion (Hill & Wang, 1982), The First Guide to Insects (Houghton-Mifflin, 1987), Introduction to New England Birds (Mass Audubon, 1990), An Introduction to Massachusetts Insects (1983, Mass Audubon), The Nature of Massachusetts (Addison-Wesley, 1996), and The Ferns and Allied Plants of New England (1997, Mass Audubon). Chris is also General Editor of Mass Audubon's series of authoritative books on the flora and fauna of New England, including the upcoming publication of Inland Fishes of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas and Rare and Endangered Vertebrates of Massachusetts.
  
  Chris has designed and led natural history explorations to over 60 countries on all of the continents. He is especially fascinated with the world's great remaining wilderness areas and biodiversity hot spots such as Antarctica, Mongolia, Madagascar and Bhutan.
• Greg Watson
  Greg Watson is senior advisor for Clean Energy Technology within the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and vice president for sustainable development with the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. Greg's long life of exemplary, cutting-edge public service has included serving as: executive director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative; director of educational programs for Second Nature; director of The Nature Conservancy's Eastern Regional Office; commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Food and Agriculture; and executive director of the New Alchemy Institute.
• Brian Johnson
  Brian Johnson is Program Coordinator and Core Faculty for Lesley University's Master of Arts program in Urban Environmental Leadership. He is also a Consulting Associate with Program Evaluation and Educational Research Associates, where he conducts evaluation research of environmental education programs throughout the United States. He has previously served as Education Officer for Botanic Gardens Conservation International, directing the organization's plant conservation education programs in the United States. Brian has also directed environmental education programs at the nation's first urban Audubon center in New York City, served on the planning board for the start-up of an environmental studies public high school in Brooklyn, NY, and served as senior faculty with the Audubon Expedition Institute at Lesley University. Additionally, Brian has presented at conferences and trained educators in the United States, England, China and Indonesia. He is a Ph.D. Candidate in Environmental Studies at Antioch University New England, where he is researching the relationship between environmental education and improvements in environmental quality. In 2008, Brian was named a Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation Fellow.
• Coleen O'Connell
  Coleen O'Connell is the lead faculty in the Ecological Teaching and Learning MS Program at Lesley University – a program that works with educators to incorporate ecological principles and systems thinking across the curriculum. Coleen has been an environmental educator for 25 years and lives in an aspiring sustainable community in Maine. Ecological Teaching and Learning is the focus of her academic work as an emerging pedagogical framework.
• Gloria Villegas-Cardoza
  Gloria Villegas-Cardoza is the Director for Education at Mass Audubon. Gloria was hired by Mass Audubon to create the education vision and programs at the Mass Audubon's Boston Nature Center, first inner city Environmental Education Center and Wildlife Sanctuary. She has extensive experience science education, curriculum development, teacher training and scientific research in the United States, France, and Venezuela. Prior to her work at Mass Audubon, Gloria was an educator at Boston's Museum of Science, the Executive Director of the Pro Ciencia Foundation in Venezuela, an editor of publications for the Latin America Academy of Sciences, among many other education, science and administration positions. Gloria serves at the Board of Directors of the Audubon Expedition Institute and the Latino After School Initiative. She is fluent in Spanish and French, and also has expertise in Portuguese and Italian.