Featured Speakers

This year's conference anticipates bringing a diverse array of featured speakers with powerful messages for the cohousing movement including:

Opening Keynote Speaker, Friday Evening

John Robbins: Best selling author and advocate for a more sustainable lifestyle.

John is the author of The New Good Life: Living Better Than Ever in an Age of Less, the international bestseller Diet for a New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness, and the Future of Life on Earth, and many other books.

Considered by many to be one of the most eloquent and powerful spokespersons in the world for a sane, ethical and sustainable future, John has been a featured and keynote speaker at major conferences sponsored by Physicians for Social Responsibility, Beyond War, Oxfam, the Sierra Club, the Humane Society of the United States, the United Nations Environmental Program, UNICEF, and many other organizations dedicated to creating a healthy, just, and sustainable way of life. He is the recipient of the Rachel Carson Award, the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award, the Peace Abbey’s Courage of Conscience Award, and lifetime achievement awards from groups including Green America.

John serves on the Boards of many non-profit groups working toward a thriving, just, and sustainable way of life. He is the Founder and Board Chair Emeritus of EarthSave International, an organization dedicated to healthy food choices, preservation of the environment, and a more compassionate world. John is also the Board Chair of YES!, which educates, inspires and empowers young leaders to take positive action for all life on Earth.

John’s life is dedicated to creating an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on this planet. He lives with his wife Deo, their son Ocean and his wife Michele, and their grandsons River and Bodhi in the hills outside Santa Cruz, California. The Robbins’ offices and home run on solar electricity.

Closing Keynote Speaker, Sunday Afternoon

Duane Elgin is an internationally recognized speaker, author, and social visionary who looks beneath the surface turbulence of our times to explore the deeper trends that are transforming our world. In 2006, Duane received the Japanese “Goi International Peace Award” in recognition of his contribution to a global “vision, consciousness, and lifestyle” that fosters a “more sustainable and spiritual culture.”
His books include: THE LIVING UNIVERSE: Where Are We? Who Are We? Where Are We Going? (2009); VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY: Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (three editions: 2010, 1993, and 1981); PROMISE AHEAD: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity’s Future (2000); and AWAKENING EARTH: Exploring the Evolution of Human Culture and Consciousness (1993). With Joseph Campbell and other scholars he co-authored the bookCHANGING IMAGES OF MAN (1982).

Over the past twenty twenty-five years, Duane has co-founded three non-partisan and non-profit organizations concerned with media accountability and citizen empowerment. As a speaker, Duane has given more than 300 keynotes and workshops with audiences ranging from business executives and civic groups to churches and college students.

He has an MBA from the Wharton Business School, an MA in economic history from the University of Pennsylvania, and an honorary Doctor of Philosophy for work in “ecological and spiritual transformation” from the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA

Duane is married to Coleen LeDrew Elgin, and he is also a father and grandfather.