Schedule

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Featured Events

11 AM
Doors Open

12 PM - 12:15 PM
Welcome by Dr. Suzanne Pierre, Critical Ecology Lab Founder and Director

12 PM - 12:15 PM
Talk by Nautica Jones, UC Santa Cruz Ph.D. Student

12:15 PM - 12:30 PM
Environmental Activities

12:30 PM - 12:45 PM
Talk by Dr. Karen Bailey, Associate Professor at University of Colorado Boulder

12:45 PM - 1:15 PM
Environmental Activities

1:15 PM - 1:30 PM
Talk by Ms. Margaret Gordon, Co-Founder of West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project

1:30 PM - 2 PM
Environmental Activities; Raffle with Prizes from Patagonia and more!

2 PM - 2:15 PM
Talk by Dr. Chris Schell, Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley

2:15 PM - 2:30 PM
Grassroots Spotlight: People’s Program

2:30 PM - 2:45 PM
Talk by Dr. Camille Gaynus, Chief Science Officer at Black in Marine Science

2:45 PM - 3:15 PM
Eco-AfroFutures Speed Networking Session

3:15 PM - 3:45 PM
Panel Discussion, facilitated by Dr. Suzanne Pierre

3:45 PM - 4 PM
Environmental Activities; Raffle with prizes from Patagonia and more!

4 PM
Closing Statement of Gratitude and Vision by Dr. Suzanne Pierre

4 PM - 4:30 PM
Event wrap up and doors closed

All Day

Speakers

  • Suzanne Pierre (she/her) is a soil microbial ecologist and biogeochemist, a writer, and transformer of social systems. She is the founder and the lead investigator of the Critical Ecology Lab, a nonprofit organization innovating research at the intersection of global ecological change, social justice and liberation of oppressed peoples.

    She received an interdisciplinary B.A. in Environmental Studies from New York University, a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University, and completed a University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Berkeley. Her technical expertise is in applying molecular and stable isotope approaches to characterizing the biophysical mechanisms controlling nutrient and carbon cycling in plant and microbial systems experiencing climate change.

    Pierre is a transdisciplinary scientist developing the new field of critical ecology, the study of basic ecological processes through the analytical lens of decoloniality and critical social theory. Her goal is to explain the phenomena of global ecological change as responses to systems of global colonialism and capitalism. She is a 2022 recipient of the National Geographic Society Wayfinder Award and is a National Geographic Explorer.

  • Dr. Karen Bailey is interested in human-environment interactions, climate change, and sustainable rural livelihoods. She is an interdisciplinary environmental social scientist and combines social science research with environmental and ecological data to understand feedback between communities and their environments, how we can build resilience to climate change, and how to support landscapes that meet human needs and sustainability goals. She also has an emphasis on justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in environmental fields and STEM more broadly and is committed to research that supports, amplifies and engages the most vulnerable among us. Her current projects focus on climate adaptation in southern Africa, human health and well-being in east Africa, barriers to entry in natural resource fields, just and equitable climate change research, and urban communities and environmental engagement.

  • Dr. Christopher J. Schell is an urban ecologist, professor, Afrofuturist, father, and writer. Schell’s research sits at the intersection of animal behavior, physiology, urban biodiversity conservation, environmental justice, and One Health to investigate how carnivores – namely coyotes, foxes, and raccoons – adapt to life in cities. In addition, Schell’s lab integrates critical discourses on how structural oppression (e.g., redlining, pollution burden, and socioeconomic disparities) directly shape the very urban features associated with human-wildlife interactions, conflict, and adaptation. This transdisciplinary work aims to disentangle how environmental injustices have structured our urban ecosystems and how we can harness those lessons to build more just, biodiverse, and resilient cities. Schell is a National Geographic Explorer, Grist Fixer, Cal Academy Fellow and Board Member, and Affiliate Faculty with the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, with his work featured in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Vox Explained, and various NPR radio events. Since 2021, Schell has served on the faculty in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM) at the University of California, Berkeley. A born-and-raised Los Angelean now firmly planted in the Bay Area, Schell weaves his lived experiences as a Black man and Californian to coproduce justice- and equity-centered research programs with local communities that regenerate urban nature, environmental health, and access for all peoples.

