travel brought her to the University of Tasmania, where she earned a BSc in Zoology.  After mapping the canopy of old-growth temperate rainforests and trapping Tasmanian devils, Abby studied and published two papers on seahorse and pipefish behavior and diversity in Papua New Guinea. She has traveled the Southern Oceans and South Pacific by boat, trekked the Himalaya, explored the Middle East, researched sea turtles and big cats in South and Central America, dived Mediterranean wrecks, and worked aboard schooners and lobster boats in the Gulf of Maine. On her travels, she saw one thing in common everywhere: plastic pollution.

Abby directed global microplastic pollution research since 2013, developing the most diverse and largest known dataset available to-date. She has published multiple papers on the subject and obtained her Master’s degree from College of the Atlantic in 2018.  When not studying plastics, you can find her out on her oyster farm, Long Cove Sea Farm in Deer Isle, Maine.

Amy Keister is the Senior Vice President of Sustainability & Culinary for Compass Group North America as part of the Envision Group. Envision Group is a visionary team created to shape the future of foodservice. Amy plays an integral part in shaping Compass Group’s groundbreaking global sustainability strategy. This strategy includes actionable targets that will positively impact people and planet, drive growth, and futureproof our business. She is also a founding member of Stop Food Waste Day, a global day of action created to raise awareness of the issue surrounding food waste and provide everyday solutions for individuals and organizations.

Amy is on the board of The Center for Environmental Farming Systems, a partnership of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Amy holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing Information Systems from James Madison University and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.

Andrew Montesano is a San Francisco State alum, baker, writer, and artist in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Andrew is part of the LinkedIn Program Operations team helping to drive operation, strategy, and design for the North America food program.  For the past 6 years, Andrew has managed events and catering service operations in LinkedIn’s San Francisco and South Bay offices, as well as breakroom operations for 50+ breakroom spaces in those locations before moving into the Program Operations role. In his time at LinkedIn, he has influenced event design and catering menus for events upwards of 5,000 attendees, team building classes, food operations, design of food service spaces, sustainability initiatives, and breakroom operations for over 8,000+ employees.

Andrew is passionate about employee experience, sustainability, and being creative.  Prior to LinkedIn, he worked for Bon Appetit at Google, where he opened and managed a variety of cafes and 200+ employees in his tenure there, as well as supporting such memorable food events as the Spring Fling Chicken Wing and Pig-a-palooza.  He also worked for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, supporting their local and sustainable concessions on San Francisco’s Crissy Field.  He also has worked in retail food and coffee for companies like Nordstrom, Peets, Starbucks, and Borders. Outside of food, Andrew has also worked for Puppet School, helping teach people how to build and manipulate their own Muppet style puppets.  He is also currently writing a young adult fantasy novel.

Anna Soehl supports the Green Science Policy Institute in sharing scientific findings and building partnerships with scientists, regulators, businesses, and public interest groups to develop innovative solutions for reducing harmful chemicals in products. She is mainly focused on flame retardants, PFAS, and antimicrobials. Prior to joining the Institute Anna worked at the Great Lakes Commission managing federally funded scientific research grants and at the Maryland Department of the Environment on the total maximum daily load, fish consumption advisories, and community right-to-know projects.

Boma has over 15 years’ experience in product sustainability. She currently leads EDF’s corporate engagement to eliminate toxic chemicals from consumer products and food. Leveraging EDF’s 5 Pillars of Safer Chemicals Leadership, Boma works closely with major retailers and consumer brands, advocating for smart corporate chemical policies, ambitious corporate sustainability programs and increased value chain transparency. Prior to EDF, Boma played a driving role in establishing Whirlpool Corporation’s North American sustainability strategy. Boma has a M.S. in Technology & Policy from MIT and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Yale University.

