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The OneGreenThing Forum
Climate, Conservation & Wellbeing
THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2026
BOZEMAN, MONTANA
Join us at the iconic Emerson Ballroom in downtown Bozeman, Montana for a day of community connection, hands on activities, and inspiring conversations with national leaders in sustainability, wellness, and conservation.
Sponsors
Speakers
Dr. Leslie Carr,
Podcaster & Psychologist,
The Nature of Nurture
Dr. Leslie Carr is a psychologist and an expert in how trauma, stress, culture, and technology impact the mind. She’s been active in mental health advocacy and public psychoeducation for over fifteen years, and her work in this space has been featured in The LA Times, ABC News, and Ask Dr. Drew among many other places. Leslie is also a proud One Green Thing board member.
She hosts a podcast called The Nature of Nurture, which explores the mental health challenges that are inherent to being human in the modern age. Despite the difficult subject matter (covid, climate change, and the negative impact of the internet on mental wellbeing—just to name a few topics), The Nature of Nurture always endeavors to be uplifting, and it leaves listeners feeling grounded, informed, and empowered as they move through life in the twenty-first century. More information can be found at TheNatureofNurture.com
She hosts a podcast called The Nature of Nurture, which explores the mental health challenges that are inherent to being human in the modern age. Despite the difficult subject matter (covid, climate change, and the negative impact of the internet on mental wellbeing—just to name a few topics), The Nature of Nurture always endeavors to be uplifting, and it leaves listeners feeling grounded, informed, and empowered as they move through life in the twenty-first century. More information can be found at TheNatureofNurture.com
Dr. Shane Doyle, The Nature Conservancy, Director of North America Indigenous Rights Relations
Dr. Shane Doyle (Apsáalooke) works with the Nature Conservancy and is the director of Yellowstone Peoples, a Tribally led nonprofit organization that does work in the Yellowstone National Park and Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Doyle is also an independent contractor who acts as a cultural consultant, public lands advocate, Tribal liaison and professional scholar and researcher throughout Montana and across the nation.
Kareen Erbe, Broken Ground Permaculture, Owner & Educator
Kareen Erbe, owner of Broken Ground, is a garden design consultant, homesteader, permaculture practitioner and educator. From getting clients started on their first ever garden, to working with couples on creating a full-blown homestead, to designing large-scale farms, she’s helped thousands of people grow nutritious food for their family through consultations, design services, her signature Resilient Homestead Program, and her YouTube channel. Kareen lives with her husband on a suburban homestead in Bozeman, Montana, and believes that growing your own food, becoming more self-reliant, and bolstering local food systems are some of the most actionable and positive steps forward to address the climate crisis.
Victoria Gilchrist, Analog Devices, ESG & human rights expert
Victoria is an ESG expert and human rights manager. From leading teams in sustainability and human rights at ASM, Intel, Amazon Web Services to providing logistic and business insights for the American Red Cross to Maersk, Victoria has been recognized for outstanding organizational leadership, innovation, integrity, business savvy, with superb communication and interpersonal skills. Victoria is a regular national conference speaker on sustainability and human rights, and is a TEDx speaker.
In her free time, Victoria focuses on combatting the various forms of social injustice and human trafficking that exist around the world. She has lived in/travelled to six 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 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 partnered 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 artificial intelligence to tackle sex trafficking at large sporting events in her TEDx Talk, Giving AI a Sporting Chance.
Victoria earned her Masters in Sustainability from Arizona State University, her MBA from University of Southern California, and her undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia, where she was a Ridley Scholar. Victoria is bilingual in English and Spanish.
Chris Hill, Conservation Lands Foundation, President & CEO
Chris Hill (pronouns: she/her) is the Chief Executive Officer for the Conservation Lands Foundation. With a robust background in community organizing and environmental law and lobbying, Chris brings over 15 years of experience in advocating for the protection of both communities and the natural world. Chris's passionate advocacy 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.
Born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, Chris holds a B.A. in broadcast communications and electronic media from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC and a J.D. from Vermont Law School.
From an early age, Chris fostered a love for the outdoors through activities like backpacking, climbing, and snowboarding. This connection to nature led her to a career in conservation, which she started by serving as a grassroots organizer in Appalachia and tackled issues such as mountaintop removal, coal mining, and just transition initiatives.
