Earthlight World Premiere Day

Dr. Sian Leo Proctor is a visionary poet, artist, educator, and space explorer. In 2021, Dr. Proctor made history as the first artist selected to become an astronaut with the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission. She is also the first woman commercial spaceship pilot and the only African-American woman to be a mission pilot. She engages in strategic conversations that unlock clarity, alignment, and forward momentum—enabling individuals and organizations to let their EarthLight shine. From personal growth to nonprofit leadership and corporate innovation, she guides transformational thinking through creative insight, systems awareness, and intentional strategic momentum through artistic expression. She is an international speaker and was the 2024-25 U.S. Department of State Science Envoy for Space. Her SpaceX Inspiration4 spacesuit is currently on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Cady Coleman is a retired NASA Astronaut and US Air Force Colonel who flew twice on the Space Shuttle Columbia and spent 159 days on the International Space Station as the Lead Robotics and Lead Science officer. 

A popular public speaker and media consultant, Cady is also a regular contributor for space exploration news and a Research Affiliate at MIT’s Media Lab. She serves on several boards, including the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the ISS National Lab Education Advisory Group.

Cady’s book, Sharing Space: An Astronaut’s Guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change is known for its insights and candid stories. She and her family were featured in PBS’s Space: The Longest Goodbye; and The Wonderful: Stories from the Space Station.

An improvisational flute player, she is known for her “Space Duet” with Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson and her work with the Irish band, The Chieftains. From space, she coached Sandra Bullock for her role in “Gravity.” 

Cady lives in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts with her husband, glass artist Josh Simpson. 

Frank White is the author or coauthor of numerous books spanning space exploration, climate change, and artificial intelligence. His most celebrated work, The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution, coined the term now used to describe the profound cognitive shift astronauts experience when witnessing Earth from orbit — a sudden realization of our planet's fragility, unity, and extraordinary beauty. A short film inspired by the book has amassed nearly 8 million views on Vimeo, and since its first publication in 1987, the fourth edition — featuring original interviews with 31 astronauts — is forthcoming in 2019.

That perspective, once reserved for a select few, is now expanding through a new era of commercial spaceflight, opening the door to revolutionary science, global collaboration, and a reimagining of humanity's relationship with Earth. White has long championed this shift through his identity as a "space philosopher." His latest book, The Cosma Hypothesis: Implications of the Overview Effect, asks why evolution has brought us to the threshold of becoming a spacefaring species, and introduces "the Human Space Program" — a shared civilizational project inviting all of us to become Citizens of the Universe.

Frank and his wife Donna live outside Boston, Massachusetts.