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JEN

Following a decade running marketing for NYC Internet startups, Boulden received a “green MBA” on full scholarship from George Washington University. Upon graduating with honors, she co-founded Ideal Bite in 2005, a daily email dedicated to “light-green living.” The digital media venture grew rapidly by leveraging private equity capital, good business & branding sense, email list building techniques and a deep passion for building a true movement. Within 3 years, Ideal Bite was acquired by The Walt Disney Company.

Today Boulden co-leads HigherU.com, an online incubator and holistic digital marketing program for selected impact entrepreneurs, while also running her small family farm in Santa Barbara wine country, and AnavoFarm.org, nonprofit for farm animal welfare.

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ERIN

Renowned consumer advocate Erin Brockovich is the president of Brockovich Research & Consulting and the founder of the Erin Brockovich Foundation, a nonprofit organization created to educate and empower communities in their fight for clean water. She is the author of Superman's Not Coming: Our National Water Crisis and What WE THE PEOPLE Can Do About it, and coauthor of Take it from Me: Life's a Struggle But You Can Win. She has her own show on PodcastOne, and is the executive producer of the ABC television series "Rebel." She lives in Southern California. Learn more at www.brockovich.com and The Brockovich Report.

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LESLIE

Dr. Leslie Carr is a clinical psychologist with a passion for educating the general public about the effect that our environment has on our mental health. She's the host of a new podcast (out in April 2021) called The Nature of Nurture, which explores how our emotional lives are impacted by our relationships, our culture, and even by government influence. She believes strongly that the climate crisis is a mental health crisis. More information can be found at www.lesliecarr.com.

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GIGI LEE

Gigi Lee Chang is a Managing Partner at BFY Capital, a privately-owned debt financing company focused on providing growth capital to “better for you” consumer brands in the food, beverage, beauty and wellness sectors to support growth activities with minimal dilution. Prior to joining BFY, she was the Managing Director of FoodFutureCo, an accelerator helping mission driven entrepreneurs working across the food system. Gigi is the Founder of Plum Organics and was also the CEO and Board Vice-Chair of the national children's environmental health non-profit Healthy Child Healthy World. Named one of the top women leaders in the "future of food" by Forbes and a top dealmaker and influencer in consumer food and beverage by CircleUp, Gigi is a frequent speaker on social enterprise, sustainability, impact investing and entrepreneurship. Recent speaking engagements include Nutrition Capital Network, SXSW, FoodVision, FoodTank Summit, EscaBona, and FounderMade. She is an advisor, board member and mentor to numerous early stage companies. Her philanthropic and board affiliations include Venture for America, Naturally! Network, One Green Thing and Nationswell Council Member.

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JULIA

Julia Cohen, MPH is Managing Director and Co-Founder of Plastic Pollution Coalition, based in Washington, D.C. Julia brings nearly three decades of experience in leading executive, strategic, communications, fundraising, and outreach efforts for a wide range of government, entertainment, and non-profit groups. Julia was previously the Development and Outreach Director for the Woman’s National Democratic Club, Senior Director of External Engagement at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), and has been the Executive Director of Youth Vote Coalition, Vice President of Rock The Vote, and Executive Director of Save the Children’s Youth Noise. Julia has spoken at corporate headquarters, political conventions, and international conferences and symposia. She serves on the US Movement Support Team of the Break Free From Plastic movement. She is the recipient of the Leadership Award from Four Generation of Leaders in Clean Energy & Sustainable Solutions. She holds a BA in Modern Society and Social Thought from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Masters in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley.

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WILL

Dr. Will Cole is a leading functional medicine expert who consults people around the world via webcam and locally in Pittsburgh. Named one of the top 50 functional-medicine and integrative doctors in the nation, Dr.Cole specializes in clinically investigating underlying factors of chronic disease and customizing a functional medicine approach for thyroid issues, autoimmune conditions, hormonal imbalances, digestive disorders, and brain problems. He is the bestselling author of Ketotarian, The Inflammation Spectrum, and the New York Times Bestseller Intuitive Fasting in which he shows how to use the powerful benefits of flexible intermittent fasting to gain metabolic flexibility and find food peace. Dr. Cole is the host of the new podcast The Art of Being Well, and has cohosted the popular podcasts goopfellas podcast and Keto Talk.

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CHRIS

Chris Colin’s writing has appeared in Best American Science & Nature Writing, the New York Times, Pop-Up Magazine, Wired, NewYorker.com, Outside, Afar and Saveur. He’s the author most recently of Off: The Day the Internet Died, as well as What to Talk About and What Really Happened to the Class of ‘93. He also publishes Six Feet of Separation, the nation’s first pandemic newspaper by and for kids; Dan Rather called it “a virtual newspaper for our troubled times.”

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MEG

Meg Dees joined Catawba College in August 2017 as Interim Vice President of Development for a two-year period as an executive on loan from the Charlotte-based Foundation for The Carolinas. In 2019, Dees accepted the permanent position of Vice President of Development for Catawba. She served the Foundation for The Carolinas from 2008 to 2019 as its Vice President - Philanthropic Advancement, Affiliate Development. Prior to that Meg was the Assistant Director of the NC Main Street Program for the State of NC from 1999-2008 and served as the Executive Director of the Downtown Goldsboro Development Corporation from 1993-1999.
Meg is a graduate of Mary Baldwin College and holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from NC State University. In the past Meg has served on the Board of Directors for Piedmont Players Theatre, The Rowan Museum, Preservation North Carolina, the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame Association Foundation and the Catawba College Board of Trustees. In addition to One Green Thing, Meg currently serves on the advisory boards of the Catawba College Center for the Environment and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Nutrition Research Institute.
Meg is married to Jay Dees, an attorney in Salisbury, NC and has two children, son Archie, a freshman at UNC-Chapel Hill and daughter Maggie, a senior in high school at Salem Academy.

