PRESENTERS AND PARTICIPANTS
Click on a person's photo or "Read more" link to see their full bio
Osvel Hinojosa
Osvel Hinojosa is the Director of the Water and Wetlands Program for Pronatura Noroeste. He obtained his M.Sc. in Wildlife Ecology and Ph.D. in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from the University of Arizona. Osvel Hinojosa has been working in multiple conservation and research projects in northwestern Mexico since 1997, in particular in riparian and wetland areas of the Sonoran Desert... Read more...
Homero Aridjis
Homero Aridjis, one of Latin America's greatest living writers and environmental activists, is the author of forty-eight books of poetry and prose, including Maria La Monarca (Maria the Monarch), Eyes to See Otherwise (New Directions), Solar Poems (City Lights), and 1492: The Life and Times of Juan Cabezón of Castile (University of New Mexico Press)... Read more...
Chairman Dave Archambault
He runs as Chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to act on behalf of fellow Tribal Members to bring hope for change.
Adrianna Quintero
Adriana Quintero is the Director of Partner Engagement for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Executive Director of Voces Verdes. Adrianna started as an attorney in NRDC’s Environment and Health program litigating working on... Read more...
Carlos Fernández
Eric Balken
Carlos Fernandez is the State Director for The Nature Conservancy in
Colorado. Carlos joined the Colorado Chapter in January 2015 and leads a
staff of 57 employees... Read more...
Eric grew up in Salt Lake City, falling in love with Utah's mountains, rivers, and deserts at a young age. As a teenager, he volunteered for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, gaining experience in public land surveys, cataloguing organizational records, and grassroots organizing... Read more...
Diego Bagu
Graduate in Astronomy at Faculty of Astronomical and Geophysical Sciences (FCAG), National University of La Plata, Argentina. Soon to defend my PhD Thesis in Astronomy (FCAG). Topic research: Space Geodesy. Since 2014, diego is Management Director of Planetarium of La Plata (PCLP). He is also Researcher and Teacher at FCAG and at the Institute of Engineering of Arturo Jauretche National University (UNAJ).
Rep. Raúl Grijalva
Raúl Grijalva began his career in public service as a community organizer in Tucson. Four decades later, he continues to be an advocate for those in need and a voice for the constituents of his home community. From 1974 to 1986... Read more...
Rudy Arredondo
Rudy Arredondo is the President/CEO/Founder of the National Latino Farmers & Ranchers Trade Association (NLFRTA) who represents the interests, nationally, of small Latino farmers and ranchers in Washington, DC, organizing, proposing food, farming & agriculture policy recommendations to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Congress and think tanks... Read more...
Crisanta Durán
Crisanta Duran, the Majority Leader of the Colorado House of Representatives, is in her third term representing House District 5 in central Denver.
Rep. Duran has been a leader in legislative economic development efforts... Read more...
Tariana Navas
Tariana is the Director of Cultural Affairs at the McNichols Civic Building for the City of Denver Arts and Venues.
Leticia DeCaigny
Leticia DeCaigny is part of the Global Community Monitor (GCM) organization, an environmental justice and human rights non profit that empowers industrial communities to recreate a clean healthy and truly sustainable environment.
Jorge Figueroa
Tara Rodríguez
Tara Rodríguez was born and raised in Santurce, Puerto Rico. Tara graduated from the School of Architecture at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. For 13 years Tara has been working in photography, architecture, design, retail, art, construction and food... Read more...
As a Senior Water Policy Analyst for Western Resource Advocates, Jorge works closely with water providers, decision-makers, and partner organizations in the Mountain West to ensure communities can meet their long-term water needs while sustaining healthy rivers and robust outdoor recreation economies... Read more...
Martín Better
Gio Blackmon
Daniela Liebman
After having graduated in May, 2016, Martín Better has been playing music in New Orleans while working in public service. He is eager to perform music that consists of both sides of the American hemisphere. However, he has found that such work involves a language barrier, and wishes to learn from other bilingual artists who deal with this barrier... Read more...
Born in Connecticut in 1958, Gio began singing at an early age, with the intention to sing pop music. In high school, Gio joined the band and started taking alto saxophone lessons when he was 14. He also studied classical voice with Lee Dunkle. He got picked up by a band called, Black Strategy, which was offered the opening act for Earth, Wind and Fire... Read more...
Daniela was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. She began piano study at the age of 5, and has the distinction of being the youngest soloist in the history of Mexico to appear with a professional orchestra, when she debuted at eight years old playing Mozart’s 8th piano concerto with the Aguascalientes Symphony... Read more...
Rafael Lopez
Rafael López is an internationally recognized illustrator and artist. A children’s book illustrator, he won the 2016 Pura Belpré medal from the American Library Association for his illustrations for Drum Dream Girl and the 2010 Pura Belpré medal for Book Fiesta... Read more...
Mark Magaña
Mark Magaña is the Founding President and CEO of GreenLatinos, a national coalition of Latino environmental, natural resources, and conservation leaders. Mark is also the founder and principal of the Hispanic Strategy Group consulting firm... Read more...
