SPEAKERS
David Stover
David Stover is a Co-Founder of Bureo Inc, an emerging company focused on developing innovative solutions to prevent ocean plastic pollution. An avid surfer and environmental enthusiast, David has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and left behind a career in corporate finance when his global travels led him to the issues facing our ocean today. Currently residing in Los Angeles California, David splits time between Chile and the US and is actively involved in the global fight to prevent ocean plastic pollution.
Yanqi Luo
Yanqi (Grace) is the 1st year Ph.D. student in Nanoengineering Department, UC San Diego. She is currently working in Dr. David Fenning’s research group focusing on defects and interface engineering of inorganic and hybrid solar cells. Yanqi obtained her M.S. and B.S. from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in Chemistry and Polymers Science in 2014. After graduation, she worked in a silicon-based polymer synthesis company called Nusil LLC as a senior chemist.
Desmond Wheatley
Desmond Wheatley, president and CEO of Envision Solar International, Inc., teaches a LEED-accredited class on sustainability in parking and is a recognized industry leader in renewables and the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. He has a widely viewed TED talk and is frequently invited to chair and speak at industry events. Wheatley has two decades of senior international management experience in technologysystems integration, energy management, communications and renewable energy.
Professor Leslie Lewis
Leslie R Lewis, PhD, MPH, is a Lecturer in the Urban Studies & Planning Program, a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, and Director of the new Life Course Scholar Program at UC San Diego. Her research interests include the social, structural, and environmental determinants of health, health inequalities, critical medical anthropology, and community-based participatory action research. She is the Founder and Director of the Community Hope Project, a nonprofit, all-volunteer organization that partners with communities locally and internationally to create programs that foster hope, justice, peace, education, sustainable living, and human flourishing, as well as facilitate connections across constructed boundaries of race/ethnicity, gender, class, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, and (dis)ability.
Alden Hough
Alden has a BA in Earth Science from the University of California, Santa Cruz and later graduated from their internationally renowned Center for Agro-ecology and Sustainable Food Systems program. Following an extended period of travel in Asia, Alden found that traditional farming practices had been largely abandoned and replaced by the globalization of Western agriculture. This was a wake up call, seeing that even in the most remote areas of India, hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides were the norm. He began to dedicate his path to organic gardening practices, regenerating the soil, social justice, and acting as if the earth really matters. Since 2009 he has been the program director of Sky Mountain Permaculture a 7 acre permaculture and water harvesting demonstration site in Escondido, where he has taught thousands of people how to live more sustainably and regenerate the earth.
Jessica Pompa
Jessica Pompa was born and raised in the Eastern Coachella Valley, and is a fourth year Public Policy major at UC San Diego. Coming from an immigrant farmworker family, she was exposed to the injustices and disparities in rural, communities of color. This exposure inclined her to get informed and involved against unjust and unsustainable practices in rural, communities of color. She has been involved in organizations such as Building Healthy Communities, RAICES Cultura, The President’s Youth Council of the California Endowment, and the Born This Way Foundation. Currently, she is grateful for the opportunity to be part of the UC Global Food Initiative fellow. Her project is focused on building a community-Âuniversity partnership and networking effort focused around issues of food waste and reduction, with an emphasis on capacity building for youth organizers and leaders.