Justin Adams has spent 25 years championing innovation and sustainability in both the private and public sectors to address the climate challenge. For the last decade, he has focused on accelerating Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) to create rural jobs and reverse biodiversity loss and climate breakdown. He joined The World Economic Forum at the end of 2018 to lead the Tropical Forest Alliance, which is the leading public private partnership focused on reducing commodity-driven deforestation. He launched the Trillion Trees Platform, 1t.org, at Davos 2020 to build a global movement for ecosystem restoration and is also now exploring how to unlock carbon finance to accelerate NBS deployment.

Jad Daley has been the president and chief executive officer of American Forests, the nation’s first and oldest forest conservation organization, since 2018. He leads the organization forward on climate change, social equity and other issues related to forests. He moved into that role after a year of serving as the organization’s vice president of conservation programs. He also is co-chair of the Forest-Climate Working Group, which he helped launch in 2007, and a member of the Forest Proud Board of Directors. Daley has a long record of leadership in the forest community. From 2008 to 2017, he was at The Trust for Public Land, where he led the Climate Conservation Program and eventually served as vice president for program development. He has played a lead role in authoring multiple pieces of federal legislation for forests, including the enabling language for the USDA Forest Service’s Community Forest Program and the Community Wood Energy Program, both enacted as part of the 2008 Farm Bill. He is a widely published writer on conservation topics and has an active presence on Medium.

Michelle Bekkering was sworn in as Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment (E3) on January 6, 2020.   In this role, Ms. Bekkering leads the work for the Agency on high-priority Administration initiatives, including One Trillion Trees, the U.S. Government International Basic Education Strategy and the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative (W-GDP).

Ms. Bekkering joined USAID in July 2017, and concurrently served as the E3 Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator and as the Agency’s Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. During Ms. Bekkering’s tenure, she has led the bureau’s efforts to reorient its strategies, partnerships and programs to achieve the Administrator’s vision of the Journey to Self-Reliance.  Under her leadership, USAID’s new Private Sector Engagement policy was launched, which included the creation and management of global mechanisms that catalyze partnerships with private sector actors.  Ms. Bekkering also supported the White House in the development of W-GDP, the first whole-of-government effort to focus on global women’s economic empowerment, which seeks to reach 50 million women in the developing world by 2025.

Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Bekkering served from 2005-2017 at the International Republican Institute (IRI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to advancing freedom and democracy worldwide. During her tenure at IRI, she provided leadership on democratic rights and governance initiatives in Washington, D.C. and as residential country director based in Indonesia.  Ms. Bekkering has also served in numerous positions in the U.S. Government, including the National Security Council, and on Capitol Hill.

Arthur “Butch” Blazer was raised on the beautiful Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation, which is located in South-central New Mexico, and is recognized nationally as a leader in Indian Country.

In 2011, Blazer accepted an appointment from President Obama to serve as deputy under secretary of agriculture for natural resources and the environment within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) where he provided oversight and direction to the U.S. Forest Service. He retired in May 2016 having served 32 years with the federal government including a distinguished 27-year career with the U.S. Department of Interior (BIA), serving in various executive management positions, while also participating in important natural resources related tribal nonprofits (i.e. Native American Fish & Wildlife Society, etc.)

Upon leaving federal service in 2002, Blazer served as the first Native American State Forester. Appointed by former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Blazer successfully initiated many positive changes within the State during his eight-year tenure.

In November 2017, Blazer was elected president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe by his people. He served in this position until October 2019. Blazer currently serves on numerous boards and councils, continuing to help and assist tribal leadership.

Kesha Braunskill is the Urban and Community Forestry Coordinator for the Delaware Forest Service, overseeing a statewide grant program that has provided over $1.75 million in community tree projects and planted more than 13,000 trees. http://de.gov/treegrantdashboard

Braunskill also oversees several statewide community recognition programs including, Tree City USA and Delaware’s own Tree Friendly Community Program, which focus on honoring municipalities and homeowner associations that practice good tree management. Delaware’s urban program has also hosted an annual arborist and tree care seminar for the past ten years that focuses on providing training for arborists and tree care workers in the regional tree industry.

