Melinda Moore
Melinda Moore is the founder of the impact fund, Moore Ventures and is the co-founder of TuesdayNights, a female networking organization. She is an entrepreneur, investor, advisor and global speaker with over 20 years of experience, and two exits (STV Communications and LovingEco). Melinda is the author of How to Raise Money: The Ultimate Guide to Crowdfunding and has raised over 100 million via equity crowdfunding. She served as the Senior Vice President for Entertainment Media Ventures. Her work has been widely recognized by Digital LA (Top 50 Digital Women in 2015), the Green Business Bureau and the National Association of Women Business Owners’ Hall of Fame. Melinda serves on the Board of A Sense of Home and has a B.A. from UCLA.
3 words to describe Nature?
Alive. Grounding. Calming
3 things Nature taught you?
To be more present in this fast paced world
To see creativity and inspiration in all the shades of green in nature
To find strength and beauty being immersed and isolated in nature.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The coast of Big Sur
The jungles of Tikal, Guatemala
Floating along the rivers in Indonesia
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
Expansive
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Small
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
Alive
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
Connected
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Alert
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
A little anxious
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
I feel deeply connected to all but if I have to select one, the Ocean.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
When I was a little girl, I loved riding my bike to an open field in my neighborhood and I would just sit and listen for hours to all the sounds of nature...the birds, the wind, the butterflies, the sound of the trees, and the bees.
Amy Webb
Amy Webb is a quantitative futurist and a bestselling, award-winning author. She is a professor of strategic foresight at the NYU Stern School of Business and the Founder of the Future Today Institute, a leading foresight and strategy firm that helps leaders and their organizations prepare for complex futures. Webb is a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University’s Säid School of Business, a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center, a Fellow in the United States-Japan Leadership Program and a Foresight Fellow in the U.S. Government Accountability Office Center for Strategic Foresight. She was a Visiting Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, where her research received a national Sigma Delta Chi award. She was also a Delegate on the former U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, where she worked on the future of technology, media and international diplomacy. Webb has advised CEOs of some of the world’s largest companies, three-star generals and admirals and executive government leadership on strategy and technology. She is the author of several popular books, including The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity, which was longlisted for the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year award, shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Digital Thinking Award, and won the 2020 Gold Axiom Medal for the best book about business and technology, and The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream, which won the Thinkers50 Radar Award, was selected as one of Fast Company’s Best Books of 2016, Amazon’s best books 2016, and was the recipient of the 2017 Gold Axiom Medal for the best book about business and technology. Her bestselling memoir Data, A Love Story is about finding love via algorithms. Her TED talk about Data has been viewed more than 8 million times and is being adapted as a feature film, which is currently in production. Webb was named by Forbes as one of the five women changing the world, listed as the BBC’s 100 Women of 2020, and the Thinkers50 Radar list of the 30 management thinkers most likely to shape the future of how organizations are managed and led.
Amy serves on a script consultant for films and shows about artificial intelligence, technology and the future. Most recently, she worked on The First, a sci-fi drama about the first humans to travel to Mars. She is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and has served as a Blue Ribbon Emmy award judge.
3 words to describe Nature?
Essential. Quantifiable. Mysterious.
3 things Nature taught you?
Humility. Humility. Humility. (Seriously!)
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The hiking paths of Mt. Hayachine, which is part of the Kitakami range in northern Japan.
Walking among the giant redwoods of Sequoia National Park.
Hiking the foothills of Stowe, Vermont, especially in fall.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Concerned. The oceans are a vast ecosystem that we've ignored and polluted.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
At home. There is a concept in Japan known as "shinrin-yoku," which is loosely defined as taking a forest bath. Connecting with trees and the sounds of a forest, breathing in the air, and taking time for contemplation and reflection are ways to improve mental clarity, emotional health and physical stamina.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Curious.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Spirited. Some of my fondest memories are of canoeing and camping in Big Bend National Park in Texas and waking up with the sunrise. Even in the summer, the air is fresh and cool, and there's both a calmness and a sense of anticipation for a new day.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Like I'm at work. When I'm researching, reading and writing, I listen to brown noise, which has lower, thicker tones than white noise. Some of the brown noise tracks I listen to include a continuous stream of rumbling thunder.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Cold. Even if it's not actually cold.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Mountain
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
There was a small lake near our house, and it was fully alive: snakes, butterflies, fish, frogs, weeds, flowers, trees, and all sorts of bugs. My dad used to take me there just to walk around, look at tadpoles, and observe nature. One afternoon we found a beehive beneath a pile of boulders. We climbed on top and spent hours watching the bees do their work.
Kat Edmonson
Kat Edmonson is an American singer and songwriter who calls her music vintage pop. The Texas native began crafting her signature sound while performing in Austin’s local club circuit for years before releasing her debut Take To The Sky in 2009. She went on to tour worldwide with high profile acts including Lyle Lovett, Chris Isaak, Gary Clark Jr., Shawn Colvin, Willie Nelson, Smokey Robinson, Nick Lowe and more.
