Course Teachers*

David Holmgren

David is best known as the co-originator of the permaculture concept following the publication, along with Bill Mollison of Permaculture One in 1978. Since then he has taught, consulted and supervised in urban and rural projects around the world.

At home (Melliodora in Hepburn, Central Victoria), David is the vegetable gardener, silviculturalist and builder. Internationally, David is one of the most respected teachers and leaders of the Permaculture movement, know for his commitment to presenting permaculture ideas through practical projects and teaching by personal example, that a sustainable lifestyle is a realistic, attractive and powerful alternative to fossil fuel dependent consumerism.

David’s passion flows into the broader conversation about the philosophical and conceptual foundations for sustainability, the focus of his seminal book Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability. David is no longer flying but will be joining our course via zoom.

Dan Wahpepah

Dan grew up immersed in American Indian Movement culture and his traditional ways. His father is a spiritual leader and his uncle founded West Coast AIM. He has traveled extensively with his father learning about the Red Road, a Native American Spiritual path of purpose rooted in living in right relationship with all beings with whom we share this Earth. He eventually landed on the reservation where he participated and held an officers position in ceremony. Dan teaches from the indigenous perspective, focusing on decolonization, healthy thinking, and “returning to being a human being.” He will be joining us live and in person.

Esther Stutzman

Esther Stutzman (Yoncalla) is a traditional storyteller and educator. Stutzman, who is Komemma Kalapuya (from the Willamette Valley) on her mother’s side and Hanis Coos from the Oregon coast on her father’s side, is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. Stutzman works with schools, museums, libraries, and universities to share her culture and history; she is also involved in a Kalapuya language revitalization project. Stutzman is a founding member of the six-woman Old West Cowgirl band, Slow Ponies. For over 50 years, Esther Stutzman has told Kalapuya and Coos stories learned from family members and Tribal Elders. She provides an indigenous perspective for didactic tales and histories that dismantle stereotypes and bridge cultural chasms.

peter bauer

Peter Michael Bauer has been a rewilding catalyst since the late nineties. He created rewild forums, authored the book “Rewild or Die”, founded the organization Rewild Portland, and created the annual North American Rewilding Conference. He dedicates his life to living as a “gatherer-hunter wannabe”- creating something new inspired by the resilience of our gatherer-hunter ancestors who lived on the planet for 3 million years without causing the sixth extinction (and continue to live in some places to this day).

daphne singingtree

Daphne Singingtree is an author, educator and storyteller. She shares her expertise through writing, workshops and media, in plant medicine, permaculture, midwifery, emergency preparedness, and Indigenous ways of knowing. Daphne grows many of the herbs she uses in her medicine making. By learning from the traditions of our ancestors, as well as modern science, she believes in herbal medicine as a path to healing that empowers individuals and protects the earth. She recently retired from her business Eagletree Herbs, to work on the forthcoming book “Eagletree Herbs Guide to Medicine Making”.

Daphne’s heritage includes Lakota from the Standing Rock Tribe, as well as Spanish and European. She is the mother of four grown children and the grandmother of eight. She lives in Eugene, Oregon, where she grows herbs, makes medicine, and is an activist for protecting the earth and water.

Andrew Millison

Andrew Millison has been studying, teaching and practicing Permaculture since he took his first design course in 1996. He started teaching Permaculture at the college level in 2001, and has been an instructor at OSU in the Horticulture Department since 2009.

Andrew first learned Permaculture in the drylands, where he studied at Prescott College for his undergraduate and Master’s degrees. In Arizona, his focus was on rainwater harvesting, greywater systems, and desert agriculture. He started a Permaculture landscape design and build company, and also worked in an ecologically-based Landscape Architecture firm. In recent years, Andrew’s focus has been more on design for climate change resilience, broad scale water management for farm and development planning, Permaculture housing developments, and Oregon water law for obtaining water rights.

