CONSCIOUS DESIGN COLLECTIVE - Key Persons
Austin lives in the heart of Metro Vancouver where he runs a liquidation/refurbished goods store, an addiction recovery group, and together with his wife cares for four children, four chickens, and a large garden. Austin has had a lifelong interest in the natural world, which led him to a biology degree with an emphasis in ecology, and more recently to begin planning to start a therapeutic farming community for families in which one or more members are in addiction.
Austin and his wife have an interest in learning to live simply and finding ways to live without buying into unsustainable world systems. This year's challenges include making their own soap (from scratch), moisturizing lotion, toothpaste, apple cider vinegar (for eating and cleaning), probiotic yogurts, and more. More of Austin's interests include woodworking, piano, guitar, singing, reading, permaculture, hiking, philosophy, and goats.
Brook Foster is currently completing her bachelor of science at UBC, specializing in food, nutrition and health with a minor in commerce. Her passion, education, and work experience is centered around food and how it nourishes not only at an individual level but also communities as a whole.
Carla Hick loves food. She is a Red Seal Chef and is studying Applied Biology at UBC, majoring in Food and the Environment. She is passionate about sustainable food systems with eco-friendly processes from seed to table. Carla currently works as a seed researcher, chef, farmer and an entrepreneur. She is crafting a growing, cooking and eating operation whereby providing ecological vegetables, gardening consultancy, herbal teas, prepared foods, cooking classes, recipes and the art of feasting.
Claire is passionate about pollinating plants and their pollinators, about producing organic food for local populations and about working towards resilience. She graduated at Wageningen University (NL) as a master student in organic agriculture and agroecology in 2016 and she completed her PDC in 2017 at UBC. She has already designed permaculture systems for farms in the Netherlands and she wishes to get involved in designing and planting permaculture gardens around the cities to locally and organically feed the French population. She has been travelling around the world to experience different cultures and organic/permaculture farms to bring good ideas home!
Job Titles:
- Green, Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
From a diverse professional history including time as a Financial Adviser and part of a Web Development team, Damian thrives when working with individuals and groups to realize their pain-points and aspirations, he's developed an ability to find problems and work with people to realize effective solutions.This talent in finding solutions to problems that often go unrealized, speaks to Damian's eye for detail and while important to consider details, these are all aspects of the greater patterns at play in our universe. With a strong passion for Biodiversity, People and the connections between the two, Damian's committed to working with people within their environments, helping to empower them to re-establish their ties to their greater communities
Denise has lived many lives, even in this lifetime. She seeks to live simply, prosper benignly, and move organically with Mother Earth.
Eric designs, plans, and manages school and community gardens. He is primarily interested in using gardens both as educational and highly-productive growing spaces. His academic and working background in plant physiology informs his design approach. His central objective is to design spaces where non-agronomists can learn about the intricate details of food production, and become proficient growers in their own right.
Geo completed her PDC in the fall of 2011. She has a deep and abiding interest in harmonious interaction with nature and now has a practical method of working with the land to nurture people and biosystem simultaneously. Her other long-standing interest is to establish a community around these principles of living in harmony with the land and enriching human life and the land as well.
Hailing from the remote North coast of Scotland, Hannah spent most of her youth exploring the vast landscapes of the Highlands and her affinity with the environment began here. During an eight year stint in the city of Glasgow Hannah surrounded herself with one of her passions - music - working at various festivals and venues. She also spent some wonderfully rewarding years caring for and promoting the independence of deaf and blind adults with profound learning disabilities. Hannah has been travelling for three years now and has found herself drawn to seeking a simpler way of life where she can live harmoniously with the planet. To this end she has begun her education at Innermost Gardens in Wellington, New Zealand, taking part in a Permaculture Design Course and intends to further her knowledge by studying Environmental Sustainability.
Heather grew up on a family farm in Southern Ontario, where she developed an affinity for nature and a profound love of food. She currently studies the food sovereignty movement and agrarian politics with attention to communication processes and the linkages between local movement dynamics and global organizing. In addition to incorporating Permaculture principles into her own life and small-scale food production, as a student of Permaculture Design Heather also aims to leverage her background in communication to support local and international efforts to build and strengthen a unified permaculture movement. Her interest in movement-building is oriented both toward the politics of affecting positive macro-level policy change as well as the practice of reconnecting nature, land, food, and community at a local level. Heather currently lives in Vancouver, B.C., but hopes to have the privilege of being a student of the world. She believes that if another world is possible, spreading the permaculture paradigm is paramount and has a critical role in the development of globally and environmentally just, food sovereign, and truly democratic communities.
