Bonnetta Adeeb is the founder and president of STEAM ONWARD Inc. a youth development non-profit organization in Southern Maryland. Ms. Adeeb, now retired from teaching was an educator for 37 years. She taught social studies and Career Research and Work-based Learning, a school-to-work educational program.

The mission of Steam Onward is to increase the number of minority and under-served youth pursuing higher education in STEM related fields, in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The “A” in Steam Onward is a reminder that the arts also utilize science and technology.  Steam Onward achieves our mission by providing youth in Charles County and Prince George's County, Maryland with after-school hands-on experiential learning opportunities in  five program areas:

• STEM career explorations,
• Internships in health and law,
• STEM field trips,
• Youth leadership development, and
• STEM action programs

The youth in Steam Onward, the driving force of the organization, refer to themselves as the Young Researchers Community Project (YRCP). Their motto is: We Could Have Cared Less, But We Decided to Care More.  Ms. Adeeb has obtained funding to create community demonstration vegetable, healing and rain gardens, restorations projects, and an orchard on the campus of a local high school in Waldorf, Maryland and at other locations. The purpose of the demonstration gardens is to educate both youth and community residents that gardening and environmental stewardship are both necessary and easy to create. YRCP members demonstrate that community gardens and other gardens can both produce food, and contribute to storm water management.

Three years ago YRCP members developed a Chesapeake Bay regional initiative called “NATURE’S KNIGHTS” to advocate for environmental justice, and promote individual stewardship by using community science tools, and action in the areas of food sustainability and water quality including oyster gardening. They are mobilizing youth, school, church and community based organizations as well as the Partnership for a Healthier in our area to take immediate action to solve these community challenges. Celebrating the 50^th Anniversary of Earth Day, we will launch an Urban Farm and Native Tree Nursery that will be a learning center for citizen science, and gardening and tree planting. It will supply native fruit and nut trees, berries, native plants for restoration projects and healing vegetables and herbs for improving the Wellness and Food Sustainability of the southern Maryland community.  With hundreds of homeless and food insecure citizens our youth are challenging the community to take action.

Coming from an activist minister's family, Bonnetta Adeeb has continued  that heritage of farming and  legacy of community service. She has fought for education that empowers all ethnicities, women, the poor, and underserved.

A renowned thought leader, international speaker, policy maker, community liaison, trainer, and facilitator, Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali serves as the Vice President of Environmental Justice, Climate, and Community Revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation. He is also the founder of Revitalization Strategies, a business focused on moving our most vulnerable communities from “surviving to thriving.”

Before joining the National Wildlife Federation, Mustafa was the senior vice president for the Hip Hop Caucus, a national non-profit and non-partisan organization that connects the hip-hop community to the civic process to build power and create positive change. In his role, he led the strategic direction, expansion, and operation of the Hip Hop Caucus’ portfolio on climate, environmental justice, and community revitalization.

Prior to joining the Hip Hop Caucus, Mustafa worked for 24 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He began working on social justice issues at the age of 16 and joined the EPA as a student, becoming a founding member of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ). He most recently served as senior advisor for environmental justice and community revitalization and assistant associate administrator, working to elevate environmental justice issues and strengthening environmental justice policies, programs, and initiatives. Mustafa worked for EPA administrators beginning with William Riley and ending with Scott Pruitt.

Mustafa uses a holistic approach to revitalizing vulnerable communities, and has worked with more than 500 domestic and international communities to secure environmental, health, and economic justice. Throughout his career, Mustafa has conducted more than 1,000 presentations across the country, including speeches, training, and guest lectures at over 100 colleges and universities. He is a former instructor at West Virginia University and Stanford University.

Mustafa currently serves as a board member for Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Union of Concerned Scientists, Rodenberry Foundation, TREE, and Climate Hawks Vote. He is frequently seen on television, including appearances on MSNBC, CNN, VICE, BET, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, and Democracy NOW! Mustafa is also a regular guest on WURD radio, Roland Martin Unfiltered, The Dean Obeidallah Show, and many others, and is the former co-host of the live radio show and podcast Think 100%: The Coolest Show on Climate Change with Grammy-nominated singer and actress Antonique Smith and civil rights icon Rev Lennox Yearwood.