​Andrew has developed a successful online Permaculture program through OSU and in recent years moved into media production, traveling internationally to film and produce educational content focused on permaculture-based food and water systems. His most well known work is his YouTube video series “India’s Water Revolution”.

Monica Ibacache

A native of Chile, Monica is a New York City–based community organizer, sustainability educator, and ecological designer since 2007. An avid gardener as a small child with her grandparents in Chile, she rekindled her passion for growing food as an adult while living in southeast Alaska.

Monica is committed to improving food systems while advancing social and environmental justice globally. She has dedicated her life to working with diverse and marginalized communities in education and local development in the U.S. and abroad. Monica has advanced certifications in Permaculture Design and Teaching and serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute of Permaculture for Children (IPEC), Permaculture Institute of North America (PINA), the International Permaculture Convergence Committee (IPCC), the Indoor Gardening Society (IGSA), and the Permaculture Association of the Northeast (PAN). Joining us Live from New York via Zoom.

deitrich peters

Deitrich Peters was born in Dallas, Oregon and is a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. Deitrch is Kalapuya, Rouge River, and Umpqua. His given name is Cosa Tance, meaning "Sky Dancer".

He loves his culture and traditions - making things with his hands, working with feathers, beadwork, traditional dancing, storytelling and his all time favorite, flute playing. He has learned these many things from his elders, and have been gifted these things by the Creator.

Nathaniel Nordin-Tuininga

Education Director
Education@lostvalley.org

Nathaniel Nordin-Tuininga is a long-time environmental educator, born and raised within the Intentional Communities Movement. He spent much of his childhood learning directly from 1200 acres of meadows and forests and from the elders who helped him cultivate a deep reverence for the more-than-human world. His life has been an ongoing exploration of alternative educational models, especially those that focus on the influences of the natural world. He holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Oregon, two graduate degrees in Waldorf Education, and an Ecovillage and Permacultural Certification from Lost Valley Educational Center. Nathaniel has been living off of the grid and electricity free for the better part of the past decade. He brings patience, joy, and an intimate appreciation for the ecological interdependence of life.

Brian Byers

Brian is a permaculture designer, educator, and activist with over a decade of agricultural experience working in the Willamette Valley. He is passionate about building resilient local communities, reconnecting people to nature, and growing nutritious food. He has a bachelors degree in philosophy. He has studied and taught permaculture alongside Andrew Millison, Heiko Koester, Tom Ward (aka Hazel), Jude Hobbs, Rick Valley and many others. Brian is certified in permaculture design, as well as holding advanced certificates in surveying, forestry, and teaching. Brian has been the lead teacher of the Lost Valley PDC since 2016. He is also a founding member of the Center for Regenerative Peoples.

Diana Leafe Christian

Diana’s mission is to help intentional communities get started successfully, function effectively, and achieve their goals. She has learned what works well from founders and long-time members of more than 170 communities worldwide — ecovillages, cohousing neighborhoods, housing co-ops, shared group households, income-sharing communes, and more. Her books are Creating a Life Together (2003) and Finding Community (2007).

Diana teaches workshops, offers consultations, and presents keynote addresses and breakout workshops for conferences internationally. In 2017, she received the Fellowship for Intentional Community’s Kozeny Communitarian Award, a lifetime achievement award for contributions to the US communities movement. Her workshops and webinars include Starting a Successful Ecovillage or Intentional Community, Helping Your Community Thrive, and Sociocracy for Intentional Communities.

Diana is a certified as a trainer for Gaia Education’s Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) course, a Board Member of GEN-US (Global Ecovillage Network-US) and formerly a board member of GENNA (GEN-North America). She contributed chapters to the Gaia Education/EDE books Beyond You and Me and Gaian Economics, and the GEN book Ecovillage: 1001 Ways to Heal the Planet. She’s written articles for Communities magazine, GEN Newsletter, the Communities Directory, GEN Newsletter, Permaculture Activist, Permculture Design, and Permaculture magazines. She lives at Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina. *Diana will join our 2024 teaching staff via Zoom.

