Tyler Wakefield is a systems design facilitator, interstitial togetherness weaver, and community tender devoted to cultivating trust, joyful coordination, and hyperlocal-to-global economies that serve life. Guided by a call to weave biocultural coherence and coordination across human communities and the more-than-human life community, Tyler studies and facilitates within and between a variety of intellectual, spiritual, … Continued
Samantha Power is a Co-Founder and the Director of The BioFi Project. A regenerative economist, systems futurist, and bioregionalist, she co-authored the book Bioregional Financing Facilities: Reimagining Finance to Regenerate Our Planet. Her work focuses on building a new layer of global financial architecture: place-based institutions designed to serve rapid, radical regeneration. For over a … Continued
Born and raised in Ethiopia, Alfa Demmellash lives in New Jersey with her husband and two boys. She is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Rising Tide Capital, a non-profit organization that provides underserved entrepreneurs with the resources they need to launch and grow successful businesses. Since 2005 the organization has operated the Community … Continued
Kali Akuno is co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson, a network of worker cooperatives and community-led programs that sustain and grow a democratic, just and sustainable economy in Jackson, MS. Among these programs is the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust, which allows community members to collectively steward the land and creates opportunities for affordable … Continued
Natasha Hulst works with the Schumacher Center for a New Economics as the Coordinator for Land Commons Initiatives in Europe and Schumacher Action Labs. She focuses on fostering international and national collaborations for land commons, advocating for Community Land Trusts as a practical model to ensure equitable, place-based, democratic, and voluntary access to land. Natasha … Continued
Woody Tasch is a pioneer of the concepts of patient capital, mission-related investing, and community development venture capital. He is the dynamic and visionary founder and chairman of Slow Money Institute, a nonprofit headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, with an alliance of national and international chapters. Slow Money was formed in 2008 to catalyze the flow … Continued
Don Shaffer served as President & CEO of RSF Social Finance from 2007-2017. He has been a social entrepreneur for many years, growing a for-profit education business, a software company, and a sporting goods manufacturer, in addition to a non-profit, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. Shaffer grew up in central New Jersey, and comes from … Continued
Janelle Orsi is a cartoonist, lawyer, and advocate focused on cooperatives, land trusts, housing justice, community-owned energy, and democratizing finance. She co-founded and works for the cooperatively-structured nonprofit, Sustainable Economies Law Center. Most of her time is spent learning and creating with inspiring groups who are advancing permanent community stewardship of land (check out the Radical Real … Continued
Asher Miller became the Executive Director of Post Carbon Institute in October 2008, after having served as the manager of the former Relocalization Network program. He received his B.A. in Creative Writing from The Colorado College. He has worked in the nonprofit sector since 1996 in various capacities. Prior to joining Post Carbon Institute, Asher founded Climate … Continued
Kimber Lanning is Founder and Executive Director of Local First Arizona, a statewide organization implementing innovative strategies for new models of economic development that create vibrant local economies. She is an entrepreneur, business leader and community development specialist who works to cultivate strong self-reliant communities and inspire a higher quality of life for people across Arizona. Lanning’s … Continued
Jenny Kassan has over two decades of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises. She has helped her clients raise millions of dollars from values-aligned investors and is certified as a coach by the International Association of Women in Coaching. She is the author of the forthcoming Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How … Continued
Jeffrey Hollender is a leading authority on corporate responsibility, sustainability and social equity. In 1988, he co-founded Seventh Generation, building it into a leading natural product brand known for its authenticity, transparency, and progressive business practices. Today, as a CEO, author, speaker, consultant, and activist, Jeffrey’s mission is to inspire and provoke business leaders to … Continued
Background Elizabeth Henderson farmed at Peacework Farm in Wayne County, New York, producing organically grown vegetables for the fresh market for over 30 years. A farmer, activist, and writer, she has exerted an enormous influence on the movement for organic and sustainable agriculture since the 1970s. She served for many years on the Board of Directors … Continued
