Marie-Claire Graf, climate diplomacy and policy consultant, advocate and activist, Co-Founder of Youth Negotiators Academy, former Focal Point of the Youth Constituency at United Nations Climate Change, and former Vice-Chair on Youth at United Nations Food Systems Summit. She was the youngest negotiator of Switzerland to the UN climate negotiations and is currently training young diplomats from all over the world for multilateral processes. She has been studying at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich (Political and Environmental Sciences).

Sage Lenier is a climate activist, educator, and nonprofit leader. She got her start teaching her own program at UC Berkeley, which broke records for largest-ever student-led class. She is the Founder & Executive Director of Sustainable & Just Future and was recently honored by TIME Magazine as a 2023 Next Generation Leader. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The World Economic Forum, Forbes, and Teen Vogue, and has brought her to speak at public forums around the world.

Iakowi:he’ne’ Melissa Oakes is a Kanien:ke’ha’/Mohawk woman from Akwesasne Mohawk Territory, which spans New York, Ontario, and Quebec. She is the 2023 inaugural recipient of the Lucille Lortel Foundation’s Indigenous Theatermaker of the Year award. Her work focuses on Nation building, sovereignty, self-determination, land stewardship, economic development, social justice, culture, and the arts. As a member of the Kaneinkehake, the Keepers of the Eastern Door in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, she has been involved in significant movements such as the Oka Crisis, Idle No More, NODAPL, Occupy Wall Street, the Climate March, and the Land Back movement. Iakowi:he’ne’ founded and directs the North American Indigenous Center of New York, focusing on culture, equity, and economic development. She is also the CEO of Mohawk Coterie. Her projects include COVID-19 relief programs for Indigenous communities, the NYC Census for Native communities, premier Native theater productions, the FIT Native Series, the Northeastern Native Arts Festival, and various community events like feasts and marketplaces.She is the president and co-founder of the Soaring Eagles Youth Athletics Club and serves as an athletic liaison for the North American Indigenous Games, where she also coaches swimming and volleyball. In addition to her leadership roles, Iakowi:he’ne’ conducts workshops and events on Native American arts, cultural sustainability, and community sovereignty. She is an expert in DEI and cultural sensitivity consulting. Her work has been featured in numerous publications and venues, including Allure Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, NY Daily News, PIX 11, Democracy Now, ABC News, CBS News, the Whitney Museum, and many others.

Madeline (Maddy) Macdonald is the Coordinator of the High Line Network, an initiative of Friends of the High Line. The Network’s mission is to support infrastructure reuse projects across North America in creating vibrant public spaces that center local communities, build civic connections, support environmental resilience, and foster equitable community development. Maddy is experienced with research, content strategy, and curriculum design that raise the profile of intersectional issues of biodiversity, climate, and community resilience in the built environment, and provide tools for action. In her past roles, Maddy managed a series of special projects—documentaries, toolkits, workshops, and a learning hub—in collaboration with the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity to mainstream global biodiversity targets through conservation and design sector partnerships. These projects were featured at the World Biodiversity Forum (2020, 2021), Cooper Hewitt Design Museum Nature Triennial (2018), and several North American design weeks. Maddy received her B.Com from Queen’s University Smith School of Business, and an M.A. in Global Thought from Columbia University. Her Graduate thesis, Elevated Purpose: Equitable Placemaking Considerations for Exporting Manhattan’s High Line, explores the global infrastructure reuse movement and questions how to avoid green-gentrification when addressing the systemic impacts of redlining.