Instructors
The RMSLA works with instructors that are not only experts in their field, but are quality educators that can provide hands on training in a small group setting.
Dan Bartman
Dan Bartmann has lived off grid since he was a child and now runs Otherpower.com from a small wind powered workshop in Northern Colorado. Otherpower.com has built over 100 wind turbines and helped countless people build their own. They have been involved with several workshops in the last few years, including leading the Sustainable Living Fair Homebrew Wind Turbine Workshop the past five years. Dan co-authored the book Homebrew Wind Power: A Hands-On Guide to Harnessing the Wind.
Kelly Simmons
Kelly Simmons is the former Director of the Boulder Sustainability Education Center and a permaculture teacher. She has taught for many years through the Denver Botanic Gardens, Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute, as well as universities and other venues both nationally and overseas. She currently manages the CU Boulder Sustainable Practices program and lives on an urban permaculture demonstration site in downtown Boulder with bees, chickens, an orchard and abundant gardens.
Shelley Kawamura
Shelley Kawamura is a healthy and sustainable building design consultant and owner of LifeSpaces. Shelley has over twenty years of experience in the design world and has a passion for how we interact with the built environment on a physical, emotional and spiritual level. The dual goal of environmental preservation and human health is the focus of Shelley’s work and her personal belief is that a healthy home environment is the first step toward encouraging health on a global scale. She is a certified Healthy Homes Specialist through the National Environmental Health Association, a LEED Accredited Professional and has a Master’s Degree in Sustainable Construction Management. Shelley has taught many courses on the health factors of buildings and has also presented at many local and national conferences and workshops.
Jason Gerhardt
Jason Gerhardt has been applying and teaching permaculture design in diverse bioregions from the deserts of Arizona to the fresh water lakes of New York since 2005. As an emerging voice of permaculture in the US, he is known for detailed knowledge of plant ecologies, rainwater harvesting, seed biodiversity preservation, urban food production, and integrated design science. Jason currently teaches a permaculture design program for Naropa University and instructs in numerous workshops and courses annually. He has taught for many well-respected organizations including Prescott College, High Altitude Permaculture, Denver Botanic Gardens, and Transition Colorado. Jason practices ecological design professionally as Real Earth Design.
Greg Michaud
Greg Michaud instructs our Backyard Chicken series and our Biointensive Gardening Course. Greg is a long-time holistic gardener turned sustainable ecofarmer/health-foodie with training in organic certification inspection. He & his wife Patty run "The Old Feed Store" and "The Old Farm Stand: A Clean Food Alliance," hosting local growers and food producers in farmers market and farm-direct sales support.
Karen Kinyon
Raised on a Jersey Dairy Farm in Eastern Colorado, Karen has always enjoyed animals. In 1988 she purchased her first llama and her Handspinner's herd has grown from there to 36 llamas and 6 alpacas. She started with two pack llamas so that she and her husband could continue to hike in the Colorado mountains with their two small sons. While grooming the llamas for packing, she kept thinking she should do something with "all that fluff". She started taking classes from excellent professionals in the fiber arts. These included Spinning, Weaving, Knitting, Felting and Dyeing and soon was holding classes of her own at her on-the-ranch studio. Selling looms and spinning wheels from Colorado's Schacht Spindle Co. was next. Camelid breeders and owners were her focus; teaching them how to shear and prepare their fleeces for show and processing. Karen continues with her mission to teach camelid owners to shear and use the fleece promoting the health of the animal.
Steve Byers
Steve Byers is one of the Principals of EnergyLogic Inc., a Colorado based energy services organization primarily serving the residential construction industry. Leaving the Air Force after flying for five years, Steve got involved in the building science industry working for Southface Energy Institute in Atlanta. Relocating in 1997 to Colorado, Steve began working in the HERS industry. It’s been a labor of love and EnergyLogic has grown into the largest energy rating company in Colorado, now working in existing homes, commercial buildings and supporting a wide variety of programs. Steve is a trainer and nationally recognized lecturer on the rating industry, both for technical content and for business development issues. He serves on the RESNET board and is active in multiple industry related organizations.
Jason Acosta
Jason Acosta is EnergyLogic’s Existing Home Division Lead. In that role, he is directly responsible for both the management of EnergyLogic’s energy auditing arm, but also our energy retrofit division. He works closely to both train and manage our energy auditing staff of seven auditors. He has been a key member of our team with regard to our continual process improvement efforts. This includes interaction with our software development teams to meet the ever changing needs of our existing home market. Jason is a highly experienced energy rater and will sit for his RESNET Quality Assurance Designee test in the near future.
Jim Tolstrup
Jim Tolstrup is the Executive Director of the High Plains Environmental Center in Loveland, CO. HPEC works with developers, businesses and homeowners to promote the restoration and conservation of Colorado’s native biodiversity in the suburban environments where we live, work and play. Jim has written numerous articles on gardening and environmental stewardship for various publications, and is a past recipient of Denver Water’s Xeriscape Award and ALCC’s Excellence in Landscaping Merit Award.
Beth Conrey
Beth Conrey is the owner of Bee Squared Apiaries offering honey, hand rolled beeswax candles, swarm catching and hive removal. Beth serves as the President of the Northern Colorado Beekeepers Association (NCBA), an organization of both hobbyist and commercial beekeepers. NBCA exists to provide a forum for education in beekeeping and for exchange of ideas and experiences.