Science, Society, and the Future of Gene Editing

Dr. Krasny is host of the award winning KQED FORUM, a program discussing news and public affairs, current events, culture, health, business and technology. FORUM can be heard daily on Northern California’s public radio station, KQED, as well as on Sirius/XM Satellite with National Public Radio, Comcast digital cable, and on the Internet as a podcast on iTunes. He has interviewed a wide range of major political and cultural figures. He is also a veteran interviewer for the nationally broadcast City Arts and Lectures series. Focus Magazine named him Best Bay Area Talk Show Host, and he was selected Best Talk Host and Best Interviewer by the editorial staff of San Francisco Weekly, as well as in their annual reader’s poll.

Dr. Krasny’s abilities and reputation as one of the world’s finest interviewers are enhanced by his creative work as an author and educator. A former regular contributor to Mother Jones magazine, Dr. Krasny has published a great deal of fiction, literary criticism and political commentary. He is the author of Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life (Stanford University Press) which was on both The San Francisco Chronicle and The Marin Independent Journal best-seller lists, Sound Ideas (with Maggie Sokolik McGraw-Hill) and Let There Be Laughter (Harper Collins). He also released a twenty-four lecture series DVD, audio and book on “Short Story Masterpieces” for The Teaching Company, and is the author of Spiritual Envy (New World Press), which was also on the best-seller lists in The San Francisco Chronicle and the Marin Independent Journal.

A professor of English at San Francisco State University, he has been Visiting Professor at the University of San Francisco, Adjunct Professor at the University of California San Francisco and taught in Continuing Education at Stanford University, as well as being an Associate of the San Francisco Urban Institute. He coordinated the Nexa Dissemination Program in Science and Humanities under the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Carnegie Foundation, taught in the Fulbright Institutes for the National Fulbright Foundation, moderated the Future Forum on Global Impacts of Human Activity at the University of California, and was a Gelenter Lecturer at the University of California, San Francisco Department of Surgery. Michael conducted seminars at Esalen Institute, lectured to the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute and aboard the Royal Odyssey Cruise Line. In 2007, he was honored with an Award of Excellence from the National Association of Humanities Educators.

Shakir Cannon is a Civic Health Leader and Co-Founder of the Minority Coalition for Precision Medicine (MCPM), an emerging organization dedicated to the disbursement of health information literacy through a parallel education and awareness strategy performed within minority populated regions as determined by US Census data. Shakir is also an internationally recognized Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) patient and advocate who helps educate & spread awareness for SCD both as a public speaker and social media thought leader. Throughout his lifelong battle with the often debilitating and at times devastating disease, Shakir learned how crucial it is to remain educated and informed of the ever-evolving healthcare system. When President Obama released the Precision Medicine Initiative in 2015, Shakir became fascinated about learning of this exciting opportunity to, as put by the former President, “accelerate the process of discovering cures in ways that we’ve never seen before”. In November 2015, Shakir along with his business partner, Michael Friend, hosted a two-day event in Baltimore Maryland entitled “Sickle Cell Disease and Precision Medicine” to highlight sickle cell disease as one of our nation’s biggest health disparities while also beginning discussions on how future precision medicine practices could potentially provide much needed hope for those who suffer from the inherited biomolecular illness. Representatives from the many governing health agencies were present, including Dr. Jo Handelsman the then Associate Director of The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, who provided the Keynote Speech for this rather historic event. Shortly thereafter Shakir was invited to The White House for the Precision Medicine Summit of 2016 as the Minority Coalition for Precision Medicine was listed on The White House fact sheet for their community outreach, along with their sister organization, The Health Ministries Network (HMN), and collaborators The BioCollective. Shakir truly believes that through genomic medicine and upcoming genetic technologies, hereditary illnesses like sickle cell disease will one day be more effectively treated if not cured. Shakir’s lifelong mission is to achieve health equity for ethnically diverse populations throughout the United States.

