MULTIPLE TOPICS

Tony Brown, founder of Ecosa, is an architect with decades of experience teaching multiple subjects in sustainable and regenerative design. During the semester he will be presenting several classes that will include the Psychology of Spaces, an exploration of the psychological factors that the design of public and private spaces has on our well-being and how to improve them. Complexity and Complication, a review of the evolutionary processes that have shaped the world we live in, discovering the underlying design processes of nature. A New World View, discovering the history of the way we have understood the world in the past and how we need to rethink our worldview to create a better future.

ARCOLOGY + URBAN AGRICULTURE

Founded in 1970, Arcosanti is a project of The Cosanti Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to inspire a reimagined urbanism that builds resilient and equitable communities sustainably integrated with the natural world. This mission is pursued through experimentation and application of the principles of arcology. Arcology is the fusion of architecture with ecology, a comprehensive urban perspective. In nature, as organisms evolve, they increase in complexity and become a more compact system. A city should similarly evolve, functioning as a living system. Architecture and ecology as one integral process, is capable of demonstrating a positive response to the many problems of urban civilization – population growth, pollution, energy/natural resource depletion, food scarcity, and quality of life. Arcology recognizes the necessity of the radical reorganization of the sprawling urban landscape into dense, integrated, three-dimensional cities in order to support the diversified activities that sustain human culture and environmental balance.

ECOLOGY

Dr. Susan Sherrod (Certified Senior Ecologist, Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner, Professional Wetland Scientist) is a local ecologist with a global reach. A Colorado native, Susan knows the region well and has taught at CU-Denver, CU-Boulder, and University of Denver (1994-2022).  She was also on the faculty of Semester at Sea (2019), a live-aboard that stopped in 12 countries between Mexico and The Netherlands over four months. She has taught urban ecology, biodiversity and conservation, ecology of climate change, and urban sustainability, among other topics. Susan is a full-time Senior Ecologist at Biohabitats where she advocates for ecological function through conservation planning and restoration design. Her work has taken her from the San Francisco Bay addressing sea level rise to the alpine tundra of New Hampshire, from wetlands in Bellingham, WA, to the deserts of the United Arab Emirates.  She has served as a sustainability advisor for campuses, cities, and federal facilities, integrating remote monitoring and SITES tools with ecological insight.  Susan earned her B.S. in Biological Sciences from Colorado State University and her Ph.D. in Environmental Biology from CU-Boulder.

BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATION + NATURE JOURNALING

Founded more than 45 years ago, the School of Botanical Art & Illustration is one of the few remaining programs of its kind training the next generation of botanical illustrators. In the age of AI, computer animation and digital photography, botanical illustration serves as a vital bridge between art and science. Botanical illustrations, even more than photographs, are uniquely suited to convey important information about plant identification and complex plant structures, in addition to providing a record of plants over time. Students at the School of Botanical Art & Illustration hone their skills through a well-rounded art curriculum supplemented by courses in botany, lectures from horticulturists and researchers and visits to the herbaria, library and art galleries. Highly interactive studio courses, held in the Freyer – Newman Center or online, have low student-to-instructor ratios and include ample demonstrations, studio time and feedback.

SOCIAL PERMACULTURE

Adam Brock is a Denver-based cultural artist practicing regenerative social design. For over a decade, he has worked to create the conditions for regenerative relationships among individuals, grassroots initiatives, and institutions throughout the country. As co-founder of food justice nonprofit The GrowHaus, Adam led the transformation of an abandoned half-acre greenhouse into an award-winning hub for healthy food and urban agriculture. While at GrowHaus, Adam co-chaired Denver’s Sustainable Food Policy Council, spoke at TEDxMileHigh, and was named one of “Colorado’s Top Thinkers” by the Denver Post. A trained permaculture designer since 2008, Adam has led over a dozen Permaculture Design Courses and is a national leader in the field of social permaculture. In 2017, Adam published Change Here Now: Permaculture Strategies for Personal And Community Transformation, a recipe book for social change inspired by the more-than-human world. Since 2019, Adam has served as co-director at Regenerate Change, a national consulting and education group focused on regenerative social design. Adam is 2007 graduate of the Ecosa RE-Design Certificate program.

