Participant Bios

Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn is a professor, activist, and author who has dedicated his life to the notion that the knowledge of history can be a powerful force for social change. His best known book is A People’s History of the United States, one of the first major looks at American history from the perspective of ordinary people. The book is a celebration of heroism, of the power of the people to get together and make change. As Zinn explains, people in the present day need to know that “they can fight back and they can win.” But -- “hope rests on doing something. If you’re not doing anything to change things, you have no right to be hopeful.”

-Professor Emeritus, Boston University Historian, Activist, Author of A People’s History of the United States

Ed Begley, Jr.

Since wooing audiences as Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the long-running hit television series, “St. Elsewhere,” Ed Begley, Jr. has moved easily between feature film, television, and theatre projects. Begley, Jr. is also a committed environmentalist who believes in “putting his money where his mouth is.” In 1989, he converted his modest 2-bedroom home in the San Fernando Valley to be completely energy self-sufficient. He drives an electric vehicle (a Toyota Rav4) and is quick to spend his time and lend his name in support of environmental issues dear to his heart and home.

-Actor, Activist, Environmentalist

Danny Glover

Opinionated, articulate, and seemingly tireless, Danny Glover is an actor who enlightens--he is a star in every sense of the word. Most widely known for co-starring in the Lethal Weapon series alongside Mel Gibson, Glover has long been putting his fame to good use. An AIDs activist, a peace activist, a political activist, and a strong advocate for community, Glover serves on the Board of Directors for a number of nonprofit organizations. Internationally, he has served as the Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program since 1998, focusing on issues of poverty, disease, and economic underdevelopment in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. As Glover has been quoted saying, “What’s important to me is to say, ‘What kind of world are we going to bring about? What kind of world are we going to create?”

-Actor, Activist

Jean Kilbourne

Superstar lecturer Dr. Jean Kilbourne has lectured at over one-third of all the colleges and universities in the United States and all of the major universities in Canada, as well as scores of private and public schools. She is nationally recognized as an expert on addictions, gender issues, and the media. Dr. Kilbourne served as an advisor to former Surgeons General C. Her editorials have appeared in the New York Times, USA Today and the Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association. From her award-winning documentaries, her feature articles, and her most recent publication, Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel, Dr. Kilbourne continues to be a tour de force not to be reckoned with.

-Media Critic, Author, Public Lecturer

Dr. David Korten

Trained in economics, organization theory, and business strategy with M.B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Dr. David Korten has over thirty-five years of experience in preeminent business, academic, and international development institutions, including a five and a half year stint as Visiting Associate Professor of the Harvard University Graduate School of Business. Nowadays, Dr. Korten’s publications (particularly, When Corporations Rule the World) are required reading in university campuses around the globe. Dr. Korten is also co-founder and chair of YES! A Journal of Positive Futures.

-Co-founder and Chair of YES! Magazine Author of When Corporations Rule the World

Vicki Robin

Vicki Robin is coauthor with Joe Dominguez of the national best-seller, Your Money Or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money & Achieving Financial Independence, available now in ten languages. Robin is President of the Seattle-based New Road Map Foundation, an educational and charitable foundation teaching people tools for sustainable living. Vicki Robin has lectured widely and appeared on hundreds of radio and television shows, including “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “Good Morning America” and National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition”; she has also been featured in People Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Mirabella, Woman’s Day, Newsweek, Utne Reader and the New York Times. Vicki is co-founder of the internationally popular Conversation Cafes (drop-in public conversations), and of Let’s Talk America, healing political polarization, one conversation at a time.

-Author of Your Money or Your Life Media Critic Public Lecturer

Satish Kumar

When he was only nine years old, Satish Kumar renounced the world and joined the wandering brotherhood of Jain monks. Dissuaded from his path by an inner voice at the age of eighteen, he became a campaigner for land reform, working to turn Gandhi’s vision of a peaceful world and a renewed India into reality. Fired by the example of Bertrand Russell, he undertook an 8,000 mile peace pilgrimage, walking from India to America without any money, through deserts, mountains, storms and snow, to deliver packets of ‘peace tea’ to the leaders of the four nuclear powers. Eventually, Kumar settled in England, and is currently editor of Resurgence Magazine and Director of Programs for Schumacher College. The title of Kumar’s most recent book captures his philosophy in a single phrase: You Are, Therefore, I Am: A Declaration of Dependence.

-Peace Activist, Author, Editor of Resurgence Magazine Director of Programme, Schumacher College

Dr. Richard Davidson

Davidson earned his Ph.D. in 1976 from Harvard University. In February, 2004, Dr. Davidson published the first scientific study proving that meditation actually calms the nerves. Currently the director of the Laboratory for Affective Neurosciences at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Dr. Davidson’s research has shown how mindfulness meditation strengthens the neurological circuits that calm a part of the brain that acts as a trigger for fear and anger. This raises the possibility that we have a way to create a buffer between the brain’s violent impulses (including cravings for material objects!) and our actions.

-Neuroscientist

Paul Cummins

Paul was educated at Stanford, Harvard, and the University of Southern California. In 1970, he became the Founder and Headmaster of the Crossroads School. In accordance with Cummins’ philosophy, the Crossroads school combines academic excellence with a comprehensive fine and performing arts program, community service, athletic challenge, and environmental education. Cummins is currently the Executive Director of the New Visions Foundation. He is also the author of a number of books on modern education, including Proceed with Passion and For Mortal Stakes: Solutions for Schools and Society. Cummins serves on the board of trustees of the American Poetry Review, Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, ExEd, the Sam Francis Foundation, the Gabriella AxeIrad Foundation, New Roads School and the New Visions Foundation.

-Educator, Founder of Crossroads and New Roads Schools

Yvon Chouinard

Chouinard is a surfer, fly fisher and world-class mountaineer. He’s also founder of Patagonia, Inc., an outdoor clothing company that he built into a $230 million company without taking it public. On the premise that green business is good business, he devotes 1% of annual sales to grassroots environmental organizations. He also is co-founder of One Percent For The Planet, an initiative in which businesses give back 1% of their profits to environmental causes. Chouinard is a noted writer, on climbing issues and ethics and, in Let My People Go Surfing, relates his core philosophies that are simultaneously common sense and radical.

-Sustainable business owner, Founder of Patagonia, Inc.