Special Honored Guest
Supreme Master Ching Hai

World Renowned Humanitarian & Constructive Media Pioneer

Supreme Master Ching Hai is an humanitarian award laureate, best selling author, and visionary pioneer in constructive global satellite television. As a world renowned humanitarian, spiritual leader, and accomplished artist, Supreme Master Ching Hai has been an inspiration for millions of people around the world. Her humanitarian efforts on every continent over the last two decades have been legendary. A modern citizen of the world, Supreme Master Ching Hai has tirelessly traveled to every continent giving free public lectures on compassionate living and devoted spiritual practice to millions of truth seekers. In 2006, she was awarded with the Gusi Peace Prize in in the Philippines in a grand ceremony recognizing outstanding achievements in multiple disciplines. Her recent books, "The Dogs in My Life", "The Birds in My Life" and "The Noble Wilds" have all become international bestsellers overnight. Always a champion of the rights for all beings to live in peace and harmony, her campaigns to promote a healthy vegan lifestyle and to stop the effects of climate change have mobilized millions of people to act for the greater good of all life.

Awards

• Certificate of Commendation from the 9th Annual Los Angeles Music Week and the City of Los Angeles
• 1st Place Award at the 27th Annual Telly Awards for "The Peace Seeker"
• GUSI Peace Prize Laureate

Master of Ceremony
Jane Velez-Mitchell

Television News Journalist

Jane Velez-Mitchell has reported for "Celebrity Justice" (2002) since its launch in 2002. She is now often seen on CNN, FOX News, MSNBC and other national cable shows commenting on various high-profile cases.

Velez-Mitchell previously spent more than a decade anchoring and reporting for KCAL-TV in Los Angeles. She also served as a reporter for eight years at WCBS-TV in New York City. Additionally, Velez-Mitchell spent years as a TV journalist in Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Fort Myers, Florida.

Velez-Mitchell is a recipient of a Los Angeles Emmy Award and shared a New York area Emmy Award. Her KCAL-TV newscasts won four Southern California Golden Mike Awards and an Emmy. She also wrote, directed and produced "Dancing Through Life", an award-winning documentary. While working at "Celebrity Justice" (2002), Velez-Mitchell's reporting earned the show two Genesis Awards from the Humane Society of the United States.

Keynote Speaker
Howard Lyman

President of Voice For A Viable Future

A rancher turned vegan and activist, he was sued by the Cattleman's Association along with Oprah Winfrey when he was on her show telling the truth about Mad Cow Disease and they both won. His book, Mad Cowboy, is a bestseller. He has been traveling the globe year-round since 1991, speaking on health, environment & animal issues.

His recent work focuses on the extra-economic demands farmers face and how these new demands are embodied in governance forms and institutions that impact production practices, communities, and sustainability.

Has spoken on radio stations in over 200 countries; appeared on television shows viewed by over two million people; and I have spoken to thousands of groups--from small audiences to an assembly of over 25,000 people at the EarthDay celebration in Oakland, California. The message is always the same; If there is to be a bright future for our children and grandchildren, it will come from consumer support of producers who work in concert with nature -- organically, sustainably, and humanely.

Awards

• Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award in Sherborn, MA on April 12, 1997.

Speakers:
Dr. Will Tuttle

Author of "The World Peace Diet"

Author of The World Peace Diet: Eating For Spiritual Health (Lantern Books). An animal rights and peace activist and writer for 20 years; vegan for 28 years. Co-founder of The Prayer Circle for Animals, and Circle of Compassion ministry. Has delivered hundreds of lectures and seminars throughout North America, for universities, colleges, churches, vegetarian societies, human potential conferences, and environmental organizations. On Board of Advisors of EarthSave International, and writes bimonthly column, “Food for Thought” for VegNews magazine.

Ph.D. in education from Univ. of California at Berkeley, focusing on educating intuition & altruism. Has taught college courses in philosophy, humanities, mythology, creativity, & comparative religion. Zen priest and Dharma Master in the Korean Zen tradition.

Currently conducting a music, art, and education ministry with his wife, Madeleine, a visionary artist from Switzerland. Devoted to providing uplifting and healing original music, and to helping people awaken their inner wisdom and kindness. Has created 7 CDs of original piano music, and presented concerts throughout North America and Europe.

Awards

• Recipient of The Peace Abbey's Courage of Conscience Award for writing The World Peace Diet..

Dr. Gurminder Singh

Co-Chairman of Green Technology Institute

Gurminder Singh is noted authority on finance, enterprise, business and technology development. Gurminder is a technologist and has broad business experience developing practical applications and strategies for various companies in technology and enterprise development.