Braunskill is an ISA-certified arborist and has worked for the Delaware Forest Service for the past eight years. She is the current past Chair of the Northeast-Midwest State Foresters Alliance (NMSFA) urban and community forestry state coordinators committee. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland and a master’s degree from Delaware State University. She also pursued post-graduate research at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she studied ecology and plant and animal interactions.

Suzanne DiBianca leads Salesforce’s stakeholder strategy, driving positive social and environmental impact across the company, customers partners and community. She spearheads Salesforce’s sustainability efforts to address the urgency of climate change with bold leadership, champions workforce innovation to accelerate training and hiring of the military community, and closely collaborates with Salesforce Ventures to invest in diverse, world-class entrepreneurs who are solving some of the world’s greatest challenges across education and workforce development, equality, sustainability and the social sector through Salesforce’s Impact Fund.

DiBianca has worked at Salesforce for close to 20 years and leads through encouraging collaboration at all levels of the organization and across the community through innovative programs and dynamic partnerships.

Previously, DiBianca was co-founder and president of the Salesforce Foundation and Salesforce.org. Under DiBianca’s leadership, Salesforce pioneered the 1-1-1 model of integrated corporate philanthropy, which dedicates 1 percent of Salesforce’s equity, employee time or product back into the community. Today, Salesforce serves as a successful model for corporate social responsibility, with more than 10,000 companies adopting this model through Pledge 1%, which DiBianca is a founding board member.

DiBianca is a recognized leader in corporate philanthropy. She has been named one of Inside Philanthropy’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Philanthropy and is a member of the San Francisco Business Times’ Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business hall of fame. She currently serves as a board director and trustee at The Tides Foundation and Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. In addition, she serves on the advisory boards of Classy, Inc., Box.org, Twilio.org and the DocuSign Impact Fund.

Congresswoman Debbie Dingell represents Michigan’s 12th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she has made it a priority to be a voice for the Midwest on issues that matter most to working families.

A member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Debbie is a leader on efforts to grow manufacturing, improve access to quality affordable health care, support seniors and veterans and protect the Great Lakes. Recognized as one of the 25 hardest-working Members of Congress, Debbie is focused on forging bipartisan solutions that support Michigan’s families and economy, including improving long-term care and ushering in the future of the American auto industry.

Before being elected to Congress, Debbie worked in the auto industry for more than three decades, where she was President of the General Motors (GM) Foundation and a senior executive responsible for public affairs. She was also Chairman of the Wayne State University (WSU) Board of Governors, and continues to fight to make education more affordable and accessible in Congress.

As director of corporate sustainability at Weyerhaeuser, Ara Erickson is responsible for developing and executing the company’s overall sustainability strategy, including creating value and new opportunities related to a sustainable future. Her team also helps ensure a sustainable supply chain for Weyerhaeuser’s customers by maintaining the company’s forest and wood fiber certification programs.

A few of the challenges and opportunities that Erickson addresses in her role are climate change, forest carbon, social acceptance of sustainable forestry, benefits of wood products as alternatives to other building materials, and productive stakeholder engagement. She focuses on helping Weyerhaeuser — and the company’s many partners — navigate through barriers that keep good ideas moving forward, while listening and responding to divergent views on which path to follow.

Prior to Weyerhaeuser, Erickson directed a community-based, urban forest restoration program, managed research related to forest ownership and land use change, and worked as an environmental consultant. Erickson holds a Master’s of Science in Forest Resources from the University of Washington and a Bachelor’s of Science in Resource Management from the University of California, Berkeley. She was part of the 2018 Harvard Business School’s Young American Leadership Program, Weyerhaeuser’s NextGen Leadership Development Program, and the Ford Foundation’s Fellowship in Urban and Community Forestry.

