Amy Armstrong, Staff Attorney, South Carolina Environmental Law Project.
She started working for the South Carolina Environmental Law Project in September, 2002, after receiving a competitive two year fellowship from Equal Justice Works. In 2004 Amy transitioned into staff attorney at SCELP, where she represents environmental groups before state and federal courts and agencies. She has litigated cases involving protection of fresh and saltwater wetlands, endangered species, and water quality. Before attending law school, she worked with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, managing a population of federally endangered Red-cockaded Woodpeckers. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Georgetown League of Women Voters, the Winyah Conservancy, Keep Georgetown Beautiful, and is on the Executive Committee of the Sierra Club - Winyah Group.

Bonnie Barnes, Executive Director, North Florida Land Trust.
Bonnie is a former business owner in Jacksonville, FL for 14 years in advertising, marketing and public relations, and now uses those talents to help northeast Florida conserve critical undeveloped lands in seven counties. In 2000, she was "Small Business Leader of the Year" for the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce. She serves on Theatre Jacksonville Board and the Board of Girl Scouts and is a Co-leader of Senior age girls. Her troop just completed their coveted Silver award, which included the design, engineering, plan development, and building of a 200 person outdoor amphitheatre for one of the camps. For pleasure, Bonnie is an avid scuba diver who has been trained to volunteer monitor offshore reefs in northeast Florida.

Jeffrey Barrie, Filmmaker, Social Entrepreneur.
Jeff has spent the last 14 years producing more than a dozen award-winning environmental documentaries including the most recent, "Kilowatt Ours: A Plan to Re-Energize America." Barrie has led successful efforts to reform transportation policies in Tennessee, developed recycling campaigns in Southern California, and built a broad coalition of wilderness advocates a cross America. Barrie's current Kilowatt Ours Initiative aims to improve the energy efficiency of the Southeastern United States. Barrie was recently awarded a 2007 Tennessee Arts Fellowship, a lifetime achievement award, by the Tennessee Arts Commission, and the 2007 Conservation Educator of the Year by the Tennessee Wildlife Federation. He lives in Nashville with his wife Heather and their 2-year-old daughter Lily.

K.C. Boyce, Senior Project Manager, Atlanta BeltLine, Inc.
K.C. oversees a wide array of projects ranging from park construction to developing a sustainability strategy. Prior to joining the BeltLine, K.C was a Senior Associate at TopRight, a strategic marketing consulting firm, where he worked on projects ranging from business plan development to non-profit Social Return on Investment frameworks. Previously, K.C. was President of Boyce & Company, a consulting firm specializing in financial and organizational management. Active in his community, K.C. currently serves as a board member for Generation Green, the young professionals offshoot of the Georgia Conservancy, and as the chair of the Sustainable Decatur Initiative. He also co-founded and served on the board of the Young Professionals of Decatur and Net Impact of Georgia State.

Denise Michelle Carr, Career Center Specialist/Resource Lab Manager, Walters State Community College/Tennessee Career Center @ Talbott.
For nine years Denise has provided Workforce Investment Act services for a ten county area to customers of diverse cultural, economic, ethnic and social backgrounds. She has actively involved herself in being an advocate for women and children survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, the undereducated, economically disadvantaged and the preservation of the Tennessee Valley natural resources and historical legacy of East Tennessee African Americans. Denise has been serving since 2007 on the African American Task Force of East Tennessee (Executive Board Member); since 2006 on CEDNET, Community & Economic Development Organization; since 2006 on the Minority Action Team for Community Health Member (M.A.T.C.H.) of Upper East Tennessee. She has served as a C.E.A.S.E. (Domestic Violence Women's Shelter) Board of Directors member for 5 years, and is the Chair of the Fundraising Committee. Denise has served on the Hamblen County Foster Parent Review Board and is a member of the National Career Development Association.

Amadou Diop, Southern Forest Restoration Manager, National Wildlife Federation.
Amadou is a native of Senegal, West Africa. Amadou obtained his MS in the summer of 2001 and then joined the Federation of Southern Cooperatives as the Forestry Program Director. In June 2007, Amadou accepted a position with the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) in Atlanta, GA. As the Southern Forest Restoration Manager, Amadou is responsible for leading NWF's longleaf and forest restoration program in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Florida. Amadou, currently serves in the Professional Agricultural Workers Conference's advisory board and the National Network of Forest Practitioners' Board of Directors. Additionally, Amadou is a member of the American Agricultural Economic Association and the Committee on the Opportunities and Status of Blacks in Agricultural Economics.

