James Mercé Edwards

James Edwards is a Permaculture educator and practitioner helping organizations, communities, and individuals thrive by applying nature-based solutions to human challenges. His expertise in ecological and social systems design, education, and facilitation help his clients design impactful, ethical, enduring solutions that support social and environmental wellbeing while achieving operational efficiency and profitability. James is bi-cultural (Spanish-American) and bilingual. He holds an M.Sc. in Eco-Social Design, a B.A. in Diplomacy and Political History, and is a certified Permaculture Designer and Teacher. He presently serves as Academic Advisor and Adjunct Faculty at Gaia University International.

Denise Jones

Denise has been learning how to solve environmental challenges for decades. She was first introduced to recycling in junior high (Thank you Ms. West!) and continued to learn about the impacts that humans have on earth along with the solutions through college. After earning an MS in Conservation Biology, she turned her focus of study to Community Development. The summer between her two graduate programs, she took a deep dive into sustainable living at the Solar Living Institute. She attended a permaculture class there and felt as though she had found a practice that made sense from all that she had learned. She used her new passion to develop and teach a course series on the Integrative Design of Green Buildings at UC Davis. After moving to Colorado, she attended a Permaculture Design Course, and Permaculture Teacher Training. She now uses those skills, working on a local organic farm, while practicing permaculture in her backyard orchard with chickens and lots of permaculture projects in various stages of design. You can learn more about Denise and her efforts at open heart-mind studio.

Rachael Carlevale

Rachael is an educator, regenerative farmer, writer, and advocate for holistic wellness, devoted to regenerating body, mind, and soil. Her work integrates ancient traditions with modern science to empower students to cultivate reciprocal relationships with the natural world. Her passion for permaculture began at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she helped cultivate one of the first lawn-to-food forest projects on campus. Rachael holds an M.Sc. in Mindfulness Education, a B.A. in Plant and Soil Sciences, is a Certified Yoga and Meditation Instructor, and is a graduate of the 2025 Boulder Permaculture Design Course.

Maria Gomez

Maria Gomez is a Colombian architect turned landscape designer, permaculture educator, and environmental artist. During her architectural training, she explored sustainable agriculture models through academic research and became actively engaged in environmental and social activism. After working professionally in urbanism and residential architecture, Maria moved to the United States to pursue bilingual education, and later to Colorado to gain hands-on experience in regenerative organic agriculture. She has worked on educational programs supporting Latinx youth, immigrant, and underserved communities, as well as on local farms and residential gardens throughout the Boulder and Denver area. Trained in permaculture, syntropic agriculture, bioconstruction, and gardening, she currently works as a landscape designer and educator, weaving creativity, social justice, and land regeneration into both her design and teaching practice.

Course Founders

Avery Ellis

Avery Ellis is an Ecological Designer with a whole systems approach to life. Avery was raised in New Jersey, the Garden state, by a master gardener. He has always felt a kinship with nature and the natural processes. He spent the past decade pursuing his passion for sustainability with experience ranging from permaculture design to natural building practices, solar installation to biodynamic farming, ecological waste treatment to communication dynamics and he loves to share his knowledge with the world. He holds a Masters degree in Ecological Design and a Bachelors of Science in Biology. He studied permaculture in India in 2006 and in the Rocky Mountains he has been learning and practicing permaculture since 2010. He has earned several Advanced Permaculture Design Certificates (2012-2014), and obtained his Permaculture Teacher’s Certificate in 2012. He was honored in 2017 to receive a Diploma in Permaculture Design from the Permaculture Institute of North America Integrating these skills into diverse businesses, he now focuses on designing ecosystems that serve humanity by mimicking natural processes. As an eco-entrepreneur, his business endeavors include: United Ecology and Colorado Greywater, where he brings science and craftsmanship together in his designs and installations.