Carroll Muffett is President of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), a nonprofit organization that uses the power of law to protect the environment, promote human rights, and ensure a just and sustainable society.  He is a recognized expert on international environmental law and a leader in the emerging fields of climate litigation and climate-related financial and legal risks. Carroll is lead researcher on CIEL’s Smoke and Fumes investigation into the deep history of oil industry engagement on climate science. He is co-author of CIEL’s Fueling Plastics series, which examines the linkages between fossil fuels and the global plastics crisis.  He is an editor and contributing author to CIEL’s Hidden Cost of Plastics series: Plastics & Health and Plastics and Climate.

Carroll is a member of the Commission on Environmental Law of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and serves on the Board of Trustees for the Climate Accountability Institute.

A third generation resident of Long Beach, California, Charles attended the University of California at San Diego where he majored in Chemistry and Spanish. After founding Long Beach Organic to fight urban runoff with organic community gardens, and Algalita Marine Research and Education to restore the giant kelp forests of Southern California, he launched his purpose designed, Oceanographic research vessel, Alguita, in Hobart, Tasmania in 1995.

Oceanographic Research Vessel Alguita and its Captain found their true calling in 1997 on a return voyage from Hawaii. Captain Moore veered from the usual sea route and discovered a virtual garbage dump in the middle of the ocean. Ever since, Captain Moore has dedicated his time and resources to understanding and remediating the ocean’s plastic load. He has appeared on numerous television shows and documentaries, including “Trashed,” narrated by academy award winner Jeremy Irons. His book, Plastic Ocean, details his discovery of the so called Great Pacific Garbage Patch and what it means for our peaking civilization. Captain Moore continues to tour the globe sparking “The Great Plastics Awakening.

Christie Keithis GAIA’s International Coordinator and U.S. Executive Director. She joined the network in 2005 and brings more than 25 years of experience with social movements and international nonprofit organizations, including seven years in Guatemala as a popular educator, program coordinator, and strategic planning consultant.  Christie has held multiple Executive and Development Director positions, primarily with international human rights and environmental health and justice organizations that have experienced growth or were undergoing transitions. Her leadership has played a critical part in developing GAIA’s collaboration with organized waste workers to raise the profile of zero waste and the rights of informal sector recyclers, and in generally expanding GAIA’s work in the economic and climate justice arena. In 2018 she received a prestigious 3-month sabbatical awarded by O2 Initiatives to successful nonprofit leaders that are aiming to grow their organizations. In the last four years Christie has helped to spearhead GAIA’s engagement in the Break Free From Plastic movement, and in addressing the issue of ocean plastic pollution through investment in grassroots organizing, upstream policies, and community-led solutions.

Christine is a marine conservation biologist and ocean advocate. She has worked in marine research and conservation in Central America for over a decade, where she is applying her research findings to the conservation of different endangered species, in particular, marine turtles.

She is a founding member of the grassroots organization Costa Rican Alliance for Sea Turtle Conservation & Science (COASTS) in Costa Rica, which is meant to empower local conservationists and scientists, in particular local women. Her claim to fame and shining public moment is a viral video she uploaded in 2015 that documented the removal of a plastic straw from an olive ridley turtle’s nose. That video provided fuel and a valuable tool for the global anti-straw movement, leading to several straw bans by businesses such as Starbucks, Disney, and Alaska Airlines. It has also given her a voice in the conversation around the use of single-use plastics and other environmental issues affecting marine life. She has made such an impact that she was recently name a Next Generation Leader by Time Magazine, and was a finalist of the feature “Texan of the Year” by the Dallas Morning News.

So while the video might be a few years old at this point, her research, campaign against single-use plastics for the benefit and conservation of marine life, and her empowerment of women in STEM is still young, important, and necessary.

Dr. Claire Sand focuses on science and value chain initiatives to achieve more sustainable product systems.  This involves more sustainable packaging that prevents waste. Sand is a Global Packaging Leader with 30+ years of broad experience in the science and packaging spectrum and leads cross-functional efforts, infuses innovative solutions, provides compelling business technology strategies and business cases, and generates implementation roadmaps for the packaging and food industry. Sand has held a variety of roles across the  science and packaging spectrum from basic research and development to marketing and everything in between. Her portfolio includes working with Gerber-Nestle, Pillsbury-General Mills, Kraft Foods-Kraft Heinz, Dominick’s-Safeway, and research institutes in Germany, Colombia, and Thailand. Dr. Sand holds a Ph.D. in Food Science from the UofMn and MS and BS in Packaging from MSU.

