People
It’s all alive. It’s all connected. It’s all intelligent. It’s all relatives.
Executive Team
CEO & Co-Founder
Kenny Ausubel
CEO & Co-FounderKenny Ausubel
CEO & Co-Founder
Location: Santa Fe, NM
Bioneer since 1990
Kenny Ausubel is an award-winning social entrepreneur, author, journalist and filmmaker. He is the Founder and CEO of Bioneers, the internationally recognized nonprofit dedicated to disseminating breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet. He launched the annual Bioneers Conference in 1990 with his business partner and wife Nina Simons, Bioneers Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Strategist.
Kenny is a writer, filmmaker and media professional. Since 2004, he has served as executive producer and co-writer of the award-winning international radio series The Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature.He acted as a central advisor to Leonardo DiCaprio’s feature documentary, The 11th Hour, and appears in the film.
He has written four books and edited several volumes of the Bioneers anthology book series. His most recent book Dreaming the Future: Reimagining Civilization in the Age of Nature (Chelsea Green 2012) won the Nautilus Grand Gold prize in the Ecology-Environment category.
Kenny co-founded the national company Seeds of Change in 1989 and served as CEO until 1994 to restore “backyard biodiversity” into the food web through marketing organic, biodiverse heirloom seeds to gardeners.
His critically acclaimed feature documentary film Hoxsey: How Healing Becomes a Crime and related reportage were named for the Best Censored Stories award for investigative journalism. The film played in movie theaters and aired on HBO and international TV, and enjoyed a special screening for member of Congress at the Kennedy Center, reported on NPR. He later published the acclaimed book “When Healing Becomes a Crime.”
Apart from his ongoing work with Bioneers, Kenny is currently developing several film projects.
Executive Director
Cara Romero
Executive DirectorCara Romero
Executive Director
Program Director – Indigeneity
Location: Santa Fe, NM
505-395-2746
Cara@Bioneers.org
Bioneer since 2011
Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) is the Director of the Bioneers Indigeneity Program, a position she has held for 15 years, during which time she has transformed it into a nationally recognized platform while maintaining a distinguished fine art career. With degrees in Fine Art Photography and Photography Technology, as well as studies in Cultural Anthropology, Cara brings expertise in Indigenous cultural studies, traditional ecological knowledge, and the conservation and revitalization of Native leadership and solutions. She previously served as the first Executive Director of the Chemehuevi Cultural Center and held elected positions on the Chemehuevi Tribal Council and Education Board. A devoted mother who maintains close ties to her community, Cara is a passionate advocate for empowering Native youth as environmental leaders and ensuring their voices are centered in climate and conservation conversations. Her fine art photography uniquely intersects with her activism, creating powerful visual narratives that communicate across cultures, with much of her artistic inspiration drawn from her transformative work at Bioneers.
Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Officer
Nina Simons
Co-Founder and Chief Relationship OfficerNina Simons
Secretary Board of Directors
Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Officer
Location: Santa Fe, NM
Bioneer since 1990
Nina Simons is co-founder of Bioneers and serves as its Chief Relationship Strategist. She is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about the power of women to transform the world, reaching racial and gender justice, indigeneity and rekindling a sacred relationship to nature, while co-creating a just transition that’s regenerative, loving and peaceful.
She speaks internationally and co-facilitates transformative leadership offerings that integrate Relational Mindfulness, Restoring the Deep Feminine and The Work That Reconnects.
Nina co-edited Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart, and recently wrote the award-winning book Nature, Culture & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership. She was named a recipient of the Goi Peace Award in recognition of her pioneering work through Bioneers to promote nature-inspired innovations for restoring (reciprocal relationships among) the Earth and our human community.
Chief Administrative Officer
Nikki Spangenburg
Chief Administrative OfficerNikki Spangenburg
Chief Administrative Officer
Location: Santa Fe, NM
505-395-2792
Nikki@Bioneers.org
Bioneer since 2008
Nikki has worked for Bioneers since 2008 starting with the award winning Dreaming New Mexico project and the Resilient Communities Network that works to build resilience from the ground up at local and regional levels. As Chief Administrative Officer, her work is focused on developing operational systems and processes that supports and delivers Bioneers mission, strategic plan and goals.