Sonja Ebron, chief executive of blackEnergy.
blackEnergy is a national distributor of energy conservation products and an organizer of energy buying groups that help people use their utility bills to support Black communities. Sonja has published research articles in such areas as high-impedance faults, artificial intelligence in power systems, renewable distributed generation, and innovative teaching methods. She has held academic positions with the Florida Institute of Technology, Norfolk State University and Hampton University, where she taught energy systems and other electrical engineering subjects. Her professional background has also included employment with Carolina Power & Light and Gainesville Regional Utilities, where she held positions in distribution operations, strategic planning, and customer relations. Sonja is a former director of the American Association of Blacks in Energy and is listed in the 2005 and 2006 editions of Who's Who in Black Atlanta. Ms. Magazine recently labeled Sonja a change agent for "the belief that environmental and social consciousness can create satisfaction in the soul and the wallet." She is the only utilities expert listed at SheSource.org, an online braintrust of female experts designed to assist journalists who need female sources.

Christa Essig, Master's Candidate in Public Health, Emory University.
Christa's thesis research is in pesticide exposure for organic and conventional farm worker children. Presently, her jobs include Emory's Educational Garden Project Coordinator and as an intern in the CDC's Nutrition Department. Previous work includes as a Nutritionist for the social service food supplement program WIC, in electronics recycling, and in research for community food availability and pesticide exposure. Christa serves on the board of the Atlanta Local Food Initiative, Atlanta Community Garden Coalition, helped to start a farmers' market in her community, and was on the planning committee for the Southeast Bioneers conferences. At Emory, she is on the Sustainable Food Committee, serve as Campus Farmers' Market Sub-committee Chair, and on the executive board for the Rollins Environmental Health Action Committee.

Darryl Haddock , Environmental Education Director, West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA). Darryl is one of the primary individuals that coordinate the daily routine of forestry education at the Outdoor Activity Center, a 26 acre nature preserve in the heart of Southwest Atlanta. Darryl has a passion and commitment to young people, having chaired the scholarship program for his fraternity and facilitating conflict resolution workshops to middle school students in the period between employers. While at Georgia EPD he worked with the organization that became WAWA, the Utoy Creek Technical Advisory Committee, conducting environmental education workshops at Mays High School. He has completed facilitator training in programs like GA Adopt A Stream and Project WET. He facilitates environmental outreach programs using these and other resources to local schools, government agencies, and civic groups. He also provides administrative support to program staff and volunteers. Darryl prepares materials and equipment for monitoring programs, educational activities and community service projects.

Pilar Jan Penn, Founder, People's Law Center for Access to Civil Justice, Inc.
The People's Law Center provides legal resources and environmental education to support community activism around environmental justice issues. Pilar's primary focus is the impact of environmental policies on the health of communities, water quality, and environmental justice. For the past 8 years, Pilar has worked in both the non-profit and public sectors-she has held positions with the Southern Environmental Law Center in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the City of Atlanta Law Department monitoring the city's compliance with its court-ordered sewer overhaul. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt Law School and the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory. She is committed to environmental health advocacy and education and promoting the use of conflict resolution techniques to encourage peaceful agreements. Pilar serves on the board of the Vallecitos Mountain Refuge (www.vallecitos.org), a wilderness ranch and retreat center, is a certified yoga instructor, and loves to teach children how to read.

Brenda Rashleigh, Research Ecologist, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development in Athens, GA.
Brenda uses statistics and modeling to understand the relationship between environmental stressors and the health of the aquatic ecosystem. She has served as a Board President for the Georgia River Network and currently serves as the Vice President of the Upper Oconee Watershed Network and Regional Coordinator for Georgia’s Adopt-a-Stream program. She recently spent seven weeks as an Embassy Science Fellow in Pretoria, South Africa, working on issues of freshwater conservation.

Wade Sparkman, Environmental Health Director, Nassau County Health Department.
Wade was first introduced to the field of environmental health through the employment by the USDA Soil Conservation Service as a Soils Technician in 1984. For one year responsibilities included soils mapping of Nassau County, Florida dairy waste lagoon design, and environmental/agricultural site management. At the same time, the State of Florida passed new legislation requiring the Florida Department of Health to implement the use of the USDA Soils classification system into the design of onsite sewage disposal systems, thus creating the need for experienced soils technicians. Over the last 20 years, Wade sought additional knowledge, skills and abilities as well as multiple certifications, which led to his current position of Environmental Health Director. For the last 22 years he has served the State of Florida within the Nassau County Health Department holding additional duties as Disaster Coordinator, Safety Coordinator, and the departments PIO. He is looking forward to establishing a private water lab in his department. .