Sarah Lillie Anderson is Senior Manager of Tree Equity at American Forests. Her work focuses on delivering benefits of healthy urban forests to communities historically left out of receiving them. Via the Tree Equity: Career Pathways initiative, Sarah facilitates capacity-building activities for pre-employment programs that build and retain a diverse, qualified, and representative workforce.

Previously, she ran Lillie Leaf Solutions, a consulting firm that helped urban greening stakeholders address equity, access, inclusion, and justice in their work. Sarah and her team at Lillie Leaf currently served as the project lead of the Growing Tree Canopy Through Environmental Justice project which helps to build community capacity for planting and caring for trees in systemically disenfranchised Chesapeake Bay Region communities. Sarah has a dual Bachelor’s degree in Urban & Environmental Studies and a certificate in Geographic Information Systems from the University of Pittsburgh and her Master’s degree in Public Administration from Bowie State University.

Xavier Brown is a native of Washington, DC and a graduate of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. He operates at the boundaries of urban agriculture, environmental sustainability, and African Diasporic culture. His work intertwines  sustainability with the issues that impact stressed communities from gun violence to mass incarceration.

Xavier is a Robert Wood Johnson Culture of Health Leader, funder of Soilful, co-founder of SouthEats Cooperative, and member of Black Dirt Farm Collective.

By studying the practices of indigenous people and going back to ancestral knowledge, Xavier is creating a new  sustainability movement that  is  healing the people and the land by reconnecting our sacred relationship to the earth.

Michael Carter, Jr. is an 11th  generation farmer in the United States and is the 5th  generation to farm on Carter Farms, his family’s century farm in Orange County, Virginia. There, Michael leads workshops on how to grow and market ethnic African/Asian vegetables. At Virginia State University, Michael is the Small Farm Resource Center Coordinator for the Small Farm Outreach Program as well as food safety coordinator and trainer. He sits on the board of directors of the Virginia Association of Biological Farmers (VABF) and Virginia Foodshed Capital. He also serves as the state coordinator for the Black Church Food Security Network and as the food safety coordinator for the Six State Farm to Table organization.

Michael earned an agricultural economics degree from North Carolina A&T State University and has worked in Ghana, Kenya and Israel as an agronomist and organic agricultural consultant.  As a cliometrician, curriculum developer and program coordinator for his educational, cultural and vocational platforms, Hen Asem (Our Story) and Africulture, Michael shares the contributions of Africans and African Americans to agriculture worldwide and the many stories that history almost forgot. He trains students, educators and professionals in African cultural understanding, empathy, and implicit bias recognition.

Brodrick Clarke is an agent for social change with 20 years of experience in the non-profit sector. Clarke is committed to improving public education nationally by actively working with educators, parents and students, providing them with the tools, skills and competencies to survive, grow and thrive. He has extensive experience working with the K-12 student population primarily in an out-of-school time setting. Clarke has recruited and trained hundreds of youth workers and volunteers. He has personally trained hundreds of DC teachers in the art of teaching and reaching youth. Clarke has a relentless focus on Advancing Youth Development and fostering the 40 Developmental Assets in youth. These two frameworks used in tandem empower him to meet the needs of students regardless of their perceived limitations.

Clarke’s facilitation style is unconventional. He incorporates research and best practice with interactive simulations to engage his audience in dynamic learning experiences. Clarke served an 18-month tour of duty with the Muhammad Ali Center directing their domestic and international youth development initiatives and currently serves as the principal trainer with his consulting firm. Clarke holds a Bachelors of Science degree in human services and management from the University of Phoenix.

Brandi Colander is a Principal with The Raben Group, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm committed to making connections, solving problems, and inspiring change across the corporate, nonprofit, foundation and government sectors.

Prior to joining the firm, Colander was the Head of External Relations for Charter Communications, supporting their Diversity & Inclusion team. In that role, she was responsible for strategic outreach, stakeholder engagement and philanthropic initiatives for a corporation of roughly 100,000 employees.

Colander had two stints in the Obama Administration. Serving as a Deputy Assistant Secretary at the United States Department of the Interior she advanced regulations for the nation’s four energy development bureaus, managed government relations, and stakeholder engagement. Colander began her career in public service as the Deputy General Counsel for the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) where she led strategic initiatives and provided counsel on matters ranging from ethics to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Before joining the Executive Office of the President, Colander was an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) where she developed an expertise in utility restructuring and renewable energy.

