Decolonizing Economics 2024: Earth Day to May Day

Here you will find a growing list of our featured presenters!

Michelle Vassel (she/her) serves as Tribal Administrator of the Wiyot Tribe (Chief Executive Officer). She is responsible for planning, managing and directing the day-to-day operations of the Tribal government under the general supervision of the elected Tribal Council. She oversees all governmental programs and designs and implements tribal policies involving economic development, fiscal and social services, cultural and historical preservation and environmental programs. Michelle also serves on the Board of Director of Cooperation Humboldt and was the Assistant Director at Northern California Indian Development Council, where she was responsible for the planning, development, review and evaluation of community and economic development service needs, resources and programs. She also served as Executive Assistant to the City Manager for the City of Fortuna, CA.

Kali Akuno is co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson, and served as the Director of Special Projects in the administration of Mayor Chokwe Lumumba of Jackson, MS. His focus was supporting cooperative development, introducing eco-friendly and carbon reduction operations, and promoting human rights and international relations for the city.  Kali also served as the Co-Director of the US Human Rights Network and the Executive Director of the Peoples’ Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF) after Hurricane Katrina.

Emily Kawano is co-director of the Wellspring Cooperative Corporation, which aims to use anchor institution purchases to create a network of worker-owned, inner-city cooperative businesses in Springfield, Massachusetts that will provide job training and entry-level jobs to unemployed and underemployed residents. Kawano also serves as coordinator of the US Solidarity Economy Network. An economist by training, Kawano served as the director of the Center for Popular Economics from 2004 to 2013. Before that, she taught at Smith College, worked as the National Economic Justice Representative for the American Friends Service Committee and, in Northern Ireland, founded a popular economics program with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

Mel Figeroa is a political journalist, educator, and organizer involved in a wide range of movements for social & environmental justice. She is the co-founder of Chico Traditional Ecological Stewardship Program, Faculty/Owner and Researcher at the Cooperative New School for Urban Studies & Environmental Justice, 2016 Stein/Baraka Press Director, working with Intertribal Stewardship Workforce Initiative in Northern California, Green Party of California National Committee Delegate to GP-US, and the Green EcoSocialist Network interim Steering Committee member. She is an on-air correspondent for Free Speech TV’s “Rising Up With Sonali,” and has written for The Nation, Truthdig.com, Against the Current, Truthout, and New Politics.

David Cobb is a “people’s lawyer” who has sued corporate polluters, lobbied elected officials, run for political office himself, and been arrested for non-violent civil disobedience. He believes we can – and must – provoke and win a peaceful revolution if we are to survive. David serves as Advancement Manager for the Wiyot Tribe’s Dishgamu Community Land Trust  and as Co-Coordinator of the US Solidarity Economy Network. He also serves on the Steering Committee of the Green Eco-Socialist Network, the Board of Directors of the Solidarity Research Center, an advisor to the California Progressive Alliance, and a leader of the California Public Banking Alliance. David ran for Attorney General of Texas in 2002, pledging to revoke the charters of corporations that routinely violate the law. In 2004 he was the Green Party nominee for President of the United States, and his demands for recounts in multiple states helped to launch the election integrity movement that ended the advance of electronic (black box) voting systems. In 2010 he helped to co-found Move To Amend and co-authored a proposed constitutional amendment to abolish the illegitimate court-created doctrines of corporate constitutional rights and money equals speech. In 2016 he served as campaign manager for the Jill Stein/Ajamu Baraka presidential campaign He was a co-founder of Cooperation Humboldt in 2018.

