Bill Blakemore became a reporter for ABC News 46 years ago, covering a wide variety of stories. He spearheaded ABC’s coverage of global warming, traveling from the tropics to polar regions to report on its impacts, dangers, and possible remedies.

Thomas Lovejoy holds the Biodiversity Chair at the Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment based in Washington, DC, and is a recipient of the prestigious Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award.

David Ng is a faculty researcher at the University of British Columbia’s Michael Smith Laboratories, where he heads a science education lab aimed at training researchers, engaging students in the life sciences, and informing the public on the societal, political, economic and ethical nuances of the sciences.

Nancy Knowlton researches the ecology, evolution, and conservation of coral reef organisms as the Sant Chair in Marine Science at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

Jeffrey Levinton is Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Peter Staley has been a long-term AIDS and gay rights activist, first as a member of ACT UP New York, then as the founding director of TAG, the Treatment Action Group. He served on the board of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) for 13 years.

Rachel Meyer is a plant evolutionary biologist and co-founder of Shoots and Roots Bitters. Many of the species that she uses to manufacture bitters are simultaneously her research subjects.

Margie Turrin is an education coordinator at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University. There, she develops science projects that teach people about the Hudson River, climate science, human impacts on the planet, biodiversity, mapping, the polar regions, and how to use Earth system data in outreach education.

Shahid Naeem is professor of Ecology in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology and director of the Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability at Columbia University. He obtained his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, was a postdoctoral fellow at Imperial College of London, the University of Copenhagen, and University of Michigan.

Dr. Eleanor Sterling is Chief Conservation Scientist at the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. She has over thirty years of international field research and community outreach experience in terrestrial and marine systems.

Dr. Eugenia (Genia) Naro-Maciel is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Liberal Studies at New York University and a graduate of Yale University. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology from Columbia University. She has co-authored numerous educational materials on protected areas and biodiversity conservation.

Neeraj Sakhrani is a rising sophomore at Columbia University planning to major in mathematics and pre-medicine. Accompanying his academic pursuits, Sakhrani is an associate editor for the Journal of Global Health.