Who we are
Spiral Living Center
Board Bios
President:
Mara Lambert is a woman with many useful skills, incuding communication, networking and research. In the past she lived without electricity and learned many alternative ways to accomplish her goals. She believes in simple living and enjoys sharing what she has learned.
Vice President:
Alan Eisner was born and raised in New England. He graduated the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1988 with a degree in finance.
Some travel abroad and extensive travel in the U.S. led him and his
family to their current home in southwestern Oregon, in Cave Junction.
Alan is passionate about a healthy, beautiful environment, and about
raising strong, wise and loving children in our community. Alan shares
a vision of unity and peace, and believes one path is through a
self-reliant local community, capable of producing/gathering its own
organic food, clean air and water, local currency, remedies, and
education.
Treasurer:
After spending almost 10 years as a stage manager in NYC, Nancy Schwickrath traveled around the country looking for a quieter, more self-sufficient lifestyle. She ended her wanderings in Cave Junction and is currently working at Herb Pharm in Williams. She believes self-sufficient small communities are necessary for our survival and that people of the earth should understand where a potato comes from.
Secretary:
Steve Orr has designed and installed artistic and functional edible and medicinal permaculture gardens for over twenty-five years. He teaches people to use the plants in theri gardens and especially enjoys converting lawns to gardens. Steve manages a ten acre permaculture farm, Frog Farm, where you may find him milking goats, pruning fruit trees, building compost, planting perennials, or playing his guitar.
Kepie Wilson
Kelpie Wilson is a writer and a mechanical engineer. She has worked for the International Biochar Initiative (an international NGO promoting biochar for soil fertility and carbon sequestration) as Communications Director siince September 2008. Prior to that she was the environmenta editor and a columnist for Truthout.org and a contributing editor for Yoga Plus magazine. She has published more than 100 articles in numerous online and print publications and worked as a technical writer for a solar power company.
After graduating with honors from California State University, Chico in 1987 with a B.S. in mechanical engineering, she worked for a small R&D from designing Stirling cycle engines. In the 1990's, she was the executive director of the Siskiyou regionak Education Project, a grassrooots environmental group protecting wilderness and old-growth forects in the Siskiyou Mountains of Oregon.
Maura Gallagher
Maura has been growing fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers organically for the last 18 years. She also raises chickens for eggs and the occasional pot of soup, makes a mean compost pile and can tan a deerskin and create a fire through friction. She produces home electricity through solar and hydro. Maura lives as much as possible in a way that honors her love and committment to the beauty of our generous Mother Earth.
Betsey Norton
Betsey was born and raised in Maine, graduated from Tufts University in 1965 with a degree in Sociology and worked in the inner city of Boston for three years before relocating to the West Coast. Betsey has 24 years of experience in organic gardening in eastern Washington, despite no support from the surrounding community. Her family grew all their own food, raising chickens, ducks turkeys, steers and rabbits. Her children learned where their food came from and still love to garden. Betsey believes that sustainabiliity is critical to survival. Therefore, it is her interest to promote sustainable living skills here in this beautiful valley in order to survive in style with friends and neighbors.
Executive Director:
Debbie Lukas has 20 years experience as an herbal medicine maker, founding the family business Siskiyou Mountain Herbs. She propagates and grows many medicinal plants on the Frog farm in Takilma, Oregon. Debbie teaches classes emphsizing respect for the land, ethical harvesting techniques and propagation of rare medicinal plants. She has been involved in nonprofits as staff, board member or volunteer for many years, and dreams of uniting diverse people in the Illinois Valley in the quest for sustainable living. She raises chickens, vergetables, herbs and hope!
Administrative Assistant
Terry Davis has been rasing gardens and practicing homesteading skills for 35 years. He has lived in several intentional communities whose focus has been learning to raise vegetable gardens while living and working together in harmony. In the past, he owned and operated a business, marketing and networking in the Northwest. Terry can be reached Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 9:00AM to 3:00PM in the Spiral Living Center Office, 541-592-3642.
Stewwardship Committee
Stewardship Committee members include: Steve Orr, Charley Greenwood, Brigid Baker, Amy Schell-Lapora, Rachel Goodman, Margaret Morton, Deborah Murphy, John Roth, Christine Perala-Gardiner, John Gardiner, Laurel Peña and Debbie Lukas.
