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  • About the Post Growth Institute

    The Post Growth Institute is an international organization accelerating the world’s shift to a society that thrives within ecological limits.

     

    Our research explores how to create a fair and sustainable market economy, and is the basis of our published articles, community presentations and the forthcoming book, How On Earth.

     

    The community economy and not-for-profit forms of business offer the greatest hope for designing a thriving, sustainable economy. Hence, our training and consultancies focus on processes that spark local exchange and provide people with the knowledge and resources they need to develop successful, nonprofit enterprises.

     

    We’re not alone in our efforts, we're part of a movement. Under the #postgrowth banner, we amplify the messages of other like-minded individuals and groups. Our cooperative social media service, for example, creates engaging, original content for member organizations, and uses their collective reach to ensure the widespread distribution of each post.

     

    The Post Growth Institute (PGI) brings creativity and clarity to complex economic challenges. While we articulate the causes of the harsh realities that underlie our current global predicament, we also outline specific steps toward a thriving, alternative future focused on better, not bigger.

     

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    Incorporated in Oregon, we are a registered, tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

     

    Our mission is to inspire, mobilize, and support individuals, businesses, and communities in the transition to a society that thrives within ecological limits.

     

    Our team is based across 14 countries from around the world.

  • Our Team

    Crystal Arnold

    Director of Education

    USA

    Crystal facilitates transformative experiences. Since graduating from Southern Oregon University in 2007 with a degree in international economics, she has designed and led workshops and educational events. She is a skilled writer and interviewer, 100+ women are featured on her podcast, “Money-Wise Women”. In 2017, she became Education Director at the Post Growth Institute. She facilitates community-based trading through the Offers and Needs Market group process. She is a proponent of cooperative ownership, sociocratic governance, and inclusive processes that heal financial and racial trauma. She loves writing poetry, improvisational theater, and hiking with her two Australian Shepherds. She lives with her husband and two children in the hills of Southern Oregon.

    Dani Leonardo

    Director of Equity

    USA

    Dani is a facilitator, youth mentor, writer & musician, passionate about earth care, people care, the role of art & music in healing & justice work, and the relationships between living beings & systems. Dani has a background in Permaculture Design, got connected with the PGI through the Offers and Needs Market, and now works as part of the OANM team and convenes the PGI's Anti-Oppressive Practice Circle. Dani currently works as a communications consultant for a local Rogue Valley organization called Coalición Fortaleza and as an equity consultant at Rogue Valley Mentoring. Dani was born, raised, and is currently based in Ashland Oregon & loves to snowboard in winter, plant seeds in spring, explore rivers in summer, jump in leaf piles in fall & admire and bask in the color purple all year round.

    Robert Wanalo Onono

    Director of Movement Building

    Kenya

    Robert Wanalo is a patchworker, absorbed in the practice of weaving ideas, relationships and information into fabrics of possibility. Having spent a good couple of years learning about the new economy, he began to work with the Post Growth Institute in 2018, and is currently serving as the Director of Movement Building. He is a sucker for good conversation, and could be anything from an instigator of depth, to a catalyst for humor and mischief. He lives in Kisumu, Kenya, where the quiet moments of dawn and dusk are his favorite times for hot beverages and solitude.

    Donnie Maclurcan

    Executive Director

    Argentina

    Donnie is a facilitator, author and social entrepreneur, passionate about all things not for profit. Originally from Australia, Donnie spent the past decade in the US, before moving to Argentina in 2022, from where he coordinates the Post Growth Institute. He has worked in Egypt, Kenya, Fiji, Thailand and South Korea, helping over 500 not-for-profit projects start, scale and sustain their work, while his own initiatives include developing: the Offers and Needs Market, Free Money Day, the Post Growth Alliance, the (En)Rich List, The Not for Profit Way training, Silent Skype team meetings, Project Australia, and the globally-used #postgrowth hashtag. An Affiliate Professor of Economics at Southern Oregon University and Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, Donnie holds a Ph.D. in social science. He is working on his fourth book: How on Earth: Our future is not for profit.

