Gaia Education was created over a series of meetings among international ecovillage educators. The group decided to call itself the GEESE (Global Ecovillage Educators for Sustainable Earth) to acknowledge the importance of collaboration and roving leadership as it is exhibited by the migration behaviour of a flock of geese.
The current members of GEESE have designed the Ecovillage Design Curriculum and compose the Board and various working groups focused on areas such as programme development, outreach, certification, strategy and finance, and publishing.

Brief Biographical Profiles of the GEESE

		Albert Bates is author of The Biochar Solution: Carbon Farming and Climate Change (2010), The Post Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook (2006), Climate in Crisis: The Greenhouse Effect and What We Can Do (1990), Shutdown: Nuclear Power on Trial (1979) and numerous books, films and new media on energy, environment and history. A former environmental rights lawyer, paramedic, brick mason, flour miller, and horse trainer, he received the Right Livelihood Award in 1980 as part of the steering committee of Plenty, working to preserve the cultures of indigenous peoples, and board of directors of The Farm, a pioneering intentional community in Tennessee for the past 40 years. A co-founder and past president of the Global Ecovillage Network, he is presently one of GEN's representatives to the UN climate talks and Committee on Sustainable Development. When not tinkering with solar cars, fuel wringers for algae, or pyrolizing cookstoves at his Ecovillage Training Center in Tennessee, he teaches village design and natural building and is a frequent guest on the C-realm and ETC Podcasts. He tweets at @peaksurfer and blogs at peaksurfer.blogspot.com.
		Marcos Beascoa completed the EDE Findhorn in 2006 and was part of Son- Rul-lan EDE 2011 Team. Related professionally since 1992 with international development projects, Marcos has managed EC and other Donors projects in the field of Education, Health and Economic Development, in different countries parts of the world including Peru, Venezuela, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Mozambique and Morocco. Originally trained in History and Anthropology (University of Barcelona, 1982), he also holds an MBA (ESADE, 1987) and Permaculture Design (Montsant, 2010). Marcos currently lives in barcelona, Spain, from where he serves in the role of Manager at Gaia Education.
		Massimo Candela is resident of Ecovillage Torri Superiore, near Ventimiglia, Italy, since 1993 (www.torri-superiore.org). He is president of the Ture Nirvane Cooperative Company that runs the ecological guest house and the course programmes. He holds Permaculture Design and Permaculture Teaching diplomas. He is one of the founders of the Italian Permaculture Academy. Experience includes: Ecovillage Design Course and Practicum led by Max Lindegger at Crystal Waters (2001); Ecovillage Design Course at Torri, with Morag Gamble and Evan Raymond from SEED International. He taught with Lucilla Borio Ecovillage Creation courses in Torri, Croatia and Bosnia.
		Giovanni Ciarlo is co-founder of Ecoaldea Huehuecoyotl, an ecovillage centre for the exploration of the arts and ecology in central Mexico (www.huehuecoyote.net). He is a founding member of the Ecovillage Network of the Americas (ena.ecovillage.org) and serves on the Board of the Global Ecovillage Network. He is a professional musician and Arts-In-Education Consultant. Giovanni works as a trained group facilitator. He is an associate member of the International Institute for Facilitation and Consensus (www.iifac.org) and leads workshop trainings in Group Facilitation in the US and Mexico. Since 2003 he has co-directed sustainability programs in Mexico in collaboration with Goddard College of Vermont where he is a faculty member of the Sustainable Communities and Businesses MA program, and also serves on the board of the Living Routes Study Abroad organization of Massachusetts. He currently divides his time between the US and Mexico, linking community sustainable projects in both countries
		Jonathan Dawson is a sustainability educator. Until recently a resident of the Findhorn ecovillage and a former President of the Global Ecovillage Network, he has recently joined the teaching faculty at Schumacher College as Head of Economics. Jonathan has spent 20 years as a consultant, project manager, researcher and author in the field of local economic development in Africa and South Asia
		Deniz Dinçel is a bilogist. She works as a trainer in the field of sustainabilty education, ecovillages, community building and climate change. She has visited many different ecovillages and communities both in Turkey and abroad. She lived in Findhorn Ecovillage for about two years and worked in Ecological Footprint Analysis Project of Findhorn Ecovillage and Community. Deniz is a council member and Vice President of Global Ecovillage Network-Europe. She has been involved with Gaia Education since 2006 as a course organzier and facilitator. She lives in Turkey.
