Program Details

Jane Fonda

Actor, Activist, and Founder of the Jane Fonda Climate PAC

For over 60 years, Jane Fonda has captivated audiences as an actor and inspired millions of people by using her platform to advance causes near and dear to her heart. Recently, she’s turned her focus to the fight of our lifetime: confronting the climate crisis at its source — the fossil fuel industry.

Through her work at the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, Jane works every day to sound the alarm about the crisis we face, elevate the solutions we need, and build a firewall of bold leaders who fight for a livable future for all of our communities.

Ken Schles

Award-winning photographer, writer, activist, and FWWA volunteer

Ken Schles is an award-winning photographer and lifelong New Yorker. He’s published five monographs and has work in museum collections around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the RijksMuseum in Amsterdam. His book, Invisible City, was a New York Times Notable. For the last eight years, he’s focused his lens on activist movements in the United States.

Ken grew up in a tumultuous world and remembers the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, and his older brothers protesting against the Vietnam War. His own public start in activism began during the AIDS crisis when he successfully fought for tenants’ rights in his East Village tenement in New York City (which garnered a jail sentence for his landlord). 

Working on successful Food & Water Watch campaigns alongside coalition allies, Ken has been an instrumental player in stopping the $2 billion Williams pipeline, passing the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (New York State’s premier climate law), blocking the rebuilding of the Danskammer fracked gas power plant, stopping the Astoria power plant, the Gowanus and Narrows peaker plants, the final phase of the North Brooklyn Pipeline, and the permitting for liquefied natural gas vaporizers at the Greenpoint Energy Center in North Brooklyn. He helped pass the All Electric Buildings Act on city and state levels, the Build Public Renewables Act, the Crypto Mining Moratorium, the Climate Change Superfund Act, and the CO₂ Fracking Ban, and helped to stop the dumping of over a million gallons of radioactive waste into the Hudson River from the decommissioned Indian Point nuclear facility. 

Ken is not shy with his photography, or about leveraging power where needed, and has been arrested over a dozen times, most recently in defending Local Law 97, New York City’s Green New Deal to decarbonize buildings over 25,000 square feet. The judge threw out the charges and commended activists fighting City Hall who demanded the city enforce its own laws. 

In February 2025, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam will open a ground-breaking survey on the history of American photography which will include a photograph by Ken. Food & Water Watch is consistently aided in telling the story of our work by Ken’s sensitive and powerful photography.

Steve Max

Lifelong activist and co-author of Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Training Manual

With over 60 years of experience in civil rights, labor, and community organizing, Steve Max has many accolades to his name, including being instrumental in the training of Food & Water Watch organizers.

Raised in New York City, Steve began organizing in 1958 when he volunteered for the Youth March for Integrated Schools. Four years later, he was a founding member of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and went on to co-create SDS’s Political Education Project, advocating for electoral action and coalition building as a necessary complement to radical activism. In the 1970s, Steve staffed the Citizen-Labor Energy Coalition and Citizen Action.

In 1973, Max joined the Midwest Academy as Curriculum Director. In this role, he trained organizations like AARP, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the American Cancer Society, the US Student Association, and Planned Parenthood among many other national, local, and union organizations. Steve focused on equipping them to build power and win on their issues. Over the years, Steve’s guidance led the Academy to make significant contributions to the concepts and practices of organizing, coalition building, building labor-community alliances, and connecting with door-to-door canvassing (a concept that was new to the world of grassroots organizing).

By the early 1980s, Steve and the Midwest Academy had helped mobilize the first ERA rally and had reached more than 16,000 organizers throughout the country. Over the decades, he remained instrumental in growing and developing specialized courses designed to provide the essential skills and critical power analysis to build and sustain powerful organizations long term. Steve co-authored Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Training Manual with Kim Bobo and Jackie Kendall, which has sold over 500,000 copies and still serves as the foundational training for Food & Water Watch organizers.

Known for his strategic vision and unwavering commitment, Steve continues to inspire progressive movements to this day.

Jackie Kendall

Lifelong activist and co-author of Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Training Manual

After winning a successful campaign to get freshness dates on food, Jackie Kendall attended the Midwest Academy, a progressive-change training institute, and went on to help build Illinois Public Action, one of the first statewide multi-issue coalitions. In 1981, she joined the Midwest Academy where she made arming progressives with the Academy’s organizing fundamentals her life’s work. She has trained thousands of organizers from a wide range of organizations: labor, civil and human rights, faith-based, women’s, disability, LGBT, senior citizens, and students. 

