Keynote Speaker 
​Akiima Price (she/her/hers)
A creative thinker and doer who links people, places, and programs, Akiima Price is a nationally respected thought leader at the intersection of social justice and environmental issues. Her innovative Meaningful Park Engagement programming strategies feature nature as a powerful medium to connect economically stressed urban African American communities in positive, life-changing experiences outdoors that affect how they feel about themselves, their communities, and their parks. From her early experience as a Ranger with the National Park Service in 1993 to her international work with environmental, social, and justice organizations, Akiima has cultivated over 30 years of experience into cutting-edge best practices in trauma-informed, equitable environmentalism.

Friends of Anacostia Park | Instagram ​
Summit Poet & Culture Setter 
​Franklin Cruz (they/he)
Franklin Cruz is a queer latin dancer, poet born in Idaho, raised Texan and polished in Denver. Born from an immigrant family his work has placed him in science museums, environmental spaces, as an emcee and poet for dance & poetry competitions and conferences. They aim for specificity over simplicity, encompassing self love , conservation, immigration and culture.

Instagram 
Panel Session One
Policy Advocacy and Grassroots Action:
​The Power of Community-Led Conservation Initiatives
This panel explores the power of community-led conservation efforts, highlighting how ordinary people become catalysts for environmental change and social justice. By examining grassroots movements, the discussion reveals the synergy between local activism, policy advocacy, and preserving natural resources. Successful examples of grassroots movements are showcased, illustrating their impact from local to national levels and offering hope for addressing environmental justice issues. Through engaging narratives and tangible outcomes, the conversation aims to inspire others to mobilize for positive change in their own communities, emphasizing the transformative potential of grassroots activism in reshaping our world for the better.
DaZha Creal (she/her/hers)
DaZha Creal is a black social researcher and community organizer, originally from northern California. She holds a master's in International Human Rights and a certificate of Global Health Affairs from the University of Denver. She is passionate about expanding the research base and action potential at the intersections of health, agriculture, and climate. DaZha aspires to bring awareness to DEI and uplift all marginalized voices. 

LinkedIn | Instagram
Ernest House, Jr. (he/him/his)
As former Executive Director for the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs (CCIA) for 12 years, Ernest House maintained the communication between the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe, and other American Indian organizations, state agencies and affiliated groups. In that position, Ernest worked under former Governors Owens, Ritter, and Hickenlooper along with CCIA members to maintain a government-to-government relationship between the State of Colorado and Tribal governments. As Senior Policy Director and Director for the Center for Tribal and Indigenous Engagement for the Keystone Policy Center, Ernest works with stakeholders in the areas of Tribal consultation, energy, conservation, agriculture, healthcare, education, cultural resource management, and cultural repatriation.

Ernest serves on the Fort Lewis College Board of Trustees, Gates Family Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, National Western Center Authority Board, Conservation Colorado Board, and the Colorado Interbasin Compact Committee. He is an enrolled member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in Towaoc, Colorado. He holds a rich tradition in his position as son of the late Ernest House, Sr., a long-time tribal leader for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and great-grandson of Chief Jack House, the last hereditary Chief of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.

Center for Tribal and Indigenous Engagement | CCIA
Raya Salter (she/her/hers)
Raya Salter, AKA “Climate Auntie” is an energy justice movement attorney, activist,
author and the Founder and Executive Director of the Energy Justice Law & Policy
Center. She is a member of the New York State Climate Action Council, sits on the board of EESI and the Advisory Board of Evergreen Action. Raya is an adjunct professor at Cardozo law school, is widely published on matters of energy regulation and the author of "Energy Justice" (2018). She has over 15 years of energy regulatory experience both in private practice (Dewey & LeBoeuf) and for NGOs, including the NY Renews Coalition, NRDC and the Environmental Defense Fund. She is an environmental justice advisor to the House Oversight and Natural Resources Committees and has testified twice before congress. Raya went viral after standing her ground against the GOP during a big oil hearing. 

