About

A. Keynote Speakers

Mayor Will Wynn
In addition to his local responsibilities as Mayor, Will Wynn has risen to a position of national leadership on energy and climate issues. Since 2004 he has chaired the Energy Committee of the 1,200-member U.S. Conference of Mayors and is a key member of the U.S. Mayors Council on Climate Protection. In August 2007 in Arlington, Wynn spoke on greenbuilding and local strategies for energy efficiency at the Texas Mayor’s Summit: Air Quality, Public Health & Climate Change – a conference sponsored by ICLEI which brought together mayors from Texas cities large and small and from across the political spectrum. In June 2007, Wynn was re-elected by the full body of the U.S. Conference of Mayors to chair the Energy Committee and was honored for Outstanding Achievement in the 2007 U.S. Climate Protection Awards. Wynn co-sponsored seven energy- and climate-related resolutions that were adopted by the full USCM at the annual summer meeting. In February 2007 Mayor Wynn unveiled an aggressive plan that sets the standard among cities nationwide in the growing campaign to address global warming. The Austin Climate Protection Plan will: eliminate GHG emissions from virtually all municipal activities by the year 2020; dramatically enhance the use of renewable power and demand reduction measures at Austin Energy; implement the most energy efficient building codes in the nation; and develop targets and reduction plans for GHG emissions community-wide. Additionally, Wynn was named Energy Executive of the Year by the Association of Energy Engineers; and, following Austin’s response to hurricane Katrina, was named Local Public Official of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers.

Reverend Lennox Yearwood
Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., is a minister, community activist, and one of the most influential people in Hip Hop political life. Firmly grounded in his Caribbean and Louisiana roots, Rev. Yearwood is a fierce advocate for the poor and minorities. A powerful and fiery orator, Rev. Yearwood works diligently and tirelessly to encourage the Hip Hop generation to utilize its political and social voice.

He currently serves as President of the Hip Hop Caucus in Washington, D.C. The Hip Hop Caucus is a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan, organization that inspires and motivates those born after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Rev. Yearwood is known for his activist work as the National Director of the Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign in which he organized a coalition of national organizations and grassroots organizations to advocate for the rights of Hurricane Katrina survivors. More recently, Rev. Yearwood has become an important figure in the peace movement. He was an Officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and recently led a “Make Hip Hop Not War” national tour to engage more young people in the movement for peace.
Rev. Yearwood was a co-creator of the 2004 campaign “Vote or Die” with Sean “Diddy” Combs. He was also the Political and Grassroots Director for Russell Simmons’ Hip Hop Summit Action Network in 2003 and 2004, and a Senior Consultant to Jay Z’s Voice Your Choice.

Rev. Yearwood, was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. He earned his undergraduate degree from University of the District of Columbia in 1998 and was awarded a Master of Divinity from Howard University in May 2002. Rev. Yearwood has been seen on CNN, BET Tonight, MTV, BBC, C-Span, and Hardball with Chris Mathews and featured in the Washington Post, The New York Times and VIBE.

Rev Yearwood will be speaking on how and where human rights, civil rights and climate justice come together in the movement for green jobs in the new green economy.

Gary Hirshberg
A true force for change, Gary Hirshberg has been at the forefront of movements working for environmental and social transformation for 30 years. From his early days as an educator and activist to his current position as President and CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm, the world’s largest organic yogurt company, Hirshberg’s positive outlook has inspired thousands of people to recognize their ability to make the world a better place.

A popular, entertaining speaker, Gary has taken his uplifting message to consumer and business organizations across America as well as worldwide. His topics range from the organic industry and farming to corporate social responsibility and the environment.
The husband of writer Meg Hirshberg, and the father of three teenage yogurt-eaters, Hirshberg, 53, has overseen the growth of Stonyfield from its infancy as a seven-cow organic farming school in 1983 to its current $300 million annual sales. This growth has been built with innovative marketing techniques that often combine the social, environmental, and financial missions of the company. One of the company’s five missions is “to serve as a model that environmentally and socially responsible businesses can also be profitable” and Gary has realized this vision in every aspect of the company.

Gary is a New Hampshire native and was one of the first graduates of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He has received six honorary doctorates. He serves on several corporate and non- profit boards. He co-chaired The Social Venture Network for 5 years and is the Founder of the Social Venture Institute, a “boot camp” for community-minded entrepreneurs. Gary has won numerous awards for corporate and environmental leadership.

Jim Hightower
National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the forthcoming book, Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be – consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.Twice elected Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Hightower believes that the true political spectrum is not right to left but top to bottom, and he has become a leading national voice for the 80 percent of the public who no longer find themselves within shouting distance of the Washington and Wall Street powers at the top.

Ted Glick
Ted Glick has devoted 40 years of his life to the progressive social change movement. After a year of student activism as a sophomore at Grinnell College in Iowa, he left college in 1969 to work full time against the Vietnam War. In 1973 he co-founded the National Committee to Impeach Nixon and worked as a national coordinator on grassroots street actions around the country, keeping the heat on Nixon until his August, 1974 resignation.