Colander chairs the Board of Directors for the District of Columbia’s Green Finance Authority and serves on the Leadership Council for the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated and the Links Incorporated. Brandi graduated from the University of Virginia and earned her Master’s degree at Yale University and Juris Doctor at Vermont Law School.

She resides in the District of Columbia with her husband, daughter and dog.

Since he and his family purchased property in the historic Town of Eagle Harbor some 40 years ago, Mayor James D. Crudup has been an involved citizen. After first serving as the president of the Citizens Association several decades ago and then, serving two terms as a Commissioner in the Town, he finally assumed the leadership positon of Mayor.  Now, in his fifth and last term as Mayor, he is extremely proud of what he and the board of commissioners have accomplished. At the top of that list of accomplishments, he is most proud of the Town’s designation as a Sustainable Community by the state of Maryland in 2018.

Mayor Crudup is a visionary leader and the first Mayor of the Town to develop a strategic plan. He is passionate about sustaining the Town’s historic heritage while navigating the difficult challenge of moving from a seasonal, sleepy, black resort beach Town to a vibrant year-round sustainable community.

Jabari Exum is a hip hop artist, percussionist in the West African/Latin tradition, actor and dancer. He has toured with Grammy Award-winning Rap Artist and Songwriter Common and was a drummer and choreographer for the phenomenal The Black Panther movie.

Since 1997, Jabari has also been a pioneering artist in a movement called, “Hip Hop Theater.”  Jabari's approach to everything he touches is unique and unconventional because he is able to pull from so many disciplines and gives himself freedom to explore and invent. Jabari has been acting, drumming, and rapping since he was 2 years old and has been blessed with the opportunities to receive guidance from some of the greats across many fields of creative expression.

Kameron Feggins is a senior at Morgan State University studying Family and Consumer Sciences expected to graduate in the spring of 2020. During the spring semester of his junior year, he interned with the National Aquarium under the What Lives in The Harbor program.

After his internship, Kameron accepted a paid position as an Education Aide. His goal is to someday open a community center in his hometown of Philadelphia that will make positive change in impoverished communities around the city.

Living a passionate life and inspiring others to wellness is David Girton’s life’s purpose. A U.S. Air Force veteran and long-time Maryland resident, David is a nationally-televised fitness pro and Coach to organizations including the NAACP’s Leadership 500 Conference. David is also the thought leader and creator of the successful Facebook group, WE Dig Green, a community of Healthy Lifestyle enthusiasts. He was also a 2015 Baltimore Sun's Fitness Heroes nominee.

David believes that a holistic approach founded on mastering the fundamentals – positive mindset, sustainable eating habits, quality rest, and managing stress - all lead to a lifetime of healthy habits that can be passed on and impact generations to come.

An avid mud and obstacle racer, David has utilized his fitness expertise and enthusiasm to create the SOULdier workouts; routines designed to prepare athletes to take on the rigors of outdoor mud and obstacle courses such as the Savage Race, Spartan Race and Tough Mudder events, in which he has completed. David’s strengthening and conditioning workouts in The LaB at LiveNow Fitness drive athletes to stronger Results.

Charles C. Glass, Ph.D., P.E. was appointed Deputy Secretary at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in December, 2019 after serving as Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy Analysis and Planning and Director of Bicycle and Pedestrian Access at the Maryland Department of Transportation.

Dr. Glass’ credentials include serving as a research and engineering professional for more than 20 years in academia and the consulting engineering industries. Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Glass has held important positions as a teacher, researcher, and consulting professional in Civil and Environmental Engineering. He has sustained two successful long-term funding relationships involving the District Department of Transportation in Washington D.C. and the National Science Foundation. He has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, participated in a variety of widely-attended conference proceedings, and is recognized nationally as an expert in stormwater management, green infrastructure and wastewater treatment.

Dr. Glass came to the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) from Howard University, where he served on the faculty for seventeen years. For eight months in 2010, he spent time as an Environmental Engineer at the United States Environmental Protection Agency as the lead on a potential new regulation for the mitigation of sanitary sewer overflows.

He graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in 1989 and completed his undergraduate degree requirements in Civil Engineering in 1992 at The Johns Hopkins University. He completed his Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1994 and 1997, respectively.

In 2017, Dr. Glass became a member of the 25 th class of Leadership Maryland, a professional development program dedicated to building a better Maryland by harnessing the strength of its local business and community leaders.

Dr. Glass is an avid golfer, mystery reader, and soccer coach. He is happily married to attorney Heather Morris-Glass and enjoys his time with their two boys, Caden and Michael.

Larry Glover is a Senior Partner at Breakthrough Marketing Technology. He is a marketing and communications executive with experience in multiple forms of media, strategy development; market planning and communications. He has worked with national and global advertising agencies and for clients including Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola. The U.S. Army, and Sara Lee Corporation.

Since 2015, his firm has specialized in Energy Strategies For Urban Communities providing practical guidelines to improve efficiency for buildings in urban centers. Larry has been a leader is promoting the use of use data to assess and track energy performance and its impact on communities of color. The company also provides strategies to engage private-sector partnerships with technical service providers to implement energy reduction communication plans.

As part his efforts in Energy Efficiency and Workforce Development Larry worked with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to develop and execute a model public, private, labor partnership for energy efficiency. The initiative garnered united support from legislators, educators, faith leaders and government agencies.

Larry has lectured as a multicultural subject matter expert. He has held board positions on marketing and advertising industry associations and was appointed to chair a state insurance regulatory agency.

Paulette Greene is an educator,  agri-herbalist, and community activist.  She and her partner, Donna, own and manage Mt. Pleasant Acres Farms, (MPAF) located in the Poplar Neck region of Caroline County.   MPAF is a key component of the historic Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad where Harriet led her parents,  brothers, and others out of slavery.

Paulette and her partner have created Mt. Pleasant Heritage Preservation, Inc., a non-profit “heritage foundation”  to preserve, promote, and support the farm and surrounding land as a leading site of  pre-Civil War life in Maryland --  to educate youth and local citizens in the historical and social context of “free Black”  life in the area.   In addition, they grow organic produce and grain crops.

Ms. Greene is also a board member/member of Stories of the Chesapeake Heritage Area, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, Envision The Choptank,,  Jonestown Community Development Corp., Mt. Pleasant Heritage Preservation, Inc., The American Legion, Blake-Blackston Auxiliary Unit #77, Easton, MD, and former Board President of People for Better Housing, Inc. in Federalsburg, MD , and Board Member of the Maryland  Environmental Trust.

Paulette was a key leader and visionary in the expansion of Mt. Calvary UMC in Preston, MD where she served as a Trustee and Building Committee, Chair.

She lived and taught in N.Y. City,   Alabama, Maryland, and Japan where her partner was stationed with the U.S. Army.

David Harrington is President and CEO of the Prince George’s Chamber of Commerce. In this role, he is the primary advocate, policy advisor and spokesperson for more than 600 businesses. He has led the Chamber to a “Top 15” regional ranking as determined by the
Washington Business Journal.

Prior to joining the Chamber, David completed fifteen years of public life commencing as Mayor of Bladensburg, Prince George’s County Council Member and Maryland State Senator. During this extensive period of public service, David was President of the Maryland Municipal League, National Chair of Economic Development with the National Association of Counties and Chaired the Maryland State Task Force on Physical Education. He has been twice awarded the Phyllis Newman Award for nonprofit advocacy, Human Services Coalition Legislative Award, Hurston/Wright Ella Baker award, Legislator of the Year from the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, and Economic Development Award from 100 Black Men.

David serves on the Board of Directors of Meyer Foundation, Community Forklift and serves on Robert Wood Johnson’s National Advisory Council. Presently his Chairs the Bowie State University Board of Visitors, the Board of Anacostia River Keeper, CommonHealth ACTION; Consumer Health Foundation; and the Prince George’s County Redevelopment Authority. At Harvard University, David was a faculty member at its Summer Institute on Reading, Writing and Civic Education and at the University of Maryland, he served as Associate Director of the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership. Presently, David is adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland Global Campus.

David holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Howard University and completed graduate work at Miami University of Ohio. He is a resident of Prince George’s County for more than 30 years and is married to Cheryl, business owner of Shortcake Bakery in Hyattsville, Maryland. They have two sons: Stephen, Director of External Affairs at the Greater Washington Partnership and a graduate of Morehouse College and Brown University and current ; and Christopher, Manager and Research Editor at MuniCap, and a graduate of Dickinson College with a MBA/MPP from University of Maryland Smith Business School.

David is a proud grandfather of two wonderful grandchildren.

As the owner of Design Virtue and co-founder of The Urban Studio, Maisie is committed to inclusive placemaking with people and plants. Maisie works with mission focused organizations to create greener and more equitable cities. She brings decades of award-winning leadership to her projects and pays obsessive attention to the work to deliver high quality outcomes. She is currently working with clients to create a ladder to employment that will yield full time urban forestry careers and diversify the urban forestry workforce. As a 2018 Landscape Architecture Foundation Fellow for Innovation and Leadership, Maisie is using film to explore what landscapes need to be to feel welcoming for all people.

Maisie is an ISA Certified Arborist, with Master of Landscape Architecture degree from Morgan State University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Afro American studies from Howard University.

Born and raised in Baltimore, Symone Johnson's interest in marine science started when she participated in the High School Volunteer Program at the National Aquarium. That experience led to her attending Hampton University, where she graduated with her B.S. in Marine and Environmental Science. During undergrad, Symone began to work with youth in her free time, specifically in the Mentoring Young Scientists Program held at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center. Symone also played a major role in planning and leading sessions at the Teen Environmental Conference, held in Hampton, VA in 2011 and 2012. Symone received the NOAA Educational Partnership Program Undergraduate Scholarship and completed two internships at NOAA facilities. The last internship under this scholarship program sparked Symone’s interest in sharks, so she attended Delaware State University for graduate school studying Sand Tiger sharks in Delaware Bay.

At the end of her graduate career, Symone was selected as a recipient of the Sea Grant John A. Knauss Fellowship and spent one year in NOAA’s Office of Education. Upon completion of the Knauss Fellowship, Symone accepted a position at the National Aquarium as the B-WET Project Coordinator. This program brings Baltimore City Public School sixth graders to the Aquarium campus to complete a set of water quality activities to investigate what lives in the Baltimore Harbor.

Symone also provides professional development and ongoing support for the teachers of participating students to ensure that they are prepared to teach the pre-lesson and post lesson. Symone has introduced a new internship within this program between the Aquarium and local colleges and universities in Baltimore including Morgan State University, Coppin State University, and Towson University.

Currently, Symone manages the education programs at National Aquarium. Aside from her position at the National Aquarium, Symone also works for NOAA as a targeted recruiter into their undergraduate scholarship programs and fellowships. She hosts an online web-based educator video resource called Ocean Today, Every Full Moon. This resource is designed to be used by informal and formal educators, and the general public, to share the many fascinating aspects of the ocean. Collections are released each month (on the full moon) and topics range from “Endangered Ocean” and “Animals of the Ice” to “The Remarkable Horseshoe Crab” and “Maritime Archaeology.”

Mandela Jones is co-founder of ROOTS Africa, a non-profit that connects academic institutions and experts in the U.S. to farming communities in Africa. The organization's mission is to combat hunger and poverty in Africa.

Mandela graduated from The University of Maryland, majoring in Agriculture and Resource Economics with a concentration in Business Administration. His interest in ROOTS Africa started after returning from a farming apprenticeship where he read books and articles on family-owned and African agriculture. Since then, Mandela has been working on ways to improve agriculture at home and abroad.  When he heard about the idea behind ROOTS, he knew he needed to get involved in order to better grasp what his peers in Africa face in agriculture and to develop his problem-solving skills.

ROOTS Africa promotes and leverages collaborations between academic institutions to strengthen agricultural extension services, encourage entrepreneurship, enhance youth engagement in agriculture and increase the productivity of local farmers in Africa. Through the ROOTS Student Club and Global Classroom programs, youth and experts can initiate, support and  advocate for wholistic approaches to community development.

Violet King is an urban farmer, educator and herbalist who has been working to bring healthier food options and farming/gardening and nutrition education to youth and adults who live East of the River for the past five years.

