OUr founder’s circle

Founder and Chief dreamer Fabiola Santos-Gaerlan has provided superior child care through Honeydew Drop Child Care services in Park Slope, Brooklyn for over 20 years. After a decade of work as a TV show producer which included years in children's programming, she wanted to apply her expertise through more meaningful work within the community and transitioned into child care services. 

Honeydew has catered to an average of 80 kids annually and attracts children from all backgrounds. Her love for children and passion towards her craft has lead her to discover a new mission: A mission to inform the world of the significance of a child's feelings and start a movement of awareness and training service about socio-emotional development.

When she’s not training her staff or enjoying the company of all the children, she can be seen walking her dog Troy, the only remaining baby in the house

Sarah Chase Natan MAcOM earned a masters degree in Chinese Medicine at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine and continued her studies in Yichun, China. Sarah has been practicing Chinese Medicine including acupuncture, herbs, nutrition, and therapeutic body work since 2006 and has treated thousands of people around the world for everything from broken heart to body pain to babesiosis wholeheartedly and without hesitation.

Sarah is the founder of the Brooklyn Acupuncture Project http://www.brooklynacupunctureproject.com, a low cost sliding scale clinic in Gowanus, Brooklyn and continues to dedicate her life to making this ancient, safe, and effective medicine available to all people of all walks of life.  

She is particularly focused on treating chronic Lyme, back pain, depression and anxiety, digestive issues, and woman’s health. She is a trained birth and postpartum doula and offers acupuncture support for moms and families through all stages of pregnancy, from pre-conseption onwards. 

 A thorough pulse diagnosis guides her approach as she hopes to encourage the highest expression of health and wellbeing in every person with whom she works. She hopes that by helping individuals and communities thrive, the rest of the the planet will benefit.  She is honored to practice on Lenni-Lenape, Mahican, and Iroquois land in what is now called Western Massachusetts and New York. 

Joél Mejia

Joél is a Bronx based artist, entrepreneur, pedagogue, and social activist. He graduated in 2002 from Lehman College with a degree in Economics, but his passion was quickly becoming music production and filmmaking. In 2007 he began working full time on his pursuits, freelancing with numerous clients, and mostly looking for ways to explore the intersection between Afro-Latino/Afro-Futurism aesthetics, radical activism, and indigenous shamanic practices. Above all, it is his relentless pursuit of truth, equity, and justice that fuels his creative projects and work as an educator. He teaches media literacy in a high school in the Bronx, which provides him an opportunity to fulfill his debt to the many mentors that have helped him along his journey, and providing the foundation for his current state of mind. “Switching between the role of artist, entrepreneur, and educator is in balance because of my role as a father. That singular event confirmed that what I am meant to do is be of assistance to the future generations that will inhabit this planet. I’ve always known that to be my trajectory; it’s just that being a father gives my work even more urgency now.” 

Things Are Changing Productions, which he co-founded with his wife, is a pioneering social enterprise with a vision of creating a viable market for socially conscious media and to fill the educational space with programs around the principles of permaculture. The company is currently working on two distinct projects: a feature-length documentary sequel to his company’s 2015 film, Time is Art: Synchronicity and the Collective Dream, an artist-centered series exploring the mystical side of being an artist. The follow up film, due in 2020, is called Time is Art: The Frequency of Love. 

As a self styled leader committed to speaking about the future in optimistic terms, his approach to creativity is rooted in co-creation and self-empowerment. Growing up in New York City, his exposure to a wide array of cultures and art forms inspired him to develop his own unique style and approach to creativity. 

Throughout his youth he studied acting and photography, while simultaneously learning about the music industry through an after-school internship he was offered during his high school years. After graduating from college in 2002 with a degree in economics, he divided his time between music recording and composition, and released several albums under various aliases. In 2007 he began producing and directing music videos and documentary films for clients, adding a skill set that has since enhanced his ability to tell stories that resonate with the world. 

He  envisions a future that embraces diversity in not just storytelling, but in what the human experience can offer. The environmental crisis due to climate change is something that worries the artist very much. He believes that it is the separation we feel from nature and ourselves that has caused this catastrophe for future generations, and that only through healing can we move forward and help leave this planet better for future generations.

Mr. Mejia has received numerous grants for his work and programs, including: NALAC Fund for the Arts (2007), Children for Children Teacher's Assistance Program Grant (2008), Brooklyn Arts Council Regrant Award (2008), and The Fund for the City of New York Incubator Grant (2009).

Seth Lennon Nguyen Weiner

When I first learned of the Alliance for a Viable Future I felt a sense of inspiration, hope and enthusiasm. There is a simple and powerful force in our coming together.  I believe that as we align we also create a future that is good, beautiful and life-giving. 

I am a husband and also a father to two beautiful boys. I am a student of an animist understanding of the world. I am a descendent of Jewish immigrants and early European settlers in America and I am also a beneficiary of the kindness and generosity of a number of indigenous people and cultures who have helped me along in my own journey.  In my current work I have the great honor of serving as executive director to the Wabankai cultural and healing center Nibezun in Passadumkeag, Maine.  I am a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz with a BA in Community Studies and I also earned a JD from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Much of my career has been in the fields of restorative justice, human rights, philanthropy and indigenous peacemaking. I am thrilled to be a founding member of the Alliance for a Viable Future.

