Born and Raised in Cincinnati, Oh. with roots here going back 150 years, I set out to find what is Socially Just & Sustainable 11 years ago after leaving Automobile Design. I worked at the New England Aquarium first and then started work at the Greater World Earthship Community working with Mike Reynolds & Company. I also traveled the US & Europe extensively looking for what is sustainable visiting many Ecovillages and "Green" things along the way. After receiving my BS in Industrial Design from U. of Cincinnati with a strong focus in Sustainability I purchased an Earthship in the Greater World Community in Taos. This was a very educational time of my life, building community with folks who lived in earthships, multi-million dollar "Green" Homes and Shantys built from mud, scraps and old school buses as well as greening the desert the best they could. I also continued the pursuit for sustainable foods, laying the ground work for a non-profit Farmer's cooperative, baking pita's from locally grown organic wheat for a restaurant, serving as an FDA consultant for one of the largest Organic lip balm manufaturers and supporting the local Ag. scene. I eventually decided to sell the Earthship quite the great job and move back home to teach this stuff. This was when the Permaculture adventure began.
My first PDC was with Scott Pittman at the Ecoversity in Santa Fe 2006. This sparked me to Visit Earthhaven in NC, The Bullock brothers in Washington St. and do a teacher training with Peter Bane and Andrew "Goodheart" Brown at the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute in Colorado. This then led to going to Australia to take a PDC with Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton in Australia since I knew I wanted to teach this stuff. While down there I also interned at David Homgren & Su Dennet's site Melliodora as well, which was mind blowing. I also visited several international sites in Europe, Asia and the US. Upon returning I also had the good fortune to study with Dave Jacke and Mark Shephard as well. My intention all along was to bring it home to the Midwest, which I started to do in 2007 when I taught a little bit with Peter Bane & Co. I then organized my first PDC here in Cincinnati and only the 4th or 5th to my knowledge in the state in 2008 with 20 graduates & 6 part timers. Since then we have taught 5 course with close to 70 grads (almost all from Cincinnati!) with 15 teachers for support, and several demo sites in Cincinnati. We have also taught a course at the community college as well.
Now we are setting up This-Land.org, a Permaculture/Green build education Non-Profit with several host sites and a plethora of teachers to start offering reskilling courses throughout the city and the region. This Organization is working in Concert with the University of Cincinnati and its Design/Landscape/Architecture school to help expand this thinking into more of the mainstream, which is going exceptionally well!