20 Global Issues and 20 Years to Solve Them
Keynote Speakers
We are fortunate to have such a varied and qualified group of speakers. Scroll down to find our more about each speaker. They are listed here in no particular order.
Michael Furdyk click for full biography
Michael Furdyk is the Co-founder of TakingITGlobal (www.tigweb.org), which provides innovative global education programs that empower youth to understand and act on the world's greatest challenges.
In the past, he turned his interest in technology into several successful online companies, including MyDesktop.com, which sold to Internet.com in 1999. In 2008, he was named by Contribute Magazine as one of 10 Tech Revolutionaries Redefining the Power and Face of Philanthropy.
Michael has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, presented at TED, and was named one of Teen People's "Twenty Teens that will Change the World". Over the last decade, he has keynoted over 100 events across sectors, sharing his social media expertise and insights on youth engagement and educational reform to audiences in over 30 countries. He sits on several non-profit boards, including the Re-Inventing Schools Coalition, and on the International Advisory Council for Microsoft's Partners in Learning program.
Stephen Brooks click here for full biography
Stephen has been living in Punta Mona, Costa Rica since 1995. Stephen was inspired to make a positive impact on the planet started Costa Rican Adventures, an educational eco-tour company striving to raise environmental awareness. Brooks identified the problems facing small farmers and communities in Central America and Costa Rica and wanted to present possible solutions. Punta Mona, founded in 1997 grows over 200 varieties of tropical fruits, nuts and spices, produces all its electrical needs from solar panels and obtains methane gas from the septic system to fuel the kitchen. Thousands of students, interns and guests have been educated at Punta Mona over the past 14 years, and the site has become known as a world leader in tropical, sustainable agriculture and sustainable living techniques.
Founder, 2003, Sustainable Solutions Caravan
Co-Founder, 2005, Kopali Organics
Co-Founder, Conscious Goods Alliance
Co-Founder, 2006, Kopali Communities
Founded, 2007, Tacotal Ecovillage
Manuel Maqueda click here for full biography
Manuel Maqueda is trained as an international economist, attorney, entrepreneur, and environmentalist. He is involved in a variety of organizations and projects to educate, lead, and innovate our transition to a responsible, thriving way of life on Earth. Manuel is the founder of Kumu, a California-based innovation lab for transformative activism. In addition, he is the founder of Plastic Kills and El Plástico Mata, shining light on the devastation caused by plastic pollution; a member of Midway Journey, a transmedia project and feature film led by Chris Jordan documenting plastic pollution in the albatross colonies of Midway island; and a cofounder of Plastic Pollution Coalition, a global alliance of organizations working together to stop plastic pollution.
El Plástico Mata
http://www.manuelmaqueda.com/
http://plasticpollutioncoalition.org/
http://plastickills.org/
http://kumu.cc/ copy and paste this link into browser
De Alas Rotas "From Broken Wings" click here for full biography and trailer
Filmmakers Pablo Jimenez, Ryan Mackle, Anabel Martinez, Joel Duarte Martinez, Nicole Howell
In the Fall of 2010 a young photographer from Guatemala went to the border of Nicaragua and Costa Rica to investigate the issue of child prostitution. He ended up meeting a 17 year old boy who had been in prostitution since he was 12 years old. This experience sparked a passion in him to start a documentary project that would expose the reality of human trafficking and prostitution in Central America, as well as bring hope for an escape from this injustice that so many are trapped in.
Twelve months later, his vision was shared and embraced by 4 other passionate young people, and as a team, they have come together to use film and photography to show the face of prostitution across Central America. This group of five came to know one another doing mission work in San Jose, Costa Rica, and represent the countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and the United States.
The goal is to reveal...........read more
Vimeo homepage for the film and trailer: http://vimeo.com/dealasrotas
Official "de alas rotas" website posted soon!
Gail Nystrom click here for full biography
The Costa Rican Humanitarian Foundation (CRHF) is a non-profit organization committed to developing creative and economical solutions to a wide range of social problems in Costa Rica. The CRHF provides opportunities to exchange friendship, goods, services, and financial resources for critical needs among different cultures, socio-economic classes, and language groups.
Our vision is to create a better quality of life for all those we work with, supporting at-risk and special needs populations so they may have more choices for their future and fostering greater sensitivity in populations providing services. We are committed to providing opportunities to exchange friendship, goods, services, and financial resources for critical needs among different cultures, socio-economic classes and language groups.
http://www.graciascostarica.com/CRHF.html
Maggie Chumbley click here for the full biography
Plastic Pollution Coalition
Maggie Chumbley specializes in global and community education. She offers education consulting and group facilitation to bring global learning, service learning, muliticulturalism, community building, and youth activism into school communities. Maggie has taught in Colorado, Colombia, South America, and with the United World College in New Mexico. She builds and coordinates leadership programs for international youth and mentors many international young people. She is an activist and visionary for bringing deep ecology, conscious living, global and community awareness to the field of education. Her most recent projects include leading the Plastic Free Campuses project for the Plastic Pollution Coalition and advising on education outreach for the upcoming environmental documentary film Midway Journey.
http://plasticpollutioncoalition.org/
click here for a video of Maggie's students
Jennifer Leigh Smith click here for full biography
Founder-President Community carbon Trees-Costa Rica
Jennifer Smith grew up in southwest Louisiana on a sustainable tree farm where she learned at an early age the peace and prosperity related to planting trees and preserving natural habitat. Wanting to work in favor of the environment, Jenny earned her Juris Doctorate degree at Louisiana State University in 1993. After practicing law for over 7 years in Louisiana, Jenny decided to get out of the office and into the field with “hands on” work to make a difference in preserving the rainforest.
Already fluent in Spanish, Jenny chose to make her new home in Costa Rica where......read more.....
Ricardo Destarac
Founder-Dogood and Robin (books)
Ricardo is a native of Guatemala where he developed a sensibility for social issues. After 10 years of a succesful career as marketing executive for P&G and Coca-Cola he set up his own social enterprise – Dogood- in an attempt to contribute solutions to social issues by focusing on children. Based in Costa Rica, the first program – Robin- is a collection of reading promotion actions; from establishing school libraries, children writing contests, reading promotion campaigns to book publishing. To date, Robin has edited 30 children books, published 21 and distributed close to 400,000 books in public school libraries and among children. The model is currently expanding from corporate to mass market
