Growing Smart Communities
Who's Who At The Conference
Presenters
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| Neshama Abraham |
 Neshama is a
professional writer and public relations professional who has worked with
national media outlets for over 25 years. In 1996, Neshama and her
husband, Zev, formed Abraham Paiss & Associates, Inc. a national
public relations, marketing, and sustainable development consulting firm
representing environmentally-focused products and companies. Neshama has
authored dozens of articles published in regional and national
publications and has been interviewed on radio and TV interviews about
low carbon living. Her firm has expertise in developing media campaigns
to launch new products and help educate the media and target audiences
about renewable energy, local food production, low carbon transportation
choices, organic products, and living a more sustainable lifestyle. Her
public relations programs produce positive feature stories that help
increase product name recognition, build customer demand, and attract
investors and funding.
Neshama's
Workshop
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| Robert Brantley |
 As an experienced strategic planner,
specializing in family financial and estate planning, I am committed to
learning more about cohousing and the development of intentional
communities. I am passionate about and committed to the proliferation of
efforts that support and promote “elders aging in place”,
“multi-generational family living”, and the building of
“green and clean” communities, in rural and urban settings. I
am currently developing such a project on a 100+ acre farm, with a $50
million+ budget, building platinum green homes, in a community with a
zero-carbon footprint. I am also a founding member of an urban project,
Falls Chuch Cohousing, in Falls Church, VA. My desire is to continue
investing in similar cohousing development efforts.
Robert's Workshops
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| John Buck |
 John Buck has extensive leadership experience in
government and corporations, including managing large information
technology projects. He is the first person not native to The Netherlands
to be certified in the circle-organization method of governance (dynamic
governance). As head of GovernanceAlive LLC, he has introduced dynamic
governance to a number of U.S. and Canadian organizations, as a way of
designing work and making group decisions effectively by rewiring basic
power in the organization. He has also helped to found the Center for
Sociocratic Organization - North America whose aim is to support
dissemination of information and support for the implementation of
dynamic governance. John is a member of the National Speakers Association
and an experienced presenter and trainer. He has a Bachelors of Arts from
Brown University and a Master's degree from The George Washington
University. . He recently coauthored a book titled: We the People:
Consenting to a Deeper Democracy.
John's Workshops
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| C.T. Lawrence Butler |
 C.T. Lawrence
Butler is the author of three books: On Conflict and Consensus (1987),
Food Not Bombs - How to Feed the Hungry and Build Community (1992), and
the completed but as yet unpublished, Consensus for Cities (2009). He has
taught consensus process and facilitation workshops for a wide range of
organizations including government agencies, schools, Indian Tribes,
cohousing communities, professional associations, religious
organizations, food coops, and a symphony orchestra.
C.T.'s Workshops
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Brenda C. Carr
School of Living Board Member, 2009
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 In the summer of 2006 I visited the Heathcote
Community with a friend of my daughter’s who was considering
membership in that “intentional” community. Although
I’d spent most of my “youth” as a student, peace or
feminist activist, I had “dropped back into the mainstream”
to raise my daughter at the age of 39. In 1988 I had chanced to visit
Celo Community in North Carolina with Friends (the Quaker variety) who
had just bought into the nearby Toe Hold Community. Having inherited a
half interest in property in WV I was ready to start looking for the
“utopian community” of my youthful imagination. Within a
month of that visit I attended a School of Living Board meeting at Common
Ground, VA and the FIC annual conference at Twin Oaks, VA. I was hooked.
The past 4 years with SoL have honed my “vision” of community
with the realities of human bonding and the processes of building and
maintaining those bonds.
Through SoL (School of Living) I discovered the works of Henry George
and the founders of SoL, Ralph Borsodi and Mildred Loomis. I’ve
become a student of Geonomics and the economics of our times and a
participant in the “permaculture” approach to
“sustainability.” I make my living as an Autocad Formwork
Designer and in l968 received a B.A from St. Andrews Presbyterian College
with a major in Religion and near minor in Art and Philosophy but the
best “education” I ever got was a week spent studying RULES
FOR RADICALS at the Alynsky Foundation in Chicago with migrant
farmworkers from south Florida who were engaged in a struggle to form a
farmworkers union in the mid-‘70’s. I utilized what I learned
that week in my “feminist activist” years and now planning a
“retirement career” as an activist for the Georgist approach
to the formation of Community Land Trust. This is my debut.
Brenda's Workshops
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| Patty Ceglia |
 As a Permaculture
design consultant, architect, and life-long organic gardener, Patty
Ceglia is passionate about revealing the inherent beauty of every site.
