Our Instructors

Greg was born and raised in Syracuse, NY. Favorite childhood memories involve camping in the Adirondack Mountains, cross-country road trips with his family, drawing/designing tiny living spaces, building with Legos, and endlessly making art. During his college years – studying Industrial Design - he became interested in pottery, thinking about the human/earth relationship, and working + living outdoors. All these things ultimately led Greg to cob, in the form of a Cob Cottage Company Apprenticeship in 2008 (with Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley). He left that experience feeling passionate about spreading the knowledge and joy of natural building to others.

Greg began teaching workshops in NC in 2009, and co-founded (with his partner, Danielle) the Mud Dauber School of Natural Building at their homestead, in 2014. He loves meeting the inspiring and creative people (from all over the country!) who attend workshops at Mud Dauber. Greg also enjoys working alone or with a small group on natural building contract projects – building things for local people that inspire them to spend more time outside or connect them with the healing power of clay.

Hapi was born in Trinidad and Tobago. She grew up in a family that enjoyed nature and exploring spiritually. Her favorites Island memories are preparing delicious raw and vegetarian food with her Uncle who was a raw foodist. She also became very fond of Astronomy and the study of how planets have an effect on human behavior.

During Hapi's college years, Studying Psychology, she developed an interest in how the mind, body and spirit all work together and their interconnectedness. She set out to  connect the dots between the relationship of food and how it can alter moods. She noticed that what we eat and think about what we eat has a huge effect on many other aspects of our lives. This discovery put Hapi on her own Journey to find her way back to herself. She realized that by remembering the freedom of her childhood years she rediscovered her true meaning of life which for her is Freedom, Joy, Happiness and Love of Nature. Hapi helps people daily in her Holistic Psychology Practice to find their way back (or forward) to what truly brings them joy and reminds them that "Life Is Suppose To Be FUN".

During the pandemic she started thinking about the advantages of growing her own food.  Far away from the lush gardens and fresh fruits and vegetables that she grew up eating as a child, she decided that she wanted  to make the most of her living space. Instead of buying house plants she started researching the benefits of micro-greens and soon started growing them for fun and to give her the confidence that if Armageddon was coming she could at least know how to grow something to sustain herself. She enjoys sharing her Micro~green Harvest with her friends and family. Word soon got out and around town about  Hapi's micro-greens and soon she  found herself growing and delivering freshly harvested micro-greens to people outside of her family and friends.

She now offers a weekly subscription of freshly grown micro-greens that she delivers right to people's door. Sometimes you can find her at a local farmers market sharing micro-greens, laughing, enjoying human connection and reminding people of the benefits of happiness and playfulness.

Moose, as most people call him, is a passionate advocate of Ecological Design and Building. Moose grew up with earth dwellings and thatch roofs in his native village in Casamance, Senegal, West Africa. In 1985, his cousin, a Senegalese architect, introduced him to the concept of Compressed Earth Blocks. He fell in love with the technology.

His passion of ecological design, food production and transformation led him to study under world renown teachers like Jerome Osentowski (Permaculture - CRMPI) Satprem Maini (Compressed Earth Block Arches, Vaults and Domes – Auroville Earth Institute, India), Will Allen (Urban Intensive Food Production – Growing Power, USA) and Sandor Katz (Food Fermentation – USA), Eric Toensmeier (Forest gardening and Carbon farming).

With a Non-profit organization he is developing (Moose Ecological Design Solutions), he is working on giving back to people of West Africa by sharing skills in Earth building and Permaculture. He co-taught the first Permaculture course in Senegal during the Third International Eco-City Conference held in Dakar-Yoff, in 1996. He believes in simple and low-tech solutions to our shelter, food and energy challenges.

‍

Ken Bridle has been a professional scientist for over 40 years. Trained as a botanist with emphasis on plant physiology and natural product chemistry (Ph.D.), these interests have been applied to a variety of projects. He has worked as a natural heritage and watershed inventory biologist, field ecologist, science museum exhibits director and environmental consultant. He has been active with PLC for nearly 30 years as a member, volunteer, consultant, board member and staff member. He is currently, Stewardship Director for the Piedmont Land Conservancy, responsible for easement monitoring and management of over 29,000 acres of land in more than 200 projects.  