Deborah Frieze is an author, entrepreneur and social activist. In 2013, she co-founded the Boston Impact Initiative, a place-based impact investing fund that seeks to create systemic shifts in opportunity for urban communities. The fund takes an integrated capital approach, combining investing, lending and giving to help build resilient local economies. Frieze’s focus on resilience began … Continued
Steve Dubb is a senior editor at Nonprofit Quarterly (NPQ) and covers a wide range of issues based on working on various aspects of community economic development. Dubb has worked with cooperatives and nonprofits for over two decades, including twelve years at The Democracy Collaborative and three years as executive director of NASCO (North American … Continued
Juliet B. Schor is an economist and sociologist at Boston College. Schor’s research focuses on work, consumption, and climate change. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Schor received her Ph.D. in economics at the University of Massachusetts. Before joining Boston College, she taught at Harvard University for 17 years, in the Department of Economics and the … Continued
John Fullerton is the founder and president of Capital Institute and is a former Managing Director of JPMorgan, where he worked for 18 years. Subsequently he was seed investor and CEO of an energy-infrastructure-focused investment management company. He is the author of Regenerative Capitalism: How Universal Principles and Patterns Will Shape the New Economy (2015). As the principal of Level 3 … Continued
David W. Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics as well as Special Assistant to the President of Oberlin College and executive director of the Oberlin Project. He is perhaps best known for his pioneering work on environmental literacy in higher education and his leading role in the promising new field … Continued
Frances Moore Lappé is the author or co-author of sixteen books, including her 1971 bestseller, Diet for a Small Planet, which awakened readers to the human–made causes of hunger and the power of our everyday choices to create a hunger-free world, and most recently World Hunger: 10 Myths (2015). Her books have been translated into 15 languages and … Continued
Helena Norberg-Hodge is the founder and director of Local Futures/International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC) and The International Alliance for Localization (IAL). Based in the US and UK, with subsidiaries in Germany and Australia, Local Futures examines the root causes of our current social and environmental crises while promoting more sustainable and equitable patterns of living … Continued
Anna Lappé is a national bestselling author, a respected advocate for food justice and sustainability, and an advisor to funders investing in food system transformation. Anna is the co-author or author of three books and the contributing author to more than a dozen others, including Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen (2006) and Hope’s … Continued
Judy Wicks is a leader, writer, and speaker in the localization movement. She began buying from local farmers in 1986 for her restaurant, White Dog Café, which she started on the first floor of her Philadelphia row house in 1983. Realizing that helping other restaurants connect with local farmers would strengthen the regional food system, … Continued
Michael H. Shuman is an economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur, and a leading visionary on community economics. He’s Director of Local Economy Programs for Neighborhood Associates Corporation, and an Adjunct Professor at Bard Business School in New York City. He is also a Senior Researcher for Council Fire and Local Analytics, where he performed economic-development … Continued
Richard B. Norgaard is Professor Emeritus of the University of California, Berkeley. Among the founders of the field of ecological economics, his research emphasizes how the resolution of complex socio-environmental problems challenges modern beliefs about science and policy, and explores development as a process of coevolution between social and environmental systems. Norgaard is the author … Continued
Stacy Mitchell is co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and directs its Independent Business Initiative, which produces research and analysis, and partners with a broad range of allies to design and implement policies to reverse corporate concentration and strengthen local enterprise. Mitchell’s reports and articles about the dangers of concentrated economic power have influenced … Continued
Thomas Linzey is Senior Legal Counsel with the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER). He was previously the Executive Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), a nonprofit law firm established in Pennsylvania in 1995 that provides free legal services to over 500 local governments and nonprofit organizations. He is admitted to … Continued
Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute, is regarded as one of the world’s foremost advocates for a shift away from our current reliance on fossil fuels. An author, educator, editor, and lecturer, he has spoken widely on energy and climate issues to audiences in 14 countries, addressing policy makers at many levels, from … Continued
