50th ABS Annual Conference: Full Schedule

You will be able to validate your attendance (Check-In to sessions) using your personal schedule.

9:00am EDT

Regenerative Agriculture and the Primacy of Farmers: A Bahá'í Perspective

Saturday August 8, 2026 9:00am - 10:15am EDT

Limited Capacity seats available

Regenerative agriculture is a burgeoning global movement still taking shape. 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Adasíyyih pioneered what are now known as regenerative practices, while at the same time integrating Bahá'í spiritual principles demonstrating the full transformative potential of this approach. Today, several million smallholders in the Global South represent the majority of this movement’s contemporary practitioners. This presentation explores how two hundred million more smallholders, combining regenerative practices with Bahá'í principles, could feed the additional 1.5 billion more people in the world by 2050—all of whom will be in the Global South—while actively helping to reverse climate change.

Speakers

Hugh Locke

Hugh is an international expert in smallholder regenerative agriculture. He is President of Futurra, an organization that orchestrates regenerative agriculture and agroforestry programs and research. He is and President of the Smallholder Farmers Alliance in Haiti, and a board member... Read More →

Saturday August 8, 2026 9:00am - 10:15am EDT
207

Development / Sustainability, Breakout

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10:30am EDT

Protagonists for Sustainability

LIMITED

Saturday August 8, 2026 10:30am - 11:45am EDT

207

Limited Capacity seats available

This session will focus on how we all can be protagonists for environmental sustainability, by learning, taking action and fostering meaningful conversations that relate Bahá’í principles to societal discourses around custodianship of the Earth and equitable development. Tackling the immense challenges of climate change requires understanding of the science, the need for tradeoffs in solutions, adaptability to changing scenarios, and respect for different perspectives as we seek a unity-building approach. We draw on the past five years of ABS reading groups and workshops, and welcome young and old, and diverse views, to help us explore how we can constructively engage with individuals, communities and institutions.

Speakers

Darren Hedley

Darren Hedley (PhD) is Adjunct Professor of Global Development Studies at the University of Calgary, Canada, and a consultant to international development agencies in program and policy management, particularly in the areas of food and water security, resilience and climate adaptation... Read More →

Leslie Cole

Leslie Cole became a Bahá’í in the Yukon in 1981 and lived and worked in the North for eight years. Her M.A. was on cultural change on Baffin Island from the 1950s-1980s. Leslie’s book Under One Tent: A History of Bahá’ís in Northern Canada will be published in Spring 2026... Read More →

Nancy Dinnigan-Prashad

Writer/researcher/editor focused on environmental health and justice: heat, air quality, disaster prevention, contaminated communities. Many years of medical and legal advocacy/intervention for people with FASD. Serves on national justice committee (fasdjustice.ca). Currently works... Read More →

Saturday August 8, 2026 10:30am - 11:45am EDT
207

Development / Sustainability, Breakout

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2:00pm EDT

Building Unity in Action: A Bahá’í-Inspired Approach to Multifaith Collaboration on Global Challenges

LIMITED

Saturday August 8, 2026 2:00pm - 3:15pm EDT

207

Limited Capacity seats available

The Ottawa Environment Forum will share its experience developing a Bahá’í-inspired multifaith initiative that applies spiritual principles to addressing humanity’s global issues. This presentation explores how shared values across faith traditions can awaken hope, nurture moral courage, and inspire collective action for the common good. Drawing on Bahá’í principles such as consultation, the harmony of science and religion, and the oneness of humanity, participants will gain both insight and motivation to initiate transformative, community‑building responses to the urgent challenges confronting our world today.

Speakers

Aaron Kelly

A co-founder of the Ottawa Environment Forum, Aaron holds a Masters Degree in Energy Regulation and Law and a Juris Doctor from Vermont Law School. He is an attorney with expertise in solar energy, green building, and sustainable transportation. He is a founder of Tunbridge Solar... Read More →

Bill Kelly

Bill began his career in technology during the personal computer revolution, then transitioned to entrepreneurial ventures in sustainability. He founded green businesses including an online platform promoting device repair and reuse, and a solar energy company serving nonprofits... Read More →

Sherri Kelly

Sherri is a multilingual professional with an MBA and broad experience in corporate, academic, and small business settings. Inspired by a lifelong respect for nature, she is committed to environmental stewardship and advancing sustainable living through active service in community... Read More →

Stephen Thirlwall

Stephen is a retired geographer/geologist, remote sensing image interpreter, and sci/tech writer and editor. He is active in an ongoing community grassroots effort to audit the urban tree canopy in the downtown Ottawa area. Always interested in a wide range of music, Stephen is a... Read More →

Saturday August 8, 2026 2:00pm - 3:15pm EDT
207

Development / Sustainability, Breakout

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3:30pm EDT

A Paradigm Shift in Humanitarian Aid: From Victims to Protagonists

LIMITED

Saturday August 8, 2026 3:30pm - 4:45pm EDT

207

Limited Capacity seats available

Amid escalating global crises, the traditional humanitarian model is proving unsustainable. This presentation, drawing on Bahá’í teachings, proposes a paradigm shift: moving from viewing survivors as passive victims to active protagonists of their own recovery. True resilience lies not just in material resources, but in a community’s spiritual capacity for consultation, unity, and collective action. By correlating crisis management with the Nine-Year Plan's goal to "release the society-building power of the Faith," we examine how a model of "accompaniment" empowers survivors. This approach restructures humanitarian aid, ensuring that post-disaster reconstruction builds a lasting framework.

Speakers

Munirih Tahzib

Founder, HumanitarianMD

Dr. Munirih N. Tahzib is a practicing physician of thirty years. Originally from the Netherlands, she moved to the USA in 1996 and completed her subsequent specialty training at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in NYC. Dr. Tahzib organized and led countless volunteer medical-humanitarian... Read More →

Chris Ward

Chris is a serial entrepreneur with forty years of global IT leadership experience, bringing empathy, passion, service, and vision. Chris is currently serving as Secretary of the National Assembly of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. His latest ventures include Empathy North Botswana... Read More →

Inault Saint Jean

Inault is a pioneer from Haiti, a survivor of the 2010 earthquake, currently serving on the National Assembly of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands while studying Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Technology, Jamaica. He served at the Baha'i World Centre in security, statistics... Read More →

Saturday August 8, 2026 3:30pm - 4:45pm EDT
207

Development / Sustainability, Breakout

about <br>

9:00am EDT

10:30am EDT

2:00pm EDT

3:30pm EDT

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