Using systems thinking, strategic innovation & design Dagny’s work pushes the boundaries of how we think about everyday decisions and builds the capacity in others to have real impact on today’s pressing issues. She is the founder of ​Vessel​, a library style system of reusables designed to disrupt the status quo of disposability with elegant and convenient closed-loop alternatives. Vessel is Tucker’s targeted effort to close the persistent gap between actions and rhetoric pertaining to sustainability practises from an individual level up to the city official level.

She has held executive level business and not-for-profit appointments that have traversed five continents and represent two decades of experience in strategy, service design, project implementation, management,

and government and community engagement. After decades of sustainability meetings and conferences where it was normal to show up with your coffee in a paper cup, Dagny Tucker, felt it was time to address the little things.

Often “sustainability” conversations in board rooms, at conference podiums and in classrooms addressed large scale, monolithic actions- leaving out entirely the impact of those little everyday choices. Making meaningful change within an often opaque and on-the-go culture was no easy task. Dagny saw Vessel as one way to bring to light our potential to have a positive impact through our everyday choices.

Dagny Tucker is the founder of Vessel, taught at Parsons The New School for Design, was formerly the Managing Director of Strategic Global Affairs for New Hope Natural Media and Executive Director of the Peace Initiatives Institute. A Tishman Scholarship recipient for “outstanding achievement in sustainability,” she holds a Ph.D. in International Peace, Conflict and Development from Universitat Jaume I in Spain and a M.S. in Design in Urban Ecologies from Parsons the New School for Design.

Dagny has spoken at major conferences globally including United Nations Habitat II, Shared Value Leadership Summit, Structures for Inclusion, Green Festivals and Natural Products Expo West.

Dan Morrison has reported on global health and other topics for outlets including The New York Times, National Geographic, and BBC. He is author of The Black Nile (Viking, 2010).

David Azoulay is the Managing Attorney of the Geneva office of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), and Director of CIEL’s Environmental Health Program.

David is a French attorney who studied public international law in France and Spain before specializing in environmental law. Before taking on that role at CIEL, he worked as an associate in environmental law in the Paris office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, and coordinated Friends of the Earth Europe’s campaign for REACH implementation of REACH from Brussels.

David co-leads CIEL’s plastic work, examining the environmental health aspects of it (David was the main author of the joint report plastic and health: The hidden cost of a plastic planet) and coordinates civil society’s engagement in global policies forum such as the United Nation Environment Assembly (UNEA) and the Basel Convention. He also supervises CIEL’s work at EU level to ensure that the various impacts of plastics throughout its life cycle are adequately considered in EU policy, and in particular in the design of the EU circular economy strategy, and EU Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals strategy.

David is also a member of the steering committee of IPEN, a network of over 600 NGOs around the world actively working for a toxic free future.

Dianna Cohen is co-founder and CEO of Plastic Pollution Coalition (PPC) and a passionate advocate against plastic pollution. PPC is a growing global alliance of nearly 700 organizations, businesses, and notable thought leaders working toward a world free of plastic pollution and its toxic impact on humans, animals, and the environment. A Los Angeles based visual artist, Dianna has shown her work internationally at galleries, foundations, and museums. She uses plastic in her artwork to make a visual and social impact. With plastic bags as her primary material for the past 27 years, Cohen is interested in exploring its materiality through modifications and the material’s relationship to culture, media, toxicity, and the world at large and shared this in her 2010 TED talk “Tough Truths About Plastic Pollution.” Dianna is a frequent speaker and guest and has spoken at the UN and international conferences and symposia, and has been interviewed by Al Jazeera, The Washington Post, The Guardian, USA Today, Martha Stewart Living, and many others. Dianna studied Biology, Art, and Film at the University of California, Los Angeles and holds a BA in Fine Arts.

