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WSS FALL FORUM

Tye Fussell July 18, 2023
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WSS Climate Emergency
Response Forum

It’s Time to Rise!

 

 

 

 

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WSS Climate Emergency Response Forum

It’s Time to Rise!

The Climate Crisis is something that we desperately need to solve. What humanity has been doing to address it has not adequately worked. New collaborative and collective approaches are now required as we have less than five years to act decisively and on a global scale. Then we must continue acting for the next 30 years in order to fully succeed. No single organization, institution or government is going to move the needle on the climate crisis. It is time for humanity to foundationally change how we live in this world. Only all of us working together can achieve sustainability and renew the natural ecosystem. 

We are gathering capable stakeholders from many different disciplines to collaborate for two days. In this workshop environment, we will engage this diverse group’s unique skill sets to creatively build new networks and solutions to effect catalytic changes that significantly move the needle on the climate crisis. 

BY THE END OF THE FORUM, WE WILL HAVE MET THE FOLLOWING TANGIBLE CONCRETE OBJECTIVES:

  • 1

    Recognition that we now need a global shift in consciousness, collaborative approach, solutions paradigm and AI-based platform technology to organize, develop and deliver crisis resolution solutions, resources and technologies that are available to all.

  • 2

    Workshop participants will help define the capacities required for the global community to generate scalable solutions to solve the climate crisis in the time available.

  • 3

    Workshop participants recognize the vital importance of their commitment to long-term collaboration with each other in order to generate the required scalable capacity between the world's stakeholders, networks and thought leaders.

  • 4

    Establish a prototype for climate crisis resolution workshops to be offered to the world in order to foster global collaboration.

  • 5

    Engage and unite high capacity, motivated workshop participants in lasting collaborative partnership with WSS for the building of the PHOENIX platform.

  • The world is now learning that global collaboration is the antidote to the climate crisis

  • Comprehensive access to trustworthy, quality, and fully vetted decision-making information for all global stakeholders
  • Ethical application of state of the art AI technology to solve the climate crisis and allow humanity to achieve its highest potential
  • Accelerated research, development and delivery of solutions, technology, and resources
  • Technology augmented improvements in global and local cooperation
  • Realized capacity to generate economic systems that are sustainable and ecologically harmonious
  • Efficient coordination and synchronization of all nation's global change efforts
  • Improvement of global education to succinctly address and solve climate issues & to empower women, youth and all human diversity
  • Global stakeholder participation and influence in all climate issue resolution initiatives
  • Equitable and participative representation and decision making for every person, species and the ecosystem
  • Effective engagement of world leaders to implement workable sustainability strategies
  • Generation of a healthy environment for the billion children who are currently at risk
  • Adaptive climate migration strategies, creatively transforming potential conflict into humane climate solutions and the stabilization of all economies
  • Regeneration of the world’s ecosystems and effect agroecological sequestration of greenhouse gases
  • Scalable crowd sourced solutions to regenerate the planet
  • Supply chain stability and continuity of global economic function, capacity and adaptability
  • Access to food, water and medical systems security (filling the gaps in current systems for all)
POTENTIAL DISCUSSION TOPICS

EMPOWERMENT OF YOUTH, WOMEN AND DIVERSITY IS ESSENTIAL FOR US TO MEET OUR GOALS

Join the Forum
November 14 & 15,
8am - 5pm

Join the Forum
November 14 & 15, 8am - 5pm

Dinner and networking reception Nov 14, 6 - 10 pm

Greenville Water Department Community Room
407 W Broad St, Greenville, SC 29601

In partnership with Global Action Coalition. globalactioncoalition.org

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image job the Greenville water department
RSVP

INSIGHTS WE HOPE PARTICIPANTS RECEIVE:

AI augmented collaboration is the antidote to the climate crisis.

Our current way of life and technology base and way of developing solutions is creating the climate crisis. 

Our current non-collaborative and unscalable approaches, however well intended, will not solve the climate crisis in the time available. A new paradigm is required!

We must collaboratively and collectively define and enact new approaches and paradigms. 

Participants realize we must build the collective global capacity in order to affect necessary transformational change into sustainability, now!

