Redesigning Our Communities for Life After Fossil Fuels November 18 2023

Dr. Melanie Carlone, DPT, MPT, Co-Founder, Chief Culture and Business Development Officer, ThePivot.Earth

Dr. Carlone, a clinical physical therapist and transformative health educator, brings a systems mindset attuned to the principles of nature’s design into her passion for regenerative living soil projects. Specializing in unraveling the root cause of illness and inflammation, she views the human body as a complex interconnected and co-arising system. This perspective extends to her involvement in large-scale regenerative soil projects, emphasizing health, inclusivity and interconnection to design principles and partnership building. She designs for well-being to extend beyond the individual to influence the community in broader projects and initiatives. Dr. Carlone’s focus on well-being extends beyond individuals, influencing broader community initiatives. Her expertise spans rehabilitation, energy medicine, emergent leadership approaches, and public health, blending ancient healing wisdom with modern science for holistic well-being.

Marianne Wyne, Co-founder, Chief Operating Officer, ThePivot.Earth

Marianne Wyne, co-founder of ThePivot.Earth, draws on 25 years of experience in transformation ranging from large enterprises to startups. Her approach aligns with the principles of nature’s design, emphasizing regenerative living soil projects crucial for our world. Marianne extends this mindset to contribute to large-scale regenerative soil projects, focusing on health, inclusivity, and interconnected design principles. Her commitment to well-being extends from individuals to community-wide initiatives, and she is dedicated to building a syntropic enterprise that benefits all beings. In navigating intricate large-scale projects, Marianne takes a comprehensive, holistic approach, addressing regeneration, social dynamics, economic impact, emotional well-being, mental health, and spiritual growth seamlessly.

Richard Heinberg, Author, Senior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute

Richard Heinberg is a Senior Fellow at Post Carbon Institute and is the author of 14 books, including POWER: LIMITS AND PROSPECTS FOR HUMAN SURVIVAL, along with hundreds of essays and articles, some of which have appeared in NATURE, WALL STREET JOURNAL and THE AMERICAN PROSPECT. He has lectured on 6 continents and has appeared in numerous environmental documentary films.

• Panel: Strategies for Navigating the Coming Energy and Food Crunch

Andrew Millison, Senior Instructor II, Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University, Founder, OSU Permaculture Design, Documentary Videographer, Permaculture Practitioner, Host and Producer, Earth Repair Radio

Andrew is a Senior Instructor II in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University (OSU) where he founded OSU Permaculture Design program in 2009. Collaborating with experts at OSU, Andrew developed an online permaculture education program with niche offerings that has evolved into a worldwide program that has served thousands of students throughout the globe. The primary focus of Andrew’s 27 year career in Permaculture has been water management systems. Andrew has travelled the world filming and analyzing innovative water and land restoration projects as a documentary videographer, creating educational content for his online courses as well as for the general public on his popular YouTube channel.

• Panel: Permaculture and Biodiversity Solutions to Climate Impacts in Oregon and Lahaina, Maui

Maya Dutta, Assistant Director of Regenerative Projects, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate

Maya Dutta is a dedicated environmental advocate and ecosystem restorer with a focus on the crucial role of biodiversity in shaping our climate and natural cycles. With extensive training from SUGI and collaborative work with experts like Ethan Bryson and Hannah Lewis, Maya brings specialized expertise in coastal New England region species and Miyawaki projects, from community engagement and plant selection to ongoing evaluation. Notably, she played a key role in planting the first Miyawaki forest in the Northeast US. Her work aims to fight global climate change while improving human livelihoods and community equity.

• Panel: Strategies for Navigating the Coming Energy and Food Crunch

Arthur Shavers, Co-Founder, Urban Farmer, Community Organizer, Mudbone Grown, President, Operations and Infrastructure Project Manager, Feed’em Freedom Foundation

Arthur Shavers is a farmer with a passion for creating infrastructure. He is also a community organizer, idea implementation generator and professional leather smith. He is a native Portlander with strong ties to the black community. He is creating foodscaping paradises using landscaping and structural innovation. He is the President of their nonprofit, Feed’em Freedom.