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MAX

Max Finberg currently serves as the President and CEO of Growing Hope Globally, a faith based organization dedicated to ending hunger by supporting farmers and their food security. Formerly Foods Resource Bank, Growing Hope Globally has helped 2.1 million people to escape hunger and extreme poverty. Their unique model has farmers and their communities in the US supporting farmers and their communities overseas. He is responsible for running all aspects of the organization. He has dedicated his life to serving others, especially those who suffer from hunger and poverty. Prior to being chosen to lead the organization, he worked with the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP, the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize winner) in Rome, Italy, the world’s largest humanitarian organization. As a director and special advisor, he ran the Executive Director’s immediate office during his transition and managed his selection process. Before that, he served in a variety of leadership positions with the US government and nongovernmental organizations. He was a political appointee in both Democratic and Republican administrations in the White House, US Departments of Agriculture and State, and the Corporation for National and Community Service. He served on the White House Domestic Policy Council, as director of USDA’s rural anti-poverty initiative and Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and as Special Assistant to the US Ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture. Most recently, he served as director of AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America), an 8,000 person national service program designed to address poverty in the United States. He was the founding director of the Alliance to End Hunger and also the inaugural program director at the Congressional Hunger Center in Washington, DC, both of which are still active in the efforts to end hunger in the United States and around the world. Max is an honors graduate of Howard University School of Divinity with a Master’s degree in Social Ethics and Tufts University with degrees in International Relations, Political Science and German. He has lived, worked and studied in Italy, Germany, Mexico, Nicaragua and England and traveled to more than 70 countries. He is a National Outstanding Eagle Scout Award winner and a Harry Truman Scholar. Originally from the Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York, he currently resides in Takoma Park, Maryland with his wife, daughter and son.

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VICTORIA

Victoria Gilchrist is a Human Rights Strategic Program Manager at Intel Corporation. Although a native of Newport News, Virginia, she considers herself a citizen of the world. Victoria holds a BA in Spanish from the University of Virginia, an MBA from the University of Southern California, and an Executive Master in Sustainability Leadership from Arizona State University. She has either lived in or travelled to 6 continents, the experiences of which have contributed to her desire to not only love the world but to help shape it for the better. Her day job allows her the opportunity to influence positive transformation in the tech industry’s supply chain in the areas of labor, environment, health and safety, ethics, and management systems. In her free time, she focuses on combatting the various forms of social injustice and human trafficking that exist around the world. Her work with Hope for Children Ethiopia centers around extracting children from forced labor and sex trafficking into rehabilitation programs that not only strive to heal their emotional scars, but train them for jobs so that they can independently re-enter society. In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Victoria worked with the local chapter of Not for Sale, which works to interrupt the cycle of sex trafficking and abuse in the Red Light District by providing restaurant trade internships to women seeking to escape the sex trade. She was able to tie the idea of using tech to tackle sex trafficking at large sporting events in her TEDx Talk, Giving AI a Sporting Chance. Victoria is a frequent speaker on sustainability, equity, and human rights issues on national panels. You can read her recent op-ed in Green Biz on “How to Talk about Racial Equity in Sustainability” here.

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KELLY

A lifelong environmental activist with a deep love for philanthropy, social justice, and community partnerships, Kelly has spent the past decade working for two major nonprofit organizations, Yellowstone Forever (focused on the preservation of Yellowstone National Park) and the Environmental Working Group (committed to building healthier lives and homes through clean energy). Prior to her nonprofit work, Kelly helped secure funding for financially sustainable programs at Pepperdine University, her alma mater. Kelly joined the Sierra Club in 2020 as the Senior Managing Director of Major Gifts, West to develop strategic fundraising plans that support the mission and programs of the organization. Kelly lives in Los Angeles with her husband, 9-year old daughter, and goldendoodle, Benny, where she navigates her love for travel, the arts, and politics, staying centered with hot yoga, and challenging her physical agility through biking and hiking in the great outdoors.

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CHRIS

Chris Hill has a deep desire for social justice and a passion for the outdoors. She has been an avid adventurer since she was young, backpacking, climbing, snowboarding and fly fishing all over. As an environmental lobbyist for the past decade and currently the Acting Campaign Director for the Our Wild America Campaign at Sierra Club, Chris’ desire for a just, equitable and sustainable future, one in which all people benefit from clean air, clean water and equitable access to the outdoors is rooted in community-based organizing. Chris got her start as a grassroots organizer in Appalachia working to stop mountaintop removal coal mining and advance just transition.
Born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, Chris earned a B.A. in broadcast communications and electronic media from Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. and a J.D. from Vermont Law School. Chris is currently a board member for Trout Unlimited and Alaska Wilderness League, a member of the Leadership Team for Artemis Sportswomen, an ambassador for WeGotNext, a member of the Green Leadership Trust and is a Sierra Club Outings leader (leading fly fishing trips in Alaska). In 2019, Chris partnered with The Outbound Collective to tell her story on the water. The film, "Where I belong," won 2021 Best Short Film for the Conservation Film Festival and has been accepted into 2020’s Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, the Mountain Film Festival, among others. Watch Chris' story here. She currently splits her time between Washington, DC and Haines, Alaska.

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