PDC – Permaculture Design Certificate

Starhawk is a permaculture designer, teacher, and founder of Earth Activist Training, which teaches regenerative design with a grounding in spirit and a focus on organizing and activism. She is the author of thirteen books on earth based spirituality and activism, including The Spiral Dance, The Earth Path, and The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups, The Fifth Sacred Thing and City of Refuge. Together with director Donna Read Cooper, she has worked on five major documentaries, including the Goddess Trilogy for the National Film Board of Canada and Permaculture: The Growing Edge.

Starhawk directs and teaches Earth Activist Training and has been recognized by the Permaculture Institute of North America as a leading figure in the permaculture field and has been awarded PINA’s dual diplomas for excellence in education and permaculture site design.

Brandy Gallagher is a founder and developer of O.U.R. Ecovillage. Her life work has been focused around the development of the ‘Decolonizing of Sustainable Community.’ A designer and educator, she has worked with local and international community builders to create the 25 acres Sustainable Living Demonstration Site and Education Centre.

From ‘Comprehensive Development’ land use re-zoning to incorporating holistic new ownership structures, from governance to building codes, from wastewater to closed-loop systems approval – her commitment has been to ‘Lawful Permaculture’ within the Ecovillage and “re-village” movement.

Charles, a certified permaculture designer, comes to EAT through a love of the wild, faith that healthy communities can solve complex problems, and a belief that working with one’s hands is sacred work.

Over the past two decades he has stewarded many pieces of land throughout the United States. His approach simultaneously promotes both preservation of wild spaces and conservation of the domestic. His deep respect for and relationship with the divine in nature informs all he does, integrating spiritual practices with land management.

Mark is a national leader in the development of sustainable public places. In the last decade he has directed, facilitated, or inspired designs for more than three hundred new community-generated public places in Portland, Oregon alone.

Through his leadership in Communitecture, Inc., and it’s various affiliates such as the The City Repair Project, The Village Building Convergence, and the Planet Repair Institute, he has also been instrumental in the development of dozens of participatory organizations and urban permaculture design projects across the United States and Canada. Mark works with governmental leaders, community organizations, and educational institutions in many diverse communities.

Lux Gypsum is a community organizer, relational healer, and cultural visionary who believes that revolution happens at the level of relationship. With over 9 years of facilitation experience and dozens of trainings under their belt, Lux has cultivated a strong capacity to hold potent group containers for interpersonal skill-building and cultural transformation. Some of Lux’s politicized identities are white (Northern European ancestry), AFAB (Assigned Female at Birth), gender-expansive, and queer. Lux has an ongoing practice of anti-racism work and is committed to uprooting internalized supremacy culture. They are also becoming more deeply trauma-informed through receiving training in Somatic Experiencing, a well known body-based modality for healing trauma. In addition to holding regular community workshops and events, Lux also supports individuals, couples, and groups to embody the world they long for through their work as a Conflict Mediator, Relationship Coach, and Community Consultant. You can follow Lux’s work and offerings on Instagram @healing.rising and by signing up for their newsletter at www.healingrising.com.

Born and raised in Seattle Washington to a French Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish mother and Caribbean father, Aliko is a first generation, trans, Blaxk presenting, bilingual Jewish entrepreneur designer, event producer, speaker, coach, mentor and facilitator.

Aliko is the visionary behind several local businesses dedicated to fostering personal and emotional growth among entrepreneurs in the Seattle area and beyond. Through all of his businesses, events, expertise and hobbies, he is able to live out his dedication to carving out spaces for humanity through his work.

Learn more About Aliko’s businesses and work at www.alikoweste.com

Patrina Denzall is a passionate advocate for traditional knowledge and healing practices, deeply rooted in her Nuu Chah Nulth teachings. Her journey started with hikes alongside her mother, where she learned to read nature and understand life’s interconnectedness. These early lessons led her to explore herbal medicine, alchemy, and permaculture, aiming to bring balance to herself, the land, and her community.

She is co-creating a podcast focusing on First Nation’s families navigating displacement, and advocating for sovereignty in child welfare through Bill-C 92. Patrina also dedicates herself to revillaging initiatives, land-based learning, and empowering youth to reconnect with nature, drawing from her own experiences raising self-sufficient sons who excel in harvesting and fishing.

Outside of her work, she also delves into her passions for falconry, processing harvests, and research projects, all while working towards reclaiming her traditional territory for future generations. She lives her life in service of “Peace, love, and liberation for all.”

Jasmine’s work is part time clinical, offering integrative medicine consultation as a doctor of East Asian & Functional Medicine and part time land-based: designing and leading the co-creation of community-based regenerative agriculture projects.

She feels incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to co-design and co-create multiple projects in the Cowichan Valley involving youth, and keeping teachings of food sovereignty, action-based reconciliation and a connection with our living planet at the heart of these designs.

She studied permaculture at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center with a core focus on social permaculture and social justice and also with Geoff Lawton, whose work has a strong focus on the more technical aspects of land-based design. She completed her Permaculture Teacher Training in Spain with Alfred Decker and team, with a focus on permaculture for refugees and displaced peoples.

You can read about some of her garden and design work at bit.ly/permaculture-gardens