		May East is a sustainability practitioner, educator and designer heading two international organisations: Gaia Education and CIFAL Scotland - UNITAR Associated Training Center for Northern Europe. Based at the UN Habitat Best Practice Designation, Findhorn Ecovillage, since 1992, May has been leading a whole generation of sustainability educators delivering trainings in 31 countries in the most different stages of development and in both urban and rural contexts, under the umbrella of Gaia Education. A tireless networker, she has played a prominent role in developing relationships between the UN and the Findhorn Ecovillage, culminating in the launch of CIFAL Findhorn in 2006. Recently nominated one of the 100 Global SustainAbility Leaders, she facilitates international think-tanks such as the Club of Budapest World Wisdom Council and has delivered Transition Trainings since 2008, creating pathways for low-carbon, global to regional performance.
		José Luis Escorihuela, 'Ulises', is a professional facilitator, sustainability educator, and founder of Selba Vida Sostenible, a Spanish non-for-profit association aimed at the dissemination, education and consultancy about sustainable lifestyles. He has been a representative at GEN-Europe for many years. He has a background in Mathematics, History of Science, Philosophy, and Conflict Resolution. He is the Academic Coordinator of the Gaia Education Design for Sustainability programme, GEDS. Ulises lives in Artosilla, a little hamlet in the Central Pyrenees. He recently published his first book: 'A Path Made by Walking: From the Modern Individual to the Sustainable Community'.
		Hide Enomoto now lives in a small community called Fujino which is just outside Tokyo, which became the first official Transition Town not only in Japan, but in all of Asia. He is also a co-founder of Transition Japan, a national hub to spread this movement in Japan. Besides being involved in bringing Transition movement to Japan, he has also set up a non-profit called Seven Generations who offers programs such as Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium in order to create a more fulfilling, sustainable and just world. His professional background is coaching and has taught Social Design as part of EDE in Findhorn, Scotland and Japan.
		Michiyo Furuhashi is a Japanese environmental educator and founder of Japan Ecovillage Promotion Project (JEPP). Since 2007, she has lived in the Konohana Family (www.konohana-family.org/), a leading ecovillage in Japan, and is in charge of ecovillage education, and also sings songs as one of the vocalists of the Konohana Band. She is also a board member of Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), and vice-president of Oceania & Asia region, and country representative of Japan for GEN. She organized the first EDE in Japan from 2008 to 2009, and also leads ecovillage movement in Japan as a co-representative of Ecovillage Japan Network (EJN).
		Daniel Greenberg has studied and directed community-based educational programs for over 15 years. He visited and corresponded with over 200 U.S. intentional communities for his Ph.D. dissertation on children and education in community, and later spent a year at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland working with children and families there.~ He is the founder and Executive Director of Living Routes (www.livingroutes.org), which develops accredited ecovillage-based education programs that promote sustainability. He lives at the Sirius Community in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, USA, with his wife Monique and their two daughters, Simone and Pema.
		Maddy Harland is the editor of Permaculture Magazine, solutions for sustainable living and a co-founder with her partner, Tim, of Permanent Publications, a company dedicated to publishing solution-orientated practical books since 1990. Permanent Publications are co-publishers of Gaia Education's Four Keys series. Maddy helped found the Sustainability Centre in Hampshire, UK, a former military base, now a budding community which hosts conferences, runs a varied non-residential and residential educational programme for adults and children, and has an award winning eco-hostel. The centre is also host to a woodland burial site, varied community volunteer programmes and Permanent Publications.