Over the years, Chris has developed a distinguished career as a public policy advocate, adeptly navigating state, regional, and federal landscapes. With over a decade of experience as an environmental lobbyist, she has demonstrated a profound commitment to advancing environmental causes. Most notably, Chris served as the first Chief Conservation Officer at the Sierra Club, where she led the organization’s legacy campaigns focused on land conservation, water, and wildlife, as well as outdoor access and outdoor equity. In this role, she made history as the first Black woman to head this work at the Sierra Club, reflecting her exceptional leadership and dedication to environmental conservation.
Chris serves on the boards of Trout Unlimited and One Green Thing. She also serves as a brand ambassador for Sage Fly Fishing.
In 2019, Chris collaborated with The Outbound Collective to share her story through the film "Where I Belong" shedding light on her affinity for fly fishing, her advocacy endeavors, and the importance of outdoor equity. The film won the American Conservation Film Festival’s 2021 Best Short Film and has been featured at esteemed festivals like the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour and the Mountain Film Festival, among others. Watch Chris's story here.
When Chris isn't working, you can find her outside on the river fly fishing with her dog Sammy and husband Greg.
René Jones, UTA, Partner and Chief of Social Impact
René Jones is a Partner and Chief of Social Impact at United Talent Agency (UTA), where she established the UTA Foundation for the agency and guides UTA's high-profile clients on their social impact strategies, as well as oversees corporate social responsibility across offices.
In 2020, she was appointed by the Governor to the California Volunteers Commission, which is tasked with uniting Californians in service and empowering them to take action in their communities and leads the Climate Action Corps committee.
In addition to OneGreenThing, she sits on the board of directors for U.S.VETS, the nation’s largest veteran housing and services, and Impact Guild, which activates media and popular culture for social good. Jones is a senior fellow for the Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab at the University of Southern California and resides in Los Angeles.
Leigh Larson, Podcaster, Former Air Force Reserve Chaplain
Podcaster. Author. Influencer. I studied International Relations, African Studies, and Environmental Science at The University of Texas at Austin. I also received a certificate from UT’s Jefferson program in Core Texts & Ideas.
I served in the US Air Force Reserve Chaplain Corps in the Chaplain Candidate program during my time in seminary.
I helped start a recovery non-profit in Longmont, CO.
I burned out / financially struggled and went back to school and became a software engineer and brand / web designer through Turing School of Software & Design.
I moved from Denver, CO to Great Falls, MT.
7 months later, I adopted my dog, Professor Huckleberry (Huck).
I am not married and have no kids.
I build websites, design graphics, make videos, and write children's books.
I post travel and book reviews. I solo travel often, and have been to 45 American states, Belize, Mexico, Canada, England, Scotland, Wales, and Sweden.
I am Scottish-Swedish-Cherokee.
I talk about a variety of topics from political / current affairs, spirituality / religion, travel, to aliens and pop culture.
I'm an explorer and storyteller, and I want you to come along.
I served in the US Air Force Reserve Chaplain Corps in the Chaplain Candidate program during my time in seminary.
I helped start a recovery non-profit in Longmont, CO.
I burned out / financially struggled and went back to school and became a software engineer and brand / web designer through Turing School of Software & Design.
I moved from Denver, CO to Great Falls, MT.
7 months later, I adopted my dog, Professor Huckleberry (Huck).
I am not married and have no kids.
I build websites, design graphics, make videos, and write children's books.
I post travel and book reviews. I solo travel often, and have been to 45 American states, Belize, Mexico, Canada, England, Scotland, Wales, and Sweden.
I am Scottish-Swedish-Cherokee.
I talk about a variety of topics from political / current affairs, spirituality / religion, travel, to aliens and pop culture.
I'm an explorer and storyteller, and I want you to come along.
