2017 Speakers
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Margo Dunlap
Margo Dunlap is the newest team member at The Fearless Heart and BayNVC, supporting Development and Partnerships. She is an advocate, maker, mother, and passionate learner oriented towards leadership and service. She has worked in the arts and youth development as an executive director and project lead cultivating collaborations in …
Maria Christina Owl Gutierrez
[img_text_aside style=”1″ image=”http://permacultureconvergence.com.webserver.vera.asdf456.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Maria_Gutierrez_Midwifing-the-New-Earth-287×300.jpg” image_alignment=”left” headline=”” alignment=”right”] Maria Christina Owl is an international speaker, spiritual mentor and ceremonial leader. She has offered workshops and rituals in Israel, New Zealand, Canada and the US. She is a clairvoyant medium and author of the forthcoming book “The Great Mother Transmissions: Midwifing the New …
Marissa Ashkar
Marissa Ashkar is from The People of Color Sustainable Housing Network (POCSHN) is a resource network for people of color interested in building intentional, healthy, and affordable housing communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Since starting in February 2015, it has grown to become an intergenerational network …
Marna Schwartz
Marna was certified more than 10 years ago in Kripalu Yoga, a gentle hatha yoga practice with a compassionate approach and emphasis on meditation, physical healing and spiritual transformation that overflows from the yoga mat into daily life. She has studied permaculture and is passionate about tools to cultivate authentic …
Mateo Nube
[image_frame align=”left” height=”200″ width=”200″ prettyphoto=”false”]http://permacultureconvergence.com.webserver.vera.asdf456.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Mateo.jpg[/image_frame] Mateo was born and grew up in La Paz, Bolivia. Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, he has worked in the labor, environmental justice and international solidarity movements. Mateo is one of the co-founders of the Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project, is …
Matt Bibeau
Matt Bibeau, MSEd, is the Educational Events Director and 13-year contributor to the City Repair Project as a core organizer of the Village Building Convergence (June 1-10, 2018) and a lead instructor of CR’s Urban Permaculture Design Course. Matt also directs the Institute of Permaculture Education for Children and is the land …
Matt Powers
Matt Powers is an author, teacher, and family guy with online courses, books, and videos that help families, individuals, students, schools, and school districts live better lives more in harmony with nature. Translations of his books are already available in Spanish, Polish, and Arabic with French, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Italian coming …
Matthew Nelson
Matthew Nelson is a movement artist, activist, educator, researcher, therapist, and entrepreneur. Particularly in love with the act of dancing, Matthew experiences movement as a way of aligning energy with form. Eternally curious, Matthew makes opportunities out of questions, and encourages others to do the same. He’s collected qualifications, including …
Maurine
Maurine has spent over a decade studying methods of experiencing, merging with and applying Five Elements Knowledge to healing individuals and the world. She studied with a brilliant East Indian Master, Sri Kaleshwar, for over a decade and continues her meditation and study as she lives in his ashram in …
Max Meyers
Max Meyers is an experienced Ecological Designer, Permaculture Teacher, Consultant, Registered Aquaculturist, Aquaponic System Designer/Installer, Rainwater and Greywater System specialist, Farmer, and the Executive Director of the Mendocino Ecological Learning Center a nonprofit educational organization and ecological reserve offering green job training and sustainable living skills to the public. Through …
Maya Blow
Maya Blow is an herbalist and classical homeopath practicing at the Emeryville Health and Wellness Center in the San Francisco Bay Area. She studied undergraduate history at Clark Atlanta University and San Francisco State University. Maya studied herbal medicine at the California School of Herbal Studies in Northern California and …
Megan O’Neil
