Kiran Topiwala

Co-Director

Kiran is a visual anthropologist and bioregional engineer. Deeply inspired by patterns of regeneration, he spends his time tinkering at the intersections of self and story, memory and myth, and individual and ecology.

Zane Porterfield

Regenerative Strategist

Zane has spent a lifetime convening at the waters. She is an educator, advocate, and naturalist with a career in groundwater and spring protection. Her work enmeshes intuition, systems thinking, research and strategy, to serve the spirit of nature. She was born with a nose for folklore and a deep taproot in the Texas Hill Country.

Pliny Fisk III

Advisor

With a background in architecture, landscape architecture, and the systems sciences, Pliny has made pivotal contributions to the sustainability movement for more than four decades by developing replicable prototypes, protocols and policy initiatives. His prototypes challenge conventional wisdom about building design, engineering, materials, economic development, and landscape and regional planning.

People

Lamia Anwar Shama

Co-Director

Lamia Anwar is a collector and weaver of bioregional stories. She is an incredible navigator of uncharted waters, keeping one eye on the land of today, and the other on the horizon of tomorrow.

Subham Chaudari

Advisor

A chef turned community infrastructure builder, Subham develops coordination mechanisms and cooperative federalism models. Spending much of his time working in rural India, Subham is passionate about building people-based movements and campaigns that change culture, perceptions and behaviour, especially with and across diverse communities in both online and offline environments.

Anna Castonguay

Advisor

Anna is a behavioral scientist who is interested in how culture and human behavior shape our world, and vice versa. She believes that the secret to shifting to a society that affirms all life is in how we perceive our relationships with each other and with nature.

Caroline Dunn

Advisor

Caroline Dunn is the founder of BIOBUILD, an architecture practice integrating climate-responsive design and advocacy within the context of deep time. Focused on building less, building smaller, and cultivating networks of care, she designs regionally grounded structures that balance social and ecological responsibility. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and is a licensed architect in Texas and California.

Marc Pierson

Advisor

Based in Bellingham, Washington, Marc is a physician and local health system innovator who served as a healthcare executive for 19 years. Formerly an executive leader of Pursuing Perfection, a national initiative to redesign U.S. healthcare, his work now explores the neighborhood as the basic unit of a healthy and resilient society. He studies how neighbors can reclaim their collective power to care for one another and co-create systems that sustain life locally.

Rohit Topiwala

Director of Finance and Board Treasurer

Rohit fully believes that the simplest things in life, like food and sharing it with those he loves, is what truly matters. He joins us on a journey to build a legacy of harmony with nature for future generations.

Ranjit Nair, Ph.D.

Board Secretary

Ranjit is a global business expert, advisor, speaker, and educator. He is here to make sure we will never walk alone on our mission to regenerate communities and landscapes.

M Beth Martin

Board Member

Beth is a master at building relationships and negotiating the complex dynamics of competing interests and perspectives required to create lasting, effective solutions. She has a lifetime passion for helping people, organizations, and communities grow and reach their full potential.

Randy Martin

Board Member

Randy has been a life-long consultant, educator, and board member focused on the relentless pursuit of positive social impact. His passion is to help all individuals thrive and to build communities where residents have agency and actively participate in decision-making. Randy’s mission is to create sustainable change by applying systems thinking to understand the root causes necessary for solving today’s complex social and environmental challenges.