Goodshield Aguilar is a First Nations artist of Oglala Lakota and Pasqua Yaqui heritage. He is a painter, sculptor, film maker, carpenter, musician and Buffalo activist. He has dedicated the last 15 years of his life to helping protect and preserve the last genetically pure, free roaming buffalo left in north america, which are located in yellowstone, Montana. having worked for many years with the late, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Goodshield has used the powerful mediums of music and film to raise consciousness and awareness of issues related to culture, nature, and the human experience that has been disconnected from the natural order of our co-existence with all creatures on our planet, even ourselves. His music can be summed up in his Indigenous Soul bands name, 7th GENERATION RISE. He travels the world speaking on behalf of the buffalo, bears, wolves and salmon and shares his culture and stories from his lineage and his experiences. He usually travels as a solo artist, strumming a guitar, while pounding a bass drum and singing, but he can also be heard playing with his band, 7th GENERATION RISE, comprised of himself on guitar and vocals, Mignon Geli on native Flute, Johnny Martinez on drums, and Dominic Moore on bass. Come experience Indigenous Soul!Good Shield

Nicola R Walters (she/her) is an organizer, researcher, public speaker, teacher, and artist. Nicola has worked on environmental, social, political, and labor campaigns throughout her career. She currently serves on the California Faculty Association Board of Directors as the Membership & Organizing Chair, and is a founding member of Higher Ed Labor United. She is a lecturer in the Department of Politics at Cal Poly Humboldt and sculpts her career using Joel Olson’s guiding question: “What is the most damage I can do, given my biography, abilities, and commitments, to the racial order and rule of capital?”

Michelle Eddleman-McCormick is a mother of two and has been active in racial and social justice movements for the last twenty years.  She currently serves as; the General Manager of the worker-owned Marshfield Village Store in rural Vermont, a member of the Board of Directors of Cooperation Vermont and the CVT Land Trust, a coordinator of Regeneration Corp, a Trustee of the Jaquith Library and a member of the Planning Commission for Marshfield, VT.  When she has a spare moment she enjoys fly fishing, kayaking and traveling.

Lauren van Schilfgaarde (Cochiti Pueblo) is Assistant Professor of Law. Her research focuses on Tribal sovereignty and federal Indian law. She previously was the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Tribal Legal Development Clinic Director at UCLA Law wherein she supervised live-client projects concerning tribal governance and justice systems, ethics, cultural resource protection, voting, child welfare, and more. She received her undergraduate degree at Colorado College and her law degree from UCLA School of Law. van Schilfgaarde previously served as the Tribal Law Specialist at the Tribal Law and Policy Institute (TLPI) in West Hollywood, CA, and as a law clerk for the Native American Rights Fund and Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. van Schilfgaarde currently serves as co-chair for the Native American Concerns Committee of the American Bar Association and as a board member of the Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation, Pukúu Cultural Community Services, and the AALS Section on Indian Nations & Indigenous Peoples.

Tom Llewellyn is the interim executive director for Shareable, a nonprofit news + action hub promoting people-powered solutions for the common good. He is the executive producer and host of the award-winning documentary film and podcast series “The Response,” producer of the Cities@Tufts Lecture Series and Podcast, co-facilitator of SolidarityWorks, and communications lead for the Rural Power Coalition. Tom has spoken at over 200 events on five continents and is the co-editor and author of several publications, including “Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons” (2018), “The Response: Building Collective Resilience in the Wake of Disasters” (2019), and “Lessons from the First Wave: Resilience in the Age of COVID-19” (2020).

Marnie Atkins is a citizen of the Wiyot Tribe. Currently, she is an Associate Faculty Member at College of the Redwoods where she is teaching Introduction to Native American Studies for spring 2024 semester. She also works for the Blue Lake Rancheria as their Project Coordinator for their new Carl Perkins Innovation and Modernization project. Finally, Marnie continues to work for the Wiyot Tribe on a part-time, project basis in their language and culture programs. Marnie’s experiences from her tribal, professional, volunteer, community, and academic endeavors inform her teaching, advocacy, and cultural work. She has years of experience in Native American language revitalization, tribal consultation, cultural resource management, repatriation, education, and building partnerships and bridging divides between/amongst groups. She enjoys educating, advocating, and partnering on topics related to Wiyot people’s tribal history, politics, traditional practices, cultural knowledge, Indigenous generational science, and uses her research, knowledge, and writing skills to speak back on the Wiyot history, culture, and language canon produced by non-Wiyot people.

