For all of you interested in Estes Earth Fest speakers, their brief biographies appear below. We hope that our presenters will inspire hope and action in the community.
Keynote Speakers, Panelists and Workshop Facilitators
CAROLYN BAKER Speaking Truth to Power
Carolyn Baker, Ph.D., manages her website, Speaking Truth to Power at www.carolynbaker.net. which offers daily alternative news and options for navigating unprecedented changes. She is the author of Sacred Demise: Walking the Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization’s Collapse, U.S. History Uncensored, Coming Out of Fundamentalist Christianity, and The Journey of Forgiveness, as well as numerous articles on issues of environmental and social justice, consciousness, emotional and spiritual well being. She is a contributor to Transition Colorado’s “Transition Times”, and she lives and works in Boulder.
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DAN BARTMANN Forcefield
Dan Bartmann is the founder of do-it-yourself renewable energy website www.OtherPower.com, which he started in 1999 to educate the public about solar, wind, and hydroelectric power. He is co-author of the book “Homebrew Wind Power,” and is a contributing author for both Home Power and Back Home magazines. His wind turbine designs have received acclaim from wind industry experts, and he focuses on wind power systems that can be locally manufactured and installed in remote, undeveloped parts of the world. He gives frequent educational lectures, seminars, and hands-on workshops around the US and world. Dan grew up off the grid, and now lives high in the mountains West of Fort Collins, 11 miles from the nearest power line.
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JOHN BEAUPRE Standard Renewable Energy Energy Efficiency Consultant
John is a native of the Chicagoland area. After High School he moved west to the Rocky Mountains for college. Shortly after graduating from the University of Montana he moved to Colorado.
John has over 20 years experience in Sales and Customer service. This included 15 years in Real Estate, 6 years with New Home Builders and 9 years in residential sales.
In 2008 John took his passion for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and went to work for Standard Renewable Energy. He has been working as an Energy Efficiency Consultant helping his clients lower their energy use ever since.
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MICHAEL BROWNLEE Transition Colorado
Co-founder of Transition Colorado, Michael Brownlee is a catalyst for relocalization—developing community resilience and self-reliance in the face of global crises—and ardent advocate of the international Transition Movement. A certified trainer and Director for Transition U.S., he spearheads a statewide campaign to regenerate community and strengthen local economies.
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SANDY CRUZ High Altitude Permaculture
Sandy Cruz has been working towards greater sustainability at 9,200 feet for more than 35 years, experimenting with plants and refining strategies for living in extremely harsh conditions. She holds a Diploma of Permaculture Design from the International Permaculture Institute and founded High Altitude Permaculture in 1992. Widely published and interviewed, Sandy currently teaches Permaculture, consults on site planning and design, and trains new Permaculture teachers. She also serves on Boulder County’s Food and Agriculture Policy Council and is a certified leader of the Dances of Universal Peace. Sandy is an avid hiker and has a song for just about any occasion. She can be reached at HiAltPC.org.
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ASHARA EKUNDAYO BluBlak Media, Blue & Yellow Logic, The Growhaus
Ashara Ekundayo is a visionary, a cultural activist, and an entrepreneur. As the owner of BluBlak Media Consulting and the Founder of the Pan African Arts Society, she created venues such as; the Denver Pan African Film Festival, the “Café Nuba” spoken-word & music showcase, and most recently, the “Soul’d Roots: Food & Media Justice Institute.” She is an international lecturer and media personality who can be seen hosting “The Activist Studio” on Freespeech TV and on-air at KGNU.org community radio. Her multi-media work challenges the traditional progressive movement to address power, privilege and equity through environmental justice issues such as food security. Ashara also serves as a Fellow with Green For All, is the Outreach Architect at Blue and Yellow Logic, and is the Urban Development & Sustainability Director at The GrowHaus – an aquaponic greenhouse & market in Denver’s Elyria-Swansea neighborhood committed to creating green jobs, edible classrooms, and healthy living programs through a culturally astute lens.
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EMILY A. EVANS Natural Capitalism Solutions
Emily is a project manager for Natural Capitalism Solutions. She is co-authoring a book with Hunter Lovins, sponsored by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, on the future of industry in Asia and the world. She is also a project manager and key member in developing reports and calculator tools examining the business case for energy efficiency and alternative energy projects throughout the United States. Aside from developing deliverables for NCS’s government and business clients, Emily is responsible for researching the latest trends in international sustainability issues, including but not limited to: industrial energy use, green building, upcoming and current legislation, government efficiency improvements, and industrial and sustainable agriculture.
Prior to joining Natural Capitalism Solutions, Emily worked with Brown and Caldwell as a consulting environmental engineer. She created and led the internal sustainability office program and was a key player in developing and marketing the external environmental sustainability and performance service line, focusing on industrial energy efficiency, green building, and optimized design and operation. During this time Emily became a LEED Accredited Professional (AP). At Brown and Caldwell, she was the assistant coordinator for two non-profit watershed groups and helped oversee and manage water quality studies. Before working with Brown and Caldwell, Emily worked as an engineering consultant with Cameron-Cole, specializing in the remediation of hydrocarbon plumes and industrial wastewater treatment design. In addition, she assisted with the development of the corporate social responsibility group that consulted to several leading international manufacturing companies. Emily completed her B.S in environmental engineering from the University of Colorado (CU) at Boulder in 2002, and after traveling Southeast Asia and the South Pacific with her husband went on to complete her M.S. in environmental engineering at CU-Boulder in 2005. She lives in Boulder with her husband, cat, and chickens.
