Summary: Democratizing our economy from the ground to build community and strengthen local sustainable economies that allow people to be more locally self sufficient Prof. Gar Alperovitz is the Lionel Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland and the founder of the Democracy Collaborative. He is a former fellow of politics at Harvard and Cambridge Universities and has served as a legislative director for the House of Representatives, the US Senate, and as a special assistant to the State Department. Prof. Alperovitz has published numerous articles in peer reviewed journals and major media such as the New York Times and Washington Post. His focus has been on political economics that deal with class struggle and the conflict between government economic policies and democracy. His most recent book is What Then Must We Do?: Straight Talk about the Next American Revolution,” which has been praised by Richard Wolf, Daniel Ellsberg, Naomi Klein and others for offering bottom up solutions for systemic economic change. His website is GarAlperovitz.com AND DemocracyCollaborative.org Sarah van Gelder is co-founder and executive editor of YES! Magazine and YesMagazine.org, one of the few remaining progressive publications challenging current dominant paradigms and offering feature powerful ideas and practical solutions for building a more just and sustainable world. The magazine, which was founded in 1996, recently won the Utne Reader Media Award for General Excellence. Sarah also sits on the board of the Positive Futures Network, and has founded and co-founded local community projects for low-incoming house, and building cooperative operations and ventures linking organic farmers to urban markets. She is also a board member of the Suquasmish Tribe and is part of the efforts to stop anti-Indian hostility and return lands where Chief Seattle once lived to the Suquamish people. She is the lead author of “This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement. The Website is YesMagazine.org