Board
CEO & Co-Founder
Kenny Ausubel
CEO & Co-FounderKenny Ausubel
CEO & Co-Founder
Location: Santa Fe, NM
Bioneer since 1990
Kenny Ausubel is an award-winning social entrepreneur, author, journalist and filmmaker. He is the Founder and CEO of Bioneers, the internationally recognized nonprofit dedicated to disseminating breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet. He launched the annual Bioneers Conference in 1990 with his business partner and wife Nina Simons, Bioneers Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Strategist.
Kenny is a writer, filmmaker and media professional. Since 2004, he has served as executive producer and co-writer of the award-winning international radio series The Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature.He acted as a central advisor to Leonardo DiCaprio’s feature documentary, The 11th Hour, and appears in the film.
He has written four books and edited several volumes of the Bioneers anthology book series. His most recent book Dreaming the Future: Reimagining Civilization in the Age of Nature (Chelsea Green 2012) won the Nautilus Grand Gold prize in the Ecology-Environment category.
Kenny co-founded the national company Seeds of Change in 1989 and served as CEO until 1994 to restore “backyard biodiversity” into the food web through marketing organic, biodiverse heirloom seeds to gardeners.
His critically acclaimed feature documentary film Hoxsey: How Healing Becomes a Crime and related reportage were named for the Best Censored Stories award for investigative journalism. The film played in movie theaters and aired on HBO and international TV, and enjoyed a special screening for member of Congress at the Kennedy Center, reported on NPR. He later published the acclaimed book “When Healing Becomes a Crime.”
Apart from his ongoing work with Bioneers, Kenny is currently developing several film projects.
Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Officer
Nina Simons
Co-Founder and Chief Relationship OfficerNina Simons
Secretary Board of Directors
Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Officer
Location: Santa Fe, NM
Bioneer since 1990
Nina Simons is co-founder of Bioneers and serves as its Chief Relationship Strategist. She is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about the power of women to transform the world, reaching racial and gender justice, indigeneity and rekindling a sacred relationship to nature, while co-creating a just transition that’s regenerative, loving and peaceful.
She speaks internationally and co-facilitates transformative leadership offerings that integrate Relational Mindfulness, Restoring the Deep Feminine and The Work That Reconnects.
Nina co-edited Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart, and recently wrote the award-winning book Nature, Culture & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership. She was named a recipient of the Goi Peace Award in recognition of her pioneering work through Bioneers to promote nature-inspired innovations for restoring (reciprocal relationships among) the Earth and our human community.
Board of Directors
Sonali Sangeeta Balajee
Board of DirectorsSonali Sangeeta Balajee is a proud mother, artist, organizer, facilitator, mindfulness / yoga instructor, and emerging health practitioner who works at the intersection of belonging, equity, and deep transformative change. She is the founder of Our Bodhi Project, a spiritual and political project that supports healthy movement-building and organizing through deepening our critical analyses, centering the health of all living systems, and enlivening the connection between social and collectively spiritual wellness. Her life work has focused on bringing forward ideas and strategies that speak to wholeness, specifically calling for leading with multiple truths and perspectives required for collective health.
Her community organizing background has focused on youth development, environmental justice, and HIV / AIDS-related advocacy and service. Her current advocacy focus is on resource mobilization for projects and initiatives that speak to the social and environmental antidotes our world so desperately needs.
Board of Directors
Colette Pichon Battle
Board of DirectorsColette Pichon Battle is an award-winning lawyer and climate justice organizer. She is a trusted voice in the climate justice and Black liberation movements, and her work focuses on creating spaces for frontline communities to gather and advance climate strategies that help us steward the water, energy, and land.
Board of Directors
Jade Begay
Board of DirectorsJade Begay, Tesuque Pueblo and Dine, works at the intersections of Indigenous rights and climate and environmental justice, shaping national and international policy. Jade has worked with Indigenous-led organizations and Tribes from the Amazon to the Arctic to advance Indigenous-led solutions and self-determination through advocacy campaigns, research, storytelling and narrative strategies. In 2021, Jade was appointed by President Biden to serve on the first ever White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and in 2024 served as the National Engagement Native American Director for the Harris Walz Campa
Chair-Board of Directors
Eriel Deranger
Chair-Board of DirectorsEriel (she/her) is a Dënesųłiné woman (ts’ékui), member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and mother of two, coming from a family of Indigenous rights advocates fighting for the recognition, sovereignty and autonomy of their Indigenous lands and territory in what is now known as Treaty 8, Canada.
