Daniel Botkin, instructor of Four Season Farming, is a farmer, educator, athlete, activist, and avid teacher who recognizes the timeliness of “backyard agriculture” and permaculture-style food gardens in today’s shifting food equation. With the help of seasonal volunteers “WWOOFers,” Daniel and his family operate a small CSA, share gourmet veggies, herbs, and flowers, save seeds, and host community events at Laughing Dog Farm in Gill. Although he enjoys growing for market, Daniel sees his true mission as teaching and inspiring the next generation in crafty, small-scale, low-budget, and diversified food production. He mentors on-farm interns and teaches classes on hoophouses, winter gardening, goat husbandry, heirloom seed saving, food storage, processing and fine cooking.

Abrah Jordan Dresdale is certified in Permaculture Design and holds a Master’s degree in Sustainable Landscape Design and Planning from the Conway School. She teaches Introduction to Food Systems and Permaculture Design. As the 2013-14 David Bird Fellow, Abrah traveled to Tamil Nadu, India to help with reforestation and food security efforts. Abrah uses mentoring and ecological design as tools to facilitate positive change in partnership with people and communities.

Clifford Hatch, instructor of Beekeeping, comes from a tradition of New England family farming that reaches back to the early seventeenth century. Clifford grew up on his family’s farm in Granby, MA. After college, he obtained culinary training and embarked on a career as Chef de Cuisine, first at the Deerfield Inn and later at the Rhode Island Country Club. He and Patricia Crosby began their first farm in Seekonk, Massachusetts before moving to Gill in 1988 and starting a pick-your-own farm and raw milk dairy operation at Upinngil Farm. He is active in local and regional farming organizations and serves on the boards of the Greenfield Farmers Cooperative Exchange, the Northeast Organic Farmers Association/Massachusetts, the Franklin County Technical School, and the Greenfield YMCA.

Charlie Laurel arrived at GCC in 2008 after 12 years living on the edge of the Painted Desert in Arizona where he was building houses out of used tires, straw bales, mud, aluminum cans, etc. He also worked with communities on the Dine’ Nation (Navajo) lands making links between forest restoration and building semi-traditional “Hogan” dwellings and ceremonial structures. Charlie earned his Masters of Sustainable Communities degree at Northern Arizona University, writing a thesis that combined his interests of Zen Buddhism and Environmentalism. Teaching a few courses at Coconino Community College in Flagstaff, Arizona sparked Charlie’s desire to focus on teaching when he moved to New England. In addition to teaching Environmental Studies at GCC, he also teaches Passive Solar Design; Building with Earth, Straw, Wood, and Stone; Organic Gardening; and a variety of special one-credit courses. Charlie teaches permaculture through the Vermont Wilderness School, enjoys gardening, and is working on a Masters in Community Mental Health at Southern New Hampshire University.

Brittany Wood Nickerson is a practicing herbalist and an enthusiastic cook and wild plant forager. She is the founder and primary instructor of Thyme Herbal in Amherst, MA where she teaches herbal classes and apprenticeship programs. She teaches women's health at UMass Amherst and is the organizer of the Northampton/Amherst Herbal Meet-up Group.

From 2005 to 2013, Amy-Louise and her husband developed ten-acre Tuckaway Farm in Conway, pasturing meat chickens with Icelandic sheep, tending a flock of laying hens, planting a vineyard, an orchard, berries, and a household garden. Through participation in markets and festivals, as well as in educational opportunities offered through local agricultural and economic development organizations, Amy-Louise developed connections to the farm and food systems of the Pioneer Valley.

As former marketing and sales director of the family-owned Trasimeno Mills Organic Extra-Virgin Olive Oil she established relationships with local food coops, CSAs, and specialty food stores. In addition, Amy-Louise has taught in the public schools in Springfield, Greenfield, and Conway, and participated in professional development at UMASS. Most recently, Amy-Louise earned a certificate from GCC’s Renewable Energy/Energy Efficiency program. This fall she begins studying for a Masters in Sustainable Development and Climate Change at Antioch University New England. She is pleased to bring her commitment to creating sustainable human and natural systems to GCC.

Anthony Reiber is the Natural Resources Special Program Coordinator and teaches soil science and horticulture. He received an M.S. in Wetland Conservation from the University of Massachusetts and a B.S. in Plant and Soil Science from Southern Illinois University. His experience in greenhouse and nursery production with the New England Wildflower Society and New England Wetland Plants concentrated on producing native plant species specifically for habitat restoration and natural landscaping. In addition he started his own growing operation to provide plant material for the largest wetland restoration project in New England.

Andrew Stachiw is licensed high school teacher in MA and a worker-owner at the Toolbox for Education and Social Action, a worker-owned cooperative created to democratize education and the economy while furthering the cooperative movement.  Additionally, he is on the advisory board for both the worker-cooperative Peer Mentorship Program, and the Pioneer Valley Workers Center.

Keith Zaltzberg is an energetic environmental designer who combines experience in landscape architecture, planning, permaculture design, farming, and construction. Since 2005, he has collaborated with individuals and communities on a projects that integrate ecosystem services and agricultural production. As a founding partner of the Regenerative Design Group, a design-build business, Keith has managed projects from campus masterplans and outdoor classrooms to urban community farms and suburban homesteads since 2009. Keith teaches Permaculture Installation at Greenfield Community College, Permaculture Design at Sirius Ecovillage, digital and studio design at the Conway School of Landscape Design, and AutoCad at Smith College. He rounds out his teaching endeavors by delivering workshops at food systems and farming conferences each year. Keith has been a Certified Permaculture Designer since 2001, holds a B.S. in Environmental Design from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at UMass-Amherst, and is an avid student of wild and human ecosystems.