Andros Howes (He/Him) is OAEC’s Information Technology Manager. Before coming to OAEC, Andros was the farm manager at Foxhole Farms in Sebastopol and also worked for five years before that at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange…
WATER, RCD/Permaculture & Wildlands Program Director
Brock Dolman (he/him) co-directs the WATER Institute, Permaculture Design Program, and Wildlands Program. He has taught permaculture and consulted on regenerative project design and implementation internationally in Costa Rica, Ecuador, the US Virgin Islands, Spain, Brazil, China, Canada, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cuba, and widely in the United States.
Cameron (they/them) currently serves as the Operations Director of OAEC, designing and implementing processes that nurture inter-relationship and build a stronger mycelial network within the ego-system of the organization.
Chris was raised in the Santa Cruz Mountains, this rural upbringing fostered a love of nature and of stewarding the land, and a fondness for working with his hands to build and fix things. After some time wandering through the mountains as a Wilderness Ranger for the Forest Service, Chris found his way to OAEC for the Permaculture Design Course before joining the staff collective as part of the Facilities Department.
Claire was born and raised in Sonoma County by two school teachers. She has always valued learning and collaborating with her peers and has a strong passion for helping others and creating more awareness around mental health.
In his current role, Daniel helps support and coordinate various programs, projects, and partnerships in the permaculture department. He also loves to share his experience with individuals and groups in design, soil microbiology, water conversation, and map making.
Dave Henson (He/Him) has been the Executive Director of OAEC since its founding in 1994, and is a founding member of the Sowing Circle intentional community. At OAEC, Dave’s responsibilities include strategic planning, fundraising, and overall organizational management. Programmatically, he works within sustainable agricultural, environmental and social justice movements…
Doug Gosling (They/Them) is a lifetime gardener, cook, and educator. Before joining OAEC – where they have been for the last 30 years – Doug managed the same gardens at the Farallones Institute and the Center for Seven Generations. They continue to work in the Mother Garden, directing the seed-saving program and tending the perennial borders. They have introduced unusual organic specialty crops in the Bay Area and pioneered the concept of a highly diverse salad mix, which is still a signature crop of the OAEC kitchen. Doug originated the renowned Plant Sales at OAEC over 28 years ago, focusing on the incredible diversity of heirloom crops. They manage the greenhouse and Mother Garden Nursery which promotes perennial food crops, culinary and medicinal herbs, fiber and dye plants, ethnobotanicals, drought tolerants, and California natives.
Grey Hayes is the manager of Occidental Arts & Ecology Center’s WATER Institute’s Beaver Coexistence Program. He has long organized and facilitated groups working together through collaborative natural resource management processes in California. He is especially proud of past work with the Central Coast Rangelands Coalition, focusing on revitalization of human and non-human communities across thousands of acres of coastal and inland grasslands from San Luis Obispo to Marin and inland to the Central Valley.
James Pelican (He/Him) has been with OAEC since 2001, initially as the Facilities Manager and now also serving as the Site Director. James has served as project manager for the major remodels and new construction at OAEC, including the Meeting Hall, Barn (twice), Guest Buildings, Main Kitchen, Spa, and Nursery. He has also served as the director of the Chautauqua Revue since it’s inception in 2003. He has been known to wear a red nose.
Jennifer Lies is a digital marketing and communications professional with a background in nonprofits, book publishing, and an online marketplace for craftspeople in Bolinas, California. She studied Environmental Studies in college and traveled the world learning about sustainable development and global ecology. She is a volunteer whitewater rafting guide with Inspiring Connections Outdoors.
Jim Coleman (He/Him) earned a MS in Biology studying grassland restoration at Sonoma State University in 2005 and since that time has been primarily focused on that work within the OAEC ecological preserve. In addition to Jim’s endeavors at OAEC, he has worked as a field ecologist for the California Native Plant Society in their efforts to help generate a vegetation and habitat map for Sonoma County…
Kate Lundquist (she/her) co-directs the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center’s WATER Institute and the Bring Back the Beaver Campaign. Collaborating with landowners, communities, tribes, conservation organizations, and resource agencies across California, Kate works to implement beaver and process-based restoration to conserve watersheds, recover listed species, increase water security, and build resilience to climate change.
Resilient Communities Design & Permaculture Program Director
Kendall Dunnigan (She/Her) is the Director of the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center’s Permaculture Program and co-teaches the Permaculture Design Certification courses with Brock Dolman. Her ecological design work focuses on facilitating collaborative design processes with priority given to working with economically and environmentally marginalized communities in the US, Latin America, and Haiti…
Prior to OAEC, Lynn spent 20 years with a non-profit social enterprise recycler and Zero Waste advocacy organization called Eureka Recycling in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. She wore a lot of hats over those two decades…. from teaching backyard and worm composting workshops, to directing policy and community engagement, to leading as Co-President.
Miles (he/him) grew up in Sonoma County, and spent much of his childhood exploring and getting to know the plants and animals who inhabit this region. After many years of being immersed in a world of plants, he came to OAEC in 2020 for the Garden Internship Program. Since then, he continued his passion for land stewardship and plant propagation while managing and tending the OAEC nursery and landscaping. In his current role as Garden Manager, he is able to bring together many of his passions and skills and share them with others. He is a lifelong learner and finds plants to be some of the best teachers. When he is not working, you can find him drinking tea, enjoying nature, or transforming plants into various forms of food and medicine.
Nicolas Whitaker is a restoration ecologist, land steward, and landscape designer deeply steeped in the wildlands of the West Coast. Following an upbringing surrounded by the rich biological diversity of Northern California, he pursued a course of study in Restoration Ecology, graduating from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2010. His interest in working at the intersection of human communities and the wild world inspired him to align with organizations committed to connection and regeneration; he has worked in local food system sustainability, led youth groups into deep nature connection, and helped design & implement restoration efforts across thousands of acres of wildlands.
Olivia Rathbone (She/Her) was the lead author and project manager of the award-winning Occidental Arts & Ecology Center Cookbook (Chelsea Green Publishing 2015)…
Reva Navah (She/Her) is a mother, earth steward, teacher, dancer, and community builder. She has worked with a number of organizations on community resiliency, women’s economic empowerment and entrepreneurship, and environmental policy along the US / Mexico Border and in Jordan and Israel. Reva’s broad professional experience also includes nature mentoring and teaching youth…
Samara Seibel has a B.A. in English literature and poetry from Sonoma State University. In 2011, when Samara became an administrative intern in the OAEC office, she formed a strong bond to the place and the community, and since that time she has sought to deepen this relationship. Her work at the Center has been an amazing learning process and still continues to provide new challenges and new opportunities. To her position in the OAEC office, she brings her enthusiasm for keeping track of minutiae, her desire to support colleagues in their work and guests in their visitor experience, and her gift for saying less and listening more.
As the Office Manager, Sophie (she/her) holds a multifaceted role supporting the administrative needs of nearly every program and department at OAEC. She also serves as OAEC’s Event Coordinator and is the Production Manager for the annual Chautauqua Revue. Sophie came to OAEC as a Program Administration Intern in 2022 and now serves as the supervisor for the two annual admin interns.
Timoteo Granzotti is a Senior Designer and Instructor for the Resilient Community Design Program and the Permaculture Design Course at the OAEC. He holds 20 years of experience in California and Mediterranean native ecology. Timo specializes in whole-systems design, agroforestry, TEK (Traditional Ecological Knowledge) and ethnobotany, focusing on the dynamic relationship between humans and nature.
