Staff & Boards

Staff

Carrie Campbell

Carrie is the co-founder and Director of Operations of the Natural Building Network. She is a designer, builder, and supporter of natural buildings and healthy communities, passionate about creating a world in which people feel a sacred connection to place as well as to each other. Carrie has a B.A. from Evergreen State College with a focus in Ecological Design and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Community Development. She spent the last 2 building seasons as intern coordinator for O.U.R. Ecovillage on Vancouver Island, Canada.  She  lives with her daughter in the sticks of Kentucky.

Eddie Hooker

Eddie is Membership Coordinator for the Natural Building Network. After receiving a Philosophy degree from University of New Mexico, he moved to Colorado were he found his passion for natural building. Recently, he  moved to Portland, OR where he continues his quest for expanding the minds and hearts of all who want to build and live in a natural building. His specialties are Straw Bale structures with earth and lime plasters and clay pigments.

Michael Blaha

Michael Blaha is an artist, web designer, natural builder and cob enthusiast. He keeps a blog about cob, natural building and related topics at I Love Cob!. Michael also runs Cob Workshops, a free listing for cob related events. Mic lives in Taos, New Mexico.

Action Board

Chris McClellan

Chris McClellan, specializes in information access and synthesis, connecting people and businesses around the world with the resources that support their livelihoods and further their passions for over 15 years. Chris’ micro-publishing company, IndustrialRustic, produces print-on-demand books, cd and dvds on natural building topics including strawbale curriculum and the work of SunRay Kelley. As an enthusiastic owner-builder, he sees here a unique opportunity to reintroduce expediency and sustainability as core elements in the increasingly complex social dance that building has become.

Chris Dancey

Chris is a terrific advocate for natural building having served as the coordinator of the natural building track for the Timber Framer Guild conferences for 5 years.
Chris’ network extends throughout Canada, the US and beyond. Her own home is of timber frame and hemp/lime so she really understands the journey of an owner/builder. She has a lot of energy and focus and is active in other organizations including the National Farmers Union and Transition Town in Ontario. Her main interest in NBN is in developing NBN Chapters and regional efforts toward a more sustainable society.

Dawn Smith

Dawn washed up on the shores of NBN in the fall of 2008, and realized quickly that she had found a home for both heart and hands. Dawn has been involved in natural building since her first job framing on a straw bale site in Alberta in 2001. 3 internships and 4 intentional communities later, she still strongly self identifies as an Emerging Builder, and is committed to creating sustainable appropriate resources for the transfer of information and skills to the next generation. She also spends a lot of time thinking about how to build and care for the invisible structures (financing, education, code development, process literacy) that support the creation of visible structures. When she is not covered in a fine coat of clay slip or shaking straw dust out of her bra, she can be found riding her bike around Victoria BC and trying to figure out how to get pennies out from between the cracks in the floor.

Linda Lloyd

NBN is a much needed organization that can help take the Natural Building movement into its needed position as we move forward questioning huge outlays for houses and buildings that are neither healthy, nor affordable, nor suited to our lives, and costly in terms of first cost for materials and ongoing costs for energy. I have had extensive experience in non-profit administration and related governmental and for profit businesses to include:
9 years on the Board of the Yestermorrow Design/Build School
2 years on Board of the Historic Harrisburg Association
Executive Director neighborhood non-profit housing development corp
Executive Director Mad River Valley Planning District
Owner/director Real Estate Institute of Pennsylvania
CEO Natural Systems Developers and Mariposa Project Director
Manager – The Quarries LLC, green development company
I shall look forward to working with such a dedicated group of builders and craftspeople.

Sasha Rabin

Sasha Rabin has a degree in Ecological Design from Evergreen State College. She has been involved in natural building since her apprenticeship with Cob Cottage Company in 2002. Following her apprenticeship she co-founded Seven Generations Natural Builders, a collective that is dedicated to teaching people how to house themselves using earth and straw construction techniques including cob, adobe, wattle and daub, light-clay straw, straw bale, natural plasters, and earthen floors. Since then she has been teaching and building throughout the US, including at the Yestermorrow Design-build School in Warren, VT, and currently teaches classes for the Solar Living Institute in Hopland, CA. She built herself a hybrid cob and straw bale cabin in eastern AZ where she lived until she recently relocated to the bay area, where she is working on an urban retrofit and permaculture project. She can be found infiltrating cob and bamboo into a suburban east bay neighborhood, and learning about how much food and housing can be created on 1/3rd of an acre by implement different living systems.

