Board of Directors
Andrew Millison is the founder of Oregon State University’s Permaculture Design program where he has been an instructor since 2009. He has built a worldwide following through his multimedia storytelling and online educational programs. His popular YouTube channel, boasting of hundreds of thousands of subscribers and tens of millions of views, documents the most impactful ecological projects on Earth and presents them in both an artistic and technical manner. In recent years he has documented epic permaculture projects throughout India, Egypt, Mexico, Senegal, Spain, Cuba, and throughout the US. As a Permaculture designer, Andrew has designed and consulted on projects since the late 1990’s around the US and the world, specializing in large scale water design.
A life-long political activist and nature advocate, Lynda Mueller has been focused on Garry Oak savannah restoration of her 16 acres in Yamhill County since 2021. She is dedicated to outreach and education pertaining to water storage and retention within watersheds, small-scale food production, regenerative farming, wildfire mitigation, and habitat restoration. She was a founding partner of Social Venture Partners-Portland and served as an officer on the boards of Sunset Montessori School and Stafford Hills PTSA. She loves utilizing her passion for education, policy design and implementation, community building, and advocacy to inspire others. Lynda can think of no better use for her free time than spending it with animals and the Earth. Her dogs love to run the forest trails and to relax by the pond with her.
Brenda Smola-Foti, a passionate artist turned farmer, draws from a rich upbringing in farming and ranching to weave generations of agricultural heritage into a sustainable venture emphasizing regenerative farming and water-retention permaculture. Together with her husband, they own and operate TabulaRasaFarms and TheGround, an integrated farm business fostering connections through farm, food and people in the Willamette Valley.
Julia Eden first discovered her deep love of nature in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. She now focuses on holistic land management as a landscape designer, consultant, and educator under the brand, Squatchberry. Specializing in native plant propagation and decentralized water retention, she devotes as much time as possible to her ongoing education of the natural world.
Jarad Taillefer is a passionate restoration practitioner who strongly believes that educating and guiding people to connect with nature is the most crucial aspect of successful restoration work. Jarad came to the Willamette valley in the spring of 2020 in order to work with and learn from Zach Weiss, founder of Water Stories. Since then he has been developing his own business, Green Phase Environmental, specializing in Oak Savanna restoration, in-stream erosion mitigation/restoration, water retention landscape installation, natural spring development, trail and access building, and more. Jarad considers working with people to create sustainable and restorative landscapes an art, and he takes pride in his extensive knowledge, readiness to learn, and experience in bringing life back to places commonly unspoken for.
Sean Scorvo is a retired ER physician who recalled the healing power of the pre-industrial agricultural practices of his great-grandparents. Endeavoring to bring the the same benefits of what we now call “permaculture practices” to others, he and his wife Lainey started No Regrets Flower Farm and Sanctuary in Bellfountain, OR, for the commercial production of flowers, livestock, eggs, soldier flies, and compost mixed with a bit of goat yoga on the weekends.