Ed Begley Jr.– Sunday, June 8th, 1:00pm
Book signing to follow.

When it comes to taking personal responsibility for the environment, few individuals can match the record of actor and activist Ed Begley, Jr. Known for turning up at Hollywood events on his bicycle, he has served as chairman of the Environmental Media Association and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. He serves on the boards of organizations including the Thoreau Institute, the Earth Communications Office, Tree People and Friends of the Earth. His work has earned awards from numerous environmental groups including the California League of Conservation Voters, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Coalition for Clean Air, Heal the Bay, the Santa Monica Baykeeper and the Southern California Gas Company. Currently, he is the co-star of the hit HGTV series Living with Ed, a look at the day-to-day realities of “living green” with his not so environmentalist wife Rachelle Carson. The series has currently just finished airing its 2^nd season.

Inspired by the works of his Academy Award-winning father, Begley became an actor. He first came to audiences’ attention for his portrayal of Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the long-running hit television series St. Elsewhere, for which he received six Emmy nominations. Since then, Begley has moved easily between feature films, television and theatre projects. Begley has appeared in A Mighty Wind, the follow-up to the American Comedy Award-winning film Best In Show starring Christopher Guest, Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy. He can also be seen in the most recent Christopher Guest film For Your Consideration. Other feature film credits include Batman Forever, The Accidental Tourist and The Inlaws. In 2008, Begley will have supporting roles in the theatrical comedy Pineapple Express penned by Seth Rogan, and the HBO feature Recount starring Kevin Spacey.

On television, Begley has had recurring roles on Six Feet Under and Arrested Development. He has also guest starred on such series as The West Wing and The Practice, in addition to David E. Kelly’s latest show Boston Legal. Most recently, Begley was featured in Veronica Mars and CSI: Miami.

Begley also starred in the West Coast premiere of David Mamet’s Cryptogram at the Geffen Playhouse, in a role that he first performed in Boston and then in New York. He also starred in Mr. Mamet’s production of Romance at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

This talented actor has also directed several episodes of the hit TV series NYPD Blue as well as a stage play that he wrote called Cesar and Ruben that won a Nos Otros Award and four Valley Theater League awards.

Begley lives in Studio City, CA in a small, energy efficient home with his wife and co-star Rachelle Carson and their daughter Hayden.

For more information, please visit:
www.livingwithed.net
www.fixingtheplanet.com
www.begleysbest.com

Will Durst– Saturday, June 7th, 1:00pm
Book signing to follow.

As the sacred cows routinely paint targets on their foreheads practically begging for someone to puncture their pomposity, America cries out for a man with the aim, strength, and style to hit them where it hurts the funniest. Will Durst is that man. Sweeping both sides of the aisle with a quiver full of arrows dipped in common sense, Durst transcends party ties, having performed at events honoring former Presidents Bill Clinton and George HW Bush as well as acclaimed appearances at both a Mayors Convention and Governors Conference.

Outraged and outrageous, Durst is as current as today’s headlines, as accurate as a sniper, and universally acknowledged by even his peers as the nation’s foremost political comic.

A Midwestern baby boomer with a media- induced identity crisis, Durst, according to the New York Times is “quite possibly the best political satirist working in the country today.” This equal opportunity offender is exceptionally adept at swatting both partisan political piñatas upside their heads.

Although a prolific writer, he professes little need for material, having it regularly delivered at 7:00 a.m. every morning in the five papers he reads daily. Busier than a blind squirrel neck deep in an almond sorting warehouse, Durst is a regular commentator for audible.com, Air America, CNN and NPR, writes a nationally syndicated op- ed column, daily website jokes—yet still finds time to perform hundreds of comedy shows every year—at clubs, corporate events, theaters and benefits…not to mention the occasional acting and voice-over role.

Reigning as C-SPAN’s favorite comic (8 appearances,) Durst is a 5-time Emmy nominee and recipient of 7 consecutive nominations for the American Comedy Awards Stand Up of the Year. He is the first comic invited to perform at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the first American to be nominated for the prestigious Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the show “Myth America.” He has racked up more than 400 television appearances in 14 different countries while slinging jokes around the globe in his one man crusade to make people laugh out loud on purpose against their will. Hobbies include the never-ending quest for the perfect cheeseburger, while his heroes remain the same as when he was twelve—Thomas Jefferson and Bugs Bunny.

Will Durst’s performances are made possible by the First Amendment.For more information, please visit:
www.willdurst.com

Saturday, June 7th

Margaret Bruce, Western Regional Director, The Climate Group
11:30am

The Climate Group is an International independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing business and government leadership on climate change. Margaret joined The Climate Group as Western Regional Director in April, 2008. In her current role, she convenes large multi-national corporations and governments to identify and resolve barriers to advancing a low-carbon economy.

