Katie McGaughey is a Crop Assessment Specialist at the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. FAS is responsible for market development, international trade agreements and the collection and analysis of market intelligence information. Katie’s analytical portfolio includes Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Moldova. She works to inform the U.S. government, American farmers, and the agricultural industry of international crop conditions and agricultural production statistics using geospatial and remote sensing technology. Her group also monitors hot spots of food insecurity and disasters that impact agriculture globally.

Dr. Kathleen A. Merrigan is an expert in food and agriculture, celebrated by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2010. Currently she is the Kelly and Brian Swette Professor in the College of Global Futures and executive director of the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at Arizona State University.

From 2009 to 2013, Merrigan was deputy secretary and COO of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where she led efforts to support local food systems and managed USDA’s $150 billion budget. She is known for authoring the law that established national standards for organic food and the federal definition of sustainable agriculture. Merrigan is a board member of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, a Trustee of CIFOR-ICRAF and an advisor to Astanor Ventures, Heartland Health Research Alliance, and the Organic Farming Research Foundation.

Merrigan holds a PhD in Public Policy and Environmental Planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Master in Public Affairs from University of Texas at Austin, and BA from Williams College

Eve Palmer is the head of marketing & sales at AKUA, as well as a marketing consultant for many brands in the food and wellness spaces. She attended NYU where she studied marketing alongside a minor of sustainability and food chain solutions. Eve currently lives in Greenpoint with her husband and 17 year old dachshund, Ernie.

Dr. Passidomo's work utilizes food systems to better understand and contest broader social systems and phenomena. She investigates connections between the food system and migration between the Global and US South, structural racism, economic inequality, and demographic and culinary changes in the American South. She has published numerous journal articles and book chapters, and is currently working on a book entitled "Gastroimaginaries: Dreams of Food and Place in Peru and the American South." Dr. Passidomo teaches courses in Anthropology, Southern Studies, Environmental Studies, and Food Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Human Geography and a M.A. in Environmental Anthropology from the University of Georgia, and a BA in Sociology from Washington and Lee University. She is originally from Naples, Florida, and currently lives in Oxford, Mississippi with her family.

Dr. Price is a Professor of Geography and International Affairs at the George Washington University where she has taught since 1990. A Latin American and migration specialist, her studies have explored human migration, natural resource use, environmental conservation, and regional development. She is a non-resident fellow of the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank that focuses on immigration issues based in Washington, DC. Her publications include the co-authored book Migrants’ Inclusion in Cities: Innovative Urban Policies and Practices (2013, United Nations) that was a collaborative project with staff from UNESCO and UN-Habitat, a co-edited book Migrants to the Metropolis: The Rise of Immigrant Gateway Cities (2008, Syracuse University Press), and the co-authored textbooks Diversity Amid Globalization: World Regions, Environment and Development, 5th edition (2011, Pearson) and Globalization and Diversity: Geography of a Changing World, 4th edition (2013, Pearson). She has also published some 40 refereed articles and book chapters.

Bob Quinn was raised on a 2,400 acre family operated wheat and cattle ranch South-East of Big Sandy, Montana which was started by his Grandpa Quinn in 1920. He earned a BS in botany in 1970 and a MS in plant pathology in 1971 from Montana State University in Bozeman. He received a PhD in plant biochemistry at the University of California at Davis, California in 1976 and returned home to run the family farm and ranch in 1978. In 1983 Bob started Montana Flour & Grains, Inc. (MFG) to sell high protein wheat from his farm to whole grain bakeries. In 1986 MFG introduced an ancient organic wheat using the brand name, Kamut (see kamut.com for a complete description of this project). In 2012 he started the Oil Barn which produces high-oleic organic safflower oil on his farm and in 2015, Big Sandy Organics (BSO) which produces Kracklin’ Kamut ancient wheat snacks. In 2001 he and two partners from Germany formed WindPark Solutions America which was responsible for the development of Montana’s first large scale wind farm of 90 turbines totaling 130 megawatts.

In 1988 Bob converted his entire farm to regenerative organic operation. He is 75 and has been married for 51 years. He and his wife, Ann, have four daughters, one son and 20 grandchildren. He is active in many organizations locally, nationally and internationally which promote organic agriculture and has received many awards from these groups.

He recently wrote “Grain by Grain” with his co-author, Liz Carlisle which summarizes his philosophy of the tie between agriculture, food and health and the importance of local production of fuel and fuel. He is now working to create a 700-acre regenerative organic research and education center in the middle of his farm.

Wesley J. Reisser is a member of the State Department’s civil service, where he has spent the past eleven years working mostly on Middle Eastern issues and the United Nations, including work on Israel-Palestinian negotiations, Syria, and Iran, as well as working on developing foreign policy to address the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people around the world. Dr. Reisser holds a Bachelors Degree, Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, in International Affairs and History from The George Washington University, and a Masters Degree in Geography from the same institution that focuses on borders and peace settlements. In 2010, he completed a Ph.D. in Geography from UCLA with a dissertation on American border proposals and peacemaking efforts following World War I. Dr. Reisser teaches geography at the George Washington University, including courses on political geography and energy resources. He is a regular lecturer on Middle East Geography, Multilateral Diplomacy, and Middle East Peace at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute. His first book, “The Black Book: Woodrow Wilson’s Secret Plan for Peace” was published in April, 2012. Besides his professional work, in 2011 Dr. Reisser founded an Eastern European dance group in Washington, DC called the Carpathia Folk Dance Ensemble, and is the 2007 National Geography Bowl Champion.

