Advisory council, Board of Directors, and Guild Consultants for the Knoxville Permaculture Guild.

The Knoxville Permaculture Team

Dr. Chad Hellwinckel

Founder and Permaculture Guild Consultant

Chad’s formative education in ecological design began in 1991 at the Land Institute in Salina Kansas, where he spent two years learning natural systems agriculture from Wes Jackson.

In 2008 he received a Permaculture Design Certificate from Peter Bane , and in 2015 he received a certificate in Advanced Permaculture Teacher Training from Bill and Becky Wilson .

Chad also received a BS in economics and urban studies from St Olaf College, an MS in agricultural economics from the University of Tennessee, and a doctorate in geography at the University of Tennessee. He is presently a research assistant professor at the University of Tennessee’s Agricultural Policy Analysis Center .

Expertise

Permaculture Design~Edible forest design in East Tennessee~Cob construction~Composting toilets / Moldering Privies~Dry-stack retaining walls~Greywater systems and constructed wetlands~Water flow and movement

Other valuable learning experiences of Chad’s include:

Spending several seasons with the U.S. Forest Service working on wilderness trail crews, learning how water flows and alters landscapes, and how to build dry-stacked stone walls.

Serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Panama working with farmers on ecological practices in tropical environments.

Serving on the Knoxville Food Policy Council and experiencing how individuals can work together to instigate systemic change.

For Information on Chad's permaculture design business, visit Hellwinckel Consulting .

Mark Tedsen

Knoxville Permaculture Guild Consultant

Mark Tedsen is a Knoxville-based Permaculturist who recently made the move to Knoxville from the San Francisco Bay Area. He and his family, wife Samantha and 3 year old son Kyler, live in the Fountain City area on their 1 acre homestead and ongoing permaculture demonstration site.

Mark has a background in Ecological Design, Social Work, and Natural Therapeutics.

He originally obtained a Permaculture Design Certificate from Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC) where he studied under Brock Dolman, Kendall Dunnigan, Eric Ohlsen, and Toby Hemenway, author of “Gaia’s Garden". He returned to OAEC to study Edible Forest Garden Design with the Eric Toensmeier , co- author of “Edible Forest Gardening".

He obtained a second Permaculture Design Certificate through Merritt College , a pioneering community college in Oakland, California and one of the first in the nation to offer a 2 year certificate program in permaculture design. There, he interned with Christopher Shein , a Merritt College permaculture instructor and author of “A Vegetable Gardner’s Guide to Permaculture”.

Mark’s volunteer and work experience include maintaining the food forest for St. Mary’s Center for homeless and low income seniors and preschool in West Oakland, CA; The Berkeley Eco House; Wildheart Gardens; Rodgers Ranch Urban Farm; and the Merritt College student farm.

Mark’s passion is to empower, enlighten and educate others towards a pathway to a more sustainable and resilient future.

For more information on Mark's permaculture design business, you can it at New Meridian Design .

Geoffrey Trowbridge

Knoxville Permaculture Guild Consultant

I have been involved in the Permaculture movement since 2006, and have loved so many things about it from the beginning: the positivity of it, the way that it empowers ordinary people, its practicality, its flexibility for different environments and situations. I think over this next century a lot of our journey as a human species is going to be about learning new ways of becoming indigenous- indigenous on particular patches of the planet. To live in a place long enough to see a positive impact that your existence has made on it, and to hold the land and the creatures and the culture as holy and sacred enough to call it a 'Homeland', would be my definition of being "indigenous".

I am a native of Knoxville- my own Homeland- who from the ages of 16 to 25 was mostly absent from this city and region, being pulled by a larger culture that values mobility and material success more than slowness and commitment for the long term. Now I am back in this beautiful valley within Katuah, and want to do everything I can to contribute to a Permanent culture here in Knoxville that creates health, harmony, and happiness for all life.