Lydia Lopez joined the CA CLT Network in February 2022 as Co-Director for Organizing and Partnerships. She has supported access to affordable housing and civil rights through her work with San Francisco tenants and homebuyers, and through work with asylum seekers from around the world. She believes in strategic partnerships and consulting Indigenous populations through collaborations that could create a lasting impact by promoting mutual education. Lydia has participated in Flores Settlement monitoring of detention conditions at the US/Mexico border and documented conditions at private for-profit detention centers. She has served on the boards of CSC, La Raza Centro Legal, and Centro del Pueblo, and she is currently serving as treasurer on the board of NISGUA. She grew up in Guatemala City and Caye Caulker, Belize, and she holds a BA in Political Science from Stanford University and a JD from UC Berkeley School of Law.

Michelle Hernandez is a Wiyot and Latina filmmaker. She grew up on the Table Bluff Reservation, where she found her love for filmmaking. She has a Masters in Film and Electronic Media at American University in Washington, D.C. and a B.A. at Humboldt State in both Film and Native American Studies. Much of her work focuses on the importance of culture, traditions, and identity, as well as dealing with Indegenous subjects. With her work she gives voice to stories that aren’t often told. She is the co-founder of Sugarbush Hill Productions, which she currently runs with her partner, Richie Wenzler. Her latest works include Douk and The Bartow Project.

Kwame Braxton is a visual artist and digital fabrication as well as a native of Jackson, Mississippi. Some of his early work can be found circa 2015 with his first published strip comic “God of kings.” His intent in creating this issue was to create awareness of ancient civilizations that represent his demographic and to educate the youth within his community about historical references they may not find and their current public school. He is the son of a mother who is a principal cellist and a father who is a prestigious hip-hop journalist and playwright. It will be safe to say that artistry and creativity are well within his gene pool. Braxton has also gone on to host workshops at Jackson State for the youth and partake in multiple beautification projects around the inner city where he resides. At the inception of the 2020 pandemic, Kwame Braxton came up with a design for respiratory masks made from 3-D printed material to donate about 100 to Frontline workers who needed respiratory masks. Kwame‘s main passion is in Digital illustration as well as traditional painting. However, he has recently shifted his concentration towards animation. Braxton believes “It is the Artist’s job to captivate and reiterate the climate and mindset of the people within their era so the future to unpack and learn from.”

Julia Dunn (they/them) is a white, queer, neurodivergent person working at the intersections of decarceration and ecological restoration. Within prison, they collaborate with incarcerated people to facilitate relevant, humanizing Environmental Justice workshops. Here in Humboldt they are connecting with people in reentry, farmers, organizers, educators, and artists to dream up California’s first reentry support and ocean care cooperative.

Mireille Bejjani (she/they) is the Co-Executive Director of Slingshot, a regional environmental health and justice organization in the Northeast that works alongside communities to take aim at polluters and build community power. She spent 3 years organizing around environmental issues all over the country before honing in primarily on energy justice work and putting down roots in Western Massachusetts on Nipmuc and Pocumtuc land. When she’s not organizing for her job, she’s organizing outside of work to support worker power, social justice, and Palestinian liberation. They were on the organizing committee that formed a union at The Public Interest Network (the national organization that includes the PIRGs) in 2021-2022. When they’re not organizing at all, they’re reading a book, going on a hike, or listening to a podcast.

Delaney Schroeder-Echavarria (she/they) is a mixed-race Latine, European white settler, and Indigenous descendant of the Anishinaabe/Ojibwe people. She is a born settler on the land of the Tongva, Acjachemen, and Payómkawichum peoples; colonially known as Orange County, California. Currently, she is a guest on the unceded land of the Wiyot people, colonially known as Blue Lake, on the shores of Baduwa’t (Mad River). As a trained horticulturist and social scientist from a colonizer/settler educational background, Delaney understands how Western academia and institutions of higher learning built on stolen land affect her body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of our human and more than human relatives. She also recognizes her privilege of being a light-skinned, queer-identifying woman in spaces where those of non-dominant identities are not afforded physical and mental space. Her experiences as a mixed-race person have cemented a position built on collaboration, understanding, community, and critical examination. As such, she is committed to improving her understanding of decolonization, Indigenous knowledges, and feminist perspectives as they relate to her ongoing efforts to serve Indigenous communities through food sovereignty, land return, and plant relative restoration and revitalization. Currently, she is a first-year graduate student in the Social Sciences: Environment & Community Master program at Cal Poly Humboldt. She is serving as a graduate student program coordinator for the Ghvtlh-k’vsh shu’-srnelh-‘i~ (Kelp Guardians) sea grant with the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation and the Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab & Traditional Ecological Knowledges Institute.