    Natalie Holmes

    Content Manager

    Germany

    Natalie is a British writer and editor based in Berlin, Germany. She holds a BA in Social Anthropology and a Master's in Environment & Development, and has been a professional wordsmith for over six years. Passionate about the environment, social justice and actively challenging the cult of (over)work, Natalie is cofounder of Mind the Gap, a nonprofit working to close the gender wealth gap by hosting inspiring educational events across Germany; and DangerousTech, an events and content platform focused on digital rights and the intersection of technology and society. Natalie is convinced that post-growth offers a way of thinking about the world - and each other - that is more sustainable, mindful and just than our current system, and that the PGI provides a practical set of steps to get us there. A hatha yoga teacher and avid traveler, she enjoys long train journeys with her ever-adventurous dog, Squirrel.

    Dien Vo

    Board Chair

    USA

    Dien is an independent filmmaker and Assistant Professor at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. He has interests in community media, sustainability, and experimental art movements. Dien previously taught at the University at Buffalo (SUNY) and Virginia Tech, where he co-developed the filmmaking program. Dien became interested in post-growth economics through his interests in sociology, philosophy, and ecological wisdom. He lives in Great Barrington, Massachusetts and New York City, where he is most happy experiencing the colorful diversity of Jackson Heights. http://www.dienvo.info

    Jessica Lavelle

    Director, Post Growth Fellowship

    South Africa

    Jessica, born and raised in South Africa, is passionate about our (one) Earth and all things nature. With a background in conservation, she has a PhD in environmental governance and is currently based at the University of Cape Town. Observing the devastating effects of industrial agriculture, resource extraction and fossil fuels on nature and the gross inequity hegemonic, neo-colonial capitalism has wrought on the Global South, has led her to seek a radical revolution in economics to a post-growth world. Jessica loves being in nature away from the city where the wild things are.

    Tyler Harris

    Director of Operations

    USA

    Tyler is a non-profit administrator based out of Portland, Oregon. Holding a Bachelor of Science degree in Population Health Management, Tyler applies a systems-thinking mindset to implement sustainable programming within his community. His education, experience directing teams and projects, and passion for organizational development support his drive to support likeminded leaders making an impact with their neighbors. He also focuses on individual health and wellness through his personal training business, Harris Fitness. Tyler enjoys hiking in the sunshine, having fun with positive people, and learning how to better himself and his environment.

    Simon Spire

    Board Deputy Chair

    USA

    Simon is a developmental and contemplative guide, writer, and researcher in cultural evolution and systems change. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in psychology, has worked in social entrepreneurship and mental health, and was led from his native New Zealand to New York by his career as a recording artist and songwriter. Simon's life has been driven by two interrelated core questions: what is the nature of full human development and human flourishing, and how can we create more life-supporting economic dynamics in our world? The founder of Emergent Inquiry, he currently resides in Chapel Hill, NC, where he works in transformative settings with groups and individuals and misses the ocean. ​

    Lina Lefstad

    Co-director of Research

    Sweden

    Lina is just about to graduate from an MSc in Ecological Economics at the University of Leeds, having obtained a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a major in Circular Economies. She is passionate about the evolution of climate justice and strongly believes that a thriving and healthy society that fits within ecological limits is possible. She was born in Norway but has lived all over Europe since the age of 12, currently residing in Berlin. When not reading and engaging with post-growth ideas, she can be found at the stables or out in nature with her horse, Atlas.

    Arnaud Diemer

    General Volunteer

    France

    Arnaud received his PhD in Prospective and Economic Modelling from Paris Dauphine University, where he designed new programs for Economics Studies. Working for the Scientific Mission of the French Consulate, he undertook a study on GMO in the United States for the European Parliament. At the same time, he became involved in the social and solidarity economy and degrowth projects. Since 2000, he has supported sustainable development education programs in Bénin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Togo, and the Republic of the Congo. Recently, he developed research at the local level, helping citizens in rural areas to produce their own energy, organic food systems, and soft mobility.

    Marianna Coulentianos

    Co-director of Research

    UK

    Marianna is a mechanical engineer turned design researcher. She holds multiple degrees in engineering, economics, and design, including a PhD in Design Science, and is currently a postdoctoral researcher working on making field trials more participatory, with the goal of working towards decolonizing the field of engineering for global development. After finishing her PhD and finally having some time to think about something other than her thesis, she became fascinated with degrowth and low-tech approaches as a path towards justice. Born in France, Marianna can be found in the UK, Michigan, Greece, and France, depending on the time of year.

    Kialyn Rubias

    Operational Specialist

    Philippines

    Kia holds a BSc in Information Technology. A tech-savvy person who always craves learning, she chose to become a Virtual Assistant and has been pursuing that career passion for almost six years. Just through observing the current situation, she developed an interest in post-growth economics and an understanding of the importance of improving our economy. She was born on a suburban island in the Philippines, where the sweetest mangoes are to be found, and enjoys listening to Christian music in her quiet times.

