Special Guests

Anthony Geraci is a chef and experienced school food services director, currently serving as the Executive Director of Memphis City Schools Nutrition Services. He is the former Director of Food and Nutrition Services for Baltimore City Public Schools. Tony’s work to transform Baltimore’s school food program is featured in the film Cafeteria Man, and was recognized by the White House as a benchmark Farm to School program and a national educational model. Tony has been an enthusiastic practitioner and architect of the National Farm to School movement. Geraci was recently named by Food Service Director Magazine as one of the top 20 most influential non-commercial food service people in the country. Tony will be speaking after the screening of Cafeteria Man.

Alex Honnold is an American big wall free solo climber. He has broken a number of speed records, most notably including the only known free solo climb of the Yosemite Triple crown, an 18 hour 50 minute link up of Mt. Watkins, The Nose (El Capitan), and The Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome. He and Hans Florine are the current record holders for the Nose with a time of 2:23:51. Honnold says he likes tall, long routes and he tries to do them quickly. Alex is considered one of the most fearless (and consistently solid) climbers on the planet. He will be speaking after the film Honnold 3.0 on Saturday Evening at the Miners Foundry Stone Hall.

Anders Halverson is the author of An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World, which won the National Outdoor Book Award in 2010. He received his Ph.D in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Yale University, and currently lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife and three sons. He will giving a presentation on his work in the Activist Center on Sunday morning, and will have a book signing at Harmony Books at 3pm on Saturday.

Jeremy Jones, local pro-snowboarder, and a pioneering big mountain freerider, will be returning to the festival in connection with the screening of Jeremy Jones’ Further. Jones has a strong commitment to the environment; he now chooses to hike into the backcountry rather than use helicopters, which he and many other freeriders have relied on to reach big mountain slopes. After witnessing first-hand the impact of climate change on the mountains, he founded the organization Protect Our Winters (POW) which mobilizes the snow sports community to fight global warming. Jeremy Jones’ Further, the second installment in the Jeremy Jones snowboard movie trilogy, will be screening at the festival on Saturday Evening and Sunday Afternoon at the Miners Foundry Osborn/Woods Hall.

Bill McKibben is the author of a dozen books about the environment, beginning with The End of Nature in 1989, which is regarded as the first book for a general audience on climate change. He is a founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, which has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 189 countries since 2009. Time Magazine called him ‘the planet’s best green journalist’ and the Boston Globe said that he was ‘probably the country’s most important environmentalist.’ Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College, he holds honorary degrees from a dozen colleges, including the Universities of Massachusetts and Maine, the State University of New York, and Whittier and Colgate Colleges. In 2011 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Bill is a frequent contributor to various magazines including The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Orion Magazine, Mother Jones, The New York Review of Books, Granta, Rolling Stone, and Outside. He is also a board member and contributor to Grist Magazine. Bill has been awarded Guggenheim and Lyndhurst Fellowships, and won the Lannan Prize for nonfiction writing in 2000. Bill McKibben will be joining us via Skype from his home in Vermont Saturday night at the Nevada Theatre.

Caleen Sisk, the spiritual leader and Tribal Chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe of northern California, is the fifth Winnemem leader since the signing of the Cottonwood Treaty of 1851. She received her training and position in the traditional way from Winnemum Wintu Leader/healer Florence Jones (1907-2003) and now leads the tribe’s struggles to restore salmon in the tribe’s traditional waters, gain federal recognition of their sovereign rights, and protect their sacred places. Caleen will be speaking with the film Dancing Salmon Home on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. She will also be a panelist on the “Future of River Conservation” panel in the Activist Center on Sunday at 1:15, and the “What did the fish say when it ran into the concrete wall?” panel in The Haven on Saturday afternoon.

Craig Childs is a writer who focuses on natural sciences, archaeology, and remarkable journeys into the wilderness. He has published more than a dozen critically acclaimed books on nature, science, and adventure. He is a commentator for National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Men’s Journal, Outside, Orion, and High Country News. His subjects range from pre-Columbian archaeology to US border issues to the last free-flowing rivers of Tibet and Patagonia. The expeditions Childs undertake often last weeks or months, informing his writing with a hard-earned sense of landscape and culture. The New York Times says “Childs’s feats of asceticism are nothing if not awe inspiring: he’s a modern-day desert father.” He has been called a born storyteller by the New York Sun, and the LA Times says his writing is like pure oxygen, and “stings like a slap in the face.” He will give a multi-media presentation on his work and share readings from his newest book, Apocalyptic Planet: Field Guide to the End of the World on Saturday evening at The Haven. Craig will also participate in the panel discussion on “Restoring Rivers at Home, Resisting Dams Abroad: Hydropower, Rivers and Climate Resilience” at noon on Saturday in the Activist Center. And will share excerpts, along with an editor from Orion magazine, from Orion’s newest publication, Thirty-Year Plan, at a coffee talk on Sunday morning at The Curly Wolf.