Climate Auntie | Instagram | Energy Justice Law & Policy Center | Raya Salter
Yvette Lopez-Ledesma (she/her/hers)
Yvette Lopez-Ledesma is the Founder of Tias on Trails, a Los Angeles based hiking community for folks in their señora era.  She also is the owner of Tia Strategies, a consulting practice dedicated to working with non-profit leaders to co-create healthier work environments, share tested management practices, and support organizations in transition. Working in the non-profit sector since 2001, Yvette has been a champion for community-led movements and campaigns at both community-based and national organizations. She has worked with various coalitions and teams across the west to secure major funding for the creation, preservation and restoration of parks and open space, improve mobility options and access to parks, and also helped secure the country's first land-use designation to keep polluting industries from further overburdening communities in Los Angeles.

​An organizer at her core, she continues to advocate for an equitable distribution of public resources from sidewalks to parks, to bus shelters and always in the company of her community. She loves a good carne asada, the outdoors and making memories with her husband and their two dogs.
Instagram | Email
Moderator - Parker McMullen Bushman (they/she)
Parker McMullen Bushman (aka KWEEN WERK) brings people together in the fight for Environmental Justice and Social Equity. Using social media as a tool this Social Justice Activist is part Fashion Diva, Artist and Educator. KWEEN stands for Keep Widening Environmental Engagement Narratives. Parker has a passion for equity and inclusion in outdoor spaces. Their interest in justice, accessibility, and equity issues developed from their personal experiences facing the unequal representation of people of color in environmental organizations and green spaces. Parker tackles these complex issues by addressing them through head on activism and education.

​As the Chief Operating Officer of Inclusive Journeys, and founder of Ecoinclusive Strategies. Parker is a dynamic speaker and facilitator that engages organizations in new thinking around what it means to be a diversity change-agent and create dynamic organizational change. Parker’s background in the non-profit leadership, conservation, environmental education and outdoor recreation fields spans over 24+ years.

Ecoinclusive | KWEEN WERK | Inclusive Journeys
Panel Session Two  
Honoring Indigenous Wisdom in Environmental Stewardship
This panel session celebrates the invaluable contributions of Indigenous communities in preserving and protecting the environment with a discussion highlighting traditional ecological knowledge and stewardship practices. We will delve into ways to support and amplify Indigenous-led conservation efforts, acknowledging the importance of centering Indigenous voices and respecting their rights in environmental initiatives. By engaging in dialogue and collaboration, we aim to foster greater understanding and partnership in mobilizing grassroots environmental efforts that honor Indigenous wisdom and promote sustainability for future generations.
Jamie Bourque-Blyan (she/they/he)
Jamie Bourque-Blyan (Metis) is a citizen of the Buffalo Lake Métis Settlement, where he was raised among her grandparents and large extended family.

​After sitting on the Aboriginal Healing Foundation of Canada, as a youth advisor, for 5 years, Jamie was selected by the Nelson Mandela Foundation in South Africa to participate in the Mandela Memory Work Dialogues (2013-2019). The Mandela Dialogue process provided an international forum to discuss the complex personal, collective, and professional challenges facing those engaged in reconciliation attempts and its direct connection to inclusive memory work. This skill is now being applied to Reconciliation Action Plans in the climate space, while exploring resource and economic reparation of indigenous nations in so–called Canada.

With a degree in Design and Motion Image, Jamie has also been active in the industry since 2009 as an executive producer, creative producer, writer, and director. In their latest feature-length documentary film, re-ken-si-le-a-shen (2023), Jamie unearths painful truths about their family’s past, and connects with fellow survivors of conquest and colonization to explore how other countries – including South Africa, Croatia and New Zealand – have engaged in the process of truth and reconciliation post-atrocity, and how alternative approaches to healing through collective memory might be applied in so-called Canada.

Jamie is the Engagement Manager with Indigenous Climate Action, previously serving as ICA's Strategic Communications and Partnership Coordinator.