Dörte Bachmann is the Sustainability Manager of the SV Group, a leading gastronomy and hotel management group based in Switzerland. She is responsible for the implementation and advancement of the proprietary sustainability program ONE TWO WE. She holds a PhD in plant ecology from ETH Zurich. Before joining the SV Group, she gained experiences in Life Cycle Assessment by supporting the development for a method to assess the impact of agricultural production on soil quality. She also worked for the Swiss organization foodwaste.ch, where she was involved in several awareness raising campaigns. Last, she was employed in the Sustainability Office of ETH Zurich.

Emily DiFrisco is the Director of Communications at Plastic Pollution Coalition. She has 13 years of experience in communications and digital strategy, for nonprofit organizations. She helped create viral social media campaigns “Orangegate” and “Open Your Eyes” with Jeff Bridges for Plastic Pollution Coalition, and on toxic chemicals and children’s health for Healthy Child Healthy World and Environmental Working Group. She lives in Chicago, IL with her spouse and 3 children.

Eric Ahnmark is the Sustainability Program Manager for Recology, the San Francisco-based resource recovery and waste disposal company that serves more than 140 communities throughout the west coast. Eric leads the company’s sustainability platform, including energy and resource management and sustainability reporting. Eric’s nearly 10 years in the industry also includes experience with waste stream analyses, strategic partnership development, and process improvement. Eric is a zero waste champion who loves to talk trash.

Graham Givens holds the position of Sustainability Manager at Foodbuy. He is responsible for verifying whether suppliers meet customer sustainability criteria, managing sustainability reporting and compliance, and project managing customer sustainability request and goal development. Graham joined Foodbuy in 2017 and during his time at Foodbuy, he has supported corporate social responsibility as well as other business processes such as culinary support. Prior to joining Foodbuy, Graham worked in the non-profit sector for various groups such as Environment America and the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS). Graham earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science and Sociology from the University of Mary Washington, and also received a Master of Business Administration from NC State University.

Hamzah Abu-Ragheb is the Manager of Sustainability and Responsible Sourcing at Avendra, a leading procurement services provider for hospitality companies. He is responsible for the implementation of Avendra’s Corporate Social Responsibility strategy that focuses on responsible and sustainable sourcing. At Avendra, Hamzah’s role includes facilitating conversations between customers, suppliers and the company’s internal sourcing team to help drive sustainability within Avendra’s supply chain. Hamzah also assists customers with their responsible sourcing goals and helps drive responsible sourcing initiatives at Aramark, Avendra’s parent company. Hamzah also proudly serves on the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC) Board of Directors. Prior to his role at Avendra, Hamzah held various sustainability related positions, from waste management and composting to research on sustainable agriculture. He earned a BS in Ecology and Evolution from the University of Maryland and an MS in Sustainability Management from the Kogod School of Business at American University, in Washington, DC.

Jan Dell, PE, is an independent chemical engineer (M.S. University of California, Berkeley) and founder of The Last Beach Cleanup, a non-profit organization that collaborates with shareholders and environmental groups on initiatives to reduce plastic pollution. Jan has worked with companies in diverse industries to implement sustainable business and climate resiliency practices in more than 40 countries. Appointed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Jan was the Vice Chair of the US Federal Advisory Committee on the Sustained National Climate Assessment in 2016-2017.

Jane Muncke holds a doctorate degree in environmental toxicology and a MSc in environmental science from the ETH Zurich. Since 2012 she has been working as Managing Director and Chief Scientific Officer at the charitable Food Packaging Forum Foundation (FPF) in Zurich, Switzerland. FPF is a research and science communication organization focusing on chemicals in all types of food contact materials. Prior to this, Jane worked for Bucher Emhart Glass, a Swiss mechanical

engineering company and glass packaging industry supplier. Before leaving academia, she was a scientific associate at Eawag, the Swiss Aquatic Science Institute, collaborating in various different research projects, including endocrine disruption in developing zebrafish, sustainable urban wastewater management, and removal of Arsenic from drinking water in Bangladesh. Jane has extensive experience as science communicator and presenter, and she works with scientists on live presentation skills. She is a full scientific member of the Society of Toxicology (SOT), the Society for Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology (SETAC), the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Endocrine Society. She lives with her family in Zurich, Switzerland.

