Most of my adult adventures and pursuits have been permaculture-related. I grew up with a globetrotting father focused on humanitarian work, and a warm-hearted mother who raised me in a garden and tended all the children in our community. Permaculture unites the two of them, for me. I’ve been involved in a range of projects in Indonesia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Ghana, and Georgia (US), San Francisco (US), and Seattle (US). My major focus has been ecological aquaponics as the focus of a permaculture system, particularly where soil growing is difficult. I’ve taken a PDC from Starhawk, aquaponics courses from Max Meyers, Friendly Aquaponics, and Bioponica, and spent a year and a half with Gaia University. My biggest project to date has been cofounding and building the first aquaponics farm in West Africa – Five Gecko Farms, under SOLVE Ghana Ltd, in Accra, Ghana.

When I was in the eighth grade, tropical permaculturist Jenny Pell gave a talk to my class on natural patterns and her work in Central America. It was unlike anything I’d ever heard. I went up to her at the end of the class and said, “Now I know what I want to do with my life.” Years later, I rediscovered permaculture, and after a few years of global travel, work, and study, things came full circle and I got to intern for Jenny in a three-season urban PDC in Seattle.

I am deeply passionate about the philosophical implications of designing and culturing ecosystems. Every aspect of life, every organism, every emotion, every person, every energy – it all has a place in the comprehensive systems of life. I want to design and grow systems where everything has its place and function, and it all thrives together. There’s no such thing as wrongness – it’s just a sign of misplaced relative location.

Of particular relevance to me now is all the ways permaculture informs parenting. (My firstborn is expected at the end of July 2013.) I’ve just moved to a small agricultural town, and I plan to get involved in the social community, galvanize desire to host a PDC here, grow my own small permaculture paradise (and keep bees!), and learn and share every skill I can for creating thriving, sustainable, healthy children, families, and societies.