Hannah Alexander
Hannah Alexander is an environmental educator who specializes in plant-insect relationships. A beekeeper, master gardener, certified horticulturist, and professional nature photographer, she uses her unique perspective to inspire others to connect with the natural world. Hannah has partnered with influential brands like Sony, TikTok, Tractor Supply, and local nature preserves to bring eco-education to a wide audience. As a writer, she shares her passion for nature through engaging articles and educational content. Through her work, Hannah is dedicated to helping people recognize the beauty in the small, often overlooked details of nature, fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of our environment. When she's not teaching or writing, she’s a devoted mother, balancing her professional life with her commitment to environmental advocacy.
Johanna Edmonson
Johanna Edmondson is the founder of The Female Fight Club NYC. Since its founding in 2020, this establishment has become a pillar in the Riverdale community. Her organization demonstrates an authentic investment in women’s health through creating a comfortable space for women to exercise and offering specialized training programs that promote health and well-being. As a successful business owner, community leader, children’s book author, and honored New Yorker of the Week, she is passionate about serving those in need through various volunteer initiatives.
Meghan Finn
Meghan Finn is a director of theater and film. She has directed over 50 fully-staged theatrical productions in contemporary playwriting including hybrid collaborations with visual artists and experimental writers.
As the Artistic Director of The Tank, a New York City-based nonprofit theater, she supports the work of over 3,000 performing artists annually. TimeOut NY recently called her, “the tiger in The Tank.” Meghan co-founded Each Step Home, an organization that assists refugee children who have been separated at the US border, reuniting over 1,000 children with their families since 2018. Her work was featured in the Netflix documentary, Split at the Root.
Katrina Foster
Reverend Dr. Katrina Foster was called to be a minister when she was a 4-year-old girl in Florida, and has led a fascinating life of personal redemption and service to God ever since. St. John's Lutheran Church was going to close in 2015 when the Bishop called in Pastor Foster as a last resort to come revive the church. Since she was called, average Sunday attendance has tripled.
She formerly pastored Fordham Evangelical Lutheran Church in the South Bronx and St. Michael's in Amagansett & Incarnation in Bridgehampton. She has made it a goal to keep Saint John's an open community space for people to come worship, create, & gather together. She loves her wife, poet and professor Pamela Kallimanis. St. John's keeps her pretty busy, but she always loves to meet new people & talk to them.
ruth messinger
Ruth Messinger is a life-long advocate and activist for human rights. She is currently both the inaugural Global Ambassador for American Jewish World Service (AJWS) and the inaugural Finkelstein Institute Social Justice Fellow at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. In each position Messinger is engaging rabbis and interfaith leaders to work collaboratively and take action on behalf of oppressed and persecuted communities domestically and globally.
Messinger became a household name in New York after spending 12 years on the City Council followed by her tenure as Manhattan Borough President from 1990 to 1997. She was a strong advocate for children, public education, campaign finance reform, gay rights, community policing, neighborhoods and small businesses.
Messinger lectures around the U.S. and holds prominent roles in the faith-based advocacy arena including as a member of the World Bank’s Moral Imperative Working Group to End Extreme Poverty. Recently, Ruth has been working tirelessly on behalf of migrants arriving in New York City, and is advocating for the mayor, state, and federal governments to provide ongoing support.
Tracy Robertson
Tracy LJ Robertson is a performing and recording vocalist and vocal percussionist, vocal arranger, music director, and facilitator in the world of empowerment through music. A full ride graduate of Berklee College of Music, Tracy has worked with organizations like the Urban Voices Project, Gaia Music Collective, and in more and more spaces where emergent/improvisational music making is explicitly inviting and supporting healing and empowerment in community. Through his new project, Vocal Bloom, Tracy builds community with events and workshops for musicians from all walks of life, engaging their voices and bodies through playful self-surprise and connection through musical creativity.
david rosenberg
David Rosenberg founded AeroFarms, Inspired Growing, and Hycrete and helps lead Aspire and The Every Company at the board level. David has won awards, such as the Regional EY Entrepreneur of the Year and Goldman Sachs’s Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs. David is the CEO of Aspire. He is also a Venture Partner in Tau Capital.
David previously co-Chaired the YGL Circular Economy Taskforce for The World Economic Forum, where he was also previously a member of the Global IoT Council, the New Vision for Agriculture, and the Global Agenda Council on Water Security. David is a former member of the U.S. delegation to the B20 and a Managing Trustee of The Liberty Science Center.
