Donald Strauss, Ph.D., MFA is the founding chair of the Urban Sustainability Master of Arts program at Antioch University Los Angeles. The program launched in October 2010 with the intention of training practitioners and activists committed to working at the urban intersections of global environmental change and social, economic, and environmental justice.
Since January of 2007, Donald has served as a Climate Change Presenter with The Climate Reality Project, founded by The Honorable Albert Gore. He has given over 50 presentations titled Climate Change: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions, based on the material included in the Academy Award-winning documentary film An Inconvenient Truth. With the ongoing assistance of the staff at The Climate Project, Donald has continuously updated the presentation so that in its current form it reflects the most current state of scientific knowledge and social discourse pertaining to global environmental change.
Janet Y. Thomas, Ph.D., is an educational sociologist and college professor who has several years of research and international education teaching and administration experience. She has served as USAID Deputy Director for education programs in Nigeria and Afghanistan. Dr. Thomas has previously chaired dissertation committees at SIT Graduate Institute and developed academic programs at the Mideastern Institute in Dubai.
Marwa Ghazali, Ph.D is a cultural and medical anthropologist with interdisciplinary expertise in African and African Diaspora studies, Muslim American studies, Islamic studies, peace and conflict studies, and biology. Most recently, she was a W. E. B. Du Bois Research Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Dr. Ghazali’s research and scholarship center around themes of migration, structural oppression, urban precarity, racial, gender, and health inequalities, and the politics of death and dying. She pairs multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork with historical and archival research to shed light on experiential dimensions of state violence. Her analysis delineates structural factors that shape (im)mobility, morbidity, and mortality among marginalized communities in Africa, the Middle East, and the US. Ghazali’s scholarship puts medical anthropology in conversation with Black feminist, Pan-African, decolonial, and critical race studies and highlights the intersectional and nuanced ways violence and inequality are brought to bear on individual and communal bodies. Her work attends to creative agencies, embodied modes, political subjectivities, emergent moralities, alternative economies, and social networks people cultivate to live and die with dignity. Dr. Ghazali’s scholarship has been featured on NPR/KCUR Public Radio.
Na'il Benjamin began his legal career at Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe, and continued his career at Coblentz, Patch, Duffy and Bass. He started Benjamin Law Group, P.C., after spending almost three years as a Deputy City Attorney in San Francisco. As a Deputy City Attorney, he managed an array of labor matters and employment litigation matters including labor negotiations, arbitrations, hearings, and trials.
Before attending law school, Mr. Benjamin attended the University of California at Berkeley. At Cal, Mr. Benjamin was an All Pac-10 wide receiver, punt returner, and kick off returner. He played every game during his four-year playing career and broke several records along the way. More importantly, Mr. Benjamin committed to mentoring youth in West Oakland by mentoring Roy Haskins at McClymonds High School. Mr. Benjamin became a spokesperson for the Athletic Speaker’s Bureau, Touchdowns For Kids, and Stiles Hall. Mr. Benjamin was honored with the Brett E. Merriman Award for his commitment to community service.
A graduate of the University of California at Hastings College of the Law, Mr. Benjamin is also currently enjoying his second term as a Board member for the California Association of Black Lawyers, and he has served as a Board member for the Charles Houston Bar Association, and on the Advisory Board for the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Diversity Pipeline Programs. Mr. Benjamin is also a very active member of the California Football Alumni Club, he is often speaking on panels and speaking with students about the practice of law, and he continues to mentor students at all levels of education.
René M. Naert, Ph.D., a professor at Alliant International University, has over 25 years of higher education program development, delivery, and administrative experience.
He has served as a systems analyst, curriculum developer, and systems engineer in the creation of over 40 multimedia, interactive, computer, and web-based training and educational products.
Dr. Naert has extensive consulting experience in both the national and international business arenas. During his tenure as president of KinderView.com (1998-2002), the company won several awards for its cutting-edge technology, including the Cisco and Inc. Magazine's "Growth Through Technology" award for 1999. In April of 2000 the Smithsonian Institute of Washington, D.C., in conjunction with ComputerWorld magazine, conferred a Laureate's Medallion upon the company in the "Unique Technology Innovation Category" for its unrivaled hardware and software configurations. KinderView was listed as one of the top 50 Web Companies by CIO Magazine and was presented with the "Golden Web Award&" for 3 consecutive years by the International Association of Web Masters and Designers.
Dr. Naert holds a doctoral degree in Computer Mediated Distance Education from Walden University, in residency at Indiana University; a Masters Degree in Business Administration from National University, and an M.A. Degree in Psychology, Counseling and Guidance from the University of Northern Colorado.
