We are a passionate, dedicated bunch! Many of us have been practicing Permaculture for decades, and are excited to share our knowledge. We also love learning with the amazing people who find us.
Erik Ohlsen, Executive Director, Co-Founder
Erik Ohlsen is a licensed contractor, Founder and owner of Permaculture Artisans (Ecological farm and landscape company).
Erik is a renowned Certified Permaculture designer, and Certified Permaculture teacher and has been practicing permaculture and ecological design since 1998 when he co-founded his first non-profit called Planting Earth Activation, PEA. This charitable organization designed and installed community gardens in northern California for public and private use from 1998-2001.
In the field of ecological land development and management Erik has extensive experience with projects that range from small urban lots to 100+ broad acre design and implementation. His many years of experience, observation and listening of landscape patterns, managing installation crews and design teams, and his understanding of ecology make Erik a leader in the field of ecological landscape development.
Craig Litwin, Board President
(insert bio/headshot here)
Lauren Ohlsen, General Coordinator, Co-Founder
(insert bio/headshot here)
Adam Kliegman, Program Director
Adam Kliegman is an avid gardener with a deep interest in growing food and herbs as medicine. Over the past few years, Adam observed the increasing need for business to be conducted with a more holistic approach incorporating healthy, ethical and sustainable practices. By valuing social impact entrepreneurship and recognizing artists and visionaries who are in need of business development expertise, he founded Regenerative Business Design and Management to utilize business as a way to transform and grow vibrant community culture.
Among a variety of projects, Adam works with the Permaculture Skills Center as Program Director for the 9-month Ecological Landscapers Training Series, to cultivate leaders who graduate with ecologically regenerative land stewardship capacities and the ability to create thriving micro-enterprises. He also currently sits on the Advisory Board of Sophia’s Garden, a biodynamic herbal garden and healing retreat center in Sebastopol, CA.
Sean Jennings, Apprenticeship Director
(insert bio/headshot here)
Guest Instructors
Toby Heminway
Toby Hemenway is the author of Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, which was awarded the Nautilus Gold Medal in 2011, was named by the Washington Post as one of the ten best gardening books of 2010, and for the last eight years has been the best-selling permaculture book in the world. Toby has been an adjunct professor at Portland State University, Scholar-in-Residence at Pacific University, and has taught over sixty 72-hour permaculture design courses. He has presented lectures and workshops at major sustainability conferences such as Bioneers, SolFest, and EcoFarm, and at Duke University, Tufts University, University of Minnesota, University of Delaware and many other educational venues. His writing has appeared in magazines such as Natural Home, Whole Earth Review, and American Gardener. He has contributed book chapters for WorldWatch Institute and to several publications on ecological design.
Grover Stock
(insert bio/headshot here)
Miriam Volat
(insert bio/headshot here)
Penny Livingston Stark
Penny Livingston-Stark is internationally recognized as a prominent permaculture teacher, designer and speaker.
Penny has been teaching internationally and working professionally in the land management, regenerative design and permaculture development field for 25 years and has extensive experience in all phases of ecologically sound design and construction as well as the use of natural non-toxic building materials. She specializes in site planning and the design of resource-rich landscapes integrating, rainwater collection, edible and medicinal planting, spring development, pond and water systems, habitat development and watershed restoration for homes, co-housing communities, businesses and diverse yield perennial farms.
Brock Dolman
Brock Dolman is a Sowing Circle Community member and the Director of OAEC’s WATER Institute (www.oaecwater.org) and Permaculture Design Program, and he co-directs our Wildlands Biodiversity Program. He co-instructs Basins of Relations and permaculture-related courses. Brock also co-manages the Center’s biodiversity collection, orchards and 70 acres of wildlands. Living up to his specialized generalist nature, and rekindling the dwindling art of the peripatetic natural historian, his experience ranges from the study of wildlife biology, native California botany and watershed ecology, to the practice of habitat restoration, education about regenerative human settlement design, ethno-ecology, and ecological literacy activism towards societal transformation.
Len Greenwood
(insert bio/headshot here)
Nico Morris
Nicolas Morris began his career in Clay at 4 yrs old. As a second generation potter, he was never far from mud, living on a frog pond he learned the connections between art and nature before he could ride a bike.
Nico has taken on teaching Natural Building in Sonoma County schools and with support from local NGO’s has managed to teach with one college, four elementary schools and two Eco education camps, scattering benches, ovens and other sculptural effects over much of Sonoma, Mendocino and Marin Counties.
Born in Washington D.C., Nicolas Morris grew up in California studying art since before kindergarten. After graduating from College of Marin he began teaching and working in the arts and has done so ever since. After 40 years of professional hand thrown art pottery production with his father David Morris, a well known art potter and painter, he began teaching and practicing Bio-Remediation full time and is currently working a large project for Children’s Museum of Sonoma County.