Megan O’Neil is the Project Manager at the Local Clean Energy Alliance, where she has helped build a county-wide coalition of over 50 organizations supporting a Community Choice program that brings real benefits to our communities. She also coordinates the Shared Solar Collaborative, which seeks to advance the design, development, …
Michael Flynn
Michael Flynn is the Executive Director of Common Vision and has been leading cultural competency workshops for the last decade. He focuses on aiding white folks in overcoming their unique challenges in seeing and understanding the operations of white privilege and racism and understanding their role and responsibility in counteracting …
Michael Sean Brown
Michael Sean Brown is Co-Founder of Delphi Southern Nevada and Delphi Village’s Chief Executive Officer. Sean is the visionary and social architect behind Delphi Village. He has thirty-years experience in aviation, real estate, and start-up ventures. He was the Chief Operations Officer for an aviation training company that lead to …
Miguel “Sir Cobalot” Elliott
Miguel Elliott, knighted as “Sir Cobalot” has been leading cob workshops, teaching in schools, and running his business Living Earth Structures for over 12 years. His vast array of projects include building an organic nightclub and yoga studio in downtown Chicago, building a mushroom shaped hut in Italy, 2 restaurants …
Miguel Robles
Miguel Robles is the Co-Founder/Project Director of Biosafety Alliance, the core organizer of the Soil Not Oil International conference; previously he organized 4 editions of the “Justice Begins with Seeds Conference”. Artisan, poet, urban farmer and activist, he has founded several organizations in Mexico and the US and launched countless …
Mike Boss
Mike Boss is a plant ecologist and garden maker. He founded the award-winning company Rock & Rose Landscapes in 1989. His home garden is one of San Francisco’s oldest food forest gardens. He took his first PDC in 2014 at The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center and his second with …
Nik Bertulis
Nik Bertulis wants to reinstate abundance for all life via empowering humanity’s intrinsic regenerative potential. He studied permaculture with Bill Mollison and is a certified permaculture teacher, wildlands firefighter and emergency medical technician with a B.A.S. degree in ecological design from Colorado College. His professional accomplishments include helping develop and …
Nils Palsson
Nils Palsson is Communications Coordinator at Transition US, and a founding member of Transition Lake County in rural Northern California. He is a father, author, teacher, radio host, Bernie Delegate and former candidate for U.S. Congress, with a passion for building bridges from the world of Transition and Permaculture to …
Oscar Chavez
[image_frame align=”left” height=”300″ width=”300″ prettyphoto=”false”]http://permacultureconvergence.com.webserver.vera.asdf456.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAbsAAAAJDVkZTk1ODljLTYyNDgtNGE5My04NmJhLTE0MmY4ZTY1OTMyZA.jpg[/image_frame] Oscar works for the Sonoma County Department of Human Services. Prior to joining the County, Oscar served as the Executive Director of the Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County, one of the largest community benefit organizations in Northern California. Oscar has dedicated himself to establishing …
Penny Livingston
Penny Livingston-Stark is internationally recognized as a prominent permaculture teacher, designer, and speaker. She holds a MS in Eco-Social Regeneration and a Diploma in Permaculture Design. Penny has been studying the Hermetic Tradition of alchemy and herbal medicine making in Europe and the United States for 4 years. Penny has …
Rachel Economy
Rachel Economy is a writer, facilitator, artist, and permaculture educator and practitioner living in Berkeley, California. She has studied, practiced, and taught ecological gardening, sustainable farming, and permaculture practices in urban and rural environments across the country for almost a decade. In her work with students of all ages, Rachel …
Rachel Hinds
Rachel is a Holistic Doula trained by Pacific Rim College in BC Canada. She sees birth as an initiation for the birthing person, the baby, and the community supporting the process. Rachel is passionate about supporting pregnancy, birth and postpartum fully. Before entering birth work Rachel worked on many farms …
Ray Stubblefield-Tave
Ray Stubblefield-Tave is the Program Director of Common Vision. As a biracial woman and the daughter of a Cultural Competency Counselor, she has been having conversations around the subject of race her entire life, and has been leading trainings formally over the last year. As a queer woman of color, …
