Starhawk is a committed global justice activist and organizer, and the author or coauthor of ten books. Her works include The Spiral Dance, long considered the essential text for the Neo-Pagan movement, and the now-classic ecotopian novel, The Fifth Sacred Thing. A personal favorite is award-winning Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising. Starhawk's latest book is The Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature.

Starhawk's books have been translated into many languages, while her essays are reprinted across the world, and have been included in numerous anthologies. Her writing is influential and has been quoted by many hundreds of other authors, from magazines to trade and academic press. Her books are often used in college curriculums.

Starhawk is a gifted teacher and speaker with an international audience. She is a veteran of progressive movements, from anti-war to anti-nukes, and is deeply committed to bringing the techniques and creative power of spirituality to political activism. Her work in progressive movements spans over 30 years. She has organized, trained protesters, and been on the front lines of antinuclear actions at Diablo Canyon, Livermore Weapons Lab, Vandenberg Air Force Base, and the Nevada Test Site, among others. She traveled to Nicaragua with Witness for Peace in 1984 and made two trips to El Salvador to give ongoing support for sustainability programs. She continues to be a witness for peace on the front lines of the Palestine/Israel war, working with Palestinian and Israeli peace activists. A main focus for the last several years has been the global justice movement; Starhawk has taken part in many of the major actions, including those in Seattle, Washington DC, Quebec City, Genoa, New York City, Cancun, Mexico, and Miami. She co-founded RANT: Root Activists' Network of Trainers, and teaches non-violent direct action trainings for groups throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Palestine, and South America. She is active in the revived American peace movement, and works with Code Pink. Starhawk also works on countless environmental and land use issues, and is a founder and active member of the Cazadero Hills Land Use Council in western Sonoma County.

• The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. San Francisco. HarperSanFrancisco. 1979, 1989, and 1999 editions. German, Danish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Spanish editions.
• Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex, and Politics. Boston. Beacon. 1982, 1988, 1997 editions. French edition, 2003.
• Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority, and Mystery. San Francisco. HarperSanFrancisco. 1988.
• The Fifth Sacred Thing. New York. Bantam. 1993. German, Italian, Portuguese, and Polish neditions.
• Walking to Mercury. New York. Bantam. 1997.
• The Pagan Book of Living and Dying, cowritten with M. Macha NightMare and the Reclaiming Collective. San Francisco. HarperSanFrancisco. 1997.
• Circle Round: Raising Children in the Goddess Tradition, cowritten with Anne Hill and Diane Baker. Illustrated by Sara Ceres Boore. New York. Bantam. 1998.
• The Twelve Wild Swans: A Journey to the Realm of Magic, Healing, and Action, cowritten with Hilary Valentine. San Francisco. HarperSanFrancisco. 2000. Dutch edition, forthcoming in German and Spanish.
• Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising. Victoria, Canada. New Society Publishers. 2002.
• Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature. HarperSanFrancisco. 2004.
  

Erik Ohlsen is an ecological/permaculture designer, practitioner, and teacher. He's also a community organizer, facilitator, and activist. He's devoted the past seven years to building sustainability movements locally and internationally.

Erik is a co-founder of Planting Earth Activation, the RITES Project (Return Intentions Toward Ecological Sustainability), Green Bloc Sonoma County, and Adopt-an-Activist. He also runs his own business, Permaculture Earth Activation, to offer services in ecological design & landscaping, permaculture trainings, and consultation for neighborhood/community emergency preparedness (such as peak oil and global climate change).

Erik's work and community involvement includes initiating hundreds of community gardens, organizing local and global campaigns, and conducting trainings within the permaculture and global justice movements. He's consulted for many non-profit organizations and individuals on projects ranging from market gardens/farms, to urban sustainability, to group decision-making processes.

Erik has strong skills in ecological design and project implementation, consensus process, group facilitation, campaign organizing, and community-building strategies. He is solution-oriented in his actions and campaigns. He focuses on projects that utilize methods of both mutual health and vitality that have a direct interface between the community and environment.

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Erik has worked throughout the nation and the world to implement permaculture systems and global justice campaigns. He has worked in tropical, temperate, and dry land ecologies and with Latin American, European and North American campaigns.

Erik teaches with the following organizations: Earth Activist Training, the Regenerative Design Institute, the Solar Living Institute and the RITES Project.

Erik's intention is to integrate social and ecological systems to bring about sustainability and justice. He devotes himself to being an educator and builder of workable alternatives, with the ultimate goal of empowering communities to make vital changes towards Earth-based regenerative systems.

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Penny Livingston-Stark is internationally recognized as a prominent permaculture teacher, designer, and speaker. She launched and directs a business and two not-for-profit organizations:

• Sustainable Living Designs (SLD), a professional permaculture design/build firm that integrates landscapes and structures with water, soil, plants, and energy efficiency.
  
  
• The Permaculture Institute of Northern California (PINC), an educational and research organization promoting sustainable technologies and methodologies.
  
  
• Regenerative Design Institute (RDI), an education program focusing on hands-on skills development. RDI is currently in collaboration with the Institute of Noetic Sciences and Commonweal (a cancer healing and retreat center), both in Marin County, California.
  
  

Penny is one of America's leading teachers of permaculture. She has taught all around the country, from Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, to the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. She co-created and taught the Ecological Design Program at the San Francisco Institute of Architecture. Recently she began an urban permaculture program in Oakland, California. She has taught internationally in Portugal, Mexico, France, England, Indonesia, and Costa Rica. She did her own training many years ago with Bill Mollison, the "father of permaculture," and has gone on to instruct many of the practitioners now working in the field.

In addition to her teaching, Penny has a wealth of practical experience. She has worked professionally in the land management and development field for 25 years and has extensive experience in all phases of ecologically sound landscape design and construction, as well as the use of natural non-toxic building materials. She specializes

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in site planning and design of resource-rich landscapes that integrate rainwater collection, edible landscaping, pond and water systems, habitat development, and watershed restoration. Her clients include co-housing communities, schools, homes and businesses, retreat centers, and diverse yield perennial farms. Early in her career, she was a market farmer, textile artist, and tool and die machinist.

A popular speaker (from KPFA radio to Bioneers Conference), her work has been featured in the media, including Natural Home, the Pacific Sun, Healthy Living, San Jose Mercury News, and SF Chronicle Home & Garden. Book authors have also been keen to include Penny's work: The Beauty of Straw Bale Homes (Bill & Athena Steen); Gaia's Garden (Toby Hemenway), The Art of Natural Building (Michael Smith, Joe Kennedy & Catherine Wanek), The Hand Sculpted House (Ianto Evan, Linda Smiley & Michael Smith), The Natural House Book (David Pearson), and Building with Vision: Optimizing & Finding Alternatives to Wood (Dan Imhoff).

Penny is currently on the boards of the Institute for Solar Living (Hopland, California) and the Green Building Council (Redwood Empire chapter). She is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council and serves on the advisory board of the Organic Waste Recycling Project of Northern California. In addition, she serves on the Institute of Noetic Sciences' Site Development Committee. She also CO-founded the West Marin Grower's Group, West Marin Farmer's Market, and the Community Land Trust Association of Marin.

Her web site is: www.permacultureinstitute.com.

Penny will teach at the July '07 course in Asheville, NC.

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