My teaching, research and consulting includes themes of social work and sustainable living innovations, environmental education and leadership, organizational development and community readiness for climate change and peak/post-petroleum futures, international bamboo cultures and integrated resource "guild" cooperatives.

I maintain this website from my home using computers and a Linksys WiFi B/G router sporting open-source Tomato firmware (all running on 100% solar power) and Xubuntu Linux software, built on the popular Ubuntu Linux platform. Why choose Ubuntu? -- read here. BTW, this website is cast in Plone, another terrific open-source product. 

I also contribute my carbon-neutral computer processor capacity to e-research projects of the World Community Grid and Climateprediction.net via use of BOINC, the open-source software of the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing. Please consider joining and contributing your excess computer resources as well. **Antioch University students, alumni, faculty and staff -- join the Antioch University Team and lend a hand . . . or, some band-width.

In 2006/07, I completed a sabbatical as Visiting Foreign Faculty at Zhejiang Forestry University, in Linan County, China, teaching graduate courses on themes of sustainable community development, ecological design and pursuing collaborative, funded research on social, economic and environmental contexts of sustainable bamboo resource systems. Why bamboo?

Since 1998, I have served as Core Faculty within the Center for Creative Change (C3) at Antioch University Seattle (and Director / Chair of the Graduate Programs in Environment & Community from 1998-2002). C3 offers integrated graduate studies featuring the degree programs of Environment & Community, Whole Systems Design, Management, Strategic Communications and Organizational Psychology. I presently serve (again) as one of four elected members of the Faculty Leadership Team and with the 12-member, university-wide Sustainability Taskforce.

I hold degrees in Social Work from the University of Tennessee (Ph.D.), University of Pittsburgh (M.S.W.) and West Chester University of Pennsylvania (B.A.) and an A.A.S. degree in Human Services from Montgomery County Community College of Pennsylvania - and am proud to be associated with each of these institutions.

My doctoral dissertation, Living Responsibly: A Study of Sustainable Living in East Tennessee and the Southern Appalachian Bioregion (University of Tennessee, 1997), examined sustainable homesteads, communities and businesses, and focused on the experiences of people, living in both rural and urban settings, who endeavored to live and work in ways they considered to be more socially and environmentally sustainable. Themes, theories and practices of food security and sustainable agriculture, renewable energies, natural building and construction, healthy community relations and conflict resolution, sustainable business and economic development, among others were explored.

As both a Social Worker and Permaculture Teacher and Designer, I have been involved in community organizing and sustainable development initiatives, business and non-profit administration and development, and have taught various social work and socio-environmental courses and field practicum programs across six universities. Within these areas, I have advanced themes of social and environmental justice and sustainability within course and research activities and collaborative community projects, workshops and events.  I have also taught community workshops and participated in projects of permaculture design, renewable energy systems, rainwater harvesting, low-impact design and trans-disciplinary social work practices of social change, and served as a guest speaker for many events, courses and panel discussions.

To date, I have traveled a bit around our world and bring such experiences to bear on my thinking and doing, to places of: Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, China (and Hong Kong & Macau), Egypt, England, France, French Polynesia, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Monaco, Switzerland, most of the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii), and Vietnam. 

Over August | September 2004 and February | March, 2006, I traveled with my wife, Michelle, to India to facilitate exciting organic agriculture and permaculture design workshops. These events occurred at the invitation of Professor Samdong Rinpoche, Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government in Exile, and were collaborative projects with Lobsang Tsering, a Tibetan Fulbright / Brandeis University graduate student who studied permaculture design and other themes of sustainable community development with me.

Convened in Bylukuppe and Kollegal Settlements, Karnataka State, the workshops aimed to extend efforts underway by the Tibetan government towards organic agricultural practices within the Tibetan settlements, home to some 130,000 Tibetan refugees since 1959. The training served participants representing 12 agriculture settlements across six states in India, including farmers, settlement officers, cooperative members, project secretaries, and agriculture extension officers. Read the Outcome Report for more information.

In 2004, I co-founded Pacific Bamboo Resources, a research and development institute supporting international and domestic bamboo conservation, cultivation and integrated resource systems for sustainable development.  In May, 2005, I traveled to China to meet with government officials, academics, entrepreneurs and community leaders of Zhejiang and Guangdong Provinces, involved in and committed to sustainable bamboo projects and enterprises.

Following my sabbatical 2006, I was invited back to China in November, 2007 to deliver a keynote address for the International Conference on Bamboo and related Hangzhou Bamboo Shoot Festival in Lin'an City, Zhejiang Province. Additional networks in Bangladesh, Ecuador, Hawaii, India, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, and mainland U.S. (and elsewhere) afford PBR with access to in-country data, perspective and collaborations. 

As a United States Peace Corps Volunteer in Kingston, Jamaica (1991-93), my primary assignment within the Community Development Sector had me serve as Director of Family & Research Services for VOUCH, Limited: A Voluntary Organization for Uplifting Children.  As a secondary assignment, I taught undergraduate social work courses and supervised field work projects through the Department of Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. Now a Returned PCV, I am a supporter of the National Peace Corps Association. BTW, I highly recommend viewing the film Life and Debt, which vividly documents the challenges, hardship, and perseverance of Jamaicans in face of harsh economic impositions rendered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), and the World Trade Organization (WTO). 

In recent years, I have served as President of the Board of Directors for both the Tahoma Food System, a group devoted to "growing sustainable land and community through gardening, gleaning, and farming;" and Sustainable Pierce County, an educational organization promoting sustainable living throughout the Puget Sound basin.  I also served as a founding Board Member for Climate Solutions, formerly a project of the Earth Island Institute, which monitors global warming trends and advocates for sustainable energy and community development activities throughout the Puget Sound, the Pacific Northwest region, and beyond; and as a Board Member of the Northwest Eco-Building Guild, an association of contractors, design professionals, tradespeople, manufacturers, suppliers and homeowners interested in ecologically sustainable living and design.  I am presently a member of the Advisory Board for the Foundation for Global Sustainability, located in Knoxville, TN. and serving the greater southern Appalachian bioregion.

In 2000, I founded ScherchLight Designs, LLC, featuring a variety of ultra-efficient, durable, and long-life LED lighting technologies.  I also co-founded Living Systems Design Guild, LLC, providing low-impact integrated water management services. I am also an avid photographer -- check out my gallery.

An advanced-class amateur radio operator (KK7PW) since 1990, I have been a member of the University of Pittsburgh Panther Amateur Radio Club, the University of Tennessee Amateur Radio Club, and the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). 

I now volunteer for the Auxiliary Communications Service -- an affiliate of the King County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and the Division of Emergency Management for the City of Seattle.

I monitor many of the HF, VHF, and UHF bands (all with 100% solar power!) and can be frequently found on the 20 meter band, on or around 14.280MHz and many northwest repeaters including WW7RA (both 2m & 70cm), K7PP, and W7VHY of the Puget Sound Repeater Group. And, via Echolink.

Give me a call when you can!  73