In the area of green technologies, presently providing consulting services to various biofuels production company in it’s capital raising efforts, developing strategic partnerships, global joint ventures, biofuels wholesale and retail distribution strategies.

As Co-Chairman Green Technology Institute, a initiative of the Tom Bradley Legacy Foundation at UCLA, www.tombradleylegacy.org, he is working with the Board of the Foundation to launch various programs such as the Green Technology Leadership Lecture Series, the Green Technology Entrepreneurial Forum, the Green Technology Global CEO Conference.

Dr. Singh is the nephew of the Prime Minister of India and of Yogi Bhajan.

Awards

• LA Mayor Award
• California Governor Award

Dr. Jim Stewart

Co-Chair of Global Warming for Sierra Club Angeles Chapter

Jim Stewart earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Nuclear Physics from Yale University, plus an M.S. in Urban Studies from the University of Southern Connecticut. He was formerly Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of New Haven and did research in nuclear and chemical physics. He has also had positions as the Executive Director of the Connecticut Human Services Reorganization Commission and of the Connecticut United Labor Agency and Associate Director of the Southern California Council on Environment and Development.

Currently, Jim is Executive Director of People for Parks. He also is Organizing Director for Earth Day Los Angeles, as well as Chief Environmental Scientist for Best Technology Company. He serves on the Technical Advisory Committee for the Southern California Regional Transportation Plan. He is co-chair of the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter Global Warming, Energy and Air Quality Committee. In addition, he teaches Physical Science and Biology at the University of the West.

Sierra Club has over 800,000 members.

Professor Ryan Galt

Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis

Galt is a trained geographer whose interests include agriculture, economic development, political ecology, and environmental conservation with a regional focus on the Americas, the Midwest, and California.

His recent work focuses on the extra-economic demands farmers face and how these new demands are embodied in governance forms and institutions that impact production practices, communities, and sustainability.

Author of “Regulatory Risk and Farmers’ Caution with Pesticides in Costa Rica.

Professor Galt is a vegetarian.

Lionel Friedberg

Producer & Director of "A Sacred Duty"

Is a documentary film director who has written or produced films for Animal Planet, CBS, PBS, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel and National Geographic. He has 18 credits as Director of Photography, and has worked all over the world on both dramatic and nonfiction productions.

For the past 25 years, he has specialized in non-fiction series episodes and single shows. He is a vegetarian and active in the animal welfare movement.

Partial filmography:

• A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal the World (2007)
• The Shape of Life (TV documentary series) (2002)
• The Blue Planet: Seas of Life, Part 1 "Ocean World" (2001)

Awards

• 2006: Silver Screen Award - World on a String - The Sacred Bead
• 2005: Cine golden Eagle Award - World on a String - The Eternal Bead
• 2005: Silver Screen Award World on a String - The Eternal Bead
• 1997: Golden Eagle Award The Bible's Greatest Mysteries (Supervising Producer)

Dr. Elliott Katz

President of In Defense of Animals

A graduate of Cornell University's School of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Katz founded in 1983, In Defense of Animals (IDA). has long been at the forefront of the fight for animal rights. The organization has grown into one of the foremost international animal advocacy organizations with over 85,000 members worldwide.

Headquartered in Northern California, it has offices throughout the United States and branches in India and Africa. Their efforts over the years have resulted in some exceptional accomplishments and achievements both at home and abroad. Some of their victories include:

• Liberating 40 dolphins off the coast of Japan when IDA investigator Ben White swam underwater to cut the nets that imprisoned them.
• Closing the infamous Coulston Foundation, once the largest chimpanzee research center in the world, saving hundreds of chimpanzees and monkeys from the horrors of vivisection.
• Securing the transfer of eleven bonnet macaque monkeys the subjects of cruel alcoholism and maternal separation experiments at the University of Colorado to a Texas sanctuary.
• Preventing the U.S. Army from breaking the legs of 120 retired racing greyhounds.
• Closing down puppy mills, dog fighting rings and abusive sanctuaries and shelters saving the lives of thousands upon thousands of animals.
• Saving the lives of hundreds of Catalina Island goats and buffalo.
• Creating a chimpanzee sanctuary and education center in Cameroon, Africa and a sanctuary for abused and abandoned animals in rural Mississippi.
• Freeing 180 beagles scheduled to be dissected by UC Davis veterinary students.
• Spearheading the rescue of hundreds of dogs and cats after a devastating "firestorm" swept through the Oakland/Berkeley hills, destroying more than 3,500 homes.
• Preventing the bow hunting of Tule elk at the Point Reyes National Seashore.
• Canceling a proposed slaughter of thousands of baby seals off the coast of South Africa.
• Ending NYU's crack cocaine experiments on monkeys, Rockefeller University's vomiting experiments on cats, and Michael Berens' brain cancer experiments on Beagle puppies.
• Coordinating hundreds of protests and nonviolent civil disobedience actions including sit-ins, lock downs and banner hangings.
• Convincing fifteen U.S. cities, two counties and one state to officially recognize their citizens as animal 'guardians' by incorporating the term into their city ordinances.
• Blocking the construction of an animal research facility within the National Park system.
• Pressuring the San Francisco Zoo to transfer its elephants to a sanctuary.
• www.idausa.org