Jon Lee Rucker

I started the organization PermaJam to unite people in ecological, social and cultural restoration. PermaJam is about collaboration and cooperation rather than competition. We team with people and organizations that are pioneering Regenerative Culture. Featuring a wide variety of workshops in Permaculture; foraging; herbalism; renewable energies; yoga and meditation; art and music; and much more. With performances from over 70 musical groups, and we have had amazing support in collaborating with indigenous people.

The community has been steadily growing over 4 years. We’ve gone from doing one big annual event to many smaller events year round.
Our events do NOT allow drugs to provide a space for people of all ages, especially children. We have a 4 year model for transforming ecosystems as well as people through our events. Currently in our second year on 125 acres in upstate NY. A one of a kind experience, and a way for people to gather while leaving the land more healthy and abundant than we found it.

I’ve been a musician all my life; Community organizer working for environmental and social causes for over 10 years; farming for about 8 years; certified in BioDynamic Agriculture; currently co-own a gourmet mushroom farm located in Brooklyn, NY. 

Glenn Bair

Glenn contributes to AVF as part of a commitment to maintaining a healthy planet for his children and future generations. As an artist and leader, Glenn values new opportunities that allow for learning and exchanging ideas through creative partnership with others. Glenn works
with artists to facilitate creative experiences that invite understanding and the possibility of changing the status quo. Beyond his commitments to AVF, Glenn serves as a program manager in the healthcare industry where he works as part of a team focused on improving patient care through innovative digital strategies. Glenn resides in Connecticut and recently earned his master’s degree in Organizational Leadership in 2019.

Thomas O. Murtha 

We’re at a precipitous time of humanity that requires individuals to “show up” and bring about the collective action needed to address the multiple crises our world currently faces. Leadership, vision, and action for social change is what’s needed now. Becoming a member of the Founder’s Circle provides me with a connection with a community that is focused on co-creating and leading the transformation our species must achieve to survive, thrive, and evolve.

Thomas (Tom) Murtha is enjoying the world and working to keep the world enjoyable. He resides in both New York City and Norfolk, Connecticut and is working with many others to transition to a new story where we make a more regenerative, inclusive, kinder, beautiful, and diverse world possible. His service on the advisory boards of This- Is-My-Earth and the Alliance for a Viable Future focuses on biodiversity conservation and leadership for social change, respectively. At Preventable Surprises, his work focuses on forceful stewardship and corporate engagement to address the systemic risk of the climate emergency and biodiversity loss. After retiring from the Nature Conservancy (TNC), Tom continues actions initiated at TNC to help corporations address impacts and assume necessary responsibility for conservation and preservation of biodiversity and living natural systems. 

In an earlier part of his story, Tom worked as an analyst and investment banker in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and New York for the investment bank Jardine Fleming, a joint venture between Hong Kong trading company Jardine Matheson and UK investment bank Robert Fleming. At T. Rowe Price Associates in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, Tom was a portfolio manager for the International Stock Fund and the Global Technology Fund. Tom is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and earned an MPA degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University and, MA and BS degrees, in economics and mathematics, respectively, from Ohio University. His publications include op-eds in Institutional Investor, Pensions and investments, Greenbiz.com, and the Huffington Post. Tom and his spouse Elizabeth Knowles actively support the Norfolk Land Trust and Great Mountain Forest in Connecticut’s northwest corner. Tom also serves on the advisory board of Climate and Forest Capital. 

Rob Garrity

I entered the Founder’s Circle because I believe deeply in AVF’s work.  This pragmatic, on-the-ground work is what's needed at this moment on our planet.  Through such deep connection, churning through otherwise unquestioned worldviews and perceptions of common sense we see new possibilities, take deeper responsibility and move forward, in action, in the world, in a deeper, more caring stance, making a more viable, beautiful future possible.

From off-grid cabins in ’01 to a utility scale CDG projects today, Rob has been selling, constructing and developing solar projects in New York for over 17 years. Most recently, from early ’14 to mid-’18, he led Borrego to the state’s largest C&I market share, developing >60MW of projects, from origination & site control through permitting, interconnection, MWB, property tax negotiation and complete entitlement. He now runs his own solar development consultancy.

He has served on NY Solar Energy Industry Association’s (NYSEIA) board since 2013, on the executive committee as both Secretary and President of the board and leading the charge to build-out NYSEIA’s staff, increasing the organization’s impact in the State. He is currently facilitating NYSEIA’s RPTL487 Property Tax Campaign, working with NYSERDA and the Governor’s office.

Rob is also working on a documentary film series about The Great Work. The series highlights, explores and contemplates places, communities, projects and governing structures embodying The New Story of our interconnected place on this wild, awe-inspiring life experiment we call Earth.

We are striving to create a diverse alliance
and would like to have more women and people of color
represented in our founder’s circle.

If you know of anyone who might resonate with this mission,
please make the connection via email: lev@allianceforaviablefuture.org.