He is the author of several county Natural Heritage Inventories (1998-2002) as well as watershed assessments, wetland delineations and rare plant and animal surveys. He has conducted other local and regional conservation research and restoration projects in North Carolina and around the southeast for a variety of groups. He is a founding member of the Dan River Basin Association and the Carolina Butterfly Society and has served on the board and been a volunteer for many conservation groups in North Carolina and Stokes County where he lives. He is a past Chair of the Wildlife Resources Commission, Nongame Wildlife Advisory Committee which helps to facilitate work and listing of rare animal species in this state, a board on which he served for two decades. He is also a past president of the North Carolina Native Plant Society and Past President of the North Carolina Prescribed Fire Council and a founding member of the Triad Mushroom Club. He is a frequent leader of hikes and nature walks and a speaker on local conservation issues.

Vernon Cheek has been a licensed electrician since 1987, and been running his own electrical contracting business (Cheek Electric) since 1995. Vernon does mostly residential electrical work, but also does commercial electrical work. Vernon has worked on Small and Tiny Houses, and has experience working with owner-builders and people doing alternative structures.

After three life/career stages of essentially ten years each working as an environmental chemist, staying home with her two sons, and teaching high school environmental science, Laurie quit her job, sold her house, and moved to an intentional community in central North Carolina to homestead with her octogenarian mom to try and live like we have just one planet. This has meant growing and making as much of what they need as possible.

She has been deeply influenced by numerous visits with a community in Cuba, particularly by their generosity, resourcefulness, creativity, and ability, by necessity, to live simply. For the last three years she has enjoyed camping both in her Prius and in a small converted cargo van, which doubles as a guest room for visitors. 

Larry has spent a lifetime accumulating knowledge about tools, how to make them, care for them, use them, and teach others about them.   Having spent decades as a professional blacksmith, Larry loves to share his deep knowledge about the value of good tools with others.   Larry has been an instructor at the John C. Campbell Folk School, and led workshops and classes in many different locations on a diverse set of traditional skills from blacksmithing, tool making, ox driving, green woodworking, and much more.

Larry serves on the board of the Deep River Folk School.

Henrietta Cummings is a local Herbalist. She has been studying medicinal herbs since the 1970’s and wildcrafting and growing herbs using organic methods for almost as long.

Her passions are being with the plants, sharing herbal knowledge through teaching classes and workshops, teaching individuals through hands-on study on the farm, and cultivating a wide variety of culinary and medicinal herbs. She plants at-risk and endangered herbs to help restore them in the wild, native herbs to attract a wide variety of local pollinators, and herbs from around the world to offer a large variety of medicinal herbs and to help these herbs to continue to thrive.

Godi lives in Durham, NC, USA as part of an intentional eco-community. He is a gifted woodworker and carpenter and has been working as a craftsman for 30+ years, building a number of tiny homes and many beautiful products such as cutting boards, benches, tables and much more. He is also an accomplished mechanic.

Godi is passionate about protecting nature rights and continuing his life work as an "Earth-Keeper", working in harmonious, reciprocal relationship with nature to create and foster healthy ecosystems where all beings can thrive.

He was born and raised in the remote village of Ikoko Boginda, in the Lac Tumba region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Son of a community leader, he is intimately familiar with his people and the challenges they face. In 2012, he founded Go Conscious Earth in response to village reports of nearby rainforest destruction. He continues to serve as a USA-based board member. Since 2015, he's been a board member of Worldwide Endeavors, partners with the various development programs around the world.

Beverly has been singing as long as she can remember, starting when she was just several years old singing with her Grandmother, "Big Mamma."  In fact Beverly says that "Big Mamma" is her greatest music inspiration, learning gospel songs and call and response songs from her while growing up.

Starting with singing in a church youth choir, "The Joyettes," Beverly has been singing in choirs and as a soloist for the past 50 years. While Gospel music is her background, she loves many genres of music including country, jazz, blues, R & B, and pop music. She has been in multiple workshops with Gospel recording artists. Mainly she loves to sing and loves the energy of singing with other people and feeding off of what each is creating with the music.

Currently Beverly sings with the Praise and Worship team and the Omega Mass Choir at Alston Chapel United Holy Church in Pittsboro, NC. She also sings with the Chatham County Sheriff's Office Honor Guard. She has provided vocals for two CDs through the Community Music Project. Beverly also writes and creates songs.

For Beverly, music is transcendent. It is soulful and healing. It crosses borders of gender, race, age, and spirituality. Music connects people.

Gred Gross is a retired teacher and builder, living in Celo community since the early 80s.  He is currently working in his community with other folks raising staple crops (potatoes, dry corn, and squash) as well as beef and pork on a small scale, doing mostly on-farm slaughtering of their animals. His interest in biochar goes back a ways when an old friend  turned him on to it.  He has been making several batches a year to be used primarily in compost. Some gets used in humane and chicken litter.  His interest in promoting it is based on the multi-functional aspects of small and large scale biochar production and its ability to promote soil fertility while also helping with long term carbon capture.