Ivan MacDonald,
Thunderheart Films, filmmaker
Ivan MacDonald is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and an enrolled member of the Blackfeet tribe. His most recent project, Bring Them Home, won the Big Sky Award at the 2024 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. Bring Them Home is executive-produced and narrated by Oscar-nominated actress Lily Gladstone. He was an inaugural fellow for the Netflix and Illuminative Producers fellowship and was an inaugural recipient of the Hulu and Firelight Kindling fund. Currently, he is the 2024 Mark Silverman honoree for Sundance’s Producing Lab. With his sister Ivy, he is also directing When They Were Here, which is a feature-length documentary about the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls crisis told through the lens of their family and community. Sundance, ITVS, and IDA have supported his work.
Ivy MacDonald, Thunderheart Films, filmmaker
Ivy is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet tribe of Browning Montana. She graduated from the University of Montana in 2017 with a BFA in Digital Filmmaking. Over the last three years she has produced and directed work for ESPN, ACLU, and is currently working on her first feature length documentary titled When They Were Here.
When They Were Here is a documentary that sheds light on the invisible crisis known as the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls crisis. She was also a Fourth World Media Lab Fellow for Tracy Rector's indigenous filmmakers program.
Mike Phillips,
Turner Endangered Species Fund, Executive Director
Mike received his B.Sc. in Ecology, Ethology, Evolution from the University of Illinois in 1980 and his M.Sc. in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Alaska in 1986.
Mike has served as the Executive Director of the Turner Endangered Species Fund and advisor to the Turner Biodiversity Divisions since he co-founded both with Ted Turner in June 1997. Since inception they have stood collectively as the most significant private effort in the world to redress the extinction crisis through reintroduction projects to benefit imperiled species.
Prior to working with Turner, Mike worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service starting in 1981. During this time Mike served as the leader of historic efforts to restore red wolves to the southeastern US and gray wolves to Yellowstone National Park. He also conducted important research on the impacts of oil and gas development on grizzly bears in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, predation costs for gray wolves in Alaska, black bear movements in northeastern North Carolina, and dingo ecology in Australia.
From 1995 through present Mike has been a leader with efforts to restore gray wolves to the Southern Rockies Ecoregion of western Colorado. From 2014 through 2020 he founded and led the successful citizen-initiated ballot measure to establish a state law that mandated reintroductions begin by December 2023. It was the first time in history that direct democracy – voting by the people – had been used to secure a restoration mandate for an endangered species.
Throughout his career as a conservation biologist Mike has focused on the recovery of imperiled species, integration of private land in conservation efforts, and socio-political aspects of natural resource use and management.
Mike has authored hundreds of project reports and over 70 publications including peer-reviewed technical articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, government reports, popular articles, and two books. Mike is an accomplished speaker and has delivered over 200 public presentations for conservation organizations and professional conferences, including numerous invited plenary, keynote, and banquet presentations.
For his conservation work Mike was nominated in 2014 by Dr. E. O. Wilson for the prestigious Indianapolis Prize and in 2021 he received the Aldo Leopold Memorial Award, the highest honor bestowed by The Wildlife Society. Mike has received several awards from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and non-governmental conservation organizations for his historic and unwavering efforts to restore imperiled species.
In 2006 Mike was elected to Montana House of Representatives where he served until 2012 when he was elected to the Montana Senate where he served through 2020. His legislative work focused on climate change and energy policy, and he was responsible for passing the nation’s most comprehensive legislation on geologic sequestration of carbon. This led to an invitation from the White House in 2009 to work directly with the Obama Administration and the US Senate on comprehensive green energy and climate change legislation.
Karla Raettig, National Wildlife Federation, Chief Advocacy Officer
Raettig has served as executive director of the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund, an independent 501(c)(4), since 2019. She previously led the Maryland League of Conservation Votes for 8 years and, before that, led NWF’s Mississippi River Delta restoration program and helped pass the RESTORE Act. Prior to joining NWF, Karla practiced environmental law at the Environmental Integrity Project, the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, and at the Seattle office of Earthjustice.
Karla has an LL.M in environmental and natural resources law from Tulane University Law School and a J.D. from Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon.
Kristi Chester Vance, Together Rising, Co-executive Director
Kristi Chester Vance (she/her) joined TREC in 2017 first as a consultant, and now as Co-Executive Director. Previously, Kristi worked at a frontline environmental and social justice organization for 18 years, with a focus on direct action and speaking truth to power. Here, she came to understand why and how long-term change requires relationship and connection, and that leaders must develop practices to ground themselves as they seek shared values to move from conflict to collaboration. Over time, Kristi evolved her theory of change to focus on supporting the well-being of passion-driven people to commit for the long haul to their essential work. Her passion is to support leaders and organizations to shift the collective dialogue toward what is shared and what is possible, rather than what is wrong and failing.
