We’re passionate about relational approaches to climate.
SALT for Climate Co-directors
Meet Lisa
Lisa Genki Gibson is a systems change consultant, educator, facilitator, and coach, with a background in social justice, gender and development, and community engagement across multiple, complex issues. She specializes in working with individuals, organizations and multistakeholder spaces to embed systemic change, transform belief systems, and construct alliances across diversity towards clarified action. As a Zen teacher in the Soto Zen lineage, Lisa also brings invaluable dexterity and nuance in working with human interiority to the project team.
Meet Gail
Dr. Gail Hochachka, PhD, is a researcher, thought-catalyzer, facilitator, and coach. She has pursued a unique area of research on the human dimensions of climate change: on the diverse ways people make meaning about climate change, on how to find shared meaning in diverse settings, and on how to accelerate climate action in a transformative manner. She does speaking events and convenes novel conversations amongst experts, inviting collaborative wayfinding on the climate challenge. Gail also teaches graduate courses at UBC, such as on Climate Communications and Engagement, and she is an associate-level Integral Coach. With SALT for Climate, she seeks to move research into practice, at the very leverage points where greater climate action can happen.
Collaborators + Guests
Dr. Grace Nosek
Dr. Grace Nosek is an author, organizer, and scholar focusing on challenging climate misinformation, protecting the right to peaceful protest, and building robust democracy. She centers justice, joyful community, hope, agency, civic engagement, and systems change in her activism and scholarship. Grace has never met a dance party she didn’t want to join.
M. Rako Fabionar
M. Rako Fabionar is the Executive Director of the Innovative Learning and Living Institute (ILALI), which stewards place-based regeneration through integrative learning and bioregional capacity-building. Rooted at Landwell—an ancient floodplain and 22-acre demonstration site—his work weaves scientific, social, and sacred technologies in service of communities, organizations, and movement leaders working toward regenerative and liberatory futures.
Nomali Perera
Nomali Perera, MA, PCC, is a seasoned and certified executive coach and leadership facilitator who integrates big-picture systems thinking, Polarity Practice, adult development, and contemplative approaches to help leaders navigate complexity with creativity, practical wisdom, and courage. Nomali brings international organizational and higher-education experience, along with certifications in Polarity Management, Immunity to Change™, and integral and trauma-informed coaching.
James Hoggan
James Hoggan is a highly-respected and award-winning public relations expert who, for more than 30 years, has been involved in a wide range of both complex and controversial conversations. Jim is president of the Vancouver PR firm Hoggan & Associates, past chair of the David Suzuki Foundation board, and founder of the influential website DeSmogBlog, which exposes misinformation campaigns polluting the public debate around climate change and the environment. Hoggan is the author of three books, including Do the Right Thing: PR Tips for a Skeptical Public and I’m Right and You’re an Idiot: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean it Up.