Mike Hansen summarizes his regenerative farming approach with four words: Graze Against The Machine.

Mike’s early connection to nature was forged in childhood in rural Zimbabwe. His reverence for nature deepened during a decade of backpacking, photographing and foraging food & medicine in the Canadian Rockies. Mike carries that reverence with him as a farmer at Ozark Akerz Regenerative Farm in Coleridge, NC. He is inspired by the local indigenous wisdom of his Haliwa-Saponi and Creek friends. This local wisdom, his lifelong respect for wild places and his passion to raise and grow healthy food to help his wife Sue heal from cancer combine to shape his stewardship.

Mike’s regenerative approach has converted an old hay field into a biodiverse Food & Medicine Forest and resulted in Pineywoods Cattle transforming impenetrable thorny land into a flourishing forest. Conservation of endangered farm animals and preserving the farmland and sacred indigenous sites on the farm for future generations are also important aspects of Mike’s life.

Through his participation in the NC Food Advocacy Coalition, Mike frequently meets with legislators at the state and federal level to advocate for more regenerative policies in farming.

Harvey is a green builder, licensed plumber, conservation-oriented land developer, organic farmer, teacher, and writer. Harvey is influenced by his experiences of living in various community settings, including a remote retreat center in the cascade mountains in Washington state, and five years in a traditional, rural village in Southern Africa. Harvey initiated and helped develop the Sustainable Farming Program at Central Carolina Community College (CCCC) in Pittsboro, NC and has taught many classes at CCCC in the past 25 years in Sustainable Agriculture, Permaculture, Green Building, and Construction/Plumbing. Harvey was the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association Farmer of the Year in 1998.

Presently Harvey is the Director of Construction and Land Acquisition/Development at Chatham Habitat for Humanity, and one of his passions is designing and building small and tiny houses. Harvey is equally passionate about developing self-sufficient homesites that produce their own energy, capture rainwater, grow food, and minimize their environmental impact.

Harvey serves on the board of the Deep River Folk School.

Nancy Harman is a community midwife who also likes raising food using permaculture principles, and visiting farms around the world in Africa and India and Alaska. A fermentation fanatic, she also knows that the food that we eat is an important part of our healing.

Nancy serves on the board of the Deep River Folk School.

Ben Harman is a local chemist and nutritionist with a long-standing interest in agriculture, food, woodworking and traditional handcrafts. Through studies in Nutrition and Food Science at NC State University, as well as intructors at the Deep River Folk School, the GreenWood Wright's Fest, and other mentors Ben has developed a useful toolkit of skills and knowledge. Ben enjoys sharing his passion for DIY, healthy living, creative design, and resiliant living with the community

Ben serves on the board of the Deep River Folk School.

Rich Hayes graduated from Davis and Elkin College in West Virginia with a BS in biology and studied soil science at West Virginia University before moving to North Carolina. He is a soil scientist with more than 35 years of professional experience. Over much of his career, Rich mapped and classified soils while working on 5 different county soil surveys in North Carolina. As the project leader and principal author of the Soil Survey of Chatham County, he is extremely knowledgeable about our county soils.

Later on, Rich did non-discharge permitting and inspections for the NC Division of Water Resources. In this job, Rich was responsible for conducting site visits to evaluate potential land application sites for their suitability for surface irrigation with wastewater. These permit applications ranged from small single-family drip and spray systems, all the way up to large subdivisions irrigating with reclaimed water. He is now retired after 30 years of service with the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Since 2006, Rich has been an elected District Supervisor with the Chatham Soil and Water Conservation District. Besides his county duties, he is involved with a number of statewide environmental education programs. He currently serves as the Chairman for the North Carolina Envirothon, an environmental contest for middle and high school students. He is also the chair for the Mobile Soils Classroom Committee. There are currently 5 mobile soil classroom trailers that are used to teach students about soils. Rich is also the Vice Chair of the NC Association of the Soil and Water Conservation Districts’ Education Committee that oversees a number of statewide conservation and environmental education programs.

Rich is an active member and past president of the Soil Science Society of North Carolina. In 2014, the Governor awarded Hayes the prestigious Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest civilian honor from the Governor’s Office. 