		Hildur Jackson was born in Denmark in 1942 and has been married to Ross Jackson for 45 years. She has three sons and seven grandchildren. She is a lawyer, cultural sociologist, permaculture and ecovillage designer and writer. She initiated one of the three first Danish cohousings in 1970. Hildur is co-founder of Gaia Trust (www.gaia.org), the Danish National Network of Ecovillages (LOS) and the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN). Ross and Hildur initiated the project: The Lavegaard project, where they will teach the EDE, and live on Duemosegård. Hildur has authored several books including: Ecovillage Living: Restoring the Earth and her People (2002), co-edited with Karen Svensson; Creating Harmony: Conflict Resolution in Community (1998); the video: Rashmi Mayur: A Man of the New Global Renaissance; and co-ordinated Gaia Education's publication, the Four Keys.
		Ross Jackson, Ph.D., was born in Canada in 1938, and is Chairman/founder of Gaia Trust, Denmark (www.gaia.org). He has an educational background in physics, management, and economics, specialising in operations research. Ross was for many years a management consultant and IT systems designer, working in various branches of the business world, eventually specialising in international finance, where his foreign exchange know-how provided the financing for Gaia Trust‚s programmes to support a more sustainable and spiritual world. Ross is the author of groundbreaking Occupy World Street (www.occupyworldstreet.org). Other books include And We ARE Doing It: Building an Ecovillage Future; Kali Yuga Odyssey: A Spiritual Journey; and Shaker of the Speare: The Francis Bacon Story. Ross is a member of the GEN Advisory Board and is a board member Gaia Education.
		Anja Kosha Joubert was born and grew up in South Africa. The system of Apartheid deeply influenced her life's path: she decided to devote herself to the study and practice of trustful communication amongst humans. She has been living in intentional communities for the past 20 years and presently lives in the Ecovillage of Sieben Linden in Germany (www.oekodorf7linden.de). She focalises courses on community-building and is part of a consultancy team that takes the knowledge gained in ecovillages out to support projects in the wider society (www.gemeinschaftsberatung.de). Kosha co-edited the Social Key: Beyond You and Me. Inspirations and Wisdom for Building Community.
		Will Keepin, Ph.D., is President of the Satyana Institute, a non-profit organization founded in 1996 to integrate spiritual wisdom into social change leadership (www.satyana.org). Will's passion is to bridge the inner mystical journey with an outer life of service. He has been a colleague and friend of the Global Ecovillage Network since an early planning meeting in 1994. Originally trained as a physicist, Will's advocacy work on sustainable energy influenced environmental policy in several countries. Will is a certified practitioner of Holotropic Breathwork, and has founded training programs for social activists including Leading with Spirit and Gender Reconciliation. He has published widely, and is Adjunct Faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He leads retreats on interfaith mysticism in India, and supports interfaith projects for battered women in India.
		Declan Kennedy, (www.declan.de) Irish Architect, Urban Planer, Mediator, and Permaculture Designer, teaching and practicing urban design and landscape, renewable energy and agricultural planning, coupled with holistic strategies in Germany since 1972 and in intensive seminars - organized in many countries; from 1972 to 1990 Prof. at the Architectural Department of the Technical University of Berlin; 1981 brought the concept of Permaculture from Australia to Germany and in the following10 years through PDC courses to another 16 countries; 1985 co-founder of eco-village (www.Lebensgarten.de) Steyerberg, Germany; since 1988 spiritual healer through quantum method; 1995 Founding Chairman: Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) (www.ecovillage.org) - his preoccupation with world change, positive energies and eco-village design has led to his engagement in the Gaia University 2005, a university without walls, based on action-learning (www.gaiauniversity.org) , 2008 instigator, designer and co-ordinator for the 5.2 hectare Permaculture Park ( called PaLS) near Lebensgarten.