Robert Kourik
Robert Kourik started his organic maintenance and landscape design company in 1975—long before the word sustainable “existed”. Since that time his designs, consulting and books have focused on organic and sustainable gardens, water management, drip irrigation and edible landscaping. Published (Metamorphic Press) eight books. Including: Designing and Maintaining Your Edible …
Sāmi Brothers : Madhu & Alex
The Sāmi Brothers are a ceremonial and musical duo, trained in the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition of cross-cultural shamanism, regularly holding community ceremonies in the Bay Area. They have multiple CD’s out and are full time healing practitioners. Sacred Reciprocity : The Art of Peruvian Despacho …
Sasha Shankar
[image_frame align=”left” height=”300″ width=”300″ prettyphoto=”false”]http://permacultureconvergence.com.webserver.vera.asdf456.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Troy-Horton-Sasha-Shankar.jpg[/image_frame] Sasha Shankar is the president of Town and City Permaculture. TBA The Third Ethic: Practicing Fair Share Permaculture …
Sky Blue
Over the last 18 years, Sky Blue has been a member of Twin Oaks Community, a housing collective, a student housing cooperative, a cohousing community, and two small worker co-operative businesses. He current works as the Executive Director for the Fellowship for Intentional Community. He’s visited dozens of communities and …
Starhawk
Starhawk is a committed global justice activist, organizer, speaker, teacher, and the author or coauthor of ten books. Starhawk is founder of Earth Activist Training, and travels internationally teaching magic, the tools of ritual, and the skills of activism for diverse groups, communities and audiences. Starhawk is perhaps best known …
Stephanie Maldonado
Stephanie graduated with her Bachelors in Liberal Studies from San Francisco State University where she studied Holistic Health, Urban Development, and Environmental Sciences. She is an environmental activist, a guerrilla gardner, free-lance herbalist, permaculturalist, and social enterprise entrepreneur. Stephanie has worked with Movement Generation, PODER, Qilombo, The Butterfly Movement, The …
Margo Dunlap
Margo Dunlap is the newest team member at The Fearless Heart and BayNVC, supporting Development and Partnerships. She is an advocate, maker, mother, and passionate learner oriented towards leadership and service. She has worked in the arts and youth development as an executive director and project lead cultivating collaborations in …
Maria Christina Owl Gutierrez
[img_text_aside style=”1″ image=”http://permacultureconvergence.com.webserver.vera.asdf456.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Maria_Gutierrez_Midwifing-the-New-Earth-287×300.jpg” image_alignment=”left” headline=”” alignment=”right”] Maria Christina Owl is an international speaker, spiritual mentor and ceremonial leader. She has offered workshops and rituals in Israel, New Zealand, Canada and the US. She is a clairvoyant medium and author of the forthcoming book “The Great Mother Transmissions: Midwifing the New …
Marissa Ashkar
Marissa Ashkar is from The People of Color Sustainable Housing Network (POCSHN) is a resource network for people of color interested in building intentional, healthy, and affordable housing communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Since starting in February 2015, it has grown to become an intergenerational network …
Marna Schwartz
Marna was certified more than 10 years ago in Kripalu Yoga, a gentle hatha yoga practice with a compassionate approach and emphasis on meditation, physical healing and spiritual transformation that overflows from the yoga mat into daily life. She has studied permaculture and is passionate about tools to cultivate authentic …
Mateo Nube
[image_frame align=”left” height=”200″ width=”200″ prettyphoto=”false”]http://permacultureconvergence.com.webserver.vera.asdf456.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Mateo.jpg[/image_frame] Mateo was born and grew up in La Paz, Bolivia. Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, he has worked in the labor, environmental justice and international solidarity movements. Mateo is one of the co-founders of the Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project, is …
Matt Bibeau
