People - The Resilience Hub

The Resilience Hub is supported by two part-time staff, a six-person Board of Directors, and a broader, more informal Advisory Circle of active program participants.

We are a lean, efficient organization and our team expands and contracts depending on the programs and projects we decide to take on. We maintain minimal overhead and infrastructure in order to stay as responsive and agile as possible in a rapidly changing world.

Meet Our Staff

Kate Wallace is our Programming Director and PDC Facilitator. Her involvement with the Resilience Hub began in 2013 with a Permaculture Design Course. Since then she has facilitated educational experiences, Permablitzes, and designed permaculture systems for clients both independently and through the Resilience Hub. Kate brings infectious enthusiasm and a passion for creative system design, cooperative models, and participatory learning.

Benjamin Roehrl is our Operations Director. He has been actively engaged with permaculture and The Resilience Hub since 2012 and hosted a Permablitz at his home in Westbrook in 2013. He is fascinated with patterns, numbers and functional systems. He spends time in his lab (the kitchen) creating delightful dishes and tasty snacks. When not at home, he can be found (but not easily) exploring the lost and hidden corners of the outdoors.

Meet Our Board of Directors

Heather Foran is our Board President. She developed the Maine Permablitz Network at the Resilience Hub in 2011 and continued this program through the 2018 season. She is the co-founder and Program Director of the Field Academy, an academic traveling high school program that brings together diverse groups of students to explore the United States.

Myke Johnson is a writer, permaculture gardener, earth activist, student of decolonization, and free-range Unitarian Universalist minister in Portland, Maine. She is the author of Finding Our Way Home: A Spiritual Journey into Earth Community, and blogs at https://findingourwayhome.blog. She and her partner Margy hosted a Permablitz in 2017 and love the communal energy they can still feel in their garden.

Matt Power was one of the original members of the Resilience Hub’s Board of Directors. He is an award-winning journalist who has covered all aspects of shelter and the environment for two decades. Matt is the Editor-In-Chief of Green Builder magazine and a founding member of the Tiny House Industry Association. He lives in the West End of Portland.

Toxtli Melloh is a former family physician/ geriatrician who now practices acupuncture, offers energy work, and teaches yoga. In 2009 he did his permaculture design training with the Yeltons and Michael Judd in the Catskills. In 2015 he hosted a permablitz at his South Portland home and is immensely grateful to the Resilience Hub community for all it has shared. He feels permaculture principles and practices are important to a healthy, happy, vibrant future for all.

Joshua Haiss is just another Treatment Free Beekeeping-Permaculture Designing-Stone/Clay/Earth Sculpting-Glass Blowing-Seed Saving-Garden Dwelling Landscaper. He lives in Gorham where he is focusing on using permaculture design principles to create healthy, regenerative, outdoor living spaces that build true biodiversity for all life, especially his bees. Call him crazy, but he actually enjoys the little venomous creatures. Joshua is lead beekeeper at Pollinate Apiaries and founder of Landscape Revolution.

Eli Rubin was an organic farmer for 8 years, raising produce with the use draft horses for CSA and farmers markets in the Rochester N.Y. area. He is now a house carpenter, focusing on energy-efficient remodeling and new construction. In his spare time, he likes to build timberframes and play his mbira.

And More!

Jesse Watson of Midcoast Permaculture joins us on special projects and co-facilitates our Permaculture Design Course and Advanced Permaculture Design Course.

Aaron Parker is our Education/Events Working Group Coordinator. He operates Edgewood Nursery in Falmouth, Maine, which specializes in unusual edible plants. He gives talks and classes throughout Maine on edible landscaping, seed saving, perennial vegetables, and low-maintenance, low-input gardening.