Kelly Clark

Secretary

Chagrin Falls, Ohio

Kelly was formally educated in physics (BA, University of Chicago, 1986, M.A., University of Santa Cruz, CA, 1992) and had a career in classroom teaching before turning her attention to the practice and promotion of permaculture. After earning her PDC with Scott Pittman in 2010, she founded Kelly’s Working Well Farm (morethanafarm.org) in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, in 2012. The farm has provided Kelly with a space where she and others can learn and experiment in a wide range of areas, from growing food to developing educational models for kids and adults. Currently, she is focused on using permaculture principles to develop a bioregional network of communication, collaboration, and cooperation in the Great Lake Erie Southern Shore Bioregion (glessbioregion.net).

James Villalpando

Member-at-Large

Bloomingdale, Michigan

James has an awesome acreage in Bloomingdale. He hosts events and has multiple camping sites. There are even a few glamping sites in you’re not the 100% outdoors rugged type.

James is always up for an adventure. After all, he moved from Chicago to Bloomingdale, MI, Population 516.

Peter Bane

Treasurer

Montague, Michigan

Peter Bane is the Executive Director of Permaculture Institute of North America (PINA.in), and author of The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country.

An Illinois native, he has taught permaculture design to 2,000 students over 30 years in places as far flung as Chilean Patagonia, Trinidad and Tobago, the Hawaiian Islands, and across the middle of the continent from North Carolina to Colorado to Ontario and everywhere in between.

He consults with private landowners, farmers, city governments, universities, and businesses on the use of land, buildings, and other resources. For 25 years, he published Permaculture Activist magazine, and contributes now to its successor, Permaculture Design Magazine, as Editor Emeritus.

He holds diplomas in Permaculture Design from three international institutes in five specializations, and has served on seven non-profit boards supporting education, community development, climate mitigation, permaculture professionalism, and bioregional organizing.

He is the Treasurer and former VP of Great Rivers and Lakes Permaculture Institute. A natural builder and solar energy pioneer, he farms 18 acres in western Lower Michigan with his husband, children, and grandchildren

Jackie Smith

Member-at-Large

Otsego, Michigan

Jackie is a serial entrepreneur and has traveled throughout the United States, experiencing life. She grew up on a homestead in rural Michigan, and the desire to play in the soil never left her. Her businesses have revolved around farming, gardening, and horticultural education. She has developed numerous syllabi for continuing education courses geared toward self-sustainability. 

As an organic specialty crop grower, she introduced heirloom vegetable varieties to customers at numerous farmers’ markets. The years of business development taught her the art and science of marketing, and in 2019, she founded her digital marketing agency 3 Pillars Marketing, based on the 3 pillars of Planet,  People, and Profit. Her agency works with businesses that are striving to make a difference on our planet and understand the interconnectedness of all beings.

Permaculture Design Certification in 2016

Climate Reality Leader, 2023

She continues to support local producers and works with local organizations on community food production projects. As a Climate Reality activist, she uses her marketing skills to support climate-aware legislative proposals. 

Jackie is on the board of the Michigan Nut and Fruit Growers Association, a member of the Chula Vista Garden Club, and the Club’s newsletter editor. Her focus is on developing her Permaculture homestead in Otsego, Michigan, spreading knowledge about home preservation methods, and furthering the Regenerative Agriculture movement.

Ande “the Elf” Schewe

Member-at-Large

Southern Indiana

Ande “the Elf” Schewe has a background teaching and practicing permaculture, ethnoecology, and facilitating plant walks for over 25 years. Certified in 2001 at Lost Valley Education Center in Oregon by Toby Hemenway, Judd Hobbs, and Rick Valley.  He went on to study with many of the leaders in the field. He is a board member of the Great Rivers and Lakes Permaculture and has helped build Cincinnati’s Permaculture Institute since its conception in 2008. Ande also has 13 years of farmers market experience that contributed to the inspiration of his conversational, musically infused, podcast called Wakethefarmup! Maintaining Ground Podcast. He says the show is serious Permaculture, yet seriously fun. He currently is living like a wizard in a southern Indiana forest on a 5-acre forest garden homestead in his 15th season. Ande also offers consultations and has decades of experience with homesteads, farms, wetland projects, ecology studies, biodiversity studies, other ecology-focused projects, arts, and edutainment.

www.wakethefarmup.com

Bryce Ruddock

Member-at-Large

South Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Bryce's love of the outdoors began as a child visiting his grandparents' farm in Marshall, Michigan. His Wisconsin-based family went on camping trips to the Kettle Moraine glaciated areas and the north woods of Wisconsin, and the UP. He learned about permaculture in 1980 and has been practicing it since 1984 at his 1/10th acre homesite in South Milwaukee, WI. 

From 2005 through 2012, he was active with the Green Party USA at the local, state, and national levels. He was on the GPUSA Ecoaction Committee, where he assisted in the research and writing of environmental policy briefs for candidates. 

After decades of gardening and forestry, both at home and community garden sites, he received his PDC from Midwest Permaculture in 2008 at the Renew the Earth Institute in Custer, WI. In 2009, he assisted Midwest Permaculture in the teaching of a four-day suburban permaculture course at Purdue University. He earned his teaching certification in 2010 at Arcosanti, AZ, jointly from Cascadia Permaculture and Permaculture Institute USA. He has taught plant guild sessions for Midwest Permaculture and taught three full PDC courses in SE Wisconsin. 

 From 2016 through 2022, he served as editor and primary data researcher for the Natural Capital Plant Database, working with Eco restoration designers from United Designers on projects in Portugal, India, and Molokai.

Since 2014, he has been working with the management of the Bridget Center in Kewaskum, WI, to develop and implement a permaculture education and green burial site. Efforts there have been primarily providing plant materials for an eastern woodland forest restoration, critiquing design work, and training the site manager in permaculture methodologies. Bryce continues to research permaculture-related topics, especially ethnobotany.

Publications: 

Integrated Forest Gardening, the Complete Guide to Polycultures and Plant Guilds in Permaculture Systems (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2014)

Plant Guilds e-book, available free from Midwest Permaculture.