In 2015, Deranger worked with local Indigenous organizers to help build out the foundations of Indigenous Climate Action, becoming one of the core co-founders of the organization. She formally stepped into the role of Executive Director in July of 2017.
Prior to ICA, Deranger worked with her First Nation to build out one of the largest inter-sectional keep it in the ground campaigns: The international Indigenous Tar Sands campaign – challenging the expansion of Alberta’s Tar Sands. As part of her role she brought international recognition to issues in her territory with celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Darren Aronofsky, Neil Young, Daryl Hannah, James Cameron and many others, drawing attention across the globe.
Deranger has written for the Guardian, Yellowhead Institute, The National Observer, Red Pepper Magazine, been featured in documentary films including Elemental (2012), interviewed for national and international media outlets including Democracy Now!, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), and CBC.
Vice Chair-Board of Directors
Ginny McGinn
Vice Chair-Board of DirectorsGinny McGinn is a mother, artist, and nonprofit leader. Throughout her career, she has been deeply involved in the work of social and organizational change and in building partnerships across lines of power and privilege. Ginny has a profound interest in how change happens, from the level of individual transformation through the level of entire communities or systems, and it is this process of change that she seeks to continue to study and facilitate in her leadership at Whole Communities.
Previously, Ginny served as president of Bioneers, a national nonprofit dedicated to disseminating practical and visionary solutions for restoring Earth’s ecosystems and healing human communities. While at Bioneers she and her colleagues greatly expanded the reach of its programs by launching satellite conferences and building partnerships in cities around the country, creating access for many who would not have otherwise had it.
Cultivating practices that support whole communities (lower case intended) and bringing those practices into our daily lives is the focus of her current work. Through “Whole Thinking in Practice” we are able to stay present, make better decisions, and act on behalf of the whole as we go about our work in organizations and movements.
Ginny facilitates and consults on organizational change around the country, using the Whole Thinking Practices and the tools she and her colleagues have helped evolve at Center for Whole Communities.
Board of Directors
Thomas Alan Linzey
Board of DirectorsThomas Linzey serves as Senior Legal Counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER), an organization committed to globally advancing the legal rights of nature and environmental rights. He is the co-founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), and is widely recognized as the founder of the contemporary “community rights” and “rights of nature” movements which have resulted in the adoption of several hundred laws across the United States and around the world. He sits on the Board of Advisors of the New Earth Foundation.
Linzey is a cum laude graduate of Widener Law School and a three-time recipient of the law school’s public interest law award. He has been a finalist for the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World Award, and is a recipient of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union’s Golden Triangle Legislative Award. He is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania, and he is admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, the Third, Fourth, Eighth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
He also serves as a faculty member for the National Academy of Continuing Legal Education (NACLE) and for Lawline, both national providers of continuing legal education courses for lawyers.
He is a co-founder of the Daniel Pennock Democracy School – now taught in twenty-four states across the country which has graduated over 5,000 lawyers, activists, and municipal officials – which assists groups to create new community campaigns which elevate the rights of those communities over rights claimed by corporations. Linzey is the author of Be The Change: How to Get What You Want in Your Community (Gibbs-Smith 2009), the author of On Community Civil Disobedience in the Name of Sustainability (PM Press 2016), the co-author of We the People: Stories from the Community Rights Movement in the United States (PM Press 2016), and the author of Modern American Democracy and Other Fairy Tales (forthcoming, Spring, 2023), has served as a co-host of Democracy Matters, a public affairs radio show broadcast from KYRS in Spokane, Washington and syndicated on ten other stations, was featured in Leonardo DiCaprio and Tree Media’s film 11th Hour and We the People 2.0 (Official Selection of the Seattle International Film Festival), assisted the Ecuadorian constitutional assembly in 2008 to adopt the world’s first constitution recognizing the independently enforceable rights of ecosystems, and is a frequent lecturer at conferences across the country.
His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, the Nation magazine, he was named, in 2007, as one of Forbes’ magazines’ “Top Ten Revolutionaries,” and, in 2018, Linzey was named as one of the top 400 environmentalists of the last 200 years in the two volume encyclopedia, American Environmental Leaders (3rd Ed. Grey House Publishing 2018). Linzey currently resides in Spokane, Washington.
The Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights can be found at www.centerforenvironmentalrights.org
Treasurer Board of Directors
Anita L. Sanchez
Treasurer Board of DirectorsDr. Anita Sanchez, Nahua (Aztec) and Mexican American, author, trainer, consultant, is a transformational leadership consultant, trainer, speaker, and coach to Fortune 500 corporations and to global non-profits. She is podcast host of “Two-Legged Experience” and author of seven books including the international award-winning book – The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times (Simon & Schuster). Drawing on her doctorate in Organization Development, she weaves indigenous teachings with the latest science to inspire and equip women and men to enjoy meaningful, empowered lives and careers while caring for the earth and each other. She is a member of the Transformational Leadership Council, Evolutionary Leadership and Board member of Bioneers and the Pachamama Alliance. Anita is a member of the Elders Council of the Wisdom Weavers of the World and of the FireCircle.Earth. Anita leads an annual journey into the sacred headwaters of the Amazon.
Dr. Sanchez is passionate about “inspiring people to discover and trust their gifts so that they become a life-giving connection to people and to the planet”. Recent awards include 2022 Mogul’s Top 100 DEI Leaders, Conscious Company Media 2020 World Changing Woman and the World Woman Foundation #SheismyHero awards with Jane Goodall and fifty-eight other brilliant, heart-centered women to inspire one million girls to dream and live their leadership. Info www.SanchezTennis.com and www.FourSacredGifts.com
Board of Directors
Samantha Skenandore
Board of DirectorsSamantha has nearly 20 years of experience advising dozens of tribal and corporate clients on matters involving federal Indian law and tribal law. Samantha counsels clients on tribal governance, corporate governance, governmental affairs, corporate transactions, real estate, cultural resources, cannabis, Indian water rights settlements, labor issues and litigation. Her extensive multijurisdictional practice has resulted in successful outcomes for clients participating in the Small Business Administration 8(a) program, corporate retreats, corporate entity formation and reorganization, financing, mergers & acquisitions, tribal code development, minority or woman-owned certifications, labor relations, complex commercial real estate transactions and tribal economic development initiatives. Samantha also represents clients in federal-tribal consultations and represents clients before members of Congress, congressional committees and agencies through federal lobbying services.
As a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, Skenandore previously served as a Tribal Attorney for the Ho-Chunk Nation Department of Justice and clerked for the United States Department of Justice, Indian Resources Section, as well as the State of Colorado Division of Administrative Hearings in Denver, Colorado. Samantha served as an elected Associate Justice to the Ho-Chunk Nation Supreme Court from 2015-2019.
Samantha is a longtime community member of TeeJop (meaning “Four Lakes” in Ho-Chunk), Madison, Wisconsin, where she enjoys family time, local events, non-profit service, visiting parks, gardening, and riding horses.
Board of Directors
Justin Winters
Board of DirectorsDriven by a passion for nature, Justin Winters is committed to democratizing climate philanthropy in order to create an inclusive and impactful movement to address the climate crisis from the ground up. She is the Co-founder and Executive Director of One Earth, a nonprofit organization working to galvanize science, advocacy, and philanthropy to drive collective action on climate change. Through One Earth, she is focused on creating a vision for the world that is possible by 2050—one in which humanity and nature coexist and thrive together. This vision is based on three pillars of action: 100% renewable energy, protection and restoration of 50% of the world’s lands and oceans, and a transition to regenerative, carbon-negative agriculture.
Prior to One Earth, Justin served as Executive Director of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation for 13 years, where she built the organization’s grant-making program, which awarded over $100 million in grants across 60 countries and created a series of innovative philanthropic funds, including Oceans 5, Shark Conservation Fund, The Solutions Funds, Lion Recovery Fund, Elephant Crisis Fund, and Quick Response Fund for Nature.
Team
CEO & Co-Founder
Kenny Ausubel
CEO & Co-FounderKenny Ausubel
CEO & Co-Founder
Location: Santa Fe, NM
Bioneer since 1990
Kenny Ausubel is an award-winning social entrepreneur, author, journalist and filmmaker. He is the Founder and CEO of Bioneers, the internationally recognized nonprofit dedicated to disseminating breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet. He launched the annual Bioneers Conference in 1990 with his business partner and wife Nina Simons, Bioneers Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Strategist.
Kenny is a writer, filmmaker and media professional. Since 2004, he has served as executive producer and co-writer of the award-winning international radio series The Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature.He acted as a central advisor to Leonardo DiCaprio’s feature documentary, The 11th Hour, and appears in the film.
