Andrea Burgess
Andrea Akall'eq Burgess is Global Director of Conservation in Partnership with Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities at The Nature Conservancy. She is also the founder and owner of With Real People LLC, an Indigenous consulting firm dedicated to advancing truth and excellence through creative and strategic advocacy, policy guidance, and facilitation. In addition, Andrea serves as co-founder and president of Native Peoples Action and as a board of trustees for the Institute of American Indian Art (IAIA).
Prior to coming to TNC, Andrea was Director of the Alaska Native Policy Center within First Alaskans Institute, a role which allowed her to develop and cultivate relations and community connections all across the state of Alaska, and with Indigenous communities nationally and internationally. She also previously worked for US Senator Mark Begich, supporting him on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and as the telecommunications lead for the Senate Commerce Committee.
Originally from Bethel Alaska, Andrea currently resides in Oahu Hawaii. Her cultural background is Yup’ik (Inuit) on her mother’s side and Belgian/Norwegian on her father’s side. Andrea is a Tribal Citizen of the Native Village of Kwinhagak.
3 words to describe Nature?
Pure
Rugged
Bliss
3 things Nature taught you?
You are never alone in Nature, our Ancestors are always with you there.
Nature has cycles, patterns, and rhythms that go beyond our human comprehension.
To come into balance, is to be on the land and water.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The traditional homelands of the Yupik people along the Kuskokwim River in Southwest Alaska.
Imuruk Basin
Mākaha Valley and Coast
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Timeless
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Spiritually connected
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Bloodline
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Gratitude always
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Curious
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Like home
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Ocean
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
As a child, summertime in Alaska was filled with boat rides, camping trips, and fishing. I remember one summer my dad took me and two of my closest friends on a camping trip along the Kuskokwim River. We enjoyed our separate tents and resulting sleeping schedules, which for us girls meant midnight walks and adventures along the river sandbars as daylight never ceased. We saw porcupine, beavers and all kinds of birds. They were our company and entertainment and wonder.
Nile Zacherle
Nile Zacherle is the co-Founder of Mad Fritz Brewing Co and Director of Winegrowing at David Arthur Vineyards on Pritchard Hill in the Napa Valley.
Nile first began his journey into fermented beverages in 1990 at the age of 18 when he and his father brewed their first batch of beer at home. What began as a father/son home project continued to evolve until he transitioned his schooling from a focus in art and design to a BS in Fermentation Science at UC Davis. While at UC Davis, Nile completed the Master Brewers program passing the 2 day exam issued by the IOBD (Institute of Brewing and Distilling based in the UK) in 1996.
After an internship at a Napa Winery doing small lot winemaking and research enology he returned to UC Davis to finish his degree. From winemaking positions in Napa Valley’s Barnett Vineyards and Chateau Montelena to roles at Western Australia’s Pierro Margaret River Vineyards and Bordeaux, France’s Chateau d’Arsac, Nile built a career producing award-winning wines from Burgundian and Bordeaux varietals.
In 2014, together with his wife, they started, Mad Fritz, named after their two children Madeleine and Fritz. Their focus is on malting and brewing beers with a ‘Farm to Foam’ approach. The sourcing of single variety barleys that are craft-malted with an origin, as well as hops and water sourcing defines the beer styles in what they call ‘Origin Beer’.
3 words to describe Nature?
Inspiring. Powerful. Subtle
3 things Nature taught you?
Respect
Patience
Gratitude
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The ocean/waves at Kailua Beach in Hawaii
The forest/trails at Moore Creek in Napa
The rocks/geology at Yosemite Valley
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Calm yet tentative -aware
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Excited yet unknowing - insignificant
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Inspired yet scared
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Impatient
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Helpless
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Curious
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Forest/Mountains
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10 (living around it and exploring regularly keeps me sane)
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Moving to Hawaii and learning to duck the waves as a young boy, feeling safe in ocean as big surf rolled in rather than scared. Accepting and swimming towards the monster rather than away
Jacob Marshall
JACOB MARSHALLis a multisensory artist and the Executive Director of Constellation; a new organization founded by the first international coalition of astronauts seeking to address global challenges from their perspective of having seen the Earth from the vantage point of space.
Jacob started the acclaimed rock band MAE (Multisensory Aesthetic Experience) and has sold over 500,000 records worldwide and performed over 1600 concerts on 4 continents.