There is no higher or superordinate goal or priority. Sustainability and reharmonization with the planet is the goal and priority, all others are secondary.

There must be scalable, dedicated centralized global commons systems and technology to affect this new paradigm.

Accept and understand that we must now act to foundationally restructure our ways of life, ways of developing and using all technology and our collective economic processes to generate full sustainability.

It is vital that the ecosystem and all other species be represented as equal to human populations in all systems of global governance and solutions developments from now on.

We must create a highly organized global collaborative community effort to transform the world into sustainability now!

We must all learn to do more with less and to live and have less moving forward.

We must learn and accept that there is NO option for limitless growth of any organization, nation or economy within a finite planetary and ecosystem resources space.

Growth must be transcended as a standard of success by all nations, economies, organizations and peoples.

There is no potential for a future nation winner, in any military, combative or economic competitive process that does not bring about global economic collapse.

We can only now collaborate and work together in hope, trust and faith for the common good if we as national entities want to continue in a viable way.

As the various pressures of the climate crisis increase, there is no future for global or national humanity that is viable that is not based on love, trust, faith, collaboration, inclusiveness, fairness, equality, ethics and morals.

CO-CREATING THE PHOENIX WORLD TRANSFORMATION PLATFORM™

A collaboration and education technology infrastructure is being designed by World Systems Solutions to bring individuals, organizations and nations into a functionally aligned union to give people, organizations and government institutions a way to collaborate quickly and proactively to solve the most pressing environmental issues.

A collaboration and education technology infrastructure is being designed by World Systems Solutions to bring individuals, organizations and nations into a functionally aligned union to give people, organizations and government institutions a way to collaborate quickly and proactively to solve the most pressing environmental issues.

SPEAKERS, PARTICIPANTS AND ATTENDEES

Click headshot for bio.

Ed Dorman, Major General, USA (R), is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, S10 Consulting. Principle responsibilities lie in proactively coordinating, controlling, and delivering an unparalleled level of service to US Defense & Government customers. Ed is a recent Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Leadership Fellow selectee, serves as a Headquarters Department of the Army, Highly Qualified Expert (HQE) & Senior Mentor with the Army’s Mission Command Training Program (MCTP), mentoring & advising Corps, Division, Theater and Expeditionary Commanding Generals and their Staffs on Sustaining Large Scale Combat Operations. Ed is the Chair of the NDIA Contested Logistics Subcommittee and a member of the NDIA Energy Committee. Before being named to these positions, Ed served as the Director, Logistics & Engineering, J-4 United States Central Command retiring 31 Dec 2018. In this position, he was responsible for strategic policy, planning & guidance for the logistics support (all elements of supply, transportation, and construction) for over 300,000 US and multi-national personnel conducting combat and support operations in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and 17 other Middle East and South Asian nations. Since retiring, MG (R) Dorman has served in a variety of roles. From January 2019 to November 2020, he served as a Fellow with the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) advising the Lebanese Armed Forces on transformation and modernization and as a logistics SME contributing to the independent assessment of the DOD Joint Warfighting Concept. MG (R) Dorman holds a Master of Language Arts in German Language & Literature from the Johannes Guttenberg Universität, Mainz Germany and a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy from the Eisenhower School for National Resource Strategy.

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Ed Dorman, MG, USA (Ret)

Dr. Chakradhar Iyyunni’s expertise is in risk management and decision-making, mentoring professionals and facilitating start-ups, group work and team building, project management and engineering R&D. He is a fellow, European School of Governance, an Associate with the East Side Institute, NYC and a former faculty at the Larsen & Toubro Institute of Project Management. He has deep interest in human systems behavior in construction project performance.

Dr. Iyyunni’s multi-domain experience spans Oil, Gas, Transportation, Civil Infrastructure, Energy and Utilities including renewable, nuclear and conventional power plants, automotive, aerospace, pharmaceutical, life sciences, biomedical engineering and Devices, and Marine/Ship Structures.

Dr. Iyyunni received his Bachelor's of Technology in Mechanical Engineering degree from Indian Institute of Technology - Benaras Hindu University, Varanasi, M.S. in Engineering Science and Mechanics from Virginia Tech, and Ph.D. in Applied Mechanics from the University of Houston.

