THE CONFERENCE

September 25th - 26th, 2025

The Charleston Museum

The Conference is an opportunity for the global community of solutions creators, practitioners, and accelerators to exchange knowledge, experience, and best practices to strengthen community-driven solutions in the South Carolina Lowcountry and beyond.

This year, the conference will explore "community-driven solutions that promote resilience, regeneration, and the restoration economy." Paul Hawken defines regeneration as “putting life at the center of every action and decision.” By centering living communities at the heart of our visions for the future, we can restore and foster new vibrant, resilient ecologies with people at the heart of them.

In the Conference’s third year, we will welcome 250 attendees to the Charleston Museum in the heart of downtown Charleston for two days of high-level panels and conversations. Of those attendees, we seek to welcome 100 young leaders and early-career professionals through The Hope Summit Next Generation Fund-sponsored conference passes. Attendees are encouraged to remain on-site for lunch in the museum's courtyard to network, build community, and participate in mentorship opportunities with young attendees.

The conference program will feature two days of diverse multi-disciplinary and intersectional panels and speakers, concluding with the opening featured film and after-screening panel of The Hope Summit 2025 Film Festival.

THE HOPE SUMMIT 2025 Conference Schedule

Thursday, September 25th

8:00 am - 8:45 am | Coffee Social in the Museum Breezeway by Camino Coffee, Sponsored by Austen & Gowder

8:45 am - 9:15 am | Welcome and Opening Remarks

9:15 am - 10:15 am | Re-Story-Ation: Healing Ecologies Through Storytelling

Judy Fairchild (moderator) | educator and director of Nature Walks with Judy
Mary Alice Monroe | best-selling author
Judith Schwartz | journalist and author

10:15 am - 10:30 am | Re-Story-Ation In Action presented by Ayushi Gaur

MORNING BREAK

11:00 am - 12:00 pm | Local Governments Fostering Community Resilience and Adaptation

Andy Gowder (moderator)
Kaylan Koszela | Director of Resilience, City of Charleston
Rebecca Fanning | Director of Resilience and Natural Resource Management, Town of Sullivan's Island
Megan Clark | Assistant Planning Director, Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments

LUNCH | Lunch will be held in the Charleston Museum’s courtyard

1:30 pm - 2:30 pm | Building Community Resilience Through Material Regeneration

Anna Catherine Alexander (moderator) | Director of Advocacy Initiatives, Preservation Society of Charleston
John Edel | Founder, Bubbly Dynamics & The Plant
Dr. Christina Rae Butler | Professor of Historic Preservation at the American College of Building Arts and Owner of Butler Preservation
Rikki Powers | Executive Director, Re:Purpose Savannah

AFTERNOON BREAK

3:00 pm - 4:00 pm | Food, Energy, and Water: How Disaster Preparedness Can Also Heal Communities

Grey Gowder (moderator) | Executive Director, Carolina Ocean Alliance
Will Hegaard | Founder, The Footprint Project
Maria Kelly | Founder, Amor Healing Kitchen
Water Mission International

4:00 pm - 4:15 pm | Day 1 Closing

Friday, September 26th

8:00 am - 8:45 am | Coffee Social in the Museum Breezeway by Camino Coffee, Sponsored by Austen & Gowder

8:45 am - 9:00 am | Welcome and Opening Remarks

9:00 am - 9:30 am | Building Community Capacity for a Restoration Economy

Bryan Cordell | Executive Director, Sustainability Institute

9:30 am - 10:00 am | Fostering Resilience and Stewardship by Reshaping a Nation’s Relationship With Its Waters, Waterways, and the Ocean

Sisay Lukas | Founder of Sustainable Oceans Alliance Ethiopia and AquaFind

MORNING BREAK

10:30 am - 11:30 am | A Restoration Economy for Coastal Ecologies

Jared Bramblett (moderator) |
Franziska Trautman | Co-Founder & CEO at Glass Half Full
Rob Holmes | Co-Founder of the Dredge Research Collaborative and the Tidelands Project
Kyle Rezek | Graduate Researcher at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Nicholas Thatos | Coastal Protection Technologies

11:30 am - 12:00 pm | A New Generation of Environmental Entrepreneurs: Introducing Earth Echo’s Blue Carbon Ambassadors

Tori Hunt | Associate Manager of Youth Engagement at EarthEcho International

LUNCH | Lunch will be held in the Charleston Museum’s courtyard

1:30 pm - 2:30 pm | Restoring Biodiversity to the Built Environment

Torrey Sanders (moderator) | Coastal Conservation League
Courtney Olson | Executive Director, Friends of the Lowcountry LowLine
Dr. Blake Scott | Co-Founder of The M.A.R.S.H. Project
Katie Bell | Director of Operations and Education, Charleston Parks Conservancy

AFTERNOON BREAK

3:00 - 3:30 pm | World Premiere Screening of "Nodules" directed by Dr. Clare Fieseler, produced by the Pulitzer Center

3:30 - 4:15 pm | Closing Plenary: Re-imagining Success for America the Beautiful for All: How Communities Can Help Us Reach 30x30

Alia Hidayat | Senior Policy Analyst, Conservation Policy, Center of American Progress

4:15 - 4:30 pm | Closing Remarks

EVENING RECEPTION

6:00 pm | The Hope Summit 2025 Film Festival, doors open

7:00 pm - 9:00 pm | The Hope Summit 2025 Film Festival Opening Screening: “Inhabitants: Indigenous Perspectives On Restoring Our World”

Morning Coffee by Camino Coffee sponsored by Austen & Gowder

Lunch

Lunch will be held in the Charleston Museum's Courtyard each day from 12 - 1:30 PM. Keep your conversations flowing with new friends and colleagues as you enjoy delicious food from sustainable local food trucks.

Meals are not included with the purchase of a Conference pass.