    Dylan Gibson

    Post Growth Encyclopedia Manager

    USA

    Dylan is a writer/editor, educator, and activist with an MS in Geography and Environmental Resources. His interest in post-growth thinking developed through his participation in climate justice movements, including involvement as a student in the college fossil fuel divestment movement. He realized that the climate crisis cannot be solved through the capitalist system and instead more circular and caring systems are needed. He is part of the collective behind the publication on false solutions to climate change, Hoodwinked in the Hothouse. Born in Carbondale, Illinois, he resides in Chicago, where he enjoys taking walks and observing the urban landscape.

    Priyanka Das

    Business Lead, Offers & Needs Market

    USA

    Priyanka is a fellow of iHeartRadio’s NextUP Initiative, and is creating a podcast that takes a deep dive into the ethical implications of information sharing and its bolstering of the surveillance state. She was invited into the PGI’s Offers and Needs Market Circle after completing the Facilitation Training as part of the Kola Nut Collaborative. A passionate community organizer, Priyanka has a background in the international nonprofit space. She is based in Chicago, having immigrated from northeast India as a child. In her rest time, she likes to vibe on the couch, go on adventures with her dog, catch up with friends and family, find inspiration, read, write, travel, and connect with others.

    Thea Connolly

    Board Director

    UK

    Thea, an earthling who enjoys wondering and wandering through threshold spaces, holds a Bachelor of Laws and a BA in International Relations. Since taking a sabbatical in 2019 from her previous work as a lawyer, Thea has been questioning and learning about the systemic limitations of the current paradigm. She is inspired by the post-growth space, including many individuals and organisations working collaboratively to prioritize people and planet within a socially just framework. Thea was born in Brisbane and is currently in a nomadic phase of life, with anchors in the UK and Australia. She is happiest when in the presence of Mother Trees, of all forms and species.

    Alba Roberts

    Director of Fundraising

    Spain

    Alba designs, manages, and finds funding for community-based social and cultural projects. She has worked as a fundraiser for social movements related to the climate emergency and social and solidarity economy. She believes that what truly matters is how we relate to each other and to the life that sustains us. Thus, what brought her to the PGI is its people, their intention and values. As a writer she aims to illustrate the worth, and beauty, of going slow. Spanish by birth and Australian by adoption, she lives in Madrid with her cats, Bob and Dylan.

    Priscilla Trinh

    Director of Communications

    USA

    Priscilla, as a communicator and food activist, is dedicated to an ecological future. Understanding the energetic underpinnings of globalized systems, she is drawn to work that is decolonial, regenerative, and intersectional. Priscilla believes cultural narratives are key and that post-growth offers an alternative to current forces shaping existence. Through involvement at the PGI and food sovereignty scenes, Priscilla directs her energy on many scales in preparation for transitions in this lifetime. She currently resides on Očhéthi Šakówiŋ lands (Minnesota, US) and when not working, can be found near a body of water, in the kitchen, or bopping to music.

    Ingrid Edstrom

    Board Treasurer

    USA

    Ingrid is the Chief Empowerment Officer at the award winning consulting firm, Priestess Of Profits. A Woodard Certified Transformative Advisor, she is recognized as one of the accounting profession's Top 40 Under 40 and Most Powerful Women in Accounting. She became interested in post-growth approaches as a way to bridge the gaps between business and personal, magick and science, economy and environment. Ingrid is the leader of the Empower Your Passion Roundtable & Journey Beyond Accounting Roundtable mastermind groups for accountants, a member of the Intuit Trainer/Writer Network, and founder of the Accounting Alchemy Network. She loves playing Irish music and frolicking with her goats on her little farm in Ashland, Oregon.

    Elisa Favaro

    General Volunteer

    Italy

    Elisa holds an MSc in International Development Studies and Global Studies. She researched post growth during her studies and became passionate about civilizational transition discourses and human flourishing. She is now eager to build her professional path. After two years in Denmark, she returned to Italy where she was born and raised. There, she spends part of her time growing veggies and cooking with love. Elisa likes to do and learn all sorts of things, especially those related to food and nature. She likes taking care of her plants, spraying them patiently to keep them happy and hydrated.

