Need a dynamic speaker for your event? Contact us .

Our speakers will provoke critical thinking about international issues within your community and inspire action. Grassroots has been speaking out for global justice since 1983. We tell stories that rarely appear on TV or in your newspapers—those of visionary grassroots activists working for local solutions to global problems. Our unique work and partnership model shines light on grassroots activists analyzing political, economic and social trends and building human rights movements. We put a human face on pressing issues. Our speakers make great additions to public forums, panels and public dialogues.

What do we speak about?

• Resource rights, including the human rights to land, water, food and seeds
• Food sovereignty and fixing the broken global food system
• Innovative alternatives to traditional economic development
• Funding social change movements around the world
• Our work with dynamic grassroots organizations in the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean

Selected Speakers:
The following speakers are U.S.-based:

Maria Aguiar is Global Programs Director at Grassroots International. She has extensive experience with Puerto Rican social justice organizations and is a Cuba solidarity activist. She was on the Spanish editorial team for the landmark Boston Women's Health Book Collective volume Our Bodies, Ourselves. An impassioned public speaker, she has a special interest and expertise in social justice work in Latin America.

Nikhil Aziz, Ph. D, Executive Director of Grassroots International. Before joining Grassroots, Nikhil was Associate Director at Political Research Associates, where he led a team that studied the conservative movement and the political right in the United States. Nikhil previously taught human rights and international development in Colorado and Illinois. For his dissertation, he worked with India’s National Alliance of People’s Movements, an alliance of progressive movements for human rights and social and economic justice. As a progressive, immigrant, gay man of color, Nikhil has built collaborations with activist and advocacy organizations nationwide and continues to speak, teach and write on human rights, international development and social change. He also serves on the boards of RESIST and Africa Today Associates.

Daniel Moss is Director of Development and Communications at Grassroots. He has more than 20 years of domestic and international experience in community organizing and community development. In the 90’s, Daniel lived in El Salvador for over 3 years, accompanying repatriated refugee communities in their community reconstruction and economic development projects. He can speak passionately about international social change funding strategies.

Shalini Nataraj is the Chair of the Board at Grassroots and the Vice President of Programs at the Global Fund for Women. She brings considerable experience in the human rights, development and environmental justice fields. Shalini has worked closely with pro-democracy groups and ethnic groups fighting for recognition of their rights in South and Southeast Asia and with human rights groups in East Africa, Asia and North America, and on issues such as human trafficking, women's rights, refugee rights and sustainable development. She is a founding member of organizations focusing on promoting secularism and democracy in South Asia, combating slavery and trafficking internationally, and promoting just and sustainable development.

Corrina Steward, Resource Rights Specialist at Grassroots International, specializes in trade, agriculture and alternative development models. She has conducted research and analysis on agricultural biotechnology, intellectual property rights, international trade and policy. Corrina organized an international conference on "Food Sovereignty, Conservation and Social Movements for Sustainable Agriculture in the Americas" at Yale University. She has written and spoken widely on the intersections between human rights, the environment and development.

We also frequently have project partners and allies visiting from the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean who may be available to speak with your group.

Here are a few of our recent speaking engagements:

A Perfect Storm: Agriculture, Trade and Immigration Policies Undermining Human Rights

Nikhil Aziz spoke at the International Human Rights Funders Group conference in San Francisco in January 2007 on the panel “A Perfect Storm: Agriculture, Trade and Immigration Policies Undermining Human Rights.” The panel linked the push and pull factors in migration, especially in the context of U.S. and global policies on agriculture and trade.

Climate Change and Our Broken Global Food System

Daniel Moss spoke at Share Our Strength’s Conference of Leaders on Climate Change and Our Broken Global Food System. Against the backdrop of ravaged New Orleans and vibrant farmers markets reinvigorating the local economy, Daniel shared the podium with a climatologist and a leader of a local food group to examine how local food production for local consumption around the globe can contribute to a stable climate.

Food Sovereignty: An African Leader Speaks

On Thursday November 30, 2006, Grassroots International hosted Mariam Sissoko, an international leader in the movement for a fair, healthy and sustainable food system. From her small village in western Mali, Mariam organizes for national and international policies that will improve conditions for family farmers everywhere.

Our Communities, Our Water: Connecting the Local and the Global

One September 22-24, 2006, Mass Global Action hosted a gathering of community activists, students and water workers at UMass Amherst. Grassroots International’s Saulo Araujo and Jake Miller conducted a workshop titled “Can't Live Without It so the Fight is On! How grassroots social movements are claiming their right to land and water.”

To book a speaker or to find out more about our public speaking and education work, contact Daniel Moss by email (dmoss@grassrootsonline.org) or call him at 617.524.1400.