		Max O. Lindegger is a designer of ecological communities and sustainable systems of international repute (www.ecologicalsolutions.com.au). He is a respected and sought-after teacher in the disciplines of sustainable systems. His reputation is born of 20 years of hands-on experience and leadership in the design and implementation of practical solutions to the challenges of sustainability. As the creator and Director of the Oceania/Asia secretariat of the Global Ecovillage Network, Max participates in and contributes to the international flow of current thinking and best practice in the fields of sustainable systems design and education. Max was a primary partner in the design and development of the Habitat Award winning Crystal Waters Permaculture Village, where he lives. This is a robust ecovillage situated in south-east Queensland, Australia, and is the site of the award winning EcoCentre learning facility the venue for many of his courses. He has designed and consulted on numerous community developments including the Spiers Project (S. Africa), Gqnubie Green (S. Africa), Living & Learning Centre (Sri Lanka), Vatukarasa Village (Fiji), Garopaba Project (Brazil), and China Walls (Australia). Max was awarded the (Australian) Prime Minister‚s Centenary Medal in 2003 for "distinguished achievement in the field of developing sustainable communities".
		Mr. Adama LY is holding an Engineering diploma in Forestry from Ecole Nationale du Génie Rural des Eaux et des Forêts (Nancy, France), a M.Sc. in Renewable Natural Resources Studies from the University of Arizona, USA, a Post Graduate Degree in Economic Development Planning and in Land Use Management from Institut Panafricain pour le Développement, Ouagadougou, Burkina-Faso. He is a Senegalese Civil Servant with a 26 year career in social forestry and sustainable rural development including 8 years in UNDP-GEF Project Cycle Management as Project Coordinator in Integrated Ecosystem Management, Climate Change Mitigation and Sustainable Land Management along with more than one year and half as Director General of Senegal first Ecovillage Agency. He won, on behalf of Senegal, the GEN-Europe 2010 Ecovillage Award Excellence. Currently he is a Technical Adviser to the Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection in Senegal and Secretary General of GEN-West Africa.
		E. Christopher Mare has been a full-time student since 1994. He has been given the luxury of self-designed programs through which he gets to organize his own studies. The general progression of interest over the years has been: Permaculture to Ecovillage to Urban Village to Traditional Village to Design for Consciousness to the Neurophenomenology of Settlement Morphology. In 2002, Mare founded an educational non-profit – Village Design Institute – which will one day secure a land-base for the purpose of setting up a combination 1) research, training, and demonstration site; 2) international Academy of Village Design; and 3) community of contemplative scholars. This project most likely will be called an ‘ecovillage.’
		Ina Meyer-Stoll, holistic education for social and ecological sustainability, has lived in intentional communities since 1984 and is a founding member of ZEGG ecovillage in Germany (www.zegg.de). For more than a decade she has been actively involved with GEN-Europe and other community networks. She is a passionate communications trainer and supervisor, trained in various community building processes, and is a networker, a peace activist, and has visited many ecovillages in Europe, North and South America.
		Marti Mueller from Auroville, South India (www.auroville.org), vision keeper for GEN and Gaia Trust, has 30 years of experience in the field of education, 20 years of community experience, and is former professor at the Sorbonne University in Paris. She is co-founder of 'Children and Trees Research' with UNESCO and the Indian Government. Marti is the author of Indigo Spirit for a Child Friendly Planet. She has also worked on the Earth Restoration Corps curriculum and The University of the Streets and Alleys. Her current concerns: Establishing a wildlife sanctuary to protect a UNESCO World Heritage site in central India, editing a spiritual anthology on new curricula for communities, and researching a book on Himalayan tribal people and the protection of their indigenous customs.