Professor Daniel McCool’s research focuses on water resource development, public lands policy, voting rights, and Indian water rights. He is the author of: River Republic: The Fall and Rise of America’s Rivers (2012); Native Waters: Contemporary Indian Water Settlements and the Second Treaty Era (2002) and Command of the Waters: Iron Triangles, Federal Water Development, and Indian Water (1987/1994). He co-authored: Native Vote: American Indians, the Voting Rights Act, and Indian Voting (2007); Staking Out the Terrain: Power and Performance Among Natural Resource Agencies (1996, 2d ed); and Public Policy Theories, Models and Concepts (1995). He edited two books with his students: Waters of Zion: The Politics of Water in Utah (1995) and Contested Landscape: The Politics of Wilderness in Utah and the West (1999). His latest edited book is The Most Fundamental Right: Contrasting Perspectives on the Voting Rights Act (2012). He has served as a consultant for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U. S. Department of Justice, The ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, and the Southwest Center for Environmental Research and Policy. He will be a part of a panel discussion in the Activist Center on “The Future of River Conservation”, Sunday at 1:15pm and will have a book signing Sunday, 2:45pm at Harmony Books.

Garth Lenz is one of only 60 Fellows with the International League of Conservation Photographers. A central theme of his work has been the contrasts between the industrialized and natural landscape. His work has appeared in leading editorial publications including Time, The Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times, The Walrus, Canadian Geographic, The Guardian, and BBC Wildlife Magazine. His recent work has been largely focused on the world of modern fossil fuel production and its associated impacts on the landscape. His current projects address mountaintop removal coal mining, shale gas production, and the Alberta Tar Sands. Garth will be presenting his work on “The True Cost of Oil” in the Activist Center on Saturday morning.

Jen Marlow graduated from the University of Washington School of Law in 2010 and is a member of the Washington State Bar. Jen co-organized the Three Degrees Conference on the Law of Climate Change and Human Rights, and co-founded the Three Degrees Project on climate justice, serving as an inaugural fellow to the project. One of the first major centers for climate justice in the world, Three Degrees harnesses the power of the academy and the law to promote fair and equitable adaptation strategies in regions most vulnerable to climate impacts. Jen worked as an editor at award-winning Orion magazine, and then as the communications associate for the Portland–based think tank Ecotrust. Jen also co-organized the Inaugural Next Generation Leadership Retreat for The Center for Whole Communities to provide leadership opportunities for emerging environmental and social justice leaders. Jen will be speaking in conjunction with the film No Place Like Home, Friday night in the Nevada Theater and will be on the “Climate Justice, Human Rights, and Video Advocacy” panel in the Activist Center on Sunday afternoon.

Naturalist, educator and artist John (Jack) Muir Laws delights in exploring the natural world and sharing this love with others. Laws has worked as an environmental educator since 1984 in California, Wyoming, and Alaska. He teaches classes on natural history, conservation biology, scientific illustration, and field sketching. He is trained as a wildlife biologist and is an associate of the California Academy of Sciences. In 2009, he received the Terwilliger Environmental Award for outstanding service in Environmental Education. He is a 2010 Together Green Conservation Leadership Fellow with the National Audubon Society. He was the 2011 artist for International Migratory Bird Day. Laws has written and illustrated books about art and natural history including The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds (2012), Sierra Birds: a Hiker’s Guide (2004), The Laws Guide to the Sierra Nevada (2007), and The Laws Pocket Guide Set to the San Francisco Bay Area (2009). Jack will be leading a natural history hike on the Tribute Trail Sunday at 12pm, along with the Natural History Network and Sierra Streams Institute. He will have a book signing at The Earth Store Sunday at 2pm.

