Dale Walkonen

Dale Walkonen is the Executive Producer and host of FacingFuture.TV. She was formerly the New York State lobbyist for American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and an Adjunct Professor of Communications at Concordia College, Sacred Heart University, College of New Rochelle. A playwright and poet, her work focuses on environmental themes.

Dale has a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MA at Boston University in writing.

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Mike Coe

Mike Coe was formerly a news cameraman and field editor for ITV, a national television network in the UK. His increasing concern about the environment led to the creation of The Autonomous House – an influential low-impact Passivhaus self-build project in the English Midlands.

He attended COP 21 in Paris at the invitation of Stuart Scott. Realizing the possibility of rapid climate breakdown, he moved north to the Isle of Skye in Scotland, where he built an ultra low energy home, where he now lives with his partner, Lizzie.

Mike is also involved in music production,  mixing and mastering projects. He was a partner in a small specialist record label. He has an engineering degree from Cardiff University (Wales) and is a member of the Institute of Professional Sound.

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Sheila Laffey

Sheila Laffey, Ph.D. is an award winning producer/director of films, mostly on the environment, several of which are distributed by Green Planet Films. Laffey teaches Film Studies at Santa Monica College where her focus has been films on the Environment and Transformation, She was Program Co-ordinator for the National Audubon Society, Hawaii State Office for Paradise Pursuits and the Alien Species Alert Program (ASAP). She earned a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from NYU.

As a certified Nature Therapy Guide Sheila enjoys the great outdoors where she does not grade the trees or fellow trailer walkers.

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Heidi Brault

Heidi Brault is the COP28 Team Lead and the Designated Contact Point (DCP) for the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE). Heidi is also a key member of the Web Team. She had a career in the Library & Information field as a Library & Metadata Technician and has taught English as a Second Language. She has a BA in Psychology from Carleton University, a Library & Information Technician Diploma from Algonquin College, and is also a Climate Reality Leader. She has been deeply involved in climate activism since 2018.

Based in Magog, Quebec, Canada, Heidi lives with her husband and co-team member, Charles Gregoire. They enjoy tandem cycling and travelling.

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Cynthia Riddle

Cynthia Riddle chairs the Facing Future Core Team meetings. She had a long career in film production and is the founder of the Sustainable Future Committee at the Director's Guild of America. Cynthia launched the Healthy Children-Healthy Planet program in the Los Angeles Unified School District in 1998, introducing children to organic gardening and healthy eating.

She has an MA in Communications and Film from the University of Texas and is a lifelong environmentalist.

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Charles Gregoire

Charles is the Webmaster and provides general IT support for the team. He is the COP28 Tech Team Lead. Charles is a Climate Reality Leader with a background in engineering. He has a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Brunswick and worked in the high tech field for over twenty years as an electrical engineer and a manager. He is also a musician and entertains in seniors residences and nursing homes.

Based in Magog, Quebec, Canada, Charles lives with his wife and co-team member, Heidi Brault.

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Raya Salter

Raya Salter is an attorney, educator and clean energy policy expert with a focus on energy and climate justice. Raya is a member of the New York State Climate Action Council, the body that is developing the plan to implement the nation's leading climate law.

Ms. Salter is an experienced advocate, having practiced energy law and regulation in multiple jurisdictions, including New York and Hawaii. She is an adjunct professor at Cardozo Law School and the author of "Energy Justice" (Edward Elgar, 2018). Her web site is www.rayasalter.com.

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Glenn Goodwin

Glenn Goodwin is the Lead Video Editor and a host for Facing Future.TV. He is a British Freelance Creative Director based in Barcelona, Spain. He has worked in Branding for a number of years. He has just produced a mobile APP called kitchin.app which helps people in their kitchens manage their food and prevent Food Waste.

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Dagmar Zimdahl

Marli is the prime editor of auto-generated English subtitles of FF.Earth videos and liaison with a team of volunteer translators who keep translating the latest videos into Spanish, Dutch, French, Slovenian and other languages. She had a 32 year career at National Semiconductor Corp in 3 different countries, working as a senior business systems analyst in her last assignment.

She has a diploma and state exam in translating English-German/German-English, has been a 99% vegetarian since 2019 and is supporting sustainable living, making small changes every day. 