​Indigenous Climate Action | re-ken-si-le-a-shen (2023)
Grant Gliniecki (he/they)
Grant Gliniecki (/Grant glih-NYET-skee/) is passionate about outdoor education, recreation, and public land access. Their approach celebrates how outdoor policy can help us find shared values on complicated environmental issues while promoting equity, opportunity, and health for all. He is especially interested in identifying our opportunities and responsibilities to support environmentally-committed tribal government legislators, reaffirm tribal sovereignty, and promote awareness of treaty obligations at local, state, and federal levels.

Grant holds a Community Sustainability M.S. and is currently completing a Ph.D. in Community Sustainability, both at Michigan State University. Their research weaves conventional settler sciences, oral histories, and Anishinaabe sciences to restore sustainable, loving relationships between human beings, Anishinaabewaki // Anishinaabe land, and our more-than-human relatives. Before joining NCEL, he coordinated Indigenous student success at Michigan State University through Student Life & Engagement.
​
He lives in Nkwejong  // Where the rivers meet (Lansing, MI)  where he founded and serves as President of Giitigan, an Anishinaabe Community Garden nonprofit sharing Anishinaabe food, language, and science through urban gardening. They love hiking, canoeing, porcupine quillwork, sugarbushing, and especially gardening. Grant’s office helpers include a menagerie of chickens, fish, dogs, and an eccentric cat.
Robyn Jackson (she/her/asdzą́ą́)
Robyn Jackson is the Executive Director with the Navajo environmental justice organization Diné C.A.R.E. She is Tó’áhaní (Near the Water Clan) and she grew up in the Chuska Mountains on the Navajo Nation. Immersed in the environmental justice movement from a young age, she is the daughter of two of Diné C.A.R.E.’s co-founding members, Adella Begaye and Leroy Jackson. Her experience includes research, community organizing, and organizational management in environmental justice issues related to environmental health, forest conservation, sustainable food systems and renewable technologies in the Southwest. Robyn's leadership centers Diné ancestral values of relationality and kinship with the natural world, honoring matriarchal strength and the Diné Philosophy of Life. She is also pursuing a Master's Degree in Public Administration from Northern Arizona University.

Diné C.A.R.E. | Instagram | Facebook
Moderator - Renée M. Chacon (she/her/hers)
Renée M. Chacon is Diné/Xicana/Filipina and is the co founder and executive director of Womxn from the Mountain- an inclusive group for all women, trans, non-binary, two-spirit individuals, and diverse communities empowering holistic needs through equity, transformative education, and culturally responsive healing arts. for transforming education through justice, art and cultural education. She works as a cultural educator in several environmental justice initiatives to stop environmental racism in Commerce City, including Suncor Sundown. She was co-chair on the equity analysis subcommittee for the Environmental Justice Action Taskforce and is currently Commerce City Council Womxn for Ward 3.

Womxn from the Mountain | Suncor Sundown | Colorado EJ Action Taskforce
Summit for Action Facilitators
Crystal Egli (she/her)
Crystal is the Co-Founder & CEO of Inclusive Guide and DEI consultant, trainer, and keynote speaker. Having grown up in rural Vermont as an adopted girl of color, Crystal has always been an avid outdoor recreator and fierce advocate for herself and others. She attended film school at Emerson College before pursuing a career in the film industry in Los Angeles. After leaving LA, Crystal began working as a videographer for Colorado Parks and Wildlife where coworkers convinced her to take up hunting. She is now an enthusiastic hunter, Hunter Education instructor, and mentor. Crystal was awarded the 2019 Stephen Kellert award by the AFWA for her outstanding work in advancing outdoor equity. 
Casey Bries (they/them)
Casey is the Environmental Justice & Partnerships Manager with Ecoinclusive and Founder of Systole Consulting. Their 14+ years of public service have centered on the execution of social equity strategies in local government, public land management, and environmental education. Casey specializes in stakeholder engagement and organizational change management. They hold a MPA in Environmental Policy and Management from the University of Colorado Denver and a B.S. from the University of Minnesota in Recreation, Parks, and Leisure Studies. Casey also serves on the Board of Directors for Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado as well as various committees and coalitions aimed at promoting outdoor equity and environmental justice.