Midy Aponte
Midy Aponte is an accomplished communications strategist intent on delivering meaningful results that connect a range of audiences to promote a common goal... Read more...
Eutimia Cruz Montoya
Yashira Jordán
Graduated in the career of Audiovisual Arts of the city of La Plata. Talent from Berlinale Talent Campus 2008 and Talent Campus Buenos Aires 2007. She wrote, produced and directed DURAZNO... Read more...
Matías Paradela
Matias Paradela was born in 1989 in Argentina he is a painter, illustrator & art director. He lives between Bolivia and New York, in Bolivia hew works together with the artist Keiko Gonzalez... Read more...
Eutimia Cruz Montoya is a Denver born-and-raised Mestiza of Arapaho, Apache, Diné, Comanche, Picuris, Tarahumara, Mexica, Spanish, French and German descent. She practices spirit in honor of all her ancestral lineages and by way of her Xicana-Mexica upbringing... Read more...
Falco
Carlos Alejandro Chang Falco (Falco) was born in Cuba in 1965 and works in the field of illustration, graphic design and graphic humor earning awards at national and international competitions. He collaborates with the UNICEF... Read more...
Felipe Benítez
Felipe Benítez has more than 15 years of experience designing and implementing strategic communications programs to enhance and protect the reputations of organizations, governments, companies, and brands... Read more...
Helga Garza
Helga Garcia Garza originally from southern Texas today resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she serves as the Director of Agri-Cultura Cooperative Network. A co-op of 9 organic farmers located in the South Valley and 25 allied farms throughout the State of New Mexico... Read more...
Alfonso "Piloto"
Nieves Ruiz
David Manzanares
David Manzanares is a sculptor; his indigenous roots and his desire to show the world the richness of Mexican culture shapes his artistic expression. In developing his professional work, the artist in question, has learned to look at art through different eyes, through a process that aims to share his art with diverse communities... Read more...
Alfonso “Piloto” Nieves Ruiz is a self-taught artist from Queretaro, Mexico who moved to Chicago in 1997. He is a skilled sculptor who works primarily with clay and recycled materials to create dramatic, surreal pieces that deal with social issues... Read more...
Darryl Vigil
T. Darryl Vigil, Jicarilla Apache, Jemez Pueblo, Zia Pueblo is currently the Water Administrator for the Jicarilla Apache Nation and Chairman of Water
is Life a Tribal Partnership. He is also the official spokesperson for the Colorado River Ten Tribes Partnership... Read more...
Josh Fox
So Young Lee
Jessica Powell
Jessica Powell has translated numerous Latin American authors, including works by César Vallejo, Jorge Luis Borges, Ernesto Cardenal, Maria Moreno, Ana Lidia Vega Serova and Edmundo Paz Soldán... Read more...
Americas for Conservation + the Arts Board member and Executive/Music Director at Rocky Ridge Music Center, received her Doctorate in Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the University of California, Santa Barbara... Read more...
Josh Fox is an American film director, playwright and environmental activist, best known for his Oscar-nominated 2010 documentary, Gasland. He followed that up with the HBO production of Gasland Part II... Read more...
Aura Vásquez
Juan Parras
Edgardo Gómez Pisco
Nancy Dammann
Jaime Chavez
Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish
Mister G
Kim Delfino
Robert Mandel
Franklin Cruz
Jared Polis
Robert Mandel, Americas For Conservation + the Arts Board VICE PRESIDENT, has been in academic and trade book publishing for over 34 years, 27 of these as a University Press Director... Read more...
Franklin Cruz, Youth Outreach and Conservation Intern, is a queer Latinx poet born in Idaho, raised in Texas and polished in Denver. A biologist by study, dancer and community leader,... Read more...
Nancy currently serves as the international facilitator for VASI (Amazonian Vision for an Integrated Sustainability/Visión Amazónica para la Sostenibilidad Integral) a community-based project founded by nine communities from the district of Sarayacu in the Peruvian Amazon.
Edgardo Gomez Pisco was born in the town of San Cristóbal, in the District of Sarayacu, Department of Loreto, in the Peruvian Amazon. His childhood was split between school in the town of Dos de Mayo and work and life on his parents’ farm on the edge of a near-by lake... Read more...
Kim Delfino is the California Program Director for Defenders of Wildlife. Kim oversees the work of Defenders’ California program team in protecting and restoring California’s imperiled wildlife and the places in which they live... Read more...
A Latin GRAMMY Award winner for Best Children’s Album, Mister G (Ben Gundersheimer) has been called “a bilingual rockstar” by The Washington Post and “irresistible” by People Magazine... Read more...
Jared Polis is an independent leader who uses his private and public sector experience to find pragmatic solutions to the challenges facing Colorado and the nation... Read more...
Jaime Chavez is a native New Mexican Poet, community organizer, filmmaker, who resides in the Manzano Mountains, east of Albuquerque... Read more...
Juan has been organizing community voices for years beginning as a social worker with the Harris County Welfare Office and later with City of Houston Section 8 Housing Department where he organized the workers at both offices... Read more...
