Our Team |
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Didi PershouseFounder and Lead Educator for LALI; Coordinator, Researcher and Writer for Seed Media Project |
Didi Pershouse is well known as an innovative international educator both in-person and online. She is the founder of the Land and Leadership Initiative. Her facilitator's guide Understanding Soil Health and Watershed Function, is used in over 60 countries.
She became deeply involved in the intersection of food systems and health systems while providing rural health care for two decades at The Center for Sustainable Medicine, and wrote The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities.
Currently she is writing a field training manual for the UN-FAO Farmer Field School Program and the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming Initiative in India, involving over 800,000 smallholder farmers. She was a contributing author to The Climate Emergency: How Africa Can Survive and Thrive; Climate Change and Creation Care; and Health in the Anthropocene. She was one of five speakers at the United Nations-FAO World Soil Day in 2017.
She serves on the Planning Commission for her town, is a board supervisor for the White River Natural Resources Conservation District, and is on the board of directors of the Soil Carbon Coalition and the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition. While serving on the state appointed Payment for Ecosystem Services and Soil Health Working Group, she helped to reorient the program back to its public roots. She led a successful effort to conserve the Zebedee Headwaters Wetland while serving as a Vermont Conservation Commissioner.
She became deeply involved in the intersection of food systems and health systems while providing rural health care for two decades at The Center for Sustainable Medicine, and wrote The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities.
Currently she is writing a field training manual for the UN-FAO Farmer Field School Program and the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming Initiative in India, involving over 800,000 smallholder farmers. She was a contributing author to The Climate Emergency: How Africa Can Survive and Thrive; Climate Change and Creation Care; and Health in the Anthropocene. She was one of five speakers at the United Nations-FAO World Soil Day in 2017.
She serves on the Planning Commission for her town, is a board supervisor for the White River Natural Resources Conservation District, and is on the board of directors of the Soil Carbon Coalition and the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition. While serving on the state appointed Payment for Ecosystem Services and Soil Health Working Group, she helped to reorient the program back to its public roots. She led a successful effort to conserve the Zebedee Headwaters Wetland while serving as a Vermont Conservation Commissioner.
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Walter JehneScientific Advisor, Educator, and Writer for Seed Media Project |
Walter Jehne is an internationally known Australian soil microbiologist and climate scientist. After many years as a researcher, he is now a sought after speaker and consultant for land restoration projects, policy work, and investment projects. He is well-known for his strategic vision that we can safely cool regions, and potentially even the global climate, by repairing our disrupted hydrological cycles. His work centers around practical strategies including restoring the structure and function of “the soil sponge” in order to reverse desertification, increase nutritional integrity of crops, and provide resilience to drought, flooding, heat waves, and wildfires.
Jehne was a pioneer researcher on soil carbon, glomalin, mycorrhizal fungi and plant root zone ecology. As a research scientist at CSIRO (Australia’s scientific research organization), Jehne investigated the potential of mycorrhizal fungi to recolonize toxic, degraded soils and rebuild productive biosystems. Later he worked with the Australian national government to foster strategic innovation by changing the paradigm of land management.
Jehne was a pioneer researcher on soil carbon, glomalin, mycorrhizal fungi and plant root zone ecology. As a research scientist at CSIRO (Australia’s scientific research organization), Jehne investigated the potential of mycorrhizal fungi to recolonize toxic, degraded soils and rebuild productive biosystems. Later he worked with the Australian national government to foster strategic innovation by changing the paradigm of land management.
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Thorsten ArnoldScientific Advisor, Writer and Researcher for Seed Media Project |
Thorsten has dedicated his work life to promoting climate resilience in its various facets. With his wife Kristine Hammel, he co-owns Persephone Market Garden, an ecological vegetable farm that produces healthy, fair and simply good food. They are slowly building this into a community hub, having integrated a summer farm camp, farming workshops, and now a private farm & forest school that offers holistic education in sustainable living. He offers workshops on planning for Climate Resilience on farms, and as a speaker who raises awareness on the soil sponge and the biosphere’s ability to self regulate the climate.
