I grew up living in Traverse City, and several other towns and cities in both Michigan and Texas. My family provided a wonderful childhood filled with adventures in the Great Lakes of Michigan, the mountains of Wyoming and The Black Hills of South Dakota. This childhood created a deep spiritual connection with nature. My high school biology teacher was an excellent mentor and he supported my interests in studying nature with an emphasis on plants. In college I continued with biology but was drawn into biotechnology. After working in a biotech lab during a year off from college I became disgusted with the whole biotech industry. I returned to college and focused on economic botany.

During the time I was working at the biotech lab mentioned above, my Mother told me about a radio program describing Sol y Sombra permaculture farm in New Mexico. I was able to reprint a newspaper article about Sol y Sombra from the local library. This lead to the purchase of the book The Permaculture Way by Graham Bell. After reading this book I shared it with others and eventually gave it to a friend. Over the next couple of years I began gardening with minimal disturbance and mulching and tried contacting the Permaculture Institute of North America but my mail was returned as undeliverable. Then in 1999 I attended The Inland Northwest Small Acreage Farmer Conference in Spokane, Washington. There was a session on regenerative systems and permaculture. This started my thinking about taking a design certification course. Then in August of 1999 I took a PDC course by Darrell Frey and others at Three Sisters Bioshelter and Market Farm in Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania. This was a life-changing experience. Another life changing experience involved my work as an agroforestry and permaculture volunteer in Peace Corps Panama from May of 2000 to July of 2002. In October 2002 I decided to attend the Permaculture Teacher's Training course at Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina. Like my first permaculture course, this was an empowering experience.

My present permaculture activities include transforming my Mother's front and backyard into a sustainable food production system using local materials and permaculture principles. I am also teaching beginner's workshops in Kalamazoo County.