Biographies for speakers at CCL 2011 International Conference

James Hansen

Dr. James Hansen, perhaps best known for bringing global warming to the world’s attention in the 1980s when he first testified before Congress, is an adjunct professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University and at Columbia’s Earth Institute, and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He has appeared on 60 Minutes, ABC News Tonight, Anderson Cooper, Charlie Rose; has been interviewed in the New York Times and profiled in the New Yorker; and has written for the Boston Globe, the Nation, the New York Review of Books, and Scientific American.

Steve Valk

Steve Valk is communications director and regional manager for Citizens Climate Lobby. He joined the CCL staff in 2009 after a 30-year career with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He has worked as a media consultant for RESULTS. Steve blogs for Citizens Climate Lobby on Huffington Post, and his writing on climate change has appeared in newspapers throughout the U.S.

Sam Daley-Harris

Sam Daley-Harris was a substitute music teacher in 1980 when he determined that the biggest obstacle to ending poverty was a lack of political will. Sam then founded RESULTS for the purpose of creating the political will to end hunger and poverty. He is the director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign, which seeks to give 175 million of the world’s poorest families access to micro loans. He is the author of “Reclaiming Our Democracy: Healing the Break Between People and Government.”

Ben Schreiber

Benjamin Schreiber is the climate and energy tax analyst at Friends of the Earth. His focus is on the tax code with a goal towards fighting tax incentives to global warming gas intensive technologies and promoting tax incentives for technologies that have greenhouse gas benefits. He also works on stopping subsidies for nuclear reactors, liquid coal and other dirty technologies. Ben came to Friends of the Earth from Environment America where he worked as an energy advocate, fighting subsidies to dirty technologies, increasing fuel economy standards and promoting renewable energy.

Davia Rivka

Davia Rivka is an executive coach, facilitator, author and speaker.  For the past 40 years she has worked with trailblazers and social change agents, guiding them to line up their everyday actions with their vision.  She holds Masters degrees in Clinical Psychology and Health Science.  She is a certified coach and sits on the board of directors of the International Coach Federation, Los Angeles.

Capt. Wayne Porter

Capt. Wayne Porter’s distinguished career in the U.S. Navy began with his commission in 1986. His tours have included Fleet Ocean Surveillance Intelligence Center, The USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19), Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), and the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He co-authored, with Col. Mark Mykleby, the National Strategic Narrative, published by the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars and subsequently cited in televised editorials on both CNN and MSNBC.