  • Ms. Margaret Gordon is a lifetime community activist. As a young single mother, she worked her way off of welfare by attending commercial cooking school, after which she cooked for various institutions including Children’s Hospital and a UC Berkeley fraternity house. Ms. Gordon is a founding member of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, having volunteered for the first three years of operation. She has work experience in mental health services, parent training in the public schools and community organizing.

    Appointed by then-Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums to the Oakland Port Commission in 2007, she spent the next five years stridently promoting the interests of community health, workers health and fiscal responsibility in Port operations.

    Ms. Gordon was the Community representative on the California Goods Movement Action Plan task force and is a 2010 National Purpose Prize winner.

  • Nautica's research seeks to evaluate Black traditional ecological knowledge (BTEK) use and impacts in the United States. BTEK is an empirical knowledge system composed of generational observations and techniques authored by black people. As the severity of climate change escalates faster than data can be generated, crisis fields like conservation biology and climate adaptation are relying on ecological theory to guide action plans. As traditional knowledge does not rely on Western data, partnerships between knowledge systems may be an overlooked tool.

  • Originally from Philadelphia, Dr. Camille Gaynus established a love of the water at an early age. Upon graduating from Hampton University, she started a PhD in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at UCLA. She spent some time working at Penn State Brandywine before moving to work for the nonprofit Black in Marine Science full-time as the Chief Science Officer. There are two things Dr. Gaynus enjoys about being a marine scientist. First is the sheer amount of knowledge the ocean holds. It gives her countless opportunities to learn and explore. Second, she physically enjoys being underwater. There is something about being totally submerged in water that is calming. She got involved in #BlackinMarineScience because she loves being Black and believes it is important that we highlight Black stories as a way to combat anti-Blackness.

Critical Ecology Lab

Critical Ecology Lab is a group of people using their skills—lived experience, scientific training, and creative practice— to ask questions and inform others about how the invisible, unjust systems shaping our lives have brought about the current environmental crises.

  • Suzanne Pierre (she/her) is a soil microbial ecologist and biogeochemist, a writer, and transformer of social systems. She is the founder and the lead investigator of the Critical Ecology Lab, a nonprofit organization innovating research at the intersection of global ecological change, social justice and liberation of oppressed peoples.

    She received an interdisciplinary B.A. in Environmental Studies from New York University, a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University, and completed a University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Berkeley. Her technical expertise is in applying molecular and stable isotope approaches to characterizing the biophysical mechanisms controlling nutrient and carbon cycling in plant and microbial systems experiencing climate change.

    Pierre is a transdisciplinary scientist developing the new field of critical ecology, the study of basic ecological processes through the analytical lens of decoloniality and critical social theory. Her goal is to explain the phenomena of global ecological change as responses to systems of global colonialism and capitalism. She is a 2022 recipient of the National Geographic Society Wayfinder Award and is a National Geographic Explorer.

  • Em Whalen (they/she) is a soil biogeochemist, microbial ecologist, and educator, with expertise in soil organic matter formation and carbon storage, and the role of microorganisms in promoting these processes. They received a B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Vermont and completed their M.S. and Ph.D. in Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of New Hampshire before joining CEL as a postdoctoral researcher.

    Em is passionate about critical approaches to environmental science education, pedagogy, and research, and their approach is based on the premise that addressing current environmental and climate crises is inseparable from dismantling white supremacy and (settler) colonialism. Her analysis is informed by the work of scholar-activists in anti-colonial theory, Black feminism, queer ecology, and critical pedagogy, including Eve Tuck, Zoe Todd, Max Liboiron, Farhana Sultana, David Naguib Pellow, bell hooks, Bettina Love, Gholdy Muhammad, Gloria Ladson-Billings, José Esteban Muñoz, and more. Em draws inspiration from queer theory scholarship that engages us in dreaming up the “not-yet-here” and envisioning liberated futures for queer, trans, disabled, and BIPOC folks (under climate change & beyond).