Dr. Conklin’s research focuses on genome engineering to identify novel therapeutic approaches to human disease. By making precise genetic changes in induced pluripotent cells he seeks to reveal the cellular and molecular mechanisms of disease and identify new methods for therapeutic editing. He began his research career by working for two years at NIH with Julius Axelrod, Ph.D., (Nobel Laureate). He then completed his residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Henry Bourne, M.D. at UCSF. In 1995 Dr. Conklin joined the Gladstone Institutes and the UCSF faculty where he is now a Senior Investigator at Gladstone, and a Professor at UCSF. Dr. Conklin is also the Gladstone Scientific Officer for Technology & Innovation and the deputy director of the Innovative Genomics Institute. He is the founder BayGenomics, GenMAPP, AltAnalyze and WikiPathways. He pioneered the field of chemogenetics using designer GPCRs (RASSLs). He founded the Gladstone Genomics and Stem Cell Cores. He advises multiple organizations including the Allen Institute for Cell Science, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the SF Exploratorium. He is a Fellow in the California Academy of Sciences and a member the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Rosemarie Garland-Thomson is Professor of English at Emory University, where her fields of study are disability studies, American literature and culture, bioethics, and feminist theory. Her work develops the field of critical disability studies in the health humanities, broadly understood, to bring forward disability access, inclusion, and identity to communities inside and outside of the academy. She is the author of Staring: How We Look and several other books. Her current book project is Habitable Worlds: Toward a Disability Bioethics.

Osagie K. Obasogie, J.D., Ph.D., is Haas Distinguished Chair and Professor of Bioethics at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Joint Medical Program and School of Public Health. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for Genetics and Society. Obasogie’s scholarly interests include the sociology of law and medicine, bioethics, racial disparities in health and social outcomes, and reproductive and genetic technologies. His writings have spanned both academic and public audiences, with journal articles in venues such as the Law & Society Review and the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics along with commentaries in outlets such as the New York Times, Slate, The Atlantic, and Scientific American. His first book, “Blinded By Sight: Seeing Race Through the Eyes of the Blind,” was published by Stanford University Press and his second book (with Marcy Darnovsky) on the past, present, and future of bioethics is under contract with the University of California Press.

Mark C. Walters, MD, is the Jordan Family Director of the Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, Oakland. Dr. Walters received his A.B. with honors in Genetics from the University of California, Berkeley and his MD from the University of California, San Diego. He completed pediatric residency training at the University of Washington and hematology/oncology fellowship training at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. He was a junior faculty member in Seattle before matriculating to Oakland in 1999. He has been active in cooperative clinical transplantation trials and has led several NIH-supported investigations of hematopoietic cell transplantation for sickle cell anemia and thalassemia. He has authored or co-authored many publications with a focus on hematopoietic cell transplantation for hemoglobin disorders, and he has a research interest in extending transplantation to young adults with hemoglobin disorders and other novel cellular therapies for hemoglobin disorders. Currently, research interests are focused on genomic editing and gene addition therapies as a strategy to extend curative therapy in all patients who inherit a clinically significant hemoglobinopathy.

Lorez brings over seventeen years of health care policy experience as a director of multi-lateral initiatives involving the public, private and civic sectors, working at the local, state, and national levels. Lorez has worked in many capacities implementing and integrating health programs. Lorez has worked across a variety of health topics including: aging and disability, early childhood development, maternal and child health, 2Gen/ multigenerational, health equity, mental health and substance abuse, supported employment for people with disabilities, and social determinants. Prior to joining Keystone Policy Center, Lorez has worked for two administrations in Colorado, in the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, and for non-profit organizations.

Cassie Edgar’s career has been focused on creative collaboration at the intersection of biotechnology and law. In her current role, she is leading the intellectual property and regulatory teams for Genus plc, a publicly traded global company actively engaged in gene editing using CRISPR technology. Cassie joined Genus in September 2014 from Pioneer DuPont, where she served for 14 years in research, legal and management roles including IP Counsel, Sr. Regulatory Counsel, and Director in the Agricultural Biotechnology group. She holds a B.S. in Molecular Genetics from The Ohio State University, a M.S. from North Carolina State University, obtained her law degree from Drake University, and completed the General Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Dana Perls is senior food and technology campaigner with Friends of the Earth-U.S. Friends of the Earth is the North American representative to Friends of the Earth International, the world’s largest grassroots federation of environmental organizations. Dana leads Friends of the Earth’s market and policy work on the environmental impacts of emerging technologies such as genetic engineering and synthetic biology. Dana brings a strong background in public advocacy and environmental policy and combines them with her commitment to environmental justice. She holds a Masters in City Planning from UC Berkeley in CA, and a B.A. from Cornell University.