She uses her professional design expertise to integrate dwellings with
their immediate environment, applying appropriate land use for diverse
productivity. She has designed passive-solar and timber-frame houses,
forest gardens and edible landscapes. As an educator, Patty has taught
Permaculture Design and Sustainable Architecture since 1990, for the
Environmental Studies Department at Wilson College, where her students
practice hands-on strategies at the 160 acre Center for Sustainable
Living.
Patty's Workshops
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| Bill Fleming |
 Former business
coach and energy-systems design/build engineer for the Westwood Cohousing
Development Company in Asheville NC. Resident of Westwood Cohousing
Community 1998-2009.
Currently sustainability consultant, eco-village designer and wanna-be
developer (not easy!), and energy-system engineer.
Bill combines technical and management tools in the service of
sustainability-oriented residential, mixed use, and instructional
development. He has studied and lived in alternative communities in the
US and abroad, tracked ecological and energy issues for 50 years, and
practiced intensive meditation in the US and India. He is formerly an
encounter group trainer. He is the father of 2 wonderful daughters ages
10 and 50.
Bill's Workshops
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| Raines Cohen |
 Cohousing Coach.
Community Organizer. Facilitator. Connector. Matchmaker. Visited over 90
U.S cohousing neighborhoods, advises many, lived in two, co-created one.
"Aging In Community" author, Audacious Aging. Certified Green Building
Professional. Certified Senior Cohousing facilitator. Co-organizer, East
Bay Cohousing (world's largest regional communities MeetUp). Boardmember,
Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC), Bay Area Community Land Trust
(BACLT) and Elders' Guild. Cohousing Association of the U.S. (Coho/US)
boardmember (retired) and advisor. Partner, Planning for Sustainable
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| Marlis Janes |
 Marlis Janes is a founding member of Potomac
Valley Cohousing, a forming cohousing group in Montgomery County,
Maryland. She grew up in Europe, but has been living in the USA for over
25 years.
Marlis graduated from the University of Goettingen/Germany with a
teaching degree and has organized numerous cultural and educational
events in Germany, California, and the Washington, DC area. For twelve
years, Marlis worked as a Community Counselor for an international
exchange program. She has also been promoting the arts at a cultural
center in the Kentlands, Maryland.
Marlis is married with two adult children.
Marlis's Workshops
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| Elana Kann |
 Elana Kann: a founder,
developer, and Project Manager for Westwood Cohousing Community,
Asheville, NC, completed 1998. She participated in cohousing conferences,
visited several cohousing communities around the U.S. and in Denmark, and
has lived at Westwood since its inception. Hoping to develop more
communities, she has been writing about lessons learned, the ecological
potential of cohousing cluster design, skill-building programs for
intentional communities, and Best Practices. Elana's work has also
included housing design and construction, carpentry, custom furniture and
cabinetry, wooden wall sculpture, and freelance writing/editing. She's
mom to a 10-year-old daughter who's ready to facilitate family meetings.
Elana's Workshops
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| Joan H. King, MSW |
 Gerontological Social
Worker
Member of Eastern Village Cohousing (EVC) Community since 2002
Served on Design Team prior to move in on November 2, 2004
Member of organization of older EVC residents--SAGES--who are currently
exploring "Aging in Place" options
Edited Washington Weekly Newsletter at National Senior Citizens Law
Center
Wrote for Older American Report and Senior News Service as staff reporter
Joan's Workshops |
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| Rita Kostiuk |
 Rita Kostiuk is
the Village to Village coordinator of Beacon Hill Village in Boston, MA.
The Village to Village Network has been Rita’s main project this past
year and will link Villages across the country to each other to promote
Village networking. A Pennsylvania native, Rita has lived in Boston since
2002. While getting her Masters of Social Work she started working with
Beacon Hill Village as an intern and planned their first national
conference in 2007. Rita has organized conferences around the country for
Beacon Hill Village, The Massachusetts/New Hampshire Alzheimer’s
Association and Boston College.
Rita's Workshops
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| Margo E. McMahon, Ed.D. |
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Margo E. McMahon, Ed.D. is currently the Western MA Area Human Rights Co-Coordinator for the MA Department of Mental Health Office, as well as a Wellness Recovery Educator. Dr. McMahon is an individual with lived cross-disability experience. She is a member of the Amherst Based Organization Developing Equitable Shelter (ABODES) which developed the first 24-unit limited-equity, mixed-income and mixed-ability project known as the Pomeroy Lane Cooperative in Amherst, MA. She has been an active member of the Coop community for the last 15+ years. She provides consultation and training locally and nationally on numerous topics related to accessibility, cross-disability advocacy, human rights, trauma, recovery, wellness and spirituality. Her recent advocacy work focuses on increasing the awareness of the need for accessibility, adaptive design and inclusivity in developing housing for all.
