Climate Justice Activist

Born to environmentalist parents, Xiye, which means “soft rain”, is Indigenous Mexican on her father’s side and European Chilean on her mother’s and is part of the Otomi Indigenous group in Mexico. She grew up learning Indigenous philosophies with a main tenet being  'we all take care of the earth, because the earth takes care of us'. Her devotion to nature began with her father, who shared all of his wisdom with his daughter about the responsibility humans have to live in balance with nature and to ‘leave everything better than you found it.’ This ignited her passion for climate activism at such a young age.

Climate Activist & Politician

Luisa Neubauer is a 26-years old climate activist from Germany and the most prominent representative of the German climate movement. In 2022, the TIMES listed her as one of the 100 global emerging voices. In 2018 she met the Swedish student Greta Thunberg at the UN Climate Change Conference and then started the movement in Germany together with other activists. In January 2020, Luisa Neubauer protested together with Fridays for Future against Siemens' participation in the planned Australian hard coal mine Carmichael and met Joe Kaeser several times. In 2021 she and others won a climate litigation case against the German Government, which has been considered a historic ruling.

Artivist

Benjamin Von Wong's work lies at the intersection of fantasy and photography and combines everyday objects with shocking statistics. It has attracted the attention of corporations, like Starbucks, Dell, and Nike and has generated over 100 million views for causes like ocean plastics, electronic waste, and fashion pollution. Most recently, he was named one of Adweek's 11 content branded masterminds.

He is also the host of the Impact Everywhere Podcast and a creative advisor for the Ocean Plastic Leadership Network and the Sustainable Ocean Alliance.

Musician

Madame Gandhi is an award-winning artist and activist known for her uplifting, percussive electronic music and positive message about gender liberation and personal power. She began producing music in 2015, after her story running the London Marathon free-bleeding to combat menstrual stigma went viral around the world. She is the former drummer for artists M.I.A and Thievery Corporation. She has been listed as a TED Fellow, Forbes 30 Under 30 in Music and BBC 100 Women. In June 2023, she was awarded the Songwriter's Hall of Fame Abe Olman Prize for excellence in songwriting and leadership.

Journalist & Educator

Melissa Jun Rowley works at the forefront of tech, media and social change as a prominent writer, entrepreneur, and speaker highlighting solutions-focused journalism. As a contributor for BBC News and Forbes, she covers the intersection of business, culture, and entrepreneurship. For more than a decade, Melissa has produced storytelling strategies for global brands, startups, and venture capital firms. Content strategy and communications clients have included MasterCard, Lexus, Insight Partners, Silicon Valley Bank, Macy's and more. Additionally, Melissa is the founder of Warrior Love Productions, a production house developing media projects designed to foster cross-cultural understanding and collaboration.

Climate Advocate & Supermodel

Born and raised in an Indigenous community in the remote Brazilian Amazon, Zaya Guarani belongs to a line of strong women who have led their communities as both shamans and spiritual guides. Continuing her ancestral tradition of political and spiritual engagement, Zaya has chosen to dedicate her platform as an internationally renowned model to the ongoing global struggle for Indigenous rights and climate justice. A member of the powerful Kamurape and Guarani Mbya ethnicities, Zaya initially infused her traditional Indigenous upbringing with a German school education after earning a scholarship in Rio de Janeiro at the age of 16. As an Indigenous Brazilian activist and speaker, Zaya first achieved fame in her country as the first fully Indigenous model raised in the Amazon rainforest before gracing the pages of Vogue Brasil, Elle, Harper's Bazaar.

Nicole Gibson is a passionate advocate for Emotional Health and one of Australia's top 100 most influential women. She's leading Love Out Loud to ignite a global shift in consciousness. From her experiences with over a million individuals, facilitating communities all over the world, to her role as the youngest Commonwealth Mental Health Commissioner, Nicole has been on the frontlines, championing the power of love to fuel transformative change. This hub is a collective staging ground for impact. It's not just a community, it's the heartbeat of a movement where Emotional Balance is the most powerful and effective path to empowered decision making in all areas of life.