    Jasmine Co

    Lead Graphic Designer

    USA

    Jasmine holds a MSc in Climate Change, Development, & Policy from the University of Sussex and is currently working as the Community Programs Manager for a local environmental justice nonprofit, Verde. She is also an artist and long-time painter and designer (jasminecoart.com). Jasmine discovered post-growth literature during her master’s dissertation and is excited to help communicate and cultivate a regenerative economy that truly serves the wellbeing of both human and natural ecosystems. She is currently residing in Portland, Oregon and loves all things movement — from dancing to yoga to climbing to trail running.

    Gabriela Safay

    Director of Wellbeing

    USA

    Gabriela is a recent graduate passionate about regenerative economies, embodied social justice, and using grief as a tool for connection and transformation. She found out about the PGI through an internship with SOCAN, where she created the Businesses Taking Action Survey to measure the social and environmental impacts of local businesses. She wants to help shape a world where economies and social systems work for nature, not against it. She was born and raised in Ashland, Oregon and is currently living on Ohlone land also known as Santa Cruz, California. When she’s not working she enjoys laying in the sun, walking in the forest, and dancing.

    Ebony Gustave

    General Volunteer

    USA

    Ebony is a web weaver, community architect, and storyteller. Before producing and hosting Cooperative Journal podcast, she journeyed around the world collecting stories across cultures, experientially learning tools for self-sufficiency, and researching indigenous plants. Throughout that time she felt the power of human and non-human relationships, trust, and what agency feels like. Her intention is to collectively cultivate that same sense of awareness and embodiment through solidarity economy storytelling, placemaking projects, facilitation, and asset based mapping. Ebony is originally from Brooklyn, NY, and loves trying obscure fruits and vegetables, nerding out on solidarity economy models, and yoga.

    Alex Pielaet

    General Volunteer

    Netherlands

    Alex is an organization scientist by trade and gained experience as a business consultant. He’s passionate about learning, games, and equality. Alex gained interest in the Post Growth Institute as a result of discovering how the current economy works and looking for alternatives. He now hopes to contribute to a different economy, such as revitalizing the commons. Alex was born in the southwest of the Netherlands and is currently located in Valencia, Spain. He has hitchhiked 6000 kilometers in Europe, really likes cinnamon, and once stole a bolt from the Eiffel tower (je suis desolé).

    Sarah Alibabaie

    General Volunteer

    USA

    Sarah studied anthropology and has a passion for learning languages, writing, and exploring place in both embodied and conceptual ways. She began facilitating community discussions in college in Pennsylvania, and in 2016 facilitated with Oregon Humanities across her home state for discussions on place and belonging. After teaching in Bangladesh, and many years in manufacturing, she works in inventory at Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon. In 2019, Sarah attended an Offers and Needs Market (OANM) to connect with people around her goal of establishing a Persian-style garden in the US, and subsequently attended the PGI’s OANM facilitator training and Not-For-Profit Way training. She has started exploring fiber arts, and has a fish named Shakespeare.

    Vera Kozak

    General Volunteer

    Hungary

    Vera enjoys learning more than anything: she recently completed her Master's in human ecology in Sweden, where she had the opportunity to research Indigenous food systems in Latin America. She is most interested in finding connection points and bridges between traditional knowledge around the world and Western scientific knowledge about sustainability. Over the past five years, she worked and volunteered for various youth-led organizations, with whom she organized conferences, facilitated youth peace talks, and created sustainability workshops for schools in Eastern Europe. Currently she is based in Vietnam, where she enjoys catching the sunrise with a cup of coffee and an interesting read before the city of Hanoi starts buzzing.

    Julia Inés Roitman

    General Volunteer

    Argentina

    Julia is a lawyer specialized in public international law, having graduated from the University of Buenos Aires. She is passionate about gender and climate justice, with an emphasis on the Global South perspective of class and inequality. She became interested in post-growth theory through academia and people in her life. She is passionate about youth leadership and participation, and believes it’s the key for the bold transformations we’ll need in years to come. Julia lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina with her family, and can be found often in Ottawa, Canada with her partner. She enjoys reading, crafting and watching fútbol (go Boca Juniors!).

