I am a designer, which means that I am actively searching for ways to improve the world around me. I am also a craftsperson, focusing on the way a thing is constructed, primarily with wood, steel, earth, and plants. I am a placemaker. I believe the great mysteries of the universe are revealed to us just around the bend, that the destination is the journey, and that what is revealed to us along the way in the quiet everyday is what truly shapes us. So a humble, hand held object can have a profound effect on the psyche and spirit.  This works in the same way a good meal made from simple ingredients can be the best medicine for body and soul.

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I have a bachelors degree from Boston University in Environmental Analysis and Policy. I studied with Edward Goldsmith, Helena Norbert Hodge and Vandana Shiva in the International Honors Program in 1995. I realized early on that I wanted to play a part in ameliorating the impact of human systems on the environment. I started my professional career by learning to grow food and cultivate land on a biodynamic farm where the study of using Anthroposophy was as the core technology used. I lived on Kibbutz Lotan and where I learned permaculture and built gardens in the desert. I continued my studies with a masters degree in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning from the University of California at Berkeley. I worked professionally as a designer and project manager at Tom Leader Studio, and Eckbo Dean Austin and Williams/AECOM for most of the early aughts and taught in the discipline  I taught as an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley before returning to farming in western Sonoma County. where I was a founding member of the Bohemian Farmers Collective. I am the co-founder of FEED Sonoma, a farmer-driven regional produce distribution hub that is most essentially a regional landscape design strategy, providing economic infrastructure to support the patchwork of small farms that makes this area so unique.

 

I began my training as a woodworker at the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina in 2015 and went on to study for two years at The Krenov School with Laura Mays. I was the woodworking artist fellow at Peter’s Valley School of Craft, an artist in residence at Pocosin Arts School of Fine Craft, and received an endowed fellowship from the Center from Furniture Craftsmanship in Maine.  I am currently working as the Program and Operations Director at Two Rock School of Woodworking in Petaluma while living and operating my own sanctuary, homestead, and gardens called Foxhole Farm.