Position: Chairmen of the Board, Founder, Blogger, Chief Editor, SHIRE designer

Education: During his studies of  botany sustainability and safe tree care  while in college, Sandor completed a Permaculture Design Certificate Course.  He continued along that line of thinking gathering the skills needed to understand how to start a sustainability research facility.  This practical knowledge was applied during to various project over  breaks in the educational year, until he  graduated with a BA in Sustainable Agriculture  from Hampshire College, in the spring of 2006.

Experience: Carpentry has been apart of Sandor's upbringing for all of his life, and he has participated in most aspects of the  construction and remodeling of at least 15 houses. Having grown up always having some sort of vegetable garden, Sandor has spent most of his life gardening. During College he spent  4 years doing farmhand and landscaping work on various farms and gardens.  Sandor has worked in the tree care and land scaping industry for the past 2 years to pay the bills while he devots all his free time to making a more sustainable future 

Position: Education Director, Founder, Land Steward, Blogger, Big Big Big Dreamer

Education: After years of self-designed unschooling, with extensive focus on sustainability, community, education and ecology, Gabriel took two years of higher education at Hampshire College, with a break to embark upon a self designed anthropology project and educational bus tour, respectively. 

Experience: Gabriel has traveled the world teaching and learning at communities, promoting and learning about Sustainability, and was one of the founders of the S.H.I.R.E. Project.  He has worked as an arborist, farmer, cowboy, carpenter, teacher, mentor, and community organizer.  He has considerable experience in Sustainable Design and Implementation, and in Unschooling Education. He is now the father of a beautiful boy born in May.

Position: Director, Founder, Blogger

Education: From a young age Nick has been involved in the various attempts by academia to create an alternative type of education. From Kindergarten to 8th grade, he was enrolled in the vanguard program at T.H. Rogers in Houston, TX. The school consisted of half vanguard students and half disabled students, including deaf, Downs Syndrome, autistic, and multiply impaired students. Part of the school program was learning sign-language and interacting with the disabled students. As a result, he has deep respect for the variety of human potentials in this world.

Experience: Nick spent most of his early life in Houston, TX, which is a gigantic, car-oriented metropolis, surrounded by sprawling suburbs. Because of this he knows a different model for urban habitats is badly needed. Nick has also spent a good amount of time in intentional communities that have separated from these cities in order to live in a more rural setting. However, these small communities cannot offer the diversity and cultural exchange of ideas that exist in cities. Through living in many cities and communities throughout the world, he has developed ideas about how to improve each by connecting them in sustainable ways.

 

Position: Director, Grant Research, Community Development,

Education: Emma went to Art school in Baltimore, Maryland, then transfered to Hampshire college where she travelled around the United States visiting intentional communities of various ages, creeds and focuses for her final research project for graduation at Hampshire Collage.  She researched the feasibility of Intentional Communities as a form of Sustainable Development.  Emma received a Bachelor's Degree from Hampshire College.

Experience: Food has been a strong part of Emma's life.   She has worked at various restaurants as baker, cook and waitress.  Her research project showed her the faults, problems and setbacks that intentional communities face throughout their life cycle.   She brings this experience to The New SHIRE Institute so when we help create SHIRE's we will not repeat the mistakes of previous communities.

Position: Director, Public Relations, Fund raising

Education: Katie Rohrer graduated from Hampshire College in May of 2007 with a B.A. in Liberal Arts. Given the opportunity to design her own program of study, Katie's undergraduate career was somewhat of an interdisciplinary adventure that took her from cognitive neuroscience and development economics, through radical social theory and cultural anthropology. This experience culminated in a three month-long field study in Argentina where Katie interned with the Unemployed Workers' Movement of La Matanza- a grassroots neighborhood organization who have begun a multipurpose community center and free school in the heart of Buenos Aires'.

Experience: Katie has been involved in various comunity and grassroots orginasations for several years. She has worked in a range of areas from peace and relief work to advocacy of ecologically minded organizations. Katie grew up around small scale gardening and subsequently has considerable experience with organic farming, bioremediation, and permaculture.

Position: Web-Developer/Web-Master

Education: Trevor graduated Wallace Tutorial Academy at age 16 in Holualoa, HI. After several years of community college in Hawaii and then in Alaska, Trevor enrolled in Washington State University, pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Trevor has currently suspended his college education in favor of pursuing his web-design career, and his photography.

Experience: Trevor has over 7 years of web-site building experience. He began building web-sites when he was 12 years old, and has been building them professionally for 3 years. Trevor currently works in Eureka, California for JSC Marketing, a web-design firm, and as a freelance web-designer.

Position: Writer, Promotion, Research

Education: Graduating from Hampshire College, Jezra had the opportunity to intertwine the arts and sciences. Originally interested in astronomy, Jezra’s eyes turned towards the ground-- this is the planet of which she chose to focus her academic career. After four years of courses in philosophy, geology, and photography, her final thesis was a polar examination of the art in science and the science in art. Her photographic gallery exhibit named Mineral Grain to Tectonic Plate was a philosophical endeavor that explored the geologic world from microscopic scale to macroscopic scale. The scientific paper was a detailed discussion of the tectonic activity that is recorded in mineral grains along large-scale faults.

Experience: As an outdoor enthusiast, Jezra has gained experience in backpacking, xeriscaping, and trail construction. Backcountry survival has been a central focus of her personal development and she has been Wilderness First Responder certified. She has spent her spare time exploring herbal medicine and natural healing. She is currently employed doing  Salmon habitat restoration for N-SEA  in western Washington state.