Dr Purnima Devi Barman was listed in the Time Magazines women of the year 2025 list out of 13 extraordinary women of the world being only Indian to receive this honour. She is a wildlife biologist and Conservationist from Assam, India, popularly known as “Hargila Baido” or “Stork Sister.She made India proud by receiving the United Nations’ highest environmental honor, UNEP Champion of the Earth in the year 2022. Dr. Barman is the recipient of two times Whitley Award/ Green Oscars including the Whitley Gold Award) in 2024, the top prize of the Whitley Award, conferred by HRH Princess Anne at the Royal Geographical Society in London. She previously received the Whitley Award Green Oscars in 2017 for her groundbreaking work towards saving endangered birds. She has been honored with the Nari Shakti Puraskar 2017 which is India’s highest civilian award for women, conferred by the President of India. – She is the founder of the Hargila Army, an all-female conservation initiative dedicated to protecting the Greater Adjutant Stork in Assam, India. Through this initiative, she has mobilized over 20,000 rural women, giving them a voice for bird and biodiversity conservation and empowering them through various livelihood and capacity-building programs.

Mark Caddey is a highly accomplished professional with over 35 years of experience in the education and environment sectors, specializing in sustainability, curriculum and environmental education. Through roles in the NSW Department of Education and NSW Department of Environment, he has played a pivotal role in shaping environmental education policy and implementing sustainability programs across NSW.
His career includes roles in education, policy and program delivery in NSW, developing expertise in design, delivery and evaluation of education, sustainability and community engagement programs. He advised on environmental education policy implementation in NSW and managed the NSW Sustainable Schools program. He was the NSW representative on the Australian Curriculum’s Sustainability cross-curriculum working group.
Currently he is currently delivering capacity building to the Agriculture sector focussed on carbon abatement.
Mark served as the Chair of the NSW Chapter of the AAEE for 8 years and was the National President for 4 years. His volunteer leadership in these roles further highlights his dedication to advancing environmental education in Australia.
Academic credentials include a Grad Cert in Place Management and Leadership, Manchester Metropolitan University, a MEd in Leadership, UNSW, and a BSC (Agriculture), Hawkesbury College.
Mark’s deep commitment to environmental education, his extensive experience in policy development, and his collaborative approach make him a key figure in the sustainability and education sectors.

Luis Alberto Camargo is a global leader in nature-based education and the transition toward regenerative cultures. He is the founder and director of OpEPA (Organización para la Educación y Protección Ambiental), a nonprofit organization established in 1998 to reconnect people—especially children and youth—with the Earth and catalyze cultural transitions rooted in ecological awareness and systems thinking. Over the past 27 years, his work has reached more than 130,000 students and 5,000 educators, influencing policy, pedagogy, and bioregional action in Latin America and beyond.

Luis is a co-chair of the IUCN-CEC Nature-Based Education Initiative and serves as Vice President for South America of the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication. He is a recognized Ashoka Fellow, Young Global Leader (World Economic Forum), Salzburg Global Fellow, and Global Change Leader, and in 2023 received both the Richard Louv Prize for Innovation in Nature Connection and the WISE Award for Educational Innovation.

He is also co-founder of global networks such as The Weaving Lab, Catalyst NOW, and the Regenerative Communities Network, all of which promote transformative learning ecosystems and regenerative futures grounded in care, reciprocity, and planetary wellbeing.

Professor Michele John is Director of the Sustainable Engineering Group at Curtin University. Her current research is focused on industry decarbonisation and ESG governance. She is a world leader in sustainability education development and has published a number of books on sustainability management including “Global Sustainability Education and Thinking in the 21st Century” (Taylor and Francis, April 2024 ). Her work covers strategic advice across many sectors and areas of sustainability including sustainability performance assessment, climate risk, zero carbon strategy development, circularity and ESG reporting.

Michele has also spent many years working in the resources sector and held a number of senior international executive roles (Asia Pacific) including in commercial market development for multi-national corporations.

She is a resource economist and has served as a Director on a number of Company Boards and executive level committees in the government and NFP sector.

Diana Payne is an Associate Professor and Education Coordinator at the University of Connecticut and Connecticut Sea Grant, USA. Her experience in ocean and environmental science and education includes leadership positions with the National Marine Educators Association and as an international expert in ocean literacy as a Fulbright scholar. She currently serves as Co-Chair of the IOC UNESCO Ocean Literacy Group of Experts.

My name is Stephen Justen Simon, I am a young dedicated and passionate Solomon Islander. I came from Temotu province, reef island in the Eastern Solomon, I had pursued my passion for creating a sustainable future through education, social engagement and community work. I holds a Bachelor of Science degree and a Postgraduate Diploma in Climate Change from the University of the South Pacific, Fiji, in 2016 and 2019 respectively.
With five years of experience working voluntarily with local communities, I had collaborated (as individual and team) with various civil society organizations, NGO’s, government ministries, and partner stakeholders to build a sound and doable community adaptive capacity and resilience in the face of environment and climate change .
My focus areas of experties includes environment conservation and management, climate change, and human rights.
As a young leader and innovator, my vision is to empower young people to lead the change towards a sustainable and just world. I strives to build network, and provide platforms for engagement and mobilization, inspiring a new generation of leaders to take action.
Through my work, I aims to make a positive impact in my community and the world at large.

David Zandvliet is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University and holds the UNESCO Chair in Bio-cultural Diversity and Education. He is the founding Director for the Institute for Environmental Learning and has also held Associate memberships in the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Environment at SFU. An experienced researcher, he has published articles in international journals and presented papers on six continents and in over 27 countries. His career interests lie in the areas of science and environmental education with a special focus on the study of learning environments. He has considerable experience in the provision of teacher development and has conducted studies in school-based locations in Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Taiwan. David leads environmental education programming at SFU including directing field schools in diverse locations including those in: Vancouver, Haida Gwaii, Hawaii, Indonesia, Tanzania and Australia.