Paul Shapiro is the vice president of policy at The Humane Society of the United States, the largest animal welfare organization in the world. He’s also the author of a forthcoming book on the promise of biotechnology in the food and agriculture sector. He’s been interviewed in hundreds of media outlets and has published dozens of articles about animal protection in publications ranging from daily newspapers to academic journals.

Tom Willey, with his wife Denesse, operated T&D Willey Farms from 1981 until 2016, a seventy-five-acre Certified Organic farm in Madera, California, growing a wide array of Mediterranean vegetables the year round. T&D Willey Farms produce was appreciated in specialty markets and fine restaurants up and down the U.S.West Coast as well as on the tables of over 800 weekly Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscription members in their own community. Tom was, for nearly a decade, Slow Food USA’s governor for California’s Central Valley and he passionately advocates for local food prominence through his writing, speaking, radio and event organizing activities. His monthly “Down on the Farm” radio interview program features the work of progressive farmers and others prominent in San Joaquin Valley’s agriculture and food communities.

Tom has served over the years on the boards of directors of the Ecological Farming Association (EFA) and California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF). He currently serves as a Policy Advisor to The Cornucopia Institute which monitors integrity of the U.S. organic industry.

Randal Giroux currently holds the position of Vice President at Cargill Incorporated located at the World Headquarters in Wayzata, Minnesota. Randal currently leads Food Safety and Quality for Cargill’s Global Poultry businesses and previous to this appointment, he held a similar role for Cargill’s Global Agricultural Supply Chain businesses. Dr. Giroux is a recognized thought leader in the integration of agricultural biotechnology into the global food system and involved professionally in both national and international trade organizations. He has held a number of biotechnology leadership positions in trade associations and served on several biotechnology advisory committees. Before joining Cargill, Dr. Giroux was a Program Manager with the Canadian Grain Commission and previous to his public service, he was a National Needs Fellow with USDA-ARS. Randal graduated with a PhD in Agriculture from the University of Guelph (OAC).

Michael Fernandez is Senior Fellow at the GW Sustainability Collaborative and Professorial Lecturer at the Milken Institute School of Public Health, where his work focuses on food, agriculture and environmental policy. He was most recently Senior Director of Global Public Policy for Mars, Incorporated, where he was responsible for developing and managing global public policies across the company’s portfolio. Michael joined Mars in 2008 from the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, where he served first as Director of Science and then as Executive Director. Previous work includes Associate Administrator for the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, Special Assistant to the Assistant Administrator at EPA’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, and science and technology advisor to the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. Michael received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Chicago and his undergraduate degree in biology from Princeton University.

Aroha Te Pareake Mead is from the Ngati Awa and Ngati Porou (Maori) tribes of Aotearoa New Zealand. She is Chair Emeritus of the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP) and is currently working as an independent researcher. Aroha has worked at the intersection of indigenous knowledge, conservation and science for over 30 years, specialising in the impact of biotechnologies on indigenous peoples as well as on indigenous cultural and intellectual property issues. She has published extensively on these issues including co-editing the publication “Pacific Genes & Life Patents’.

Ryan Phelan is Co-founder and Executive Director of Revive & Restore, with a mission to enhance biodiversity through the genetic rescue of endangered and extinct species. Ryan works with some of the world’s leading molecular biologists, conservation biologists, and conservation organizations to develop pioneering genetic rescue projects using cutting-edge genomic technologies to solve previously intractable wildlife conservation challengers such as those posed by inbreeding, exotic diseases, climate change, and destructive invasive species. She organized a landmark workshop on genetic rescue at the 2016 IUCN. World Conservation Congress, and acted as a principal investigator for the 2015 IUCN- and Rockefeller Foundation-sponsored Bellagio Conference on Biodiversity Conservation in the Context of Synthetic Biology.

Ryan is a serial entrepreneur, active in both the for-profit and non- profit worlds. She was the founder and CEO of two innovative healthcare companies: DNA Direct, the first medical genetics company to focus on bringing personalized medicine to the consumer, and Direct Medical Knowledge, a consumer health web site unique for its content depth and innovative search interface. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Personal Genome Project, which aims to sequence and publicize the complete genomes and medical records of 100,000 volunteers, in order to enable research into personalized medicine.

