His Holiness Jagadguru Swami Isa
Founder of the Global Energy Parliament & the Isa Viswa Prajnana Trust
His Holiness Jagadguru Swami Isa is a teacher, scientist and social reformer, whose vision is to create a world where every human being can attain total happiness. He is the founder of the charitable Isa Viswa Prajnana Trust (holding Consultative Status to the United Nations ECOSOC), the Global Energy Parliament (GEP), the GEP Research Centre, the Isa Viswa Vidyalayam school, and the Isalayam Ashram.
Swamiji is known for his ‘theory of everything’ called the I-Theory, for his education philosophy and methodology, Education for Total Consciousness - which has been practiced at the Isa Viswa Vidyalayam school for more than 25 years - and for his yoga program called Life for Total Consciousness.
His institutions conduct an array of formal and informal educational programs including conferences and seminars, teacher training, yoga teacher training, and cultural programs. The GEP Research Centre studies and shares positive applications for society, and it is currently working on efficient conversion of sound energy into electricity. The IVPT provides outreach and care in slums and to other vulnerable populations, and conducts a number of environmental programs.
Swami Isa has written several books, including "The Human Manifesto, Global Education Policy for Total Consciousness," which outlines his educational philosophy, "The Unifying Vibration," "The Path to Truth: Mystical Experiences of a Yogi" and numerous other books and articles on education, yoga, environment, physics and poetry. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals for physics and microbiology. He travels around the world to speak and teach.
H.E. Dharambeer Gokhool
President of Mauritius
His Excellency Mr. Dharambeer Gokhool - widely known as Dharam Gokhool - is a distinguished statesman whose illustrious career spans across academia, public service, and politics. Born on October 25, 1949, in Plaines des Roches, Mauritius, he began his education at Roches Noires Government School and Mapou Government School before completing secondary studies at Northern College and St. Andrews School.
President Gokhool earned a BA (Hons) in History with Economics in 1973 and an MBA in 1975 from the University of Delhi, India, followed by an MSc in Human Resources from the University of Salford, Manchester, UK in 1987. His academic career includes pivotal roles at the University of Mauritius, where he served as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law and Management. In this realm, his teaching specialties comprise notably: Human Resources Management, People Management in Organisations, Strategic Human Resource Management, and Individual in Human Resource Management. He has also taught Employment Relations and Employment Laws, Human Resource Development (HRD) and Organisation Development (OD), Training and Development, and Performance Evaluation. During his tenure as Dean of Faculty, President Gokhool also served as a Member of the University Senate and of the University Court. From 2021 to 2024, he served as a member of the University of Mauritius Ethics Committee. In 1998, he served as a Member of the University Council as Deans’ Representative, for a period of six months.
From 2001 to 2005, President Gokhool served as the Chairman of the Mauritian Institute of Management and in 2007, was made Honorary Fellow of this reputable institute. His efforts and significant contribution to education and academic leadership, driven by his commitment towards social betterment, have received international recognition.
H.E. Dr. C.V. Ananda Bose
Hon'ble Governor of West Bengal
His Excellency Dr. C.V. Ananda Bose is the Governor of West Bengal, India and the former Speaker of the Global Energy Parliament. An eminent civil servant who has been described by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, as a ‘Man of Ideas’, Dr. Bose was appointed by the President of India as Governor in November 2022.
Previously, he served as Principal Advisor to the National Heritage Project, educator, writer, orator, housing expert, and innovator superannuated from service at the rank of Chief Secretary and Secretary to Govt. of India. He was Chairman of the UN consultative body, Habitat Alliance. He served as Vice Chancellor to the National Museum University, Govt of India, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Education Society, Government of India, and Principal Secretary for Higher Education.
Recipient of the reputed JawaharLal Nehru Fellowship, Dr. C.V. Ananda Bose is also fellow of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. He is author of 40 books in English, Hindi and Malayalam.
S. Somanath, PhD
Former Chairman, Indian Space Research Organization
Dr. S. Somanath is an Indian aerospace engineer and served as the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Centre and Secretary of the Department of Space and Chairman, Space Commission until January 2025. Under his chairmanship, ISRO carried out the third Indian lunar exploration mission named Chandrayaan-3. With this mission, India became the first country to successfully land a spacecraft near the lunar south pole and the fourth country to demonstrate soft landing on the Moon.
