Matt Biggar, Ph.D., is the Principal and Founder of Connected to Place, a strategy consulting firm that supports place-based collaboratives, nonprofits, and government agencies with facilitation, strategic planning, and advisory services. Matt focuses on systems change and strategic collaboration within local and regional contexts. He is an author/co-author of several published articles on human behavior, sustainability, systems change, and collective impact and speaks regularly on these topics. Matt has a forthcoming book, Connected to Place: Regenerating Nature, Community, and Local Economies through Systems Change (Cornell University Press, 2025). Prior to strategy consulting, Matt worked as a public school teacher and administrator for seventeen years and conducted research at Stanford University.

Jojo Mehta co-founded Stop Ecocide in 2017, alongside barrister and legal pioneer the late Polly Higgins, to support the establishment of ecocide as a crime at the International Criminal Court. As CEO and key spokesperson, she has overseen the remarkable growth of the movement while coordinating between legal developments, diplomatic traction and public narrative. 

Read more about Jojo’s work

Frankie Ridolfi is a career-long innovator of unique learning and development experiences.

These include creating public stargazing programs at Kitt Peak National Observatory, building business ethics eLearning used by millions of workers, producing an award-nominated DIY video on bookbinding, marketing a sustainable supply chain platform for corporations, launching brand story development workshops for executives at a creative agency, and leading a consulting firm out of its comfort zone to offer coaching development programs for managers.

In 2021, Frankie was severely injured in a gas explosion that burned over 80% of his body. Odds of his survival were 1-3%, yet his initial recovery was swift and he has regained his ability to do everything he loves (except bask in the Sun). He attributes the quality of his progress to positive psychology practices and mindset he gained through years of coaching work.

Frankie is now building a social business called Upwardly.work that specializes in coaching experiences and tools for team leaders that emphasize positive psychology practices and connect the dots from team uplift to business impacts and ROI.

He is a three-time Climate Rider (‘11, ‘13, ‘25), a life partner to a vivacious woman named Noa who personifies love and generosity, a stunt-dad to Noa’s brilliant 17-year old named Grace, and a new father to a precocious 16-month old girl named Florence. In his spare time he loves to fly his seaplane and is President of the Oakland chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association.

Frankie on his first bike!

Nemonte Nenquimo, co-founder of Ceibo Alliance and Amazon Frontlines, is a Waorani leader who has won the Goldman Environmental Prize and a co-author of the upcoming book We Will Be Jaguars with Mitch Anderson.

Read Nemonte’s article for the 2024 Time Earth Awards

Erick Cedeño is an explorer and historian, and on social media, he is known as the Bicycle Nomad. (IG: bicycle_nomad)

12 years ago, he embarked on a bicycle tour from Vancouver, Canada to Tijuana, Mexico. The following year he traveled from Miami Beach, FL to New York City, NY. In 2014 and 2020 he rode from New Orleans to Niagara Falls, Canada following the historic path of the Underground Railroad.

In 2022, he retraced the route and history of the All-Black, bicycle-mounted 25th Infantry to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Bicycle Corps 1897 expedition from Fort Missoula, Montana to St. Louis, Missouri. Their mission was to thoroughly test the practicability of the bicycle as a method of transportation. Erick was recently inducted into The Explorers Club in 2022 and named one of the 50 Explorers (#EC50) changing the world.

Alex Clark is a high school physical education teacher at Dunbar high school located in Ward 5 of the District of Columbia. He grew up in Hartford, CT where he attended East Hartford High School. In 2009, he enrolled at Central Connecticut State University, where he played football and received his Bachelor’s degree in Health & Physical Education. From 2015-2019, Clark was the physical education teacher at Eastern Senior High School where he formed the school’s first girls’ varsity soccer team and was awarded 2017 DCIAA soccer coach of the year. He also helped lead the girls basketball team to winning the 2019 DCSAA state basketball championship. After four years at Eastern, he took a position at Dunbar High School, where his career took off. Clark created Prime-Ability, a youth empowerment program geared towards building communities and inspiring young lives through fitness. His most successful project within Prime-Ability and Dunbar has been his biking program. Clark’s biking program manifested into a city-wide movement, offered to all students throughout DC, serving over 300 DC youth in 2020 and now a full circle program offered to DC students during and after school. Clark’s work has been featured in the Washington Post, The Today Show, Bicycle Magazine as well as TIME magazine. Clark was named 2023 DC teacher of the year runner up.  Clark’s motto is #Stay Prime.