Margaret also serves on the Board of Sustainable Silicon Valley, the San Lorenzo Valley Water Education Taskforce and the funding committee for the UC Santa Cruz “Expanding Your Horizons” conference for young women. Margaret has nearly 20 years of experience working with local industry, environmental, and regulatory agency leaders in developing innovative and effective solutions to the environmental issues facing Silicon Valley and California.

Margaret is a graduate of San Jose State University with a degree in Environmental Studies.

Robert Parkhurst, Climate Protection and Analysis Manager, Pacific Gas and Electric Company
2:30pm

His team is responsible for key aspects of the ClimateSmart™ program, a first-of-its-kind voluntary program that allows PG&E customers to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make their home or office energy use “carbon neutral.” Robert and his team will contract for at least 1.5 million tons of greenhouse gas emission reductions from the atmosphere.

Robert has a strong track record of promoting environmental issues in California. He was appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to the California Climate Action Registry Board of Directors. In May of 2007, Robert received a Climate Protection Award from the U.S. EPA for his leadership on climate change.

Robert holds a B.A. Degree in Chemistry from Northwestern University and a M.S. Degree in Environmental Management from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Ian Kim, Director of the Green Collar Jobs Campaign, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
4:00pm

Ella Baker Center for Human Rights runs cutting-edge solutions driven campaigns for justice, peace, and opportunity in our cities.

Ian advocates for policies in the city of Oakland and statewide in California to create “Green Collar” jobs in industries like renewable energy, water and energy efficiency, and green building. Ian is a co-convenor of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellum’s Green Economy Task Force, and served as Vice-Chair of the “Oil Independent Oakland by 2020″ Task Force.

Ian holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

Dan Geiger, Executive Director of the Northern California Green Building Council
5:30pm

The USGBC-NCC is a not-for-profit, voluntary organization that educates, motivates, provides resources and advocates for industry transformation to build and maintain sustainable communities. The Northern California office is a diverse group of individuals in a region active and receptive to progressive sustainable building goals.

There are more than 1,000 members with the headquarters in San Francisco and branch offices in Monterey, Sacramento and Silicon Valley.

Dan has more than 25 years of executive and consulting experience spanning the nonprofit, for-profit and philanthropy sectors. Recent executive experience includes: the Executive Director of Groundspring.org, an organization providing Internet services to nonprofits; Co-Founder and CEO of OpNet, a nationally recognized program that prepared low-income people for the digital economy.

Dan has a MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Sunday, June 8th

Pauline Souza, AIA, LEED AP , US Green Building Council Advocate for LEED Certified Schools
11:30am

Pauline and her team are working with public and private schools throughout California
to develop sustainable environments that improve the quality of our children’s’ education
and to teach the next generation to conceive of a sustainable world. The US Green Building Council has committed to Greening Schools within one generation through education and advocacy.

Pauline Souza is the Director of Green Services at WRNS Studio in San Francisco. She has 24 years of management and design experience focused on facilities that serve the education, transportation and civic sectors.

She is the winner of the 2007 AIA San Francisco Energy and Sustainability Merit Award.

Doctor Daniel Kammen, Director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley
2:30pm

RAEL focuses on designing, testing, and disseminating renewable and appropriate energy systems. The laboratory’s mission is to help these technologies realize their full potential to contribute to environmentally sustainable development in both industrialized and developing nations.

Dr. Kammen received his undergraduate degree in physics from Cornell University (1984), and his masters and doctorate in physics from Harvard (1986 & 1988) for work on theoretical solid state physics and computational biophysics. He was then the Wezmann & Bantrell Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology in the Divisions of Engineering, Biology, and the Humanities (1988 - 1991). First at Caltech and then as a Lecturer in Physics and in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University,Dr. Kammen developed a number of projects focused on renewable energy technologies and environmental resource management. At Harvard he also worked on risk analysis as applied to global warming and methodological studies of forecasting and hazard assessment.Dr. Kammen received the 1993 21st Century Earth Award, recognizing contributions to rural development and environmental conservation from the Global Industrial and Policy Research Institute and Nihon Keizai Shimbun in Japan.

Dr. Kammen advises the U. S. and Swedish Agencies for International Development, the World Bank, and the Presidents Committee on Science and Technology (PCAST), and is a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Working Group III and the Special Report on Technology Transfer). Dr. Kammen serves on the technical review board for the GEF (the STAP), is a lead author for the Special Report on Technology Transfer of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and advises the World Bank and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and well as the African Academy of Sciences.