Matt Bibeau, MSEd, is the Educational Events Director and 13-year contributor to the City Repair Project as a core organizer of the Village Building Convergence (June 1-10, 2018) and a lead instructor of CR’s Urban Permaculture Design Course. Matt also directs the Institute of Permaculture Education for Children and is the land …
Matt Powers
Matt Powers is an author, teacher, and family guy with online courses, books, and videos that help families, individuals, students, schools, and school districts live better lives more in harmony with nature. Translations of his books are already available in Spanish, Polish, and Arabic with French, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Italian coming …
Matthew Nelson
Matthew Nelson is a movement artist, activist, educator, researcher, therapist, and entrepreneur. Particularly in love with the act of dancing, Matthew experiences movement as a way of aligning energy with form. Eternally curious, Matthew makes opportunities out of questions, and encourages others to do the same. He’s collected qualifications, including …
Maurine
Maurine has spent over a decade studying methods of experiencing, merging with and applying Five Elements Knowledge to healing individuals and the world. She studied with a brilliant East Indian Master, Sri Kaleshwar, for over a decade and continues her meditation and study as she lives in his ashram in …
Max Meyers
Max Meyers is an experienced Ecological Designer, Permaculture Teacher, Consultant, Registered Aquaculturist, Aquaponic System Designer/Installer, Rainwater and Greywater System specialist, Farmer, and the Executive Director of the Mendocino Ecological Learning Center a nonprofit educational organization and ecological reserve offering green job training and sustainable living skills to the public. Through …
Maya Blow
Maya Blow is an herbalist and classical homeopath practicing at the Emeryville Health and Wellness Center in the San Francisco Bay Area. She studied undergraduate history at Clark Atlanta University and San Francisco State University. Maya studied herbal medicine at the California School of Herbal Studies in Northern California and …
Megan O’Neil
Megan O’Neil is the Project Manager at the Local Clean Energy Alliance, where she has helped build a county-wide coalition of over 50 organizations supporting a Community Choice program that brings real benefits to our communities. She also coordinates the Shared Solar Collaborative, which seeks to advance the design, development, …
Michael Flynn
Michael Flynn is the Executive Director of Common Vision and has been leading cultural competency workshops for the last decade. He focuses on aiding white folks in overcoming their unique challenges in seeing and understanding the operations of white privilege and racism and understanding their role and responsibility in counteracting …
Michael Sean Brown
Michael Sean Brown is Co-Founder of Delphi Southern Nevada and Delphi Village’s Chief Executive Officer. Sean is the visionary and social architect behind Delphi Village. He has thirty-years experience in aviation, real estate, and start-up ventures. He was the Chief Operations Officer for an aviation training company that lead to …
Miguel “Sir Cobalot” Elliott
Miguel Elliott, knighted as “Sir Cobalot” has been leading cob workshops, teaching in schools, and running his business Living Earth Structures for over 12 years. His vast array of projects include building an organic nightclub and yoga studio in downtown Chicago, building a mushroom shaped hut in Italy, 2 restaurants …
Miguel Robles
Miguel Robles is the Co-Founder/Project Director of Biosafety Alliance, the core organizer of the Soil Not Oil International conference; previously he organized 4 editions of the “Justice Begins with Seeds Conference”. Artisan, poet, urban farmer and activist, he has founded several organizations in Mexico and the US and launched countless …
Mike Boss
Mike Boss is a plant ecologist and garden maker. He founded the award-winning company Rock & Rose Landscapes in 1989. His home garden is one of San Francisco’s oldest food forest gardens. He took his first PDC in 2014 at The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center and his second with …
Nik Bertulis
Nik Bertulis wants to reinstate abundance for all life via empowering humanity’s intrinsic regenerative potential. He studied permaculture with Bill Mollison and is a certified permaculture teacher, wildlands firefighter and emergency medical technician with a B.A.S. degree in ecological design from Colorado College. His professional accomplishments include helping develop and …