He worked to help launch the Global Citizen Festivalwhich brought 60,000 music fans to New York's Central Park on September 29th, 2012. The festival leveraged $1.3 billion in new commitments to the world's poor and became the largest charity concert broadcast in history with a confirmed number of impressions surpassing 2 billion.
In 2013, 2014, and 2015 he served as a Producer of Global Citizen Festival and built a broad variety of strategic partnerships.
Jacob serves as a member of the advisory board for Future of Story Telling (FoST) where he launched and leads the social impact initiative "FoST for Good" in partnership with HP and Facebook. He also serves as an artist mentor at the New Museum's NEW INC.
He also recently conceived, produced and performed the world’s first large scale collective virtual reality concert experience from inside Jerusalem’s 3000 year-old Tower of David for the Forbes30 Under 30 Summit. Jacob was a featured artist at the United Nations General Assembly in 2017.
3 words to describe Nature?
LIVING. INTERDEPENDENT. WISDOM.
3 things Nature taught you?
PERSPECTIVE ON TIME - THAT ALL LIFE IS A SYMPHONY AND I AM A MELODY IN THAT LARGER MUSIC - TO LISTEN WITH MY WHOLE BODY
3 most treasured Nature spots?
PLACES WHERE THE OCEAN MEETS THE MOUNTAINS - HAWAII, BIG SUR, ICELAND
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
LIKE RELIGION IS TO GOD WHAT A GLASS OF OCEAN WATER IS TO THE OCEAN.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
LIKE THE TREES WANT TO TELL US THEIR SECRETS.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
LIKE THE TRUTH IS BOTH ANCIENT AND PRESENT.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
LIKE THE THING I USED TO CALL MYSELF IS SLOWLY DISAPPEARING INTO EVERYTHING
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
LIKE ITS TIME TO BE STILL.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
LIKE MY CERTAINTY SHOULD BE REPLACED WITH CURIOSITY.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
OCEAN
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10. WE ARE NATURE. OUR WELL-BEING IS ONE AND THE SAME. MOST OF OUR PROBLEMS BEGIN WHEN WE FORGET THAT SIMPLE TRUTH.
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
I’LL ALWAYS TREASURE THE FEELING OF BEING IN THE OCEAN DURING SEPTEMBER. THE BEACH WAS EMPTY, THE SKY WAS LUMINOUS, AND THE WATER WAS EVER SO SLIGHTLY WARMER THAN THE AIR. WE WOULD TRADE WAVES ALL DAY AND TRADE STORIES AROUND THE FIRE ALL NIGHT. WE BASKED IN THE FEELING OF PURE ALIVENESS.
Christine Mason
CHRISTINE MASON is the author of Indivisible, Love in the Face of Everything, & her upcoming Bending the Bow. She's the co-founder of New Earth, a farm-based retreat center for Integral Activism on Hawai'i. She convenes, hosts and facilitates conferences, salons, and events at the intersection of science and tech, spirituality, human optimization, society and institutions. She serves as Editor in Chief of Enter Magazine, sits on the board of GRIP, and is chairman of Now Labs, Inc. She's a mom, grandmother, and a long time practitioner and teacher of yoga, meditation and tantra. Follow her at xtinem.com, or on Amazon.
3 words to describe Nature?
Creative. Destructive. True.
3 things Nature taught you?
All things are interconnected.
We are always provided for.
How elegantly things adapt.
And more!! The resonance of beauty and that an ecosystem in balance sounds a harmonic chord, (out of balance there is dissonance - as in all systems).Humility and Awe.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The golden sunrise rocks in the high desert at Joshua Tree, Southern California.
The long slung white sand beach at Stinson, in Northern California.
The round stone beach at Washington Harbor, on Washington Island in Lake Michigan, surrounded by White Birch forest.
And more!! The ice caves above Aspen, Colorado and the giant rolling dunes in southern Morocco.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
Surrendered. Integrated. Rebalanced.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Peaceful. Quiet. Curious.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
Alive. Creative. Urgent.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
Grateful. Potentiated. Connected to all beings.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Like a child in the summer rains.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
Lonely
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
I’m a planet earth person.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
11
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Cresting a ridge at sunrise on snowshoes, my father next to me, deep fresh snow; the morning light catching the crystalline crust just so, a thousand rainbow prisms refracting in every direction, against a crisp cold bright blue sky; cheeks red, legs strong, eyes wide open; a suspended indelible moment of pure beauty.