Cacao Entrepreneur & Ceremonialist

Florencia Fridman is a self-empowerment artist working with heart opening therapies involving Ceremonial Grade Cacao, yoga, sound journeys, and breath as instruments for transformation. Florencia is passionate about supporting the voices of indigenous nations, wisdom keepers, and guardians of the sacred lands. She studies under Tz’utujil Mayan elder Nana Marina Cruz from Guatemala and Manari Ushigua from the Sapara Nation of Ecuador. She has been working with rebirthing (a breathing modality) since the age of 8 with the guidance of her mother and Leonard Or. Florencia graduated from Laughing Lotus Yoga Center in 2013 and has been traveling internationally sharing her passion for Theobroma Cacao through education and ceremony. Florencia has opened for Deepak Chopra and has facilitated ceremonies for the corporate world at Spotify.

Ocean Champion

Bodhi Patil's goal is to improve the lives of young people by teaching them tools and frameworks to discover their InnerLight: building a strong body, calm mind and vibrant spirit for planetary wellbeing. This is how he overcame fear, anxiety, and depression and he believes this is needed today more than ever before as 7 in 10 youth experience climate anxiety and stress. Bodhi has educated hundreds of thousands of people across the globe about InnerLight, through workshops, conferences, media content, and community building. The ocean-climate-biodiversity crisis is an opportunity to radically transform human relations with nature through intergenerational collaboration and solution-building. Bodhi is doing that now as the Founder & CEO of InnerLight, co-founder of One World Breath, co-creator of Ocean Uprise, and advisor to a suite of climate companies.

Artivist

Shilo Shiv Suleman is an award-winning Indian artist whose work lives and breathes at the intersection of Magical Realism, Art, Nature, Culture, Technology, Feminine Energy and Social Justice. Her work is unapologetically embodied weaving together the sensual and sacred, past and future- through paintings, wearable sculptures, interactive installations and public art interventions. Her practice is an extension of the diverse abundance and sensuality of precolonial India- sometimes reclaimed (and sometimes imagined) but deeply rooted in ceremony, ritual and earth magic. She is the founder and director of the Fearless Collective- a movement in replacing fear with love in public space.
Over the last few years, she has worked with communities across the world in 12 different countries by facilitating and leading public art interventions with indigenous communities in Brazil, refugee and migrant communities in Beirut, queer activists in South Africa and transgender activists in Pakistan and more.

Renaissance Woman

Monica Dogra is a multi-disciplinary artist blurring lines, making space, opening minds, and lifting the vibe. As a musician, she has released 6 studio albums, with two of her recent singles charting on Apple Music at top 10 on the dance charts in India. She has also forayed into the medicine music space, releasing her first medicine song with international legends Mose and Franko Heke in June 2021. She has been labeled “ambassador of the New India” and “queen of indie” by Republic of Brown and Grazia Magazine, as well as cited one of the “50 most Influential women in India” by Elle Magazine. Monica was awarded India’s best female DJ award by the india nightlife commission in 2019 and in 2021 released a podcast called REVERENCE exploring the spiritual journeys of some of the most famous creatives in India.

Entrepreneur & Environmentalist

Angela del Sol Varela is a renaissance woman with a diverse background spanning art, technology, sustainability, and community building. As a climate entrepreneur, curator, and creative strategist with a global perspective, she has dedicated the past decade to bridging the digital and physical realms through immersive experiences that blend performance art, technology, and storytelling. Her remarkable portfolio includes curating festivals, art fairs, conventions, events, and meetups across five continents. She showcases her mastery in transforming big ideas into unforgettable and thought-provoking experiences. Passionate about leveraging art and culture as catalysts for positive social and environmental change, Angela del Sol sees herself first and foremost as an artist. She offers invaluable support to mission-driven brands through branding, marketing, and fundraising crafting captivating campaigns that help establish unique identities and resonate deeply through creativity and purpose.

Ashely Barrientos is a Mexican American writer and journalist. She started as a Content Contributor for Impact, writing on issues she was was passionate about— fast forward to today, and she is an Editor for Environment, a climate platform with over 800k followers, where they have fundraised over $200k for important causes like earthquake relief in Turkiye and Syria, wildfire relief in Maui, and flooding relief in Pakistan. They have driven thousands of people to sign important petitions, witnessing the real-world impact of their platform.