He is active with the Africa Voices Dialogue-an educator's network and Catalyst 2030,a fast-growing global movement of people and organisations committed to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) by 2030.

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Dr. Chakradhar Iyyunni

Temple Hayes - A global spiritual leader, Temple Hayes inspires and transforms a diverse group of international new thought seekers through her books, public speaking, radio shows, digital presence and social media evangelism. Along with Rev.Dr. Michael Beckwith, she is a member of the Leadership Council of Association for Global New Thought and active in two international nonprofits she founded: LifeRights, a peace through people initiative, and The SOFI Project, a world-wide rescue plan for companion animals.

As CEO and Senior Minister for one of the most innovative largest Unity churches, she creates and implements strategies and nurtures a culture of community in a diverse downtown campus which includes a free-standing new thought book store and a global soul food café. She is a much sought after speaker, collaborator and difference maker because she demonstrates not only why we need to be the change in the world but how we can co-create a world that works through everyone. "United we stand; divided we are merely a distraction." -Temple Hayes

Temple Hayes Headshot
Temple Hayes, Global Spiritual Leader

Tom James, Jr, Lieutenant General (Ret), a career Army Officer, retired from active duty in August 2021 after 36 years of active service in leadership positions from platoon through Field Army level. His passion is connecting with people, identifying talent, and building teams that achieve maximum potential. His professional knowledge, skills and attributes have largely been shaped by the extraordinary leaders and the brave Soldiers with whom he served, often in extremely intense situations. His areas of expertise include leadership in complex organizations, cohesive team building, complex problem solving, crisis management and international relations. 

Tom holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina; a Master of Military Art and Science from the U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; and a Master of National Security and Strategic Studies from the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.. 

As a Commander, Tom served at the Battalion and Brigade level in combat in Iraq. His Brigade combat tour was during the “Surge” and the unit he commanded covered five provinces requiring complex coordination with Iraqi Security Forces, the State Department and USAID during intense security situations. At the Division level, he served as the Operations Officer for a Task Force responsible for military operations in Baghdad and on a separate deployment served as the Chief of Staff for a Task Force responsible for Northern Iraq. 

Tom commanded a Division at Joint Base Lewis McChord in Washington; supervising the leader development, training and readiness for over 15,000 Soldiers focused on operations and training in the Pacific Theater. He then served as the Operations Officer for United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command, U.S. Forces Korea where he managed a directorate of over 300 U.S., Korean and Multi-National Soldiers responsible for operations, training and exercises for all Military Services supporting the Korean area of responsibility. 

In his last assignment Tom commanded First Army at Rock Island, Illinois where he led over 7,500 Soldiers and Civilians spread across the United States and Territories. Responsible for enabling training, leader development, readiness generation and mobilization capability for the Army National Guard and Reserve: over 530,000 Soldiers representing 52% of the Total Army Force. 

Tom also has extensive experience with leader development. He served as the Mission Command Center of Excellence director at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas where he had oversight of the Centers for Army Leadership. 

Tom currently serves as a Senior Mentor for the Army’s Mission Command Training Program (MCTP), a Leadership Ambassador for AUSA, a strategy advisor for the University of Health and Performance in Bentonville, Arkansas, and a member of the US Global Leadership Coalition National Security Council. Additionally, through Connected Leadership LLC I conduct consulting and leadership engagements. 

Tom is a physical fitness enthusiast. He and Chelle have been married for over 33 years and are blessed with three awesome children. They claim the Greenville, S.C. area as home, where he was raised and much of their Family live. 

Tom James, Jr Headshot
Tom James, Jr, LG, USA (Ret)

Ambassador (Ret) W. Robert Pearson is a non-resident scholar at The Middle East Institute.  He focuses on Turkey with particular emphasis on U.S.-Turkey relations.  His areas of interest include Turkey’s relations with the EU, Russia, the Middle East, and Central and East Asia, in addition to the United States.

