Nāwāhineokalaʻi Lanzilotti is a Kanaka Maoli multi-media performer and educator raised in lower Mānoa, Oʻāhu, whose work focuses on decolonisation and sustaining indigenous practice through experimental performing arts.

 Nawa’s collaborations throughout the Asia-Pacific aim to engage diverse communities employing spoken word, movement, sound arts, and film/video projection. From 2012-2018, Nawa lived in New Delhi, India studying Hindustani music and creating cross-cultural productions with her international arts collective PULSE Ensemble. There she also worked with local NGO Shubhendra & Saskia Rao Foundation developing place-based K-12 arts curriculum.

 In 2019, she earned her MFA in experimental sound from Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College with the completion of her thesis, "Nā Kai ʻEwalu: Fluidity and Fragmentation as Form in Indigenous Experimental Performance." Nawa currently serves as the Program Assistant of the East-West Center Arts Program in Mānoa where she also studies hula under the instruction of Hālau Hula O Maiki.

Byron Au Yong (歐陽良仁) creates music for chamber ensembles, moving choirs, contemporary dance, short films, museum installations, site-specific locations, taiko groups, and theater performances. Variety calls his work "claustrophobic and expansive, intimate and existential, personal and political all at once." Seattle Weekly says his “interdisciplinary works are as exquisite and imaginative as they are unclassifiable.” Dedicated to intercultural collaboration, Au Yong creates with an attention to acoustic ecology, the American dream, and the ways people connect with the places they call home.

Highlights include Activist Songbook (Asian Arts Initiative, International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Montalvo Arts Center), Stuck Elevator (American Conservatory Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre), Kidnapping Water: Bottled Operas (Bumbershoot Festival of the Arts) and Piano Concerto–Houston (Counter Current Festival). He has been composer-in-residence with the A/P/A Institute at NYU, the Center for Migration and the Global City at Rutgers, Lucas Artists Residency, Theatre Works, Westminster Choir College, and Sundance Institute.

Monisha Bajaj is Professor of International and Multicultural Education (IME) at the University of San Francisco. She is the editor and author of several books and numerous articles on international development and education policy; peace and human rights education; migration and education; gender; race and xenophobia; and environmental justice and education. Dr. Bajaj serves as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Human Rights Education and, along with Maria Hantzopoulos, she edits a book series on Peace and Human Rights Education for Bloomsbury. 

Dr. Bajaj has developed curriculum—particularly related to peace education, human rights, anti-bullying efforts, ethnic studies, and sustainability—for non-profit organizations like Global Kids, and inter-governmental organizations, such as UNICEF and UNESCO. 

Dr. Bajaj’s research has been supported by the U.S. Department of State’s Fulbright program, the Social Science Research Council, the National Academy of Education, the Earth Institute at Columbia University, the Spencer Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center. In 2015, she was awarded the Ella Baker/Septima Clark Human Rights Award (2015) from Division B of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the Teachers College, Columbia University Early Career Distinguished Alumni Award.

Dr. Bajaj completed her doctorate in International Educational Development in 2005 from Teachers College, Columbia University with a specialization in Peace Education. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Latin American Studies and a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from Stanford University. 

Eric Harland is the most “In demand drummer” of his generation, having already been on close to 400 recordings and multiple film scores by age 40. Eric has been recognized in the Boston Globe, New York Times, JazzTimes, Modern Drummer, All About Jazz, The New Yorker, DownBeat, L’uomo Vogue and other prominent publications.

It has been his privilege to share the stage with masters such as Betty Carter, Joe Henderson, MyCoy Tyner, Michael Brecker, Terence Blanchard, Branford and Wynton Marsalis, Wayne Shorter, Savion Glover, SFJAZZ Collective and many others, as well as todays up and coming artist like Esperanza Spalding, Jane Monheit, Taylor Eigsti, Julian Lage, Stacie Orrico, Robert Glasper and so on. His current list of performing groups are “JAMES FARM” with Joshua Redman, “PRISM” with Dave Holland and Kevin Eubanks, “SANGAM” with Charles Lloyd and Zakir Hussain, “Charles Lloyd New Quartet”, “OVERTONE” with Dave Holland, Jason Moran, Chris Potter and “VOYAGER” Eric’s own widely recognized group. But Eric doesn’t stop there, he also manages to fit in many collaborations with world renowned artist like Les Claypool “PRIMUS”, “DISPATCH” the band, KRS1, John Mayer, Gigi Hadid, Spike Lee, Steve Miller, Mariah Carey, Randy Jackson from “AMERICAN IDOL” and etc.

Eric Harland was the Resident Artistic Director at the SFJAZZ Center for the 2014-2016 Season. Also was Artist in Resident at the Monterey Jazz Festival 2014 Season. Harland also had the supreme privilege of being invited and attending President Barack Obama’s 2016 White House State Dinner in honor of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

A strategic nonprofit executive with more than 20 years experience driving organizational growth, Barrett has been building and engaging audiences for jazz and world music for the past decade. After honing his skills in membership and major gifts for the San Francisco Jazz Organization (SFJAZZ), he became Director of Development in 2013, completing a $64 million+ capital campaign for the world’s first freestanding facility dedicated solely to jazz, the LEED-certified SFJAZZ Center. In this capacity, he has overseen exponential revenue growth in SFJAZZ’s evolution from nomadic organization to city arts institution.

Earlier in his career, Barrett managed strategic planning projects with the Consulting & Research team at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services and grants for the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health. Barrett is also active in the local community, serving on the Board of Zambaleta School of World Music and Dance, and volunteering with Refugee Transitions and the International Rescue Committee.

Judy Tsang is the Director of National Events at ITVS, supporting documentary filmmakers in telling untold stories. She served as Director of Programming at Stern Grove Festival, one of the nation's most unique outdoor performance venues, for nearly 20 years. summer concert series in San Francisco. Judy is currently an elected member of the Board of Governors for the Recording Academy (GRAMMY’s), San Francisco Chapter.

She also serves on the board for the Western Arts Alliance and is an ambassador for the San Francisco Music Alliance. Judy has sat on panels at international conferences and for the National Endowment for the Arts, Globalfest Touring Fund, California Presenters, and San Francisco Arts Commission. She is an active member of Women of Color in the Arts, an organization dedicated to creating an equitable, inclusive and diverse performing arts field. Judy is a San Francisco native and a graduate from the University of California, Berkeley.

Topher has been convening and connecting people for the purposes of social change for 15+ years, starting at the Highland City Club, a membership community of 300 change-makers in Boulder, Colorado. He managed Dunton Hot Springs, one of North America’s top all-inclusive resorts and retreat centers, and founded Conveners.org, a group of 150+ impact conferences and accelerators. Topher now leads the Opportunity Collaboration’s global network of 2,000+ nonprofit executives, for-profit social entrepreneurs, grant-makers, impact investors, corporates, media and academics building sustainable solutions to poverty and injustice.