Daniel Arini is President of Palm-to-Palm. He is also a board member at-large with the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network of Detroit. He previously was an American Climate Corps member with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation where he cultivated green workforce development programs. 

Daniel earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies, with a Resource Policy and Management concentration, and a minor in Geography from the University of Michigan - Dearborn. He graduated with the honor of High Distinction and received a Dean's medallion from the College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters. Daniel was chosen as a Honors Scholar in the Environmental Studies program and placed second in Researched Writing for an entry titled "The Obstacles Facing the Expansion of High-Speed Rail in the United States." Daniel is also a recipient of the Udall Foundation scholarship (2019 awardee, 2020 honorable mention). While an undergrad, Daniel was involved in several conservation initiatives, including two environmental clubs which he co-founded in addition to Palm-to-Palm. He was selected to be part of the United Nations Millennium Fellowship program, an international leadership development program focused on social impact. As a Millennium Fellow, Daniel conceptualized an online 3D museum space for team-based environmental activism. Daniel also interned with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy to bolster environmental education programming, as well as the City of Dearborn where he conducted a comparative analysis of urban sustainability benchmarking methodologies, helping the City launch urban environmental resilience planning through an equity lens. In his spare time, he enjoys gardening with native plants. 

Daniel intends to become an environmental macro social worker who strives to collaboratively build, strengthen, and sustain community placemaking programs which redirect policies and resources toward biodiversity conservation, climate resiliency, green workforce development, open environmental education pedagogies, civic engagement, racial healing, as well as coping with climate anxiety at the local and state level. 

Dr. Francine Dolins is an Associate Professor of Comparative Psychology at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Her Ph.D. is in Cognitive Psychology and Behavioral Primatology from the University of Stirling, Scotland), and she has a BSc., Honors, in Biology (Behavioral Ecology, Evolutionary Theory & Animal Cognition) from the University of Sussex, England. Her research focuses on primate cognition and behavior, and cognitive-ecological modeling in the field and laboratory. Specifically, her research concentrates on questions regarding spatial cognition, navigation, and foraging behavior in the context of group decision-making, social information transfer, and group behavior. In the lab, she uses virtual reality (VR) to compare nonhuman and human primate spatial and social cognition. She also applies technology to enhance the environmental enrichment of captive nonhuman primates. Dr. Dolins has received multiple research grants from the Templeton World Charity Foundation, The Ford Motor Company, and the Southwest Primate National Research Center. She has been lead editor on three volumes with Cambridge University Press, Attitudes to Animals, Spatial Cognition - Spatial Perception, and Spatial Analysis in Field Primatology: Applying GIS at Varying Scales. At the University of Michigan-Dearborn she teaches in Psychology and Psychobiology majors, the Health and Clinical Health Psychology Masters, the Master's Program in Human-Centered Design Studies (College of Engineering and Computer Science), and is also a Co-Director of the Psychology Honors Program. Additionally, she has been active in furthering conservation education in primary education by working with teachers in the United States and Madagascar (The Ako Project). Dr. Dolins is also co-chair of the Conservation Action Network in the American Society of Primatology, an international primate conservation initiative.

Jenny Panergo graduated from Saint Michael's College with academic honors while playing two collegiate varsity sports: soccer and tennis. She has been inducted into four national honor societies; accepted a scholarship at the Morrison Novakovic Center for Faith & Public Policy; wrote a proposal for an African American Foodways Exhibition for the Boston Historical Museum; won first place in directing, writing, and producing a film for a campus festival; and was awarded the George "Doc" Jacobs award for athletics.

On campus, she was involved in a multitude of organizations, particularly in the realm of social justice and sustainability. As a Civil Rights Alliance Leader, she mentored refugees from Sudan and Ethiopia, assessed campus accessibility and developed infrastructure improvement proposals, and contributed to ecological landscaping efforts, including soil restoration initiatives.

Currently, she is a transportation planner and a soccer player for Detroit City FC. Jenny has assisted in writing and publishing a historical fiction novel about the origins of baking powder in collaboration with Joe Covais in 2024. She is an alumnus of the Challenge Detroit Fellowship program and has applied her skills to numerous community and policy initiatives.

Jenny's internship at Life After Life instilled her philosophy of environmental sustainability as a continuous process of healing and regeneration. This perspective has influenced her approach to both professional and personal endeavors. She joined Palm to Palm after being referred by one of the members, Daniel, who is also an alumnus of Challenge Detroit.

Harry T Rahn V, a transfer student to the University of Michigan-Dearborn 2016. I worked to improve student's educational experience and understanding of how to study in college. I belonged to an organization known as the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. Our goal was to improve students' lives in underserved local communities with STEM enrichment activities. We would also frequently host events aimed at helping them apply to college and what financial aid opportunities were available. In the winter of 2021, I graduated with my Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with a Minor in Applied Art. 

From there I applied for the Master of Science in Environmental Science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Since then I have worked as a tutor and SI leader consecutively for four years. Now I have a new role as a graduate communications intern. I hope to change the mindset of students on my campus to better facilitate a cooperative learning environment. What drew me to this project was the need to help the environment. My love for science is rooted very deep and one of my favorite scientists is a female primatologist, Jane Goodall. Her work is breathtaking and awe-inspiring.  

As a student mentor in an education support role at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, I have had the privilege to give back to STEM students for over five years, including participating in the Experience+ K-12 summer tutoring program during covid summer. The team and I established a Google Classroom network and acquired educational resources. Additionally, I co-authored an article emphasizing the importance of access to education. 

 Interviewed by the University newspaper on behalf of the Office of Academic Success to highlight my experience as a long-standing academic support peer at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and my motivation for supporting students. 

I strive to give back and support students who struggle with learning because of my personal experience in public school. As a student, I faced challenges in receiving adequate support and resources, and my diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder led to my placement in special education, which further limited my learning options. Consequently, I had to develop the necessary skills to overcome these obstacles and achieve academic success.

Toward the end of my bachelor's degree, I received an email inviting me to collaborate with BioMolViz, a consortium of international Biochemistry faculty working on an open-source library for visual literacy assessments. Joining forces with the BioMolViz team allowed me to enhance my assessment development skills and elevate my visual literacy proficiency, particularly in rendering proteins using molecular software, contributing to my professional development.

As a result of my two-year partnership with the BioMolViz team, I am a 2023 fellow.