Astrid Caldas is the senior climate scientist for community resilience at the Climate & Energy program of the Union of Concerned Scientists, working on equitable climate change adaptation and resilience measures with practical policy implications for ecosystems, the economy, and society, also focusing on science communication to various audiences and media outlets. Before joining UCS, Dr. Caldas was a Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Climate Change and Wildlife Science Fellow at Defenders of Wildlife, and a research scientist at the University of Maryland. Dr. Caldas has advised or consulted on projects with organizations including the Smithsonian Institution and the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center. Growing up on the Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she is “a Bay person.” She moved from Rio de Janeiro to Maryland in 1996, and has been a Chesapeake Bay lover ever since. She is a member of the Board of Trustees at the Chesapeake Bay Trust, a member of the Education, Communication and Outreach Workgroup of the MD Commission on Climate Change, and a previous member of the Energy, Air Quality and Climate Advisory Board of Montgomery County. She works on various projects on coastal adaptation in Maryland. She holds degrees in Entomology, Ecology, and Environmental Management and has been quoted widely, including in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Time Science, and People Magazine. She has appeared on numerous NPR stations, PBS, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, Univisión, and Telemundo. She tweets under the handle @climategeek.

Tony Hiss is the author of 15 books, most recently Rescuing the Planet: Protecting Half the Land to Heal the Earth, now in paperback, and the award-winning The Experience of Place. He was a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine for 30 years and a visiting scholar at New York University for 25 years; he has lectured around the world and is a consultant on planning, place, biodiversity, and conservation issues. He lives in New York City with his wife.

Paula J. Ehrlich, DVM, PhD, is President & CEO of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, whose mission is to reimagine the way we care for our planet through actionable scientific research that supports communities in their stewardship of biodiversity. Dr. Ehrlich is co-Founder of the Half-Earth Project, which is working to inspire informed collective action to save the biosphere and ensure we leave no species behind. Dr. Ehrlich has led the development of the Half-Earth Project Map, a global, spatially-explicit, and taxonomically comprehensive map of species, which informs how well conserved places are protecting species and identifies priorities for future conservation. She is founder of Half-Earth Day, which brings together world-wide participants from across disciplines to share perspectives and thought leadership on how to achieve Half-Earth and ensure the health of our planet for future generations. Dr. Ehrlich has over 30 years of strategic scientific management and research expertise, and diverse academic, non-profit, and corporate leadership experience. Her current work embodies the hopes of the greatest naturalist of our time, E.O. Wilson.

Mike Slattery is the Regional Landscape Conservation Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Northeast Region. He serves in this role as part of the Service’s Science Applications Program, leading landscape conservation partnerships and grant programs in the Northeastern U.S., including the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Prior to joining the USFWS Science Applications Program in 2010, he was the Director of the Eastern Partnership Office for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, where he was responsible conservation grant making and financing activities across a 24-state region extending from Maine to Texas. During a 35+ year career as a conservation professional, he has also served as Assistant Secretary for Forests, Parks, Fish and Wildlife at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources; Director of Maryland DNR’s Wildlife and Heritage Service; Director of the Maryland Natural Heritage Program; and Director of the Maryland Nontidal Wetlands and Waterways Permit Program.

Driven by the belief that businesses should prioritize financial, environmental, and social success, George transitioned from corporate law to social entrepreneurship. He founded Council Fire, an award-winning global change agency helping organizations achieve sustainable success. Simultaneously, George understood the power of storytelling in the effort to drive action on the world’s biggest challenges. So, in addition to building a world class team of storytellers at Council Fire, he launched SustainaFest in 2014 with a focus on propelling global progress by curating authentic, science-based narratives that inspire action toward a sustainable and equitable future for all. Through storytelling and strategic collaborations, George and his team at SustainaFest are engaging with diverse communities to accelerate systemic change and have begun doing so through the production and distribution of the film Back to Camp 41.