  • Sacha Medjo-Akono (they/them) is a multidisciplinary microbiologist and artist based in Tongva territory. Their work focuses on ecology, conservation, and writing poetry about human relationships with the earth's gifts. At CEL they take care of social media, communications, and more lab matters! In this life, they aim to make knowledge about science and nature accessible to as many people as possible.

    Sacha earned their Bachelor’s in Biology with a concentration in Gender & Sexuality Studies at Bard College. They conducted lab research and wrote a thesis on pheromone usage in chromoacteria found in soil. The diversity in their work interest is why they've chosen to work with CEL and uplift communities that strive for collectivism and environmental care.

Guest Organizations

  • People’s Program is a Black-led organization, founded by Black youth in 2017, dedicated to empowering the community of Oakland through grassroots community programs. Instead of relying on top-down solutions, we champion bottom-up approaches to address the core issues affecting our community. Our mission is clear: To serve the people, build autonomy, and directly impact Black lives.

  • Big City Mountaineers brings the transformative power of time spent in nature to a generation of young people who face increased barriers to outdoor access, as well as other systemic challenges in their lives. A BCM experience helps youth better connect with themselves, with nature, with their community, and with a sense of joy. By providing free, fully outfitted, and professionally led outdoor and backcountry trips, they give youth ages 12 to 18 the opportunity to strengthen their skills, their mental and physical health, their social-emotional well being, and help them become better stewards of our planet. They engage young people in six metropolitan regions across the country, including Boston MA, Minneapolis MN, Denver CO, Seattle WA, Portland OR, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

  • At The Lawrence Hall of Science, discovery runs through everything. They foster scientific exploration with a focus on equitable learning experiences. Whether they’re designing curriculum, engaging learners, or empowering educators, they believe in the transformative power of learning made fun: when “ha ha” moments become “aha!” moments.

  • West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project builds resilient communities through environmental justice. We use a collaborative model of power sharing to equip residents with the skills and expertise to drive change in their own neighborhoods.

  • Family Owned and Operated business located in West Oakland Ca. provide fresh made granola and granola related products.

  • Ronnishia Johnson and Rheema Calloway are The Vegan Hood Chefs. They specialize in turning many of our soul food and American style favorites into delicious vegan meals. Their passion for community organizing, creativity, and food has allowed them to launch a food initiative to help fight against food justice and social inequity within the San Francisco community. These chefs have recognized how nutrition education and access to healthy foods has contributed to the health conditions of many communities of color.

    The chefs were motivated by the lack of access to healthy foods within their communities. Growing up in both Lakeview and Bayview Hunter’s Point areas of San Francisco combined with their experience in community organizing, they began to shine light on how their native communities were expriencing food apartheid. they were able to link illnesses such as diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, and obesity are prevalent in the community due to poor nutrition access and racial inequality.

Food & Beverage

Goodies

  • We are Soul Blends Coffee Roasters, an Oakland-based BIPOC owned specialty coffee pop up service, dedicated to providing deliciously handcrafted quality sourced fair trade African coffee. We believe that our coffee is more than just a beverage. It is an opportunity to engage and inspire communities everywhere through shared experiences and meaningful connections.

  • Chef Ooo Wee is a private chef based in Oakland CA.

  • Sistah Scifi is the first Black owned bookstore focused on science fiction and fantasy

  • A husband and wife duo like many other small businesses we found our baking outlet during the peak of the pandemic. Becoming business partners with each other has been the most challenging but most rewarding experience. By baking in smaller batches to minimize waste and using fresh Ingredients.

    Our mission is to not only bring you baked goods but walk you through our testimony so you meet the authentic bakers! We hope you enjoy our goodies as much as we do.

  • Hella Juiced owner Hope was growing up in the East, and going to school in West Oakland, then Berkeley, then BACK to the West; that was the first time she really noticed the lack of healthy options, but with education and access to the right food and juices we don’t have to sacrifice our well being.

    She believes fresh food can be fast food, and she’s made it a mission to help others embrace changing the way we view nutrition while remaining true to her Oakland roots.

  • Rize Up was born as a way for our founder, Azikiwee "Z" Anderson, to channel energy into something healing during the social unrest caused by the murder of George Floyd.