I am a graduate of The Putney School in Putney, Vermont (Class of 2005) and have a Bacehlor’s Degree from Gaia University in Integrative EcoSocial Design with a focus in Community Development (Class of 2012). I have particular interests and passions around community organizing, sustainable economic development, "eco-preneurship”, alternative education, and natural building.

Experiences

Habitat for Humanity Service Trip, Portland, Maine area; May 2005.

Miller Farm at Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana; August-December 2005.

Apprenticeship in Ecological Design and Natural Building, April-May 2006, at the Ecovillage Training Center.

Permaculture Fundamentals and Advanced Permaculture Practicum, June and July 2006, at the Ecovillage Training Center.

The Greenway School, Concord, Tennessee; August-November 2006. (completed the Permaculture Design Certificate)

Third Planet Report, WUTZ-FM The Farm. August 2007. Internship for community radio program.

Ecovillage Training Center at The Farm, Summertown, Tennessee; August-September 2007. Worked on Middle Tennessee Green Directory Project

Common-Ground Relief, New Orleans, Louisiana; February-April 2008. Bioremediation, Community gardening work, wetlands restoration, housepainting, construction.

Hidden Springs Orchard, Jackson County, Tennessee; June-August 2008.
Koinonia Partners, Americus, Georgia; March 2009. Service trip with college group

Warren Wilson College Garden, Swannanoa, North Carolina; June 2009-May 2010.
Transition Whidbey, Langley, Washington; July 2010-March 2011.

Whidbey Community eXchange (WCX), Langley, Washington, January-March 2011.

Tracie L. Hellwinckel

Founder and Permaculture Guild Director

I began taking backyard gardening seriously in 2003 when I observed my young son eating fresh snow peas from the vine. At that moment, I wanted to grow everything I could to ensure he had the healthiest food available. After Hurricane Katrina and observing the citizens of New Orleans struggle to survive, I joined the Beardsley Community Farm team as an AmeriCorps volunteer to learn more about local food production with the hopes of teaching the most needy how to become more self-reliant. I served a second AmeriCorps year at Habitat for Humanity’s HUG (Habitat Urban Gardens) program teaching gardening and landscape design to Habitat for Humanity homeowners and managing their nursery.

In June of 2008, my husband, Chad, and I established the Knoxville Permaculture Guild, and I started The Agrarian Urbanite , a blog that focuses on teaching regenerative agriculture, as well as other rantings.

Over the years, I have volunteered at the Parkridge Community Garden (and still do), taught Parkridge neighborhood children about growing food, assisted with starting the Knoxville Urban Hen Coalition, got behind the legalization of chickens in Knoxville, and helped promote More Community Gardens! with the Knoxville Knox County Food Policy Council. I've conducted presentations on regenerative agriculture at Eat, Play, Live! , the UT Fall Symposium, to Master Gardeners, and have had several workshops at the Parkridge Community Garden. I currently serve on Knoxville's Tree Board .

I graduated with a Masters in Education in 1999 from University of Tennessee. I earned my Bachelor's from University of Central Florida in Interdisciplinary Studies focusing in Health Sciences, Art, Writing, and Psychology. I served in PeaceCorps with my husband, Chad, teaching environmental education in Palenque, Panama .

I received my PDC from Cliff Davis & Jennifer Albanese of Sprial Ridge Permaculture , and Ryan Rising of the Permaculture Action Network at Seven Springs Yoga & Holistic Retreats .

I specialize in ground covers, culinary & medicinal herbs, flowers, native plants, annual vegetable gardens, and tree guilds. I am a follower, in that, I seek to listen, watch, and feel Earth so as not to force what I want to happen to the landscape but to follow Nature's lead.

My dream is to see a resilient society, a culture that touches the soil treating the Earth with reverence, and perennial food growing abundantly in balanced resilient ecosystems. I hope by combining my knowledge, passion, professional training and collaborating with others that together we can inspire people to get back to basics through growing food, cooking fresh, and regenerating the Earth.