BIODESIGN + MYCELIUM

Dr. Assia Crawford is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Tulane University. She holds a PhD in Architecture from Newcastle University, where her thesis Living Building Practice: Design for a Post-Anthropocene Era examined methods for working with living organisms and the ethical dimensions of emerging material practices. Assia’s research centers on biological material alternatives and digital fabrication in response to ecological challenges. Positioned at the intersection of architecture, science, and critical theory, her work uses experimental and speculative design to explore resilient, adaptive responses to environmental uncertainty. In 2022, she founded Wild Futures Lab, an interdisciplinary research and teaching facility focused on bio-design. Assia has served as the ACADIA 2023 Site Chair, a researcher and architect with the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE), and artist in-residence at the Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research. She is also a former editor of the Biotechnology Design Journal and recipient of the ACSA TAD Best Article Award (2022) and CU Denver’s Department of Architecture Research Award (2024). She is an ARB-registered architect and author of Designer’s Guide to Lab Practice (Routledge, 2023) and Bios in Search of Zoe (ACTAR, 2025). 

RAINWATER HARVESTING

A two time author of "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond" (Volumes I andII) Brad Lancaster has been teaching permaculture and running his own permaculture design consultation and education business since 1993. He and his brother have created, and live on, a thriving 1/8th of an acre urban permaculture site in downtown Tucson, Arizona. Within his neighborhood and beyond, Brad feeds his passion for community building and activism, resulting in the creation of an organic community garden, mini-nature park, salvaged bicycle cooperative, neighborhood newsletter, annual tree plantings, local food pot lucks, and more. He is author of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands aimed at giving people the tools needed to welcome rainwater into their lives.

ABORIGINAL LIVING SKILLS

Cody Lundin grew up with the outdoors, from the Pacific coastline and the hills of Europe, to the plains of the Rocky Mountains and desert canyons of the Southwest. His passion for freedom led him to a lifestyle of resourcefulness and simplicity through the exploration of self-reliance. He teaches with rare intensity and humor to individuals, schools, colleges, universities and various organizations throughout the United States. Cody holds a B.A. in Depth Psychology and Holistic Health. He founded the Aboriginal Living Skills School, LLC (ALSS, LLC) during the winter of 1991 in Prescott, Arizona.

URBAN SKETCHING

Craig Stoffel is a landscape architect based in Boulder, CO and works with the multidisciplinary design firm Ayres Associates.  As an avid sketcher, Craig utilizes sketching in his design process as a vital tool to capture initial ideas onto paper, evaluate spatial relationships and communicate ideas to clients and consultants. He began leading sketch crawl events for ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) Colorado in 2015, eventually expanding to other ASLA chapters nationwide. He teaches sketching workshops to design firms, universities and ASLA state chapter conferences across the country. During the pandemic, Craig led over a dozen virtual sketch events for universities, and many ASLA State chapter events. Most recently Craig has been back out leading sketch crawls, workshops and facilitating project-related community design charrettes.

PERMACULTURE

Kelly Bull Is a regenerative landscape designer, permaculture educator, community builder, and Ecosa alum with over 20 years of experience in horticulture, education, and ecological design. A certified permaculture designer and former teacher, Kelly is passionate about teaching others how to create thriving regenerative ecosystems. Her design work integrates food forests, native plants, and community resilience.  

She currently serves as the Executive Director of Hey Neighbor, a nonprofit in Colorado Springs dedicated to cultivating vibrant, connected communities. She believes real change starts in our own backyards, and her journey from transforming her personal landscape to leading neighborhood-wide efforts exemplifies her mission to connect people to the planet and to each other so that everyone can love where they live.

LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE

Lauren McNeill joined the AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) industry with a unique educational background focused on environmental economics and public policy. The tremendous impact that the buildings have on the natural environment led Lauren to explore a career in the built environment. Lauren now has over 15 years of experience with Group14 Engineering, PBC – a woman owned sustainability consulting firm - where she works as an Associate Principal to their sustainability team. Lauren’s experience includes management of over 100 LEED projects and multiple projects seeking certification through Living Future frameworks including two projects pursuing the Living Building Challenge. As an active supporter of Living Future for the past decade, Lauren has recently been honored as a Living Future Hero (2025) and presently serves on their Technical Advisory Group for the Water Petal. In her leadership role at Group14, Lauren also plays an integral role in Group14’s ongoing corporate social responsibility efforts to remain a certified B-Corp, a JUST organization, and a Public Benefit Corporation.