• Discussion: Strategies for Navigating the Coming Energy and Food Crunch
• Breakout: Propagating Community Through Food

Laughing Helen Farrell, Indigenous Leader, Eugene, Oregon

Laughing Helen Farrell, a proud descendant of the Choctaw, Tsalagi and Taino nations, is a pipe carrier, bearer of the Eagle Condor prophecy, sacred song carrier, and tradition keeper living and educating on land in Eugene, Oregon. Helen has dedicated her life to the sacred mission of helping humans understand their place in the wheel of life. 

Drawing from her indigenous heritage and teachings of the altars she serves from, including North, Central, and South American ancestry and Irish heritage, Helen channels her passion for environmental education through native earth stewardship. She invokes the wisdom of the Eagle Condor prophecy, reminding us of our interconnected role in the intricate web of life.

Helen’s journey is a celebration of laughter and joy, crucial elements she believes are essential in navigating the challenges of building a regenerative future. Her work stands as a testament to the transformative power of joy in fostering both individual and community resilience. 

• Panel: Strategies for Navigating the Coming Energy and Food Crunch

Jenny Pell, Publisher, Growers Magazine, Owner, Permaculture Now, Board Advisor, Abundant Earth Foundation

Jenny is a former tree planter, helicopter pilot, carpenter, and yurt builder. She is currently an international Permaculture Design Consultant, specializing in climate resilient agroforestry and neighborhood food solutions.  

Based on Maui, Jenny’s portfolio spans urban, suburban and rural designs that include watershed restoration and rehydration systems, earthworks to passively harvest water and stop erosion, profitable organic agriculture and agri-tourism, appropriate technologies, and policy work related to food security.  

• Panel & Breakout: Permaculture and Biodiversity Solutions to Climate Impacts in Oregon and Lahaina, Maui

Jim Laurie, Biologist, Futurist, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate

Jim Laurie is a restoration biologist, educator, and co-founder of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate. Jim worked as a Technical Trainer in the chemical industry where he built bio-diverse ecosystems to remediate toxic wastewater. Later, managed a “Living Machine” in Vermont designed by ecological visionary John Todd to clean municipal sewage without toxic chemicals. These projects demonstrated the power of self-organizing microbes to restore natural ecosystems. 

Jim consulted on projects to restore the redwood forests and Pacific salmon fisheries by ecological design. He studied Holistic Management of grasslands with Allan Savory and the Savory Institute. He built a clean lab to study fungi and grow mushrooms.  JIm volunteered with the International Wolf Center in Minnesota to learn about predators and the north woods. In 2017, he developed “Scenario 300,” an analysis proposing that if half the degraded land on the planet were restored, atmospheric carbon concentrations could fall to 300 ppm within four decades. 

Jim received his B.S. in Biology at Rice University and his M.S. in Future Studies at the University of Houston in 1997 where he completed his thesis on “Biological and Educational Tools for Reversing the Loss of Biodiversity in the 21st Century.” Jim loves to teach and inspire curious students of all ages in understanding the power of natural systems. His “Homeschool Symbiosis Team,” ages 15-18, presented at four Bio4Climate conferences. He has taught nine Biodiversity Zoom courses in the last three years with participants from all over the world. 

• Panel & Breakout: Permaculture and Biodiversity Solutions to Climate Impacts in Oregon and Lahaina, Maui

Clare Strawn, Strategic Development & Learning, PROUT Institute and New Era Convergence

Clare Strawn has decades of experience in community development and activism from early feminism, to community control of housing, solidarity with liberation movements, education equity, and neighborhood level civic engagement. That life experience is complemented by a doctorate in systems change and community research. Clare is a bridge builder, spanning resources, building capacity through partnerships, and healing social divides toward facilitating paradigm shift. Her organizational affiliation is the PROUT Institute and New Era Convergence.