She is a leader in the forest sector, and serves on the Board of American Forests, the Woodland Operating Committee of the American Forest Foundation, the Steering Committee for the inaugural Women’s Forest Congress, the Executive Council of the Green Seattle Partnership and volunteers regularly in her community. She is an avid supporter and admirer of trees, forests, and forestry and delights in coming across a tree growing in an unusual location or casting dappled shade in a particularly beautiful setting.

Karen Fang is Managing Director, Global Head of Sustainable Finance at Bank of America. Formerly, she was the Head of Global Fixed Income, Currencies & Commodities (FICC) Cross Asset Trading, and the Head of Americas FICC Sales & Solutions prior to that.  She is a member of the Bank of America Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) committee, the Sustainable Markets Committee, as well as the firm wide Asian Leadership Council.

Prior to joining Bank of America, Karen was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs where she was the Head of the Pension, Endowment and Foundation Cross Asset Solutions Group. Previously, she held senior positions in derivatives structuring, including at Merrill Lynch in Tokyo and Deutsche Bank in London.

Karen was named one of Fortune’s “40 under 40”and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (WEF). She was selected to be a member of the WEF Expert Network. Karen was a member of the Bank of America team recognized by American Banker as part of their “Most Powerful Women in Banking and Finance” feature and was called out as one of five leaders who has made a significant impact in a short amount of time. She served as a mentor for the Global Ambassadors program, a Bank of America partnership with Vital Voices and was honored by the Women’s Venture Fund for her work with female entrepreneurs. Karen was chosen by Investment Dealers’ Digest as one of the “40 under 40” bankers and she was also a recipient of the Women’s Bond Club of New York’s “Rising Star Award.” Karen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Tokyo.

Jay Farrell was named executive director of the National Association of State Foresters (NASF) in 2007. He leads NASF as a national nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., representing the directors of forestry agencies from the 50 U.S. states, eight U.S. territories and freely associated states and the District of Columbia. Formerly, Farrell managed 34 North American implementation committees for the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). He established the first Canadian and multi-state SFI implementation committees and ensured compliance with certification standards for landowner education, logger training and local partnerships. Farrell also worked as a policy manager on federal timber and forest science issues for the American Forest & Paper Association.

Prior to his work with nonprofit organizations, Farrell worked as a forester and wood procurement manager. He served as the first material acquisition manager for American Wood Fibers, Inc., sourcing wood waste to support the development of innovative products and new manufacturing facilities. He began his career working as a field forester, first as an intern with the U.S.Department of Agriculture Forest Service and then as a professional forester working for Westvaco Corporation in landowner assistance, wood procurement and logging supervision roles. He is a member of the Society of American Foresters and the American Society of Association Executives, and served as chair of the National Council of Forestry Association Executives.

Jim Hubbard was sworn into office as under secretary for natural resources and environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2018. In this role, he oversees the work of the USDA Forest Service.

In 2016, he retired from the U.S. Forest Service as deputy chief for state and private forestry, with responsibility for Fire and Aviation Management, National Fire Plan, Cooperative Forestry Programs, Forest Health Protection, Conservation Education, Urban and Community Forestry and the Office of Tribal Relations.

Between November 2004 and October 2005, Hubbard served as the director of the office of wildland fire coordination with the Department of the Interior. In this position, he had oversight for the implementation of the National Fire Plan and activities of the five land-managing bureaus for forest fire prevention, mitigation and partnerships with communities, tribes and stakeholders.

Hubbard was a member of the Colorado Forest Service for more than 34 years before coming to Federal Service in 2004. He served as Colorado State Forester from 1984 to 2004. Hubbard was a leader in the National Association of State Foresters (NASF) and chaired the Council of Western State Foresters. He provided national leadership in the NASF through his many committee assignments, including the chairman of the legislative committee. Hubbard served as Liaison to the Western Governors’ Association during the development of the implementation strategy for the National Fire Plan.