TaraRae Kent

Raised in the woods of rural Wisconsin, Tara Rae now spends most of her time on the Front Range of Colorado practicing resilient and regenerative living. She is passionate about forest gardening, backyard herbalism, frugality, and is a wild food enthusiast. Over the last 20 years, Tara Rae has worked in varying fields of biology, agronomy, and environmental science including laboratories, nature centers, farms, deserts, and jungles. Her skills include botanical surveys, habitat analysis, bird surveys, wetland delineations and permitting, soil and water quality sampling and analysis, and National Environmental Policy Act analysis and documentation. She is a Certified Permaculture Teacher and Designer educating new clients and students on permaculture, gardening, and urban farming. She has managed several greenhouses, as well as organic and permaculture farms with experience across 3 climate zones. She holds both Bachelors and Masters degrees in Ecology, and is a Certified Ecologist. Her passion for sustainable living has led her to volunteer for the Sustain Arvada Advisory Board to the City Council, making recommendations for sustainable community development and vitality.

Patrick Padden

Patrick Padden, a graduate of Colorado State University, studied natural systems building design in Namibia and urban food forest implementation in Johannesburg, South Africa (2007). Patrick received his design certificate from the International Permaculture Design Course in Harare, Zimbabwe in 2009 and in 2014 completed a Master’s Degree in Integrative Eco-Social Design with Gaia University. He spent five seasons growing organic food for the community at Sunrise Ranch. Patrick is currently living in Fort Collins with his wife and children. He is a practicing permaculturalist, consultant, public speaker, and educator through his company Padden Permaculture, where he offers residential landscape designs and installations.

Amy Scanes-Wolfe

Amy’s original interest in agriculture emerged by studying cultural anthropology at Middlebury College and realizing how closely our culture is shaped by how we get our food.  After five years helping run two organic farms on the East coast, she discovered permaculture. Since then, she has helped found an urban ecovillage, interpreted cultural and natural history in various contexts, worked at Harlequins Gardens Sustainable Nursery, founded a permaculture landscaping business, and, most transformatively, worked in many capacities with Drylands Agroecology Research. During this time, Amy took the 2018 Boulder Permaculture Design Course as well as the 2020 Permaculture Teacher Training. Currently, Amy is the Executive Director of the Niwot Homestead, a project dedicated to relying on the power of community to cultivate a complete bioregional diet outside the scope of the traditional for-profit food economy.

Marco Chung-Shu Lam

Marco has been practicing and teaching permaculture and sustainable living skills for over twenty five years in diverse climates from the Andes to the Hawaiian islands. Originally trained by the founder of Permaculture, Bill Mollison, Marco’s teaching style moves away from the lecture format and emphasizes getting people’s hands in the Earth. Marco is the founder of the Mandala Integrative Medicine Clinic and a renowned acupuncturist and herbalist who grows many of the herbs used in his practice. His vision is a melding of ecological sustainability and nature-based health care where our personal healing and our land stewardship are deeply intertwined.  Marco has been an active creator of new permaculture curriculum and pioneered the “Permaculture through the Seasons” course with Sandy Cruz and through the 9 month permaculture course planted seeds for a more robust permaculture community.  Marco created the permaculture curriculum for the Environmental Studies department at Naropa University in 2006 and stewarded the program there for 6 years to become the most popular class on campus. Marco is currently managing a 700 acre permaculture farm in Northern Colorado with his wife Jamie and grows citrus and figs in a 2800 sq ft climate battery greenhouse and helps mountain communities become more self-sufficient.  He is passionate and committed to teaching a new generation of earth stewards and healers to show up with their gifts and presence to help regenerate the relationship between people and the Earth.

Guest Instructors

Nick DiDomenico

Hailing from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Nick is a regenerative designer, farmer, and builder. Inspired by indigenous culture and ancient farming practices, he works passionately to design the future of living systems. He and his partner, Marissa, offer classes on forest gardening, regenerative agriculture, herbal medicine, fermentation and other holistic living practices at their pilot research program, Elk Run Farm. Nick is a co-executive director of Drylands Agroecology Research.