Simon is the Conservation Director at Synchronicity Earth, having recently retired as Chair of the Species Survival Commission (SSC) for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Simon has undergraduate and doctoral degrees from the University of Cambridge, with fieldwork in Tanzania and Cameroon. He has over 25 years of experience with the IUCN and the SSC. Simon started work on the African Bird Red Data Book in 1983. He joined the IUCN Secretariat in 1986, and was Head of the Species Programme (1990-2000), Acting Director General (2000-2001), Head of the Biodiversity Assessment Unit (2001-2005), and Senior Species Scientist (2005-2008). He was elected as Chair of the SSC at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona in October 2008. Simon has been instrumental in the species conservation movement, working on a number of global initiatives such as the Millennium Development Goals Biodiversity Target and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Simon has also produced numerous high impact reports and books. He joins Synchronicity Earth as the species advisor, chosen for his years of species conservation experience, his passion and his excellent network of global contacts.

Jim Thomas is a researcher, writer and policy expert with ETC Group, an international Civil Society Group that tracks the impact of emerging technologies and corporate concentration on biodiversity, agriculture, and human rights. Formerly with Greenpeace International and involved with grassroots environmental activism, Jim has been analysing biotechnology issues for over two decades. Jim serves as a civil society representative to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Synthetic Biology, He was part of the European Unions SYNENERGENE project on Responsible Research and Innovation in Synthetic Biology and is founding convenor of the Synbiowatch collaborative – see www.synbiowatch.org. He also tracks other emerging and converging technological domains including nanotechnology, geoengineering and big data.

Nathanael Johnson is a Grist staff writer and the author of two books: All Natural and Unseen City. He has written pieces for Harper’s, This American Life, and New York Magazine. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Carla Easter, Ph.D., is chief of the Education and Community Involvement Branch at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). She played a major role in the development of the NHGRI/Smithsonian exhibition Genome: Unlocking Life’s Code, and its accompanying website, and serves as a liaison to the K-12 and university community as a speaker on genomic science and career preparation and pathways. Dr. Easter also serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of the District of Columbia Department of Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

From 2003-2006, Dr. Easter was director of outreach for Washington University School of Medicine’s Genome Sequencing Center. Before assuming her role as outreach director, Dr. Easter was a research associate in the Department of Education at Washington University (2001-2003) where she explored the notions of science among secondary students. She served as pre-college coordinator for the NASA Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Plus Program and project associate for the Quality Education for Minorities Network. From 1997-2000, Dr. Easter conducted post-doctoral research at Washington University School of Medicine on the virulence factors associated with Streptococcus pyogenes.

Dr. Easter earned her bachelor’s degree in microbiology from the University of California, Los Angeles and her doctoral in biology with an emphasis on molecular genetics from the University of California, San Diego.

Mr. Donovan Guttieres is Focal Point for the Science-Policy Interface Platform of the UN Major Group for Children & Youth (UN MGCY). He is a graduate student in the Technology Policy Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), conducting research on global access to biologic therapeutics in the Center for Biomedical Innovation within the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society. He holds a B.S in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University, with focus on global health technologies and applied public health. He is actively engaged with many groups on campus, such as the Science Policy Initiative at MIT, Engineers Without Borders, Global Poverty Initiative at MIT, and Biotechnology Group. His interest is on evidence-informed approaches to context-conscious, people-centered, and planet-sensitive applications of technology for sustainable development.

Gregory Jaffe is the Director of the Project on Biotechnology for the Center for Science in the Public Interest (“CSPI”), a non-profit consumer organization located in the United States. He is a recognized international expert on agricultural biotechnology and biosafety and has published numerous articles and reports on those topics. He was worked on biosafety regulatory issues in the United States and throughout the world. He was a member of the Secretary of Agriculture’s Advisory Committee on Agricultural Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture from 2003-2008 and was reappointed for another term from 2011-2016. Gregory Jaffe earned his BA with High Honors from Wesleyan University in Biology and Government and then received a law degree from Harvard Law School.

