Adam Federman is a reporting fellow with the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute covering energy and the environment. He has written for the Nation magazine, the Guardian, Columbia Journalism Review, Gastronomica, Petits Propos Culinaires, Earth Island Journal, Adirondack Life, and other publications. He has been a Russia Fulbright fellow, a Middlebury fellow in environmental journalism, and the recipient of a Polk grant for investigative reporting. A former line cook, bread baker, and pastry chef, he lives in Vermont.

Ben Falk M.A.L.D, developed Whole Systems Design, LLC, as a land-based response to biological and cultural extinction and the increasing separation between people and elemental things. Life as a designer, builder, ecologist, tree-tender, and backcountry traveler continually informs Ben’s integrative approach to developing landscapes and buildings. His home landscape and the WSD studio site in Vermont’s Mad River Valley serve as a proving ground for the innovative land developments featured in the projects of Whole Systems Design. Ben has studied architecture and landscape architecture at the graduate level and holds master of arts in landscape design degree. He has taught design courses at the University of Vermont and Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum as well as on permaculture design, microclimate design, and design for climate change. He recently served on the board of directors at the Yestermorrow Design-Build School, where he also teaches from time to time. He is the author of The Resilient Homestead: Innovative Permaculture Systems for the Home and Farm.

Eli Shaw Biography

As a Caregiver, I have experienced many different scenarios of caregiving. As a young boy, I protected a friend with Down Syndrome from bullying daily. I volunteered to help with kids with disabilities in a youth group called STAR and was a US delegate to the Canadian National 4-H Convention. I went to RISD Art School High School program for six years and experienced College for 4 years with no degree. In 1969 I was founder and first director of Camp Happyness and was nominated for the Outstanding Young Men of America Award at Twenty. In 1970 I lived in Brazil and created several programs in the agricultural community in the rural farm area on an IFYE exchange. I was a house worker for a group home in Massachusetts. I worked with a camp for kids with Cancer as a photographer. I was a freelance photographer since my twenties and worked in retail and theater in NYC and was a Visual Display Artist for Bloomingdales, Victory Shirt Co, and many clothing and stationery stores. I worked with the homeless and substance abuse programs and HIV/AIDS Peer Education coordinator in Yonkers. I volunteered at Camp VIVA for families affected by HIV. I was a truck Driver, mill worker, and sales rep. On the board of the Stamford Arts Society and worked as an Educational Technician for several schools in Vermont for twenty-two years. I served on the Community Justice Center Board since 2014 and was Retail Manager for the Non-profit called ReSource. I now work with the mental health agency and have been a PCA for one young man for twenty plus years. My next goal is to continue restoring the 1900 vintage 16 room Victorian and turn it into a respite place for people with TBI. My mission in life is to enjoy it, learn from it, and leave it better than when I got here.