• Discussion: Strategies for Navigating the Coming Energy and Food Crunch
• Breakout: Disasters as a Pivot to New Systems: Community Driven Recovery and Transition

Malcolm Shabazz Hoover, Co-Founder, Co-Director, Black Futures Farm, Board Member, Black Food Sovereignty Coalition

Malcolm Hoover is a father, grandfather, and third generation community organizer. He is the co-founder and co-director of Black Futures Farms, in SE Portland and Black Food Sovereignty Coalition. Malcolm holds a Bachelors of Arts degree in Sociology from University of California Santa Cruz.

Malcolm grew up bi-coastal between unceded Ohlone and Lenai Lenape lands, East Palo Alto, CA  and Philadelphia, PA. His many jobs have included: assembly line worker making Doppler radar rigs, journalist, tech writer, High School and Elementary School teacher, counselor, US Navy Weatherman, video game tester, and book peddler. He has been working in community mediation since the early 2000’s. Malcolm’s first book, “144 Poems and Essays for God, Love, Truth, Justice, Peace and Hip Hop,” was published in 2015 by Tayen Lane Press. Malcolm is currently making a docuseries centered around motorcycles and anti racism “Crenshaw, Shabazz and the Homie Tom” and working on his second book “Love Poems for Wartimes: A practical handbook for community organizing”

• Panel: Strategies for Navigating the Coming Energy and Food Crunch

Monica Ibacache, Founder, Executive Director, Beyond Organic Design, Permaculture Instructor, Oregon State University and Cornell University, President, Permaculture Institute of North America (PINA), Board Member, Abundant Earth Foundation, Advisory Council Member, Northeast Biogas Initiative

A native of Chile, Monica is a New York City–based community organizer, sustainability educator, and ecological designer since 2007. An avid gardener as a small child with her grandparents in Chile, she rekindled her passion for growing food as an adult while living in southeast Alaska. Monica is committed to improving food systems while advancing social and environmental justice globally. She has dedicated her life to working with diverse and marginalized communities in education and local development in the U.S. and abroad. 

Monica teaches Oregon State and Cornell University’s online permaculture courses. She is a lifetime fellow in the U.S. Grassroots Accelerator for Women Environmental Leaders through Women’s Earth Alliance and Sierra Club, and she sits on the New York Climate Education Hub Advisory Committee.

Monica has advanced certifications in Permaculture Design and Teaching, and she currently serves as the president of Permaculture Institute of North America (PINA) and sits on the boards of Abundant Earth Foundation and the Northeast Biogas Initiative Advisory Council. She previously served on the Board of Directors for the Institute of Permaculture for Children (IPEC), the NYC Indoor Gardening Society (IGSA), IPCC International Permaculture Convergence Council.

• Panel: Permaculture and Biodiversity Solutions to Climate Impacts in Oregon and Lahaina, Maui
• Breakout: Permaculture Design in Public Schools: Birthing the Next Generation of Systems Thinkers and Problem Solvers

Ole Ersson, Co-Founder, Kailash Ecovillage, Retired Family Physician, Computer Software Designer

Ole’s background is in computer software design and medicine. He worked as a family physician for the Multnomah County Health Department in Portland, Oregon until his retirement in 2018. He and his wife Maitri have explored solar energy and rainwater harvesting, veganic gardening, humanure composting, and other appropriate technologies, and personal simplicity, from a desire to see more sustainable lifestyles, both here and worldwide. Ole and Maitri present their “experiments” in sustainable living to promote a discussion of how each of us has the potential to make significant, positive changes in how we live. In 2007, they founded Kailash Ecovillage, an intentional community designed for high value, low cost, and sustainable living in inner SE Portland, Oregon. In 2023 they started a new ecovillage project on an adjacent property they are christening Annapurna Ecovillage. Stay tuned for further details!

Ole advocates a whole foods, plant-centered diet to restore personal and planetary health.