Kelsey Cascadia Rose Juliana is 16-years old and from Eugene, Oregon. When Kelsey was young, she learned how polar bears were being impacted by climate change. She soon realized that just as polar bears are having to adapt, people are too. In the rainy state of Oregon, warmer temperatures resulting from climate change means more rain and less snow during the winter months. Kelsey understands that we cannot take the health of our air and water for granted. That is why she, along with youth from across the country are, bringing legal action against our governments and asking them to protect our atmosphere. Kelsey will be the speaking at our Wild & Scenic School Program, on the “Climate Justice, Human Rights, and Video Advocacy” panel in the Activist Center on Sunday, and with the Stories of TRUST: Oregon on Friday night, Saturday morning and Saturday night at the Nevada Theatre.

Lorrae Rominger is the Executive Director of the Goldman Environmental Prize in San Francisco, founded by Richard and Rhoda Goldman, the largest award for grassroots environmental activism in the world, now in its 24th year of honoring environmental heroes for their struggles to protect the Earth’s natural resources. For three of the past four years, The New Environmentalists, the short films made about the Goldman Award winners, have been awarded the Northern California Emmy for best Public/Community Affairs Program Special. Lorrae has worked in film and television production for many years, and was the Executive Director of the San Francisco Film and Video Arts Commission for four years. Lorrae will speak about the Goldman Environmental Prize on Friday night at the Nevada Theatre in conjunction with the film A Voice for the Voiceless, about one of the 2012 Goldman Prize winners.

Malcolm Margolin is the founder of Heyday Books, established in 1974. The mission of Heyday Books is to deepen people’s appreciation and understanding of California’s cultural, natural, historic, literary, and artistic resources. Mr. Margolin’s vision has led the press to be especially active in publishing works by and about the California Indian community. Heyday has published more than thirty books on California Indians and since 1987 has been distributing News from Native California, a quarterly magazine devoted to California Indian culture and history. Many of the existing tribes indigenous to the state of California were nearly wiped out, due to disease, enslavement, and institutionalized genocide. Today, while a number of traditional cultural practices and Native languages are on the brink of extinction, News from Native California has been a strong force in helping to spark a revitalization of California Indian languages and cultures throughout the state. In his role as publisher Mr. Margolin has supported the revitalization of Native language, dance, basketweaving, storytelling, and religious practice. Mr. Margolin is the author of four books, the best known of them being The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area. Malcolm will be speaking at the Friday night Native American film session at the Vets Hall.

Ecologist, author, and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. is an internationally recognized authority on the environment links to cancer and human health. Her highly acclaimed book, Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment presents cancer as a human rights issue, and was adapted for film and screened at Wild & Scenic. Continuing the investigation begun in Living Downstream, Steingraber’s book, Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood, explores the intimate ecology of motherhood. Called “a poet with a knife” by Sojourner magazine, Steingraber has received many honors for her work as a science writer. She was named a Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year and later received the Jenifer Altman Foundation’s first annual Altman Award for “the inspiring and poetic use of science to elucidate the causes of cancer.” The Sierra Club has heralded Steingraber as “the new Rachel Carson,” and Carson’s own alma mater, Chatham College, selected Steingraber to receive its biennial Rachel Carson Leadership Award. A columnist for Orion magazine, Sandra Steingraber is currently a scholar in residence in Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. She is married to the artist Jeff de Castro, and they live in a 1000-square-foot house with a push mower, a clothesline, a vegetable garden, and two beloved children. Steingraber is featured in the film Dear Governor Cuomo and will be joining us via Skype following the film screening on Sunday morning in the Nevada Theatre.

Tim Palmer is the award-winning author of 22 books on rivers, conservation, and the environment. He is also an accomplished photographer with one of the most complete collection of photos of rivers in the U.S. For over 30 years, Tim’s writing and photography work have braided together his love of rivers and nature with his drive for creative expression and his deep commitment to conservation. Throughout his career, Tim has also been involved in river conservation. He is author of dozens of magazine articles and river studies, display packages, and brochures for conservation campaigns, including publications for the successful effort to designate the Kings River in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System and to protect the South Yuba River. Most recently, he authored the Western Rivers Conservancy’s “Great Rivers of the West” report, a survey of the natural qualities of rivers in eleven Western states. He has also served on the board of the national river advocacy group American Rivers and on the board of the national river organizing group River Network. Tim will be signing his two new books, California Glaciers & A Field Guide to California Rivers at Fest HQ on Sunday at 10am, and also at Harmony Books Saturday at 11am. He will moderate the “Future of River Conservation” panel in the Activist Center on Sunday at 1:15, and will be on the “What did the fish say when it ran into the concrete wall?” panel in The Haven on Saturday afternoon, and will introduce the film Chasing Ice Saturday night at Nevada Theatre.