Saturday, October 20th, 7:30pm
Location: Ballroom, Embassy Suites
Separate admission: $90
NOTE: Register early (this event always sells out well before the conference begins) if you want to raise the roof at the super-popular Bioneers Awards Dinner!
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Join Kenny Ausubel, Nina Simons, Joshua Fouts and the Bioneers community of leadership for a Dominican Republic inspired dinner and celebration to honor several true Bioneers leaders. Thank you to our inkind donors, and Chef Scott and Embassy Suites for curating this specialty themed and locally and sustainably sourced dinner.
Awardees
Alicia Salazar, born on the Putumayo River on the Ecuador/Colombia border, in the ancestral territory of her people, the Siona, emerged as a leader in her tribe’s resistance to the predations of oil companies. She is the Ceibo Alliance’s General Coordinator, where she works to develop programs to defend indigenous territories in the northwestern Amazon and to motivate other women to become protagonists in resistance movements.
Kevin Powell, a leading figure in the movement to redefine manhood and in contemporary American political, cultural and literary life as well as in the hip-hop arena, is the product of a single mother, absent father and severe poverty in his youth. In spite of those challenges he has become an acclaimed, prolific writer, authoring 13 books, including his autobiography, The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy’s Journey into Manhood.
Hernan Payaguaje, from the Siekopai community of San Pablo on the Aguarico River, comes from a long lineage of healers. One of the first of his people to attend university, he is a founding member and Executive Director of the pan-tribal frontline Indigenous group, the Ceibo Alliance, fighting to prevent the ravages of extractive industries in the Amazon and for Indigenous people’s land rights and cultural survival.
Nemonte Nenquimo, raised in the traditional Waorani community of Nemonpare in Ecuador, is one of the founding members of the indigenous organization Ceibo Alliance, which works to defend Indigenous people’s lands and rights in the Ecuadorian Amazon region. Nemonte is also passionately engaged in the struggle to uplift Indigenous women across the Amazon.
Jacqueline Martinez Garcel, CEO of the Latino Community Foundation (LCF), has, at LCF, helped create one of the largest networks of civically engaged Latino philanthropists in the country, led highly effective Latino voter engagement campaigns and collaborated with Google to launch the first Latino Non-Profit Accelerator. Previously Vice President of the New York State Health Foundation, Jacqueline has served on many boards and currently co-chairs the National Latino Funds Alliance.
Patrisse Cullors, a Los-Angeles native artist, organizer and scholar who, in 2013, co-founded #BlackLivesMatter, which has grown into an international organization with dozens of chapters fighting anti-Black racism, has won many awards including The Sydney Peace Prize Award (2017) and Black Woman of the Year Award (2015) from The National Congress of Black Women. She recently produced a series of theatrical pieces: Power: From the Mouths of the Occupied.
Emergildo Criollo, a member of the Kofán nation whose people and family suffered horrific tragedy as a result of the Texaco oil company’s devastation of their ancestral lands, co-founded the Ceibo Alliance along with members of three other indigenous nations. Currently Treasurer of the alliance, Emergildo is working tirelessly to build a united indigenous movement for cultural survival and territorial protection in the western Amazon.
Edna Chavez, an 18-year old activist from South Central Los Angeles and an entering freshman at Cal State LA, has lost many friends and family member to gun violence. She was a key participant in the March for Our Lives event and has become a leading gun control advocate and student voter registration organizer.
Gar Alperovitz, Ph.D., President of the National Center for Economic and Security Alternatives, co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative and co-chair of the Next System Project, has had a distinguished career as a historian, political economist, professor, scholar, activist, policy expert, and government official. The author of many critically acclaimed books, including on atomic diplomacy, his articles are widely published in leading news outlets, and he has frequently testified before Congress.
Mitch Anderson, founder and Executive Director of Amazon Frontlines, has spent the past 15 years supporting the struggles of indigenous peoples across the Americas. In 2011 he moved to Ecuador to work on clean water projects with Indigenous communities living downriver from contaminating oil operations, leading him to help support the creation of the Ceibo Alliance, an indigenous movement for land, life, and cultural survival in the western Amazon.