A love of nature and a desire to pass a world that holds promise onto the next generation have provided inspiration for the passion I have for my work. I have worked as an organic farmer, migratory beekeeper, alternative builder, educator, community activist and artist. I studied Integrated Pest Management and organic farming at Antioch University in Berkeley California in the mid 1970’s. Slated to go to Zaire as a beekeeper with the Peace Corps, loved reared its unexpected head and sent me into the world of “momdom” instead. Working as a stay-at-home commercial artist in southern Florida, I injected organic gardens, rabbits, compost, marine ecosystems and art into my four children’s early education.

After the death of my husband, and as my children grew, life provided me with opportunities to travel and experience diverse landscapes and cultures. In 1996 I was flung into the role of community activist, opposing a Bureau of Land Management Decision to approve a copper mine in southern Utah that would contaminate a large, underlying aquifer. Two years, one start-up non-profit and a lot of education later, in an unprecedented decision, the Internal Bureau of Land Affairs ruled against the BLM decision to approve the mine and forced the company to determine the quality of the aquifer and post a reclamation bond before beginning mining. To keep my sanity during this time I learned how to build really nice houses from bags of dirt with earthbag building pioneers and authors, Kaki Hunter and Doni Kiffmeyer. This is a very viable building method, especially for places that have depleted forests or are desert environments and people literally have nothing but dirt to build with. I have since shared this knowledge with children and community members in many places.

From Utah I moved to the heart of the North Cascades to work as a seasonal employee with the National Park Service where my job included construction of special projects, native plant propagation and land restoration with native plants. During my off time I worked as an environmental educator with the Komo Kulshan Outdoor School, a watershed education program for 5^th grade students that focuses on habitat preservation and restoration for critical species, particularly salmon. I also volunteered my time with the local (failing) school district and helped them acquire grant money for an education reform effort that partnered the school with the State Education and Environment Roundtable and saw the integration of the model, Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning, as a means to improve both the local community and academic achievement through place-based learning. I continue to apply the information I learned from this experience in my work today.

Three years ago, going from temperate to tropical rainforest, I was able to again travel outside the United States. I went to the forests of Borneo to work as a volunteer with an Indonesian non-profit organization, Friends of the National Parks Foundation (FNPF), which has projects in and around Tanjung Puting National Park in south central Kalimantan. There I helped staff with reforestation and sustainable agriculture efforts and fought large forest fires that broke out in the park. FNPF also gave me the task of finding solutions for the illegal gold mining activities on the park’s borders that are polluting the Sekyoner River with mercury and sediment. I located and acquired grant money through UNIDO’s Global Mercury Project for FNPF to begin a 6 month campaign to educate area gold miners about the health risks associated with mercury use and introduce cleaner, simple technology. Throughout the course of this work I went with the staff to take the message of conservation into local schools to share with students; it is a big part of the solution to save this rare and threatened ecosystem. I have spent a combined time of over 15 months in Indonesia, 12 of which have been as a volunteer with FNPF.

This past year I returned for my second time as an educator to the Big Island of Hawaii, working with a Hawaiian culture-based charter school teaching systems thinking to grades 6-12 students as a way to achieve sustainability. My students now know how to make compost, grow their own food, reuse and reduce waste, collect rainwater and have identified viable, alternative sources of energy to power their campus. These are important skills to integrate in lieu of the fact that Hawai’i imports 85% of its food from the U.S. mainland, and only a tiny percentage of its power is produced without imported oil. Through my employment with the school, I was able to witness the success of the integration of culture into the academic curriculum and understand the valuable role it plays in reconnecting people to the landscape. Through education programs such as this the Hawaiian people have saved their culture from the brink of extinction, an invaluable lesson considering cultures and language are going extinct as rapidly as species.

My children have fledged and are now pursuing their own flight plan. This gives me the occasion to put my years of accumulated knowledge to work and join in the effort to create economic and environmental stability and balance in this world. I am a firm believer that social, cultural and environmental issues go hand in hand and must be solved holistically. I look forward to working with members of our global community, including youth, to find and provide solutions to today’s pressing issues, ensuring bright opportunities for future generations through the restoration of natural systems and thoughtful, sustainable uses of our earth’s resources.