    Our story began as a home-based quarantine sourdough project that quickly turned into a micro-bakery in the Spring of 2020. Within a year, Rize Up had outgrown Z's backyard ovens and into a shared kitchen space, before later moving to our current kitchen space.

    Z was overcome with a need to make a difference and hopefully inspire young Black bakers to think outside the traditional box. As a black baker himself, Z feels representation truly matters. We have to be the change we seek.

    Rize Up wants to share our love of delicious, thoughtfully baked bread made with naturally leavened, organic, and sustainable high-quality ingredients.

    Rize Up feels it can change the world one beautiful loaf of bread at a time! We are honored to Feed Your Soul.

  • To bring diversity to the wine industry and amplify black winemakers

  • The BEST plant-centered hub in Oakland, San Francisco, Long Beach, Los Angeles, and Accra, Ghana. We support local plant brands and host fun workshops, events, and team-building activities. Come chill with us and experience lively plant events that celebrate nature and community, whether you're in California or Ghana. Embrace the world of plants with us!

  • Growing up, Kyra Lumpkin lived in pretty much every major city in the United States. With every new environment, she quickly learned that the concept of home had to mean more than just four walls. “I had to make peace with the idea that home was not going to be a place for me,” says Lumpkin. “It was always going to be an ideal or set of people or a moment in time.”

    It’s a theory that encapsulates Penrose Apothecary, Lumpkin’s line of sustainable, hand-crafted candles, body oils, perfume oils and room sprays with thoughtful like names Bizarre Adventure and Pleasure Principle that she wants people to integrate into their everyday sanctuaries and living spaces. “I joined the two concepts of home and healing,” says Lumpkin of her brand’s mission and name. Penrose comes from Penrose Street, where her grandparents’ house was located and where she felt most at peace growing up.

  • Divine Roots is a nesting space for creativity involving plants, nature-inspired art and exploration.

  • We are a black owed family business with the goal to offer clean plant based scented candles you want to share your most intimate moments with.

  • Ramsess Art Garden's goal is to create a safe space for local artists and plant enthusiasts to help create more, bring the community together and to showcase one another's talents.

Supporters & Sponsors

  • Patagonia is a local and environmentally forward outdoor gear compay

  • Milkweed Editions is an independent publisher of literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Our mission is to identify, nurture, and publish transformative literature, and build an engaged community around it.

    As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, our work is made possible by the generosity of sustaining funders and readers like you.

    We are profoundly grateful.

  • Penguin Random House is the international home to more than 300 editorially and creatively independent publishing imprints. Our mission is to ignite a universal passion for reading by creating books for everyone. We believe that books, and the stories and ideas they hold, have the unique capacity to connect us, change us, and carry us toward a better future for generations to come.

  • Oregon State University Press informs and inspires scholars, students, and curious readers by publishing works of regional importance and lasting cultural value. We extend and advance OSU’s land-grant mission by cultivating responsible scholarship, promoting creativity, and disseminating ideas and knowledge. In all of our work, we are committed to advancing equitable and inclusive publishing and encouraging diverse voices and viewpoints.

  • AK Press is a worker-run collective that publishes and distributes radical books and other media to expand minds and change worlds. A half dozen of us put in long hours every week because we believe in what we do. We're anarchists, which is reflected both in the books we provide and in the way we organize our business. Decisions at AK Press are made democratically, from what we publish, to what we distribute and how we structure our labor. All the work is shared and it gets done without bosses. No one here is in it for the money (although we do have to pay the rent). Our goal is supplying radical ideas to as many people as possible. The books and other media we distribute are mostly published by independent presses, not the corporate giants. We make them widely available to as tools for social movements struggling to build a new world.

  • Oneworld was founded in 1986 by husband and wife team Juliet Mabey and Novin Doostdar as an independent publishing house focusing on stimulating non-fiction. Now publishing over 100 books a year, Oneworld has retained its founding commitment to the old-fashioned principles of great writing, editorial excellence, high production values, and marketing flair, to produce books that are read by the intellectually curious all over the world.