Kristina Kloberdanz is Mastercard’s first chief sustainability officer (CSO). A catalyst for change, she works with Mastercard’s Board of Directors and senior executives to advance sustainability and drive strategic growth. She is helping shape Mastercard’s business strategy through its commitment to Environmental, Social and Governance, which comes from the long-held belief that doing good for society helps Mastercard do well as a company. Kloberdanz believes that companies must use their infrastructure, technologies, capital and creativity in order to create scalable and sustainable solutions that benefit everyone — employees, citizens, customers, companies and governments.

As CSO, she collaborates with leadership across the business integrating Mastercard’s environmental sustainability strategy and initiatives to leverage the full scale and suite of their business activities, systems, partnerships and people to pioneer environmentally sustainable growth for all. Kloberdanz’s role at Mastercard rests on two decades of experience from her work at IBM leading its global corporate responsibility, as an inaugural member and facilitator of IBM’s Corporate Service Corps and managing IBM’s Global Sports and Entertainment Sponsorships, among other responsibilities.

Kloberdanz has served on a variety of nonprofit boards and advisory councils, from Outward Bound International to New York City Ballet’s School of American Ballet, lending her expertise in sustainability, marketing, strategic planning and fundraising. Kloberdanz was listed on Forbes: 46 Sustainability Leaders (Who Are Also Women) in July 2018.

Dan Lambe is the president of the Arbor Day Foundation, an organization founded in 1972 that has grown to become the largest nonprofit membership organization dedicated to planting trees. During his 15 years with the Foundation, he has led the development of innovative programs that expand the organization’s global reach, including international forest restoration efforts and the most recent Tree Cities of the World program. In addition, Lambe spearheads the Arbor Day Foundation’s Evergreen Alliance — a strategic group of corporate leaders dedicated to helping the organization meet its recently announced Time for Trees initiative to plant 100 million trees and inspire 5 million tree planters by 2022.

Over the course of his tenure, Lambe has become a trusted resource for corporate sustainability leaders and the media alike. He has become influential in the sustainability and forestry space, regularly featured as a speaker at conferences hosted by the United Nations, Sustainable Brands, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 3BL and others. He sits on the steering committee for the Sustainable Urban Forests Coalition, serves as a board member for the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and is the recipient of the Chief’s Honor Award — the USDA Forest Service’s highest award. Lambe is also a frequent resource for publications such as CNN, NPR, Popular Science and Fast Company.

Kamilah Martin is the U.S. Vice President of the Jane Goodall Institute’s international youth program, Roots & Shoots, where young people are empowered and supported to use the gift of their lives to make a positive difference in the world for people, animals, and the environment. Kamilah provides strategic and operational direction to the nearly 30-year-old program during a period of growth, and brings 15 years of experience in program and organizational development, education, and philanthropy.

Prior to her work with the Jane Goodall Institute, Martin developed and ran domestic and global programs for the Thomas J. Watson Foundation and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. She earned a Master in Public Administration from the City University of New York, Baruch College and a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from the University of Maryland, College Park, as well as numerous fellowships including with the National Wildlife Federation, NYU Leaders in Public Service, Arts & Business Council, and the National Urban Fellows program, where she currently serves as an advisor to the program in partnership with Georgetown University focused on building equity in the pipeline of leadership for public policy professionals.

Martin is a mother of two expressive and creative young children, an entrepreneur, a photographer, and is in her happiest place when she is experiencing the beauty and peace of nature or supporting people, especially young people, in reaching their fullest potential.

Tom Martin is president and chief executive officer of the American Forest Foundation. Formerly, he served as the executive vice president of the National Parks Conservation Association, the citizens advocacy group for a superlative National Park system. He also served as president and member of the board of directors of Earth Force, Inc., the nation’s largest young people’s environmental and citizenship education and action group. Prior to that, he was the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the National Audubon Society.

