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Sky Blue (They/Them pronouns) has spent 22 years living, working, and organizing in intentional communities, cooperatives, and community organizations. Sky currently lives in Valley Oaks Village, a 25 year old cohousing community in Chico, CA. Their parents met in a now 54 year old intentional community called Twin Oaks in the late 70’s. Sky came back to Twin Oaks as an adult and raised a child there. Sky has visited over 130 ecovillages, cohousing, coliving, co-ops, and communes in the US and Europe. They served as the Executive Director for the Foundation for Intentional Community and has worked for the Federation of Egalitarian Communities, Global Ecovillage Network of North America, and consulted with a variety of projects and events. As a movement builder they explore the relevance of intentional communities as laboratories and training grounds for addressing the systemic problems humanity faces.
Erik is a registered architect with deep expertise in sustainability and participatory design. His experience includes facilitating integrated design of groundbreaking LEED and net zero carbon projects, while at Rocky Mountain Institute. His work focuses on integrating the economic, environmental, and social components of sustainability with a focus on equity and empowerment. Erik taught sustainability from an interdisciplinary perspective at Montana State University and has published research on cost optimization of energy efficiency. He has worked to design and also found cohousing communities across the United States. He is passionate about collaborating with clients who possess a strong mission, be they intentional communities, individuals, or NGOs.
Crystal is a North Carolina native active in the cohousing and polyamorous communities. An engineer turned educator, she speaks and writes about ways communities can be more welcoming to people of all kinds of backgrounds. Crystal is the website editor for Black & Poly, an organization promoting healthy polyamorous relationships for people of color. She also serves as a board member with the Foundation for Intentional Communities. Her book The Token: Common Sense Ideas for Increasing Diversity in Your Organization is out now. Crystal is passionate about encouraging people to change their perspectives on diversity, relationships, and the world.
Georgia (she/they pronouns) grew up in two cohousing communities—Eno Commons in Durham, NC and Eastern Village in Silver Spring, MD—and developed an interest in facilitation and collaborative work from a young age. A recent graduate with a dual MSW/Masters of Conflict Resolution from George Mason University, Georgia has experience facilitating dialogues, decision-oriented meetings, and various forms in-between. Their interests include social justice, whiteness as a social construct, and social policy broadly.
Grace is an architect and co-founding principal of Schemata Workshop, an award-winning architectural practice with a keen focus on building community and social equity. She brings innovative ideas to her projects that merge client goals and sustainability measures – such as urban agriculture, modular construction, and a focus on building community. Grace is also the cofounder of Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing, a collaborative residential community which includes her street level office and a rooftop urban farm. She walks the talk of sustainability – leaving a small ecological footprint while incorporating holistic ideals of social and economic resilience into her daily life. Her TED Talk on cohousing as an antidote for loneliness has been received more than 2 million views. Grace is an internationally recognized expert in cohousing, particularly for her expertise in designing the Common House. Grace has visited more than 90 cohousing communities in North America, Denmark and South Korea. For four years Grace served on the national board for the Cohousing Association of the US and she currently serves on the Professional Advisory Council. Grace serves on the Board of Directors for the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle/King County, the Board of Trustees for her Church, and recently completed an 8-year term on the Seattle Planning Commission.
Jerry is a founding resident of the 27-year old Pioneer Valley Cohousing Community and Co-Founder of Sociocracy For All.
Alexandria Levitt is the past president of SAGE Senior Cohousing Advocates. She is a gerontologist, specializing in Community Engagement and Strategic Partnerships around Senior Housing and Aging Care Services. She is interested in developing housing for older people that doesn’t just show off a “lifestyle” imagined by corporate developers but one that reinforces the qualities that help us most as we get older – friendship, community and purpose.
As a gerontologist, Alexandria is very familiar with the many challenges facing older adults and the remarkable connection between health (both mental and physical) and social engagement. She is the co-author (with Charles Durrett) of State-of-the-Art Cohousing: Lessons Learned from Quimper Village, an in-depth study of the successful creation of a senior cohousing community in Port Townsend, Washington that looks at every step of their process and features interviews with residents, lots of photos, timelines and more.
Alexandria is on the Board of the Senior Citizen’s Foundation of South Pasadena and served on the city’s Senior Citizen Commission for 6 years. Her goal is to move the needle in the creation of cost effective, appealing, environmentally friendly housing that can be home for older adults, intergenerational communities, veterans, and the physically and mentally challenged.
Currently, Alexandria is the Project Manager for SOS Children’s Villages California that seeks to create a new foster care “village” in the greater Los Angeles area.
Ted is a sociocracy trainer and consultant. He co-authored the sociocracy handbook Many Voices One Song in 2018 and has taught sociocracy workshops on in several countries, like the USA and Canada, Brazil, Italy. He is transgender, has 5 children, and has lived in Pioneer Valley Cohousing since 2012.
Erin is founder of Autistic Nature. She has been a part of the permaculture movement for 4 years. Identifying as Autistic and ADHD, has been advocating about Neurodiversity for 8 years. They are passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion in permaculture and intentional communities movements, as well as social justice and intersectional environmentalism.
Linda Tate is a long-time member of Wild Sage Cohousing in Boulder, Colorado. Linda was a university English professor for 26 years and has run her own business, Tate Communications, for the last 12 years. She provides writing, editing, and project management services.
Kellie and Adam have been neighbors at Hearthstone Co-Housing in Denver Colorado for nearly 20 years. In that time they have each raised kids – Kellie as a working (and early on, traveling for work) mom, and Adam as a stay-at-home dad. Along with their respective spouses, and the community of about 55 adults and about 25 kids, they have learned together about parenting in community. Today, Kellie is a maternal child health professional and Adam is a small business owner, and the adventure of parenting teen agers and young adults, who grew up in co-housing, continues.
Mac is a native of Minnesota. Although he loves his home state, he was happy to trade mosquitos for mountains and now can’t imagine living anywhere other than Colorado.
Family, nature, and community are central in his life. When those converge, life is especially good — such as in whitewater rafting, skiing, camping, Ultimate frisbee, tennis, hiking, and all the other outdoor pursuits that are a normal part of the Colorado lifestyle.
Professionally, in the 80’s, Mac was a CPA in San Francisco before returning to Minnesota to run the family’s photo processing business. In the 90’s, he was a founder and project manager during the development of Heartwood Cohousing. He has now returned to his project manager role for Heartwood as they develop their second phase of homes.
