N’Jeri Eaton
is a filmmaker and the Content Development & Initiative Manager at the Independent Television Service (ITVS). She manages the Diversity Development Fund and the Open Call production funding initiatives. N’Jeri is also a freelance documentary producer and editor. Her feature film about Oakland’s Art Murmur, First Friday, broadcast nationally on PBS’ AfroPop. Her short film, Perry County, screened at festivals around the country was distributed by New Day Films. She was also the Associate Producer for The Waiting Room, which premiered on Independent Lens on PBS.
Saqib Keval
is a co-founding Chef of the People’s Kitchen, a grassroots community restaurant project focused on storytelling and radical community organizing through food. His work is focused on imagining and supporting new food systems focused on social justice movement building, political education and accessible community dining. As a food scholar focused on decolonization through food, he has lectured at universities across the country, working at the intersection of food, art and political education. He trained as a chef in Aix-en-Provence, France for 2 years and managed restaurants in California, Detroit and NYC.
Michael Pollan
is an award-winning author, journalist, activist, and the John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, and the director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism. For the past twenty-five years, he’s has been writing books and articles about the places where nature and culture intersect: on our plates, in our farms and gardens, and in the built environment. In addition to teaching, he lectures widely on food, agriculture, health and the environment.
Jonah Sachs
is the founder of Free Range Studios and the author of Winning the Story Wars by Harvard Business Review Press. He’s helped brands with social purpose like Greenpeace, the ACLU, Microsoft and Patagonia get heard above the media din. And his pioneering viral videos like the Meatrix and the Story of Stuff have been seen by over 60 million viewers. Jonah’s work and perspectives have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, FOX News, NPR, The Colbert Report and Fast Company, which named him one of the 50 most influential social innovators.
Bryant Terry
is an eco-chef, food justice activist, and author. A 2015 James Beard Foundation Leadership Award-winning chef, educator, and author renowned for his activism to create a healthy, just, and sustainable food system. He is currently the Chef-in-Residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco where he creates programming that celebrates the intersection of food, farming, health, activism, art, culture, and the African Diaspora. Bryant’s fourth book, Afro Vegan was published by Ten Speed Press/Random House April 2014.
Alice Waters
is an American chef, restaurateur, activist, and author. She’s credited with inventing ‘California Cuisine’ when she opened her restaurant, Chez Panisse in 1971. Waters has been cited as one of the most influential figures in food in the past 50 years, and has been called the mother of American food. She is currently one of the most visible supporters of the organic food movement, and has been a proponent of organics for over 40 years. She is the creator of the Edible Schoolyard. Ms Waters recently won a National Humanities Medal.