James Richardson is a teacher, designer, builder, farmer and cultivator of social change. His research in sustainable food system planning explored some fundamental questions such as what it would take to feed the city of Vancouver and his PhD in resilient regional planning utilized Ecological Footprinting to redesign Wellington, NZ. He brings an experiential flare to his teachings following a dynamic teaching career in Canada, New Zealand, Guyana, and the United States. James is a student of Permaculture, natural building, biodynamic farming and brings to the CDC a deep understanding of the art and science of sustainability.
I gained a love of the natural environment from my parents. Growing up in the UK, we would escape to hidden corners of Wales, Scotland or rural England for our holidays. And there were always the garden tours! My parents loved gardening, with very different approaches that were interesting to observe.
Between working as a scientist, teacher, natural therapist, and lately as a NZ public servant, I have taken the opportunity to travel in Europe, Africa, and the Pacific, where I have enjoyed exploring the natural ecosystems, and the use of resources by local inhabitants for food, fiber, fuel, recreation - and decoration.
Living up in the Western Hills, north of Wellington, for a few decades now we have developed a love of the NZ bush and natural landscapes, helped by a stint with the Department of Conservation which provided valuable insight into the important part we can all play in supporting our native plants and wildlife.
Marita Eason is a Greenthumb Forager who lives in Vancouver. Born and raised in sunny Salmon Arm, she grew up surrounded by gorgeous wild spaces that instilled in her a sense of wonder. As a child she loved to explore, filling her pockets with the latest discovery.This curiosity continues through to today where Marita has returned to her roots after 16 years working in the fields of visual and performing arts. With a BA in theatre and psychology and many years of continuous work in the Arts, Marita brings an imaginative, but individualized flair to her work.
With the heart of a Sculptor, she approaches space intuitively with an eye for color and expressive form. She is particularly passionate about cultivating sacred space where Mother Nature can do work. Drawing inspiration from grottos and labyrinthine prayer paths she seeks to draw out the spirit in gardenscapes, rooftops, walls, parks, a ceramic container... anywhere she can dig in.
Oz has been working as a Solution Architect in Information Technology for many years with extensive experience in gathering requirements and solving problems in highly complex environments. He studied Sustainable Community Development at SFU in 2008 with a focus on building resilient/adaptive systems. His professional background, designing skills of dance music as a producer/DJ and passion to save the world merged and landed him in the Permaculture Design Certificate course at the UBC Farm. He's hoping to spread the wisdom that he acquires to build a more democratic and habitable planet.
Raquel has a deep passion for local food and is interested in designing personal yards in the Lower Mainland to be functional, beautiful, and bountifully productive. She is especially interested in combining native edibles with common vegetable plantings. Raquel grew up in the Canadian Prairies, where her grandmother taught her to garden and nurtured her love for nature.
Silvia was born in Argentina. She spent most of her childhood among pine and eucalypt forests where her mother used to work as botany assistant: walks in the woods, collecting samples, observing and drawing are part of her dearest memories.
Her life experience encompasses many roles, including researcher, school teacher and ICT/eLearning specialist. In Canada, she also became a career counsellor, emphasizing career choices in the alternative and ethical economy. Silvia is also a freelance writer and blogger and volunteers in different organizations, including the Canadian Red Cross, the Surrey/White Rock Food Action Coalition and the Transition Town Initiative "Village Surrey".
Silvia's choice to take the challenge of studying Permaculture is directly related to her "returning" to her early years of connection to the Earth and its inhabitants and her beliefs in social justice. She strongly beliefs that Permaculture, along with biomimicry, transition initiatives, and grassroots social movements are valid responses to today's world many predicaments and she plans to take the knowledge and experiences acquired in this 2013 course at UBC-Farm and apply them to her work with both Village Surrey Transition Initiative and Surrey/White Rock Food Action Coalition, as well as explore other career paths that may open up in the near future.
Vivian Banci is a passionate wildlife biologist with more than 30 years experience addressing wildlife - resource use issues in western and northern Canada. She works extensively with Aboriginal communities to assist them to access and apply their Traditional Knowledge. An avid gardener, she is a big fan of converting yards into edible landscapes for people and for wildlife.