Amb. Pearson is a retired professional foreign service officer who served as U.S. ambassador to Turkey from 2000 to 2003.  He was director general of the U.S. Foreign Service from 2003 to 2006, repositioning the American Foreign Service to meet the new challenges of the 21st century and winning two national awards for his efforts.  He served from 2008 to 2014 as president of IREX, an international development NGO based in Washington, spearheading its expansion to reach more than 125 countries worldwide. He has published numerous articles, blogs and opinion pieces on diplomacy, foreign policy, Turkey, NGOs, and development. He has appeared on BBC, CNBC, NPR, Al-Jazeera, I24 TV, TNT Global and other networks. He is a frequent speaker on issues concerning Turkey, international development and the role of diplomacy in American engagement abroad.

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W. Robert Pearson, US Ambassador (Ret)

Ragan Thomson, Chairperson of the Board, World Systems Solutions. Ragan serves as a Spiritual Healer, Guide, a consciousness facilitator and conscious Entrepreneur. Ragan has been healing and serving for over 20 years working with hundreds of clients both in the U.S. and internationally. In 2009, Ragan started her first conscious corporation along with four other shareholders called “In the Loving,” where as CEO she created conscious media products for the world with the tag line, “Helping People to Remember Who They Really Are”. In 2013, she founded Joyticity where she successfully empowered and offered facilitation to people as a Transformational Life Coach to open the door to their true inner joy through deep inner work. She opened her first physical location Healing Hub Santa Barbara in 2017 where she hosted her own work as well as other healing events including women’s empowerment groups. In 2019, she founded her next business called Ragan Thomson and is currently still actively serving through offering intuitive audios, healing sessions, prayer, meditation and retreats. Ragan’s life and work is one of the deep service and inner purification.

Ragan Thomson Headshot
Ragan Thomson, Chairperson of the Board, WSS

Marc Bolick is passionate about guiding leaders and their teams to tackle complex challenges and make big change happen that has real, measurable, transformative impact.

As a dedicated innovation consultant, seasoned entrepreneur and servant leader, Marc has led teams through successful, high-impact product and service design initiatives across industries and around the world.

Marc uses his combination of technical, business and creative skills to help organizations and their leaders ask the right questions, develop strategic vision, and find and implement innovative solutions that create positive change. Developed over his 30 years of product and service design, Marc's approach to innovation integrates human-centered design, systems thinking, behavioral science, strategic foresight and other methodologies to address just about any business challenge that organizations face today. He's learned that the best approach to any complex challenge is to be pragmatic, holistic and people-centered.

Prior to consulting, Marc held positions in high-tech manufacturing, research and development, product marketing, and field service. He have co-founded, mentored and funded several startup ventures. Some of the great organizations Marc has had the privilege to serve include General Electric, Michelin, SAP, Coca Cola, Bank of America, Master Card, Bacardi, United Healthcare, ServiceNow, the US Food and Drug Administration and the US Agency for International Development.

Marc holds an MBA and BSME, and is fluent in French and Dutch. In his free time, Marc is obsessed with cycling, exploring new cultures through travel and bringing broken things back to life.

Marc Bolick Headshot
Marc Bolick, Founder and
Managing Partner, ReShift

Carey Cavanaugh is professor of diplomacy and conflict resolution at the University of Kentucky's Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce (a professional graduate school).  In 2023, he stepped down as chairman of International Alert (a London-headquartered, independent, peace building NGO). Earlier he served as Patterson School director for a decade and before that was a career Foreign Service officer, with diplomatic postings to Berlin, Moscow, Tbilisi, Rome and Bern, and domestic assignments at the State Department, Pentagon, and on Capitol Hill. In 1992, Cavanaugh led the team that established the American embassy to the new Republic of Georgia. He was confirmed by the US Senate in 2000 to be ambassador and special negotiator for conflicts in Eurasia and as US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group responsible for the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. Ambassador Cavanaugh's final government assignment was as foreign policy/political adviser to then US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael G. Mullen.