    Emma River-Roberts

    Free Money Day Manager

    UK

    Emma is a postgraduate student holding a masters in Social Anthropology from Sussex University and is currently studying for a masters in Degrowth, Ecology, Economics and Policy at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She is passionate about how the Global North’s working class experience climate change, and what opportunities degrowth holds in ameliorating working class livelihoods. Her interest in post growth emerged following the 2007-2008 financial crisis, when she wondered if an alternative, better world is possible (it is!). Originally from London, UK, she lives in Sussex with her partner Ollie and their two incredibly fluffy British Shorthair cats, Pico and Toro.

    Ryan Swick

    General Volunteer

    USA

    Ryan is a seasoned business management professional, with multiple years of experience building software and services products at Fortune 500 companies, where he began questioning the idea of endless growth on a finite planet. He is now excited about demonstrating post-growth business alternatives modeled on the natural world. Small-scale organic farming and food forestry are also passions. Ryan currently resides in the unceded lands of the Duwamish in present day Seattle, and he loves hiking and backpacking throughout the Pacific Northwest.

    Andrea Gamson

    General Volunteer

    UK

    Andrea is an award-winning social entrepreneur who works to support other social entrepreneurs or toward system-shifting goals. She started out in big media, working for global newspapers as a commercial head, before having a career crisis and realizing she was part of the problem—a cog in the wheel of capitalism. That led her to social enterprise, and since then she’s been doing small business consulting and training, and mentorship program management. For the last eight years she’s been Director and CEO of _SocialStarters, running mentoring programs for underserved social entrepreneurs and purpose-driven leaders. Last year, she did a Masters in Regenerative Economics and learned what's really going on. That led her to launch NetShift.org.
  • Post Growth Fellows

    Amanda Janoo

    Amanda Janoo is an economic policy expert with over a decade of experience working with governments and international organizations around the world. Amanda currently works as the Knowledge & Policy Lead for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll) and is passionate about transforming our economic system through participatory and holistic policy design processes. Amanda was born on a farm, by a midwife, in rural Vermont, USA and has recently returned to her home state after living throughout Asia, Europe, and Africa for the past 15 years.

     

    Andrés Bernal

    Andres Bernal is a PhD student in public policy at The New School for Public Engagement and an adjunct professor of Urban Studies at City University New York. He is a researcher and advocate of Modern Monetary Theory and the Green New Deal. Andres is a Research Fellow with the Global Institute of Sustainable Prosperity, an associate editor at the Money on the Left Editorial Collective, and co-director of the advocacy group Public Money Action. He is also an organizational development consultant and was a Senior Policy Advisor with the Alexandria Ocasio Cortez congressional campaign. He is currently researching how critical theory and heterodox economics can help us rethink political orthodoxies and institution building. He tweets at @andresintheory

    Beth Stratford

    Beth Stratford is a PhD student at the University of Leeds looking at the kinds of big structural changes to ownership and control in our economy that will be needed to reduce our growth dependence, and get within the ‘doughnut’ of social and planetary boundaries. Beth is a member of the Social Guarantee Taskforce, an advisor to Positive Money, and a co-founder of the London Renters Union. Recent outputs include a report, The UK’s Path to a Doughnut-Shaped Recovery, and Land For The Many, a report for the UK’s Labour Party. She tweets at @Beth_Stratford

    Camille Canon

    Camille Canon leads Purpose’s US nonprofit and supports businesses in converting to steward-ownership. Prior to Purpose, Camille spearheaded a real estate development initiative in Northern California for Urban Green Builders, focused on affordable housing, social enterprise, and community building. She holds a BA from Mount Holyoke College.

    Caroline Shenaz Hossein

    Dr. Caroline Shenaz Hossein is Associate Professor of Global Development and Political Science at the University of Toronto Scarborough and founder of the Diverse Solidarity Economies Collective. In March 2021 she delivered the Big Thinking Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences lecture, “Canada’s hidden cooperative system: The legacy of the Black Banker Ladies”. Dr. Hossein is a board member of the International Association of Feminist Economics, on the editorial board of the UN Task Force for the Social and Solidarity Economy and board chair of the Miami Institute. An author of numerous books and articles, her co-edited book Community Economies in the Global South will be out in 2022.

    Djémilah Hassani

    Djémilah Hassani is a passionate international strategy expert for social economy at CRESS (Regional Chamber of Social and Solidarity Economy) Mayotte. She is passionate about leadership and empowering communities through meaningful projects by understanding cultural backgrounds to restore dignity and hope. She was born in Mayotte, a French island, but she also has Malagasy origins from her mother which makes her feel deeply rooted in the Indian Ocean with a strong openness to the world. Djémilah is a good cook and uses ingredients to find meaning in life!