Her work focuses on empowering youth and adults by teaching them how to grow and prepare their own food using sustainable and agro-ecological farming practices.

Violet is passionate about growing medicinal herbs and pollinator plants and promoting land stewardship in order to facilitate healing between people of color and the land.

Tracy Lloyd McCurty, Esq. is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Black Belt Justice Center (BBJC), a legal and advocacy nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and regeneration of African American farmlands and land-based livelihoods through effective legal representation, advocacy, and community education.

For more than a decade, McCurty has served as a legal advocate on a range of issues disparately impacting the African Diaspora community; however, her most cherished work has been in service of multigenerational farm families living on the land in the rural South. In addition to serving farm families and cooperatives, McCurty has provided legal representation to numerous community-based farm organizations that serve diverse farmers and rural communities, including the Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, the National Immigrant Farming Initiative, and the Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network (SAAFON).

Before launching the Black Belt Justice Center, McCurty served as the Policy Advisor for the Rural Coalition, a national coalition of 70 community-based organizations representing diverse farmers and farmworkers. In that role, she led coalition efforts to ensure complete implementation of the equity provisions of the 2008 Farm Bill. To ensure maximum participation of African American claimants in the In re Black Farmers Discrimination Litigation (“Pigford II”), she drafted and submitted legal memoranda to assist the federal court in its deliberations regarding the coordination and implementation of the Pigford II settlement agreement.

McCurty has demonstrated leadership in her field of work through her participation in several national farm and food equity conferences and symposiums including the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Food and Community Gathering, the Professional Agricultural Workers Conference (Tuskegee University), the Critical Race Studies Symposium (UCLA School of Law), and the International Food Sovereignty Forum (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace). Additionally, she is the co-coordinator and co-author of the Black Agrarianism chapters featured in the 2017 Food First publication, Land Justice: Re-imagining Land, Food, and the Commons.

McCurty earned her Bachelor's of Science at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and her law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel-Hill School of Law. She is licensed to practice in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Georgia, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Conference of Black Lawyers.

Esther Mitchell is the Master Gardener Coordinator for Prince George’s County, MD and a Program Planner for the Department of the Environment for the past 10 years where She responds to all types of questions and problems regarding plant identification and their habitats, insects, plant diseases. She helps train residents to become Master Gardeners and provide many outlets for volunteer service to attain certification.

Esther teaches a variety of horticultural topics throughout Maryland counties. She also delivers presentations on horticultural subjects at library plant clinics, community and homeowners associations, and garden clubs. Guided by Esther's expertise and knowledge, several community gardens in Prince George’s County were established. She has assisted residents, homeowners associations, community gardeners, Councilpersons and Town Mayors on their beautification programs, and she works with schools, nonprofits and faith based groups to help establish various types of gardens. She has presented professional development courses on planting and maintaining school garden to more than 200 teachers and has worked with schools to help establish vegetable and flower gardens.

Esther has been featured on many radio programs, and she has been quoted in several national and local newspapers on various horticultural subjects and has appeared on NBC4's Rooted in Your Community. She was instrumental in getting the county tree renamed to the Willow Oak.

Esther enjoys teaching youth and adults about the joy and pains of gardening. She believes that you learn life’s basic lessons in the garden.

A passion for agriculture and its people drives Cedric Nwafor, a social entrepreneur and public speaker who has organized, facilitated and spoken at various events across Africa and the US.

Cedric is co-founder of ROOTS Africa, a youth-led organization that combats hunger, poverty and exclusion by connecting students and agricultural experts in the US and Africa. While earning his Bachelor’s degree, he visited farms in Idaho and Maryland as well as in Rwanda, Liberia and Uganda to learn different approaches to farm life and management. Along the way, Cedric became an agricultural evangelist, engaging African youth in civic affairs in both cities and rural communities. He believes engaging young people in agriculture is vital to the future of the African continent and the socio-economic well-being of its peoples.

Cedric previously served as a member of the “Power Team” of the Afrika Youth Movement and coordinator for five committees, and as a Mentor and Advocate for Streetwise Partners, an organization supporting low-income populations. He was a 2016 nominee for the African Youth in Agriculture Award and commencement speaker at his graduation from the University of Maryland's College of Agriculture & Natural Resources with a BA in Agriculture and Resource Economics with a focus on Entrepreneurship.