Jeff Clark manages the National Restaurant Association’s environmental education efforts. He acts as an environmental liaison to the restaurant industry and regularly speaks to audiences about environmental topics.

Before joining the Association team, Jeff consulted to the Energy Star Commercial Food Service program.

Jeff received his Bachelor of Science from the University of California, Santa Cruz and holds a Master of Public Policy from Duke University.

Jennie Romer, Esq. is a Legal Associate for the Surfrider Foundation’s Plastic Pollution Initiative. Surfrider’s expansive network of more than 170 chapters and student clubs nationwide organize around plastic pollution policy through the lens of ocean protection. Jennie leads Surfrider’s policy efforts and litigation to reduce plastic pollution at local, state and national levels.

Jennie has more than a decade of experience as an attorney and sustainability consultant fighting for effective legislation on waste reduction and single-use plastics. Her knowledge is routinely sought by legislators, environmental nonprofits, and businesses across the U.S.

Jennie is a native of California and earned her JD from Golden Gate University School of Law. She also holds bachelor’s degrees in Zoology, Environmental Studies, and Black Studies from UC Santa Barbara. In addition, Jennie is a member of the state bars of California and New York

As a Member Success Manager at the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC), Johanna supports SPLC members through direct coaching, targeted resource development, and critical community building to accelerate the transition to a sustainable economy.  Prior to joining SPLC, Johanna coordinated the State of Minnesota’s Sustainable Procurement Program for 10 years, where she formalized the State’s program, successfully advocated for including sustainable purchasing in an Executive Order on state agency sustainability, increased the State’s commitment to and accountability for sustainable procurement, and assisted the state with making purchases that demonstrated the highest level of environmental, social, and economic responsibility. Johanna holds degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and San Francisco State University.

Enck is a senior advisor at the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development. Recently she was a visiting scholar at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University in the Hudson Valley.  Appointed by President Obama, Enck served as the Regional Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overseeing environmental protection in NY, NJ, eight Indian Nations, Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands. Working with a staff of 800 and managing a $700 million budget, she secured a number of environmental accomplishments during her tenure at the EPA.

Enck has worked on environmental and energy issues related to hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, serving on the Governor’s Hurricane Recovery and Resiliency Advisory Committee in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Enck previously served as Deputy Secretary for the Environment in the New York Governor’s Office and served as a policy advisor to the New York State Attorney General. Prior to that, she was Senior Environmental Associate with the New York Public Interest Research Group. She also served as the executive director of Environmental Advocates of New York. She is a past president of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, former executive director of the Non-Profit Resource Center and a designer of her town’s rural recycling program. Enck was a visiting faculty member at Bennington for Fall 2018. She became a senior fellow in the Center for the Advancement of Public Action in January 2019.

Judy Panayos is the Sr. Director of Sustainability in Supply Management at Sodexo with responsibilities for sustainability and corporate responsibility in supply.   Judy works to incorporate internal and client goals for sustainability and corporate responsibility into sourcing strategies including local sourcing, sustainable products, responsible supply chain practices, carbon footprint reductions and sustainability innovation. Previously, Judy worked in medical device manufacturing at Becton Dickinson (BD) where she had oversight of various supplier programs including Sustainable Procurement, Supplier Diversity, Supplier Risk, Supplier Quality Management, and Supplier Recognition. Previous to BD, Judy held key roles in Performing Arts Logistics Management, including multi-stakeholder urban renewal projects.  Judy holds a Steering Board position with the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI) and is the Board Chair for Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC).  She has a Corporate Responsibility certificate and M.B.A. from Rutgers University and a B.F.A. from New York University.