    Cle-Anne Gabriel

    Dr. Cle-Anne Gabriel was born and raised on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. A mum, academic, author, speaker, and consultant, she is presently the University of Queensland Business School’s Director for the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (UN PRME). Cle-Anne is a specialist in sustainable development and higher education, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and an award-winning educator and Vice President (Elect) Programs of the North American Case Research Association (NACRA). Based in Australia, she researches in the areas of post-growth futures, renewable energy enterprise and business models for sustainability. Follow her on LinkedIn.

    Erfan Daliri

    Erfan Daliri is a social change author, educator and consultant with a long and diverse career in community development, refugee settlement, management consulting, social change empowerment, activism, and advocacy. His experience includes marketing and communications strategy, participatory development with remote and refugee communities, cross-cultural communication training, anti-racism consulting, youth empowerment programme design, research, advisory, and motivational speaking. With a Master’s in Communication for Social Change, three published books and 20 years of experience working with not-for-profit, corporate and government sectors, Erfan has become one of Australia’s most sought-after social change consultants.

    Gabriela Cabaña

    Gabriela Cabaña is an anthropologist interested in our current civilizational crisis and how to find caring and emancipatory ways out of it. She is an Anthropology PhD researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the UK. In her fieldwork, she is looking into energy planning in southern Chile, trying to bring together a degrowth, feminist, and decolonial perspective to ongoing conflicts and tensions around renewable energies. Part of the Centro de Análisis Socioambiental, she participates in the degrowth community and is also a basic income advocate. She tweets at @gabi_cabana and loves science fiction novels.

    Heira Hardiyanti

    Heira Hardiyanti is a co-operator, a researcher at Institute for Indonesia Cooperative Development and Studies (LSP2I) and an educator at IKOPIN, where she completed her postgraduate degree in Management Studies. Currently, she serves as a consultant for the Agency of Cooperative and SME in West Java and other institutions. She is passionate about voluntary work, especially cooperatives, and finds PGI’s work remarkable. She is a co-founder and director of the MyCoolClass co-operative, a teacher-owned platform coop. She believes that the economy should be fair, ethical, and protect the environment. She was born in Bandung, Indonesia, where she now lives.

    Kidist Tesfaye

    Kidist Tesfaye has over seven years of experience in the nonprofit sector and in different organizations. She has a Master of Science in environmental engineering from Addis Ababa Science and Technology University and a Bachelor of Science in water resource and environmental engineering from Jimma University. She is founder of Tuba Ethiopia, which is organized to make a difference in Ethiopia by creating job opportunities for unemployed women and youth, and produces environmentally friendly products using recycled materials and sustainable raw materials. Kidist is passionate about innovative and social entrepreneurship projects on environmental issues such as climate change, waste management, and social issues such as education, youth, and women's empowerment.

    Melanie Rieback

    Melanie Rieback is the CEO and co-founder of Radically Open Security, the world’s first nonprofit computer security consultancy company. She is also a former Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the Free University of Amsterdam (VU). She is passionate about developing the post-growth entrepreneurship ecosystem and through Nonprofit Ventures offers a Post Growth Incubation program for entrepreneurs who want to apply the post-growth mindset to their startups. She is also interested in non-extractive post-growth finance. For fun, Melanie co-founded the Dutch Girl Geek Dinner in 2008. She was born in the USA, but has lived in the Netherlands for almost 20 years.

    Mike Strode

    Mike Strode is a writer, urban cyclist, facilitator, and solidarity economy organizer with the Kola Nut Collaborative residing in southeast Chicago. The Kola Nut Collaborative is Chicago’s only time-based service and skills exchange (otherwise known as a timebank) providing an open platform for mutual aid, community organizing, and network weaving. The Collaborative recently launched an initiative to develop a network of Chicago-based facilitators trained in the Offers and Needs Market. He is a Program Manager at Open Collective Foundation and serves on the boards of the US Solidarity Economy Network, South Deering Manor Community Association, and Dill Pickle Food Co-op.

    Monicah Muhoya

    Monicah Muhoya is a social entrepreneur and the founder of Sister Speaks Global, which hosts events to expand women’s dialogue; and Heels4Pads, a linked charity to raise awareness of period poverty through rights-based digital campaigns to advocate for policy change. Passionate about giving back to the community, Monicah grew up in a highly gendered context that piqued her interest in gender equality through empowerment and social justice. She holds a degree in Business, Information and Technology, is an alumna of the Post Growth Incubator, and is set to start a Master’s in gender studies in Europe in 2022. Monicah is from Kenya, where she is currently based.