Margo's Workshops
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| Kevin Oliveau |
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Kevin Oliveau is a founder, developer, and builder of Catoctin Creek
Village, a cohousing community located near Taylorstown
Virginia, 1 hr from Wash, D.C. Kevin is a trained consensus
facilitator and is a licensed Green Home Builder. Before starting
CCV, worked in computers at America Online, WAIS Inc., and Thinking
Machines Corp. Kevin holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science and a PhD in Political Science, both from M.I.T.
Kevin's Workshops
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| Grady O'Rear |
 Grady O'Rear is cofounder of EcoVillage of
Loudoun County, Virginia, an environmentally friendly, socially
responsive community 40 miles northwest of Washington , D.C. -
www.ecovillages.com. He is also President of Green Advantage®, Inc.
a non-profit organization that, through education and research, advances
sustainable development practices.
Grady's Workshops
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| Zev Paiss |
 Zev is a principal in
Abraham Paiss & Associates, an independent business that helps
multi-generational and elder cohousing communities get started across the
U.S. He is also a National Spokesperson for the cohousing industry, and
has been interviewed by many of the country's leading national print and
broadcast media including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall
Street Journal, USA Today, NBC Dateline, and CNN.
Zev and his wife and business partner, Neshama, wrote and co-directed
the Sustainable Neighborhoods for Today’s Housing Markets, a DVD
produced by Mid Atlantic Cohousing for professionals in the housing
industry. He is also the producer of the 22-minute introductory cohousing
video "Neighborhoods for People" used extensively by cohousing groups
around the country. Since 1997, Zev has resided in the Nomad Cohousing
Community in Boulder, CO, with Neshama and their two daughters.
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| Dene Peterson |
 Dene is the
founder and developer of ElderSpirit Community® in Abingdon,
Virginia a mixed-income community of mutual support and late-life
spirituality. ElderSpirit has become a model that has received national
attention in both the national and popular press.
Dene holds a Bachelors degree from Loyola University-Chicago, a Master
Degree from the University of Michigan and a certificate as a Housing
Development Finance Professional from the National Development
Council.
Dene serves on two national boards: Aging in Community Network,
Denver, Colorado and Second Journey, Chapel Hill, North Carolina and is a
Purpose Prize Fellow 2006-an award for people over 60 who have done
something innovative.
Dene's Workshop
Panel Discussions
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| Laird Schaub |
 Laird Schaub has been at the wheel of the
Fellowship for Intentional Community since it was launched in 1987. With
20+ years before the mast, he's weathered many a storm (having worked
professionally for more than 40 cohousing groups, it's hard to show him
something he hasn't seen before) and is full of salty stories and
first-hand knowledge about what works and what doesn't. Come to be
regaled and edified!
Larid's Workshops
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Stanley J. Sersen, NCARB, LEED®AP, RS
Stan is President of ASG, Inc., CEO and Founder of The
EnviroCenter®, Founder and Board President of The Green Building
Institute and Principal, Phase2Architecture.
 Stan is a graduate of the
University of Maryland Architecture School, is a licensed architect in
multiple states, is an accredited professional with the US Green Building
Council LEED® certification program, and is founder of the
Non-profit Green Building Institute. He is the designer, and developer of
the EnviroCenter, a Green Executive Office Building who’s
development is regenerating a site in Jessup, Howard County. In addition,
he is a certified Reserve Specialist with the Community
Association’s Institute, and is certified by the National Charrette
Institute as a Charrette Planner and Charrette Manager.
Stan has over thirty years experience in Environmental Design, writes
a monthly column for the Business Monthly newspaper, has been invited by
the Governor, the Howard County Executive and various agencies to sit on
sustainability task forces, and is developing the EnviroCenter as the
most advanced regenerative office building in the region, if not the
county.
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| Karen Stupski |
 Karen Stupski has fifteen years of
experience with permaculture as a member of Heathcote Community. She
currently works as Development Director of the Gunpowder Valley
Conservancy, a watershed organization and land trust, and is the
Registrar for Gaia University. Karen holds a Ph.D. in the history of
science, medicine, and technology from Johns Hopkins University and a
post Master's graduate diploma in Organizing Learning for EcoSocial
Regeneration from Gaia University.
Karen's Workshops
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| Judith Treesberg |
Judith Treesberg lives in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia where she reads, writes, gardens and makes occasional trips into the city to collaborate on mixed media installations. Her daughter lives in Arlington, VA. Together they imagine an intergenerational, mixed ability, mixed income community where they could both live, along with a few chickens.
Judith's Workshops
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| Donald E. Tucker, R.A. |
 Donald has 30 years experience
developing housing, ranging from small group homes for seniors to large
multifamily residential complexes. President of , he is a registered
architect and real estate developer, and a recognized expert in the
programming, design and development of multifamily, elderly and special
user housing. With an extensive portfolio of successful projects, Don's
knowledge of real estate development also enables him to assist clients
with site procurement, feasibility studies, financing and development
coordination.
