Living Routes faculty are skilled and highly-experienced educators and group leaders with Master's or Ph.D level qualifications. With broad inter-disciplinary academic expertise, our faculty possess a strong sense of integrity and commitment to sustainability, community development, and experiential education. Faculty live and travel with students to facilitate a positive community-building and mentoring process and to ensure the safety, health, and well-being of all participants.

India - Sustainability in Practice at Auroville

Karl Steyaert

M.S. Environmental Policy & Behavior, University of Michigan
M.A., Anthropology, University of Michigan
B.A., Anthropology, Dartmouth College

Karl is passionate about transformational learning and sustainable community building, teaching on a range themes relating to sustainability, conflict resolution, and conscious evolution. He has taught courses in Global Environmental Policy and Anthropology at the University of Michigan, where he led an EPA study of urban agriculture and sustainable development in inner city Detroit. From 2003 until 2005, Karl lived and taught at the Findhorn Community in Scotland, serving as Program Coordinator for the Living Routes Scotland semester program. Actively involved in a number of local and global sustainability education and community projects, his research focuses on education for the evolution of consciousness, and design principles for sustainable communities.

Jake Pollack

MA in Integrative Health, CIIS
PhD Candidate in Education for Sustainability, Prescott College

Jake currently resides near Pondicherry with his family and teaches for the LR program in Auroville. A long-time practitioner and student of South Asian contemplative and healing traditions including: yoga, Ayurveda, and Siddha medicine, he is currently researching the link between these systems and ecological wisdom. His dissertation is focused on the way transformative education experience can assist the transition to more sustainable lifestyles.

Abigail Lynam

M.S., Environmental Studies, Antioch New England
B.S., Human Ecology, Western Washington University

Abigail has devoted a good portion of the last ten years to teaching with Lesley University's Audubon Expedition Institute and Living Routes' semester in India. She has also taught leadership development at Portland State University and field ecology at Paul Smith's College. She is passionate about transformative approaches to education that inspire us to widen our circles of care, responsibility, and action through the development of an ecological and global self. As an educator, Abigail is guided by the work of systems thinker and Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy, New Cosmology/ Universe Story teachings and integral sustainability and integral transformative learning. Abigail's most recent projects include collaborating with others to offer seminars on Integral Education and Integral Life for Emerging Leaders.

Bindu Mohanty

Ph.D Candidate, Comparative Studies in Integral Yoga and Transpersonal Theories, CIIS
M.A., English Literature, University of Kentucky
B.A., English Literature, Sambalpur University

A writer and teacher, Bindu Mohanty has lived in Auroville since 1994. Committed to the practice of Integral Yoga, she believes that social change requires a radical transformation of the individual. She is passionate about promoting social justice and ecological sustainability in a globalized world through an integral and transdisciplinary approach to education. Her current research interests include interpersonal dynamics and social evolution.

Mark Millstone Naveh
M.Sc., South Bank University in London; Honours (MA equiv.), James Cook University of North Queensland; B.Sc., University of Sydney
Born in England, Millstone Naveh grew up in Australia, and graduated with degrees in Ecology and Education for Sustainability. A resident of Kibbutz Lotan since 1989, he is the principal guide at the Center for Creative Ecology and is responsible for the Center’s educational programming.

Michael Livni
MD, University of British Columbia
Born in Vienna, Livni grew up in Vancouver B.C. and graduated with a specialization in Social Psychiatry. Livni served as coordinator for the Israeli Reform Youth Movement and has worked in various agricultural and economic fields. Since 1986, he has lived on Kibbutz Lotan, where he has been instrumental in establishing a widely successful program of educational ecology and eco-tourism.

Azriel Cohen
MFA, School of Visual Arts, New York; B.A., Psychology, Yeshiva University
Cohen has been a creative force behind numerous projects that facilitate understanding between communities in conflict. He has deep connections with a broad spectrum of Israeli societies. Cohen’s multi-media installation, The Traveling Jerusalem Café about everyday life in Palestinian and Israeli cafes, has traveled around the world. He is trained in Somatic Experiencing for healing conflict and has written extensively on topics including conflict resolution, intercultural healing, and peace in the Holy Land.

Leah Zigmond 

M.S., Environmental Science and Management, Duquesne University

BA, Biology, Chatham University
Zigmond has been a Lotan resident for 8 years and works at Lotan’s Center for Creative Ecology overseeing new developments in the ‘Eco-Kef’ ecology park as well as creating environmental education programs for visitors of all ages. She also manages the Kibbutz 1/2 acre vegetable garden and teaches classes on plant biology and sustainable desert gardening. Zigmond has also worked for the Southern Arava Research and Development Station, overseeing various field experiments. With a backgound in both market gardening and agricultural research Zigmond’s particular passions include sustainable irrigation practices and community supprorted agriculture.

