Burke Fishburn is the Executive Director of the Posner Center for International Development,  a Denver-based community of almost 200 organizations and individuals working across the spectrum of international development issues in over 100 countries. The Posner Center’s mission is to convene, connect, and catalyze the international development community to collaborate for greater impact. Global Seed Savers is proud founding tenant of Posner and thrilled to have Burkes leadership and guidance extend to our Board.

Burke previously led Colorado-based global public health consulting firms, directed the World Health Organization’s Tobacco Free Initiative in the Western Pacific Region, and served as a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, as well as a Technical Officer in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia and Viet Nam. He is a former Navy Lieutenant, and graduate of the Georgetown University Master of Public Policy Program and Villanova University.

Lisa Reyes Mason is a social worker, scholar, and advocate for climate justice. On faculty at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work, Lisa is passionate about teaching, writing, and speaking out about the nexus of the climate crisis, social work, and policy change. She co-edited the book People and Climate Change: Vulnerability, Adaptation, and Social Justice, and she co-leads the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare’s Grand Challenge to “Create Social Responses to a Changing Environment.”

Lisa is a biracial Filipina-American, proud of and inspired by her immigrant and ancestral roots in the Philippines. She is also a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, having served in Guinea, West Africa, from 1998-2000.

Meta Sarmiento is a Guam-born Filipino, now based in Denver, CO. An independent rapper and award-winning poet whose work often explores themes of cultural & political identity, masculinity, family, and love. With over a decade of experience as a writer and performer, Meta has graced a wide array of stages, from intimate basement shows, to sold out theaters, across the United States and in countries like Indonesia and France. Meta is a teaching artist who has taught a variety of writing classes, having worked with over 20,000 students, from middle school to university.

He is a 2020 recipient of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award from Denver Asian American Pacific Islander Commission; Finalist for the 2019 North Street Book Prize; Winner of multiple cyphers and rap battles; Top Finisher at 2018 WRLD UNDERGROUND MC TOURNAMENT; and a Winner of 2015 Spoken Word for the World, where he was flown to Paris, France to perform during the United Nations Climate Negotiations. When Meta isn’t writing, performing, or teaching Ethnic Studies, he’s the head boxing coach at Empower Community High School in Aurora, CO, exploring with both staff and students what it means to have a fighting spirit. 

After coming into contact with the grow-your-own food-movement in 2018, Renee Fourie immersed herself into growing food. She is the Outreach Manager, Seed Stewards program Director, and facilitator for the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance; the Media Coordinator for The Urban Farm; and the Seed Shop Manager at the Great American Seed Up. While Renee had always been a gardener, seed saving elevated her understanding of people’s relationship with food, with one another, and impact on the planet. 

Renee studied at Arizona State University focusing on Cultural Anthropology and Geology for her undergrad, and Adult Education for her graduate degree. She traveled overseas volunteering and teaching low-income schools in Africa and Southeast Asia, with a particular emphasis in her mother’s homeland of Cebu, Philippines. Upon her return to the States, she worked in a variety of industries ranging from account management, corporate training, non-profit business development, and real estate, but could feel the lack of fulfillment in her life. She decided her next endeavor would embrace values she held dear: quality and nutrient rich food, community building, and a positive impact on the environment. She would have never anticipated seeds would be the conduit to embracing these values and creating a new path in seed saving, seed sovereignty, and social/environmental justice.

Bea has been running Ritual, a sustainable general store, for 10 years now. Previous to that, she had been doing nonprofit work in the field of youth and sustainable development. Her interests are in bio-cultural diversity and historical ecology. She is passionate about less-waste retailing and also local and heritage crops and products. Learn more about Bea’s initiative at https://www.ritual.ph/.

Padmapani (Padma) L. Perez is an anthropologist by training and a writer by heart, she received her bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of the Philippines Baguio. Padma went on to pursue a master’s degree in Environmental Anthropology in Kent University, in the United Kingdom, after which she earned her doctorate in Anthropology from Leiden University, in the Netherlands. She is presently a Research Fellow at Far Eastern University, in Manila.

Her research interests include indigenous peoples’ rights, nature conservation, climate change, art, and visual ethnography. Padma balances her academic work with community engagement in different forms, including disaster response, participatory governance, writing for a popular readership, and now, happily, organic farming and seed saving! Her poems, essays, and feature articles about motherhood, Philippine Cordilleran culture, art in Baguio, and the environment appear in various Philippine books, periodicals, and online publications.