Carey Cavanaugh, US Ambassador (Ret)

Dr. Ramanathan Subramanian is an expert in Urban comfort modelling and energy optimization. Currently, he is an independent consultant for Adaptis, Canada, and Oneistox, India, where he facilitates digitalization in built environment planning and smart city design optimization. He is a multi-disciplinary professional with a PhD in Modelling Urban Systems from Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), a double master's in integrated Sustainable Design from National University of Singapore (NUS), and an MBA in Natural Resources Management from Amity University and bachelor's in mechanical engineering from Anna University.  In total has around 10+ years of professional work experience living, consulting, and studying in Germany, Singapore, and India. His work spans multiple capacities including researcher, academy fellow, urban informatics engineer, and innovation center project associate, consultant, manager, and design engineer, among others. Academic and professional experiences have imparted the characteristics of system level design evaluation, resilient model conception, modular scenario solution, innovation engineering, mentoring, and multicriteria optimization. His principal research interests include climate change mitigation, energy use optimization, the adoption of renewable energy, and outdoor thermal comfort modeling. His professional pursuits in change management, continuous process monitoring and improvement, and framework resilience modeling would be of significant assistance to policymakers, regulators, and compliance authorities.

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Dr. Ramanathan Subramanian, Urban Planning Consultant

Nancy D. O'Reilly, PsyD, founded Women Connect4Good, Inc., a 501(c)3 foundation to help support other organizations working to advance women and girls. Her contributions have earned her numerous awards including the prestigious Mosaic Award from Diversity Woman Media and a Women Making History Award from the National Women’s History Museum. She was also honored in Washington, D.C. at the 2018 Canales project with 20 other women, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Dr. Nancy writes impactful books that empower and equip women for success. Her recent titles, In This Together: How Successful Women Support Each Other in Work and Life (Adams Media/Simon & Schuster, January 2019) and Leading Women: 20 Influential Women Share Their Secrets to Leadership, Business and Life (Adams Media/Simon & Schuster, December 2014) have continued to gain recognition and were both released as audiobooks in 2022.

Supporting women is Dr. Nancy’s passion and purpose. Her popular podcast “Smart, Amazing Conversations with Dr. Nancy” examines the stories of life and leadership of smart, amazing women and men whose stories connect us and helps listeners understand that the possibilities are endless if we support each other and lift one another up.

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Nancy D. O'Reilly, PsyD, Founder, Women Connect4Good, Inc

Nicolás Ducoté, Executive Consultant. Nico holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs, Universidad de San Andrés (Buenos Aires, Argentina); Masters in Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. World Fellow 2007, Yale University. Gus Hart Fellow 2008, Chicago Council of Global Affairs. Draper Hills Summer Fellow 2014, Stanford University. In public service, he has been Mayor of his hometown Pilar, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Government of the City of Buenos Aires; Director of the National School of Government, and Board Member of the National Institute of Public Administration (INAP). As an academic, he has taught at the Universidad de San Andrés, Universidad Austral and Universidad del Salvador, all in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In civil society, he was co-founder and former Executive Director of CIPPEC, the leading think tank in Argentina and one of the top five in Latin America, and does regular volunteer work advising NGOs, civic and social organizations on institutional development and advocacy in the public interest. He has been an international consultant for the UN, Transparency International, IADB, World Bank, ECLAC, World Economic Forum, and Global Integrity, among others. Author of numerous articles on public policy in the argentine national media, and of a few internationally published papers, he has been featured in over 200 news pieces, nationally and internationally, including mentions and quotes in The Economist, CNN, BBC, The New York Times, Washington Post andMiami Herald, and has been a speaker and/or coordinator in over 100 national and international conferences.

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Nicolás Ducoté, Executive Consultant

Recognized globally as an expert, thought leader and visionary in the field of crisis management, Melissa Agnes has worked with global players, including NATO, the Pentagon (DoD), Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense, financial firms, technology companies, healthcare organizations, cities and municipalities, law enforcement agencies, aviation organizations, global non-profits, and many others.

In 2020, Melissa founded Crisis Ready Institute, a public benefit corporate dedicated to creating a crisis ready, crisis-resilient world by elevating industry standards; providing training and certification programs to professionals that better protect people, brands, the environment, and the economy in times of crisis; and promoting and incentivizing organizations and leaders to invest in effective crisis readiness

Her book, Crisis Ready: Building an Invincible Brand in an Uncertain World, is taught in dozens of universities around the world, including at Harvard University; is ranked amongst the leading crisis management books of all time, by Book Authority; and was named one of the top ten business books of 2018 by

Melissa is the creator of the Crisis Ready® Model, which is recognized and being taught as leading industry best practice in the fields of crisis management and crisis communication.