Martin was deputy director of policy, budget and administration for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. As the founding director, Michigan Offices of the Great Lakes and Water Resources, State Water Administrator, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, he acted as chief advocate on these issues for Michigan before Congress, international and regional bodies.

Martin was a member of the Northland College Board of Trustees. He has served as board chair of the Natural Resources Council of America; chair and founding member of the Great Lakes Protection Fund, a $100 million public endowment to fund Great Lakes research and demonstration projects; chair of the Great Lakes Commission, an eight-state, regional government organization; member of the Governor’s Commission on a Sustainable South Florida; and as vice president of the Council of Great Lakes Governors.

Kevin McCarthy proudly serves as Representative for California’s 23rd Congressional District and as the Republican Leader of the United States House of Representatives. A fourth-generation resident of Kern County, McCarthy is the son of a firefighter and the grandson of a cattle rancher. Raised in a working-class Bakersfield home, McCarthy learned the value of hard work at a young age. He fulfilled his dream of opening his own small business, Kevin O’s Deli. He learned firsthand that big government is an obstacle to success – a lesson that compelled him to enter public service.

McCarthy worked hard to grow his business, eventually selling the deli to pay his way through California State University Bakersfield, where he received undergraduate and graduate degrees in business. He married his high school sweetheart, Judy. They still live in the first house they bought together – the Bakersfield home where they raised their two children, Connor and Meghan.

There is a mantra in McCarthy’s office: have the wisdom to listen and the courage to lead. That mantra, together with his personal experiences as a California native, drive him to support organizations like 1t.org. California is home to some of the world’s most beautiful and bountiful forests, but improper management has made those forests susceptible to wildfire.  As a member of the 1t.org Stakeholder Council, McCarthy intends to learn more about properly managing the forests of his home state and lead others to create a cleaner, healthier, and safer environment.

Mary Mitsos joined the National Forest Foundation (NFF) in July 2001, and serves as president and chief executive officer. Prior to that, Mitsos was director of community-based forest stewardship at the Pinchot Institute for Conservation, where she provided leadership for the program in sustainable forestry and sustaining rural communities. She brings expertise in a range of topics relating to the protection and sustainable management of forest ecosystems and sustainable development. Her specialized interests are in collaborative stewardship, contracting mechanisms on public forestlands, conservation-based development and strengthening the working relationship between local communities and forestland managers.

Mitsos is currently a member of the Managing Partner team that provides assistance to nonprofits that are participating in The Ford Foundation Community-Based Forestry Demonstration Program. With more than two decades of experience in the natural resources field, Mitsos holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Business from the University of Colorado-Denver. In addition, she earned a Master of Science in Natural Resources, and a Master of Arts in Applied Economics, from the University of Michigan, where she completed her masters project on Sustainable Management of Common Property Resources. She served on the steering committee of the Seventh American Forest Congress Communities Committee, as a board member of the National Network of Forest Practitioners and serves on the advisory board for the W.A. Franke College of Forestry & Conservation at the University of Montana.

Michelle Patron is director of sustainability policy at Microsoft where she leads the company’s policy efforts on sustainability and energy issues. She has two decades of unique experience forecasting energy markets for private investors and driving high impact energy, environmental and foreign policy.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Patron served as special assistant to the president and senior director for energy and climate on the National Security Council at the White House from 2013 to 2015. In that role, she led efforts to design and execute ground breaking energy and climate policy, including the historic climate deal with China. Prior to the White House, she was senior director at PIRA Energy Group, a private energy research firm in New York City. Earlier in her career, Patron worked at the Department of Energy, Deutsche Bank, the International Energy Agency and the Center for International Environmental Law, and served as energy attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. She has served as an expert commentator to CNBC, BBC, NPR, Fox, CBS, the Economist and the New York Times and written op-eds for Reuters, Foreign Affairs, the Financial Times and the Los Angeles Times. She has taught as an adjunct professor at New York University and is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Sapreet Kaur Saluja joined Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) as chief fund development officer in October 2017, and is currently the chief strategic partnerships and new ventures officer. In this role, she leads strategies that support the organization’s partnerships and fundraising efforts. To date, she has helped launch four major initiatives that will extend Girl Scouts’ reach and its impact on girls and young women nationwide.