Andrew Kimbrell is an attorney and author. He also holds a graduate degree in psychology. For many years he was policy director of the Foundation on Economic Trends. Currently he is Executive Director of both the International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA), which he founded in 1994, and the Center for Food Safety, which he founded … Continued
John Abrams is a principal with Abrams + Angell, a consulting practice focused on triple-bottom-line business practice and worker co-op conversions. He is co-founder and President Emeritus of South Mountain Company, an employee-owned integrated architecture, building, and solar energy company. In 2005, Business Ethics Magazine awarded South Mountain its National Award for Workplace Democracy and … Continued
Caroline Woolard is a New York-based artist and organizer born in Rhode Island. She speaks internationally about art, design, technology, and economic justice. Woolard is the Director of Research and Programs at Open Collective Foundation, an Assistant Professor at Pratt, and co-organizer of http://art.coop with Nati Linares and Marina Lopez. Since the financial crisis of … Continued
Severine von Tscharner Fleming is an organic farmer, young farmers’ advocate, publisher and organizer based in Downeast Maine. She runs Smithereen Farm, a MOFGA certified organic wild blueberry, seaweed, and orchard operation. Looking out on Cobscook Bay, Smithereen farm hosts summer camps, camping, and educational workshops. Since 2008 Severine has served as director of the … Continued
Mary Berry is the Executive Director of The Berry Center and a leader in the movement for sustainable agriculture. A well-known advocate for the preservation of rural culture and agriculture, she is currently working to reconnect cities with landscapes around them. Founded in 2011, The Berry Center advocates for small farmers, land conservation, and healthy … Continued
Peter Barnes is an entrepreneur and writer who has co-founded and led several successful businesses and written numerous articles and books about capitalism, the commons and other topics. His latest book, With Liberty and Dividends for All: How to Save Our Middle Class When Jobs Don’t Pay Enough, proposes universal dividends from shared wealth as … Continued
Otto Scharmer is a Senior Lecturer in the MIT Management Sloan School and co-founder of the Presencing Institute. He chairs the MIT IDEAS program for cross-sector innovation and introduced the concept of “presencing”—learning from the emerging future—in his bestselling books Theory U and Presence (the latter co-authored with P. Senge et al). He is co-author … Continued
Michelle Long is the founder of Jubilee Gift, an investment platform for building Beautiful Portfolios that are catalytic in healing the Earth, for equity and healing between people, and that build the spiritual ballast we need to meet these changing times. For wealth-holders with the furthest possible vision and intention, Jubilee Gift offers direct investment opportunities, … Continued
Eric Harris-Braun designs and builds software infrastructure for the new economy. He is a co-founder of the MetaCurrency project, which is creating a platform for communities of all scales to design and deploy their own currencies, and Holochain, which will host a full array of asset-backed, value-stable currencies, setting a new class of cryptocurrencies that will … Continued
Merrian Goggio Borgeson is a Senior Scientist for the Climate and Clean Energy Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Merrian champions stronger climate policies by providing analysis and strategic guidance to help us shift to efficient, renewable energy. She works closely with policymakers and stakeholders at the state, regional and national levels. Prior to joining … Continued
Greg Watson is Curator of the World Game Workshop and World Grid Project at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics. His work currently focuses on community food systems and the dynamics between local and geo-economic systems. Watson has spent nearly 40 years learning to understand systems thinking as inspired by Buckminster Fuller and to … Continued
Alice Maggio is a Brooklyn-born and Berkshire-raised community developer passionate about building economic institutions that distribute power and create community wealth. She currently works as Senior Project Officer for the Working World, a non-profit that helps build cooperative businesses in low-income communities. From 2012 to 2017 she worked at the Schumacher Center for a New … Continued
David Bollier is the Schumacher Center’s Reinventing the Commons Program Director. He is an author, activist, blogger and independent scholar with a primary focus on the commons as a new paradigm of economics, politics and culture. He is a co-founder of the Commons Strategies Group, an advocacy/consulting project that assists the international commons movement. Bollier’s … Continued
Matt Stinchcomb is the co-founder of Partners for Climate Action Hudson Valley, a new initiative that offers financial, educational, social, and human capital support to communities in the Hudson Valley who are leading the work to repair our natural systems and cultivate local resilience. Prior to this, he was the Executive Director at the Good … Continued