He has written four books and edited several volumes of the Bioneers anthology book series. His most recent book Dreaming the Future: Reimagining Civilization in the Age of Nature (Chelsea Green 2012) won the Nautilus Grand Gold prize in the Ecology-Environment category.
Kenny co-founded the national company Seeds of Change in 1989 and served as CEO until 1994 to restore “backyard biodiversity” into the food web through marketing organic, biodiverse heirloom seeds to gardeners.
His critically acclaimed feature documentary film Hoxsey: How Healing Becomes a Crime and related reportage were named for the Best Censored Stories award for investigative journalism. The film played in movie theaters and aired on HBO and international TV, and enjoyed a special screening for member of Congress at the Kennedy Center, reported on NPR. He later published the acclaimed book “When Healing Becomes a Crime.”
Apart from his ongoing work with Bioneers, Kenny is currently developing several film projects.
National Bioneers Conference Project Manager
Kelli Barr
National Bioneers Conference Project ManagerKelli Barr
National Bioneers Conference Project Manager
Location: Santa Fe, NM
415-660-9304
Kelli@Bioneers.org
Bioneer since 1999
Kelli works with the programming team for the Bioneers Conference. She is the communications liaison with all scheduled speakers, and she manages the large work-exchange crew who work with us each year.
Kelli’s previous professional experience was at EcoWorks Multimedia (a nonprofit project of the Tides Center) as assistant to the director, where she was responsible for office management, managing an organizational outreach program, supervising staff and intern schedules and editing manuscripts. Kelli has a B.A. in History from Salem State College, and is a certified dog trainer.
When not in the office, Kelli enjoys cooking healthy meals, backpacking and hiking with her dogs, and playing ice hockey.
Favorite Causes: Wildlife Biodiversity, Organic Food and Farming, Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods, Global Warming.
Program Manager, Indigeneity
Nazshonnii Brown-Almaweri
Program Manager, IndigeneityNazshonnii Brown-Almaweri
Program Manager – Indigeneity Program
Location: Bay Area, CA
Nazshonnii@Bioneers.org
Bioneer since 2022
Nazshonnii Brown-Almaweri is a farmer, STEM educator, and Union College Alumna (B.S Mechanical Engineering and Studio Arts, French and Francophone Studies Minor) from West Oakland. She was a STEM tutor, media educator, and youth program assistant for the American Indian Child Resource Center. She is also connected to the Gill Tract Community Farm in Albany, an volunteer-led farm that provides food, medicine, and green spaces to the community. Nazshonnii is passionate about STEAM education and advocates for exposure and opportunities for the historically excluded people, especially Black and Native youth. As an educator, Nazshonnii has provided middle and high school youth with the space to learn about STEAM at the intersection of ancestral knowledge and their lived experiences. Creating space for Oakland youth to thrive in disciplines like engineering. Outside of work, she likes spending time with her nephews on the farm, watching endless youtube with her partner, and cooking for her friends.
Indigeneity Special Programs Coordinator
Britt Gondolfi
Indigeneity Special Programs CoordinatorBritt Gondolfi
Indigeneity Special Programs Coordinator
Location: New Orleans, LA
Britt@Bioneers.org
Bioneer since 2017
Britt Gondolfi, born and raised in Southeast Louisiana, is a children’s book author, community organizer, and mother. Since 2017, Britt has worked with the Bioneers Intercultural Conversation Program, facilitating programming for students from Atlanta, Bogalusa, and Houma. While in law school, Britt supported the Bioneers Rights of Nature initiative by researching the intersection of tribal sovereignty and Federal Indian law facilitating workshops on the Rights of Nature at the Ho-Chunk and Mashpee Wampanoag nations. She recently took a stand for women’s rights, running a fierce campaign for State Senate in Louisiana. Her first Children’s book, “Look Up! Fontaine the Pigeon Starts a Revolution,” is a hilarious social commentary on digital distraction and Nature’s fight to save us from ourselves.