Cedric, who was born and raised in Cameroon, immigrated to the United States in 2010 and now resides in suburban Washington, D.C.

Dawone Robinson is Eastern Regional Director for Energy Affordability for the Natural Resources Defense Council. In this role, he focuses on promoting increased access to energy efficiency and renewable energy resources for multifamily and low-income households. As part of the Energy Efficiency for All project, Dawone helps organize state coalitions and provides educational support for organizations and individuals working on energy efficiency and renewable energy policies.

He has also served as a member of the Virginia Advisory Council on Environmental Justice, an appointment he received from former Governor Terry McAuliffe. In his previous role, Dawone served as Virginia policy director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, an organization focusing on climate change impacts and clean energy solutions in Virginia.

Dawone earned his bachelor's degree from Iowa State University and a J.D. from Drake University Law School.

Hampton Roads native and mother, BeKura W. Shabazz Branch has more than decade of grassroots advocacy and activism in the areas of policy, housing, and criminal and economic justice work. Recently, she was recruited to become a professional activist as Virginia's lead for federal legislation on climate change and sea level rise with Virginia Conservation Network. Since leaving that role, she has been vigorously fighting against oppressive and systemic injustices against African Americans alongside all of her other areas of interest.

She is currently the Social Justice and Health Disparities committee chairwoman of the Va. Green New Deal; Chesterfield NAACP Criminal Justice committee chair; and serves on the Internal Policy Committee of the Va Environmental Justice Collaborative.

BeKura is the Founder and President of First Alliance Consulting LLC. and The Criminal Injustice Reform Network. She also founded Mothers Against Mandatory Minimums and Legal Advocates of Virginia where she is currently a legal advocate and certified mediator for families affected by the judicial system.

Falecia Stuckey is Executive Board Member of Velo City Riders Cycling Club, a Maryland based cycling club. Falecia, a cyclist and triathlete, started this Greater Baltimore Area based club in 2017 with 4 other outdoor enthusiasts.

Active members enjoy riding together year round in a relaxed and friendly group atmosphere. Our rides range from short, easy trips for beginners, to moderately-paced tours with snack breaks, to fast, challenging rides for the more competitive minded. Volunteer club members organize group rides, leaving from various locations throughout Maryland, DC and Virginia.

Velo City Riders promote fun, fitness, and enjoyment of DMV area parks, trails and outdoor cycling routes while encouraging membership regardless of race creed or skill level to engage in enjoyment of the natural environment.

Tamara Toles O'Laughlin is an environmentalist focused on equity, access and community. She develops capacity building programs and creates multimedia campaigns to dismantle privilege and increase opportunities for vulnerable populations to access healthy air, clean energy, and a toxic free economy at the local, regional, and national level.

Tamara is the North America Director at 350.org where she supports and is accountable to organizers and campaigners on the United States and Canada teams. As the leader of 350’s programming in North America she drives mission critical work and organizational investments to build a multiracial, multi-generational climate movement that is capable of holding our leaders accountable to science and justice.

Prior to joining 350.org, Tamara was the leader of the Maryland Environmental Health Network (MdEHN), based in Baltimore, Maryland. As its executive director she promoted the elimination of environmental threats to human health, and facilitated the development of coalitions led by impacted community members, and supported by health practitioners and environmental advocates.

Mayor Rocio Treminio-Lopez is the first Latina mayor ever elected in the state of Maryland. Originally from El Salvador, she came to the United States when she was fourteen.

She currently resides in the Town of Brentwood, Maryland with her husband and four children.

Fred Tutman is a grassroots community advocate for clean water in Maryland’s longest and deepest intrastate waterway. He holds the title of Patuxent Riverkeeper, an organization that he founded in 2004. He is among the longest-serving riverkeepers in the Chesapeake region and the only African-American riverkeeper in the United States.

Fred also lives and works on an active farm located near the Patuxent that has been his family’s ancestral home for nearly a century. Prior to riverkeeping, he spent nearly three decades as a media producer and consultant on telecommunications assignments across the globe, including a long stint working with and advising traditional healers in West Africa and covering the Falklands conflict in Argentina for the BBC.