David McNamara
Ph.D. and M.S., Psychology, The Fielding Institute, Santa Barbara, CA
David’s primary professional interest is the exploration of the nature and the development of consciousness and self-awareness. He has studied with various teachers and explored a variety of paths, from Buddhism to Jungian psychology to Christian spirituality to shamanism, and is committed to bringing the results of this kind of self-awareness into the creation of a more sustainable, meaningful, and compassionate world. An educator and a published author, David is program director for the Human Challenge of Sustainability program and maintains a practice in clinical psychology.

Jonathan Dawson
M.Phil., Development Economics, Brunel University; M.A., International Relations, University of Kent, Canterbury
Jonathan is a designer, consultant and manager of volunteer programs and community-based development projects in the UK and Africa. A sustainability activist and educator for over 20 years, he is committed to whole-person education and is currently executive secretary of GEN-Europe (the Global Ecovillage Network).

Deborah Jay-Lewin
Diploma in the use of Drama and Movement in Therapy, London Central College of Drama and Dance
Accredited teacher with Gabrielle Roths' Moving Centre, New York
ITEC Diploma Holistic Massage
Deborah has worked with diverse groups of learners, using a wide range of creative media, for almost 20 years. This includes working with, and as, an organisational consultant. Her speciality is in working with movement and dance. She has consulted with numerous organizations, including womens' groups and those supporting people with special needs. She has been a teacher and trainer and performer at the Findhorn Community since 1990, where she lives with her husband and two children in an ecological strawbale house. Deborah is a guest teacher for the Moving Centre UK and, in 2005, began further training with Gabrielle Roth in the 'Heartbeat' material – studying and working with emotional expression through dance.

Gill Emslie
Diploma (M.A. equiv.) in Process Oriented Psychology, School of Process Oriented Psychology
Portland, OR, and London UK; Certificate in Holotropic Breathwork, School of Holotropic Breathwork, CA
Gill has extensive experience as an international trainer and facilitator, drawing on her training in transpersonal psychology, as a consultant to organizations and communities, and as a psychotherapist, to deliver trainings in group dynamics and conflict facilitation, social design, personal development, staff training, supervision, and developing the relationship between individual purpose and its application in the workplace and the world. Gill currently works within the corporate and voluntary sectors both in Europe and Latin America as well as teaching in a variety of educational program.

Stacie Whitney
M.Sc., Lesley University
Stacie has a Master's degree in Environmental Education from Lesley University & the Audubon Expedition Institute.  She is also a certified Holistic Health Counselor, and has a particularly strong interest in the overall well-being and health of the students. She has traveled, studied, and worked extensively in the UK, U.S., Central America and Western Europe, including a recent pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. To her role as Coordinator for Student and Community Life at Findhorn, Stacie brings her educational background in community and group living, environmental and experiential education, as well as passions for creating and maintaining sacred space and living and working in transition.

Lamine Kane
M.S., Community Development and Education, University of Manchester, UK.
Mr. Mouhamadou Lamine Kane has served since 2000 as a study abroad instructor in the sociology of International Development in Senegal for American University programs offered by the University of Minnesota through the West African Research Council in Dakar and by the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) for a large number of American universities. Following his studies in Manchester, where he also taught French at Moss-side College, he served as a research fellow in African social anthropology and history at the Vervuren Museum and in the language department of Université Libre in Brussels, Belgium.  From 1993 to 1995, he was UNICEF Dakar’s program officer for Education, working with the formal, informal, and remedial education sectors in Senegal. His has worked as an expert consultant in many countries for Ministries, UN Agencies, and NGOs and is the author of a recent paper on poverty reduction through education for the international conference in South Africa on "Education and Sustainable Development".

Oumar Diene
Ph.D., in Urban end Environmental Planning, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal
Dr. Diene is the program manager of the Living and Learning Center and of the Living Routes Program in Senegal.  He also serves as the Secretary General of the Global Ecovillage Network, Senegal (GENSEN), and has worked extensively in development projects in areas including permaculture, ecotourism, and renewable energies.  Dr. Diene teaches the Research and Action Research methods classes which are a part of the Independent Study and Service Learning courses and which enable Living Routes' Senegalese and U.S.students to work and learn effectively in host villages.  He draws on a background of engagement and leadership in community development activities since his earliest student years in Yoff, Dakar.