Thorsten has a PhD in watershed sciences and agricultural economics from the University of Hohenheim, Germany; a Master’s degree in Marine Environmental Science from the Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Sea at the University of Oldenburg, Germany; and an undergraduate degree in environmental and process engineering (BTU Cottbus). His academic training uniquely bridges various aspects of climate dynamics: global greenhouse gas forcing, oceans, and the role of regional land use and agriculture.
Thorsten has a PhD in watershed sciences and agricultural economics from the University of Hohenheim, Germany; a Master’s degree in Marine Environmental Science from the Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Sea at the University of Oldenburg, Germany; and an undergraduate degree in environmental and process engineering (BTU Cottbus). His academic training uniquely bridges various aspects of climate dynamics: global greenhouse gas forcing, oceans, and the role of regional land use and agriculture.
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John NormanScientific Advisor, Seed Media Project
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John M. Norman, currently an Emeritus Professor at UW-Madison, was Professor of Soil Science and also Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1988 to 2009. Following his Ph.D. in 1971 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a fellowship in botany at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, he was an Associate Professor of Meteorology at the Pennsylvania State University until 1978 and Professor of Agronomy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln until 1988.
He conducted biophysical research involving studies of the interaction between plants and their environment including instrument design, measurements of soil, plant, and atmospheric characteristics and integrative modeling of the soil-plant-atmosphere system.
He conducted biophysical research involving studies of the interaction between plants and their environment including instrument design, measurements of soil, plant, and atmospheric characteristics and integrative modeling of the soil-plant-atmosphere system.
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Gillian JuliusInstructor, Strategist, Curriculum Designer |
Gillian Julius is a soil health educator and consultant focused on connecting those who grow things in the soil with the vital insights and knowledge emerging at the forefront of regenerative agriculture.
She has contributed to several regenerative agriculture educational initiatives through Kiss the Ground, Land and Leadership Initiative, and the One Planet Education Network, a sustainable agriculture program for primary and secondary schools in several countries in Africa, Australia, Haiti, and the US.
She has contributed to several regenerative agriculture educational initiatives through Kiss the Ground, Land and Leadership Initiative, and the One Planet Education Network, a sustainable agriculture program for primary and secondary schools in several countries in Africa, Australia, Haiti, and the US.
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Precious PhiriInstructor, Advisor |
Precious Phiri is a member of the Regeneration International steering committee and also serves as Regeneration International's Africa Coordinator. She is a training and development specialist in regenerative approaches to environmental issues and community organizing.
She is the founder of EarthWisdom, an organization and network which she formed following her nine-year full time career as Coordinator of Training with the Africa Center for Holistic Management--the Savory hub in Zimbabwe.
She is the founder of EarthWisdom, an organization and network which she formed following her nine-year full time career as Coordinator of Training with the Africa Center for Holistic Management--the Savory hub in Zimbabwe.
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Lauren WestonResearcher & Writer, Seed Media Project |
Lauren Weston serves various roles in the fields of agriculture, food systems, and community building. She is currently the Peoples Farm and Gleaning Program Assistant and the Program Logistics Coordinator for a free meal program at the Intervale Center in Burlington, Vermont - a non-profit organization connecting people, land, and farms to strengthen community food systems. Additionally, she serves as a regenerative gardening and community building consultant for Grow More, Waste Less, a business that works with schools and organizations on gardening, composting, and community projects.
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Taylor KatzCommunications Coordinator, Land and Leadership Iniative |
An herb farmer and poet, Taylor offers diversified copywriting and marketing services to a diverse array of individuals and businesses, with a goal of working on projects that seek to build a better planet. With her partner, she runs Free Verse Farm & Apothecary and the Free Verse Farm Shop in Chelsea, VT.
Since 2016, Taylor has worked with Didi Pershouse to support Didi's work as an author, activist, and educator, while also growing her network and community of engaged learners and thinkers. Together, they have launched dozens of successful courses and conferences, built and managed websites, launched an online school, a Patreon membership program, and more.
Since 2016, Taylor has worked with Didi Pershouse to support Didi's work as an author, activist, and educator, while also growing her network and community of engaged learners and thinkers. Together, they have launched dozens of successful courses and conferences, built and managed websites, launched an online school, a Patreon membership program, and more.