Former Staff, Interns, and Volunteers

Billie Best Billie's involvement in sustainable localized economics and in Berkshire County stretches far beyond the Schumacher Society. She has a twenty-year track record as a marketing and development consultant advocating the triple bottom line, and is the executive director of the Regional Farm and Food project focusing on small scale food production and sustainable agriculture. She's actively working for sustainable agriculture and is a member of numerous boards and commissions at local, regional, and national levels.

Conor Casey Conor is a student at the University of Vermont, majoring in International and Community Development. In addition to other responsibilities, Conor developed and managed our Community Land Trust Directory.

Terry Daniels

James Ferris James was first brought to the Schumacher Society by two friends who graduated from the Master's Program at E.F. Schumacher College. He initially performed occasional gardening and carpentry tasks for the Society before taking a job in the office from the fall 2003 to fall 2004. He was drawn to all facets of the "Schumacher Society experience," the co-workers and volunteers, the Tuesday lunches, intellectually stimulating discussions over great meals and pots of Susan's black tea, the stream of amazing guest speakers and visitors to the library, the unique folks who would contact the organization for support or ideas in their grassroots endeavors the world-over, the resources of the library, and the Berkshire mountain setting' and library building as an enclave from which to nourish the ideas and ideals of E.F. Schumacher. He currently works for Green Berkshires, a small non-profit based in Great Barrington with a mission to protect ridgelines and mountaintops in the Berkshires, a job for which his work at Schumacher Society well-prepared him. He is glad to be staying in the area, and to still be able to take advantage of the Society's local public events.

Lori Heath The organizer of a local currency in her home town of St. Johns, Newfoundland, Lori joined us to help with the development of the BerkShares local currency program. She has a background in organizing press events for a number of international groups--such as a coordinated effort to find a solution to the AIDS epidemic in Africa. In addition she plays the guitar and sings.

Julie Hudson After receiving a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Economics and an M.A. in Environmental Policy from the George Washington University, Julie worked at The Wilderness Society and then at the Sierra Club in Washington, DC. She has done fundraising, event planning, and outreach/activist work. Julie spent her time at the E. F. Schumacher Society promoting the Society's unique model of farmland protection. Her passion for sustainable agriculture led her to try her hand at raising organic vegetables for a few years. She then decided to return to the non-profit world and put her experience and skills to use working on sustainable agriculture at the national and regional level.

Otter Knab-Vispo Claudia's son and a wonderful editiion to the Schumacher team.

Claudia Knab-Vispo Claudia Knab-Vispo holds a doctorate in Land Resources from the Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. A native of Germany she has done extensive land resource field work in Venezuela and Indonesia. In 2001, in anticipation of the birth of their son, Otter, she and her husband returned to Columbia County, New York where they continue their field research and advocacy for sustainable land use practices. Claudia was librarian with us for 4 years.

Joshua Lichtman Joshua attended New York University School of Law, and has a background in real estate law & community economic development. He compiled for us a database of community land trust groups across the United States, which is posted on our website.

Julie Macé Julie was with the Society for a year starting in September 2005. An avid traveler, she has spent time volunteering in Asia and South America, while maintaining Great Barrington as her homebase. She is a graduate of Boston University in International Relations and recently attended a course on international development at Schumacher College in Devon, England. Julie is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Public Policy & International Development at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.

Dane Springmeyer Dane came to the Schumacher Society after studying internationally for a year as a Watson Fellow. He worked with regional scientists and indigenous communities on projects in Latin America and Asia to protect the migratory flyways and habitats of rare species of raptors. The challenges of conserving the integrity of both people, place, and wildlife brought home for him the direct connection of local ecologies and local economies. His time at the Society greatly enriched his understanding of how communities can empower themselves to live sustainably through common sense, yet radical, economic tools. His contributions to the Schumacher Society ranged from creating the MANAS journal site and expanding the Schumacher Society site to helping plan key lectures and seminars. Dane now lives in Portland, Oregon where he works for Ecotrust and The Wild Salmon Center as a researcher and geographer studying the conservation of pacific salmon.

Jake Sterling Jake first worked at the Schumacher Society in the late 80's, responding to a request Bob and Susan put out for volunteers with carpentry experience. He worked for several weeks with Bob to insulate the library. and recalls his time spent at Bob and Susan's breakfast table eating oatmeal, drinking (strong!) tea and trying to understand how on earth a local currency could work. In 1993 he returned to work for a year in the office, living on the land trust. Aside from the usual work of running a small non-profit organization, he did some writing, including a proposal for a local currency. Working at the Schumacher Society motivated him to gain a formal education in economics. In school, his experiences at Schumacher, as well as earlier work at The New Alchemy Institute, allowed him to better understand the implications of classical economic theory. He came away reassured that the ideas with which he had started -- the importance of cities and multi-centeredness, localization before globalization, internalizing environmental costs, and valuing human communities--were basically sound, and was glad to have also achieved an understanding of large scale and global trade structures and monetary systems. Jake is now making his living creating websites, producing database solutions, and doing some writing and text editing.

Peter Tiso Peter is a recent graduate of Simon's Rock College of Bard, where he concentrated in environmental studies and geography. His natural gift for systems thinking aided him in streamlining office procedures and creating finer finished products. In addition to his work with the Schumacher Society, Peter has been engaged with projects to restore native vegetation to the Housatonic River in Great Barrington. He is especially interested in the role that GIS/GPS mapping can play in building sustainable local economies and currently volunteers with the local ambulance company each week as an EMT.

Kristen Fix

Tony Weigert

Chad Nicholson

 

We look forward to hearing from former staff, interns, and volunteers! If you've worked at the E. F. Schumacher Society in the past, please feel free to submit your bio and to update your information often.