  • Oneworld was founded in 1986 by husband and wife team Juliet Mabey and Novin Doostdar as an independent publishing house focusing on stimulating non-fiction. Now publishing over 100 books a year, Oneworld has retained its founding commitment to the old-fashioned principles of great writing, editorial excellence, high production values, and marketing flair, to produce books that are read by the intellectually curious all over the world.

  • Science Sandbox supports boundary-pushing, interdisciplinary projects that support science in culture. We identify people and organizations who seek to inspire and empower, and partner with them to support their vision. Through our partnerships we strive to bring to light the role scientific inquiry can play in people’s day-to-day lives, while centering communities and voices that have been historically underserved.

  • At Peace Love Flight we use imagination as our medium! As Black creators we want our work to reflect the positive realities of people who look like us. That comes in forms of our character designs like cyber punk grandpas, or as illustrated in one of our most popular character designs a woman finding peace in nature while meditating after a long day. All in hopes for others to relate to our vision enough to proudly hang them on their walls or even share with family and friends.

  • Housed in Princeton University’s Department of African American Studies, the IDA B. WELLS Just Data Lab brings together students, educators, activists, and artists to develop a critical and creative approach to data conception, production, and circulation. Our aim is to rethink and retool the relationship between stories and statistics, power and technology, data and justice.

  • Orbit is a science fiction and fantasy publisher with dedicated publishing teams in the US and UK.

  • Heyday is an independent, nonprofit publisher founded in 1974 in Berkeley, California. We are a diverse community of writers and readers, activists and thinkers. Heyday promotes civic engagement and social justice, celebrates nature’s beauty, supports California Indian cultural renewal, and explores the state’s rich history, culture, and influence. Heyday works to realize the California dream of equity and enfranchisement.

  • Unlike conventional supermarkets and grocery stores, Mandela is operated, centrally governed, and democratically controlled by our worker-owners. Our structure and operations are guided by cooperative principles and a strong community-centered mission.

  • Library of America, a nonprofit organization, champions our nation’s cultural heritage by publishing America’s greatest writing in authoritative new editions and providing resources for readers to explore this rich, living legacy.

  • POST brings together many organizations and individuals to ensure that open spaces are permanently protected, benefiting our community, our environment and our economy. From the complex transaction process and funding to coordination with multiple public agencies, POST takes a central, catalytic role in conservation projects, adjusting our approach based on each unique situation.

  • Since its founding in 1938, the primary mission of the University of Georgia Press has been to support and enhance the University’s place as a major research institution by publishing outstanding works of scholarship and literature by scholars and writers throughout the world.

    The University of Georgia Press is the oldest and largest book publisher in the state. We currently publish 60-70 new books a year and have a long history of publishing significant scholarship, creative and literary works, and books about the state and the region for general readers.

  • COUNTERPOINT LLC was created in 2007 through the acquisition of three notable independent presses: Counterpoint, Shoemaker & Hoard, and Soft Skull Press. In January 2008, the company began publishing two imprints, Counterpoint and Soft Skull Press. Shoemaker & Hoard titles are now being published under the Counterpoint imprint. In 2016, Counterpoint merged with Catapult, an independent press and publisher of an award-winning online magazine.

    Author-driven, we devote all energy to the fresh, cutting-edge, and literary voices of our authors. The genres we cover are vast—fiction and nonfiction, poetry, graphic novels, and anthologies, all of which collectively focus on current affairs and politics, counterculture, music, history, memoir, literary biography, religion, and philosophy.

    The company’s office is in Berkeley, California.

    Counterpoint books are distributed by Penguin Random House.

  • Since its origins in 1890 as one of the three main divisions of the University of Chicago, the Press has embraced as its mission the obligation to disseminate scholarship of the highest standard and to publish serious works that foster public understanding, provide an authoritative foundation for informed dialogue, and enrich the diversity of cultural life. Our publications actively engage with timely issues and debates and are written by authors who are the foremost experts in their fields. Through our books and journals, we seek not only to advance scholarly conversation within and across traditional disciplines but, in keeping with the University of Chicago’s experimental tradition, to help define new areas of knowledge and intellectual endeavor.

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