Prior to Girl Scouts, Saluja served as executive director of the Sikh Coalition, an organization that safeguards the civil and human rights of all people. She was a member of the Sikh Coalition Board of Directors prior to her staff role, strengthening the organization’s community engagement and its capacity to meet needs around advocacy. During her tenure, the Sikh Coalition’s budget and full-time staff tripled, resulting in the largest and most impactful Sikh civil rights organization in the U.S.

Before joining the Sikh Coalition, Saluja served as managing director of strategy at Teach for America. Prior to her leadership in national nonprofits, Saluja spent years in the private sector at the corporate headquarters of Coach Inc. and Pottery Barn Kids, leading teams during startup and major growth phases. She is a former board secretary for the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation and a former secretary and international commissioner on the GSUSA Board of Directors. She also previously served on the board for the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. In 2019, Saluja became the first Sikh to speak at a presidential inaugural prayer service. Her work has been covered by The New York Times, Huffington Post, TIME, The Daily Beast, National Public Radio, and Fox News. Saluja served in the Peace Corps in Uganda and Kenya from 1998 to 2001.

Dr. Rajwant Singh is the founder and president of EcoSikh, a response from the Sikh community to the threats of climate change and the deterioration of the environment. EcoSikh operates chiefly in India and in many other countries worldwide with environmental outreach programs. EcoSikh has recently launched a massive drive to plant 1 million trees around the world in celebration of the 550^th birth-anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. Over 150 forests have been planted by EcoSikh and it has initiated faith based plantation in many countries. Rajwant Singh is the co-founder and senior advisor to the National Sikh Campaign launching a major media initiative to educate Americans about Sikhs and Sikhism. Dr. Singh has worked with three different administrations on various faith-based, social justice, and environmental issues. Internationally, Dr. Singh has represented the Sikh perspective in numerous international forums and has been invited by the Vatican and Buckingham Palace to serve as a Sikh representative.

Dr. Rajwant Singh, is also the Chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education (SCORE), Communications Director of the Sikh Human Development Foundation, and Secretary of the Guru Gobind Singh Foundation in Maryland. Dr. Singh has held the presidency of the Interfaith Council of Metropolitan Washington, which convenes 11 faith communities in Washington, D.C. for joint dialogue and joint work on critical issues facing society.

Peter Stein joined Lyme Timber Company (LTC) in 1990 and has led the firm’s conservation-oriented forestland investment strategies.

As of 2020, Lyme has raised more than $1 billion of private capital that has been, or will be, invested in high conservation value forests in the U.S. and Canada. Lyme’s conservation advisory business assists families and companies in the design and execution of conservation transactions, resulting in more than 900,000 acres of permanent land conservation in 12 states and the Province of Quebec.

Prior to his career with LTC Partners and Lyme, Stein was senior vice president of the Trust for Public Land (TPL), where he was one of the founding staff. He received the Kingsbury Browne Award from the Land Trust Alliance and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in 2012.

Stein lectures frequently at graduate schools and professional conferences on conservation investment structures and strategies. He is the co-founder of the Conservation Finance Network and the International Land Conservation Network. Stein serves on the Investment Advisory Committee of Spring Point Partners, the Advisory Boards of Quantified Ventures and Rose Smart Growth Real Estate Fund and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Montshire Museum. He is a former board chair of the Land Trust Alliance and served as a founding commissioner of the Land Trust Accreditation Commission.