Joanne Liu
Dr. Joanne Liu has served as International President of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) from 2013 to 2019. At the helm of MSF, she was a leading voice on medical humanitarian crises, namely in the Ebola outbreak of West Africa, attacks on hospitals, and forced displacement crisis, and has engaged with world leaders at the highest levels.
Dr. Liu’s role builds on a career of fieldwork with MSF, including over 20 medical-humanitarian field assignments. Dr. Liu trained at McGill University School of Medicine in Montreal. She holds a Fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine from New York University School of Medicine and an International Masters in Health Leadership, also from McGill University.
Dr. Liu’s operational work has ranged from introducing comprehensive care for survivors of sexual violence to developing a telemedicine platform for connecting doctors in rural areas with specialists worldwide.
Dr. Liu remains a practicing doctor, both in the field with MSF and also through hospital shifts in her home town of Montreal. She believes strongly in bringing and delivering high-quality, patient-centered care in all medical work contexts.
3 words to describe Nature?
Wholeness. Strength. Wisdom
3 things Nature taught you?
Humility
Endurance
Reverence
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Desert of Yémen
Rice fields in Sri Lanka
Manado diving spots
When you look at the OCEAN, it makes you feel...?
Overwhelmed
When you see a FOREST, it makes you feel...?
Like whispering
When you see a VOLCANO, it makes you feel...?
Mesmerized
When you see a SUNRISE or SUNSET, it makes you feel...?
Calm and centered
When you hear THUNDER, it makes you feel...?
Awake
When you hear the WIND HOWLING, it makes you feel...?
Foreboding
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Sky
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
9
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
When I was a kid, I would go camping and I remember how much I liked to fall asleep while listening to the sound of the river.
Bruce Langereis
Bruce is the President of Delta Land Development, which seeks to redefine and transform the building and construction industry by putting wellness and environmental stewardship at the center of all its projects. Striving to find new ways of building net-positive developments, Bruce and his team move forward following a strict set of goals that include: promoting biodiversity, reducing the need for cars, reducing waste, storing carbon, capturing rain, producing energy, and contributing positively to the livability, health, and welfare of the inhabitants. Their recent project, SoLo, a zero-emissions, mass timber, net carbon negative, entirely off the grid and self-sustainable house in the Soo Valley near Whistler, designed by Perkins and Will, models the future of environmental building and sets the stage for Delta’s Bellevue and 22nd project in West Vancouver and Canada’s Earth Tower development in Vancouver. SoLo was recently featured in many architectural magazines, including Azure, Dwell, and many others.
Bruce grew up in East Vancouver. He started as a heavy-duty mechanic then shifted to being a commercial realtor. Almost 35 years ago he joined Macauley Nicolls Maitland (now Colliers International) which led him to successfully selling the historic Georgia Hotel in 1988 for a record 38M. Delta Land Development recently completed the 450M redevelopment of the Rosewood Georgia Hotel.
Bruce is a floatplane and commercial helicopter pilot, martial artist, avid rock climber, golfer, fisherman, and bow hunter. He once spent a full month in total wilderness isolation and heads out to nature every chance he can.
3 words to describe Nature?
Rhythmic. Engaging. Soulful
3 things Nature taught you?
Fear
Respect
Rhythm
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The next 3 places I visit!!!! I love it all
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Makes me feel Like exploring it
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Peaceful, tranquil, small
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Respectful of the power of Nature
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Reflective of life
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Glad I’m not flying my floatplane
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Like Facing into it and feeling refreshed
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
I love them all
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
To my well being and that of Humanity – Priceless and Essential
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Where do I begin - Exploring creeks and ditches catching frogs and other aquatic creatures.
Yazemeenah Rossi
Yazemeenah Rossi is a professional photographer, social entrepreneur, and pioneering age-defying international fashion model (one of the first ones to assume her white hair). She started her modeling career at age 30, normally the age of retirement for the industry, then became a model for The Ford Modeling Agency in New York City. She has appeared in hundreds of campaigns and magazines all over the world. She is also the founder of YAZEMEENAH, a social enterprise that produces her unique design of Yak or Cashmere shawls that are made by hand, from families in Kathmandu, Nepal. Part of the proceeds supports children at the Destitute and Orphans Children Safeguarding Foundation. At the age of 65 and with a combined 350,000 followers on social media (Instagram/Facebook), Rossi continues to promote her vision of health and natural beauty. Originally from Corsica, she now lives in Malibu, California.
3 words to describe Nature?
Primordial. Beauty. Powerful.
3 things Nature taught you?
Freedom
Wisdom
Inner Power
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Water
Deserts
Skies
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
Timeless, whole, Infinite
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Mesmerized, Green hypnotizes me
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
Powerful, Ancient, connected to the Origins
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
Part of the Universe, dissolving
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Alive, vibrant, warrior
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
Wild, Free… The wind speaks to me secrets
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Desert by 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?
Corsica, no running water, no electricity until I was 10 on the beach where I lived raised by my grandparents totally immersed in Nature. Washing our bodies and laundry at the river, collecting drinking water coming from a rock under the giant wild fig tree…Vision of my grandmother carrying our precious water in a clay pot on her head … running with my little legs on the desert beach without tourists at that time, all for me ... playing with crabs in the rocs; turtles, lizards, and snakes were my pets … Fishing, gardening, hunting with my grandfather, cooking with my grandmother, knitting by the fireplace with story telling…Nature provided everything we needed, it has been my best teacher… Nature is raw, beauty, and wisdom. It fed me and imprinted my soul for a lifetime, molded me into who I am today.
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.
Sheri Salata
Sheri Salata is the author of The Beautiful No: And Other Tales of Trial, Transcendence and Transformation. Named an Amazon best-selling new release and an Apple Must Listen audio book, the memoir has touched thousands of readers and inspired them to reimagine their lives.
Sheri is the cohost of The Sheri + Nancy Show, a popular podcast about living the life of your dreams, and the cofounder of the aspirational lifestyle brand, The Pillar Life, a guidance system focused on 8 foundational areas of living. Health + Wellness. Spirituality + Happiness. Romance + Sex. Family + Friends. Creativity + Innovation. Adventure + Discovery. Sanctuary + Beauty. Money + Abundance.
Sheri has been featured on The Dr. Oz Show, Today, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, Thrive Global, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, Happier in Hollywood, The Good Life Project, Marie Forleo, and Almost 30.
Sheri’s new venture in media is the evolution from her life-altering 20-year career with Oprah Winfrey. Sheri’s day-to-day hits and misses as the final Executive Producer of The Oprah Winfrey Show were featured in the docu-series Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes. Sheri served as President of Harpo Studios and OWN.
Sheri has been named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business and The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment Power 100.
3 words to describe Nature?
Awe-full. Humbling. Holy.
3 things Nature taught you?
Beauty is in everything.
Everything is alive.
There are a gazillion shades of green.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Hawai'ian Islands
Lake of the Woods, Canada
Napa Valley
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
The ocean makes me feel on the edge of a great big mystery. How gigantic creatures can live submerged but still sing their songs for me. How the waves come in and out in rhythmic perfection without missing a beat. I feel wild and messy and sacred and beautiful as I take it all in.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
When I see a forest, it makes me feel like I am in the cathedral of all cathedrals.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Like Mama Earth is sending a message.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Like the Universe is blessing me.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Safe and secure in my humanness
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Like crying
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
I am an ocean mountain forest person with a little desert on the side.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
9
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
I am a tiny thing dipping my toes in the pacific ocean for the first time and it feels like my home.