Asher Miller is the Executive Director of Post Carbon Institute and was the former Manager of the organization's Relocalization Network. He has thirteen years of nonprofit management experience, including as founder of Climate Changers, an organization that inspires people to reduce their impact on the climate by focusing on simple and achievable actions anyone can take. Previously, he was Partnership Director at Plugged In; International Production Coordinator at Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation; Youth Manager at the Volunteer Center of Sonoma County; a ghostwriter; and a consultant for a number of other nonprofit groups. Asher also serves on the board of Listening for a Change, and on the Advisory Board of ErthNxt. He also recently served as a member of Senator John Edwards' Cleantech / Green Business Advisory Committee. Asher received his B.A. in English, Creative Writing from The Colorado College.

Dave Room is black man of mixed origin born raised in Berkeley and living in Oakland. He has connected to several communities: the Bay Area, people of color, and eco-sustainability.  His daughter is his inspiration, and the reason he is here.  Dave was a founding board member and helped build Post Carbon Institute from its infancy.  Dave went on to co-found Bay Localize, a public benefit organization focused on localization in the Bay Area and coordinates the Local Clean Energy Alliance. He founded the Hubbert Tribute, which educates policy makers about peak oil and researches energy policy history. Dave does solo performance theater (The Monkey Trap) and Green Pill Workshops to awaken and activate mainstream audiences, people of color, and youth.  He coined "Energy Preparedness" and was on the Oil Independent Oakland by 2020 task force.

Advisors

Raven Gray is the co-founder and past President of Transition US. She is a pioneer of the Transition Towns movement in the UK, having set up the world’s 2nd Transition Initiative after Totnes. Her professional background is diverse, ranging from ecovillage educator in India, to organic dairy farmer and community arts organizer in the UK, to software entrepreneur in California. Fundamentally, she is a permaculture educator and activist, with a strong commitment to environmental, social and economic sustainability. Jennifer has dedicated her life to restoring the earth’s balance, and is a frequent speaker and writer on this topic and the urgent need for transition. She received a BA in Culture, Ecology and Sustainable Community from New College, California, and an MSc in Holistic Science: Ecological Education from Schumacher College in the UK.

Richard Heinberg is author of ten books, including The Party’s Over, Peak Everything, and the soon-to-be-released The End of Growth, Richard Heinberg is widely regarded as one of the world’s most effective communicators of the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels. With a wry, unflinching approach based on facts and realism, Richard exposes the tenuousness of our current way of life and offers a vision for a truly sustainable future. Senior Fellow-in-Residence at Post Carbon Institute, Richard is best known as a leading educator on Peak Oil—the point at which we reach maximum global oil production—and the resulting, devastating impact it will have on our economic, food, and transportation systems. But his expertise is far ranging, covering critical issues including the current economic crisis, food and agriculture, community resilience, and global climate change. Richard’s latest book, The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality makes a compelling argument that the global economy has reached a fateful, fundamental turning point. As energy and food prices escalate and debt levels explode, paths that formerly led to economic expansion now go nowhere. The “recession” will not end in a “recovery,” yet in the coming years we can still thrive—if we maximize happiness rather than the futile pursuit of growth at any cost. Richard is a much sought-after speaker and has presented in dozens of countries and across the United States. He’s featured in many documentaries, including End of Suburbia and Leonardo DiCaprio’s film 11th Hour. Richard has appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America, Canadian Broadcasting Television, BBC, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and Al Jazeera, as well as numerous radio programs (national NPR) and print publications (Time magazine). He lives in northern California with his wife and is an avid violin player.

Rob Hopkins is the originator of the Transition concepts and co-founder of the Transition Network. He spent many years teaching permaculture and cob building, mostly when living in Ireland. Now based in Totnes, he is a member of Transition Town Totnes, works part time for Transition Network, publishes www.transitionculture.org, is author of the ‘Transition Handbook’ and generally spends far too much time thinking about Transition stuff. He is also a Trustee of the Soil Association. Rob is a family man with 4 sons, Rowan, Finn, Cian and Arlo, and is deeply in love with the raised beds he just finished building.

Peter Lipman  is policy director at sustainable transport charity Sustrans and is particularly proud of their DIY Streets project. He’s also a part time lawyer and chair of trustees of the Centre for Sustainable Energy.

Vicki Robin is well-known as the co-author with Joe Dominguez of the international best-seller, Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence. The Wall Street Journal, Money, Woman's Day, Newsweek, Utne Magazine and the New York Times, and newspapers around the world have reported on her work on lowering consumption in North America. Vicki served on the President's Council on Sustainable Development's Task Force on Population and Consumption. She is also co-founder of the New Road Map Foundation, the Center for a New American Dream, Sustainable Seattle, Conversation Cafes, the Simplicity Forum, the Turning Tide Coalition, Let’s Talk America, and currently Transition Whidbey which is seeking to catalyze the community on Whidbey Island to greater food, fuel, energy and economic self-reliance in light of predicted impacts of oil depletion and climate change.
 

Karen Lanphear is a co-founder of the Sandpoint Transition Initiative. She believes that the power of education and the strength of building strong community coalitions can really change the world. She has worked the entire spectrum of education from setting up early childhood education programs to helping design a community college system in the Middle East. Karen has worked to develop and coordinate community coalitions, co-authored 3 travel books and had the good fortune to travel most of the world. She knows there are many ways to do things and that each community has an enormous pool of talent and power that can be unleashed when people start working together on a common vision, and start harnessing their resources to move in a new direction. 

Timothy DenHerder-Thomas is a co-founder of Grand Aspirations, and is committed to unleashing the potential of a generation of leaders helping communities create integrated solutions to climate change, the energy crisis, economic stagnation, social injustice, and community fragmentation. Through Grand Aspirations, he has helped support teams of youth innovators nationwide to create green economic opportunity for themselves and their communities through energy efficiency, green industry, sustainable food, transit access, and clean energy. Timothy graduated from Macalester College, where he helped secure bold carbon neutrality policy and pioneer the Clean Energy Revolving Fund (CERF), which supports self-financing sustainability projects. From there, he launched Cooperative Energy Futures, a cooperative that uses the power of community to create economic opportunity through energy efficiency, and recently helped form the Our Power campaign to expand access to energy efficiency and clean energy in South Minneapolis. Timothy, now 25, has served on the Steering Committee of the Energy Action Coalition, a national coalition of organizations working to empower youth people to lead a clean energy future.