Ru Mahoney
RU MAHONEY is a freelance Science Impact Producer based in Seattle, WA. She works at the nexus of conservation, education, and storytelling to catalyze interdisciplinary approaches to increasing science literacy and engaging public audiences. Her research on science communication has been supported by the National Science Foundation, and she has been a contributor to Jackson Hole WILD, Science Media Awards and Summit in the HUB, Utah Public Radio, TEDxHunstville, and the National Children's Forest program. Ru is currently a research and impact production consultant on two feature-length documentaries.
3 words to describe Nature?
Primal. Nostalgic. Restorative.
3 things Nature taught you?
That change is inevitable, that those who adapt thrive, and that if you make Nature your home you can be at home anywhere.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Lake Superior is powerful. I spent a lot of summers in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. If I could buy a lake cottage tomorrow, it would be somewhere along the coast of Superior.
The west coast of Scotland is stunning. My father's family emigrated from there, so I'm a little biased. But there's a reason the drive from Glencoe to the Isle of Skye is world-famous. I'll keep going back as long as I'm living. It's all my favorite colors and landscapes in a beautiful day's drive. Even if it's cold and rainy, which is often.
Pololu Valley on The Big Island in Hawai`i is worth getting up before dawn for. It's wild north shore waves, stacked mountain cliffs, and moss covered trees all in one. Plus the trail down gives a perfect vantage for watching the sunrise so the sea cliffs slide through gradients of pink and gray light. It's really special.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Dangerously prone to immediate wanderlust.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Present. This is my happy place and where I go if I need clarity and peace.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Insignificant. I recently had the chance to be very close to gushing lava and my reaction was surprisingly visceral. I often feel a sense of belonging to nature. Like it knows me, and if I'm respectful I will be safeguarded. (That's not really true of course, but that feeling makes me careful but brave.) With the lava I felt a strong sense of not belonging. It was an interesting first for me.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Really conscious of time passing, and a determination to make the most of it.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Calm. Happy calm. That might sound counter-intuitive, but I grew up in Florida where thunder was frequent. I think it triggers a sense of nostalgia and well-being for me. It's definitely the best soundtrack to sleep to.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Introspective. Like change might be coming, either outside or inside myself.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Mostly forest for sure, but forest near the ocean. The smell of salt in the air is one of those simple things that make me feel grounded and deeply satisfied. I recently moved to the Pacific Northwest and I can't get enough of being near beautiful forests that smell like salt and earth. It's definitely where I feel most like myself.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10! It's an enormous part of my identity and the catalyst for most of my self-knowledge.
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
My family spent quite a lot of time outdoors. My parents where both school teachers and we lived out of a van in the summers, usually heading north to the Boundary Waters, into Canada, sometimes taking trains further north when there weren't any roads to take. I didn't know the term "dirtbagger" then, but we were living that lifestyle to the max every summer of my life. It fundamentally shaped who I am.
One summer we were camping near Au Train, MI and there were northern lights. I was pretty young - maybe six or seven? - but I remember my parents waking me up and giving me a big blanket to wrap up in. Then my dad put me up on top of our van and I remember sitting up on the roof watching the aurora and thinking the world was full of magic.
Connor Beaton
CONNOR BEATON is the founder of ManTalks, an international organization focused on mens health, wellness, success and fulfillment. Connor is an international speaker, podcast host, Business Coach and lifestyle entrepreneur. Before founding ManTalks, Connor worked with Apple leading high performance sales and operations teams. Since founding ManTalks, Connor has spoken on stage at TEDx, taken ManTalks to over a dozen cities internationally and has been featured on platforms like HeForShe, The Good Men Project, UN Women, CBC, CNN, the National Post and more.
3 words to describe Nature?
Breathtaking, God, understanding.
3 things Nature taught you?
Resiliency, humility and the ability to be in the present.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The cliffs and beaches on the Amalfi coast in Italy, Camping at lake Garibaldi in BC & Secret Beach in Kauai, Hawaii
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
Connected to myself, calm and at peace.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Strength and comfort simultaneously.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
Powerful and in awe
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Humbled by life existence.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Somehow always surprised and reminded of how small we are.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Connected to everything
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Forest & ocean. I can’t choose just one. My favourite place to be is facing the forest with the ocean sounds at my back.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
9