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DAN FINK Forcefield
Dan Fink is a renewable energy journalist and consultant based high in the mountains West of Fort Collins. He has lived completely off the grid since 1991, and spent eight years in the field designing and installing renewable energy systems. He joined the www.OtherPower.com staff in 2000 as Technical Director, and is co-author of the book “Homebrew Wind Power.” His articles and photographs have appeared in such magazines as Home Power, Back Home, Lighting Today, The Energy Self-Sufficiency Newsletter, Zymurgy, Full-Size Jeep, and Fly Rod and Reel. Dan is also an on-call “Ask the Experts” columnist for Home Power Magazine, and a renewable energy blogger for www.sunpluggers.com.
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LYNETTE MARIE HANTHORN Transition Colorado
For more than 20 years, Lynette Marie Hanthorn was the executive director of a non-profit criminal justice and mediation organization. This evolved into consulting for USIA grant-funded mediation projects with emphasis on Restorative Justice and later for partnering with an online communications and publishing company.
Currently, Lynette Marie Hanthorn is co-founder and Executive Director of Transition Boulder County (www.transitionbouldercounty.org), a non-profit organization that embraces the ethics and principles of the global Transition Movement to localize and regenerate community. Lynette Marie is certified in Permaculture Design, Holacracy, and a Transition Trainer.
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TRATHEN HECKMAN Daily Acts
Trathen Heckman is the executive director of Daily Acts Organization, a board member of Transition US and a backyard farmer. Trathen works with community, business and municipal leaders to create programs, policy and models which harness the power of nature and inspired action to restore the health of our lives and communities. He installed the first permitted single-household greywater system in Sonoma County and serves on the Greywater Working Group, Food System Alliance and Healthy Food Initiative for Sonoma County. Trathen gives oodles of presentations on Sustainability, Permaculture and the power of inspired daily actions to renew the world. He lives in the Petaluma River Watershed where he grows food, medicine and wonder while working to compost apathy and lack.
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PETER MACGILL & CATHEE COURTER Weness
Peter MacGill, MS, was a geologist for the state of Florida for seven years. He has been a general contractor for twenty-eight years, and primarily renovates homes, businesses and non-profits in the Estes/Boulder area. He was responsible for building a retreat center in New Mexico using natural building techniques, and while there served on the county Water Advisory Board, which created water use plans for one of the largest counties in the U.S.
Cathee Courter’s graduate studies were in comparative theology. She was an administrator at The Center for International and Comparative Studies at the University of Iowa for six years, concurrent with a psychic counseling practice. Since moving to the Estes area in 1996, she has extensively channeled our nature spirits, co-creating with them and with Peter MacGill a theology of human/nature relations at this exciting time in our co-evolution.
Peter and Cathee together facilitate deeper relationships between clients and their buildings/land. Their work goes “beyond green” to create buildings that support the spiritual well-being of the inhabitants in concert with the land. They also channel nature for groups, and lead workshops across the country. Their website, www.weness.org, contains extensive background information on their space clearings (including ghost release), conscious building, and electromagnetic field (EMF) mitigation consultations.
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MICHAEL TAVEL AIA
Michael Tavel Architects, of Denver, specializes in sustainable, urban mixed-use architecture and town planning. They completed Solar Village in Longmont in 2006 and their Geos Net-Zero Energy Neighborhood, designed in collaboration with David Kahn Studios, has won many awards including a national Honor Award from American Society of Landscape Architects. Geos is projected to be America’s largest net-zero energy neighborhood. Michael has lectured and taught internationally, but is devoted to promoting sustainable urban land use in Colorado and the Mountain West. Further; Michael is a life-long summer resident of the Estes area and is the fourth generation of his family to climb Longs Peak. He is excited to bring his broad experience to bear on the issues of a community he knows well and cares deeply about.
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PONDEROSA HIGH SCHOOL PEACEJAM CLUB Parker, CO
PeaceJam is an international educational program that provides the youth of the world with the opportunity to work with and be inspired by Nobel Peace Laureates. Ponderosa High School’s PeaceJam Club was formed in the fall of 2006 and they have been very active creating change in their community. A simple, student-designed recycling project that reduced waste by 70% and an energy management program that reduced energy consumption by nearly 24% gained this group national recognition. They also worked with Waste Management and Sony Corporation to plan and implement an electronics recycling event that collected 147,000 pounds of unwanted household electronics – and the toxic heavy metals they contain – and kept them out of landfills.
They were recently awarded the first National PeaceJam Global Call to Action Award for the service projects they have accomplished. Sponsored by the Pearson Foundation, the Global Call to Action challenge extended PeaceJam’s international mission of encouraging young people to create and implement one billion local service projects over the next ten years. Part of this award was a visit to Ponderosa High School by 1992 Nobel Peace Laureate, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, on November 17, 2009. The PeaceJam group was also honored at the annual PeaceJam Hero Awards Luncheon in Denver on November 18, 2009.
In the spring of 2009 Ponderosa’s PeaceJammers received the Global Explorers Citizens of the World Youth Service Award and were recognized alongside the world-renowned Dr. Jane Goodall for their commitment to protecting our environment. They are also one of only two high schools in the State of Colorado to be recognized by the Colorado Environmental Leadership Program as a Bronze Achiever.
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EAGLE ROCK SCHOOL & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CENTER Estes Park, CO
Eagle Rock is both a school for high school age students and a professional development center for adults, particularly educators. The school is a year-round, residential, and full-scholarship school that enrolls young people ages 15-17 from around the United States in an innovative learning program with national recognition.
The Professional Development Center hosts educators from around the world who wish to study how to re-engage students in learning, keep them in school, get them graduated, and help them go on to make a difference in the world. http://www.eaglerockschool.org.
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