Teaching Team Biographies
Avi Pogel grew up in Fairfield, IA. As a child he loved to play in the woods and immerse himself in native skills. He graduated from Grinnell College in 2006 with a B.A. in anthropology. After graduating he took the Permaculture Design Certification course as a part of the Big Green Summer program. At the course he realized that Permaculture offered the opportunity to engage in everything he loved - it became his driving passion. Aside from Permaculture, Avi’s other passion is cooking, he took a job as a chef in Colorado, where in his little free time, he fell in with the local food community and would hang out with his friends wild crafting herbs in the foot hills of the Rocky Mountains. After almost two years in Boulder, Avi moved to Orcas Island WA to apprentice with the Bullocks on their farm. On Orcas, Avi lived in a well established food forest, surrounded by like-minded individuals growing, cooking, eating, learning and teaching Permaculture. While on Orcas in 2008 Avi completed his second PDC as well as getting his Permaculture Teaching Certificate. Inspired by a vision of abundance Avi moved back to Fairfield to Plant trees and build soil. Currently Avi owns land adjacent to Lonnie and Grover. He is working at Cypress Villages to help create a sustainable city. In his free time Avi loves to build compost piles, wild craft herbs, fruits, and nuts, practice traditional archery, and cook finely crafted meals with friends. Avi’s mission is to inspire others that an abundant future is with in-reach.
Brian Robbins attended his first Permaculture Design Course in the summer of 2002 with Larry Santoyo in Los Osos, California. He has lived in Fairfield, Iowa for the last four years and has been practicing what he learned since 2004. Brian works installing and maintaining various systems at Abundance Eco village, a housing development that is powered by solar and wind energy. The village uses harvested rainwater to meet its water needs and features a constructed wetland that purifies waste water. Brian lives on an urban lot in town with his friend Kelly Custer were they have created a small Permaculture site -- a bit of an experiment in urban agriculture. Brian and Kelly grow a great variety of annuals and perennials which allows them to enjoy lots of berries, grapes, peaches, perennial greens, edible flowers and even the famed and delicious paw paw fruit. Brian as a very successful worm farm in the basement of his home and produces a lot of good compost. The home is equipped with a rain catchment system that pumps rainwater through drip irrigation lines to water the gardens. At Abundance Eco village Brian is working on building a nursery for edible and useful plants; including a windbreak fence and a small orchard of Heartnuts, Chestnuts, Persimmons, and Paw Paws. Brian also has experience in standard light construction including remodels, drywall, framing, concrete, and stone masonry.
Doug Bullock Since 1982, Douglas Bullock has lived with his extended family, friends, and interns on their permaculture site on Orcas Island, WA. Douglas has facilitated or directly participated in comprehensive Permaculture projects and classes at their site and at sites around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Hawai'i, Costa Rica, the Bahamas, Nicaragua, California and Washington. Every summer he comes to Iowa to be a lead instructor at our Permaculture Design Certification course. Having traveled extensively collecting and studying agricultural systems, he is familiar with a wide range of climate strategies and crops. His specialties include permaculture design, tree crops, nursery practices, creating small and large-scale wetland environments, and implementing appropriate technologies. Douglas has also written articles and pamphlets on permaculture featured in the Permaculture Activist and in the International Permaculture Journal. Douglas, it has been told, put the "cult" in Permaculture.
Grover Stock has 35 years experience in organic farming and has been studying and teaching permaculture for the last 10 years. He maintains a 4.5 acre permaculture site that is off grid in Fairfield, Iowa. He is a co-founder of the Sustainable Living Coalition a non-profit organization created to carry out goals around education and sustainability. He is also on the Board of Directors of the International Analog Forestry Network, a group dedicated to recreating climax forest through analog planting. Finally, he teaches permaculture in Chiapas, Mexico during the winter months.
Kyle Sieck grew up along the Mississippi River in Clinton, Iowa and enjoyed a nature rich childhood filled with water, aquatic life, forests and public apple trees. Kyle has completed studies in Geography and Philosophy and after college began a career in permaculture education, organic vegetable production and organic food catering. Kyle's current work is focused primarily on urban permaculture and finding ways to generate income through growing food and helping others in the urban areas. Kyle has experience with successful community gardens in Iowa City and is moving forward with plans for multiple small businesses relating to food, edible landscaping, health and eco-tourism. Kyle currently volunteers on the board of directors for Backyard Abundance, a newly established Ecological Education non-profit that offers an original curriculum for the urban permaculture enthusiast, land owners and do-it-yourself home owners. Permaculture design is the seed and foundation for Kyle's work. Kyle is a Big Green Summer and PDC 2007 course graduate.
Lonnie Gamble is an engineer, educator, farmer, and community activist. He is the founder of Abundance Ecovillage and Big Green Summer. He is a founding director and co-chair of the non-profit Sustainable Living Coalition. He is a founding faculty member in the four year Sustainable Living degree program at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa.
Lonnie's professional qualifications include a degree in electrical engineering and he holds professional engineer license. His interests include renewable energy, the efficient and wise use of energy, local organic food systems, artisan foods and the slow food movement, natural building, permaculture design and local alternatives to the global economy. He is the founder of five companies in the areas of renewable energy and telecommunications. He speaks and writes regularly on issues in his area of interest.
He llves with his wife Valerie and son Elliot in a strawbale passive solar home, where they harvest rain for water supply, get their electricity from solar and wind power, and eat something fresh every day from their extensive gardens. They haven't paid an electric bill in 15 years.
Al Long, born and raised in Bertram, is a lifelong resident of South East Iowa. Al’s love for everything: bows, arrows, fishing and hunting were nurtured by his grandfather - an avid outdoorsman. Together they spent many summers together in the woods of Wisconsin. As a youth, Al avidly read all the books he could get his hands-on about Native American Culture. Al has hand built bows since his childhood. He perfected his art in 1989 when he began professionally building both: wood, and fiberglass, recurve, and long bows. Al has hand-built hundreds of bows in his life and too many arrows to ever count. Al has taught bow making skills for over ten years. He has taught the Lakota Sioux at the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota and hosted classes on Flint Knapping at the Cedar Rapids History Center, Cedar Rapids Art Center. He has instructed bow making classes at Kirkwood Community College as well as classes in Tuscan, Arizona. As a young man Al served both Active Duty and Reserve Duty in the Army Infantry as a pathfinder. Al has been married to his wife Dixie since 1977 and is proud grandpa to his grandson Sawyer. Al is the owner and manager of Long Enterprises, Inc and provides expert consulting services in the areas of: quality, engineering, lean manufacturing and cost reduction to various manufacturing companies.