Marian Zeitlin
Ph.D., International Nutrition Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Professor Marian Zeitlin, is the Director of the EcoYoff Living & Learning Center, cofounder and Vice President of GEN Senegal  and founder of the EcoYoff Sustainable Community Development Programs provided by Living Routes. She will be present during half the program and will participate in sessions on action research and international program design and in nutrition, health and early child development.  Before relocating to Senegal in 1996, she taught social science research methods and international program design for 17 years at the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.  She currently remains a visiting professor at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, a courtesy professor at Cornell University’s Division of Nutritional Sciences and a Visiting Fellow at Cornell’s Institute for African Development. Between 1971 and 2004 she also authored several books and consulted and directed projects in 25 countries sponsored by U.S.A.I.D., the World Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO, FAO, the Ford Foundation and Save the Children, among other agencies, before expanding her focus from nutrition, child development and food security to holistic ecological communities.

India - Low-Carbon Living at Sadhana Forest

Steven Whitman
M.A., Environmental Policy and Planning, UMass Amherst; B.A., Marine Affairs, University of Rhode Island
Whitman is a professional focused largely on community and environmental planning issues. He is also adjunct faculty member at Plymouth State University where he teaches courses at the graduate and undergraduate level in environmental planning, community planning, and sustainability. During the past four years, he has been teaching field study courses in sustainability, permaculture, and ecovillage design in Iceland, Scotland, Sweden, Australia, and India. Steve lives in Plymouth, NH, and participates in a wide range of grassroots efforts that promote sustainability.

Beatrice Briggs
Ph.D (ABD) History of Religions, University of Chicago Divinity School
MA, Religious Studies, University of Chicago
B.A., English, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Beatrice is director of the International Institute for Facilitation and Consensus (IIFAC) in Cuernevaca, Mexico, and author of articles on decision-making and group facilitation as well as Introduction to Consensus, a manual used by ecologists and activists around the world. Beatrice leads courses and workshops throughout the Americas. She is a member of Ecovillage Huehuecoytol and is fluent in Spanish and English.

Tara Mirel
M.S. Community Development with a focus in Public Participation, University of California
B.A., Sociology and Cultural Studies, University of Pittsburgh
Tara works as a senior consultant for the International Institute for Facilitation and Change (www.iifac.org) in Cuernevaca, Mexico, providing facilitation services, consulting, and training to international organizations and governments. Previously, Tara was facilitating community and international development with several organizations including working with indigenous communities in Panama through the Peace Corps and negotiating human rights policy at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Switzerland. In her free time, she manages to find time to indulge her passion for the outdoors, art, circus, and dancing.

Giovanni Ciarlo
M.A. Linguistics (cand.) Central Connecticut State University
B.A. Education. University of Connecticut
Giovanni is a founding member of Huehuecoyotl, a board member of the Global Ecovillage Network since 2003 and council member of the Ecovillage Network of the Americas since 1999. He is a world-traveled musician and performer working for educational reform through the arts. A member of IIFAC and an experienced Spanish language instructor, Giovanni will lead optional Spanish conversation classes for the group.

John Gerber
Ph.D., Vegetable Physiology/Agricultural Education/Soil Science, Cornell University
M.S., Vegetable Physiology, Cornell University
B.S., Botany, University of Rhode Island
John is a University of Massachusetts Amherst professor of plant and soil sciences and former dean of the College of Food and Natural Resources, Executive Director, Consortium for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, and former VP of the American Society of Horticultural Science. He teaches courses in Sustainable Agriculture, Plants and the Environment, Dialogue on Agricultural Issues, Agricultural Systems Thinking, and Sustainable Living.

Frédérique Apffel-Marglin
Ph.D., Anthropology Brandeis University
Professor Emerita at Smith College, Apffel-Marglin has been working with non-governmental organizations in Peru and Bolivia since 1994. She is director and founder of this program.

Kalidas Shetty
Ph.D., Microbiology
M.S. Bacteriology, University of Idaho, Moscow
Professor of Food Science at UMass Amherst, Shetty has published widely on issues including the improvement of Food Technologies, Combatting Global Diet and Environment-Linked Chronic Diseases, and Food Diversity and Indigenous Food Systems as they relate to sustianable community development.

Noah Enelow
Ph.D. cand. and M.A. Economics, UMass Amherst
B.A., Literature, Yale University
A recent Fulbright recipient to conduct research on the economics of the Peruvian coffee sector, Enelow’s is a frequent writer and activist on Fair Trade issues.

Lena Galvez Ranilla

Ph.D. cand. and M.A. Food Science, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Graduate Fellow at UMass Amherst

Additionally, a wide range of guests from national and community organizations as well as Quechua-Lamista elders offer lectures and seminars.

