Ecovillage Training Center
About some of our Instructors
About some of our Instructors
Albert Bates is an environmental attorney, inventor, educator, and founding director of the Ecovillage Training Center. He is author of nine books on energy, environment and law, and two films on ecovillages, and currently serves as Regional Secretary for the Americas for the Global Ecovillage Network. He has lectured and universities and government agencies and worked on natural buildings, village infrastructure, and permaculture landscapes on 6 continents.
Greg Ramsey, a principal of Village Habitat Design, comes from a 30 year family tradition of conservation planning. He is 2001 recipient of the United Nations World Habitat Award and the American Institute of Architects 2001 National Award for Sustainability Design. An American, he spent the first 13 years of his life in France where his father, professor of architecture at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris, taught sustainable design and construction.
Joseph F. Kennedy, principal of Living Earth
Design and Planning, and a founder of Builders Without Borders, received
degrees in Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley (B.A.)
and the Southern California Institute of Architecture (M.Arch.), with an
additional degree in International Peace Studies for the University of
Notre Dame (M.A.). Involved in ecological design and construction for fourteen
years, he has worked with such design pioneers as Persian architect Nader
Khalili and Welsh architect Christopher Day on a number of innovative projects
that have expanded the boundaries of ecological architecture. He co-designed
a space station habitability module for NASA; participated in a National
Endowment for the Arts-sponsored ceramic house project: studied ancient
stone towers on the island of Sardinia with Earthwatch; co-created a site-built
earth art project with Japanese artist, Nobuho Nagasawa, in Prague; and
designed and built Tlholego, an ecovillage training center and model ecovillage
near Rustenburg, South Africa. He currently teaches Ecodwelling at New
College in Santa Rosa,
California.
Katey Culver has been a life-long activist with a focus on ecology and natural systems. When she learned about the natural building movement she was drawn to its immediate application to healing ourselves and the planet.İİShe has been teaching about, designing and building natural buildings since 1996.
Howard Switzer is an architect with more than 30 years experience in building solar homes and working with natural, ecological, and recycled materials and construction techniques. He has studied with many other natural builders. His architecture firm designs and builds many straw and native material structures for residential and business clients in the Southeastern US.
Ianto Evans is a Welsh builder and was one of the founding members of Aprovecho, which transfers appropriate technologies from South to North. Ianto is often best known for his innovative work on wood stove design. Ianto began the cob revival in North America and is one of the leading thinkers in the Natural Building movement. He started the first stone and cob buildings at the ETC in 1997.
Patricia Allison has been a permaculture teacher for the past 10 years, including the first course at the ETC in 1994. A former "Betty Crocker Homemaker of the Year" she is co-founder of Culture's Edge in Asheville NC and a resident of one of North America's premier ecovillages, Earthaven, near Black Mountain, North Carolina.
Peter Bane has taught permaculture design courses throughout the U.S., Canada and South America. He publishes North America's leading Permaculture journal, The Permaculture Activist.
Chuck Marsh is a permaculture teacher, consulting ecological designer, community organizer, and an avid explorer of the frontiers of sustainable culture. Another Earthaven designer/resident, he has taught permaculture widely from Belize to eastern Canada, and was the 1994 recipient of the Permaculture Community Service Award.
Declan Kennedy is an Irish architect, author, urban planner, ecologist and permaculture designer. He is best known for implementing a northern European example of permaculture in his home ecovillage near Steyerberg, Germany and designing and lecturing on materials, economics and urban ecology.
Max Lindegger has been a qualified permaculture designer, author and teacher since 1981. He has taught permaculture all over the world and worked as a consultant on over 750 properties, including some very large projects-Crystal Waters, Kookaburra Park, and other ecological subdivisions and villages throughout Australia. Originally from Switzerland, he now lives within his own design, the Crystal Waters Permaculture Village, Queensland, Australia, winner of the United Nations Best Practices award for habitat design.
Morag Gamble and Evan Raymond are experienced Permaculture teachers and facilitators. They have led Permaculture courses and workshops in many countries. The organization they founded - Sustainable Futures - probably teaches more PC and ecovillage design courses in Australia today than any other single group. Morag Gamble holds a Bachelor of Environmental Planning and Design, and a Postgraduate Diploma of Environmental Planning and Design (Landscape Architecture) and has studied and lectured at Schumacher College in England - an international centre for ecological thinking.
Joanne DeHavillan, Matts Mehrmann, David Eisenberg and Jon Ruez of Out on Bale in Tucson, AZ, have taught strawbale construction for much of a decade. They also contributed to the creation of the liveliest journal of the industry, The Last Straw.
Dorothy Bates has authored seven books on vegetarian cooking and nutrition, including The George Bernard Shaw Vegetarian Cookbook, The TVP Cookbook and Cooking with Gluten and Seitan.
Michelle Carratu is a landscape designer and gardening instructor living in Nashville, TN where her local garden series for public television and radio enjoy a wide following. She also contributes gardening columns to a number of publications.
Stephen and Ina May Gaskin are authors, instructors, and founders of The Farm community, Plenty, and the Rocinante project, which will host the fall Permaculture Practicum. Ina May is also president of the Midwives Alliance of North America and publishes the Birth Gazette.