A Texas native, Nathan has been interested in sustainability since joining the Piedmont Biofuels Co-op to make his own diesel in 2006. In 2016, he moved with his wife, Calllie — along with 3 dogs — into a 200 square foot tiny house on wheels that they built together, and in 2019 founded a small pocket neighorhood of tiny houses called Cranmore Meadows. This 30-acre property in Haw River serves as a residential neighborhood, nature preserve, permaculture farm, event venue, and sustainabillity laboratory.

Nathan serves on the board of the Deep River Folk School.

Few garden designers have Frank’s breadth of education or experience: he studied horticulture under the late JC Raulston, namesake of NCSU’s arboretum and learned design from  Tracy Traer, Denis Wood and Will Hooker, who has had several installations at the NC Museum of Art. Frank is also a stonemason, carpenter and sculptor; he learned stonemasonry from the late Arch Haithcock of Blue Ridge Stone, learned carpentry from Green builder Mark Marcoplos and apprenticed with Raleigh's first organic landscaper, Bob Mulder.

In his youth Frank farmed organic vegetables in Granville County, picked oranges in Spain and worked as an IPM scout for tomato farmers in SC. He restricts his garden design/plant/build business, called Cottage Garden Landscaping, to what he calls the “bungalow neighborhoods” of inner city Durham and yet manages to stay booked up as much as 6 months in advance. He uses his knowledge to create innovative and beautiful gardens that don’t need babying. Frank has written about gardening for since 1990 in the N&O, Herald-Sun, Independent Weekly, Carolina Gardener, Backyard Poultry, Horticulture and many other magazines. He gardens with his wife, Chris Crochetiere, at Bayleaf Cottage, their home in Durham.

Jenny Kimmel is founder of Sow Permaculture based in and around Greensboro NC and has been teaching an annual PDC (Permaculture Design Certification Course) for around a decade. Primarily, she enjoys hermiting in the woods and lives in a tiny house she designed and built. For many years she lived in a traditional Sioux tipi on her family farm, learning about the pros and cons of living in a structure highly interactive with nature, thinking about how to integrate those patterns into home and land design.

She teaches as an adjunct within the Sustainable Food Systems Program (SFS) at Guilford College, is a singer/ songwriter, works in her garden, with her bees, woodworks, forages, and writes.

Alice Loyd’s soil-tending credentials are the nearly sixty years of food-growing success in a variety of soil conditions, with twenty six years in the soils of the Piedmont. For several years she taught gardening classes through her project Food Is the Key, and she has coached a number of young gardeners who then became successful food growers on their own.

Since 1981 she has used permanent beds with little soil disturbance, and sometime before that she came to use a mineral-rich soil amendment formula similar to what she applies today in the Living Well Community Garden. This garden has been the source of virtually all the produce eaten by three of the residents for the past four years, and several other gardeners are benefiting from the soil in that site.

Courtney Lockemer is an artist and designer who works in fashion, textiles, photography, video, and performance. She is on the leadership team of Piedmont Fibershed, a nonprofit dedicated to building a sustainable fiber and textile economy in central North Carolina and surrounding regions. She also works for TS Designs in Burlington, NC developing production-scale natural dye services. Courtney is particularly interested in using and developing sustainable sources of locally-available dye plants. You can see her artwork at www.ceelockula.com

David Malloy attended Bob Wesley's Whispereing Pines Archery School. Mr. Wesley is a world class archer and hunter. When Mr. Wesley learned that David taught archery, he gave David permission to teach the methods he learned from Howard Hill. Howard Hill is widely recognized as one of the finest archers in history.

Today David teaches a blended curriculum that covers the basics of archery such as form, release and holding the bow. Once the basics are mastered, intermediate archery covers instinctive split vision aiming, and archery form elements as taught by Howard Hill. Advanced archery covers blind nocking, use of quivers, ranging distances without range finders, animal habits, archery hunting, shooting from elevation, and bow/arrow tuning.

"Dr McBug" has been playing with insects since 1959. He was Biological Control Administrator and State Apiarist of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture from 1990-1997.  Since 1996, he has led Symbiont Biological Pest Management, consulting with a wide range of local, regional, state, federal and international interests. He has worked on successful biological programs controlling hemlock woolly adelgid, Japanese beetle, and other pests of national and international concern. He joined CFSA in 1990, Board member for 6 years, and chaired several of the Sustainable Agriculture Conferences during the 1990s and early 2000s. He is a founding member of New River Organic Growers in Boone, NC.

