Caleen Sisk-Franco
We are honored to present our keynote speaker Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu (Indigenous People of the McCloud River south of Mt. Shasta, California). Caleen is an internationally known speaker on traditional tribal and spiritual issues, having spoken on diverse topics such as spiritual medicine ways, the spirit of water, global climate change, sacred sites protection, and the responsibility of tribal people to honor their tribal life way. Click here to learn more!
Annie Symens-Bucher and Ajelaja Simon
There will be an all day workshop hosted during Friday prior to check-in at Butte College’s Chico campus for those of you who arrive early! Annie was first introduced to Joanna Macy in 1984, and currently serves as her personal assistant. She has traveled extensively with Joanna, participated in dozens of Macy’s workshops and is herself a facilitator of the Work That Reconnects. Adelaja stopped cooperating with business school to become a permaculturist. He lives in the Canticle Farm community in East Oakland, where he knows, grows, and locals local food and is an extraordinary singer and vegan cook. Annie and Adelaja will be hosting a Workshop from 9am to 5pm on Nov 9th at the Butte College Chico Center. [2320 Forest avenue, Chico, Ca room 146] Register by emailing [email protected] or call 1 530 895 2428.
Daniel Dancer: Art For the Sky
Art for the sky will create 70+ foot tall picture of a fractal snowflake made out of 300 student leaders (you) on Saturday. This event is a unique, team building activity that helps dissolve the boundaries that often exist in our daily lives. These enchanting creations are a whole-body way of stimulating our imagination to see the elusive “big picture” and help us understand our interconnection with one another and all life. With hundreds of people at a time collaborating in the creation of something beautiful, each living painting is a blessing and a promise to better care for our world and one another. Click here to learn more about the artist: Daniel Dancer: Art For the Sky
Kirsten Schwind
Kirsten Schwind, is Co-founder and Program Director of Bay Localize, a nonprofit building an equitable and resilience Bay Area. She authored Bay Localize’s Community Resilience Toolkit. Kirsten is deeply involved in local energy policy and co-founded the Local Clean Energy Alliance, the Bay Area’s largest clean energy advocacy alliance. She has also worked extensively in food systems and international trade policy at other nonprofit groups, including as Program Director at Food First, and once served as shop steward for her union. Kirsten also worked for several years in Latin America in human rights and the environment, and is fluent in Spanish.
Dwayne Edwards
Cultural Affairs Director at Butte College, has Associate degrees in both Economics and Sociology. He has always wondered what makes America tick so when I started going to college I decided the best way to figure that out is by looking at the social and economic aspects of this country. I started taking sustainability sociology courses and now my career in school has literally been to research as much as I can about the three pillars of sustainability. All too often though, people think straight to environmentalism without knowing the immense implications society and the economy have on creating a sustainable world. Dwayne lives to resolve that myth.
Victor Menotti
Victor Menotti was the IFG’s first employee upon its founding in 1994 and in 2009 became its Executive Director. Victor has written and spoken extensively about the impact of globalization on ecosystems, and he has helped build international networks among the traditional farming, forest, fishing, and indigenous communities whose survival depends on them. He is the author of the IFG report, “Free Trade, Free Logging: How the World Trade Organization Undermines Global Forest Conservation,” “The Other Oil War: The Halliburton Agenda on WTO Energy Services,” the chapter “WTO and Native Sovereignty” in Paradigm Wars: Indigenous Peoples’ Resistance to Economic Globalization, and, ”The WTO and Sustainable Fisheries” for the Institute for Fisheries Resources. Victor learned to speak Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and some Slovak, after earning his degree in International Relations from UCLA.