Nils Palsson
Nils Palsson is Communications Coordinator at Transition US, and a founding member of Transition Lake County in rural Northern California. He is a father, author, teacher, radio host, Bernie Delegate and former candidate for U.S. Congress, with a passion for building bridges from the world of Transition and Permaculture to …
Oscar Chavez
[image_frame align=”left” height=”300″ width=”300″ prettyphoto=”false”]http://permacultureconvergence.com.webserver.vera.asdf456.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAbsAAAAJDVkZTk1ODljLTYyNDgtNGE5My04NmJhLTE0MmY4ZTY1OTMyZA.jpg[/image_frame] Oscar works for the Sonoma County Department of Human Services. Prior to joining the County, Oscar served as the Executive Director of the Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County, one of the largest community benefit organizations in Northern California. Oscar has dedicated himself to establishing …
Penny Livingston
Penny Livingston-Stark is internationally recognized as a prominent permaculture teacher, designer, and speaker. She holds a MS in Eco-Social Regeneration and a Diploma in Permaculture Design. Penny has been studying the Hermetic Tradition of alchemy and herbal medicine making in Europe and the United States for 4 years. Penny has …
Rachel Economy
Rachel Economy is a writer, facilitator, artist, and permaculture educator and practitioner living in Berkeley, California. She has studied, practiced, and taught ecological gardening, sustainable farming, and permaculture practices in urban and rural environments across the country for almost a decade. In her work with students of all ages, Rachel …
Rachel Hinds
Rachel is a Holistic Doula trained by Pacific Rim College in BC Canada. She sees birth as an initiation for the birthing person, the baby, and the community supporting the process. Rachel is passionate about supporting pregnancy, birth and postpartum fully. Before entering birth work Rachel worked on many farms …
Ray Stubblefield-Tave
Ray Stubblefield-Tave is the Program Director of Common Vision. As a biracial woman and the daughter of a Cultural Competency Counselor, she has been having conversations around the subject of race her entire life, and has been leading trainings formally over the last year. As a queer woman of color, …
Robert Kourik
Robert Kourik started his organic maintenance and landscape design company in 1975—long before the word sustainable “existed”. Since that time his designs, consulting and books have focused on organic and sustainable gardens, water management, drip irrigation and edible landscaping. Published (Metamorphic Press) eight books. Including: Designing and Maintaining Your Edible …
Sāmi Brothers : Madhu & Alex
The Sāmi Brothers are a ceremonial and musical duo, trained in the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition of cross-cultural shamanism, regularly holding community ceremonies in the Bay Area. They have multiple CD’s out and are full time healing practitioners. Sacred Reciprocity : The Art of Peruvian Despacho …
Sasha Shankar
[image_frame align=”left” height=”300″ width=”300″ prettyphoto=”false”]http://permacultureconvergence.com.webserver.vera.asdf456.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Troy-Horton-Sasha-Shankar.jpg[/image_frame] Sasha Shankar is the president of Town and City Permaculture. TBA The Third Ethic: Practicing Fair Share Permaculture …
Sky Blue
Over the last 18 years, Sky Blue has been a member of Twin Oaks Community, a housing collective, a student housing cooperative, a cohousing community, and two small worker co-operative businesses. He current works as the Executive Director for the Fellowship for Intentional Community. He’s visited dozens of communities and …
Starhawk
Starhawk is a committed global justice activist, organizer, speaker, teacher, and the author or coauthor of ten books. Starhawk is founder of Earth Activist Training, and travels internationally teaching magic, the tools of ritual, and the skills of activism for diverse groups, communities and audiences. Starhawk is perhaps best known …
Stephanie Maldonado
Stephanie graduated with her Bachelors in Liberal Studies from San Francisco State University where she studied Holistic Health, Urban Development, and Environmental Sciences. She is an environmental activist, a guerrilla gardner, free-lance herbalist, permaculturalist, and social enterprise entrepreneur. Stephanie has worked with Movement Generation, PODER, Qilombo, The Butterfly Movement, The …