In 2014 Edmonson released The Big Picture, which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers, #1 on Contemporary Jazz Chart, and #2 on Total Jazz Chart. Her 2015 performance on “CBS This Morning: Saturday” garnered the program’s highest rated viewership since 2006. Her 2012 Way Down Low was described by The New York Times as “fresh as a spring bouquet,” and her performances at WNYC’s Soundcheck and Daytrotter were included in “Best Live Performances” and “Best Sessions of 2012,” respectively.
In 2018 she released Old Fashioned Gal, which Billboard calls “an intimate journey from doubt to resolve and implied triumph.” NPR Music raves the album is “a handsome showcase for her songwriting, which has grown ever more confident over the last decade,” while the Associated Press says the record “sounds like an alternate soundtrack to an Audrey Hepburn film.”
Edmonson’s new album Dreamers Do reached the #1 spot on Billboard’s Traditional Jazz chart, and the album debuted #1 at iTunes Jazz, #2 Most Added at Jazzweek and was named Deezer’s Album of the Week upon release.
3 words to describe Nature?
Inherent. Steadfast. Adaptable
3 things Nature taught you?
There is always a place to grow from.
As long as I am living, I can adapt to anything.
The most important thing, at any point, is to be present.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
I live near Prospect Park in Brooklyn and I go there frequently each week. It is a grounding place for me.
I annually visit the mountains in the Northeast in the summertime and hike around the Taconics, the Catskliils, the Berkshires, the Adirondacks and more. It’s my favorite time of the year.
Also, I just visited the Redwoods when my band and I were on tour this month and they were incredible! I was stunned by how quiet it is in the forest. The stillness there is incredibly powerful.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Scaled-to-size. It’s a funny thing to articulate but walking around in the city, I feel very big and important- quite full of myself- and standing in front of an ocean, I am immediately reminded how small my conceptual self is in proportion to nature and I am humbled- gratefully, so.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Safe
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Powerful
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Inspired
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Both excited and scared at the same time! Thrilled!
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Uncertain
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Can I pick two? How about a forest on a mountain? ☺
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
I didn’t have great opportunities to be in nature as I grew up in a metropolitan area and we really didn’t travel but I went to camp every summer in Central Texas. I slept in a cabin with no air conditioning for a month and was subject to plans being cancelled when a big thunderstorm blew through and I loved it. I cherished the giant Cypress trees that live by the Guadalupe river. I fancied them wise elders that protected the river and us as we played around it. I loved how low and vast the land lay there around the water beneath the towering guardians that sheltered everything. The grass was cool no matter how brutal the sun beat down on any given day.
Tracy Edwards
Tracy Edwards gained international fame in 1990 as the skipper of the first all-female crew to sail around the world when they raced in the 1989/90 Whitbread Round the World Race. After years of struggle, Maiden was only made possible by the support of her friend HM King Hussein I of Jordan. Maiden won two legs and came second overall in her class, the best result for a British boat since 1977 and unbeaten to this day. Tracy was awarded an MBE and became the first woman in its 34 year history to be awarded the Yachtsman of the Year Trophy. She paved the way for other women to follow. Maiden was published in 1990 and was No.1 on the Times bestseller list for 19 weeks. Following her success with Maiden, Tracy set to consolidate her position as one of the world's top sailors by entering Trophy Jules Verne in 1998 again with an all-female crew. This yachting trophy is for the fastest circumnavigation around the world with no stopping and no outside assistance. She was comfortably on course to smash the record for more than half of their route, but was thwarted when her mast snapped in two in treacherous seas off coast of Chile. During their attempt Tracy and her team broke 7 world records.
In 2014 Maiden was found rotting in the Seychelles and Tracy began raising funds in order to rescue Maiden and bring her home to the UK. The Maiden Factor was consequently set up to promote and fundraise for the education of 130 million girls worldwide who are currently denied this basic right. Thanks to the generous support of HRH Princess Haya bint Al Hussein, Maiden has been restored to her former glory. Now this iconic piece of British maritime history has embarked on a three-year world tour to raise funds for her charity, The Maiden Factor Foundation. The Maiden Factor funds projects that empower girls through education.
3 words to describe Nature?
Everything. Us. Oceans
3 things Nature taught you?
Human beings are so arrogant to think we can control Nature
Nature holds the secrets that we refuse to see
Our souls and mental wellbeing are dependant upon the health of nature
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Rhossili Bay on the Gower Peninsula
The Darwen Channel in Chile
Cape Horn
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Freedom and love
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Joy and peace
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Overawed and small
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Safety
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Wild and exhilarated
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Happy and excited
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
The Ocean and the Desert make me feel the same. They are endless and wild. People cannot leave footprints and we cannot control them.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10 – nature is everything
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Moving from Reading in the centre of the UK to Llangennith on the Gower Peninsula. The first time I stood on the sand dunes during a storm and understood for the first time how powerful nature is and how tiny I am and yet how fully connected I felt to everything around me. It was the first time I ever tasted salt water blown on my face little knowing that it would not be the last. It literally took my breath away. I fell in love.