Nadia Begin  

TECHNOLOGY & SKILLS Nadia Begin, originally from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, received her BS in Architecture from the University of Montreal in 1993. As part of her program of study, she spent a year in Lausanne, Switzerland, at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne.  

Nadia moved to Arizona in 1993 to work with visionary Architect Paolo Soleri at Arcosanti, a prototype Urban Laboratory that explores the idea of Arcology (integrating Architecture + Ecology). For the past 10 years she has worked with Arcosanti alumni: Reynold Radoccia in Clarkdale, AZ at Architecture Works Green; Jeff Zucker of Zucker Architecture; and Tony Brown of ECOSA Institute in Prescott, AZ.  

Nadia has a strong commitment to develop, teach, and improve the concepts in architectural education and Arcology, which concentrates on what architecture can contribute to society.  

Ben Mancini ACTIVE AND PASSIVE SOLAR SYSTEMS Ben Mancini is a Certified Solar Installer and worked as a solar hot water installer from 1980-1981. He built his own off-grid passive solar home between 1983 and 1990 and started his own business, EV Products, doing electric vehicle conversions in 1991. He is currently a licensed contractor for solar hot water and solar electric systems and adjunct faculty at Yavapai College for renewable energy applications in residential construction.  

Cody Lundin

ABORIGINAL LIVING SKILLS Cody Lundin grew up with the outdoors, from the Pacific coastline and the hills of Europe, to the plains of the Rocky Mountains and desert canyons of the Southwest. His passion for freedom led him to a lifestyle of resourcefulness and simplicity through the exploration of self-reliance. He teaches with rare intensity and humor to individuals, schools, colleges, universities and various organizations throughout the United States. Cody holds a B.A. in Depth Psychology and Holistic Health. He founded the Aboriginal Living Skills School, LLC (ALSS, LLC) during the winter of 1991 in Prescott, Arizona.  

Jesse Hernreich

PERMACULTURE Jesse Hernreich graduated from Prescott College with a B.A. degree in Environmental Science emphasizing agricultural ecology. She received a M.S. from the New School NYC in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management. In 2016, Jesse earned a Master Certificate in Water Resource Management and Climate Science from Columbia University in New York. Jesse received multiple Permaculture Design Certificates from around the globe. After receiving her Permaculture Teacher Training Certification from Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute in 2008, she began teaching Permaculture at both Prescott College and The ECOSA Institute in 2009 to current. Jesse founded Oakhaven Permaculture a 501c3 educational facility in Durango CO. Oakhaven Permaculture is a 60 acre working ranch that offers a Permaculture Design Certificate workshop, as well as workshops on Holistic Livestock Management, Herbalism, and Keyline Design. Jesse is a 2007 graduate of the ECOSA RE-Design Certificate program.  

Brad Lancaster  

RAINWATER HARVESTING A two time author of "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond" (Volumes I andII) Brad Lancaster has been teaching permaculture and running his own permaculture design consultation and education business since 1993. He and his brother have created, and live on, a thriving 1/8th of an acre urban permaculture site in downtown Tucson, Arizona. Within his neighborhood and beyond, Brad feeds his passion for community building and activism, resulting in the creation of an organic community garden, mini-nature park, salvaged bicycle cooperative, neighborhood newsletter, annual tree plantings, local food pot lucks, and more. He is author of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands aimed at giving people the tools needed to welcome rainwater into their lives.  

Mark Lakeman  

SUSTAINABLE PUBLIC SPACES Mark Lakeman is a national leader in the development of sustainable public places. In the last decade he has directed or facilitated designs for more than three hundred new community-generated public places in Portland, Oregon alone. He is a co-founder of the City Repair Project in Portland, Oregon and served as the Co-Director of Creative Vision from 1995 to 2008. He is presently active as a project coordinator in the annual Village Building Convergence. Mark is also the founder and principal of Communitecture, Inc, a cutting edge design firm with sustainable building and planning projects at many scales.  

Cynthia Fishman  

BIOMIMICRY Recently awareded the AIA 2019 Young Architects Award, Cynthia Fishman is the founder and Director of the Biomimicry Design Alliance, a research and architecture consulting group consisting of designers and scientists from the Denver area. She received her Bachelor of Architecture from Rice University in Houston, Texas, and was part of the first matriculating class at Arizona State University to earn a Master of Science in Biomimicry, the only accredited program in the world. Cynthia has also earned the title of Biomimicry Specialist (BSpec).  

She was a speaker at the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) Rocky Mountain Green Conference in Denver, CO, at the Rocky Mountain Natural Building Conference in Golden, CO, and as the keynote speaker at the USGBC Arizona State Conference in Tempe, AZ. Cynthia co-founded and is President of, Denver Does Design. She teaches as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado Denver’s Architecture and Planning School. She was the recipient of the AIA Colorado Leadership Award in 2015 and was a winner of the Engineering News Record (ENR) Mountain States Top Young Professionals competition in 2018.  

Cynthia is a 2007 graduate of the ECOSA RE-Design Certificate program.  