Prior to 1974, Don was associated with several prominent architectural
firms in Philadelphia and San Francisco. He received his Bachelor of
Architecture degree from the University of New Mexico in 1968, and was
subsequently awarded a Fellowship in Urban Design at the University of
California, Berkeley, where he received a Master's degree in Architecture
in 1970. In addition, Don has taught Architecture at Temple University,
lectured at numerous conferences and written articles on affordable
housing and elderly housing design. Don Tucker is also principal of AHD,
Inc., a developer of affordable housing, and is thoroughly familiar with
the activities required to bring a project successfully from conception
to completion.
Don's Workshops: Cohousing for ALL of US
Cohousing For Developers
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| Sharon Villines |
 Sharon Villines is a founding
resident of Takoma Village Cohousing in Washington DC where she is a
member of the Facilities Team, the Reserve Study Team, and the Board. She
will be discussing reserve studies and her use of the reserve study in
budgeting and in maintaining the facilities. Her previous experience with
budgeting and reserves comes from her years as a member of the
President's Budget, Policy, and Planning Committee at Empire State
College, SUNY. Her previous life as an artist and writer has been
channeled into writing policies and making them look nice on the
community's paper, website, and wiki.
Sharon's
Workshops
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| Brigitte Wazana |
 I lived in Blueberry Hill cohousing for nine
years. My two teenagers have learned and experienced this life style with
some appreciation for it. I was a burning soul with all my heart and with
the time to make sure it got built and lived in. Getting divorced
was eased by years of being steeped in consensus and facilitation.
Now, since I just left a few months ago, I live on my own. Yet I continue
volunteering my time and acquired experiences with Mid Atlantic
Cohousing. Outside of that, I am very social and love my circle of
friends. Brigitte, the Happy French Post-Cohousing Divorcee.
Brigitte's
Workshops
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| Jack Wilbern, RA |
 Jack brings design, facilitation,
development and community life skills as a founding principal of the
Cohousing Collaborative. Jack lives in and was the
architect/planner for the Blueberry Hill Cohousing community completed in
2000.
Jack is a 1982 graduate of the California Polytechnic State University
at San Luis Obispo. As a designer, he brings a sound understanding that
listening well and providing good direction are the first roles of any
good architect. This same attention to detail and the requirements
of individual clients and their projects allows Jack to provide
appropriate and unique solutions to each and every project the
Collaborative undertakes.
He is a member of the Urban Land Institute, holds an NCARB national
certification and is currently licensed as an architect in twelve states.
His experience includes a diverse range of commercial, residential,
industrial and institutional projects. He is a past President of the
McLean Planning Committee, a Board member of both the Greater McLean
Chamber of Commerce and the McLean Landowner’s Association. In
addition, he served as the Dranesville Representative to the Fairfax
County Revitalization Policy Committee. The small world story of
the day is that Jack went to architecture school with Chuck Durrett and
remembers vividly the strange evenings spent in studio hot gluing chairs
to the wall while comparing notes on professors, politics and general
piffle.
Jack's Workshops: Professional Best Practices
Cohousing For Developers
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| Martie Weatherly |
Martie Weatherly is a personal life coach and a trainer of consensus and facilitation. She has given seminars for Mid Atlantic Cohousing and has consulted with several local cohousing communities on both these topics. She is a personal life coach with clients across the country covering topics from living with teens to starting or enlarging their businesses.
Martie is a founding partner of Liberty Village Cohousing, near Frederick MD, where she has lived since 2001. She is a facilitator in her community and a member of the Development and Marketing Teams. She is also a founding member of Mid Atlantic Cohousing, and gives consensus and facilitation training through them.
With Laird Schaub, she created a highly successful advanced facilitation training program which has been replicated across the country. One of her biggest passions in life is supporting cohousing communities in having their consensus process and facilitation work seamlessly.
Marty's Workshops
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| Ann Zabaldo |
 Ann Zabaldo is a pioneer professional in
the cohousing movement. She specializes in outreach education, marketing,
and fueling the fires of burning souls. She was a consultant to Eco
Housing Corporation for the development of award-winning Takoma Village
Cohousing in DC and Eastern Village Cohousing in Silver Spring, MD.
She is was also a finance partner for Liberty Village Cohousing near
Frederick, MD.
Ann is past-president of the Cohousing Association of the United
States, and a founding board member of Mid-Atlantic Cohousing
Association, a regional non-profit organization. She is one of 27
certified facilitators of the McCamant & Durrett Senior Cohousing
Workshops.
Ann's Workshops
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