Kristi has completed studies in movement-based transformation, organizing under Marshall Ganz, and received certificates in diversity, equity, and inclusion, and non-profit management, and is a certified coach. She notes that all of her educational pursuits are in service to supporting purpose-driven people to nourish themselves and their dreams as they serve their communities and our world.
Kristi is inspired by never-give-up organizers and dreamers like grace lee boggs, Prentiss Hemphill and adrienne maree brown, and draws inspiration daily from her two daughters who, despite encountering the fears and unknowns of life, “get after it anyway – all day long.”
An East Coast kid who’s spent spells in the South, Midwest, and a dozen years in San Francisco, Kristi has called Montana home for nearly 15 years. She’s wanderer of mountains and a maker of all things from watercolors to savory waffles to winter sweaters. Kristi loves living amongst the mountains, vacationing amongst the street art, culture, and food of cities, and savoring life with her artist partner and beloved family.
Amy Ziff,
Made Safe, Founder & Strategic Advisor
For nearly 20 years, Amy Ziff has been on a quest to solve the "regulatory failure" of consumer
products. As the founder of MADE SAFE, she bridges the gap between world-class science and
everyday shopping. Her work has helped millions of people navigate product pollution, turning
collective purchasing power into a force for marketplace change.
Ziff is founder of Made Safe, creator of the MADE SAFE®
Certification, and pioneer of the comprehensive ecosystem approach that evaluates
substances in order to provide guidance for brands transitioning to safer materials.
MADE SAFE was America’s first independent, 3rd party cross-category certification program for
nontoxic consumer products working with companies to voluntarily eliminate harmful
chemicals. With MADE SAFE and the MADE Banned ListTM of more than 15,000 chemicals of
harm, she helps consumers easily identify products made without toxic ingredients.
Working directly with manufacturers, the revolutionary Exosystem Approach goes beyond
evaluating human health to institute a 360 degree screening to assess potential harms to air,
water, soil, animal, plants and aquatic life. The Ecosystem Approach delivers world-class science
to companies of all sizes.
With consumers, Ziff works to harness our collective purchasing power to change the
marketplace. She has built a robust community of people who want products that won’t harm
people or the planet. With her popular substack Clean Living In A Dirty Age she informs,
empowers and inspires people to tackle everyday pollution.
Throughout her career Amy has been an advocate for consumers and has spent decades
working to improve everyday products. She has consulted with hundreds of companies on
ingredient liabilities, opportunities for improvement, and product pitfalls ultimately improving
thousands of products.
Ziff has built partnerships with Hearst Media, Consumer Reports, YUKA, Moms Clean Airforce
and more. MADE SAFE was an early brand to work with Amazon’s Climate Pledge Friendly
program as well as at Wayfair. She has worked with corporate giants including Unilever, P &G
and Reckitt and disruptive start-ups helping to shape future products.
As a parent she has helped millions navigate product pollution. Amy is a 2-time TEDx speaker, an
award-winning wellness advocate, and certified CLEAN coach. She has been on a lifelong quest
to pursue healthy and clean living. Ziff’s daily mission is to make a healthy, home-cooked dinner
in 25 minutes or less.
Secure your spot today for this engaging, hopeful experience in beautiful Bozeman, Montana.
Working Agenda
Thursday, July 23, 2026
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7:30am Community Yoga
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9am Coffee Meetup
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10am Check in, Bozeman Scavenger Hunt, Meet & Greet
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11am Welcome & Honor Song, followed by lunch
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12-5pm Interactive Sessions, hour by hour:
12-1pm - Service Leadership, opened with Art Activity
1-2pm - Storytelling, opened with a Storyteller
2-3pm - Solutions in Policy & Partnerships, opened by Dancers
3-4pm - Sanctuary for Wildlife & Public Lands, opened with Visual Art
4-5pm - Soulfulness, opened by Live Music Group
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5-7pm Happy Hour
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