Justin is a Project Manager at the Food Packaging Forum where he supports many of the Forum’s ongoing scientific research and leads outreach efforts. By training he is an environmental engineer and holds an MSc and BSc from ETH Zurich and North Carolina State University. His studies specialized in ecological systems design (including mass flow and life cycle analysis), air quality control, and waste management, including a focus on the transport of chemicals within international food trade. His time as a research scientist at ETH Zurich focused on modeling the emissions and fate of fluorinated substances (PFAS) in the environment, mapping the life cycles of endocrine disrupting chemicals, and supporting projects focused on strengthening international science-policy communication. He is a co-author of multiple reports for the United Nations Environment Programme on chemicals and waste, has supported scientific discussions within the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, and has co-authored a university-level textbook teaching the fundamentals of the environmentally oriented design of chemical products and processes.

Kyle co-founded Scope 3 Consulting with the mission to improve the quality, transparency, and robustness of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment through expertise, community building, and innovative software. Kyle is an experienced LCA practitioner and sustainability science researcher. He has been an author of several highly-cited publications on fuel cycles, food systems, and transportation options. Kyle holds a PhD in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University. His thesis included a deep-dive into the environmental implications of biomass use, including biomass waste utilization. Kyle has worked with corporations, national energy associations, and regulators at the state and federal levels. His current work focuses on developing science-based, quantitative metrics with which to compare and optimize management for sustainability.

Lori Bestervelt is an Entrepreneurial Executive who brings the strong combination of technical and scientific expertise and business acumen, as well as deep P&L experience in product line expansion. Throughout her career, she has been a trusted partner of and advisor to the senior leadership team, valued for her sound judgment and ability to work cross-functionally with all key executives. She is proud of her high level of name recognition within the dietary supplements, U.S. professional sports nutrition and anti-doping industries.

At NSF International, an independent, global, accredited inspection organization, Lori was continuously promoted through a steady progression of roles of increasing responsibility, culminating in Executive Vice President & Chief Science Officer. She developed and implemented short- and long-term growth strategies with key performance indicators for multiple business units and served as Board Member of two China joint ventures.

She served as the company’s “chief scientist,” evaluating and approving new technologies, and operated as the “final arbiter” for all scientific decisions. She created an advisory board of eminent scientists from universities, regulatory agencies and private industry to contribute their thoughts and peer review scientific papers, and led research & development activities that resulted in publications, presentations to trade associations and regulatory bodies, and training for clients.

Lori also managed more than 800 employees running three global business units operating in 13 countries, including scientists, consultants, standards developers and customer relationship & project managers. She increased laboratory efficiency by 30%, completed 10 acquisitions in six countries (the U.S., the UK, Germany, Brazil, Peru, China), established and grew the health sciences business and launched the Certified for Sport program, which is used by U.S. professional sports leagues and worldwide anti-doping organizations.

Earlier in her career, Lori was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Pathology & Experimental Toxicology for Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical and a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Michigan Medical School.

An experienced Board Member, Lori is a Member of the Board of Advisors for the American Botanical Council and also has served as a Member of the Board of Directors for the Women’s Center of Southeastern Michigan.

Lori completed Competition & Strategy through the Harvard Business School Executive Education and Corporate Innovation through MIT’s Sloan Executive Education. She earned a Doctorate of Toxicology, a Master of Science in Nutritional Biochemistry and a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology & Immunology, all at the University of Michigan. She has been a Member of the Council For Responsible Nutrition and the American Herbal Products Association.

Marcus Eriksen is the co-founder of Leap Lab, as well as the Research Director and co-founder of the 5 Gyres Institute. He studies the global distribution and ecological impacts of plastic marine pollution, which has included expeditions sailing through all 5 subtropical gyres, Bay of Bengal, Southern Ocean and inland lakes and rivers, recently publishing the first global estimate of all plastic of all sizes floating in the world’s oceans, totaling 270,000 metric tons from 5.25 trillion particles.

