Core Course Instructors
Abrah Jordan Dresdale is a landscape designer, food systems planner, and educator. During the past several years, Abrah has taught outdoor education at Vermont Wilderness School and Wild Earth Programs. Her love of naturalist teachings inspired her to study botany and medicinal plants at the Wildflower School of Botanical Medicine in Austin, TX and complete her permaculture design certification through the Austin Permaculture Guild.
In 2010, Abrah completed her Master of Arts in Sustainable Landscape Design and Planning at the Conway School, Conway, MA, where she co-authored Feed Northampton, a food security plan for the city of Northampton. She is founder of Feeding Landscapes, a design business which specializes in edible landscapes and provides consulting for local food systems planning. She is coordinator of the new Farm and Food Systems degree option at Greenfield Community College, and teaches permaculture design courses at UMASS-Amherst, Wesleyan University, Greenfield Community College, and for Permaculture f.e.a.s.t. in Northampton, MA. Abrah uses mentoring and ecological design as tools to facilitate positive change in partnership with people and communities.
Connor Stedman, candidate for M.S.
Connor Stedman inhabits the Champlain and Connecticut River Valleys of western New England as a permaculture designer, wilderness educator, and graduate student at the Ecological Planning program at the University of Vermont. He has been mentoring students of all ages in nature awareness since 2004, and currently teaches courses in wilderness skills and regenerative land use throughout the northeastern US. Connor’s permaculture consulting work specializes in agroforestry, habitat restoration, and humans as a keystone species. He is a co-founder of Gaia Northeast and co-organizer of the 2012 Carbon Farming Course; founder and head instructor of Eyes of the Forest, a naturalist mentoring program for adult students; serves on the Board of Directors of Vermont Wilderness School; and writes about land use and tending the wild at his blog, Renewing the Commons. Connor is passionate about land history, knowledge of place, and cultural mentoring. His goal as a teacher is to support students to become creative visionary leaders and empowered stewards of the earth.
Mira Nussbaum
Mira Nussbaum has been harvesting, cooking, storing and consuming wild plants and medicine for 9 years, making up 20% of her spring summer and fall diet. She began by living off the land without electricity or running water for two years, while studying with published herbalist Susun Weed. She has taught classes a nature centers, health food stores, libraries and to local groups all around New York State and some of Western Mass. She has presented for garden groups, cooked feasts for conferences, and handed out samples at fairs and festivals. Mira has worked as a private cook, caterer, and landscaper, inspiring everyone from business managers, to college professors, to gardeners to view plants in a whole new way.
Charlie Laurel, M.A.
Charlie Laurel arrived in Vermont five years ago bringing 20 years of experience in construction, natural building, greywater systems, and holistic design. While living in Arizona he built an Earthship home and ran a contracting business designing and building homes and structures from straw bale, rammed-earth tires, cast earth, cob, cordwood masonry, and salvaged materials as well as conventional construction. His favorite projects involved working with Navajo communities making links between forest restoration and building traditional “hogan” homes and ceremonial spaces. Charlie currently teaches sustainability studies at Greenfield Community College and Community College of Vermont. In his teaching work, Charlie emphasizes personal and cultural aspects of sustainability as well as technological, political, and resource issues. He holds a M.A. in Sustainable Communities from Northern Arizona University.