After a late-life sojourn into law school, Fred now teaches an adjunct course in Environmental Law and Policy at historic St. Mary’s College of MD. When not exploring the Patuxent River by kayak, he performs trail maintenance on the Appalachian TraiI, farms and blacksmiths in his spare time.

Fred also serves on a variety of Boards, Task Forces and Commissions related to the work of protecting the Patuxent and the natural environment. Among them, Fred serves on the Board of the Environmental Integrity Project, as a Governor appointed Commissioner on the State’s Patuxent River Commission and on the Board of Waterkeeper Alliance, the international group that licenses Waterkeepers. He is the recipient of numerous regional and state awards for his various environmental works on behalf of communities.

President and Co- Founder of The Green Scheme, Washington, D.C. native Ronnie Webb (aka Ron Green) stands on the forefront of educating disadvantaged communities on environmental stewardship and community revitalization. From developing and implementing USDA food system projects to consulting on behalf of businesses and organizations to adopt more sustainable methods, Mr. Webb has more than 10 years of experience in the environmental sector.

After graduating from North Carolina A&T State University with a B.S. in Agricultural Economics, Mr. Webb became a certified green consultant while serving as an intern for D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. Following his internship, Mr. Webb was offered a fellowship with the Hip Hop Caucus Education fund, an opportunity that helped him shape a platform in the environmental movement on the east coast with a focus on Washington, D.C. and Greensboro, N.C.

The Green Scheme’s founding was based on Webb’s realization of the lack of environmental awareness that existed in many communities. It is a non-profit organization designed to educate people of diverse cultural backgrounds about their role in the environmental movement. Ever since, Green Scheme has been up and running under the leadership of Mr. Webb who is just getting started. Mr. Webb has recently become a senior fellow in the Environmental Leadership Program, which is a national network of environmental leaders.

The Green Scheme has been active in the DC area for over two years. Positively affecting the lives of DC residents through urban agriculture and workforce development, The Green Scheme has creatively carved itself into the fabric of wards 7 & 8 using its community centered identity to plant gardens in the core of some of the most barren food desserts in the city.

Webb recognized the healthy food shortages in the poorest areas of Washington DC and decided a change needed to occur. The Green Scheme has created stronger communities and healthier families with its dedicated approach to wellness and education.

Dr. Karen Wilson-Ama’Echefu is a Harlem native who engages in public speaking. Hmmm. Public speaking? More like public humming, singing, skipping, dancing, tripping, questioning, challenging, inspiring, inciting, chuckling, telling, quelling, woofing, hoofing, winkling, twinkling, traveling,  messin' 'round, tweeting, elucidating, howling, equivocating, trilling, thrilling, pontificating, poetry-making, risk-taking, reporting, cavorting, and telling the truth as  she understands it  to be.

Karen also sings music across the historical spectrum of the African Diaspora in the United States including spirituals, calls, jazz, blues, and rhythm and blues.  She curated, wrote and premiered, “A Tribute to Blueswomen:  Beauty and the Blues” with her group, Blue Wave – New York.  In collaboration with her musical director Stephen Vaughan, she developed a new genre called Story Cabaret for Blue Wave West, presenting original, traditional and contemporary stories all wrapped up in jazz, blues and singable tunes. Dr. Wilson-Ama’ Echefu has traveled and performed with Pete Seeger and her performance of Paul Laurence Dunbar's "The Party" was broadcast on PBS as part of their "Favorite Poem Project."

She was a featured presenter at the 2010 Blues and Spirit Symposium alongside legendary Hip Hop Artist Chuck D, and other notable music and history giants, and has spoken and presented on the intellectual and cultural life in the African American Slave Quarter Community on college campuses across the United States.  Dr. Wilson-Ama’ Echefu's research interests include African cultural and religious history, eighteenth and nineteenth-century enslavement in the United States, leadership and strategy in slave quarter communities, and the philosophies and theologies of Africans and their descendants in the Western Hemisphere as identified through their song, story and dance. Her scholarship identifies African intellectual and cultural presence in North America as providing evidence for continuities, discontinuities and transformations of African Diasporic culture in the United States and considers the West African Diasporic Blues Complex as a marker for African cultural presence in the Western Hemisphere.  She also writes on histori-cultural presence of African American women, which includes their beautiful blues.