Mark Riegner

FORM AND PATTERN IN NATURE Mark Riegner, PhD has been teaching courses including Animal Behavior, Coastal Ecology (in Kino Bay, Mexico), Evolutionary Biology, Form and Pattern in Nature and Tropical Biology (in Costa Rica). His research interests embrace phenomenological approaches to understanding plant and animal morphology, a theme on which he has numerous publications. Mark relishes the opportunity to offer students sound academic courses with a strong field component, through which they may discover first-hand the wonder of the natural world as well as aspects of themselves. “Nature provides limitless possibilities for learning about both the world and ourselves. In fact, they go hand in hand, as expressed in Goethe’s words: ‘Each phenomenon in nature, rightly contemplated, awakens in us a new faculty for inner understanding.’ By approaching nature with an open-minded attitude, and by learning to recognize and formulate our own individual questions, we can begin to develop the necessary tools to guide us through life.”  

Micheal Ben-Eli  

PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY Michael Ben-Eli is founder of the Sustainability Laboratory, established in order to develop and demonstrate groundbreaking approaches to sustainability practices, expanding prospects and producing positive, life-affirming impacts on people and ecosystems in all parts of the world. Prior to launching The Lab, Michael pioneered applications of Systems Thinking and Cybernetics in management and organization. Over the years he worked on synthesizing strategy issues in many parts of the world and in diverse institutional settings, ranging from small high technology firms to multinational enterprises, manufacturing companies, financial institutions, health care and educational organizations, government agencies, NGOs, and international multilateral organizations including the World Bank, the United Nations Environment Program, the Global Environment Facility, and others. 

Vernon Masayesva  

HOPI SCIENCE Vernon Masayesva is the Executive Director of Black Mesa Trust, a Hopi Leader of the Coyote Clan, and a former Chairman of the Hopi Tribal Council from the village of Hotevilla, AZ, one of the oldest continuously inhabited human settlements in the Americas. He received his B.A. degree from Arizona State University in Political Science and a Masters of Arts from Central Michigan University in 1970. He returned to Black Mesa of the Hotevilla Bacavi Community School, the first Indian-controlled school on Hopi, as the lead educator of the school systems. In 1984, he was elected to the Hopi Tribal Council and then served as Chairman from 1989. In 1998, he founded the Black Mesa Trust and currently serves as its Executive Director. Vernon is an international speaker on the subject of water, is honored among many scientists, physicists, and water researchers, and was named an “Environmental Hero” by former President William Clinton for his commitment to water preservation. Among other things, Vernon is beginning a serious study of Hopi symbols and metaphors to understand who he is and what he can do to help his people lay a vision of a future Hopi society. 

Anthony Floyd  

GREEN BUILDING STANDARDS Anthony Floyd has worked for the City of Scottsdale since 1985 as a building codes specialist and later as a city Building Official. He left the city in 1995 to participate in a one-year international study program which focused on the issues of sustainability, development, and global ecology. Since his return in 1996 he has worked to promote environmentally sound building practices. Anthony currently serves as Scottsdale’s Sustainable Building Manager and is in charge of the newly established Green Building Program which promulgates environmentally responsible and energy efficient building practices for city facilities, home construction and commercial development. Anthony is past chairman of the MAG (Maricopa Association of Governments) Building Codes Committee and past President of the Arizona Chapter of the International Conference of Building Officials. He currently serves on the Board of Governors of the World Organization of Building Officials, The ECOSA Institute, and as a member of the Arizona Solar Energy Advisory Council. Anthony is an Arizona registered architect and a certified building official. He has a civil engineering and architecture degree from Penn State University (1978) and a Master’s Degree in public administration (1994) from Arizona State University.

Walt Anderson  

ECOLOGY Walt Anderson is a naturalist, artist, photographer, and expedition guide. He recently retired as Professor of Environmental Studies at Prescott College, a position he had held since 1991. Walt will promote ECOSA’s brand of experiential education through fostering “informed imagination.” He has taught Natural History & Ecology of the Southwest, Interpreting Nature through Art & Photography, Wildlife Management, Wetland Ecology & Management, Animal Behavior, and holds a wealth of information about Prescott-area ecologies. Formerly a refuge biologist, Walt pioneered a program of access and interpretation in the Sutter Buttes of California, the subject of two books. He has also led nature-based and photography expeditions around the world, including recent trips to Tanzania and Amazonia. Walt’s writings, presentations, artwork, and photographs are all ways of sharing his passion for and knowledge of the natural world.  

Roger Asay 

ART IN NATURE Roger Asay, along with his wife, Rebecca Davis, has exhibited sculptures throughout the US. The couple currently lives in Prescott, AZ. They have been collaborating since 1983 to produce sculpture which presents the raw materials of nature as the subject as well as the substance of their installation art. The resulting body of work has been shown in museums throughout the Southwest. Asay and Davis have created permanent site-specific outdoor sculptures for the cities of Prescott, Tucson, Cottonwood, and Phoenix in Arizona, as well as many temporary on-site installations. Their work is part of a number of public and private collections. Asay’s current work, consisting primarily of jumbles of sticks formed into polished spheres, is carried by Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale, and Van Gogh’s Ear, Prescott. Through most of his career, Asay has been a part-time educator at universities and colleges. In the last decade has also created animal sculptures of stuccoed concrete in collaboration with Arizona school children.