Larisa Rudenko is currently a Visiting Scholar in the Program on Emerging Technology at MIT where she is studying science- and values-based concerns associated with emerging biotechnologies. She has been the Senior Advisor for Biotechnology at the Center for Veterinary Medicine for 15 years, where she led the agency initiative to develop its novel risk-based approach for the regulation of genetically engineered (GE) animals and created and directed new FDA administrative unit for the implementation of that program. She has worked in different venues to develop paradigms to assess the risk/safety of genetic alterations in multiple systems from microorganisms to plants to animals (including humans). Her “firsts” include developing a regulatory strategy for the first food from a genetically engineered plant; producing the first comprehensive assessment of the safety/risk of animal health and foods from animal clones; overseeing the first guidance for the regulation of GE animals; implementing that guidance by overseeing the processes for the first approval relevant to a genetically engineered biopharm animal; and overseeing the first approval relevant to a GE animal intended for food use. Dr. Rudenko has worked on developing seminal international policies for the assessment of risks of various types of genetic alterations and assisted reproductive technologies; she is internationally recognized for successful leadership and collegial collaboration in developing coordinated strategies and harmonized consensus documents. She has served as a judge and safety advisor to the iGEMs competitions. Prior to her tenure at FDA, Dr. Rudenko worked in the consultancy and venture capital fields. She received her PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Stony Brook University after completing her doctoral work in DNA damage and repair at the Brookhaven National Laboratory; she is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology.

Jennifer Kuzma PhD: Goodnight-NCGSK Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs, and co-founder and co-director of the Genetic Engineering and Society (GES) Center at NC State University.

Prior to her current position, she was associate professor at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota (2003-2013); study director at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM); and an AAAS Risk Policy Fellow at the USDA. She has over 140 scholarly publications on emerging technologies, their societal and ethical implications, and governance systems and has been studying these areas for over 25 years.  Kuzma has held several national and international leadership positions, including a member of the World Economic Forum Council on Technology, Values and Policy; the NASEM Committee on Preparing for Future Biotechnology, Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) Council Member and Secretary, FAO Expert Group on Food and Nanotechnology, Council of Agricultural Science and Technology Committee on Gene Editing, and the AAAS-ABA National Council of Scientists and Lawyers.  In 2014, she received the SRA Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer Award for her contributions to the field of risk analysis and in 2017-2018 she was awarded the Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Science Policy.  In 2019 she was elected a lifetime Fellow of AAAS for her distinguished work in anticipatory governance of new technologies, and methods for oversight policy analysis.  She has given over 200 invited talks and is interviewed frequently in the media for her expertise in biotechnology policy, including the New York Times, Science, The Scientist, Nature, NPR, Washington Post, Scientific American, BBC, PBS Nova, Wired, and ABC & NBC News.   Prior to becoming a social scientist and policy scholar, she earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry at UC-Boulder and did a postdoc in plant molecular biology at Rockefeller University.  During her PhD, she was the first to discover that bacteria produce isoprene, a precursor to natural rubber. Bacterial isoprene (Bioisoprene) is now being used for more sustainable rubber production.  Her postdoctoral work helped to identify a biochemical and molecular pathway for plant drought and salinity tolerance and resulted in a publication in Science.

James Corbett is senior vice president of community health and values integration at Centura Health, a multi-state integrated health system and the region’s largest health care provider serving Colorado and western Kansas with 17 Hospitals and 22,000 employees. Corbett was a 3 year fellow at Harvard Medical School Division of Medical Ethics and was appointed a four year term to the National Institutes of Health’s National Advisory Council for Nursing Research (NINR) by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Over the course of his career, he has worked in four different health systems providing strategic and operational leadership for clinical trials, research operations, ethics, behavioral health, community health, spiritual care, diversity, mission and global health. In these roles, he has established innovative programs to improve health care outcomes and reduce health care costs. He has lectured at Harvard in Clinical Bioethics Courses and at the University of New England and Maine Schools of Law and has been published in numerous books and journals. Corbett received his B.S. in International Relations from Syracuse University, a Juris Doctor from St. Johns University and a Master of Divinity from Duke University.

Andrea Crisanti is professor of molecular parasitology at Imperial College and Professor of Clinical Microbiology at the University of Perugia, Italy. He graduated in Medicine at the University of Rome “la Sapienza’, and carried his doctoral work at the Basel Institute for Immunology. After the doctorate he was awarded a three years EMBO fellowship at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Thereafter he was employed as medical consultant at the University of Rome Institute of Parasitology. Prof. Crisanti has pioneered the molecular biology of the human malaria vector Anopheles gambiae and has made a number of important scientific contributions that advanced the genetic and molecular knowledge of the malaria parasite and its mosquito vector. More recently Prof. Crisanti has applied concepts of synthetic biology for the development of genetic vector control measures aimed at either eliminating wild type mosquito populations or at interfering with their ability to transmit malaria. This resulted in the development and validation of a CRISPR based genetic drive system capable of spreading, into wild type mosquitoes, mutations impairing female fertility genes.