As Executive Director of Midwest Academy (1982-2011), Kendall steered the academy to meet the needs of the progressive movement. In the mid-80s, she identified the need to routinely infuse the movement with new generations of skilled organizers and forged a partnership with the United States Student Association (USSA) to create Grassroots Organizing Weekends (GROW). In that same spirit, she expanded Midwest Academy’s reach with a paid internship program specifically for students and young people interested in learning direct action organizing. 

With extensive experience working in electoral campaigns (both partisan and non-partisan), Kendall was part of the team that developed and delivered the first Camp Obama training for volunteers going to Iowa in the summer of 2007 through the Iowa Caucuses. 

“Unsuccessfully retired,” Jackie continues to provide consulting services to Food & Water Watch and is a partner at Democracy Partners.

Kendall is co-author of Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Training Manual by Kim Bobo, Jackie Kendall, and Steve Max, which has sold over 500,000 copies and still serves as the foundational training for Food & Water Watch organizers.

Zephyr Teachout

Professor of Law at Fordham University

Zephyr Teachout is a Professor of Law at Fordham Law School, where she focuses on the intersection of corporate power and political power. Her courses cover corporate, election, and antitrust law, and how to prosecute white-collar crime. Her most recent book, Break ’em Up (2020), makes a case for reimagining the relationship between democracy and anti-monopoly law. Her prior book, Corruption in America (2014), argued that the U.S. constitutional system has an embedded anti-corruption principle that has been discarded by the modern Court. Her public writings have appeared in The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The New York Review of Books, The Washington Post, The Nation, and The New Republic. In 2021, she took a leave of absence to work as Special Advisor and Senior Counsel for Economic Justice at the New York Attorney General’s office. Before law school, Zephyr Teachout had a career as a digital consultant and nonprofit entrepreneur and represented clients on death row in North Carolina. She was a law clerk to then-Chief Judge Edward R. Becker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Sen. Cory Booker

U.S. Senator of New Jersey

Cory Booker believes that the American dream isn’t real for anyone unless it’s within reach of everyone. Booker has dedicated his life to fighting for those who have been left out, left behind, or left without a voice. Booker grew up in northern New Jersey and received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University. At Stanford, Booker played varsity football, volunteered for the campus peer counseling center, and wrote for the student newspaper. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and went on to study at the University of Oxford, and then Yale Law School, where he graduated in 1997.

After graduating law school, Booker moved to Newark and started a nonprofit organization to provide legal services for low-income families, helping tenants take on slumlords. In 1998, Booker moved into the Brick Towers housing project in Newark, where he lived until its demolition in 2006. Booker still lives in Newark’s Central Ward today, where the median household income is less than $15,000. At 29, Booker was elected to the Newark City Council, where he challenged the city’s entrenched political machine and fought to improve living conditions for city residents, increase public safety, and reduce crime. Starting in 2006, Booker served as Newark’s mayor for more than seven years. During his tenure, the city entered its largest period of economic growth since the 1960s. In addition, overall crime declined and the quality of life for residents improved due to initiatives such as more affordable housing, new green spaces and parks, increased educational opportunities, and more efficient city services.

Representative Ro Khanna

U.S. Congressman

Representative Ro Khanna (CA-17) is a leading progressive voice in the U.S. House of Representatives, working to restore American manufacturing and technology leadership, improve the lives of working people, and advance U.S. leadership on climate, human rights, and diplomacy around the world. He believes our nation needs a new economic patriotism to create jobs in the industries of the future and unify Americans — from the South to the heartland to the coasts — around a shared purpose.

Khanna proudly represents California’s 17th Congressional District, located in the heart of Silicon Valley, and is serving his fifth term. He serves as vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, on the House Armed Services Committee as ranking member of the Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies and Information Systems (CITI), co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, a member of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, and on the Oversight and Accountability committee, where he previously chaired the Environmental Subcommittee.

He has worked across the aisle to deliver on legislation to invest in science and technology, create millions of good-paying tech jobs, and revitalize American manufacturing and production. Khanna authored the Endless Frontier Act, which formed the basis for the sweeping CHIPS and Science Act signed into law by President Biden.

