Spokane Bioneers Conference 2008

Paul Stamets is one of the world's most brilliant explorers of the fungal realm, author of six books including Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World. His work is leading to cascades of potentially world-changing nutritional, medicinal and environmental technologies.

Erica Fernandez, 18, born and raised in Michoacán, Mexico until age ten, is a remarkable young environmental activist in Oxnard, California, who, initially motivated to fight air pollution because of her asthma, helped mobilize her whole diverse community to defeat the placement of a liquefied natural gas facility just offshore.

Ray Anderson is the most successful visionary "green business" leader in America, founder and chairman of Interface Inc., the world's largest manufacturer of modular carpet and a leading producer of commercial fabrics.

Kavita Ramdas, the president and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, is one of the most effective international leaders working to empower women around the world by increasing girls' access to education, defending women's health and reproductive rights, preventing violence against women, and advancing women's political participation at all levels.

Alexandra Cousteau, born in 1976, granddaughter of the legendary Jacques-Yves Cousteau, is a leading activist and advocate for the conservation and restoration of the planet's oceans and sustainable management of its water resources. A member of the third generation of the Cousteau family to devote their lives to the natural world, she learned to scuba dive with her grandfather when she was seven and hasn't stopped exloring since. Raised in France and the U.S., Alexandra, who co-founded EarthEcho International with her brother Philippe in 2000, is a 2008 National Geographic Emerging Explorer and has spoken to audiences at the UN , Harvard University and the Smithsonian, among numerous other institutions. Alexandra founded her own organization, Blue Legacy, in 2008 and is preparing to launch a global initiative, the Blue Campaign.

Janine Benyus is dazzlingly brilliant naturalist and the author of six books, including the groundbreaking Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. She is co-founder of the Biomimicry Guild, which helps designers, engineers and community leaders "consult life's genius for more graceful ways to live on earth."

Dune Lankard, a native Athabaskan Eyak from the Copper River Delta of Alaska, was a commercial fisherman in Prince William Sound when the Exxon Valdez disaster made him an activist and social entrepreneur, dedicating his life to protecting human rights and the environment. Selected by Time magazine as one of its "Heroes of the Planet," he is a co-founder of the RED OIL Network (Resisting Environmental Degradation of Indigenous Lands).

David Orr, chair of the renowned Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin, is one of the nation's most important pioneers in the sustainability movement, in environmental literacy in higher education and in ecological design. He is the author of the profoundly influential books, The Nature of Design, Earth In Mind; Ecological Literacy; and The Last Refuge.

Greg Watson, long one of the most effective, leading-edge environmental leaders on the East Coast, has gone from community organizing in Boston to leading initiatives for The Nature Conservancy and the New Alchemy Institute to becoming Commissioner of Massachussetts' Department of Agriculture to being the first Director of the Massachusetts Office of Science and Technology to now taking the helm of one of the nation's most important alternative energy projects, the Offshore Wind Collaborative.

Sandra Steingraber, dubbed "the new Rachel Carson" by the Sierra Club, is an ecologist/biologist and cancer survivor, an internationally recognized expert on the environmental links to cancer and reproductive health, and the author of several books, including the award-winning, Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment and Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood.

Lucas Benitez, co-director of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, is helping lead one of the most important labor struggles in recent U.S. history. A farmworker from Guerrero, Mexico, he came to the U.S. on his own when he was 16 to help support his five brothers and sisters. By organizing fellow migrant farmworkers, Lucas helped secure the first wage increase for tomato pickers in 20 years and exposed and stopped two slavery rings.

Christine Loh, with a stellar background in law, business, politics and media, is a leading voice on public policy in Hong Kong and internationally, and is the co-founder and CEO of the think tank Civic Exchange. Formerly Loh served on the Hong Kong Legislative Council and had a successful career in business. She writes extensively about politics, energy/climate change, and sustainable development in mainstream and academic publications, has written and edited many books, and is an international adviser to many prestigious groups, including the G8+5 Climate Change Dialogue. A member of Asia Society's International Council (and co-chair of human rights in China), Christine has been widely recognized for her achievements, including as one of TIME's "Heroes of the Environment."

Naomi Klein, one of the most important political and economic thinkers of our time and a penetrating critic of global corporate capitalism's excesses, is a Canadian activist, investigative journalist, filmmaker and author of bestselling books such as No Logo, and, most recently, The Shock Doctrine : The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.

Rebecca Moore, an eco-activist and engineer, manages the Google Earth Outreach program, which supports activists, communities and indigenous peoples around the world in learning how to apply Google's mapping tools to the world's pressing problems in areas such as environmental justice, cultural preservation, conservation and creating a sustainable society.

Rick Reed is a leading figure in RE-AMP, a seven-state network of nonprofits and foundations, striving for Midwest leadership in 21st century clean energy by reducing electricity sector global warming pollutants 80 percent by 2030.