Jennifer Sparks, Marketing Team Leader, Whole Foods Market, Slow Food Greenville Convivium Leader.
Jennifer is responsible for the marketing and community relations for Whole Foods Market in Upstate, South Carolina, and has been a part of the company's marketing team in the South region for more than 5 years. She works to develop more and new opportunities to educate consumers and the broader community about sustainable, organic, seasonal and local foods through classes, taste events, collateral development, sponsorships, and PR and advertising, all with a special emphasis on promoting local growers and producers. Recently she founded a local convivium of Slow Food USA in Greenville, SC, and works with the nonprofit board to organize educational opportunities around the Slow Food mission of promoting "good, clean and fair" food. On a personal level Jennifer seeks to promote local and sustainable foods and lifestyles by organizing informal and pleasurable dinners and get-togethers with her friends and family.

Cindy Michelle Spurlock, Doctoral Candidate and Teaching Fellow, Department of Communication Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Cindy's teaching, research, and community engagement focus on environmental communication and public advocacy. With the support of a competitively-selected Ueltschi course development grant, she designed and implemented a popular service-learning course at UNC that foregrounds the connections between community and conservation from a hands-on, praxis-oriented perspective. Cindy is also an established campus leader with five years of experience in graduate student governance, and she will transition into the role of Graduate and Professional Student Federation president later this spring (http://www.unc.edu/spurlock). Cindy has spent the past five years studying contemporary rhetorical theory, environmental advocacy, and public culture at UNC, completing a doctoral minor in cultural anthropology and the graduate certificate in cultural studies. Her recent projects have explored local food politics and the rhetorical performances of place, tourism and nostalgia in rural North Carolina, as well as local community struggles against suburban sprawl. .

Gayle Goldsmith Tuch, Attorney, North Carolina.
Gayle practices primarily Plaintiff's personal injury law and is licensed in Ohio and NC. She graduated from Gerry Spence's "Trial Lawyers' College", which trains lawyers to represent "the poor, the injured, the forgotten, the voiceless, the defenseless and the damned" and protect their rights from corporate and government oppression. Gayle has been involved in environmental issues since the 1970s. She was appointed to the City of Cincinnati Environmental Advisory Council where she chaired the air committee. In 1991, she was asked by the City to form and chair the Cincinnati Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee. As a result of their work, the federal government granted $562,000 for bicycle/pedestrian improvements, which was matched by the city. Gayle is currently working with several local environmental groups and is hosting environmental movies at the local temple, which are open to the public.

Andrea Van Gunst, Community Organizer, Save Our Cumberland Mountains.
Andrea currently works in a coal community in east TN, a rural community in middle TN and staffs the organization's anti-racism work! SOCM is a grassroots member-run organization that has historically worked on environmental justice issues in the coalfields of eastern Tennessee. The organization is undergoing a transition to become a state-wide multi-issue organization focusing on social and racial justice as well environmental justice. A few months before coming to SOCM, Andrea completed a Masters in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development with a focus on how the sustainable development movement can better ally / align itself with the growing social justice movement in the U.S.

Allison Vogt, Coordinator, East Gulf Coastal Plain Joint Venture.
Prior to joining the Joint Venture in 2006, Allison worked as a legislative fellow for U.S. Congressman Tom Allen in his Washington, D.C. office. Allison has also worked on salmon and marine conservation issues in northern California both as a program coordinator for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and the Institute for Fisheries Resources as well as a Watersheds Stewards Project AmeriCorps volunteer. Allison attended the University of Georgia and earned both a Masters degree in Ecology and a Certificate in Non-profit Management.

Emily Woodle, Outreach Coordinator, Cumberland Habitat Conservation Plan, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Emily is the outreach coordinator for the Cumberland Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) project. She works in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and Tennessee Tech University to develop two habitat conservation plans in the upper Cumberland region of Tennessee. HCPs are apart of the federal Endangered Species Act and one form of adaptive governance. The project is developing HCPs with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and up to four local communities on the Cumberland Plateau. Prior to working with the Cumberland HCP project, Emily worked at Southern Alliance for Clean Energy as their air and climate program coordinator. She is a board member of the Knoxville/Knox County League of Women Voters.

Wei Wu, Doctoral Student, Rinker School of Building Construction, University of Florida.
Wei focuses on green building and sustainable construction; looks at the impacts of building industry on natural resources, energy, atmosphere, water, material and general ecosystem; analyzes the role of LEED® green building rating system in market transformation; investigates the social responsible investment in real estate and promotes environmental leadership in construction related business activities. Currently, Wei works as Program Coordinator in the Powell Center for Construction and Environment at the University of Florida for the LEED-Accredited Professional Training Program, which has been a unique initiative and influential program for promoting awareness of sustainability and green practice in construction industry of Florida.