BOARD OF DIRECTORS & ADVISORS

John Perkins, Board Chairman Jessica Wieden, Board of Directors
Stephanie Trager, Board of Directors

Kiman Lucas, Board of Advisors
Bryan Wieden, Board of Advisors
Michael Mayzel, Board of Advisors
Scott James, Board of Advisors

JOHN PERKINS | FOUNDER

As Chief Economist at a major international consulting firm, John Perkins advised the World Bank, United Nations, IMF, U.S. Treasury Department, Fortune 500 corporations, and leaders of countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

John founded Dream Change in 1987 as a result of his experiences 20 years earlier. He had been a Peace Corps volunteer deep in the Amazon Rainforest. A Shuar shaman had saved his life. After his success in international consulting, he returned to the area and offered to help the Shuar save their forests. Shuar leaders told him that the only way to do this was to change the dream of modern societies. “It is your people who are destroying these forests,” they said. “Your oil, mining, and lumber companies. Behind all that is your dream of bigger cities, higher buildings, and more cars. Go back to your people and help them change their dream.”

John returned to the US and founded the nonprofit, Dream Change. He also wrote books on this subject, including Touching the Jaguar, The World Is As You Dream It, Shapeshifitng, Psychonavigation, The Stress-Free Habit, and Spirit of the Shuar.

In the early 2000s John understood that “changing the dream” required reaching a wider audience. He wrote Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (more than 70 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and in 37 languages), The Secret History of the American Empire (New York Times bestseller) and Hoodwinked. These ground-breaking exposés of the clandestine operations that created the current global crises set the stage for the revelations and strategies detailed in The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man – a book that provides practical strategies to transform the failing global Death Economy into a regenerative Life Economy.

John has lectured at Harvard, Oxford, and more than 50 other universities around the world, and is the author of books on indigenous cultures and transformation. He has been featured on ABC, NBC, CNN, CNBC, NPR, A&E, the History Channel, TIME, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Der Spiegel, and many other publications and documentaries. He is also a co-founder of the Pachamama Alliance. He was awarded the Lennon Ono Grant for Peace 2012, and Rainforest Action Network Challenging Business As Usual Award, 2006.

STEPHANIE TRAGER |  BOARD MEMBER |  CHANGE AGENT

Founder and Chief Catalyst at Intentional Paradigms, and Board Member of Dream Change, Stephanie leverages 25 years of combined expertise in law, human evolution, executive coaching, business consulting, strategic advising, leadership development, corporate responsibility, and sustainability. After a 6.5 year career in corporate litigation at Davis Polk, she suffered a severe head injury which nothing could solve until 2.5 years later when she found herself in a shaman’s hut in the Ecuadorian Amazon. She experienced an instant healing only to learn the next day that this pristine jungle was just sold to a foreign copper mining company.

Recommitting to her original passion, Stephanie has been advocating for environmental justice and business and human rights through her work as Chair of the American Bar Association’s Environmental Justice Committee, the Business Law Sections, Corporate Social Responsibility Committee and advising major brands and Fortune 500 companies as well as Impact Entrepreneurs and NGOs on emerging trends, best practices, innovative strategies and opportunities to do well by doing good.

What she’s learned from 13 years as a certified coaching professional with more than two decades of off the beaten path experience in studying indigenous wisdom, shamanism and unlocking purpose for her clients is that personal growth is the path to a sustainable world. Stephanie was inspired to become an attorney after her friend was killed by a logger in a more than decade old battle over the ancient redwood forests. Working as a steward for the environment she was part of a team that helped save more than 7,400 acres of Old Growth Redwood forests in Northern California. She also helped start The Humboldt Watershed Council, a forum for residents impacted by logging and Pacific Law, a law firm and law school registered with the State Bar of California, focused on social justice, corporate responsibility and human dignity, particularly representing property owners in the area and working on the lawsuit to find justice for her friend who was killed. After 2 years in the program, Stephanie moved back to New York, attended New York Law School, received her Juris Doctorate, took the Bar and was off to Brazil as a consultant for the Open Society Institute. She is a human rights, sustainability and corporate responsibility expert, certified leadership development practitioner, and gifted healer helping individuals and organizations create profound and lasting change.

​Stephanie is the host of Catalyst Talks Podcast and author of a forthcoming book. She has published writings with the American Bar Association on the human right to a clean environment and is a strategic communications and positioning expert, with a deep love for old trees.