Justin Tilson – Executive Director
Justin has been actively learning and practicing permaculture since he founded a guerilla community garden in Vancouver BC between 2006 and 2010. He completed a PDC at OUR Ecovillage in 2008 and followed that up with teacher training courses at the Bullock Brothers’ Homestead and with Jude Hobbs. His interests include earthworks, ponds, food forests, integrating animals into the landscape, renewable energy, biochar, mushrooms, electric transportation, compost, black soldier flies, teaching, working with interns, soil fertility, large-scale earth restoration, all-season greenhouses, carbon sequestration, regenerative economics and just about everything permaculture. Justin has an MBA in Sustainable Development from Pinchot University.
Mark Hamalainen – Science Director
Mark is an entrepreneur, scientist, and avid gardener – he studied biotechnology at the University of Cambridge and was on the founding team of two biotechnology companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has also worked on the design and construction of aquaponics systems under Jon Parr of Schoolgrown Aquaponics and all-season greenhouses under Jerome Osentowski of CRMPI. At NOPRI Mark designs and builds winter greenhouses and has plans to use hybrid mass selection to breed locally adapted perennials for Northern Ontario. He is also interested in ecosystem design for extraterrestrial life support and is a passionate advocate for radically extending human lifespan, protecting and preserving the natural environment, and colonizing Mars.