David received his BA from UNC Chapel Hill and MBA from Columbia. He won three U.S. National Team Fencing Championships and two individual silver medals.
kamala sankaram
Praised as “one of the most exciting opera composers in the country” (The Washington Post), composer Kamala Sankaram moves freely between the worlds of experimental music and contemporary opera. Known for her work pushing the boundaries of the operatic form, she has created operas as varied as The Last Stand, a 10-hour opera created for the trees of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, Looking at You, a techno-noir featuring live datamining of the audience and a chorus of 25 singing tablet computers, all decisions will be made by consensus, one of the first live performances over Zoom, and The Parksville Murders, the world’s first virtual reality opera. Recent commissions include works for the Glimmerglass Festival (where she was the 2022 Composer-in-Residence), Washington National Opera, the PROTOTYPE Festival, and Creative Time, among others. As a biracial Indian-American and trained sitarist, Kamala has also drawn on Indian classical music in many of her works, including Thumbprint, A Rose, Monkey and Francine in the City of Tigers, and the Jungle Book. Select awards, grants and residencies include: Composer-in-Residence at the Kaufman Music Center, Jonathan Larson Award, NEA ArtWorks, MAP Fund, Opera America, HEREArtist Residency Program, the MacDowell Colony, and the Watermill Center.
melissa kasper Shapiro
Melissa Kasper Shapiro is the founder of Greener Pastures Capital, an investment portfolio providing seed capital to mission-driven health and wellness companies. Her portfolio includes investments (and exits) in Four Sigmatic, Fishwife, Ghia, Akua, Apothékary, Cadence, Cleancult, SmartyPants Vitamins and Maple Hill Creamery.
Melissa is committed to promoting a sustainable food system. For six years, as well as four as chairperson, she served on the board of Just Food, an organization focused on distributing sustainably sourced food throughout New York City, ranging from community supported agriculture (CSA) to food pantry programs. Melissa’s involvement extends to other impactful organizations, including Harlem Grown, GrowNYC and Edible Schoolyards.
Prior to establishing Greener Pastures, Melissa was a partner at Dawson Capital Management, with previous roles at J.&W. Seligman & Co. and Jim Cramer’s hedge fund. Melissa graduated with a B.A. in English and Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania and lives on the Upper East Side of New York City with her husband and their two daughters.
theodora siegel
Theodora Siegel is a NYC based creator, opera singer, and writer. She is the founder of Got2GoNYC- a social media based mission dedicated to sharing public, sanitary, and accessible restrooms.
Teddy’s content has reached millions and she has built a community of over half a million followers across all social media platforms. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Time, Insider, The Kelly Clarkson Show, CNN, Teen Vogue & more.
Teddy has performed in venues across NYC — from a site specific opera at Southstreet Seaport to solo performances at Carnegie Hall. Her words have been published in The New York Times and Gothamist.
Eric Solomon
Dr. Eric Solomon has spent over 25 years pushing the boundaries of how humans, brands, and machines make sense of the world—and each other. With a PhD in cognitive science and executive leadership roles at YouTube, Spotify, Google, Instagram, and Bonobos, Eric's career spans the worlds of psychology, technology, and storytelling. Today, as Founder and CEO of The Human OS™, he helps leaders face the single biggest question of our time: How do we stay fully human in a world run by machines? His work and ideas have been featured in Entrepreneur, Psychology Today, California Management Review, and AdWeek.
sarah paiji yoo
Sarah Paiji Yoo is CEO and Co-Founder of Blueland, which is reimagining cleaning products to eliminate single-use plastic packaging. Launched in 2019, the brand was the first to bring the unprecedented tablet form factor to market across a range of refillable cleaning products that promise no single-use plastic, ever. With over 40 patents and patents pending, Blueland's innovative products have helped divert over 1 billion single-use plastic bottles from landfills and oceans. All products are designed in dry tablet or powder formats, to be mixed with household tap water or used directly — saving consumers money and space while helping to reduce emissions and plastic.
Sarah is a serial entrepreneur passionate about sustainability and innovation, who's journey to founding Blueland started when she became a mother. Sarah was recently named EY Entrepreneur of the Year for New York for 2023 and is the author of "Wake Up, World," a newly released children's book on climate action. She was featured on Shark Tank’s 11th season and has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Forbes, Time, and Glamour. She attended Harvard College and Harvard Business School and currently lives on the Upper West Side with her husband and two sons.
