Founder and Prinicipal, Sacred Futures

Charity May is the Founder and Principal of Sacred Futures, an advisory practice that guides partners in the reimagining, designing and implementing of governance, leadership and ownership models, sustainable growth strategies, and financing vehicles to cultivate renewal and reciprocity between human and more-than-human worlds.

Before launching Sacred Futures, Charity was directly involved in the management of real estate private equity investments and debt capital markets. She has directed, led and supported the investment, structure and development of over $575 million of project value for education facilities across the country, serving over 40,000 students. In her time in investment banking, she conducted the underwriting, analysis, origination and structuring for over $3.8 billion of leveraged finance transactions across multiple sectors including technology, consumer goods, industrial, and energy. Charity also managed a portfolio of middle-market companies totaling $134 million in debt commitments and served on the sell side and project finance functions for companies administering renewable energy resources. She has worked with various non-profits and NGOs on local and global economic development initiatives.

Charity is a systems designer, writer and advisor, supporting the governance and strategic development of funds, projects and businesses committed to building towards a regenerative economy.

When not designing or experimenting with new ways of being, you can find Charity occupied in some form of body movement in nature, exploring food and nature scenes with husband and friends, reading, or writing.

Steward. Cultivator. Shepherdess: High Hog Farm

Originally from upstate NY, Keisha Cameron began farming with her husband and three children on their family farm outside of Atlanta, GA in 2009. A returning generation farmer and cultural seedkeeper, Keisha finds herself leaning into Black agrarian heritage and legacies, incorporating agroecological land and foodways into her evolving relationship with the farm and its ecosystem.

An active community supporter, social justice and human rights advocate, Keisha has given her time as a community volunteer and organizer. She enjoys sharing her knowledge and passion for agrarian arts with friends, neighbors, local organizations and schools.

Today, Keisha continues to work alongside her husband, growing food, fibers, and plant-based dyes while also offering programs, workshops, and fiber circles designed to address the various forms of healing and connection that are needed within and beyond our food system. Keisha’s approach regularly infuses exploration through fun and play into the experiences she designs, empowering others and facilitating opportunities to become agents of change.

Founder, EMME Studio

Artist and designer Korina Emmerich founded the slow fashion brand EMME Studio in 2015. Her colorful work celebrates her patrilineal Indigenous heritage from The Puyallup tribe while aligning art and design with education. With a strong focus on social and climate justice, Emmerich's artwork strives to expose and dismantle systems of oppression in the fashion industry and challenge colonial ways of thinking.

She co-founded Relative Arts NYC, a new open atelier, shoppable showroom and community space featuring Indigenous and sustainable designers located in the East Village.

Her work has been featured in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Moma PS1, The Denver Art Museum, Vogue, Elle, Instyle, Fashion, Flare, New York Magazine, and more notable publications. She has presented her collections in Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, Indigenous Fashion and Arts, Santa Fe Indian Market's Couture Runway Show, and New York Fashion Week.

Items are handmade in our Brooklyn, New York studio located on occupied Lenapehoking. EMME is a slow fashion brand, humbly owned and operated by Korina. Key items are made from upcycled, recycled, or all-natural materials giving respect to the life cycle of a garment.

Portfolio Manager, Olamina Fund at Candide Group at Candide Group

Leticia is the proud daughter of immigrant farmworkers from Guanajuato, Mexico, and grew up in a small rural town in Fresno, CA. Leticia’s work has focused on solving complex environmental, economic, and social problems and co-creating innovative investment solutions.

Most recently, Leticia served as the first Central California Regional Lead Advisor of the California Office of the Small Business Advocate, a position she was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom. During her term she led strategy development for the state of California’s small business ecosystem-building work, access to affordable capital and diverse entrepreneurship, and innovation portfolios, and created a model across California. In previous positions, she has worked alongside organic small-scale coffee producers and indigenous women's textile cooperatives in Mexico.

Currently, Leticia is the Portfolio Manager for Olamina Fund at Candide Group, where she stewards a multi-million dollar investment portfolio. Olamina Fund provides impact-oriented loans to a variety of women- and BIPOC-led private debt providers.

Leticia encourages other Latinas and Women of Color to live their entrepreneurial dreams and use business as a vehicle to transform industries; promote green economies and generate healthy and good quality jobs in rural communities.

She received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley and her master’s degree from the University of San Diego. She has completed several prestigious fellowships and certificate programs, including the Just Economy Institute and Yale University's Certificate in Financing and Deploying Clean Energy.

Ellen Martin is Chief Impact Officer of Circulate Capital, an investment firm focused on circular economy infrastructure and innovations in emerging markets. Circulate's Ocean Fund launched in 2019 and was the first dedicated exclusively to addressing the ocean plastics challenge in Asia and first circular economy fund to qualify for the 2X Challenge, committed to increasing gender lens investment. In her role, Ellen is responsible for driving impact and insights for Circulate Capital and managing ESG through the investment process. As a member of Circulate’s leadership and investment teams, Ellen is focused on ensuring the firm’s collective strategies, assets, and relationships deliver impact as it grows. She is also a senior advisor to Circulate Capital’s mission-aligned non-profit, The Circulate Initiative.

Ellen grew up in the apparel industry. Her mother emigrated from Taiwan to the US and became an entrepreneur and small business owner, working in retail and representing independent designers. This early education has led to a lifelong appreciation for the entrepreneurial experience, as well as for textiles, costume design and crafts of all kinds.

Jen Zuckerman is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Duke University’s World Food Policy Center. Her work focuses on people-first policy development for equitable food policy in the US. As a result, she has supported research to demonstrate the racialized history of policies that have created the inequities in the food system of today, identifying strategies that shift power and decision making to community leadership.

In addition to her position with the World Food Policy Center, Jen contracts with the DEI Works Collective. Her work focuses on institutional organizing, concentrating specifically on recognizing power and operationalizing power shift strategies.

Prior to her current work, she spent twelve years at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, serving as the Senior Program Officer for Healthy Living and the Director of Strategic Partnerships, focusing on increasing access to safe active environments and on providing sources for healthy, locally sourced food.

Jen serves on the Board of the Sustainable Agriculture and Food System Funders Network and on the Advisory Board of Communities in Partnership.