JAMES WORKMAN is a storyteller, entrepreneur, and author of resilience strategies, including the award-winning book Heart of Dryness. Drawing on fieldwork with Indigenous Kalahari people, he founded AquaShares, a firm pioneering water credit trading. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, Orion, Trout, and Washington Monthly. Jamie studied at Yale, Oxford, and Stanford, and taught at Wesleyan and Whitman. But his real education came from restoring wildfires, reintroducing wolves, blowing up dams, smuggling to dissidents, getting married and raising two daughters.

AMANDA LELAND fell in love with the sea at five years old, when her grandfather taught her to fish. She has since gone on to get her Master’s Degree in Marine Biology, work as a marine mammal zookeeper, take more than 1,000 scuba dives, and kayak every chance she gets. As Executive Director of Environmental Defense Fund, Amanda brings unlikely allies together to find the ways that work to support healthy communities and economies while reducing climate impacts. She previously led EDF’s Oceans program, a global team in 14 countries focused on reversing overfishing while supporting thriving fishing communities, triggering the dramatic economic and ecological recovery of U.S. fisheries and beyond.

For more information or to order books, please visit: https://brazosbookstore.com/event/2025-10-23/james-workman-and-amanda-leland-sea-change