Ousmane Aly Pame
Ph.D., English, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal
In addition to directing the Global Ecovillage Network's EcoYoff Living & Learning Center, Pame is a professor in the Department of English at Cheikh Anta Diop University, where he has been teaching translation and English civilization and literature for the past five years. He has also taught French language and Senegalese literature in the Department of French at Exeter University (United Kingdom) and business English at Suffolk University's Dakar Campus, and at CESAG, a West African sub-regional Management School. He has significant experience coordinating study abroad programs for U.S. students in Dakar, and is the local director for Living Routes' Senegal programs.

Oumar Diene
Ph.D candidate and M.A., Geography, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal
IDiene is the assistant director of both the Living Routes program and the Global Ecovillage Network's EcoYoff Living & Learning Center at Yoff. He is currently completing his doctoral thesis on the impacts of modernization on in the former village Yoff. Diene is the Secretary General of the Global Ecovillage Network, Senegal (GENSEN), and has worked extensively in development projects in areas including permaculture, ecotourism, and renewable energies. Diene leads the Action Research methods classes which enable Living Routes' Senegalese and U.S.students to work and learn effectively in host villages.

Henri Lo
Ph.D. Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Nancy, France
Professor of Environmental Studies at Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar's Institute for Environmental Sciences, Lo is a director of Senegal's National Commission on Sustainable Development and chiefly responsible for developing Senegal's national sustainable development strategy. Lo serves as advisor and lecturer at EcoYoff and Living Routes programs.


Australia - Permaculture at Crystal Waters

Max Lindegger
Mech. Eng. Design, Gewerbeschule Luzern, Switzerland
As the creator and director of the Oceania/Asia secretariat of the Global Eco-village Network and primary designer of the Habitat Award winning Crystal Waters Permaculture village, Lindegger is a one of the leaders of the ecovillage movement. Faculty and lecturer in areas such as Environmental Change, Ecology, Sustainability, and Permaculture. Max is also the author of publications such as The Best of Permaculture (Nascimanere) and a frequent contributor to journals such as Simply Living and the International Permaculture Journal. Max was recently awarded the Australian Prime Minister’s Centenary Medal for distinguished achievement in the field of developing sustainable communities.

Steven Whitman
M.A., Environmental Policy and Planning, UMass Amherst; B.A., Marine Affairs, University of Rhode Island
Whitman is a professional focused largely on community and environmental planning issues. He is also adjunct faculty member at Plymouth State University where he teaches courses at the graduate and undergraduate level in environmental planning, community planning, and sustainability. During the past four years, he has been teaching field study courses in sustainability, permaculture, and ecovillage design in Iceland, Scotland, Sweden, Australia, and India. Steve lives in Plymouth, NH, and participates in a wide range of grassroots efforts that promote sustainability.

Lucia Legan, M.Ed. candidate in science and environmental education at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and diplomate of the Permaculture Institute of Australia, has worked in community development for more than 15 years with Aboriginal communities, women's groups, young people, and farmers. Since arriving in Brazil, she has co-founded both IPEC and the Mollison School for Sustainable Studies where she remains as Executive Director. Lucia has authored a nationally selected prize-winning environmental education guide called "Escola Sustentavel" ["Sustainable Schools"] which is currently in its second edition. She has recently launched a nationwide program, "Habitats na Escola," which empowers students, parents, and teachers with the skills to create sustainable habitats in school.

Andre Jaeger Soares, master’s candidate in environmental education at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, is a cofounder of Ecocentro IPEC, trilingual teacher, natural builder and permaculture designer. He founded the Permaculture Institute of Central Queensland in Australia. As national coordinator with the United Nations Development Program, Andre taught more than 2000 people throughout the country in permaculture design. Andre was given the Casa Claudia award for innovative design in natural construction and is acknowledged as one of the 50 most important people in environmental development in Brazil. His leadership in sustainability has attracted a partnership with the Swiss foundation AVINA creating new projects in the area of low impact architecture and social development in South America. In 2005, Andre also worked as an international aid worker in Haiti as a team leader in sustainable development. He is a diplomate of the Permaculture Institute of Australia.

