Yestermorrow Design/Build School

Mickey Ackerman

Mickey has been the head of the industrial design department at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence since 1991. He graduated from the school in 1979 with a master's degree in industrial design and began teaching there full-time in 1984; he has also taught at the Swire School of Design in Hong Kong and at the Glasgow School of Art. Ackerman has created products for such companies as Dansk, Salton, Robot Coupe and Telescope Folded Furniture, and has also designed limited-production lighting and furnishings. Ackerman currently heads his own consulting business and directs product development for Mystic Seaport in Mystic, CT.

Kyle Bergman

MArch, VA Polytechnic Institute

Kyle is an architect relentlessly eager to be out of the office. He has designed and built houses with his own firm, Bergman Design Team, and collaborated on diverse projects, both in the States and abroad. He created and moderated an architectural lecture series about the process of design/build for the Smithsonian Institute, and has contributed to the design and execution of architecture exhibits at the Russian National Architecture Museum in Moscow and the New Oceanside Museum of Art in Oceanside, CA.

Ben Falk

BS, U Vermont; MA Conway School of Landscape Design

Ben directs Whole Systems Design, LLC in the development of regenerative human habitats. Whole Systems Design is composed of ecologists who design and build sustaining settlement systems that yield food, water, inspiration, learning and health. Through the design and development of integrated human places WSD is a place-based response to the contemporary challenges of climate change, resource depletion, economic instability and anomie.

Allan "Buzz" Ferver

Buzz was trained in Ornamental Horticulture and Landscape Design in the 1970’s. He switched careers to work as an independent building designer and contractor in 1980. Parallel careers as a product design engineer for an automotive tool and equipment manufacturer, and the marketing and sales agent for a huge processor of compost made his life even more interesting. The 21st century finds him back as a Design/Builder, focusing primarily on new homes and major renovations to existing homes as a partner in Overbrook Design. He still spends some time consulting to the compost industry. He also dabbles in Sustainable Agriculture. A Stormwater head, for fun he follows the implications of the Clean Water Act and the ever evolving NPDES Phase II rules. He is currently living in and building a solar home in Worcester, Vermont with his beautiful wife Sandra. He has been teaching since 1970.

Curtis Ingham Koren

Curtis is the Executive Director of Vermont Intercultural Semesters (VIS), an accredited high school and gap year program in Ladakh, a former Buddhist Kingdom in the Indian Himalaya. She has long been associated with The Sharon Academy (TSA) in Sharon, VT, as a teacher and parent, and is currently on the TSA Board of Trustees.  Koren has worked as an editor and writer at Ms. Magazine, as a Middle-East correspondent based in Cyprus, and as a journalist at the United Nations.  She has spearheaded community and educational projects through the Brookfield Community Partnership (BCP), which she helped found in Brookfield, VT. She is also is an Emeritus Board member of Circus Smirkus, Vermont’s international youth circus based headquartered in Greensboro.

Robin Morris

Robin Morris has over 25 years of business management experience. In 1989 he moved from London, England to become CEO of an international software company in New York. In 1996 he moved to Waitsfield VT, where he continues to run a business consulting practice. Robin is a partner in a local business incubator and sits on the Boards of a number of Vermont companies. In 1977 he graduated with a BA (Hons) in Architecture from Portsmouth School of Architecture.

John "Sucosh" Norton

BA, Williams

In 1970 Sucosh moved to Vermont to start a furniture making business. He left furniture building to develop cast iron wood stoves for Vermont Castings, then high-reliability wind turbines with Northern Power Systems. John designed innovative wastewater treatment systems with his own company, Four Elements Corporation and after a period in New Bedford, MA managing a commercial fishing venture, he returned to VT and to Controlled Energy Corporation/BBT North America, where he held various senior management positions. He is currently Chief Operating Officer of NRG Systems in Hinesburg, VT.

Kincaid Perot

UPenn, Connecticut College, Yale U

Kinny is president of Friends of the Mad River and has been since its founding in January 1991. Kinny represented the towns of Granville, Fayston, Warren and Waitsfield in the State Legislature from 2000 to 2004. She served her community as a Warren Select Board member and Warren representative to the Mad River Valley Planning District as well as having been active on the Warren School Board, Warren PTA, the Warren Library Commission and The Vermont Festival of the Arts board.

Macrae Rood

Mac Rood is a partner in the firm of Bast & Rood Architects. The firm’s practice includes a wide range of commercial, institutional, and residential work. Mac’s background includes ownership of a construction company, manufacturer of composting toilets, and development of four hydroelectric sites in Vermont. He has taught at Yestermorrow since 1980.

Danny Sagan

MArch, Yale

Presently a design/builder with Terra Firma Inc., which he co-founded with Alisa Dworsky, Danny is especially interested in climatically-derived, energy-efficient buildings and the sustainable use of building materials. An Assistant Professor at Norwich University where he teaches architecture and design-build, Danny is one of the Co-authors of the VBG rating system and has also taught at Stanford University and Yale.

Jeff Schoellkopf

MArch, MIT

Jeff is a principal of Jeff Schoellkopf Design and The Design Group of Warren, VT. He generalizes in humanistic and ecological design, planning, and construction, with experience in a broad range of projects since 1978. Particular interests include sustainability, energy conservation, holistic land and town planning, renewable systems, and the support of progressive community, educational, and environmental organizations. Jeff has taught design and architecture at Yestermorrow since 1986, and at Norwich University.

Bob Shaffer

West Chester U; JD, Brooklyn Law School; LLM in taxation, Villanova U

Bob lives in East Calais, VT and practices law with Lyons Dougherty Shaffer & Ferver located in Chadds Ford, PA.

Katrina Spade

BA, Haverford College

Katrina has finished the coursework for the Certificate of Sustainable Design at Yestermorrow and will soon be completing her practicum. She is interested in sustainable design and permaculture, especially as they pertain to large towns and urban living. She lives in Northampton, MA on a 1/10 acre plot, and she is excited about the unfulfilled potential of her home, yard, block, and neighborhood. Katrina works as an architectural designer and LEED project coordinator for an engineering firm that specializes in food processing facilities.

Eyrich Stauffer

BA, Suny Geneseo

Eyrich is owner of Stauffer Woodworking and enjoys taking on a variety of creative projects ranging from fine furniture and cabinetry to designing and building handicap accessible treehouses, to timber framing and doing work as an artist fabricator. Eyrich has also taught woodworking at Sterling College and the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. He lives in an energy efficient home and shop he built in Woodbury, VT.

Anne Stephens

Anne’s professional life has been in education. After graduate work in English she taught at Lakeside School in Seattle for twenty four years, moving into administration as well as teaching and coaching. She came to Vermont in 1994 to be the Director of the Mountain School semester program in Vershire (where she could teach as well as be an administrator). In 2002 she stepped down from that position and taught Philosophy part time at Chelsea high school. She also consults on student leadership, administrative structures, performance review, retreats etc.