For the last four years Ted has played a national leadership role in the effort to stabilize our climate and for a clean energy revolution. He was a co-founder in 2004 of the Climate Crisis Coalition and in 2005 coordinated the USA Join the World effort leading up to December 3rd actions during the United Nations Climate Change conference in Montreal. In May, 2006 he became the national coordinator of the U.S. Climate Emergency Council. For three and a half months in the fall of 2007 he ate no solid food as part of a climate emergency fast focused on getting Congress to pass strong climate legislation.

Between the mid-70′s and 2005, Ted was actively involved in community organizing efforts around environmental, tenant rights, community development and racial justice issues in Brooklyn, N.Y. and northern New Jersey. On a national scale he has been a leader in coalition-building and independent politics efforts. From 1995 to 2005, he was the National Coordinator of the Independent Progressive Politics Network.

His prolific writing on the movement to which he devotes his life includes his 2000 book, Future Hope: A Winning Strategy for a Just Society, and his column, “Future Hope,” which has been distributed nationally for eight years.

Ted Glick will speak about what the science is telling us is necessary if we are to avert catastrophic climate change and what his personal experiences and study of history inform his views as how to build the kind of climate movement which can rise to the climate challenge

Br. ChiSing
Br. ChiSing is an ordained disciple of the famous Zen Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh as well as a commissioned minister within the United Church of Christ. He is also a Community College adjunct professor of World Religions, the founder of Interfaith Mindfulness Ministries, and the facilitator of one of the largest lay meditation communities in Dallas, Texas. He is a popular retreat facilitator around the country for Christian churches, Buddhist centers, college campuses and Interfaith groups. And he is a singer/songwriter, poet and “peaceful” peace activist, as well as a lover of travel, science fiction/fantasy movies and gourmet gelato. See his cool website at: http://www.intermindful.com/

Br. ChiSing will address the need for deep spiritual practice, especially that of mindfulness, to inspire our activism, prevent burnout and give lasting impact to our global efforts.

Camille Parmesan
Dr. Camille Parmesan is an Associate Professor in Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. She has been active in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since 1996. IPCC won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. She has been active in climate change programs for international conservation organizations, as well as being an expert advisor to the U.S. and other governments. Her field work has concentrated on impacts of climate change on butterfly ecology and distributions, while synthetic work has embraced global-scale syntheses of biological responses to anthropogenic global warming across broad taxonomic groups in freshwater, marine and terrestrial systems. Her 2003 synthesis of global biological impacts won an award from ISI Web of Science as “most highly cited new hot paper” for being in the top 0.1 % for numbers of citations of recently published papers (Parmesan and Yohe, Nature 2003).

Parmesan works actively with international NGOs and governmental bodies to bring the latest science on climate change impacts to bear on relevant management and policy decisions. She has given presentations in DC for White House and Congressional seminar series and is currently involved in synthesis reports for the US Climate Change Strategic Plan. In addition, Parmesan has given formal testimonies before the US House Select Committe on Energy Independence and Global Warming, as well as at the State level. She has also been active in climate change programs for international conservation organizations, such as IUCN (the World Conservation Union), the WWF (World-Wildlife Fund), the National Wildlife Federation, and was on the Science Council of the Nature Conservancy from 2005-2007. She was a Lead Author and Contributing author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 3rd Report (2001), as well as Reviewer and Co-author of the Uncertainty Guidance Report for the IPCC 4th Report (2007).

Peter Illyn
Peter Illyn, the executive director of Restoring Eden, spent 10 years as an evangelical pastor in the Foursquare church before heading into the wilderness for an record-setting 1,000 mile llama trek up the spine of the Cascade Mountains. According to Peter, “It changed my life. I went into the mountains an evangelical minister, but I came out an environmental activist.”Seeing climate change as a formidable challenge facing modern times, Peter preaches that a radical change in culture’s priorities starts with a change in the heart. Restoring Eden works with evangelical colleges and churches by encouraging nature appreciation, environmental stewardship and public activism as expressions of faith. Their mission is to help the church “rediscover the biblical call to love, serve and protect God’s creation.”

Tom “Smitty” Smith
Smitty has been Director of Public Citizen’s Texas Office since 1985. He is widely recognized for directing a multi issue consumer and environmental advocacy organization: directing and managing research; developing policy initiatives; analyzing, commenting and testifying on regulatory and legislative issues; and communicating with officeholders, policy makers, the public and the press. A major current initiative of Public Citizen is the Texas Energy Efficiency Partnership, a joint project with Environmental Defense and the Sustainable Energy & Economic Development (SEED) Coalition. The partnership advances state and local energy efficiency policies and actions to combat global warming.

In former lives, Smitty served as the food bank development coordinator for Second Harvest Food, developing food banks across a 15 state region in the southern United States. He founded and was first Director of the Houston Food Bank; served as Director of the SW Regional Office of the Community Nutrition Institute; and was a legal assistant with Prairie State Legal Services and Texas Rural Legal Aid. He entered the policy arena when he served as a Legislative Aide to State Representative Al Price from 1982 to 1985 before he began his career with Public Citizen.
Smitty received a Bachelor of Arts from Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana in1974, with a concentration in Urban Studies.