Dr. Somanath had served as the Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), the lead Centre responsible for launch vehicle technology development. Prior to that he has been the Director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) at Valiamala, Thiruvananathapuram till December 2017. He was the Associate Director (Projects) of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and also the Project Director of GSLV Mk-III Launch vehicle.
Dr. Somanath took his PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras). He is a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Fellow of Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI), Astronautical Society of India (ASI) and a member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).
Andre Leu, D.Sc
International Director of Regeneration International
Professor André Leu, D.Sc., is an expert in ecological agriculture and a founder of Regeneration International, where he has served as International Director since 2017. Formerly President of IFOAM–Organics International, he brings more than five decades of experience as a regenerative organic farmer working across Asia, the Pacific, Europe, the Americas, and Africa. His work centres on advancing nature-based farming systems that restore soils, ecosystems, and rural livelihoods.
Leu is the author of The Regenerative Agriculture Solution, Growing Life, Poisoning Our Children, and The Myths of Safe Pesticides, and has written widely for scientific and popular publications. He lectures globally, contributes to United Nations forums, and serves as an Adjunct Professor of Regenerative Agriculture at South Seas University, where he teaches and advises on the environmental, economic, and social benefits of regenerative farming.
Holding a Doctor of Science in Environmental and Agricultural Systems from Rajamangala University of Technology, alongside qualifications in adult education and communications, Leu continues to work with governments, NGOs, industry leaders, and farming communities to promote resilient, biologically based agriculture. He lives with his wife Julia on their organic tropical fruit farm in Daintree, Australia.
Barbara Easterlin, PhD
Clinical Psychologist (U.C. Berkeley retired)
Barbara Easterlin, PhD, is a California licensed clinical psychologist and a member of the American Psychological Association’s newly formed Climate Change Psychology Community of Scholars and Practitioners. Until 2020, Barbara was a member of the UC Berkeley Psychology Department’s clinical faculty.
Currently, Barbara is the President of the Executive Committee of the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America, a non-profit dedicated to supporting clinicians working at the intersection of mental health and climate change. She co-developed a 60-hour Climate Psychology Certificate Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. In addition, she delivers mental health workshops in support of climate front line workers, including activists, scientists, and first responders.
With a master’s degree in Social Ecology and Environmental Psychology and a doctorate in Clinical Psychology, Barbara Easterlin is interested not only in the intersectional impact of climate change and environmental injustice on mental health but also on the positive impact of nature on an individual’s stress response. She is particularly interested in the psychological process of denial and the positive benefits to mental health arising from emotionally informed activism.
Blesson Mathew Varghese, PhD
Visiting Research Fellow, School of Public Health, University of Adelaide
Dr Blesson Mathew Varghese is a Visiting Research Fellow (titleholder) at the School of Public Health, The University of Adelaide, and an early-career public health researcher and epidemiologist. His research focuses on occupational and environmental health, climate change, and injury epidemiology. His PhD and postdoctoral work examined the impacts of extreme heat on workers’ safety and community well-being, using uniquely linked person- and area-level social, health, and environmental datasets. Through this work, he identified heat-susceptible populations and neighbourhoods and quantified the heat-attributable burden of disease and its associated economic costs. He continues to collaborate actively on climate-change–related research through his Visiting Fellow role.
Dr Varghese has co-authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications with over 2,500 citations. He has presented at several international, national, and local conferences, delivered invited talks, and serves on the Editorial Review Board of the Environmental Health Perspectives journal. He also reviews manuscripts for journals in environmental and occupational health. His career spans both academia and the public sector, giving him experience in research, public health practice, and applied population-health analytics.