In 2013 he and colleagues published the discovery of microbeads in the Great Lakes, which became the cornerstone for a US-based campaign to eliminate plastic microbeads from cosmetics, resulting in the Microbead-Free Waters Act, which became US federal law in 2015.

Years earlier, in 2000, he traveled to Midway Atoll, finding hundreds of Laysan Albatross with plastic pouring out of their stomachs, and that experience narrowed his focus to plastics. He received his Ph.D. in Science Education from University of Southern California in 2003, months before embarking on a 2000-mile, 5-month journey down the Mississippi River on a homemade raft of plastic bottles to bring attention to this issue. Again in 2008, he rafted across the Pacific Ocean from California to Hawaii on JUNK, floating on 15,000 plastic bottles and a Cessina airplane fuselage as a cabin (junkraft.com). The journey, 2,600 miles in 88 days, brought attention to the work of the 5 Gyres Institute, the organization he co-founded with his wife Anna Cummins.

His first book, titled “My River Home” (Beacon Press, 2007) chronicled his Mississippi River experience paralleled with his tour as a Marine in the 1991 Gulf War. His second book, titled “JUNK RAFT: An oceanic voyage and the rising tide of activism to fight plastic pollution” (Beacon Press, 2017) tells the story of how plastic pollution at sea was discovered, the impact on people and the planet, and the growing movement to solve the problem through zero waste initiatives in the largest cities worldwide.

The experience of war, sailing across oceans with wonderful crew-mates, and long rafting voyages, have led to a strong conservation ethic worth fighting for. “We must understand and define conservation and social justice as our collective self-preservation – a rationale that crosses all boundaries between all people.”

Since 2000, Martin has led the Ecology Center, a community-based organization incorporated on Earth Day in 1970. Under Martin’s leadership, the Ecology Center is leveraging local direct community service programs to have state and national impact. Martin has spearheaded innovative efforts such as creating a farmers’ market industry group, pioneering electronic food stamp access and incentives at farmers’ markets, and passing the nation’s first Soda Tax. By linking local grassroots grit with highly competent program implementation, and increasingly effective policy advocacy, Martin has led the Ecology Center to become a high impact engine for change.

Martin’s previous experience includes working as the Sustainable Agriculture Program Director for Food First, The Institute for Food and Development Policy where he helped build the international organic farming movement throughout the US, Caribbean, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. Martin also edited Sustainable Agriculture and Resistance: Transforming Food Production in Cuba, a compilation of Cuban authors on organic farming, and co-founded Californians for Pesticide Reform (CPR) to reduce the worst pesticides in California through public education and regulatory reform.

Martin served as the National Director of Training for ALTERTEC Guatemala where he helped develop a Guatemalan non-profit from a small organization into a leading Central American force promoting farmer-led sustainable agriculture. Martin led Freirian-based curricula development, trained trainers, and organized Meso-American Campesino Congresses on Organic Farming, Permaculture, and Alternative Technologies. Additionally, Martin facilitated the development of a national Guatemalan organic certification program, MayaCert.

Martin has served on the Community Food and Justice Coalition Advisory Committee, The Grassroots Recycling Network Board and the Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board (StopWaste). Martin earned a Master of Arts in Latin American Studies and Environmental Policy from UC Berkeley, and a B.A. in Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior from UC San Diego.

Michael  has served as the Recology President & Chief Executive Officer and a member of its Board of Directors since November 1990.  Over the past three decades, under Mr. Sangiacomo’s leadership, Recology has expanded its operations from Northern California to include more than 60 operating companies and facilities across California, Washington, and Oregon, increasing the company’s annual revenue from $250 million in 1990 to $1.3 billion in 2019.  As the largest employee owned company in the waste and recycling industry, Recology proudly serves 134 communities along the West Coast.

Recology has been at the forefront of innovation in recycling for nearly a century as the City and County of San Francisco’s waste services provider, partnering with our communities to transform traditional waste management into resource recovery.  Recology investments and innovation technology have positioned Mr. Sangiacomo as a leading voice on national recycling, composting, and recovery programs. He currently serves on the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the California Historical Society and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Bay Area Council.