Speakers

State Senator Jason Lewis proudly represents the people of the Fifth Middlesex District of Massachusetts, which includes the cities and towns of Malden, Melrose, Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield, and parts of Winchester. First elected to the Senate in 2014, he has delivered results for his district and been a progressive leader for the Commonwealth.

Senator Lewis has long championed educational equity and led the effort to pass the Student Opportunity Act in 2019, landmark legislation to ensure that every child in Massachusetts has access to a high-quality public education. Senator Lewis also led the effort in 2018 to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour and to create a new universal paid family and medical leave program. He was recognized for this achievement by being named an Honorable Mention for the 2018 Bostonians of the Year by the Boston Globe.

Senator Lewis is a member of Senate President Karen Spilka’s leadership team. He serves as the Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Education and the Assistant Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means. He also co-founded and co-chairs the legislature’s Prevention for Health Caucus, Zero Waste Caucus, and Middlesex Fells Caucus.

Chris Redfern has led the Friends of the Middlesex Fells as its executive director since 2019. Prior to joining the Friends, Chris was executive director of San Diego Audubon for fourteen years. Chris is a nonprofit professional with extensive experience in outdoor nature education, community-based habitat restoration, endangered species recovery, and community science. Chris also has more than a decade of experience collaborating with federal, state, city, and non-profit organizations to protect wildlife and restore local habitats, co-founded San Diego Children and Nature, and served for more than eight years on the Board of Directors of Audubon California.