As Chair of the House Oversight and Reform Environmental Subcommittee, Khanna brought the CEOs of six major fossil fuel companies before Congress to testify under oath about climate disinformation for the first time in history. He also held hearings to investigate the health harms associated with leaded aviation fuel, implement better wildfire preparation measures, and protect America’s food supply from the threats posed by climate change. During the Inflation Reduction Act negotiations, Khanna played a key role in ensuring that important climate provisions remained in the final deal.

He is committed to using his position to advance a foreign policy of military restraint and diplomatic engagement. Instead of spending trillions on wars overseas, Khanna believes we should invest in priorities at home like Medicare for All, affordable childcare, and free public college and vocational school. To pay for his own higher education, he took out over $100,000 in student loans, and as a member of Congress, he has called for student loan debt forgiveness — the more, the better.

Khanna is a strong supporter of the labor movement and has pushed for policies like the PRO Act to ensure that no one with a full-time job needs to rely on SNAP (formerly called food stamps), housing vouchers, or other forms of safety net benefits. He is also one of only a few members of Congress to refuse contributions from PACs and lobbyists. He supports a 12-year term limit for Members of Congress, 18 years for Supreme Court Justices, and a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. Since arriving in Congress, he has had five bills signed into law.

Khanna was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during America’s bicentennial, to a middle-class family. Both of his parents immigrated to the United States in the 1970s from India in search of opportunity and a better life for their children. His father is a chemical engineer, and his mother is a substitute school teacher. Khanna’s commitment to public service was inspired by his grandfather, who was active in Mahatma Gandhi’s independence movement, worked with Lala Lajpat Rai in India, and spent several years in jail for promoting human rights.

Prior to serving in Congress, he taught economics at Stanford University and served as deputy assistant secretary of commerce in the Obama administration. He has written two books: Entrepreneurial Nation: Why Manufacturing is Still Key to America’s Future and Dignity in a Digital Age.

Khanna graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in Economics from the University of Chicago and received a law degree from Yale University. As a student at the University of Chicago, he walked precincts during Barack Obama’s first campaign for the Illinois Senate in 1996.

In his free time, Khanna enjoys cheering for the Golden State Warriors, watching movies, and traveling. He calls Fremont home, and he and his wife Ritu have two young children.

Meghan Davis, DVM, PhD, MPH

Associate Professor and Doctoral Program Director, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Meghan F. Davis, DVM PhD MPH, is an Associate Professor and Doctoral Program Director in Environmental Health and Engineering at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (BSPH). She directs the Johns Hopkins P.O.E. Total Worker Health Center in Mental Health, which takes a holistic approach to the health and well-being of workers, particularly frontline workers in agriculture, healthcare, and service sectors. She received her D.V.M. from the University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in 2000, and her M.P.H. and Ph.D. from BSPH in 2008 and 2012, respectively. She is affiliated with the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and was a Lerner Fellow during her Ph.D. training. Prior to her faculty career, she had over a decade of experience in veterinary medicine, including dairy practice. She recently served as Chair of the U.S. Committee for the International Network for Governmental Science Advice (INGSA-Asia) effort, in collaboration with the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), to produce The Guidelines on Countering Zoonotic Spillover of High-Consequence Pathogens in the Southeast Asia Region. She also served on the NASEM Planning Committee for a workshop on potential research priorities to inform readiness and response to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A (H5N1). Her research is grounded in the One Health approach, which promotes transdisciplinary, systems-thinking efforts toward improved human, animal, and environmental health with a particular focus on food systems.

Allie Park

Youth Activist and Food & Water Watch Intern

Allie Park is a high school senior from New Jersey, who will begin her college career at Northwestern University this fall. Since September, she has been interning with Food & Water Watch, where she planned the New Jersey Youth Climate Gathering at Rutgers University with a cohort of fellow interns. Her passion for environmental activism fuels her work as a filmmaker. Runner up in the New York Times Global Teen Photo Essay Contest and filmmaking organization founder, Allie believes storytelling is a powerful tool to inform, inspire, and mobilize communities, sparking dialogue on climate change and social justice. She is excited to share her journey as a host on the youth activist panel.