As an in-demand international keynote speaker and a TEDx alumna, Melissa has traveled the world helping organizations and leaders further strengthen their crisis ready mindset, skills and capabilities.

In 2019, Melissa founded the Crisis Ready® Community, a space for professionals to come together to support one another, collaborate and strengthen their crisis ready skills.

Melissa sits on the Board of Trustees for D'Youville University, a private University in New York, where she also serves as a visiting scholar for the course she co-created and co-teaches on Crisis Leadership.

Melissa also sits on the Board of Directors for ZeroNow, a non-profit organization committed to ending harmful events in schools.

Passionate about serving law enforcement and bridging the trust divide between agencies and the communities they serve, Melissa is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). In 2021 she co-chaired a committee that was tasked with developing a strategy and plan of action to begin managing and overcoming the trust crisis in the U.S.

In 2019 and 2020, Melissa sat on the panel tasked with developing the International Standard for Crisis Management— ISO 22361, Guidelines for developing a strategic capability

Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec (Canada), Melissa currently lives in New York City and enjoys traveling, rollerblading, sailing, and working out when she isn’t working.

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Melissa Agnes, Founder and CEO,
Crisis Ready Institute

Rob Rowen is the President and Executive Director of Global Action Coalition an NGO working in Nepal and Djibouti. In 2009, Global Action Coalition he started education projects in Nepal and has grown into becoming an expert on international educational challenges in 3rd world countries.  He was previously involved with the International Coalition of military officers serving and there and was awarded an Honorary Ambassadorship to CENTCOM for his involvement with them.  In November 2019, he was invited to Strasbourg University in France to give a Keynote Address at their Castle Talks Conference on Healing the Scars of History using Diplomacy, Development and Defense. Rob wrote a book ‘Defining Moments’ stories of amazing people meeting incredible challenges.

In 2023, he founded and chaired the Global Upstate World Conference at Furman University. This was a dream for him to bring international business and foreign affairs leaders together to talk about the global issues they faced. He followed that up with the Innovation and Solutions World Conference in Greer in March, 2023, focused on seeking innovation in business and international affairs.

His latest project is the Carolina Center for Global Solutions.

In 1981, Rob started Nuance Galleries, a fine art gallery in Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida.  Nuance is known for its 300 piece Cuban art collection.  The collection traveled the United States from 2003-2007, visiting museums and universities in 14 cities, organized by Meridian International.  Rob still showcases the collection with a recent exhibition at Furman University.

Rob founded the Tampa Bay Business Committee for Culture and the Arts in 1990, an organization that is still active in the Tampa Bay community partnering arts and business leaders to work together.

His first book Defining Moments, Fourteen extraordinary choices that forever changed fourteen ordinary people is out on kindle.

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Rob Rowen, President and Executive Director of Global Action Coalition

Pari Patri is a widely recognized and respected executive mentor, resilience & performance consultant, strategic leadership guide, trusted advisor, speaker, former tech leader and a strong advocate for employee wellbeing. She has been demonstrating leadership excellence for over a decade in both corporate and non-profit sectors, including associations with international companies and the Pyramid Spiritual Societies Movement.

Pari is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of PSSM Global, a worldwide, human empowerment and spirituo-scientific organization. 

Pari's approach towards life is rooted both in PSSM and research from neuroscience and HeartMath along with various personal development methodologies. Her unique combination of corporate experience and scientific research allows her to offer evidence-based solutions for personal and professional growth.

She has achieved international acclaim as an Women Empowerment Coach and Meditation Mentor, and has been recognized as one of the Top 20 Global Women of Excellence by U.S Congressman Danny K. Davis for the Annual International Women’s Day in 2019. With her comprehensive experience and diverse skill set, Pari Patri effectively bridges the gap between the corporate world and individual stress management, contributing positively towards excellence in people's lives.