Grace McFetters has studied various fiber arts since 2013, starting with knitting. She began to explore weaving in early 2017. Grace established her fiber studio, Transcend Fiber Studio, in 2018, and formalized her fiber business in early 2020. She has taught Ukrainian Easter Eggs since 2011, and began teaching fiber arts, including knitting, weaving, hand spinning, and dyeing since 2018. As Grace grows as an artist and continues learning new techniques, she continues to add to her teaching repertoire. She now teaches sewing, both by hand and by machine, as well as some fun topics like needle felting, wool painting, and textile collage.

Jing grew up in China and lived in many parts of the world before settling down in America. She has worked as a video producer, an educational consultant and is now passionate about answering the call of Mother Earth and practicing sustainable living. She is creating short video clips of the various workshops to allow the information to be shared more widely.  A resident of the Living Well Ecovillage in Franklinville NC, Jing is exploring green building technologies, tiny houses and cohousing options and plans to build her own woodworking workshop. She is also a certified Yoga teacher and a long-term meditation practitioner, and looks forward to sharing with more people her knowledge and experiences in living a healthy and joyful life.

Sherri is a believer in permaculture, and has a passion for helping other people learn how to live frugally. Sherri and her husband live on a debt free  homestead that grows animals, vegetables, fruit and nuts naturally. Sherri's background in finance has contributed to their success as well as inspired her to learn skills in all things that make living more sustainable. Sherri has a degree from ECU in Business/Marketing.

Sherri formerly served on the board of the Deep River Folk School.

John is a retired scientist from a career that includes 31 years in biotech, pharmaceuticals, and medical research & development, topped off with ten years as a science teacher in the Randolph and Chatham county school systems. This enables him to bridge the industrial/academic/general public gap. John, with wife Sherri, have been designing, constructing and maintaining a sustainable organic farm for the last eleven years. 

On their thirteen acre farm, they practice sustainability through active and passive solar power, growing and preserving their own food (livestock, poultry, fruit and vegetable gardens) as well as constructing cost effective buildings, equipment and furniture from inexpensive readily available materials all of which are designed, constructed and maintained by the Powells. 

One skill John practices is brewing wines from the organically grown fruits produced on our farm. John’s brewing methods follow aseptic techniques mastered during his science career and tailored to the home environment. John also brews beer using hops grown on their farm and other locally obtained organic grains and ingredients.

John formerly served on the board of the Deep River Folk School.

Fuz is an endangered species biologist, Earthskills teacher, musician and storyteller. Since 1989 he has followed his calling as a wilderness instructor, naturalist, and research biologist for organizations such as 4H, National Wildlife Federation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, US Forest Service, US Park Service, and the Green River Preserve. Fuz coordinated the Earthskills Rendezvous for 8 years, and has now founded the Piedmont Earthskills Gathering in central North Carolina. Go ahead, ask him about birds.

Auburn Staples is an NC native who attended NC State for Geology. Although he currently resides in Raleigh, he has spent many years traveling the country fishing, using a variety of techniques to catch a wide range of exciting species. He has now turned his attention to educating others on this rewarding pastime, in the hope it will provide them the same joy and fulfillment that can be passed on to future generations

Dan Sundberg graduated from University of Delaware with a BS in plant science and a master’s in landscape architecture before moving to North Carolina. He is a landscape architect with more than 35 years of professional experience. However, Dan’s real passion has always been working with wood, stone, cement, plants and glass as it has been since early in life. It was and is the desire to go further in scale and complexity with these materials which led to pursuing a degree and license in landscape architecture. 

Dan has worked for several engineering firms in his career, but he has recently re-started his own business, United Biospheres, back up full time. This allows him time to work on their family farm in Silk Hope NC between projects. Dan has a goal of living in a place of spectacular beauty created with massive boulders and a waterfall as well as useful, but ornamental, stone and wood structures before he is through building on their farm.

Dan is extremely community driven. He has served on several boards and committees including the Chatham County EDC, Chatham County Cooperative Extension Horticultural Advisory Board, Sanford/ Lee County Historic Preservation and Appearance Commission, Lee County Zoning Advisory Committee, Chatham County UDO Committee, Chatham County Schools Career and Technical Training Steering Committee, Triangle South Workforce Development Board, Siler City STEP Leadership, Silk Hope Ruritan Secretary and Master Gardener Volunteer.   

He currently serves as the Chairman for the Chatham County Appearance Commission and also Chairs the Chatham County Historical Association.