• Discussion: Strategies for Navigating the Coming Energy and Food Crunch
• Breakout: How to Launch an Ecovillage in Your Community

Artemio Paz, Architect, FSC Forester, Farmer, Blueberry Hill Certified Organic Farm, Former Chairman, Oregon State Board of Education

Artemio Paz is a licensed Oregon architect, a Forest Stewardship Council forester, a certified organic blueberry farmer, and the former chairman of the Oregon State Board of Education (2013). He is Puerto Rican and grew up in Compton, California. His vast experience and endless drive for learning included a 7-month trip hitch-hiking through Europe studying architecture in 1962-1963. 

In 2010, he contested and prevented the use of poisonous chemicals on a forest landscape adjacent to his farm in the McKenzie Valley near Eugene, Oregon. He advocates for healthy, biodiverse working lands, free of synthetic chemicals, to help mitigate climate impacts and advance ecosystems landscape benefits. His hope is to articulate notions of ecological consciousness that lead to community well-being and ecological intelligence.

• Discussion: Permaculture and Biodiversity Solutions to Climate Impacts in Oregon and Lahaina, Maui
• Breakout: Cultivating Community Empowerment: Dismantling Corporate Control and Amplifying People Power

Jennifer Eisele, Ecosystems and Communities Project Manager, Beyond Toxics

Jennifer Eisele brings invaluable experience to the Beyond Toxics organization based on her previous work on pesticide regulations in the Tribal Environmental Protection Program of the Shoshone Paiute Tribes of Nevada.

Read Jennifer’s latest blog, “New Law Lets Homeowners Opt-Out of Pesticides” written with Barb Rumer, Community Advocate

See also: “Dorris Ranch Orchard: A new season brings the chance for a new start“

• Discussion: Permaculture and Biodiversity Solutions to Climate Impacts in Oregon and Lahaina, Maui
• Breakout: Cultivating Community Empowerment: Dismantling Corporate Control and Amplifying People Power

Julia Eden, Regenerative Landscape Designer & Educator, Lead Consultant, Squatchberry, Freelance Writer

Julia Eden currently splits her time between her regenerative landscaping company, Squatchberry, and her volunteer work. The culmination of 15 years of education and experience, Julia is able to use her background in design as well as her Pacific Northwest native plant knowledge to deliver to her clients a sound foundation on which to start their own regenerative journey.

Combining holistic water restoration with her plant expertise and in-depth understanding of soil, Julia also advises several nonprofits on regenerative techniques and approaches to modern day problems. Although these days she is mostly focused on writing her first book.

• Discussion & Breakout: Permaculture and Biodiversity Solutions to Climate Impacts in Oregon and Lahaina, Maui

Jon Schull, Director, Co-Founder, EcoRestoration Alliance

A biological psychologist, entrepreneur, human-computer interaction researcher and digital community organizer, Dr. Jon Schull is the founder of e-NABLE, an online philanthropic community that makes free open-source 3D-printed prosthetic hands and arms for children and adults with upper limb differences. Concerned about the climate crisis, and impressed by the recent recognition that restoration of degraded habitats could literally cool the planet by 1 degree C within 10 years, Schull is now attempting to apply the “distributed do-ocracy” processes pioneered by e-NABLE to the problem of climate change. During the summer of 2021 he founded the EcoRestoration Alliance to build a collaboration of scientists and regenerative activists to bring earth-restoring practices front and center in the climate and biodiversity conversations, and to apply for funding supplied by the XPrize.

• Presentation: The EcoRestoration Alliance & The Big Map to Save the Future

Philip Bogdonoff, Board Member; Director, Bio4Climate’s D.C. Chapter, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate

Philip Bogdonoff is a co-founder of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate’s Washington DC Chapter.  He is a past trustee and board chair, Friends Community School; Co-founder, Sustainable Washington Alliance; Vice President, Millennium Institute; Consultant, World Bank Environment Department; Research Assistant, Section of Ecology and Systematics, Cornell University.  Philip and Jim Laurie constructed Washington, DC’s first “Living Machine” more than 15 years ago.

• Panel: Strategies for Navigating the Coming Energy and Food Crunch