His research contributions has been recognised with several honours, including the School of Public Health Titleholder Excellence Award, the University of Adelaide Doctoral Research Medal, the Australian Institute of Health and Safety Eric Wigglesworth OHS Education Medal, and the Public Health Association of Australia Kerry Kirke Award. As part of Professor Peng Bi’s Extreme Heat and Health Adaptation Team, he was a finalist for the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Research (2022, 2023) and the SA Premier’s Climate Change Leader Award (2022). In 2020, he was named among The Australian Early Achievers Rising Stars, recognising Australia’s top 40 researchers within 10 years of their research careers. He currently works as a Senior Data and Information Analyst at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Charlotte Rose Mellis
Director at ICT Oceania
Charlotte Rose Mellis is an Asia-Pacific business advisor, technologist, and social entrepreneur with over a decade of experience growing more than 100 enterprises worldwide. Qualified in Psychological Science, Postgraduate Economics, and currently completing a Master of Applied Finance, she approaches digital and organisational challenges with a systems-thinking lens. Her work integrates human behaviour, economic design, and technical architecture to help organisations build resilient, purpose-driven solutions online.
She is a Director at ICT Oceania, where she leads digital transformation, enterprise systems development, and regenerative economic initiatives across private industry, government, and nonprofit sectors. In this capacity, she serves as an economic development consultant to the Federal Government of Australia and the Indigenous Land & Sea Corporation and contributes to community-based projects throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Her leadership also extends through the BEWILDER program, which supports remote and Indigenous communities in developing sustainable business practices and ecological enterprise models.
Mellis is an active public educator and speaker, having delivered talks — including a TED-style presentation, Is Mental Illness Changing Our Climate? — on the psychological and socio-economic dimensions of environmental change. Her work highlights the convergence of mental wellbeing, ecological stewardship, and digital innovation, with a particular interest in how thoughtfully designed technology can empower communities to address complex environmental and social challenges.
Emma Lawrance, PhD
Director of the Climate Cares Centre, Imperial College London
Emma is the Director of Climate Cares Centre and Mental Health Lead at the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, where she works across research, policy, education, and intervention design to advance understanding of how climate and mental health intersect. She also leads the Wellcome-funded Connecting Climate Minds initiative, engaging around 1,000 people across 90 countries, and holds an AXA Climate and Health Fellowship focused on building youth resilience in Australia, Trinidad and the Philippines. Her work highlights how climate change acts as a risk multiplier for mental health—and how climate action can enhance wellbeing—through talks delivered to audiences across public health, psychiatry, neuroscience, policy, climate science and education. She has spoken at major global events including COP26–COP28 and the World Economic Forum, and her work has been featured in international media such as Die Zeit, Al Jazeera, The Times, the Guardian, Reuters, Sky News and the BBC. She also advises the OECD Wellbeing and Mental Health Group and the WHO REACH project, and has guest-edited issues for leading academic journals.
With a background spanning physics, chemistry, science communication and neuroscience, Emma has worked across research, education and public engagement. During her DPhil in Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, she used fMRI and computational modelling to study how the brain processes uncertainty and how this shapes decision-making, particularly in people prone to anxiety. She also investigated how perceptual and strategic uncertainty interact to influence attention and goal-directed behaviour. Alongside her academic work, she founded the youth mental health charity It Gets Brighter, where she continues to serve as a Trustee.
Gigi Foster, PhD
Professor, UNSW School of Economics
Gigi Foster (Professor, UNSW School of Economics; Senior Scholar, Brownstone Institute; BA Ethics, Politics and Economics, PhD Economics) works in diverse fields including education, social influence, time use, lab experiments, behavioural economics, and Australian policy, publishing in both specialised and cross-disciplinary outlets (e.g., Quantitative Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Population Economics, Journal of Economic Psychology, Human Relations). Named 2019 Young Economist of the Year by the Economic Society of Australia, Professor Foster has filled numerous roles of service to the profession and engages heavily on economic matters with the Australian community as one of Australia’s leading economics communicators in the media and at live events. Her innovative teaching, featuring strategic innovation and integration with research, was awarded a 2017 Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT) Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. She co-founded the think tank Australians for Science and Freedom (scienceandfreedom.org) in 2023, and is actively involved in the new higher education experiment Academia Libera Mentis (liberamentis.org). She is an author most recently of The Great Covid Panic (Brownstone Institute 2021, with Paul Frijters and Michael Baker) and Do Lockdowns and Border Closures Serve the “Greater Good”? (Connor Court 2022, with Sanjeev Sabhlok).
