Join Jess Alvarez-Parfrey, Nathan Lou, and William Wildcat (Coakí) for an exploration of ancestral connections, and transformative opportunities to nurture a truly regenerative, just, joyful, and climate resilient future. Bringing together diverse cultural backgrounds, skills, and experiences, our panel of practitioners will share their story, and explore the theme of “regeneration” as it relates to our connection to place, purpose, and community. In a time of multiple converging and complex crises, a rising generation of change-makers are reclaiming connections to ancestral wisdoms and the critical skills needed to feed, heal, and nurture their communities.
The panel will also delve into a powerful discussion around Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), “work”, “citizen science”, and share their visions for regenerative bioregional cultures and economies of care.
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BIO: Jon Schull
A biological psychologist, entrepreneur, human-computer interaction researcher and digital community organizer, Dr. Schull is the founder of e-NABLE, an online philanthropic community that makes free open-source 3D-printed prosthetic hands and arms for children and adults with upper limb differences.
Concerned about the climate crisis and impressed by recognition that healthy ecosystems are the earth’s air conditioning system, Schull is now helping to forge an online collaborative community of ecorestoration practitioners, scientists and storytellers inspired and empowered by the insight that reversing biodiversity loss and restoring healthy ecosystems normalizes climate and protects against warming, storming, fires, floods and droughts. Their aim is to mobilize millions to reverse global warming by restoring the planetary air conditioning system.
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BIO: William Wildcat (Coakí)
Coakee (Wildcat) was born in the Oklahoma Seminole Nation and has a long history of organic gardening and organic farming. A student of soil microbiologist Dr. Elaine Ingham, he integrates western science schools of thought in biology, ecology, botany and soil science with modern regenerative ecology practices and indigenous land management wisdom, including the ancient form of milpa and the Brazilian traditions which gave birth to syntropic agriculture, bringing the collective picture into his ecorestoration work, including desert reforestation, regenerative horticulture, and food forestry. He lives near the Gila wilderness area in southern New Mexico, USA, where he teaches and practices.
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BIO: Jess Alvarez Parfrey
With a background in community organizing, nonprofit fundraising, and environmental activism (formerly with Greenpeace USA), Jessica Alvarez Parfrey finds joy in seeking transformative opportunities for radical collaboration and community co-creation. Jessica currently serves as the Executive Director of Transition US. Having worked on food, housing, community health and wellness, and other issues; Jess is a life-long learner of all things that would allow us to reimagine our relationship to the earth and to one another.
Jess is a nepantlera, mother, creative, caretaker of 44 acres of land, and a JEDI consultant working in service to the project of collective liberation. She received her B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara , and is driven to nurture opportunities for joy, healing, community-based strategy, and design informed by decolonized practice and methodologies.
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BIO: Nathan Lou
Nathan was born and raised in San Diego and has completed an AS in Agriculture from Yuba College, and BS in Natural Resources, with special emphasis in Fish and Wildlife Conservation, from Oregon State University. With over 15 years of cultivation experience, Nathan has developed a passion for agro-ecology and agro-forestry. Nathan is the co-founder and executive director of Mongol Tribe, a community and capacity building 501c3 focused on bridging health and wellness with civic ecology.
With pillars in co-operative development, regenerative practices, and education, Mongol Tribe is cultivating urban food forests and seed libraries for its Food & Medicine Sovereignty Program. Mongol Tribe is in the process of developing an edible urban forest that will host an apprenticeship program with an emphasis on traditional ecological knowledge and regenerative agriculture practices. Nathan is currently working on Palomar Mountain performing vegetative surveying for forest health, primarily studying the oak trees and relevant ethnobotanicals as part of Mongol Tribe’s Natural Land Management Program.
