Sandra Kwak is an executive strategist and systems thinker motivated by a passion for sustainability. She is Founder and CEO of social venture – 10Power – which works with under-served communities globally to build capacity for renewable energy, clean water, gender empowerment and ecosystem restoration.
Previously she worked with AutoGrid, transforming the energy efficiency industry by creating actionable intelligence out of big data from the smart grid. Sandra Co Founded and served as President and COO of energy efficiency company Powerzoa.
She has also served as CEO of a software company producing the world’s first mathematically lossless video codec: SheerVideo and founded PresidioSpace, a co-working and event space for sustainable ventures.
Sandra was on the team at PG&E that implemented the ClimateSmart program, which offsets carbon emissions associated with electricity generation. She has consulted with clients ranging from Mitsubishi to the San Francisco Foundation.
“Distributed renewable energy will change the course of human evolution to help bring us back in step with nature”
Ilana Lipsett is passionate about building community in urban settings and providing space and tools for people to re-imagine their cities. She creates spaces and experiences that bring together people from vastly different backgrounds, using culture as a means for bridging divides.
Ilana co-founded freespace (www.freespace.io), an initiative to temporarily transform vacant spaces into community, cultural and arts hubs. She was recognized by the Obama White House as a “Champion of Change” for Civic Innovation for her work with [freespace]. She has also worked with cities and property owners to provide cultural programming and temporary activations in both vacant buildings and public spaces.
Ilana believes that art is a powerful tool for engaging communities, and has worked with Bay Area city governments and private developers to commission public art through open, transparent and participatory processes to involve local communities.
She sits on the board of Code Tenderloin, a nonprofit dedicated to providing job training and placement for those with the highest barriers to employment. She has previously worked as the political director of a labor union, and a community organizer for workers' rights, and has led numerous advocacy and political campaigns for social and environmental justice.
You can hear her radio interview about creative placemaking and theories on change here
“So many of our problems could be solved if we spent time talking with each other instead of about each other. ”
Shana Rappaport has worked actively for over a decade as a community organizer and cross-industry convener to advance systemic sustainability solutions.
As Director of Strategic Programs for GreenBiz Group, Shana’s professional career is currently focused on building and scaling VERGE — the leading global event series accelerating the clean economy. VERGE convenes the world’s largest companies, public sector leaders, utilities and technology innovators, fostering a diverse ecosystem of influencers to advance systemic opportunities for business, the environment and society.
Shana previously served as Director of Education for the Bioneers, and as an instrumental, nationally recognized community leader during her time as an undergraduate and graduate student at USC.
Outside of her work with GreenBiz, Shana has served on the Board of Directors and Advisors for Project Drawdown, and as an advisor to the Restorative Leadership Institute and the Buckminster Fuller Institute’s Global Challenge; and is a trained leader of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. She is also currently working as Associate Editor on a book for Emerald Press and the International Leadership Association about who we need to become as leaders to fulfill the visions outlined by the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement.
“The stories we tell ourselves about the future are the most powerful tool we have for creating it.”
Amanda Joy Ravenhill is an active member of the international community focused on addressing imminent global challenges.
She is the Executive Director of the Buckminster Fuller Institute, dedicated to accelerating the identification, development, and deployment of strategies which radically advance regeneration of Earth’s ecosystems.
She also serves as advisor to the Center for Carbon Removal and is a member of the steering committee for the Nexus Global Regenerative Culture Lab.
Other positions she has held include Co-Founder and Executive Director at Project Drawdown, lecturer at Presidio Graduate School, teaching the Principles of Sustainable Management course; co-founder of The Hero Hatchery, a climate activist fellowship program; Business Partnership Coordinator at 350.org; and Americorp Sustainable Communities and Education Fellow.
Ravenhill is driven by her experience living and working internationally as well as her enthusiasm to integrate art and science. She lectures and speaks publicly on such wide-ranging topics as biochar, regenerative design, carbon drawdown strategies, mindfulness, and systems thinking.
“Planetary Regeneration or Bust!”
Lilia Tamm is Program Director of the Open Debate Coalition, a group made up of progressive, conservative, and Silicon Valley leaders dedicated to making electoral debates bottom-up to better reflect the will of the people.
Lilia spent her early career helping the progressive movement make the leap from traditional field organizing to harnessing the power of the grassroots online with groups including MoveOn.org, SEIU, Tuition Relief Now, and Environmental Action.
In 2008 she served as National Blog Outreach Director and Statewide Youth Vote Director for California's No On Prop 8 campaign, and founded the Courage Campaign Equality Program. Lilia returned to school in 2009, studying business and leadership as a graduate student at Stanford and rapidly accelerating technologies as a student and teaching fellow at Singularity University. Following her time there, she joined the founding team of mobile app start-up Connect.com and grew it to over 1 million users.
Lilia trains adult students on a variety of subjects, from design thinking to fundraising to giving and receiving feedback in the workplace.
“‘There’ is not better than ‘here’. ”
Miranda Dalton’s purpose is to support human kind in reclaiming our rightful place in the cycle of nature. A healer by profession and passion, she advocates for the truth that inner transformation creates global change. For over a decade she has toured internationally as a teacher of teachers, sharing integrative movement and healing arts. Her recent five day intensive training at Esalen Institute, called ReWild, focuses on using vibrational plant medicine, movement and mediation to deepen one’s relationship to the natural self that lies within. Her practice, The Authentic Body, is a comprehensive system of health that harmonizes mind, body and spirit. Her knowledge of the body and underlying variables is vast and her approach is joyful, sincere and transformational.
“Personal transformation has global effects and it is by returning to our center that we will transform the world.”