PRESENTED BY DEEP ROOTS

Dana Ripper

Executive Director, Missouri River Bird Observatory

Luke and Linda Black Elk

Food Sovereignty Activists, Teachers

Erin Presley

Horticulturalist, Olbrich Botanical Gardens

Mike Saxton

Manager of Ecological Restoration & Land Stewardship, Shaw Nature Reserve thru December 2025, Executive Director, Nachusa Grasslands January 2026

Camille Dungy

Award Winning Poet, Acclaimed Essayist & Critic

Brad Guhr

Education / Prairie Restoration / Concert Series Coordinator

Elizabeth Steele

Sales & Marketing, Hamilton Native Outpost

Kristen Baum

Director of Monarch Watch, Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Kate Austin

Green Infrastructure Asset Coordinator

Dr. Liz Koziol

Assistant Research Professor, University of Kansas, co-founder MycoBloom

Eric Eaton

Author

Dr. Gerardo Camilo

Professor, Department of Biology, Saint Louis University

Dr. Abigail Derby Lewis

Executive Director, Citizens for Conservation

Rita Cunha

Native Seed Technician, Conservation Blueprint

Shannon Currey

Education & Outreach, Izel Native Plants

Jesse Nippert

Grassland Ecologist, Konza Prairie Biological Station; University Distinguished Professor, Kansas State University

Julie Copley

Fire & Stewardship Coordinator, The Nature Conservancy - Missouri

Danae Wolfe

Conservation Photographer, Writer, and TEDx speaker

Stacy Passmore

Principal and Co-Founder, Superbloom, a Denver-based Landscape Architecture firm