Karl Kaufman
Registered Nurse, raised on The School of Homesteading organic small-scale teaching farm. Founded three career schools, which trained 5,672 underemployed for third party-certified energy efficiency, medical and nursing careers. Co-founder Apprenticeship Institute 501c3, US DOL-certified intermediary sponsor of Registered Apprenticeship programs, leading to skilled careers. Co-founder Michigan Ecovillage 501c3, establishing economically viable regenerative multi-generational intentional communities.
Karl is passionate about creating a community where the young and elders are seen, known and loved. “The juice for me, is making a difference for people, helping them self-actualize!” Karl is committed to demonstrating and replicating the MIEcovillage intentional community.
Gaylyn Kaufman
An Elder in training, a lover by nature! Passionate about community co-creation, motivation and lifestyle optimization, nature experiences, Rites of Passage, multigenerational support and interaction, conscious aging, joy/celebration/ceremony. Bachelor in Human Relations. Certified Personal Trainer, senior specialty. Martial Arts Instructor with Leadership Certification. Relationship artist, co-creator of intentional culture. I can’t wait to build an outdoor fitness course, and a sacred garden for contemplation and meditation! There is no challenge that we as a community cannot embrace and thereby gain maturity.
Gaia Kile
Gaia L.M. Kile MSN is a family nurse practitioner with 15 years of clinical experience. He currently provides primary and consulted care in a small holistic private practice. He has worked as a visiting nurse practitioner. He was involved in starting a free clinic that serviced the homeless population of Ann Arbor Michigan. He worked in the capacity of clinical coordinator for that clinic for eight years. He also worked as a research associate for the complementary and Alternative Medicine Research Center and related departments at the University of Michigan. Prior to receiving his masters he worked in home care as a home care aid, an LPN, and an RN.
Mr. Kile has been involved with several cooperatives. Before entering the field of health care he worked for three summers as part of a house painting collective and for 2 years he worked with a workers cooperative soy processing factory. In 1984 Gaia and some friends started a cooperative household. He still shares meals with this cooperative, he now lives next door. For the past 5 years Mr. Kile has served on the board of the Peoples Food Cooperative in Ann Arbor. During the past two years he has served in the role of president of the board. Through his food coop board positions he has developed skills in policy governance and cooperative organization.
Gaia has studied natural approaches to healing, including lifestyle modification, mind-body therapies, hypnotherapy, yoga, energy healing, herbs, and nutrition. He has done qualitative research of therapeutic touch and related modalities at the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research Center at the University of Michigan, and assisted in developing an interdisciplinary graduate seminar in Alternative Medicine through the University of Michigan School of Nursing.
Jon Pickell
Jon Pickell is an artist, healer, and business and healthcare researcher with over 30 years of research experience. His interest in ecovillage communities is related to his desire to find a more integrated way of “being” in the world that honors both the diversity of humankind as well as the planet that supports us.
Sebastian Betzer
Sebastian is a student at the University of Michigan, where he studies Philosophy, Political Science, and German. His passion for philosophy drives him to connect experiences across subject fields to envision creative alternatives. He has three years of experience working at CrowdRise, where he gained a wide scope of knowledge around crowdfunding, valuable strategies for nonprofits to engage with donors, and a conceptual understanding of what it means to give within capitalist frameworks.
“The project of the Michigan Ecovillage resonates with me because it will serve as a progressive example for a changing world. It will demonstrate ways that communities could be developed in order to produce fulfilling and sustainable lifestyles, and highlight the need for social systems that value harmony and humanity.”
Kelly McKinstry
Marc Taylor