		Helena Norberg-Hodge is a leading analyst of the impact of the global economy on cultures around the world. A linguist by training, she was educated in Sweden, Germany, England and the United States, and speaks seven languages. Ms. Norberg-Hodge is founder and director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC), which runs programmes on four continents aimed at strengthening ecological diversity and community, with a particular emphasis on local food and farming. Ms. Norberg-Hodge also directs the Ladakh Project, renowned for its twenty-five years of groundbreaking work in sustainable development on the Tibetan plateau. She is the author of numerous works, including Bringing the Food Economy Home (October, 2002) and the 'inspirational classic', Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh, which together with an award-winning film of the same title has been translated into more than 35 languages. She also produced and co-directed the documentary, The Economics of Happiness (2011
		Narumon Paiboonsittikun (Mon) works in the environmental movement, both in terms of her career and as an activist working to empower and promote indigenous and marginalized communities. She has been a resident of Wongsanit Ashram, a spiritual, activist community in Thailand, since 2004. She has been involved in the annual EDE and Training of Trainers courses in Thailand since 2007. She organizes and supports other grassroots leadership and holistic sustainability courses throughout Southeast Asia holding a vision to build capacity of social activists to contextualize the EDE curriculum to resonate with local wisdom and run EDEs in the region.
		Jane Rasbash works in sustainable development using an empowerment and engaged spirituality approach.  She lives in Findhorn Eco-village and has taught on EDEs in Findhorn, Sieben Linden and Thailand.  She is a Board Member of Gaia Education.  Jane is currently serving as strategic and technical consultant for community, sustainable education and rights based projects in Burma, Thailand and more recently with GEN in some African countries.  Jane is a life coach who mentors leaders in the south often working in incredibly challenging situations.  She is passionate about Traditional Village as Eco-village and supports Gaia Education and GEN to take this forward. A new interest is Bioresonance, bringing together holistic worldview, planetary and individual healing, empowerment and cutting edge science.
		Potira Preiss is a Brazilian biologist with a wide experience in the field of sustainability education, socio-environmental projects and consultancy. She has been active in different grass movements from youth groups to women’s circles to environmental and sustainable human settlements movements. She was the head of the Environmental Committee in the Youth Camp at the Social Forum at Porto Alegre from 2003 to 2005. She was also an educator in the Project Green and Health Environments, a partnership between São Paulo City Hall and United Nations Environment Programme.  She also works as cultural producer, having developed projects with Latin American organization such as Chasquis Foundation and Mercosul Biennial Foundation. Since 1998, she belongs to the Guardiões do Amanha - a movement composed of women and men who dream and weave trustful and more fraternal forms of inter-gender partnership and  with the planet. She is currently taking her master degree on Rural Development at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, while her SME 2P focuses on sustainability and cultural education. Potira has been involved with Gaia Education since 2006, from a student to EDE course coordinator and facilitator, and now member of the Board of Directors.
		Penelope Reyes is an environmental educator, ecovillage designer, pressed flower artist and childrens’ book writer. She has a Masters in Environmental Management degree from University of San Francisco, and Ateneo de ManilaUniversity. She is founder and executive director of Happy Earth (www.happyearth.info), a Philippine-based environmental education non-profit which develops educational materials, promotes fair trade, and hosts courses on Ecovillage Design Education (EDE), self-sufficiency, concensus decision-making, and right livelihood. She has co-founded and co-established Tuwa The Laughing Fish (www.tuwa.ph), an off-grid Living & Learning Center and Green Bed & Breakfast at Cabiao, Nueva Ecija, Philippines and has been living there as a resident since 2010. She is actively involved in a Transition Initiative at Cabiao and also promotes Ecovillage awareness & development as president of the Global Ecovillage Network for Oceania and Asia (GENOA).
		Macaco Tamerice (Martina Grosse Burlage) has been living in the Federation of Damanhur as a full time citizen since 1993. For several years she has been working in international relations for the Federation of Damanhur and is the Coordinator of International Community Relations. In 2008, she became Vice President of GEN Europe, and in 2010 was elected President. Macaco is an international speaker and facilitator. Trained in music and voice, she has toured as a professional jazz singer in Europe, Japan and Canada, for over twenty years. She has also taught voice and led classes and seminars since 1984. Fluent in five languages, trained in community-building and conflict resolution during the last 17 years, Macaco has held roles of social and artistic responsibility in the community of Damanhur. In 1992, she graduated from the Damanhur School for Spiritual Healers.