Kara Huntermoon

Kara Huntermoon is the Southern Willamette Valley’s local expert on wetlands Permaculture.  One of seven co-owners of Heart-Culture Farm Community in the Long Tom Watershed, she manages the 33-acre integrated Permaculture community farm, breeds livestock and vegetable varieties, experiments with grafting on noncommercial rootstock, and teaches WWOOFers and apprentices.  Climate adaptation and mitigation are a major focus of her farm work.  Since 2009, Kara has taught butchering classes at primitive skills gatherings, with a focus on hands-on skills, emotional vulnerability, and ecological resistance.  Kara also founded Liberation Listening, an interpersonal healing method that focuses on building resilient relationships to resist oppression and move towards the future we want.

Dianne G. Brause

Dianne Brause, a founding member of Lost Valley Educational Center, was born and raised in a small unintentional (but close-knit), German/American farming community in Ohio in 1944. While having a more or less normal childhood, she soon deviated from the norm, by joining an Arab American Friendship Tour visiting, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, and Lebanon during the summer of 1964. After college, she joined the Peace Corps and served in the Dominican Republic for 2 years, helping to set up the country’s first birth control clinics. 

Diane traveled extensively in the 1960s and 1970s, from South and Central America, to Europe, the Middle East, India and Nepal. She completed a self-directed, self-designed MA degree program in Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology in 1975 from Beacon College. One of her major papers was a design for an intentional community she dreamed of living in, and in 1989 she co-founded Lost Valley Educational Center in Dexter, OR, where she lived and worked for the next 19 years, rotating through many of the jobs and responsibilities afforded to her there. 

A few of her many skills include–gardening, setting up legal structures, and facilitating conflict resolution sessions between members confronting the differences of opinion that inevitably come up in growing the spirit of community. Dianne considers herself extraordinarily fortunate to have lived her entire adult life “northwest of normal”!

Ejo McMullen

Ejo McMullen moved to Japan in his late teens and stayed into his twenties, teaching secondary school and eventually receiving ordination and training at Daijoji Monastery in Kanazawa. He is the abbot of Buddha Eye Temple in Eugene, Oregon, where he has served since its founding in 2004, and is also secretary of the Soto Zen Buddhism North America Office in Los Angeles.

Justin Michelson

Justin Michelson lived and worked at Lost Valley from April 2010-October 2021. Throughout his stay, he has balanced his time between land/garden stewardship and administrative oversight. From 2012 to 2017 he was the Executive Director, overseeing the operations of the organization in the realms of finance, education, human resources, organizational development, legal issues, networking and fundraising, and communication with the Board of directors. Justin now runs an onsite native edible plant nursery. Justin has a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Colorado College, and is a certified Permaculture Designer; he has been studying agriculture and Permaculture since 2007. He has been living in intentional community since 2006. Justin has been practicing mindfulness meditation since 2001 and now leads classes through The Eugene Insight Meditation Community and his own Nature’s Heart Retreats , and teaches regularly in Eugene.

Rachel Powell

Rachel is a Certified Hatha Yoga Teacher, has been teaching since 2014 and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology with a background in the mental health field. She is a homeschooling mother of two, dedicated to a mindful parenting approach. Motherhood sparked her interest in natural living and getting back to the basics, making all of her own home and body-care products with non-toxic ingredients. Rachel has been a life-long crafter which naturally fed her interest in ancestral skills like sandal making and other leather works. She studies primal nutrition and is very devoted to her health journey. Her interest in Intentional Communities continues to grow as she carries her vision of village that our ancestors once had throughout her daily life.

chris roth

Chris Roth has lived for most of his adult life in intentional community. He took his Permaculture Design Course at Lost Valley in 1994 while living and working at another nearby educational center, then moved to LV in 1997, where he’s been a member ever since, in roles including garden co- manager/instructor, nature center coordinator, community council member, meeting facilitator, board member, and more. From 1998-2006 he edited Talking Leaves magazine ( gen-us.net/TL ), published by Lost Valley, and since 2008 has edited Communities ( gen-us.net/communities ), the premier journal of the intentional communities movement. He has also lived at several other ICs, on a Native American reservation, on a couple organic family farms, and, most recently, has been caregiving a parent.