Based in San Jose, California, she is spending a good amount of time in a communal Greenhouse & Garden project (with produce going to a local food bank), is an active member of a local Lions club and is working with a team which is exploring Earthquake forecast methods.

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Dr. Peter Carter

Peter Carter, M.D. is a retired family and emergency physician with a background in environmental health protection policy. He is an IPCC reviewer, and co-author of Unprecendented Crime: Climate Science Denial and Game Changers for Survival.

As a founding director of CAPE (Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment) and, more recently, as founder of the Climate Emergency Institute, Peter has presented on sustainable development, environmental health policy, biodiversity, and the climate and oceans emergency at international science and climate change conferences in Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia and South America.

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Paul Beckwith

Paul is a Climate System Scientist who has taught at the University of Ottawa in the Laboratory for Paleoclimatology, as well as at Carleton University. He has degrees in Engineering and Physics, and has also studied physics and climatology at the doctoral level. Without a doubt, Paul is one of the most prolific climate change educators on YouTube with more than 1,000 videos pertaining to climate science and extreme weather events.

Paul is based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, where he lives with his wife, Susan, and is also an avid chess player.

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Brian Wright

Brian Wright is formerly a founding director in the Natural Medicine field and in eco-materials projects. He has a long term involvement with Integral Philosophy and personal and social transformation toward facing the Global Crisis. Brian loves music, writing and walking in nature.

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Dwain Wilder

Dwain Wilder is a builder of stringed music instruments, poet and Zen Buddhist. He is also a long-time grass roots activist in civil rights, war, racism, social justice and the climate emergency.

For Facing Future, he leads the Library Team, which is creating an online public library for all Facing Future productions and publications and allied materials. Dwain and his fellow editor, Bart White, recently published "Civilization in Crisis: poetic responses to climate change," and other poetry anthologies.

He lives with his wife, their dog, cat and a large rowdy macaw, in a quaint cottage beside a large dark forest.

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Jordan Axelrad

Jordan is a grandparent of three children who will be growing up in a world imperiled by climate change, hence his involvement with FacingFuture.Earth. He is a retired educator who spent more than 30 years in the NYC school system as both a teacher and guidance counselor.

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David Immerman

David is a retired psychotherapist and mental health administrator, originally from New York City. He recently relocated to Sarasota, FL from Princeton, NJ. David’s original awareness of environmental issues developed from conversations he had with his mother at the age of 13 regarding Rachel Carson’s eye opening book entitled “Silent Spring”.

Most recently, he became engaged with Facing Future in 2020. He is the Coordinator of the Facing Future Library. He sees the issues of the Environmental Crisis in the context of human consciousness, economics and as a social justice problem.

He is also meaningfully engaged in a local collective organic garden that is applying the principles of conscious awareness with a commitment toward sustainability and providing food.

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Nora Stewart

Ecology, environment and the future of the world have always been important to Nora. Stuart Scott was a close friend of hers and introduced her to Facing Future. Her work with Facing Future includes reviewing documentaries and other core group work. She was also part of the Facing Future team at COP26.

She lives in the UK and is a member of her village council establishing a community farm in the village. She also maintains contact with Avaaz, XR, and Greenpeace.

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Tina Curran

Tina Curran is a retired early childhood educator, author, photographer and grandmother who lives in eastern Long Island NY. She has taught Tai Chi and Qigong for many years and is currently teaching Qigong classes on zoom, including one for Parkinson's patients.

She has been deeply grieving for many years about the state of our animals, forests and oceans, and works individually and collectively when possible to deepen our human understanding of our effect on our world.

Tina is associated with a number of local organizations' efforts to affect Climate Change, including the Southampton Arts Center, Hampton Bays' Ecological Cultural Initiative, and the UUCSF Green Action Committee, as well as the Shinnecock Indian Nation.

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Dr. Jem Bendell

Dr Jem Bendell is a full Professor of Sustainability Leadership at the University of Cumbria (part-time) as well as Founder of the Deep Adaptation Forum, co-Founder of the International Scholars’ Warning and publisher of the Deep Adaptation Quarterly.

He focuses on leadership and communications for social change, as well as approaches that may help humanity face climate-induced disruption. He is a singer-songwriter with the band Sambiloto. A longer biography is available on his website.

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