John Gerber, UMass Faculty Sponsor
Ph.D., Vegetable Physiology/Agricultural Education/Soil Science, Cornell University
M.S., Vegetable Physiology, Cornell University
B.S., Botany, University of Rhode Island
UMass Amherst professor of plant and soil sciences and former dean of the College of Food and Natural Resources, Executive Director, Consortium for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, and former VP of the American Society of Horticultural Science. Gerber teaches courses in Sustainable Agriculture, Plants and the Environment, Dialogue on Agricultural Issues, Agricultural Systems Thinking, and Sustainable Living. He has published numerous books, articles, reviews and texts, including Agriculture and the Environment: Bridging Food Production and Environmental Protection in Developing Countries. Presenter at dozens of conferences and workshops including Agricultural sustainability: a global perspective - a 1994 USAID Workshop on Agricultural Sustainability, Gerber has conducted research in vegetable cropping systems, plant nutrition, seed emergence and seedling vigor of new sweet corn genotypes, and pepper flowering and fruit set.

Jono Neiger
M.A., Landscape Design, Conway School of Landscape Design, MA
B.S., Forest Biology, SUNY Syracuse College of Environmental Science and Forestry, NY
Jono has a diverse background in ecology, environmental research, conservation, restoration, land stewardship, and landscape design. A permaculture teacher and designer since 1996, he was the Land Steward and Permaculture Apprenticeship Program Director at Lost Valley Educational Center in Oregon for 5 years. Jono is a Conservation Biologist with 17 years experience, is founder of Regenerative Design, a permaculture design and consultation firm in Leverett, Massachusetts and is a faculty member at the Conway School of Landscape Design. A sought after speaker at events, businesses and workshops nationwide, Jono's recent presentations include: Moving Towards Sustainability, Questioning the Invasive Species Paradigm, Urban Permaculture, Northeast Permaculture, and Natural Building Alternatives: Strawbale, Cob and Living Roofs.

Kay Cafasso, Assistant Faculty

B.S., Environmental Geosciences from Boston College

Natural Building and Solar Home Design Certification, Solar Energy International

Permaculture Design Certification, Naropa University
Kay is a permaculture instructor, designer, gardener, and natural builder. She is inspired by the ability to regenerate natural systems with thoughtful design of landscapes, dwellings, and communities. She received her permaculture design certification through Naropa University in 2002 and has since been involved with permaculture courses across the country. Kay holds certificates in solar home design and natural building construction from Solar Energy International and is a seasonal earth plasterer of straw bale and natural homes. She has experienced community life at the Isle of Errraid, a sister to the Findhorn Community in Scotland and has helped to start up Co-op Power, a member-owned cooperative for renewable energy in the northeastern US.

Ethan Roland, Assistant Faculty

B.S., Biology, Haverford College

M.S., Associate Candidate, Gaia University International, Integrative Eco-social Design, TN
Ethan is a permaculture designer, teacher, and researcher based in the central Connecticut River valley. He studies and practices regenerative design in all corners of the world, from the wild apple forests of Kazakhstan to the tropical rainforest ecosystems of Central America. Ethan runs the ecological farm & home design firm AppleSeed Permaculture (www.appleseedpermaculture.com) and helps to organize the Northeastern Permaculture Network (www.northeasternpermaculture.wikispaces.com). Recent work includes integrated ecological master planning, international teaching in Thailand, and research on carbon-fixing perennial agriculture.

Dave Jacke, Guest Lecturer
M.A., Landscape Design, Conway School of Landscape Design, MA
B.A., Environmental Studies and Land Use Planning, Simon's Rock College, MA
2006 Brooklyn Botanic Garden Keynoter, Dave is a professional ecological landscape designer, land-use planner, permaculture consultant and educator. His holistic approach to ecological design integrates the "inner landscape" with social and economic structures, technology and natural resources. His book, Edible Forest Gardens: A Delicious and Practical Ecology was published in 2005 to wide acclaim. Dave has also authored numerous articles on sustainable design, most published in the national trade journal The Permaculture Activist.

John Gerber, UMass Faculty Sponsor
Ph.D., Vegetable Physiology/Agricultural Education/Soil Science, Cornell University
M.S., Vegetable Physiology, Cornell University
B.S., Botany, University of Rhode Island
UMass Amherst professor of plant and soil sciences and former dean of the College of Food and Natural Resources, Executive Director, Consortium for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, and former VP of the American Society of Horticultural Science. John teaches courses in Sustainable Agriculture, Plants and the Environment, Dialogue on Agricultural Issues, Agricultural Systems Thinking, and Sustainable Living. He has published numerous books, articles, reviews and texts, including Agriculture and the Environment: Bridging Food Production and Environmental Protection in Developing Countries. Presenter at dozens of conferences and workshops including Agricultural sustainability: a global perspective - a 1994 USAID Workshop on Agricultural Sustainability, John has conducted research in vegetable cropping systems, plant nutrition, seed emergence and seedling vigor of new sweet corn genotypes, and pepper flowering and fruit set.