As a project instigator, artivist, multi-ethnic writer, facilitator, student and teacher of permaculture and ecological design, Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish has long been passionate and active in sustainability, social equity, and cultural imagination... Read more...
Native Colombian, an advocate for environmental issues, and committed to advance a social justice agenda in the most vulnerable communities in Los Angeles. Aura join CPD to lead their climate justice work. She coordinates all of the national efforts and represent CPD in national tables such as the Ready for 100% campaign, The People's Climate March, and the US Climate Action Network among others... Read more...
Alicia Hinojosa
Trabajadora Social egresada de la Universidad de Sonora. Ha hecho trabajo comunitario durante 15 años en comunidades campesinas e indígenas mayos y yaquis.
Alicia es presidenta de la asociación de Escritores y Promotores de Cultura de San Luis Rio Colorado.
Paul Cawood Hellmund
Mike Cohen
Bianca Mikahn
Noemi Luján
Rik Sargent
Benita Duran
Yuliana Dimas
Chris Espinosa
Gabe Vásquez
Understanding and incorporating sustainability into land-use decision making is a driving interest of educator Paul Cawood Hellmund, as is exploring the role of project- and placed-based experiential learning for sustainability in higher education, a topic he is pursuing as a SoGES Visiting Fellow... Read more...
An avid outdoorsman who grew up fishing the waters of the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico, Gabe has a passion for increasing diversity within New Mexico’s public lands. With strong family roots in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Gabe has spent his career working in the Mesilla Valley and Washington, D.C.... Read more...
Since 1998, Michael Cohen’s work with the Pacific Institute has focused on water use in the Colorado River basin and delta region and the management and revitalization of the Salton Sea ecosystem. Michael received a B.A. in Government from Cornell University and has a Master’s degree in Geography, with a concentration in Resources and Environmental Quality, from San Diego State University.
Yuliana Dimas, a social worker for one of Mexico’s leading environmental organizations, ProNatura Noroeste, recognizes the cultural significance of restoring the flow of the Colorado River through its natural delta... Read more...
Benita Duran is a 5th generation Colorado native raised in Pueblo and currently living in Boulder. She has extensive professional expertise in community engagement and organizational capacity building, government affairs and workforce development arenas throughout the southwest... Read more...
Chris Espinosa serves as Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer for GreenLatinos. With nearly a decade of organizational management, federal public policy, coalition-building, and advocacy experience in Washington, D.C., he is a seasoned advocacy professional with a wealth of talent and a tremendous asset to the GreenLatinos team... Read more...
Noemi Lujan Perez’s career is a merger of diversity-niche public relations, social responsibility, and brand management across private industry and the public sector. Her 20-year portfolio includes Microsoft Corp., MGM Mirage Properties, Heinz Foundation, HITN TV, and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce... Read more...
Bianca Mikahn rocks the highest energy stages and fortifies the deepest learning spaces... Read more...
Rik Sargent left the university environment in 1972 to move home to Colorado and study with the local masters that were creating the realistic art known as western art... Read more...
Katie Millard
Tom Goldtooth
Tom B.K. Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Minnesota-headquartered Indigenous Environmental Network, is a social change activist for over 35 years, become internationally recognized as an environmental and climate justice leader... Read more...
Katie Millard acts as outreach manager for the Nature Conservancy.
Francisco Zamora
Francisco Zamora Arroyo joined the Sonoran Institute in April 2002 to manage activities in the Delta of the Colorado River. Dr. Zamora has more than fourteen years experience working in the Delta as a researcher and project manager... Read more...
Germán Gonzalez
Carlos Noboa
Erika Nuno
Carlos Noboa is a Ecuadorian multi-instrumentalist, co-founder of the Baracutanga band. The group is rounded out by an extremely talented and inventive cast performing on guitars, horns, flutes, accordions, vibes, an array of percussion and all manner of string instruments and is often joined on stage by Afro-Peruvian and Latin dancers.
German Gonzalez hails from Juitepec, Morelos, Mexico. He has a vast experience as a journalist for print media. He has held the position of Director of News in a variety of weekly publications, his first of which was for the La Buena radio, 1150 AM. He worked for El Comercio of Colorado, and since 2012 he has been the News Director for La Prensa of Colorado.
Erika Nuno is an accomplished multicultural marketing and communications professional with over 15 years experience developing creative integrated marketing solutions for products, brands and causes. Her social media work has been highlighted in Forbes,... Read more...
Fernando Pineda
Jerry Tinianow
Jorge Ramírez Hernández
Arturo Garcia
Karin Quimby
Doug Good Feather
Doug Good Feather is a respected member of the Denver Native American Indian Community and an enrolled member of the Hunkpapa Lakota from the band of Grandpa Chief Sitting Bull, of the Lakota Nation... Read more...
Karin Quimby comes to Moms Clean Air Force with a strong background in political affairs, coalition building and field management. Karin served as the Southern Regional Field Director and Deputy Director of Project One America at the Human Rights Campaign, and before that managed environmental issues for two elected leaders in California...