Mei Brunson

Youth Activist and third-year student at Lewis & Clark Law School

Mei Brunson is a third-year Juris Doctor student at Lewis & Clark Law School. She aims to leverage litigation to advance animal, food, and environmental justice. Throughout law school, Mei interned with Food & Water Watch, Animal Partisan, the Center for Animal Law Studies, Earthjustice, Farm Sanctuary, and the Humane Society of the United States. She serves as submissions editor for the Animal Law Review and co-directs the Lewis & Clark Animal Legal Defense Fund Student Chapter. After graduation, Mei will clerk for the Honorable Judge Kristina Hellman on the Oregon Court of Appeals.

Juliana Toloza Serna

Youth Activist and environmental filmmaker

As a Colombian-American film director, Juliana Toloza Serna’s early environmental journey began with producing video content. Eventually, as a National Coordinator for Fridays for Future USA, she fostered connections among local groups nationwide and collaborated with international partners. Her activism extends to organizing environmental marches, mobilizing youth, and advocating for an equitable fossil fuel phase-out at global forums.

As a graduate of Florida State University’s Motion Picture Arts program, she brings a wealth of experience in film and documentary production. Her work has won top awards, including the “Audience Award” at the National Association of Latino Independent Producers Media Festival. Juliana remains dedicated to integrating climate solutions into her film and communications projects.

Rebecca Wolf

Senior Food Policy Analyst, Food & Water Watch

Rebecca Wolf holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from American University and a Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. She joined Food & Water Watch as an intern in 2012 and as staff in 2015, and organized countless online, state, and federal food safety campaigns before joining the Food & Water Watch Policy Team. Today, she serves as the organization’s Senior Food Policy Analyst working to pass legislation that brings an end to food system consolidation and factory farms

Mary Grant

Public Water for All Campaign Director, Food & Water Watch

Mary Grant is the Public Water for All Campaign Director at Food & Water Watch. She has nearly two decades of experience in U.S. water utility policy and research. Since 2015, she has overseen Food & Water Watch’s campaigns to support universal access to safe water in the U.S. by promoting responsible and affordable public provision of water and sewer service. Prior to becoming campaign director, Mary was a senior researcher on water issues for Food & Water Watch for seven years. She is a leading policy analyst on U.S. water utility privatization.

Thomas Meyer

Strategic Organizing Projects Director, Food & Water Watch

Thomas Meyer is the Strategic Organizing Projects Director at Food & Water Watch. Based in Seattle, Washington, he works with organizers, volunteers, and coalition partners across the country to develop campaign strategies and build grassroots power. He has played a major role in multiple successful Food & Water Watch campaigns including stopping dirty energy legislation in Congress and organizing the March to End Fossil Fuels. Thomas was previously the Senior Maryland Organizer, where he led Food & Water Watch to a landmark victory with the successful campaign to ban fracking statewide. Prior to joining Food & Water Watch in 2015, Thomas attended American University where he organized a fossil fuel divestment campaign and earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies.

Wenonah Hauter

Founder & Executive Director, Food & Water Watch

Wenonah Hauter is the founder and executive director of Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Action. Wenonah has three decades of experience campaigning and writing on food, water, energy, and environmental issues. She has trained and mentored hundreds of organizers and activists across the country and worked at the national, state, and local levels to develop policy positions and legislative and field strategies to secure real wins for communities and the environment.

Wenonah holds a master’s degree in applied anthropology from the University of Maryland and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from James Madison University

Read Wenonah’s interview about 20 years of Food & Water Watch here: Against All Odds: An Interview With Wenonah Hauter

Mark Sanchez-Potter

Youth Activist and American History teacher

Mark Sanchez-Potter has been a long-time resident of Newburgh, New York. He attended Mount Saint Mary College, where he studied history and political science with a concentration in adolescent education. He currently teaches in the Bronx and previously taught American History in the Newburgh City School District. He is a proud union member of the United Federation of Teachers. 

Mark joined Food & Water Watch as an intern in the fall of 2019 and was a central figure in the fight against the Danskammer fracked-gas power plant in Newburgh. He continues to be active in local and state-wide politics and environmental organizing, such as advocating for the All-Electric Buildings Act and movements against the privatization of public utilities and the expansion of fracked gas pipelines.

Mark lives by the motto the suffragists of the early 1900s coined, “Deeds, not words.”