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Pari Patri, Founder and Chief
Executive Officer of PSSM Global

Bob Inglis is the Executive Director of republicEn.org. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1992, having never run for office before. He represented Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, from 1993-1998, unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings in 1998, and then returned to the practice of commercial real estate law in Greenville, S.C. In 2004, he was re-elected to Congress and served until losing reelection in the South Carolina Republican primary of 2010.

In 2011, Inglis went full-time into promoting free enterprise action on climate change and launched the Energy and Enterprise Initiative (“E&EI”) at George Mason University in July 2012. In the fall of 2014, E&EI rebranded to become republicEn.org.

republicEn is a growing grassroots community of over 10,000 Americans educating the country about free-enterprise solutions to climate change. The organization is a 501(c)(3) operation hosted at the George Mason University Foundation and educates, recruits and organizes conservative voices for action on climate change.

For his work on climate change Inglis was given the 2015 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. He appears in the film Merchants of Doubt and in the Showtime series YEARS of Living Dangerously (episodes 3 and 4), and he’s spoken at TEDxBeaconStreet (watch) and TEDxJacksonville (watch).

Inglis was a Resident Fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics in 2011, a Visiting Energy Fellow at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment in 2012, and Resident Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics in 2014.

Inglis grew up in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, went to Duke University for college, met and married his college sweetheart, graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law and practiced commercial real estate law in Greenville, S.C., before and between his years in Congress. Bob and Mary Anne Inglis have five children (a son and four daughters).

Bob Inglis
Bob Inglis, US Congressman (Ret)

Amie Rafter, VP of Operations and Programs at World Systems Solutions. Amie has an MBA and BS in International Business and has had 25 years of corporate career success developing and leading teams for multi-billion-dollar tech and medical device companies. Amie has been a vehicle for driving strategic, collaborative relationships and modes of operating.

Now, blending heart and mind, Amie has been guided to support the development of new sustainable models of collaboration to enable the resolution of the worlds biggest issues. Combining her business background and education with her experience as a certified yoga teacher, life and career coach she focuses on compassionate execution as a non-profit leader committed to serving humanity and the natural world.

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Amie Rafter, VP of Operations and Programs, WSS

Jeff Phillips is the Chief Operations Officer for Greenville Water. Prior to that, he was the Director of Water Resources. Jeff holds a Bachelors Degree in Bio-Chemistry from Albright College and an Undergraduate Certificate in Weather Forecasting from Penn State World Campus. He has been in the water industry for 32 years starting out as a chemist. He has lived in Greenville County, South Carolina since 1997. Jeff is an active member of the American Water Works Association and is an active stakeholder on a number of local and regional water resources groups.

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Jeff Phillips, COO, Greenville Water

John Jones is the Founder, CEO and primary architect of the World Systems Solutions organization and initiative, content creator and spiritual compass. For 20 years John has served as an organizational consultant, taught courses on personal transformation, functioned as a life coach and is the author of two books covering topics related to global transformation, spiritual development and emotional healing. John also worked for 14 years as an information systems programmer, database designer, network administrator, business analyst, project manager and researcher of organizational change.

John Jones Headshot
John Jones, CEO, WSS

Josh Diaz graduated from the University of Washington with an Engineering degree in Aeronautics & Astronautics. He went on to serve honorably in the 446th Aircraft Maintenance Group, US Air Force Reserve, at McChord AFB, Washington. He then partnered in Diaz Maintenance & Construction and helped build one of the premier service companies in the Puget Sound. Next, he worked for a distributor in the Building Materials industry and saw firsthand the opportunity to improve consumer experience by optimizing manufacturers capabilities. This motivated him to pursue robotics & automation. He is currently an Account Manager for Calvary Robotics, a world-class design-build firm of custom, turnkey automation solutions. His primary objective is to help strengthen the American industrial base, by providing manufacturers the tools they need to survive in the 21st century.