Goals for NBN board membership
One of the greatest strengths of the Natural Building Network is its drive and ability to unite natural builders and to remind us that the power of the movement is greater than any of us individually. This is the primary reason for my interest in NBN.
Throughout the last 6 years of teaching natural building workshops I have continually observed the positive effects that natural building has on people and communities.
How do we use the skills, knowledge and momentum we have gained as a movement to positively affect more people, landscapes, and environments, both urban and rural? I imagine my involvement with NBN to be a compelling way to explore answers to this question. One avenue that specifically interests me is the integration of Natural Building as a form of housing into urban ecosystems. I see the urban venue as an opportunity to share the natural building experience with a wider group of people who are not currently exposed to natural building. I see this being accomplished through a variety of creative educational experiences, and discovering new ways of teaching.
As a community of natural builders we have the strength to make profound changes in the ways that we relate to our built environment. I feel that because the Natural Building Network is a fundamentally uniting rather than divisive organization, it adds to the reality of making these changes happen.

Greg Wellman

Background
I was first introduced to natural building about ten years ago and have attended a variety of workshops and events over the years. In 2005, I started a new business venture to facilitate the development of small scale retreats that feature a variety of natural building methods and materials. The prototype site in Makanda, Illinois is opening this spring and will provide opportunities for natural builders and others with an interest to become potential owner/builders.

My consulting career spans over 25 years provides strategy and project management consulting services, primarily focused on addressing large complex challenges facing airports. Some of my key strength and capabilities include:
• Problem solving, communications and leadership. My focus has been integrating complex technical issues and translating them into meaningful terms for decision-making.
• Experienced facilitator working with a variety of groups including managers, boards, technical teams, public policy and citizen groups.
• Expertise includes strategic planning, process design, facilities planning, environmental analysis and financial analysis.
• Engaging leadership style, which often motivates teams to think creatively and find out-of-the-box solutions.

Education
• Bachelors of Science from Southern Illinois University in management and communications
• Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago (additional course work on New Venture Strategy, Negotiations & Decision Making, and Corporate Strategy)

NBN Board Contribution
I intend to use my business and entrepreneurial skills to help the Board navigate the many challenges that it will face over the next two years. One of the greatest assets of the NBN is the passion of its Board and members about natural building. The long-term success of this organization and the natural building movement will require this passion along with strong skills in a variety of disciplines, including management, finance, communication, and education.

Tim Owen Kennedy

Vital Systems Natural Building & Design is headed by original founders Tim Owen-Kennedy and Bill Camp. Tim is our resident designer, instructor and contractor. He has worked with ecological materials and designs for over 10 years and is a vital member of the natural building community in Northern California.

Vision Council

Laura Bartels,
GreenWeaver, Inc. Carbondale, Colorado

Michael Blaha,
I Love Cob!, Cob Workshops and Organic Arts, Taos, New Mexico

Warren Brush,
Quail Springs Learning Oasis and Permaculture Farm, New Cuyama, California

Alex Cicelsky,
The Center for Creative Ecology, Kibbutz Lotan, Israel

David Eisenberg,
Development Center for Appropriate Technology, Tucson, Arizona

Ianto Evans,
Cob Cottage Company, Coquille, Oregon

Joe Jenkins,
Joseph Jenkins, Inc., Grove City, Pennsylvania

Janell Kapoor,
Kleiwerks International, Asheville, North Carolina

Carolyn Marie,
Wild Earth Village Builders, Ojai, California

Carolyn Riege,
Earthen Touch Natural Builders, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Candy Vanderhoff,
poetrybench.com, San Diego, California

Catherine Wanek,
Straw Bale Central, Kingston, New Mexico