Courses draw on the expertise and wisdom of the following pool
of instructors (Of course, not every instructor listed will be present at every
course).
Guest Lecturers and Local Experts are
added to the line up to provide indepth information on various subjects.
Larry Santoyo, Director,
EarthFlow Design Works
The teaching team is led by Larry Santoyo, an ecological designer, land use planner and business consultant. Santoyo is among the most experienced Permaculture Designers and Educators in the US and has taught environmental design at colleges and universities nationwide including UC Berkeley and California State PolyTechnic University. First mentored by Bill Mollison in the mid 80's, Larry went on to teach design courses with Mollison till the mid 90's in the US and in Australia.
Santoyo is an ex-lawman (and an ex-outlaw!), he retired from public service to homestead in the Great Northwest. Since 1989, Santoyo has helped to initiate Permaculture Guilds from Bellingham, Washington south to San Diego, California. For over twenty years, Larry Santoyo has assisted private individuals in the design and construction of "Home Ecosystems" and has assisted companies in developing industrial ecologies and sustainable business practices.
Santoyo is now settled on California's Central Coast, with an office in Los Angeles, from where he works with his "Back to the City Permaculture" team with projects in New York City and regularly scheduled courses in Los Angeles.
Among a variety of projects in various stages of development, L. Santoyo is writing his long-awaited book "Permaculture for Humanity," that details his innovative applications of Permaculture Design Principles to community economic development strategies.
Larry Santoyo is Vice President of the Permaculture Institute (USA), Co-director of The Terra Foundation, and is the founder of the MicroVillage Network.
Contact Larry Santoyo
Kathryn Ellen, Mistress of Administration,
EarthFlow Design Works
Kathryn Ellen has been studying permaculture for over 15 years now, applying it first to her gardening career on the east coast, and then later to the research and development of Home Ecosystems with EarthFlow. She manages the EarthFlow office, teams up with Larry Santoyo to design the plant palates of their various projects and makes and uses non-toxic home cleaning products. She's a proud dumpster-diver, advocate of no-work/no-mess composting and initiator of the NO PLASTIC STRAWS (Plastic Straws are for Suckers) project.
Contact Kathryn Ellen
Scott Pittman, Director
The Permaculture Institute (USA)
Scott Pittman has taught permaculture since 1985 in over 18 countries on
four continents. He worked with the people of different cultures and
backgrounds, from indigenous tribes in South America to corporate teams in
Equatorial Guinea. Over the years he trained thousands of students, counting
now at least 5 generations of instructors that received training from him.
Scott is known for his foundational work in establishing permaculture
movement in the US Southwest, for which he received a Community Achievement
Award from the Permaculture Institute of Australia.
Contact The Permaculture Institute
Toby Hemenway, Author
Gaia's Garden:
A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture
Toby Hemenway is the author of the first major book on permaculture
for North America,
Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture
(Chelsea Green, 2001) and past associate editor of
the Permaculture Activist, as well as Scholar-in Residence at Pacific University, Adjunct Professor of Graduate Education at Portland State University, and Director of the Center for Pattern Literacy. His writing
has appeared in Whole Earth Review, Natural Home, Kitchen Gardener,
and other national magazines. He teaches, consults, and lectures on
ecological design and biomimicry throughout the country.
Contact PatternLiteracy.com
John Valenzuela, Design Consultant
John Valenzuela is a horticulturist, consultant and educator who has returned to live in Northern California after being based in Hawai'i for 15 years. He has taught permaculture to a wide range of people from school children, to university students, general public, and displaced sugar cane workers, in Hawai'I, Costa Rica. Washington state, and California. His special interests are home gardening, trees, traditional agriculture, plant propagation, and ethnobotany.
Contact John Valenzuela
Jude Hobbs, Designer
Cascadia Permaculture
Jude Hobbs is a horticulturist, Permaculture designer, and activist. Since 1982, she has provided whole system environmental design solutions in urban and rural settings. As an associate with Agro-Ecology Northwest, she works with small-scale farmers and two eco-labeling organizations, Salmon Safe and LIVE (Low Input Viticulture and Enology).
Jude has presented Permaculture workshops and courses throughout the West and Hawaii for 17 years, developing curricula that encompass diverse learning styles. She has co-facilitated the Advance Pc Certification Course in Teaching for 5 years. Jude is a co-founder of Cascadia Permaculture Institute.