Michael Rich, MD, MPH, is a Senior Global Health Physician at Partners In Health with more than twenty years of experience in medical program design and implementation, confronting and responding to global health inequities. He is a founding member of Plants-Earth-Life (PEL), which works towards a world that eats more plant-based whole-food for better human and environmental health. Dr. Rich holds his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and a Master’s in Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health. He presently is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Clinician at the Division of Global Health Equity, Mass General Brigham, Boston MA, USA.

Daniel Russek is CEO and founder of Atarraya, a company working to make shrimp the protein of the 21st century. Russek was trained as an economist but developed an early attachment to the Oaxacan coast in Mexico while in college. While handing out post-hurricane relief supplies, he was shocked at the poverty in that area. To help these rural populations to improve their income and living standards, Daniel launched his first company Maricultura Vigas in 2010, which uses sustainable technology to produce shrimp. Later on, he founded Atarraya in 2019 to revitalize the aquaculture industry. Atarraya uses biotechnology, software, and automation, to redefine the limits of what is possible in seafood production and distribution.

Kathleen Schroeder is a Professor of Geography at Appalachian State University in beautiful Boone, North Carolina. She has spent a good deal of time in Latin America and particularly in Bolivia where she has conducted research since her graduate student days. She teaches at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and has held a number of leadership positions on her campus, including serving as Department Chair. She conducts research on food, food systems, resilience, and on issues of gender. She actively participates in the local food movement in her region and saw how access to local foods played a critical role during the early days of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Dr. Kunwar Singh is a Geospatial Scientist at the AidData research lab and an Affiliate Faculty in the Center for Geospatial Analysis at William & Mary. He has extensive experience in remote sensing data acquisition, processing, and analysis, including the application of light detection and ranging and drones to measure, map, and model landscape characteristics and resources. His research focuses on land and vegetation dynamics and their impacts on natural resources.

Karen Seto is the Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science at Yale University’s School of the Environment. A geographer, and an urban and land change scientist, she is one of the world's leading experts on contemporary urbanization and global environmental change. Her research includes the effects of urbanization on food systems, biodiversity, croplands, energy use and GHG emissions. She serves on numerous national and international scientific bodies. She currently co-chairs the U.S. National Academies Climate Security Roundtable and the U.S. National Academies Subcommittee on U.S.-China Scientific Engagement. She was a Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC 6th (2022) and 5th (2014) Assessment Reports, where she co-led the chapter on urban mitigation of climate change. She is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, and a Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Christopher Tucker manages Yale House Ventures, a portfolio of social ventures and technology companies that span the worlds of energy, geospatial, sensor, cyber-security, open source, and social media technologies, across the domains of defense/intelligence, international affairs, civilian government, commercial industry, NGOs, and academe. He is also the Chairman and CEO of The MapStory Foundation and President of the foreign policy advocacy group, Friends of the Arc.

Dr. Tucker was previously Senior VP for the Americas/National Programs at ERDAS and President/CEO of IONIC, a leader in interoperable web-mapping, location based services, imagery management and distributed geoprocessing. He has served on a variety of Boards such as the US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, the Open Geospatial Consortium, Open Plans, OpenGeo, the Secretary of Interior’s National Geospatial Advisory Committee, and the Defense Science Board Intelligence Task Force, the DNI’s Intelligence Community Strategic Studies Group, and serves as an Independent Advisor to the Director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA). Dr. Tucker served on the National Academy of Science’s Committee on NGA’s GEOINT Research Priorities.

Dr. Tucker was Chief Strategic Officer of In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital fund. He was responsible for managing the technical portfolio, issues of organizational design, and relations with the intelligence community, industry and media.

As Special Advisor to the Executive Vice Provost of Columbia University, Dr. Tucker was responsible for a range of issues having to do with strategic institutional development, portfolio management, federal science and technology policy, and the organization of interdisciplinary research. At Columbia, he co-founded the Center for Science, Policy, and Outcomes and has taught courses at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. Dr. Tucker earned his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. at Columbia University in the City of New York.

As chief executive officer at the National Geographic Society, Dr. Jill Tiefenthaler oversees the development and implementation of the Society’s mission-driven work and programmatic agenda. She leads our global community of Explorers: scientists, innovators, educators, and storytellers—in our mission to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world. Jill sits on the Society’s Board of Trustees and the board of National Geographic Partners.

Before joining the National Geographic Society, Jill spent nine years as the president of Colorado College. During this time, she helped set a new direction for the school, executed the most ambitious fundraising campaign in the college’s history, and developed and implemented a comprehensive strategic plan that expanded and cultivated an engaged and globally connected academic community. She developed a Campus Master Plan, executed an alliance to make the world-class Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center part of the college, and led the college’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality. She also drove significant increases in diversity among the faculty and student body and led the campus community in an external review of racism at the college that resulted in an Antiracism Implementation Plan.

Before leading Colorado College, Jill was provost of Wake Forest University, where she redesigned the admissions process to include an SAT-optional policy, integrated the university’s undergraduate and graduate business schools, established the Institute for Public Engagement and The Humanities Institute, and implemented “Living Our Values,” a plan to strengthen residential life and campus vibrancy.

Jill began her academic career at Colgate University, where she was a full professor of economics before holding various administrative roles, including consultant to the president; associate dean of the faculty; founding director of the Upstate Institute; and chair of the department of economics.

Originally from Iowa, Jill grew up on a farm and worked for her family’s popcorn business before attending Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, IN. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Duke University.