The Land & Leadership Initiative is a deeply participatory, community-driven school founded by author and educator Didi Pershouse.​

We provide strategic support and educational opportunities for current and emerging leaders, helping them to see and act on the potential to address society's major challenges—food, water, climate, conflict, health—by collaborating with nature and each other.

Our courses, workshops, webinars, and materials are designed to give you the tools to facilitate, lead, and support soil-health and living-climate initiatives in your own region. You will come away with an understanding of whole-systems landscape function, communication and consensus building strategies, and a well-founded hope for the future.
See my writing and podcasts on Substack at The Wisdom Underground. I upload a new interview every week or two.
The workshop that Didi facilitated this weekend with Walter Jehne was stellar. I count it as one of the best educational experiences of my life.  The intimacy and community-building of the three days at Lake Morey Inn was a significant part of the experience."   — Dave Chapman, Longwind Farm, Vermont, and Founder of The Real Organic Project

Click here to read what others are saying about Didi's courses

Our aim is to grow and support collaborative, multi-partisan leadership in the soil health movement, worldwide.

Human and environmental health begins with the soil and grows upward from there. ​ People involved in our school work to create healthier, more resilient, and more empowered communities by focusing on the regeneration of healthy soil and the "Soil Carbon Sponge" which is the infrastructure that makes life on land possible. 

​A healthy soil sponge soaks up rain, filters water, and maintains its structural integrity even when wet, thereby preventing flooding, drought, wildfires, erosion, mudslides, and algae blooms. 

 Our recent activities have included:
• An 18-event speaking and listening tour across North America.
• Multi-week video-conference discussion courses for over 200 current and emerging community leaders from around the world: Regenerating the Soil Carbon Sponge for Flood, Drought and Wildfire Resilience.
• Discussion courses on Writing for Regeneration, and Consensus-based Holistic Policy Writing and Analysis.
• A webinar series related to the science of soil health and cooling, success stories of bipartisan policy, and large-scale implementation of soil health principles.
• A 6-day conference, and a five-day strategic gathering focusing on the Soil Carbon Sponge as a leverage point for social, economic, and environmental success. 
Our courses and webinars are geared towards people who want to organize or lead soil health initiatives in their own regions. You do not have to have a  background in science, or agriculture, or even gardening in order to begin this important work.

At the Land and Leadership Initiative, we focus heavily on methods for communicating more effectively about soil's central role in preventing extreme weather events and promoting public health and thriving economies. It is our belief that being able to clearly explain soil health principles is the first step in establishing better soil health practices. If people do not understand what is wrong with a system, then they cannot see a reason to fix it.

​We also focus on methods of building strong working relationships  between people from different backgrounds and often with differing political or cultural views. Our aims are common aims: to revitalize communities, both above and below ground.

We welcome people from all backgrounds in our courses, and often have an international group of farmers, ranchers, policy makers, teachers, college students, scientists, engineers, and others who see the great potential of putting soil health at the center.
If you want to learn how to make your farm more resilient to droughts and floods, then here is your chance!
​Didi is fantastic at explaining how to fix our broken water cycle.
— Gail Fuller, Farmer
Our fiscal sponsor is the Ompompanoosuc Community Trust.  We are grateful for the generous support we have received for our projects and our scholarship fund from:
Copyright 2025, Land and Leadership Initiative