STRAW BALE + LIME PLASTER

Lindsey Love is the founder of Regen Building in Driggs, ID and is committed to incorporating natural and raw materials wherever possible in any project. She has balanced her architectural and building career with many seasons of construction work doing everything from framing to fine plastering, electrical work and management. Also an educator, Lindsey has led natural building workshops in North Carolina and was a visiting lecturer at Universidad de Valle de Mexico and continues to teach natural materials workshops in her free time. She has a fierce belief that design enhances our experience through creating connection. Lindsey is a Certified Passive House Tradesperson and holds a Certificate in Healthy Materials from Parsons New School of Design, is certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, a member of the American Institute of Architects, and the International Living Future Institute. She is a board member of the Natural Building Alliance.

COMPRESSED EARTH BLOCKS

Lisa Morey, Founder of Nova Terra, is a professional engineer and architectural designer who has been working in the construction industry since 2000. Lisa started building with adobe bricks while living and working in New Zealand in the early 2000’s. There she was involved in a design-build firm that constructed nearly 50 homes. From this work Lisa published a book, “Adobe Homes for all Climates”, in 2010. Lisa’s mission is to scale the natural building industry by offering an affordable wall system made from locally obtained material. Lisa has been recognized as a woman making contributions to reduce carbon emissions within the building sector. In 2023 Morey and Colorado Earth gained exclusive entry into the National Renewable Energy Lab’s West Gate, a lab embedded entrepreneurship program (LEEP).  Morey and her start-up company gained strategic guidance, mentors, coaching and introductions to investors. LEEP is an extremely successful program with 97% of the companies that have gone through it are still in business. While off work she enjoys water-skiing, ping-pong, and hacky-sack.

HOPI HISTORY + DRY FARMING

Dr. Michael Kotutwa Johnson is a member of the Hopi Tribe in Northern Arizona. Dr. Johnson holds a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Arizona, a Master of Public Policy from Pepperdine University, and a B.S. in Agriculture from Cornell University. Dr. Johnson is a faculty member and Assistance Specialist within the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona. His primary work is with the Indigenous Resiliency Center. Michael is also a co-author on the Indigenous Chapter in the National Climate Assessment Five. His newest initiative is the call for the Restoration of the American Indian Food System based on the stewardship principles of Indigenous conservation. Most importantly, he continues to practice Hopi dry farming, a practice of his people for millennia.

URBAN PLANNING + ART IN COMMUNITIES

Tanniqua-Kay Buchanan is a First Generation Jamaican-American mover, maker, choreographer, and urban planning professional whose interdisciplinary work bridges the worlds of dance, spatial justice, and city design. Grounded in a belief that movement shapes place, her practice integrates performance, placemaking, and policy to explore how bodies move through and belong in space. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Theater with a Dance focus and a minor in Community Planning from Kansas State University, where her research investigated the Black Dancing Body through color theory and social experimentation—an inquiry that deepened her understanding of identity, culture, and space. She later earned her Master’s in Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago, focusing on Spatial planning. Her research is embedded in “Movement and Urban Form,” an improvisational dance/design technique that explores the intersections of movement, urban form, and community memory. Through this lens, she champions art integration in urban planning, particularly within Movement-Informed Planning, Placemaking/ place-keeping, and community engagement initiatives. She has spoken at forums such as The Art of City Building (Nova Scotia), the Othering and Belonging Institute (Berkeley, CA), and the National Organization for Youth Safety. Her collaborations include work with Hyde Park School of Dance, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and South Chicago Dance Theater in roles spanning education, dramaturgy, and choreography. Her dance films have screened at venues including Sarah Lawrence College, The Culture Lab (New York), The Outlet Dance Project (New Jersey – Finalist), and the Greensboro Dance Film Festival. Currently, Tanniqua-Kay is an Urban Planning Professional and a Dance MFA Candidate at CU Boulder. Tanniqua-Kay is deeply committed to intersectional, community-centered practices that use art, movement, and design to foster equitable, vibrant, and expressive public spaces.