Awards

• IDA The group has received numerous honors and accolades over the years for its achievements in the field of animal protection, the most significant of which was Katz's induction into the Animal Rights Hall of Fame in 2003, twenty years after he founded IDA.

Dr. Gabriel Cousens

Founder of Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center

Gabriel Cousens, M.D., M.D.(H), D.D. (Doctor of Divinity), Diplomate American Board of Holistic Medicine, Diplomate Ayurveda, a physician of the soul, teaches and lives the sevenfold peace. To the process of awakening and healing, Gabriel Cousens, M.D., M.D.(H), weaves a background as a holistic physician, medical researcher, world-recognized live-food nutritionist, psychiatrist, family therapist, homeopath, Pastoral Rebbe, acupuncturist, Ayurvedic practitioner, expert on green juice spiritual fasting and detoxification fasting, ecological leader, Reiki master, internationally celebrated spiritual teacher, author, lecturer, culture-bridger, world peaceworker, to give a unique holistic approach to nurturing the hungry soul.

As part of service, Gabriel Cousens, M.D., M.D.(H) has published research in Journal of Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, Psychopharamacology, School Health, and Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine. He is author of the books Spiritual Nutrition: Six Foundations for Spiritual Life and the Awakening of Kundalini; Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine; Conscious Eating; Depression-Free for Life; Tachyon Energy; Sevenfold Peace; Spiritual Nutrition and the Rainbow Diet; Creating Peace by Being Peace: An Essene Sevenfold Path, and There Is a Cure for Diabetes.

John Raatz

Founder Visioneering Group and Global Alliance for Transformational Entertainment

John Raatz and his Visioneering Group have been championing transformational and Enlightened Media longer than just about anyone. They celebrated their 20th year anniversary in 2008 and in the context of films, they started promoting enligthened films and marketing them back in 1991 with movies like MindWalk, Baraka, A Brief History of Time, What the BLEEP, the Secret, The Celestine Prophecy, Peaceful Warrior, The 11th hour, Eckhart Tolle’s latest film and more.

They have helped with Oprah’s webcast with Eckhart Tolle for A New Earth and are also producing a webcast for Unity with Deepak Chopra and the theme will be his new book, The Third Jesus. He is also working on promoting and releasing a film called The Big Question, about forgiveness. Among others, Deepak Chopra, Thich Nhat Hahn and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, which will be coming out later this year.

In his own words ‘transformational media is the word “wholeness” because, to me, spirituality is characterized by wholeness.

Transformational movies like independent films at never picked up by large studio for distribution, so you can’t acquire a transformational film today and release it two or three months later in the usual and customary fashion. A transformational film requires word of mouth and word of mouth takes awhile to build. It’s the kind of thing that you need a minimum, a bare minimum of three, four, five, months lead time to prep the market; to develop the market; to inform the market; to inspire the market, they require word of mouth and word of mouth takes awhile to build.

Scott Badenoch

Chief Executive Officer of Creative Citizen

Scott is a dedicated social entrepreneur with expertise in a variety of areas, namely understanding of the green market, business strategy, legal analysis, communications and conducting negotiations. Scott is a leader in the green community as a member of the steering committee for Green Business Networking, a group with over 800 green business leaders, and BALLE’s LA chapter (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies). He has also developed many strategic relationships for Creative Citizen, John Picard & Associates, one of the preeminent leaders in the green industry, Rocky Mountain Institute, Wiser Earth and Conservation Value. Scott is a visionary and evangelist for the green movement, driving the market to greater heights through business solutions.

Creative Citizen is an online source for sharing creative solutions to achieve global effects. The site focuses on five metrics for savings: Water, money, emissions, electricity, and waste (i.e. trash). As users agree to follow very solutions, the savings accrue on their profile to show their total savings.