Raised on a corn farm in Central Illinois, Steve had a twenty-year career as a Marriage and Family Therapist in Minneapolis. In 1995 his family followed a wild back-to-the-land dream and moved to an abandoned tobacco farm in Randolph County, NC. They started a goat cheese dairy farm called GOAT LADY DAIRY. Their business produced national award-winning cheeses and expanded to welcome thousands of urban visitors to experience the farm and local food.

Steve's interest in and love of storytelling developed as he regaled his guests with stories of farm life and their quest for sustainability. Steve and Lee retired and sold Goat Lady Dairy to two of their employees in 2017. He is now President-Elect of the NC Storytelling Guild and Adjunct Faculty teaching Farm Business Management at Central Carolina Community College. In addition, he is actively involved with Afghan Refugee resettlement in Greensboro.

Robert “Bobby” Tucker is a water resources engineer with over 15 years of experience in private consulting. He has worked on a vast range of water-related projects throughout the U.S. and beyond, with a focus on low-impact development, green infrastructure stormwater management, onsite wastewater reuse, and the integration of sustainable agriculture systems as a holistic approach to watershed challenges. Throughout his entire engineering career, he has built and run Okfuskee Farm (see below). He started Bodhi Land and Design in 2016 to better assimilate his two professions (engineer/farmer) while providing local clients a unique expertise in broad-acre permaculture, a professional understanding of functional land design, infrastructure development, and regulatory compliance. He also uses Bodhi to pursue innovative land development projects that integrate agroecology and ecological management as a site's predominant function.

Okfuskee Farm's philosophy is a "systems" approach to farming that demonstrates broad-acre permaculture practices relevant to Piedmont, NC. Starting mostly as market gardeners and pastured hog producers, the family have evolved to focus on the ranching of Katahdin sheep, agroforestry, and land stewardwardship of approximately 200 acres throughout northwest Chatham County. The family's 20-acre home farm includes various ages and types of agroforestry systems comprising 4,000+ trees and shrubs planted over the past 14 years. Okfuskee Farm operates a commercial sheep flock that has been selectively bred for low-input management and integration with various agroforestry systems. The Tuckers don't fit into a box and neither does their farm, but overall they run a unique operation that strives to balance ecosystem function, food production, and family quality of life.

Linwood Watson is a husband, father, orchardist, physician, and powwow singer/dancer. Born and raised in eastern North Carolina, he is an enrolled member of the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe. He is married to his wife Turi, and has 2 school age children- Aspen, a girls fancy shawl dancer, and Skye, a girls jingle dress dancer. His family has lived in Fuquay-Varina since 2008, and when he is not in the urgent care clinic he is out in the AspenSkye Orchard (established 2013), a small family orchard specializing in native trees and fruits "beyond the UPC code" that defy economies of scale and shipping and opt instead for local sustainability, taste, and true nutrition.
‍

Linwood has traveled to many tribes via the NC Native Ethnobotany Project (www.ncnativeethnobotany.org) and has extensively worked with Project NATIFS (Native American Traditional and Indigenous Food Systems), which is the brainchild of James Beard award winning chef Sean Sherman near Minneapolis. He is an original member of the NC American Indian Health Board. He is a long time member of NAFEX (North American Fruit Explorers) and The Livestock Conservancy. In his down time he is reading and is a huge fan of Nicholas Carr, Kent Nerburn, and Sherry Turkle, and if he is not reading he is likely listening to Yellowhammer Singers- the Pavarotti of the powwow circuit. He appreciates all the people, plant, animal, soil, sky, and water relationships he has witnessed.

Ed Witkin has been designing and installing solar electric systems for both on and off grid applications since 1987. Throughout this time he has been involved with renewable energy education workshops, teaching engagements, and creating solar displays at fairs and festivals. During the 1990s, Ed and his family lived in an off-grid solar powered post and beam house in Connecticut that Ed built using a solar electric generator to run all the power tools during the construction.

In 2003, Ed and his family moved to North Carolina and started Carrboro Solar Works, LLC, designing and installing solar electric systems. From 2008 to 2011 he worked with Solar Tech South, LLC (Now Strata Solar, LLC) of Chapel Hill, which was a start-up company in need of someone with a background in solar energy.

In 2011, Ed took a position as the Sustainability Coordinator at Durham Technical Community College, where he taught for three years. During that time he and one of his students, Steven Thomsen, collaborated to start the non-profit organization called United Solar Initiative. Ed continues to serve on the board of USI which partners with other organizations and local solar providers to bring solar power to underserved communities domestically and abroad.

Ed lives in Chapel Hill, NC with his wife, Ellen. His two beautiful daughters and three grandchildren also live nearby in Chapel Hill.