Honorary Guest
Mayor Vince C. Lago
Mayor Lago is the youngest Mayor in Coral Gables' history. He was first elected in 2021 and re-elected in 2023 and 2025 after serving eight years as City Commissioner and Vice Mayor. He is a strong advocate for sustainability, historic preservation, and community engagement, with a long record of civic leadership and support for the arts, transportation, and environmental stewardship.
Program Director
Zarah Khan
is the founder of LEAP. She is a rising junior passionate about environmental advocacy and law. She competes in congressional speech and debate, track and cross country, and plays the piano. She is one of two Americans selected in 2025 to attend the United World College of the Red Cross Nordic in Norway as a Davis Scholar. She is excited to take the message of LEAP and her community to join global voices in environmental advocacy.
Panelists
Claudia Akel
is the Founder and CEO of Social Impact Movement and Co-founder SDG Investors. As a global social impact strategist, she partners with forward-thinking leaders and philanthropists to embed the UN Sustainable Development Goals) into their core business strategies to equip their organizations with future-ready purpose-driven strategies.
Michele Drucker
serves as the Environmental Stewardship Chair for the Florida PTA and as the Environmental Chair for the Miami-Dade County Council PTA/PTSA, Vice-Chair of the Clean Energy 2030 Task Force for Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and Assistant Chief Counsel at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
David L. Kelly
is a Professor of Economics at the University of Miami. He Co-Chairs the Sustainable Business Research Cluster and is the Academic Director of the Master of Science in Sustainable Business program. He has published widely on climate policy, environmental regulation, economic growth and the environment, and the economics of natural disasters.
Doug Ruley
is the Director of the Environmental Justice Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law. He has litigated environmental cases as an attorney with Earthjustice, the Asheville office of the Southern Environmental Law Center, and as Chief Counsel of ClientEarth. He has also directed the Environment and Natural Resources Law Clinic at Vermont Law School.