Karley Rojas (they/elle) is a Cuban Taíno-descendant maorocoti (two-spirit) trans person; they is also of French and Spanish descent. I am both white and Indigenous. I am not a member nor affiliated with any tribe, but hold ancestral ties to the Taíno peoples of Camagüey and Ciego de Ávila, Cuba through my mother. I am an Indigenous-facing ethnobotanist and multimedia artist, with experience in woodworking, carving, ceramics, painting, tattoos, and textiles. My research focuses on the restitution of disseminated ethnobotanical knowledges to their Indigenous communities of origin, supporting the resurgence of Indigenous science and knowledges, Indigenous agroecology and landscape remediation, and community-based research paradigms at the intersection of Indigenous and Western sciences. I hold a B.S. in Botany from Cal Poly Humboldt with a minor in Studio Art; I am also an alumnus of the University of Chicago. I am currently a graduate student within the Environment and Community program, and serve as the research associate for the Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab and Traditional Ecological Knowledges Institute.

Joseph Orozco, Hupa/Hopi, is the Vice Chairman to the Pacifica Association of Affiliates, Board. His Native media experience includes being the first editor of the only independent newspaper in Hoopa Valley 1978-79. In 1978 he worked with the Tribal Education Committee on their Radio Project. In 1980 KIDE-FM Hoopa Tribal Radio signed on-air as the first Tribal owned and operated Non-Commercial Educational FM Radio station in California. In 1988 he was hired to be the Station Manager. He may be the only Hoopa Valley Tribal member to win a national award from three non-Native media organizations for his audio productions and general manger achievement in radio. With other Native station managers, CPB and other Radio agencies he helped start a PRSS Native American satellite channel called the American Indian Radio on Satellite, AIROS. Now known as NV-1. His proudest co-production was, “Dying for Water, Indians, Politics and Dead Fish in the Klamath River Basin.” a documentary about the 2002 Great Fish Kill. The cold water needed for the spawning Salmon was channeled to the Central Valley farmers, 63,000 Salmon died trying to reach the Trinity River. He was recently invited by the Indigenous Journalist Association as a radio member to the Reservation Economic Summit 24, a panel addressing, Press Sovereignty: Good Governance, Self-Determination and Economic Development through Independent Native Journalism. He will never retire from Native Media.

Erica Prather has unionized two environemtnal nonprofits – WildEarth Guardians and Defenders of Wildlife. After successfully winning an unfair labor charge/illegal termination case with Defenders, Erica has used her knowledge to continue to educate and inspire workers in the environmental sector to organize unions in their own workplace. She is inspired to confront classicism in green workplaces by uniting with labor, and pushing organizations to practice ‘fractal theory’ by starting with equity in their own workplaces (through being pro-union).

Dana Lyons is a singer/songwriter best known for his hit comedy song “Cows With Guns” which reached #2 on the Australian Country Charts and was on Ireland’s top 40 for over six months. Dana is a long time environmental and social justice activist and has toured raising money and awareness for many causes around the world.

Danny Noonan is a Climate and Energy Strategist at Breach Collective, a unionized, worker self-directed 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Eugene and Portland, Oregon. Danny’s campaign work is focused on local clean energy policies that benefit workers and the wider community, and fossil fuel industry liability for misinformation. Danny is a bargaining representative and organizer for Communications Workers of America Local 7901, a co-author of the nonprofit-specific unionizing handbook “Organize Your Organization!”, and a convener of the Green Union Hall workshop series.

Lauren Regan – Founder, Director and Movement Lawyer with the Civil Liberties Defense Center. For over 25 years has defended environmental and social justice activists in criminal courts, SLAPPs, and civil rights actions against police and government throughout the U.S.

