Noel Dakar Dickinson’s work promotes understanding of the importance of breadfruit, called “‘ulu” in Hawaiian. Grown in nearly 90 countries as a staple crop, breadfruit is a culturally significant source of sustenance and a symbol of food security, community and connection to place. Noel’s work at the Breadfruit Institute of the National Tropical Botanical Garden includes research, community outreach and conservation efforts. Through her advocacy and study of agroforestry techniques related to ‘ulu, Noel is building the case that breadfruit can help enhance year-round food security efforts, regenerate soil health, and contribute to local and global food sustainability. Noel has hands-on skills learned on her family’s Waikahe Farms, and she has trained volunteers and schoolchildren on how to cultivate and grow small-scale agroforests. Efforts like Noel’s — and the Regenerative Organic Breadfruit Agroforest — aim to promote and reestablish breadfruit as a staple food. This community action could help reduce Hawai‘i’s dependence on the mainland U.S. by promoting increased local food production and sustainability. Noel’s work aligns with traditional Hawaiian values of environmental stewardship and respect for nature. In Hawaiian culture, ‘ulu trees represent abundance and sharing. Sharing breadfruit was, and still is, a way to express hospitality in the spirit of aloha, the Hawaiian values of love, compassion and communal harmony. For more information on her work, visit www.breadfruit.org and www.waikahefarms.com.

Ankita Raturi practices community-engaged research, participatory design, and open source software engineering to improve resilience and sustainability in food and farming systems. Through collaborations with farmers, policymakers, scientists and workers, Ankita co-creates responsible, accessible and inclusive digital tools that help to improve and balance economic, social and environmental sustainability. Her formative decades in Kenya, Papua New Guinea, Australia and Fiji shaped her thinking of food systems, agriculture, ecologies and technology as place-based and interconnected commons. Her academic training as a software engineer, with emphasis on human-computer interaction, has informed how she thinks about appropriate technology, including the long-term value of utility, openness, usability, interoperability and maintenance of software. Her experiences with food, agriculture and technology communities across the United States has grounded her approach to better digital tools for managing agro-ecological complexity. Ankita is an assistant professor of agricultural informatics at Purdue University, where she’s run the Agricultural Informatics Lab since 2019. She collaborates with cross-cutting communities of practice (e.g., small farmers, food coordinators, agricultural researchers). Together, they identify and prioritize research problems in digitally mediated work such as crop planning, environmental assessment, food policy making and knowledge management. Ankita and her collaborators develop digital tools for small farms, decision-support tools for regenerative agriculture, human-centered and ecologically oriented design methods, and practice community-led data and technology stewardship. As a professor, Ankita develops open courseware to help cultivate computational skills and design thinking among students and community stakeholders, and she facilitates student engagement in environmental and social good projects. In her broader work, Ankita advocates for responsible, accessible and inclusive digital tools in partnership with farmers, researchers, coders and allies. In 2018, she co-founded the Gathering for Open Ag Tech, a space to build consensus and cultivate relationships across multiple aligned visions for the future. For more information about her work, visit https://aginformaticslab.org/ and https://goatech.org/.

Nisha Bansil is a glass sculptor, artist and educator exploring how remnants of phenomenological events found in nature relate to patterns that become ubiquitous, sacred and divine. Bansil builds devices to render invisible, natural forces, like sound waves and motion, into visual forms in glass.

Combining wheel throwing, hand-building and surface adornment, including carving, glazing and finials, Said pushes the physical limits of clay while engaging, respecting and building upon a lineage of Egyptian pottery.

Kristyn Leach is a farmer, dedicated seed saver and Korean-American adoptee based in Sebastopol, Calif. In addition to her work at Namu Farm and nonprofit stewardship of Second Generation Seeds, Kristyn built a nationwide network of growers preserving biodiversity in seeds, as well as the cultural heritage and stories captured in plants such as perilla, chili peppers, beans, melons, gourds and more. Kristyn is building an ecosystem that is culturally, regionally and ethnically diverse, because it mirrors the biodiversity necessary for all natural systems to thrive. Kristyn’s work is both deeply rooted in her ancestry and forward looking across the country to create a culturally diverse and climate-resilient food future. Her collaborations include work with various chefs, restaurants and community organizations, as well as local aunties, elders and young people. At the core of this work is a belief that seeds can catalyze the meaningful relationships needed to repair and invigorate ecosystems. For more information on work, please visit www.secondgenerationseeds.com.

