Steve Phillips is a national political leader, bestselling author, and columnist. He is the author of The New York Times bestseller Brown Is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority and national bestseller How We Win the Civil War: Securing a Multiracial Democracy and Ending White Supremacy for Good. He is a columnist for The Guardian and The Nation, and an opinion contributor to The New York Times. He is also the host of “Democracy in Color with Steve Phillips,” a color-conscious podcast on politics. He is the founder of Democracy in Color, a political media organization dedicated to race, politics and the multicultural progressive New American Majority. Phillips is a graduate of Stanford University and University of California College of the Law, San Francisco and practiced civil rights and employment law for many years. Phillips has appeared on multiple national radio and television networks including NBC, CNN, MSNBC and C-SPAN.

John Farrell is a co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and directs the Energy Democracy Initiative. Widely known as the guru of distributed energy, he has received accolades for his vivid illustrations of the economic and environmental benefits of local ownership of decentralized renewable energy. He hosts the Local Energy Rules podcast, discussing monopoly power, energy democracy, and how communities can take charge to transform the energy system. He frequently discusses the ownership and scale of the energy system on Twitter, @johnffarrell. John authored Energy Self-Reliant States, a state-by-state atlas of renewable energy potential highlighted in the New York Times, showing that most states don’t need to look outside their borders to meet their electricity needs. He’s also written extensively on the economic advantages of Democratizing the Electricity System and community renewable energy, published a rich interactive map on solar grid parity, and polished the policies (like Minnesota’s solar energy standard) necessary to support locally owned renewable energy development. John provides data-rich presentations on local renewable energy for the common citizen, and has wowed crowds from Presque Isle, Maine to San Francisco to Berlin. He’s keynoted conferences like Solar Energy Focus in Washington, DC, and the Midwest Energy Fair. John’s work appears most regularly on ILSR’s website. His posts (and those of his colleagues) are frequently enriched by charts, translating the complex economics of energy into tools for advancing local energy ownership.

Aiko provides overall direction to Just Solutions. She has nearly 30 years of experience working on public policy issues and campaigns around the US on poverty, inequality, women’s rights, consumer protection, and environmental justice, in addition to state and federal partisan campaigns. Before working with Just Solutions, she was on the faculty at the University of Washington, teaching in their graduate program.  She also was the founding director of Front & Centered, a BIPOC-Frontline coalition working on climate policy in Washington State.

Angel oversees digital strategy and content creation for Just Solutions as the Senior Digital Strategist. They have nearly a decade of experience in social media management, content development, and digital media production. From grassroots projects to community-centered nonprofits, Angel has supported various movements grounded in social justice through their expertise in strategic communications. They graduated from the University of North Florida with a B.S. in Mass Communications, specializing in Public Relations and minoring in Sociology. Based in Jacksonville, Florida, Angel enjoys spending time in the water, soaking up the sun, and navigating life as a new parent.

Elena brings two decades of work on equitable energy and climate solutions to her role at Just Solutions. Previously, she served as director of research at an interdisciplinary energy science and policy research institute, where she explored strategies to integrate public health, equity, affordability, resilience, and other societal benefits into energy transitions. She is a member of the second cohort of New Voices at the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Elena received her BA in Physics and Astronomy & Astrophysics from Harvard and her PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton.

Rahwa Ghirmatzion was previously the executive director at PUSH Buffalo, a community organization that works at the grassroots to create and implement a comprehensive revitalization plan for Buffalo’s West Side, focused on affordable housing rehabilitation, land use, climate policy, solar installation, and green jobs training. Rahwa worked to lead and build NYRenews, is on the Governance Assembly of Mosaic, and sits on the NYS Climate Justice Working Group.

Rich is currently a Senior Fellow at Just Solutions. He was the Executive Director of OneAmerica, a prominent immigrant rights power-building organization in Washington State, where he co-founded Front and Centered, a statewide environmental justice coalition in Washington State. He later founded the Climate Justice Collaborative at the National Partnership for New Americans. Rich co-authored the Statue of Liberty Plan: A Progressive Vision for Migration in the Age of Climate Change, while serving as a Fellow with the Roosevelt Institute. Rich continues to serve as a leader in the national immigrant rights movement, and continues to serve as a network weaver across movements for climate and migrant justice.

Tayler Ward is the Senior Manager of Communications and Education Programs at Just Solutions Collective. Tayler seeks to elevate and address the needs of BIPOC community partners by sharing and creating resources that provide valuable environmental and climate justice information. Her upbringing in Richmond, CA, a city with many environmental concerns, inspired much of her personal passion for environmental justice. Tayler holds a Master of Urban & Regional Planning and a Master of Public Health from UCLA where she focused on Environmental Analysis & Policy and Community Health Sciences. Tayler is based in Fresno, California, and enjoys reading, cooking plant-based meals, and exploring the outdoors.