Claudia Emerson is the founding Director of the Institute on Ethics & Policy for Innovation, and Associate Professor of Philosophy, at McMaster University, Canada.

Claudia’s work primarily addresses ethical issues and policy gaps in global health research, and she has been working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and its partners for over a decade examining issues that arise along the discovery-to-delivery pathway for potential lifesaving interventions. She is particularly interested in ethical issues related to data access and models of governance that facilitate data sharing, the introduction of novel technologies, and the management of infectious disease.

Claudia serves in several advisory capacities related to public health, including the national Advisory Committee on Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues for the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) Expert Working Group on Field Testing of Modified Mosquitoes Driving Transgenes. She has advised the World Health Organization and other UN Agencies, and currently serves on the Scientific Committee of the International Council for Science (ICSU) World Data System. She holds a B.Sc. in Biomedical Science from the University of Guelph, M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from McMaster, and completed her Postdoctoral training at the University of Toronto.

Neal Gutterson, Ph.D., is vice president, Research and Development (R&D), DuPont Pioneer, responsible for leading all R&D and product development functions to create innovative agricultural products, services and integrated solutions.

Neal holds a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Yale University and a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. He currently sits on the CIMMYT Board of Trustees where he is program committee chair. Neal is named inventor on more than 30 patents and pending patent applications.

In her role as Chief Scientist, Dr. Rebecca Shaw works with experts and partners around the world to identify emerging challenges to WWF’s mission and advance the scientific inquiry to deliver solutions to those challenges. Rebecca came to WWF from the Environmental Defense Fund, where she was responsible for developing and implementing the vision and strategy of the Ecosystems program. Rebecca has been published widely in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals such as Science and Nature and is the recipient of numerous awards for her work. She is a lead author on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report that focuses on impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Rebecca holds an M.A. in environmental policy and a Ph.D. in energy and resources from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Krasny is host of the award winning KQED FORUM, a program discussing news and public affairs, current events, culture, health, business and technology. FORUM can be heard daily on Northern California’s public radio station, KQED, as well as on Sirius/XM Satellite with National Public Radio, Comcast digital cable, and on the Internet as a podcast on iTunes. He has interviewed a wide range of major political and cultural figures. He is also a veteran interviewer for the nationally broadcast City Arts and Lectures series. Focus Magazine named him Best Bay Area Talk Show Host, and he was selected Best Talk Host and Best Interviewer by the editorial staff of San Francisco Weekly, as well as in their annual reader’s poll.

Dr. Krasny’s abilities and reputation as one of the world’s finest interviewers are enhanced by his creative work as an author and educator. A former regular contributor to Mother Jones magazine, Dr. Krasny has published a great deal of fiction, literary criticism and political commentary. He is the author of Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life (Stanford University Press) which was on both The San Francisco Chronicle and The Marin Independent Journal best-seller lists, Sound Ideas (with Maggie Sokolik McGraw-Hill) and Let There Be Laughter (Harper Collins). He also released a twenty-four lecture series DVD, audio and book on “Short Story Masterpieces” for The Teaching Company, and is the author of Spiritual Envy (New World Press), which was also on the best-seller lists in The San Francisco Chronicle and the Marin Independent Journal.

A professor of English at San Francisco State University, he has been Visiting Professor at the University of San Francisco, Adjunct Professor at the University of California San Francisco and taught in Continuing Education at Stanford University, as well as being an Associate of the San Francisco Urban Institute. He coordinated the Nexa Dissemination Program in Science and Humanities under the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Carnegie Foundation, taught in the Fulbright Institutes for the National Fulbright Foundation, moderated the Future Forum on Global Impacts of Human Activity at the University of California, and was a Gelenter Lecturer at the University of California, San Francisco Department of Surgery. Michael conducted seminars at Esalen Institute, lectured to the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute and aboard the Royal Odyssey Cruise Line. In 2007, he was honored with an Award of Excellence from the National Association of Humanities Educators.