Van Jones

Van Jones is working to combine solutions to America's two biggest problems: social inequality and environmental destruction.Over the past five years, Van has also emerged as a national environmental leader. In recent years, he has served on the boards of the National Apollo Alliance, Social Venture Network, Rainforest Action Network, Bioneers and Julia Butterfly Hill's "Circle of Life" organization.

In 2005, Van produced the "Social Equity Track" for the United Nations' World Environment Day celebration. UNWED 2005 drew dozens of mayors from around the world to San Francisco, where they developed policies promoting the concept of "Green Cities."  Van is also the founding president of Green For All, a national campaign for green-collar jobs and opportunities. See more »

The Rev. Sally Grover Bingham

The Rev. Sally Grover Bingham is a native of California. She is a Priest in the Diocese of California currently working as the Environmental Minister at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. She is the founder and executive director of The Regeneration Project, a nonprofit ministry, at this time, focusing on a response to global climate change. This particular initiative is called Interfaith Power and Light - chapters of which can be found in several states throughout the US and Canada. The mission is to mobilize the community of faith to lead by example in reducing green house gas emissions. She has brought widespread attention to the linkage between ecological issues and people of faith.


She was appointed by Mayor Willie Brown to serve on the Commission on the Environment for the City and County of San Francisco. In July 2001 Sally received the Green Power Leadership Pilot Award from the Center for Resource Solutions, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Dept of Energy. Episcopal Power and Light (JS - same above) was recognized as a Sacred Gift to the Planet by the World Wildlife Fund in November 2000 at a ceremony in Kathmandu, Nepal. The Regeneration Project received international Global Energy Award 2002. This "energy oscar" was presented to Rev. Bingham in Austria by President Mikhail Gorbachev in March 2002. Grist recently featured Sally as one of fifteen key religious leaders and CNN profiled her here.
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Jane Lubchenco

Dr. Jane Lubchenco is an environmental scientist and marine ecologist who is actively engaged in teaching, research, synthesis and communication of scientific knowledge. She grew up in Colorado, received her PhD. and taught at Harvard University, then 28 years ago moved to Oregon State University where she is Valley Professor of Marine Biology and Distinguished Professor of Zoology. Jane recently co-authored a study highlighting the likely relationship between climate change and dead zones off of the coast of Oregon and Washington. Among Jane's multiple accomplishments and impressive list of credentials, one could argue her leadership in co-founding The Aldo Leopold Leadership Program will be her greatest legacy. With the mission of creating stronger communicators from scientists, the importance of this program cannot be understated. As Jane reflects, "Environmental scientists have valuable knowledge that should be available to citizens and policy makers as they make choices about the future of our planet and our communities. It is vitally important to all of us that scientists be able to provide accurate information in plain language and in the context of everyday life to those who are determining our environmental policies and practices"
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Stephen W. Pacala

Stephen Pacala developed the “wedge theory” of carbon emission mitigation (along with Robert Socolow). This theory applies known, existing technology to reducing carbon emissions, offering 15 different “wedges” that can be developed today. Any 7 of the wedges will help achieve a stable carbon emission strategy. Pacala is also at the forefront of modeling interactions between terrestrial vegetation and the climate.

Stephen Pacala currently holds the Frederick D. Petrie Chair in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and is Director of the Princeton Environmental Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from Stanford in 1982 and after ten years on the faculty at the University of Connecticut, he moved to Princeton in 1992. His research focuses on forests and the global carbon cycle. He also directs, with Robert Socolow, Princeton's Carbon Mitigation Initiative, which is aimed at finding solutions to the greenhouse warming problem. He has received numerous honors and awards, including election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2007. See more »

Chip Giller

Chip founded Grist in 1999 with the aim of lightening up a movement known for taking itself too seriously. In pre-Grist years, Chip lived in Washington, D.C., where he was editor of Greenwire, the first environmental news daily. He got his start in environmental journalism at High Country News. Further back, he spent two growing seasons on organic farms and a summer tending the Appalachian Trail in New Hampshire.

In 2004, Chip won the Jane Bagley Lehman Award for Excellence in Public Advocacy, awarded by the Tides Foundation in recognition of the vital role Grist is playing in increasing environmental awareness. He took first place in the AlterNet New Media Hero contest in 2001, and was a finalist for the Environmental Grantmakers Association's Environmental Messenger of the Year Award in 2002. He is a senior fellow with the Environmental Leadership Program and a three-time journalism fellow with the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources.

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