As a way to support local organizations, Jude is on the board of the Willamette Farm and Food Coalition, Eugene Permaculture Guild and the University of Oregon's CASL (Center for the Advancement of Sustainable Living).
She has written the Oregon State University Bulletin (EM: 8721) A Guide to Multi-Functional Hedgerows and soon to be published: On-Farm Biodiversity Resource Guide: For Dry lands, Uplands & the Maritime Northwest.
Contact Cascadia Permaculture
Fen Foster, Designer
Terra Nova Ecological Landscaping
Ken Foster is a horticulturist, Permaculture designer, and founder of Terra Nova Landscaping, a bicycle and bio-diesel powered design/build company. He served on the Board of Directors of the Ecological Farming Association for ten years and currently serves on the planning committee for the Ecological Farming Conference. Ken has been a member of the Ecological Landscaping Association since 1995 and spearheaded the effort to bring E.L.A. to the west coast since 2003.
Ken lectures on topics relating to sustainable landscaping including Fossil Free Landscaping, sustainable design, hardscape and softscape installation and maintenance.
Contact Terra Nova
Joan Stevens, Educator
Environmental Biologist
Joan Stevens teaches environmental science, permaculture and yoga. She has studied with a variety of permaculture teachers including Larry Santoyo, the Bullocks brothers, Michael Becker, Michael Kramer, Christopher Peck, Jude Hobbs, Tom Ward, Toby Hemenway, Brock Dolman, and Penny Livingston.
In her academic training she studied breadfruit biodiversity in Samoa, home garden design in Tapachula, Mexico, plant spirit medicine in Killarney, Ireland, ethnobotany in Chiapas, Mexico, and antimicrobial properties of medicinal plants in Southern California. She is a botanist and master gardener as well as a student of plant chemistry, entomology, herbal medicine, home-scale ecology and resource conservation, fermentation, and mycology. She loves to explore ways to apply ancient wisdom and modern technology to create beauty and abundance for future generations.
Contact Joan Stevens
Traci Reitz, Community Activist
EarthFlow Design Works Senior Associate
Traci Reitz is an EarthFlow Design Works Associate Instructor and leads educational outreach programs in and around Los Angeles' westside. She is currently the Director of the Community Sustainability Program at Santa Monica's Sustainable Works and is a green building and sustainability consultant, educator and events coordinator. Traci was awarded a Bachelor's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Southern California and has received professional training in Interior Design, Permaculture Design and as a Green Building Consultant.
Since 2006, Traci has worked for the City of Santa Monica to help focus their efforts on growing and empowering environmental and social sustainability on the a municipal level through developing community building events and outreach programs.
Contact Traci Reitz
Corinna Gebert, Architectural Designer
Dipl. Ing. Interior Architecture, LEED AP
Trained as an architect in Germany, Australia and the USA, Corinna's background is in spatial design and planning with her main focus on the interrelations between built and natural environment.
A native of Germany, Corinna combines the engrained environmental awareness of an ecologist upbringing with design and construction experience gathered on three continents.
Corinna has worked for firms in Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Frankfurt, and Hamburg since 1999 and returned to Los Angeles in 2003 where she has since been employed with Aleks Istanbullu Architects. As a project manager and designer, Corinna brings creativity, organizational skills and professional curiosity to her work. She thrives on optimizing processes and results, implementing and educating clients and peers about the principles of sustainable design, permaculture, and an overall awareness for our impact on the environment.
A LEED AP and graduate of the 2007/08 Permaculture Design Course with Earthflow Design, Corinna is co-founder of taproot design group, an interdisciplinary collaborative dedicated to promoting and implementing Permaculture Design Principles in projects of all scales -from private homes to street medians, community gardens, corporate offices and school campuses.
Contact Corinna Gebert
Lydia Neilsen, Designer
Dirt Dragon Designs
Lydia Neilsen is the co-director of Dirt Dragon Designs, a Permaculture and Biodynamic Consultation Business specializing in soil building, greywater designs, water harvesting earthworks and food forests. She teaches at the Regenerative Design Institute with Penny Livingston and at the Santa Cruz Waldorf School where she manages their 1 acre biodynamic garden and is introducing permaculture design to the children, the campus and the local community.
In her off hours she's developing The Westside Permaculture House in Santa Cruz into a learning center for home scale permaculture design.
Contact Lydia Neilsen