AMY PALATNICK

AMY PALATNICK discovered early on that the best life hack was to follow inspiration. Initially groomed for mainstream success, she had an awakening while in college and swapped her Pre-Med major for Buddhism. Life responded by leading her down many magical paths with delectable opportunities, and she learned to keep planting seeds and see what sprouted. Following her nose around the country, she paused in Eugene, where daily rainbows were a clear sign. There, she became a professional potter, with a thriving business at the Eugene Saturday Market. Later she became a devoted Nia instructor, sharing a movement and lifestyle practice that both heals and conditions the body, mind, emotions, and spirit. Continuing along the path of personal growth, Amy got her master's degree in Processwork therapy and facilitation, and became a coach and a somatic meditation ("Realization Process") teacher. Undyingly passionate about helping others find deeper connection to their bodies, lives, and especially their sexuality, Amy teaches workshops and weekly drop-in classes and writes about body image, sexuality, dating, and self-love.

Shana Deane

A student of life, beauty & spirit; fierce seeker of truth; For the past 15 years, Shana has been teaching and leading workshops and courses in compassionate communication and conflict resolution via the lens of Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication model and Dominic Barter's Brazilian Restorative Circles, as well as being in private practice as a mediator, counselor, end-of-life doula, and Zegg Forum Facilitator.

From being part of NY City Occupy's team implementing communication trainings, mediations and healing circles... To the past 12 years of co-producing and facilitating Network for New Culture Summer Camps... To currently studying and training within the Nonviolent Global Liberation community (NGL) developing facilitating pathways toward peace and reconciliation. Shana continues to be fueled by a passionate belief in collaborative community living and loving, distributive leadership, and the unveiling of shame as a way toward living authentically, interconnectedly alive.

Dima Tsatskin

Born in Odessa, Ukraine in 1983, Dima has also lived in Tiraspol, Moldova (Transnistria), Sarasota, FL, and Jackson, MS. After 18 years of enjoying the Florida beach scene, Dima started to crave mountains and forests, which brought him to Oregon in 2014, along with his canine companion Gandhi, where they were blessed with an opportunity to live in this intentional community.

Dima has been practicing Pranayama Breathwork for 10+ years. Studying under Dmitry Lapshinov (practicing adept of five spiritual traditions:Taoist Qigong of Shen family traditions and traditions of Wudang mountains; Japanese art Zen; Cossack Spas of “Topor’” clan; Yoga of the “18 Tamil Siddhars” tradition; Tibetan “Bon” Zogchen tradition and Tibetan Tantra of Jonang tradition which saved the secrets of six yogas of Naropa and six yogas of Niguma.) Breathwork practice has significantly improved his life and health in all directions and he is excited to share his experience with you!

johani askins

At the young age of four, Johani was introduced to the Afro-Brazilian martial art Capoeira. Capoeira is more than just a dance style; it is a community and a way of life for many around the world. This engaging and lively art can be described as a flow of movements choreographed into a dance, accompanied by unique music played on signature instruments used only for Capoeira. Johani's background extends to various other dance forms, and he previously worked as a dance teacher in San Diego, California. Currently, Johani is a licensed Psychedelic Facilitator under Measure 109 of Oregon Law.

More instructor bios coming soon!

Elizabeth ribeiro

Elizabeth Ribeiro has been teaching yoga since 2016. Her classes are a container for connecting to your inner guide and supporting your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual wellbeing.

She has studied traditional Hatha Yoga in an intensive residential course in India, Kripalu style yoga in the United States, and lived and served for many years at an ashram in Trinidad & Tobago. These traditions all support her teaching and each class is made accessible for all body types and daily needs!

More instructor bios coming soon!