Thalia Yarina Carroll-Cachimuel (she/her), is a Kichwa warmi from Otavalo, Ecuador. Thalia’s professional career has been rooted in the realm of reimaging philanthropy, uplifting BIPOC organizations, and advocating for Indigenous communities through political policies. She is the curator of ‘The Fight to Free Leonard Peltier – Honoring Indigenous Culture & Heritage” and “Free Leonard Peltier” political advocacy exhibitions. Thalia is an alumnus of the Fellowship for Emerging Leaders in Public Service at NYU Wagner and holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Human Services from Northeastern University.

Eva Kruse, Chief Global Engagement Officer, PANGAIA. Eva is an experienced apparel industry executive and has pioneered social and environmental responsibility in fashion as the founder and former CEO of Global Fashion Agenda and the Global Fashion Summit. Eva’s CV includes many other roles, including founder and CEO of Copenhagen Fashion Week and she also served as editor in chief of magazines and as tv-presenter on national TV in Denmark. On behalf of PANGAIA and in partnership with Re:wild, Eva is currently working on rallying a new coalition for an ambitious global campaign to restore biodiversity, save our pollinators and unlock nature-based climate solutions. The new initiative is called Bee:wild.

Madeleine MacGillivray (she/her) is a lifelong climate justice advocate and science communicator. Madeleine is the Climate Communications and Policy Coordinator at Seeding Sovereignty, where she educates and organizes at the intersection of plastics and climate. She hosts a podcast called Supersede, which answers the big collective question, "What can I do to further climate justice?” by featuring passionate climate doers across all sectors who have found their climate superpowers. 

Renowned human rights lawyer, writer, front-line defender, and activist Steven Donziger has been internationally heralded for his focus on addressing human rights abuses and corporate malfeasance. Known for his “Herculean tenacity” (Business Week), Steven is part of the team working with indigenous and farmer communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest, who won a historic $9.5B judgement against Chevron for the environmental cleanup of what experts consider to be one of the worst oil-related catastrophes in the world.

Author

Alden Wicker is an award-winning journalist, sustainable fashion expert, and author of To Dye For: How Toxic Fashion Is Making Us Sick – and How We Can Fight Back. The book was featured on NPR’s Fresh Air, and won the 2024 silver Nautilus Book Award for Journalism and Investigative Reporting. She has written investigative pieces and deep dives on innovation, materials, and consumer trends for The New York Times, BBC, Wired, The Cut, Heatmap News, Vox, Vogue, Mongabay, and more. Alden is also the founder and editor of EcoCult, a leading international information hub on sustainable and ethical fashion, where I and contributors explain the science and sustainability of fashion to shoppers and industry pros alike.

Artist

Zaria Forman documents climate change with pastel drawings. She travels to remote regions of the world to collect images and inspiration for her work, which is exhibited worldwide. She has flown with NASA on several Operation IceBridge missions over Antarctica, Greenland, and Arctic Canada. She was featured on CBS Sunday Morning, CNN, PBS, and BBC. She delivered a TEDTalk, and spoke at Amazon, Google, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, exhibited in Banksy’s Dismaland, and was the artist-in-residence aboard the National Geographic Explorer in Antarctica. Forman curated the first ever, permanent, polar art exhibitions aboard Lindblad Expeditions National Geographic Endurance and the National Geographic Resolution.

Director of Litigation + Advocacy Partnerships

Jeremy Orr is the director of litigation and advocacy partnerships at Earthjustice. In this role, he helps Earthjustice’s offices, programs, and departments build strategies to deeply engage and genuinely partner with communities and other stakeholders. With a background in community organizing and community lawyering, Jeremy has also served as the director of organizing for Interfaith Worker Justice, an environmental justice attorney for the Transnational Environmental Law Clinic, the executive director of the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, and a lead community organizer with the Gamaliel Foundation.

Vera Papisova is a Russian-American journalist recognized for her pioneering work as the first digital wellness features editor at Teen Vogue. In this role, she has covered a wide range of topics including drug education, gender, identity, mental health, sexual health, sexuality, trauma, and overall wellness. Her contributions have focused on important social issues aimed at educating and empowering young readers.