Featured Youth & Experts

Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben is an American environmentalist and writer focused on global warming and alternative energy. Beginning in 2006, he organized the largest demonstrations against global warming in American history. His first book, The End of Nature, was published in 1989. It is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change. His most recent book, Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, was published in March 2007. Bill is a frequent contributor toThe New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Orion Magazine, Mother Jones, The New York Review of Books, Rolling Stone, and Outside. Bill has been awarded Guggenheim and Lyndhurst Fellowships, and won the Lannan Prize for nonfiction writing in 2000.

Charles Jordan

Former director of Parks and Recreation in Portland, OR, parks advocate Charles Jordan is known for his twin passions for the environment and children. His leadership roles include co-chair of the National Park Service’s Land and Water Conservation Fund Review Commission; President’s Commission on American’s Outdoors; chair of the Conservation Fund; the National Park System Advisory Board; co-chair of the Urban Alliance for Parks and Recreation; Presidential appointment to the American Heritage Rivers Advisory Committee; member of the National Forest Foundation Board; trustee of the African American Experience Fund of the National Park Foundation; and president of the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon.

David Suzuki

David Suzuki, Co-Founder of the David Suzuki Foundation, is an award-winning scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster. He is renowned for his radio and television programs that explain the complexities of the natural sciences in a compelling, easily understood way. Recognized as a world leader in sustainable ecology, Dr. Suzuki is the recipient of UNESCO’s Kalinga Prize for Science, the United Nations Environment Program Medal and the Global 500. He is a fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science. Dr. Suzuki has written 47 books, including 17 for children.

Diane Levin

Diane Levin Ph. D. is a Professor of Education at Wheelock College in Boston where she has trained early childhood professionals for over twenty-five years. She teaches courses on play, media and violence prevention. An internationally recognized expert, Levin helps professionals and parents understand and counteract the harmful effects of violence, media and commercial culture on children. Levin is co-founder of Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment (TRUCE) and the Coalition for a Commercial-Free Childhood. Levin is the author of six books including her current book, So Sexy So Soon: The Sexualization of Childhood, with author Jean Kilbourne.

Dilafruz Williams

Dilafruz Williams, Ph.D. is Professor of Sustainability Education at Portland State University in Oregon, preparing administrators and teachers. A native of India, she is recipient of several awards for research and community partnerships. She has written extensively on environmental education, service-learning, and learning gardens. In 2014 she was awarded a National Science Foundation grant for Science in the Learning Gardens, a project for middle level students. She was elected to the Portland School Board, 2003-2011. Her recent co-authored book is Learning Gardens and Sustainability Education: Bringing Life to Schools and Schools to Life (Routledge, 2012).

Gary Small

Dr. Gary Small, M.D. is the Director of the UCLA Memory & Aging Research Center at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior. His research has made the headlines of The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and USA Today, among other publications. Scientific American magazine has named him one of the world’s top innovators in science and technology.

Jerald Block

Dr. Jerald Block, M.D. is a psychiatrist specializing in pathological computer use. Block published an editorial in the American Journal of Psychiatry arguing that “Internet Addiction” should become a new diagnostic term. He practices in Portland, Oregon.

Congressman John Sarbanes

Congressman John Sarbanes has served in the U.S. Congress since 2007, with two decades of experience working in the private, public and non-profit sectors. In 2006, he was elected to the House of Representatives. During his first term, John was awarded the Outstanding New Member Award by the Voice for National Service. He has been appointed to the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee and he is a member of the Natural Resources Committee with a special focus on parks and federal lands.

Jon Young

Jon Young is a nature awareness mentor and educator at Shikari Tracking Guild. Jon leads programs in California, and works with Wilderness Awareness School in Washington State on programs such as the Mind of Mentoring and year-long Wilderness Awareness Residential Program. Jon also works at the Art of Mentoring program at the Vermont Wilderness School.

Juliet Schor

Juliet Schor Ph.D. is a sociologist whose research over the last ten years has focused on trends in work and leisure, consumerism, women’s issues and economic justice. Schor’s latest book is Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture (Scribner 2004). She is currently researching environmental sustainability and its relation to Americans’ lifestyles. Schor is a co-founder of the Center for a New American Dream, an organization devoted to transforming North American lifestyles to make them more ecologically and socially sustainable.

Martin LeBlanc

Martin LeBlanc is the National Youth Education Director for the Sierra Club and also serves as the Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Children and Nature Network. Martin manages the Building Bridges to the Outdoors youth project and believes every child in America deserves their own special place in nature.

Maketa Wilborn

Maketa Wilborn is a national corporate and youth development trainer and human development consultant. He facilitates team building, diversity, cultural competence, leadership, and community drumming trainings. He is the co-founder and director of The New Wilderness Project and founder of CPS Consulting Group. He serves as the Team and Community Development Program Coordinator and Lead Facilitator at IslandWood, in Washington State and is on the Regional Board of Directors for the Northwest Association of Experiential Education.

Michael Brody

Michael Brody, M.D. is a child psychiatrist and chair of the Television and Media Committee of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He is a professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland.

Nancy Carlsson-Paige

Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Ed.D., is a Professor of Education at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA where she has taught teachers for 30 years, and a research affiliate at Lesley’s Center for Children, Families, and Public Policy. Since the mid-1980’s, Nancy has been researching and writing about how violence, especially in the media, affects children’s social development, and is a recognized national expert on this subject. She is a consultant for public television and has co-authored four books and written numerous articles on media violence, conflict resolution, peaceable classrooms and global education. Her latest book is Taking Back Childhood, released Spring 2008.

Richard Louv

Richard Louv is chairman of the Children & Nature Network and the author of seven books, including his most recent, “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder” (Algonquin). He has served as an adviser to the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World award program, is a member of the Citistates Group, appears often on national radio and television programs, and speaks frequently in the U.S. and overseas. He has written for The New York Times and The Washington Post, and was a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune and Parents magazine.

Susan Linn

Susan Linn is Associate Director of the Media Center of the Judge Baker Children’s Center and an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She has written extensively about the effects of media and commercial marketing on children. Her book Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood (The New Press) has been praised in publications as diverse as The Wall Street Journal and Mother Jones. Dr. Linn is co-founder of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. Her commentaries can be heard on NPR’s Marketplace and she has been featured on Sixty Minutes, Now with Bill Moyers, World News Tonight, and Dateline. In 2006 she received the American Psychological Association’s Presidential Citation for her work on behalf of children.

Thomas Joseph Doherty

Thomas Joseph Doherty, Psy.D. is an Ecopsychologist practicing in Portland, OR and founder of Sustainable Self. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal Ecopsychology, coordinator of the Ecopsychology Studies Program at Lewis and Clark Graduate School of Counseling, and helped author the American Psychological Association’s report on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change.

Tony Deis

Tony Deis is the director of TrackersNW, a wilderness education program in Portland, OR.

Trond-Viggo Torgersen

Trond-Viggo Torgersen, M.D. is an entertainer, a media personality and a medical doctor. He is known for his popular programs for children and young adults on television. Torgersen has also been a government official responsible for issues concerning children and head of the Norwegian television network NRK2. Torgersen now works as a consultant to the CEO of NRK.

Gage Reeves

Gage Reeves is a science educator at Vernon K-8 School in Portland, Oregon.