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, AIA

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 is the founder and director of the Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF) which is dedicated to films about the creative process of architecture and design.  Currently ADFF has an annual film festival in New York City and Chicago. He is President of the board for Pacific Rim Parks (PRP)  which uses the designing and building of parks with international teams of architecture students to create cultural connections for Pacific Rim Nations. To date PRP has created 6 parks and hopes to build one in all 41 countries that touch the Pacific.

Curtis Ingham Koren

Curtis Ingham Koren founded Vermont Intercultural Semesters (VIS) in 2001.  VIS conducted ten high school and “gap” semester program in Ladakh, India featuring intercultural immersion and mutually beneficial studies for North American and Ladakhi students.  In 2012, building on the track record of VIS, Koren co-founded FrontiersAfar (FAR), a new organization that will develop additional experiential education programs in India and at other sites.  Before becoming an educator, Koren 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 served on the The Sharon Academy Board of Trustees, and on the Board of Circus Smirkus.  She currently serves on the Boards of the Vermont Journalism Trust, Yestermorrow Design Build School and the Brookfield Community Partnership (BCP), which she helped found to spearhead community and educational projects in Brookfield, VT.

Kathy Meyer

Kathy enjoys designing houses and being intensely involved in their construction.  Other interests include (w)holistic food production, mind-body health, contra dancing, sitting in the sun, and thinking about everything.  Since 1981, she has worked nearly every job at the Yestermorrow, including a 9-year stint on the Board of Directors.

Jonathan Mingle

Jonathan Mingle is a writer and consultant. He is currently a Middlebury Fellow in Environmental Journalism, and has written about climate and resource issues for The New York Times, The Boston Globe and Slate Magazine, among others. He holds a Master of Science degree from the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, and has worked extensively on education, sustainable building design and rural energy initiatives in Ladakh and Zanskar, India. He is a member of the advisory committee and consulting design team for the Baeyul Dewaling Centre for Gross National Happiness, to be built in Bumthang, Bhutan.

Robin Morris

Robin Morris has over 30 years of business management experience and in 2011 founded the Mad River Food Hub, a community shared food processing facility in Waitsfield VT. In 1977 he received a BA (Hons) in Architecture from Portsmouth School of Architecture and then moved to the USA in 1989 to run an international software company, finally moving his home to Vermont in 1996.

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 is currently a member of the Governor’s Council on Energy and Environment. 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.

Danny Sagan, RA

MArch, Yale

Presently a design/builder with Terra Firma Inc., Danny is especially interested in climatically-derived, energy-efficient buildings and the sustainable use of building materials.  Danny is an Associate Professor of Architecture and Program Director at the Norwich University School of Architecture and Art and has taught at Stanford U and Yale Architecture School. Danny is one of the authors of the Vermont Builds Greener green-building standards.

Jeff Schoellkopf, AIA

MArch, MIT

Jeff is a principal of The Design Group of Warren, VT. He is a green architect, planner, educator, and design/builder with experience in a broad range of project types since 1978. Particular interests include sustainability, regenerative design, energy conservation, holistic land and town planning, renewable systems, and creating inspiring and energizing places. He particularly enjoys supporting progressive community, educational, and environmental organizations. Jeff has taught various courses in green design at Yestermorrow since 1986, and has taught architecture at Norwich University and Vermont Technical College.

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 , LEED AP BD+C

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 is a Researcher for the Green Building Policy Committee with the University of Massachusetts Facilities and Planning Department.

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.