New York State Senator Antoine M. Thompson will welcome conference participants to the beautiful state of New York.

Senator Thompson has served the 60th District of New York since January 2007.  He holds a position of leadership as the Senate’s Acting Majority Whip and serves as Chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee. More>>

Join Grammy Award-winning musician, entertainer, singer-songwriter, and storyteller Tom Chapin as he helps NAAEE kick off its 39th Annual Conference!

Adult albums and kids’ albums, contemporary folk and pop, Tom Chapin’s music spans styles and generations. For more than thirty years and through twenty compact discs, Chapin has entertained, amused and enlightened audiences of all ages with life-affirming original songs told in a sophisticated array of musical styles. Tom’s remarkable musicianship, great songwriting and personal warmth shine through whether he’s performing in a concert hall, an outdoor festival, a school, in front of a symphony orchestra or in an intimate coffeehouse. More>>

Grant Jones
Jones & Jones Architects
and Landscape Architects

Syd Kitson
Kitson & Partners

Linda Sorrento 
US Green Building Council

In the spring of 1978, a 27 year-old housewife named Lois Gibbs discovered that her child was attending an elementary school built on top of a 20,000 ton, toxic-chemical dump in Niagara Falls, New York.  Out of desperation, she organized her neighbors into the Love Canal Homeowners Association and struggled more than 2 years for relocation.  Opposing the group’s efforts, though, were the chemical manufacturer, Occidental Petroleum, local, state and federal government officials who insisted that the leaking toxic chemicals, including dioxin, the most toxic chemical known to man, was not the cause of high rates of birth defects, miscarriages, cancers and other health problems.  Finally, in October 1980, President Jimmy Carter delivered an Emergency Declaration, which moved 900 families from this hazardous area and signified the victory of this grassroots movement.  More>>

Chief Oren Lyons is the Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, and a member of the Onondaga Nation Council of Chiefs of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (the Haudenosaunee). His interests include Native American history, international indigenous affairs, contemporary indigenous issues, and international environmental issues. He has received the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor, the National Audubon Award, the First Annual Earth Day International Award of the United Nations, and the Elder and Wiser Award of the Rosa Parks Institute for Human Rights.