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Josh Diaz, Account Manager,
Calvary Robotics

Paul S. Berg U.S. Foreign Service Officer (Ret). Currently an independent foreign policy consultant, was a member of the U.S. Foreign Service from 1983 to 2018. He served as Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Rome from 2013-2017. Prior to that, he served as Senior Civilian Representative at the Regional Platform Southwest at Camp Leatherneck, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He was promoted into the Senior Foreign Service (SFS) Fall 2011 following a tour as Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) of the U.S. Embassy in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, also accredited to Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. From 2007 to April, 2009, he was Deputy Director of WHA/ PPC, the Western Hemisphere Bureau’s Office of Policy, Planning and Regional Coordination. From 2003-2006, he was Principal Officer of the U.S. Consulate General in Medan, which he reopened. During his three years in Medan, he was the U.S. government's point man on the insurgency in Aceh and oversaw USG response to the December 2004 Aceh tsunami and March 2005 Nias earthquake. In March, 2007 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued him a Distinguished Honor Award for his achievements in Medan, one of only three ever issued to officers below the Senior level. He has also received four separate individual Superior Honor Awards. Prior to his service in Indonesia, Mr. Berg served as Plan Colombia Director at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia 2001-2002. He was Deputy Chief of the Political Section at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam 1998-2001. Before that, he oversaw law enforcement and political-military affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City 1994-1997. He has also served in Rome, Brussels, Bombay and Washington DC. Mr. Berg’s languages are French, Italian, Arabic, Spanish, Vietnamese, Bahasa Indonesia and Pashto. Mr. Berg is a 2007 graduate of the National War College in Fort McNair, Washington DC, with a Masters in Strategic Studies. He also has a Certificate from the MIT Century XXI Seminar. He has Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University in the City of New York. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he was Acting Executive Director of International House in New York City, and before that was a local politician in Wisconsin, elected to the Dane County Board of Supervisors in 1977. He is active in the community of Hanover, Pennsylvania, where he lives, serving on the Board of the Rotary Club, and the Township of Berwick Planning Commission. He is also a Board Member of the Center for Foreign Affairs and Defense Policy. In his spare time, he likes to box and grapple, hunt, bike, run, scuba dive, mountain climb, golf, read, write, cook, and collect art. 

Paul Berg Headshot
Paul Berg, US Foreign Service Officer (Ret)

Dr. John MacCarthy earned a B.A. in physics from Carleton College, a Ph.D. in Physics (Biophysics and Biochemistry) from the University of Notre Dame and an M.S. in Systems Engineering from George Mason University. He has been interested in climate change since reading Al Gore’s “The Earth in Balance” in the early 1980s. He has studied the 2007, 2014 and 2021-2022 IPCC Assessment Reports (ARs) and recently co-taught a course at Wofford College on the 2021-2022 IPCC AR6 and its associated WGRs and ARs.

Dr. MacCarthy recently retired from a career that included teaching physics at Muhlenberg College, 23 years as a systems engineer with TRW and Northrup Grumman, serving as a senior technical and policy advisor to a high-level Pentagon official, serving as Research Staff Member with the Institute for Defense Analyses and serving as the Director of the University of Maryland’s Systems Engineering Education Program. During this time, he also served for nine years as an adjunct professor of systems engineering at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). He currently enjoys a part-time position as an adjunct lecturer of physics at Wofford College.  

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Dr. John MacCarthy, Adjunct Lecturer of Physics, Wofford College

Lee Stogner serves in Executive Positions in several corporations that drive improved business performance using technologies that include Business Innovation, Digital Transformation, Project Management, Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. Lee has over 35 years of design, consulting, project management and business development experience across a range of industries. Lee has driven growth at companies that include Digital Equipment, Fluor Corporation, Rockwell International and the Vincula Group. Customers around the world have benefited from Lee's expertise and leadership. Throughout his working career, Lee has been active in both local and international professional activities. Lee is the Chair of the Carolinas'​ Engineering Cluster and a past Director of the IEEE Board of Directors. Today, Lee is active in promoting the development of the Internet of Things through his participation in the IEEE Internet Initiative, the IEEE Digital Transformation Standard and as a Senior Member of the IEEE.

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Lee Stogner, Multiple Corporation Executive

LOVE LIFE, LEAD NOW  |  IT’S TIME TO RISE!  |  #PHOENIX

LOVE LIFE, LEAD NOW
IT’S TIME TO RISE!
#PHOENIX

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