Alan Farago is a writer and consultant on environmental issues, in Coral Gables, Florida. His opinion columns appear in the Orlando Sentinel and on the website, Counterpunch.com. He was a founder of the campaign to "hold the line" on the movement of the Urban Development Boundary in Miami-Dade and led the successful, multi-year campaign to halt the conversion of the Homestead Air Force Base into a major commercial airport wedged between Everglades and Biscayne National Park. He has received numerous awards from south Florida environmental organizations, including Sierra Club where he served as a board member of the national foundation, as volunteer chair of the local group, and of state committees charged with chapter policy on suburban sprawl and the Everglades. In 2002 he received the John Kabler Award from the Everglades Coalition for his work. He is currently a board member of Friends of the Everglades and serves on the Miami-Dade County Climate Change Advisory Task Force. He was educated at Yale University, with a degree in Chinese Studies, and received an MFA from Columbia University.
 

Robert Ruano is the Director of Grants and Sustainable Initiatives for the City of Miami. He is responsible for securing grant dollars that support the City’s programs. In his role managing Miami’s Office of Sustainable Initiatives, Robert oversees the City’s compliance with the Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement and its commitment to being a sustainable City.  Prior to joining the City of Miami, Robert was Executive Director of Regis House, a local nonprofit. He is alumnus of Volunteer Florida, serving two terms as a governor-appointed commissioner, and a graduate of Leadership Miami. Robert serves as a member of the United Way’s Emergency Food & Shelter Board and the Miami River Commission. He earned a Bachelors of Science in Communications from Virginia Commonwealth University.  
 

Georgia Tasker is a garden writer for The Miami Herald and a Pulitzer Prize finalist.  She is author of Enchanted Ground, Gardening with Nature in the Subtropics (Fairchild Tropical Garden) and co-author with Tom MacCubbin of Florida Gardeners Guide, Revised Edition (Cool Springs Press). Among her awards are the Barbour Medal from Fairchild Tropical Garden, the botanical garden's highest environmental award, and the first lifetime achievement award from Tropical Audubon Society. Following the devastation of Hurricane Andrew, Tasker was granted the Award of Greatest Merit by the Florida Urban Forestry Council for helping to save trees in areas devastated by the storm.

In addition to her articles in the Herald, she contributes to Green Notes, a Miami Herald Blog that “aims to move beyond doom and gloom of climate change and environmental degradation to share ideas on what each of us can do to help Mother Earth.” Tasker also covers green building and sustainable design traditions in the South Florida area.