2014 Wisconsin Permaculture Convergence
2014 Convergence Facilitator Bios
Kate Heiber-Cobb
Kate Heiber-Cobb founded the Madison Area Permaculture Guild in the Spring of 2008. This Grassroots group has grown to over 300 people and is intricately involved in the community. Through her business, Sustainability on Stilts, LLC (2008), she educates about, and consults on, the systems of Permaculture. A leader in the growing movement to establish Permaculture principles as a foundation for urban design and landscape, Kate is also a member of The Natural Step Monona, has training in Transition Towns, brought the first training of the Transition Movement to WI in 2009, did Radical Urban Sustainability Training. She also teaches at Madison College and Olbrich Gardens.
Kate has worked on designs and projects for homeowners, community gardens, school gardens, non-profit organizations and public projects. She teaches and lectures at a wide variety of venues in her region. She has brought numerous events and speakers on permaculture to the area and collaborates with Midwest Permaculture to bring Permaculture Design Certificate Courses each year.
Peter Allen
Peter Allen is an ecologist, grazier, and founder of Savanna Gardens. He has extensively researched complexity theory, restoration ecology, and the history and ecology of Midwestern ecosystems, all of which he applies in the design, restoration, and management of diverse and agriculturally productive savanna ecosystems.
Jeremiah Robinson
Jeremiah Robinson loves to contemplate his tiny little existence on this surprising and wonderful speck in this vast and spectacular universe. He spends as much time as he can taking in the truly great and numinous stuff of life by spending time with his garden, his family, and his community at Madison Mennonite Church.
He manages a big permaculture garden with a four-season aquaponics greenhouse on a little urban lot on the south side of Madson, WI. In the greenhouse he raises tilapia, trout, catfish, and perch along with lettuce, spinach, and basil. After coming to the realization this winter that nobody else in the world is really pushing backyard aquaponics design for cold weather conditions, he decided to do it himself. These days he gives talks, writes for Aquaponics Survival Communities, and just started a blog and Facebook page, all about cold weather aquaponics. If you're interested in building a passive solar greenhouse or an energy efficient aquaponics system, he'd love to talk with you to see what you can do together.
For his day job, he works as an energy efficiency engineer for DNV GL Energy.
Bryce Ruddock
Bryce Ruddock is trained in Permaculture teaching since 2010 with dual certification by the Permaculture Institute USA, and Cascadia Permaculture Institute.
He is the author of the Plant Guilds eBook used by Midwest Permaculture for their trainings. His interest in polyculture designs began in 1980 and since 1984 Bryce and his partner Debby have been implementing Permaculture based polyculture designs on their sixth of an acre homesite in southeastern Wisconsin where they have transformed an average suburban lot into a thriving food and medicinals food forest.
He has assisted with class teachings for Midwest Permaculture in the upper Midwest and Purdue University. Bryce is the lead instructor for South East Wisconsin Permaculture and Ozaukee Permaculture.
Kathy Shaw
Kathy Shaw is an Outagamie County Master Gardener and a test gardener for Organic Gardening magazine. She and her husband Pat have been
vegetable gardening and canning for over 25 years and harvest over 90% of the fruits and vegetables that they eat annually. Her business, Island Botanicals, sells her hand-made natural bath and body care items.
Greg David
Greg David is long time student and supporter of Nature. He learned about the importance of the natural systems as a youngster and has been a advocate for Her most of his life. He believes local, restorative, precautionary, and responsibility are important words that everyone needs to understand and respect.
He is owner/operator of Prairie Dock Farm in Watertown, WI, from which he ran a successful CSA for over a decade. He has numerous Permacutural features there, including swales, ponds, orchards, gardens, nurseries, prairies, forests, animals, mushrooms, anaerobic digesters, biomass gasifiers, rocket stoves, human scale tools, bale construction, chicken tractors, and other fun stuff.
He has a bunch of other good ideas and opinions, which he loves to share with anyone bright enough to inquire and willing to listen.
