·      A local indigenous perspective on these fires

·      Creating a coalition to galvanize community voice and place equity at the center of recovery

·      Launching a decentralized and community-powered emergency response system

·      Creating a grassroots justice and resilience fund to raise and distribute funds

·      Mobilizing across government, business and community for watershed protection

·      Addressing the mental health challenges that come with crisis

·      Re-landscaping the rebuild with a permaculture lens and community-powered approach

Speakers include:

·      Ana Lugo, co-founder of Soco Rises and Director of Communications for Community Action Partnership

·      Alegria De La Cruz – Chief Deputy Counsel for Sonoma County

·      Edward Willie – Pomo tribe, permaculturist and fire ecologist

·      Chris Grabill – Board of Directors at Sonoma County Conservation Action and Santa Rosa Board of Public Utilities

·      Kerry Fugett – Manager of Leadership Institute and Resilient Hubs Program at Daily Acts and member of the Sonoma county Climate Action Advisory Committee

·      Trathen Heckman – Executive Director at Daily Acts and Board member of Transition U.S. and California Water Efficiency Partnership

Ellen Bauer is the Public Health Division Director for the Sonoma County Department of Health Services.  Prior to this assignment, she was the founding manager of Health Action, a coalition of diverse community leaders convened by the Health Department to identify priority health issues in Sonoma County and to offer leadership to implement initiatives and policies to create a healthier community.  Before coming to Sonoma County, Dr. Bauer had over 20 years of experience designing and implementing national and community-level health program evaluations.  She has led research and evaluation on a wide range of health issues, including implementation and outcomes (quality, utilization and cost) of managed Medicaid for both acute and long-term care services.  She earned a BA in Economics from Stanford, a Masters of Public Policy, Graduate School of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley, and a Ph.D., Health Services and Policy Analysis, University of California at Berkeley.  She was also awarded several pre- and post-doctoral fellowships from the National Institute on Aging and the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.

2016 Convergence Panel: Grassroots & Government: Collaborations to Grow the Movement

Sunday, September 18th | 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM | Main Stage

Oscar works for the Sonoma County Department of Human Services. Prior to joining the County, Oscar served as the Executive Director of the Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County, one of the largest community benefit organizations in Northern California. Oscar has dedicated himself to establishing strong and positive ties between the county’s low wealth neighborhoods, public entities and the business community in order to raise awareness about the growing education, health and income disparities that exist in our communities. He is equally committed to finding solutions that get at the root cause of poverty.

Friday Oct 6| 7:30pm| Main Stage

Cultivating Unity in a Divided World