Cristina Córdova is a figurative ceramics sculptor inspired by the rich ceramic heritage of the Caribbean. Using clay to give voice to regional stories and aesthetic inquiries, Córdova strives to honor and innovate within this ceramic lineage, expanding collective creative language.

Femeika Elliott promotes food health and reproductive justice in Knoxville, Tennessee. She is recreating the food landscape with the community to increase access for those who need it most and expanding the perinatal landscape in Black maternal health. Femeika shares resources that help community members grow food, holistically maintain health and build resilience. Femeika founded health foods brand Meik Meals in 2019, the in-home nourishment Lotus Program in 2022, and the food and land-justice collective Rooted East Knoxville in 2022. Her background in whole foods education, sacred medicine, ancestral practice and social work inform her work and service in her community. Passionate about health, food justice and Black equity, Femeika is committed to women’s health and preservation of culture and ancestry. Through her activism and role as founder of the Knoxville Black Maternal Health Conference, she has championed maternal health statewide. By establishing community gardens and mobilizing resources, Femeika has helped increase access to fresh, healthy food for East Knoxville residents. This is crucial in areas where access to nutritious food is limited. In addition to her systems-level work, Femeika provides day-to-day insight and supports food education and wellness programs that teach people how to transform everyday dishes into healthy masterpieces using fresh ingredients. Her work encourages healthy dietary habits and promotes overall well-being to encourage Black health, liberation and restoration. For more information on her work, visit www.thelotusprogramexperience.org and www.rootedeastknox.com.

Thea Alvin is a stone mason and sculptor specializing in arch construction, large-scale sculptural installation, stone building, and, most recently, stained glass, building on her unique style and perspective of stonework, design, installation, team leadership and teaching in the trades.

Corrales’ research focuses on fungal ecology with an emphasis on how underground fungal systems fuel the well-being of woody species and tropical ecosystems.

Raul De Lara is a sculptor who practices storytelling through woodworking, exploring Mexican/American iconography, queer identity and the immigrant experience. De Lara’s research preserves, honors and propels forward traditional uses of wood while combining them with new developments in the global industry of woodworking.

Crystal Manuel’s work on her family’s multi-generational organic farm inspired her to champion ancient grains for physical, mental and emotional well-being. Working with the ancient grain farro, Crystal cracks the grain and turns it into nutrient-rich grits — and encourages recipe sharing and grit-togethers.   Crystal is founder of Gruff, a regenerative, organic-certified, ancient-grain grits company based in Havre, Montana. Founded in 2022, Gruff shares farro in a new form. Usually consumed as a berry or flour, farro is cracked and turned into nutrient-rich grits. The grain comes from her family’s ranch, Prairie Grass Ranch, an organic and multigenerational farm where Crystal and her husband Jody grow heritage grains and legumes, including lentils, chickpeas, peas, alfalfa and sainfoin sweet clover, as well as organic grass-fed beef.  Crystal and her business partner innovated and designed Gruff through hands-on cooking and working with farmers to help consumers learn about holistic nutrition and foods grown regeneratively. Gruff encourages consumers to collaborate and experiment with farro by offering recipes, idea exchanges and grit-togethers.  For more information on her work, visit www.gruffgrains.com.

Flavia Montaño-Centellas is a community ecologist whose research focuses on how changes in species interaction across environmental gradients — things such as elevation changes and human disturbance — lead to changes in biodiversity.

Timothy J. Colston’s integrative approach to science has far-reaching implications that span across disciplines. He is an evolutionary biologist focused on the diversity, ecology and conservation of amphibians and reptiles.

Eiseman recognizes there is much to observe but little time or funding for scientists to do so.

Wang studies the biodiversity of the Himalayan-Hengduan Mountains. At Mount Gongga, high in the Himalaya of eastern Tibet, Wang has studied the ecological interactions between ghost moth caterpillars and the Ophiocordyceps fungus that parasitizes them.