Rob Frost
Rob grew up in the Chicago area and received his BA in Philosophy and History from the University of South Dakota in 1996. In 2004, Rob and his family purchased a newly constructed home in a new subdivision. The fact that he was, literally, contributing to urban sprawl was the impetus for Rob to challenge himself to reduce the impacts of his new home to at least no worse than the conventional grain field that the farm had been 2 years before he moved in. He began to study sustainable gardening and 'green living', and soon discovered edible landscaping and Permaculture. Permaculture- the idea that we could live in partnership with nature- completely revolutionized his thinking. It became clear early on that the goal of 'Better Than Conventional Ag' was too low and Rob removed the set goal to see what was really possible in a Suburban Permaculture System in Wisconsin and grew 2000# of food, collected 75,000 gallons of rainwater, and produced over 5 yards of compost on his .5 acre lot each year- with lots of room for growth.
Over the past 9 years, Rob has become convinced that healing and building soils is one of the single most important actions we can take to Be the Change We Wish to See in the World as the future will be limited by natural capital and the soil will be, once again, what gives us our food, fiber, energy, and resources. He now lives in Minnesota, with his wife of 14 years, Meriah, and two children 9 and 11. You can stay updated with Rob's projects and thoughts at his facebook:
"Little" John Holzwart
"Little" John Holzwart is a broom maker, permaculturist, beekeeper, wildforager and along with his partner is the proprietor of Moonwise Herbs. He has been collecting and using things from nature since childhood. Whether he is collecting branches and found objects for broom handles, or hunting morel mushrooms and other wild plants he is always inspired by the natural world. You can find out more at www.moonwiseherbs.com
Mary Eberle
Mary Eberle founded First Step Renew, LLC, where she teaches urban homesteading classes. She started learning homesteading skills at a young age. As a kid, she learned to make yogurt, crochet, and bake. She also helped raise animals on her family's farm. Her life-long love of science and nature led her to earn a Bachelors degree in biology. She worked in molecular biology research labs for a decade, and then she was a patent attorney for thirteen years. In 2009, she earned a certificate in permaculture.
Mary has taught in many settings, including presenting talks at scientific conferences, training lab co-workers, presenting legal seminars, and teaching junior lawyers. She also regularly talks at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association energy fair and the Garden Expo in Madison, Wisconsin. Her students have said that she’s very knowledgeable and also receptive to class input, her classes are clear and fun, and her classes have made making things really approachable and doable.
Drew Carlson
Drew earned his B.A. degree in Environmental Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point and a Masters Certificated in Sustainability Leadership from Edgewood College. He has been studying and practicing Permaculture for six years including classes with Geoff Lawton, Mark Shepard and earned his PDC certificate through the Madison Area Permaculture Guild for which he is an active member. He has a passion for passive water harvesting and has experience implementing earthworks large and small.
Drew is the lead organizer for the 2014 Wisconsin Permaculture Convergence and hopes that people leave the event feeling energized, confident and compassionate.
Clare Hintz
Clare Hintz runs Elsewhere Farm, a production Permaculture farm near the south shore of Lake Superior in Herbster, Wisconsin. The farm features over 700 perennial fruit and nut trees interplanted on five acres, market gardens, and a winter and summer CSA. Clare has a B.S. Degree in Biology and Writing, a M.S. in Sustainable Systems with an emphasis in Agroecology, and is finishing her PhD in Sustainability Education with a focus on Regenerative Agriculture. She founded a liberal arts program in sustainable agriculture at Northland College in Ashland, WI, and has been teaching sustainable agriculture and permaculture for over 7 years. She is part of the teacher’s guild of the Permaculture Research Institute in Minneapolis. You can see more at www.elsewherefarm.com.
Marian Farrior
Marian Farrior is the Earth Partnership Field Manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Arboretum,
where she coordinates ecological restorations of prairies and oak savannas and conducts trainings for volunteers to lead ecological restorations. She also works as a consultant and facilitator for a variety of environmental and social change organizations, as well as an edible landscape gardener. She has a B.A. in Anthropology, a M.S. in Sustainable Systems with an emphasis in Permaculture, and training in Social Artistry. She has taught workshops in permaculture, forest gardening, patterns in nature, and biomimicry. Her passion is co-creating and apprenticing with nature, and helping people connect with their environment. Marian has been a member of a creative placemaking community of practice in Madison since 2011.