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JOSEPH BONASIA

Chair, Florida Rights Of Nature Network, Communications Director, FloridaRightToCleanWater.org

Joseph Bonasia is a retired teacher who moved to Cape Coral, Florida in 2016.

He serves as Chair of Florida Rights of Nature Network (FRONN) and as the Communications Director of FloridaRightToCleanWater.org, the two organizations behind the campaign to amend our Florida Constitution with a fundamental “Right to Clean and Healthy Waters.”

FRONN’s greatest accomplishment to date was its contribution to the historic Orange County Right to Clean Water / Rights of Nature Charter Amendment which was approved by 89% of voters in 2020.

Bonasia also serves as Citizens' Climate Lobby's volunteer liaison to Senator Rick Scott's office and is a founding board member of the SWFL RESET Center, which works to reset human impact upon the natural world, notably climate and water.

Joseph writes about Rights of Nature, the Right to Clean Water, and our climate crisis. Read some of his articles at The Invading Sea.

Look for Joseph’s new article in the “Views” section of this Sunday’s News-Press and Naples Daily News.

MAYA K. VAN ROSSUM

Founder, Green Amendments For The Generations, Author: The Green Amendment: The People's Fight For a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment

Ms. van Rossum will discuss how we got here as a nation, what needs to happen, why constitutional amendments are the only viable way forward from a systemic perspective, and ways to empower environment advocates wanting real change. Green Amendments For The Generations, is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring the passage of Green Amendments in every state constitution across our nation, and also at the federal level when the time is right. Green Amendments – a term coined and defined by Maya van Rossum in her 2017 award-winning book -- recognize and protect environmental rights on par with other inalienable civic and political freedoms.

Maya K. van Rossum was named in 2019 as one of the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Power 100; She was named One Of The “10 Most Influential People of 2015” When It Comes to Energy Issues by SNL Energy; is the recipient of the 2022 PA Interfaith Power & Light Visionary Award; was announced as the 2020 River Hero by River Network, and received the Giraffe Hero award given to those who have the courage to stick their necks out for the common good. She has testified thrice, by invitation, to Congressional committees and founded the Environmental Law Clinic at Temple’s Beasley School of Law.