Senior Producer, Conference and Special Projects
JP Harpignies
Senior Producer, Conference and Special ProjectsJP Harpignies
Senior Producer, Conference and Special Projects
Bioneer since 1990
JP is a Brooklyn, NY-based consultant, conference producer, copy-editor and writer. He is the author of four books: Political Ecosystems, Double Helix Hubris, Delusions of Normality, and most recently Animal Encounters; co-author of The Magic Carpet Ride; editor of the collection, Visionary Plant Consciousness; and associate editor of the first two Bioneers books: Ecological Medicine and Nature’s Operating Instructions. A senior review team member for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge from 2009 to 2017, he was formerly a program director at the New York Open Center and founder/co-producer of the Eco-Metropolis conference in NYC. JP also taught t’ai chi chuan in Brooklyn, NY for nearly 25 years.
Media Producer
Emily Harris
Media ProducerEmily Harris
Media Producer
Location: San Francisco, CA
Emily@Bioneers.org
Bioneer since 2014
A sound engineer and music enthusiast, Emily’s love for mixing audio tapestries helps to bring the Bioneers Radio series to life. Emily is also a documentary filmmaker and editor who has worked on productions for Al Jazeera America and PBS.
Executive Director
Cara Romero
Executive DirectorCara Romero
Executive Director
Program Director – Indigeneity
Location: Santa Fe, NM
505-395-2746
Cara@Bioneers.org
Bioneer since 2011
Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) is the Director of the Bioneers Indigeneity Program, a position she has held for 15 years, during which time she has transformed it into a nationally recognized platform while maintaining a distinguished fine art career. With degrees in Fine Art Photography and Photography Technology, as well as studies in Cultural Anthropology, Cara brings expertise in Indigenous cultural studies, traditional ecological knowledge, and the conservation and revitalization of Native leadership and solutions. She previously served as the first Executive Director of the Chemehuevi Cultural Center and held elected positions on the Chemehuevi Tribal Council and Education Board. A devoted mother who maintains close ties to her community, Cara is a passionate advocate for empowering Native youth as environmental leaders and ensuring their voices are centered in climate and conservation conversations. Her fine art photography uniquely intersects with her activism, creating powerful visual narratives that communicate across cultures, with much of her artistic inspiration drawn from her transformative work at Bioneers.
IT Manager and Media Administrator
Tyson Russell
IT Manager and Media AdministratorTyson Russell
IT Manager and Media Administrator
Location: San Francisco, CA
415-660-9303
Tyson@Bioneers.org
Bioneer since 2013
As the IT Manager and Media Administrator, Tyson is responsible for defining, developing and curating online content for web properties and social media. He is responsible for full cycle content acquisition and website development processes. As well as the ongoing maintenance and management of the digital properties.
Tyson holds a bachelor degree in Business and Technology as well as a minor in History. He is a firm supporter of the Bioneers core mission and is proud to be part of their team.
Tyson is an avid mountain biker, with a deep appreciation for nature. He is a devoted husband and proud father of three beautiful children.
Favorite Causes: Animal Rights, Conservation, Equality and Veganism.
Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Officer
Nina Simons
Co-Founder and Chief Relationship OfficerNina Simons
Secretary Board of Directors
Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Officer
Location: Santa Fe, NM
Bioneer since 1990
Nina Simons is co-founder of Bioneers and serves as its Chief Relationship Strategist. She is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about the power of women to transform the world, reaching racial and gender justice, indigeneity and rekindling a sacred relationship to nature, while co-creating a just transition that’s regenerative, loving and peaceful.
She speaks internationally and co-facilitates transformative leadership offerings that integrate Relational Mindfulness, Restoring the Deep Feminine and The Work That Reconnects.
Nina co-edited Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart, and recently wrote the award-winning book Nature, Culture & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership. She was named a recipient of the Goi Peace Award in recognition of her pioneering work through Bioneers to promote nature-inspired innovations for restoring (reciprocal relationships among) the Earth and our human community.
Chief Administrative Officer
Nikki Spangenburg
Chief Administrative OfficerNikki Spangenburg
Chief Administrative Officer
Location: Santa Fe, NM
505-395-2792
Nikki@Bioneers.org
Bioneer since 2008
Nikki has worked for Bioneers since 2008 starting with the award winning Dreaming New Mexico project and the Resilient Communities Network that works to build resilience from the ground up at local and regional levels. As Chief Administrative Officer, her work is focused on developing operational systems and processes that supports and delivers Bioneers mission, strategic plan and goals.
Bioneers Radio Producer
Stephanie Welch
Bioneers Radio ProducerStephanie Welch
Bioneers Radio Producer
Location: San Francisco, CA
505-395-2800
Stephanie@Bioneers.org
Bioneer since 2017