Miki‘ala Catalfano (Native Hawaiian) serves as Co-Director of Native Roots Network. Moving beyond cynicism towards connectedness, Miki’ala is an artist,  designer and connector who is learning how to create a meaningful, engaged ecobusiness that fits the needs of the place where she lives, with an eye on throwing a rope to other like-minded people who would also like to be free from the yoke of conventional workplace hierarchy.

Lydia Lopez joined the CA CLT Network in February 2022 as Co-Director for Organizing and Partnerships. She has supported access to affordable housing and civil rights through her work with San Francisco tenants and homebuyers, and through work with asylum seekers from around the world. She believes in strategic partnerships and consulting Indigenous populations through collaborations that could create a lasting impact by promoting mutual education. Lydia has participated in Flores Settlement monitoring of detention conditions at the US/Mexico border and documented conditions at private for-profit detention centers. She has served on the boards of CSC, La Raza Centro Legal, and Centro del Pueblo, and she is currently serving as treasurer on the board of NISGUA. She grew up in Guatemala City and Caye Caulker, Belize, and she holds a BA in Political Science from Stanford University and a JD from UC Berkeley School of Law.

Tom Llewellyn is the interim executive director for Shareable, a nonprofit news + action hub promoting people-powered solutions for the common good. He is the executive producer and host of the award-winning documentary film and podcast series “The Response,” producer of the Cities@Tufts Lecture Series and Podcast, co-facilitator of SolidarityWorks, and communications lead for the Rural Power Coalition. Tom has spoken at over 200 events on five continents and is the co-editor and author of several publications, including “Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons” (2018), “The Response: Building Collective Resilience in the Wake of Disasters” (2019), and “Lessons from the First Wave: Resilience in the Age of COVID-19” (2020).

Laura Flanders is the host and executive producer of Laura Flanders & Friends (formerly The Laura Flanders Show), which airs on PBS stations nationwide. She is an Izzy-Award winning independent journalist, a New York Times bestselling author and the recipient of the Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Media Center.

Trinity Tran is the co-founder and lead organizer of the California Public Banking Alliance (CPBA) and Public Bank Los Angeles (PBLA), two all-volunteer advocacy groups. Trinity created Divest LA in 2017 and mobilized activists behind the campaign to move the City of Los Angeles’ commercial banking services from Wells Fargo. Public Bank LA led the initiative for Los Angeles Measure B in 2018, the first-ever voter referendum for a city-owned bank. As a CPBA founding member, Trinity spearheaded the coalition behind the passage of the California Public Banking Act in 2019—the first bill in the nation enabling municipalities to form public banks. The CPBA is currently working to establish socially and environmentally responsible public banks across the state. Trinity helped lead the passage of the California Public Banking Option Act (CalAccount) at the end of 2021, endorsed by over 250 organizations. Upon implementation, CalAccount will be the first nationwide program for universal banking services at the state level.

Cecilia Garcia-Linz: President of Progressive Workers Union which represents staff at Sierra Club, 350.org, Greenpeace, USA, Appalachian Voices and Union of Concerned Scientists

Sakura Saunders is an Environmental Justice organizer and arts educator. She is a co-founder of the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network in Toronto and has been a storyteller with the Beehive Design Collective since 2008.

Elizabeth Garlow is the co-founder of the Francesco Collaborative, which invites investors to show up as our spiritually rooted selves, with deep vulnerability and a commitment to critique the structural problems of our global economy and dare to dream about our role in its transformation. Through her work, she supports protagonists of transformation that seek to draw on shared lineages of faith, spirituality, and wisdom to shape the economy. Elizabeth is also a senior fellow at New America, where she focuses on structural reform and imagines new ways of building an economy rooted in wellbeing.
Elizabeth previously championed and led impact investing for the Lumina Foundation, served as a policy advisor with the Obama Administration, and co-founded a Detroit- based non-profit, Michigan Corps, which invested in social entrepreneurs. She studied political economy at Kalamazoo College, completed her graduate work in public policy and economics at Princeton University, and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in 2019. Elizabeth lives in Michigan, where she is enjoying getting reacquainted with the Great Lakes and apprenticing with urban farmers in Detroit.