		Géza Varga graduated with degrees in agronomy + professional management, specializing in organic agriculture and alternative technologies. He is the founder of the first Hungarian ecovillage project called "Galgafarm" since 1988 (www.gaiaalapitvany.hu). Geza is also director of the "Gaia" Ecological and Rural Development Foundation since 1990. This Foundation has run a Research and Education Centre since 1996, which is a residential school with 36 beds and a restaurant for adult rural people.
		Paola Vidulich was born and grew up in the dusty mining towns of South Africa and has been deeply impacted by the country's natural abundance, ecological degradation and the ongoing challenges in transitioning to a more just, integrated and equitable society. She competed in the 2000 Olympic Games and pursued a career in Information Technology before packing in a lifestyle of high-rises and financial abundance in search of alternative paths to livelihood and wellbeing. Paola has been involved with various grassroots & contemplative education organisations in SE Asia since 2010, including the Wongsanit Ashram Ecovillage Design Education course. More recently, she is supporting the emerging Ecovillage Design Education courses in Africa. Paola holds the role of Communications Coordinator for Gaia Education, is studying Process Work through the Portland Process Work Institute and lives in Kalk Bay, South Africa.
		Daniel Christian Wahl has 14 years of international  experience in sustainability education and consultancy.  Originally trained as a biologist (University of Edinburgh, 1996), he also holds an MSc in Holistic Science (Schumacher College, 2002) and a PhD in Natural Design (University of Dundee, 2006).  Daniel was the director of  Findhorn College between 2007 and 2010.  He now works independently with organizations such as Gaia Education, Clear Village, Bioneers and Son Rul-lan.  As ‘Sustainable Islands Project Director’ for CIFAL Scotland (UNITAR), he is preparing an international conference on islands as models for the transition to sustainable regional economies. Daniel is an invited member of the ‘Royal Society for the Arts’ (FRSA) and the International Futures Forum. He lives on Mallorca, where he is developing new methods to facilitate and mentor nature-based experiences of deep insight and behaviour change.
		Liz Walker is co-founder and executive director of EcoVillage at Ithaca, Inc. (www.ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us), a non-profit educational organization which created and continues to nurture the development of a mainstream ecovillage community in Ithaca, NY, that includes multiple cohousing neighborhoods, organic farms, open space preservation and hands-on educational work. Since its inception in 1991, EVI has received national and international awards and media recognition. Liz is the author of the new book EcoVillage at Ithaca: Pioneering a Sustainable Culture (New Society Publishers, 2005). Liz has spent the last thirty years working full-time on social change work that promotes community, environmental responsibility and personal growth. She is a skilled writer, facilitator, mediator, trainer, public speaker, and project manager. Liz is a board member of the Gaia Education initiative.
		Marian Zeitlin has been living in Senegal since 1996, as a member of the EcoYoff Ecovillage and director of the EcoYoff Living & Learning Center. Marian has first degree in mathematics from Oberlin College and Ph.D. in nutritional biochemistry and international nutrition planning from MIT. She taught and practised social science research and international development program design at Tufts University (Boston), and taught human ecology at Findhorn in 1995. Since 1996 she supervises ecovillage internships and organizes and teaches sustainable development courses in Senegal.
		Margarita O Zethelius is a biologist from Colombia with an MSc in Conservation and Rural Development. Her experience includes design, management and implementation of sustainable development projects and community strategies for communication and education for conservation. A great networker, she is part of Berkley University’s Environmental Leadership Program and WWF’s Education for Nature Program. Margarita sits on the board of CASA (Council of Sustainable Settlements of Latin America) where she is working principally on the inclusion of grassroots initiatives and the development of education strategies. Coordinator of Colombia’s first EDE Colombia, as well as several trainings for community empowerment, conservation and sustainability, Margarita is member Gaia Education’s Board.