Teachers
Aranya
Completing his Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design in 2003, Aranya started teaching the following year. He discovered this made his heart sing, so he made it his main focus. Since 2004 he has taught over 90 two-week design courses, something he has no intention of stopping. He feels that it's a privilege to have the opportunity to teach "something that can make a real difference in all our lives".
Aranya is also excited about new ways in which permaculture thinking can help us, developing new courses on using its principles to help us design for optimising our health and creating ethical livelihoods.
In the spring of 2012 Permanent Publications published his first book 'Permaculture Design - a Step-by-Step Guide', which evolved from a set of design course worksheets. He also writes occasionally for magazines and from time to time shares interesting items on his blog. Aranya is currently writing a second book, about a subject he’s especially fascinated by, the application of systems thinking and patterns in permaculture design.
Klaudia van Gool
Klaudia has had an interest in growing things as long as she can remember and has incorporated Permaculture ideas for the last thirty, since accidentally picking up Bill Mollison's book in the library.
In 2006 she completed the Sustainable Land Use and Permaculture Design Certificate at Ragmans Lane Farm with Patrick Whitefield, followed by her Diploma in Permaculture Design in January 2009. Klaudia has a degree in Environmental Science from University of Plymouth and has worked for many years as an Environmental consultant in environmental management for businesses.
She has been increasingly drawn to the People Care ethic of permaculture, using the design process for personal and social designs and bringing a strong yet soft focus and many tools to the people care aspects on courses. She has taught 41 PDCs to date and is involved with local regenerative agriculture design and climate resilience action.
Heavily inspired by the 8 shields model developed by Jon Young she also works with regenerative cultural elements such as deep nature connection, ceremony and rites of passage with fire and is studying herbal medicine.
Pat Bowcock
This inspired her to look for a piece of land to live in harmony with which she found in the form of a pony paddock in June 1999. Her aim was to create a haven for plants, wildlife, trees and people. Pat realized that she couldn't change the world alone, but she could take responsibility for what she ate, where she slept, her waste, and how she interacted with others. A central element of her intention was people care, planet care and fair share.
Pat set about creating the systems she would need to put these principles into action. She was supported and encouraged by her family and the many people who came to help make Ourganics what it is today. Ourganics Evolving Systems has become her portfolio of design work which in July 2006 earned her the Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design.
Caroline Aitken
Caroline is the director of Whitefield Permaculture. She is the lead teacher on their residential and online courses and their primary design consultant. Caroline originally trained with Patrick Whitefield before working alongside him, and has a background in design, organic farming, horticulture and eco-catering.
Her experience includes managing 2 acres of intensive organic vegetable production within a small mixed farm, managing 5 acres of ornamental and food gardens at a meditation retreat centre, and catering for groups, courses and retreats. Since she began teaching in 2008 she has worked at a wide range of educational centres from farms to universities, working alongside many inspiring people in her drive to spread positive solutions for food production and land use. More recently, Caroline has branched into educational consultancy to further these aims, including the design and development of a ground-breaking undergraduate course: BSc Sustainable Food and Farming for Schumacher College, Dartington - the first degree of its kind in the UK.
Caroline lives with her partner and son on a 4 acre smallholding in Dartmoor where they produce veg, fruit, eggs and honey. She is co-author with Martin Crawford of 'Food from your Forest Garden', a comprehensive guide to making the best use of your forest garden produce.
Chris Evans
Chris lives at Applewood with his partner Looby and children Shanti and Teya. He has taught permaculture in the UK, Europe, Nepal, India, U.S.A. and Mexico. He is also a senior level tutor for apprentices working towards their diploma in applied permaculture design with the Permaculture Association Britain.
He has lived and worked in Nepal since 1985, starting his career as a VSO volunteer in a community forestry programme in Nepal after graduating in Forestry in the UK. Based in the remote western district of Jajarkot, he quickly realised the shortfalls of international development and so in 1988, when he came across the concept of Permaculture, he embarked on an ambitious alternative. Starting with a local friend, £500 and an acre of degraded farmland in the district centre of Jajarkot he founded a demonstration and training centre which grew organically into the Jajarkot Permaculture Programme (JPP), a diverse array of projects spanning 4 districts, 65 villages, 8 resource centres (working farms), 120 staff and volunteers, and a membership of 12,000 farmers which successfully spread new ideas in line with existing cultural traditions.
Looby Macnamara
Looby was first inspired by permaculture when eating a flower salad from a 6 foot square patio garden bursting with vitality in the middle of an urban jungle. She went on to do her permaculture course in Brighton, but it was not only the content of the course, but how it was taught that led her on the path to teaching permaculture. Her path since has been life changing and has affirmed the belief that we can all take positive action to benefit ourselves, our communities and our planet. She is interested in how we can use Permaculture principles, ethics and design in all aspects of life, and as part of her Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design she included several non land-based designs.
Her book 'People and Permaculture' was the first book to directly explore the application of permaculture design and principles to our lives and relationships. She teaches a diversity of permaculture courses, including introductory, full design, advanced design, teacher training and peoplecare courses. In 2016 she moved to Applewood Permaculture Centre, a 20 acre smallholding in North Herefordshire with her family and partner Chris Evans. She is also a senior diploma tutor and experienced in people based designs.
Looby has been developing the Cultural Emergence toolkit for positive cultural evolution for individuals and communities. The understanding of both systems and patterns is a fundamental part of the effectiveness of this toolkit.Hannah Thorogood
Hannah is a permaculture farmer, designer and teacher. She has set up and runs her own 150 acre organic permaculture demonstration farm in Lincolnshire, The Inkpot. She has taken the farm from a depleted, compacted, toxic arable field into the diverse, abundant farm it is today demonstrating permaculture, regenerative agriculture and supplying nationally award winning produce.
Hannah is a senior tutor with the permaculture diploma system and was one of the lead designers in creating the current system and she co-designed and leads the tutor training within that system. She has also been teaching permaculture design courses since 2002 and has been teaching permaculture teaching courses since 2007. She has a reputation for creating a very accepting and fun learning environment, putting people from all backgrounds at ease to enjoy their learning together.
Hannah has a BSc in Environmental Studies from Manchester University & an MSc Organic Farming from Scottish Agricultural College. She also loves to knit and crochet using her own Inkpot wool.