    Monika Bielskyte

    As a futures researcher, Monika Bielskyte has been on a nine-year nomadic journey engaging with future emergence in 90+ countries. As a futurist, Monika consults at the future intersection of technology, culture and politics. As a world designer, she explores the bleeding edges of new science fiction universes, having been commissioned by major film productions and studios. Monika is currently developing @protopiafutures, a platform for research and creative collaborations challenging & offering alternatives to dystopian/utopian stereotypes. Protopia prototypes visions of radically hopeful and inclusive futures centering Queerness, Indigeneity, Disability and other previously marginalized perspectives in the context of futures and foresight work.

    Robert Wanalo

    Robert Wanalo is a patchworker, absorbed in the practice of weaving ideas, relationships and information into fabrics of possibility. Having spent a good couple of years learning about the new economy, he began to work with the Post Growth Institute in 2018, and is currently serving as the Director of Movement Building. He is a sucker for good conversation, and could be anything from an instigator of depth, to a catalyst for humor and mischief. He lives in Kisumu, Kenya, where the quiet moments of dawn and dusk are his favorite times for hot beverages and solitude.

    Sabrina Chakori

    Sabrina Chakori is finishing her PhD research at the University of Queensland, looking at packaging reduction in food systems under economic growth and degrowth scenarios. She also holds a BSc in Biology and an MSc in Environmental Economics. Born in 1992, Sabrina is part of the generation that inherited complex socio-ecological challenges, thus her work towards a degrowth society is a responsibility, not a passion. Sabrina led numerous initiatives, including a collaboration with Queensland’s Environment Minister to introduce the law banning single-use plastic bags. To apply degrowth concepts, in 2017, she founded the Brisbane Tool Library. Born in Switzerland, Sabrina has worked in a number of countries and now lives in Australia.

    Shrishtee Bajpai

    Shrishtee Bajpai is an environmental and social activist-researcher with a Master’s in Development Studies. She works with Kalpavriksh, researching radical alternatives to dominant systems; helps coordinate the Vikalp Sangam process; and is a core team member of Global Tapestry of Alternatives. Her interest lies in exploring intersections of radical ecology and radical democracy, and what it would mean to reimagine democracy from a more-than-human perspective. She is currently documenting traditional decision-making systems in the western Himalayas and how they inform our understanding of bioregional approach to governance. Born and based in India, Shrishtee enjoys discovering the lives of birds, walking to unknown places, reading magic-based fiction, listening to music, and almonds.

    Symone Jackson

    Symone Jackson is a digital strategist and equity advocate whose work is featured in Splinter News and The Naked Truth: Shadow Town (2016). While pursuing a BSc in Sociology at Santa Clara University, she studied how systems and institutions have been major drivers of socioeconomic inequality. Symone is Associate Director, Digital Engagement at Beneficial State Foundation, a nonprofit cultivating better banking in partnership with Beneficial State Bank. She is based in California, where she was born and raised. She owns a boutique marketing agency, Digital Strategy by Symone, which helps social entrepreneurs and social impact organizations improve their digital engagement.

    Ted Rau

    Ted Rau is an advocate, trainer, and consultant for self-governance with sociocracy. After his PhD in linguistics, he encountered a peer-oriented governance system in his intentional community and became curious about ways of organizing grassroots groups effectively yet equitably. He is co-founder of Sociocracy For All, a nonprofit with a mission to equip people with the skills and knowledge to self-govern and self-organize. Born in Germany, he lives in Western Massachusetts. Ted is transgender and a parent of children between eight and 17 who say “our family is five queer kids and three dads”.

    Thomas Hanna

    Thomas Hanna is Research Director at The Democracy Collaborative and Vice President of the National Center for Economic and Security Alternatives. His areas of expertise include democratic models of ownership and governance, particularly public and cooperative ownership. Thomas’ most recent book is Our Common Wealth: The Return of Public Ownership in the United States (Manchester University Press, 2018). He received his MA and BA degrees in History from Virginia Commonwealth University, and is currently pursuing a PhD in political economy at the University of Glasgow. Born on Ascension Island, UK, he currently resides in Virginia, USA with his partner and two children.

    Timothée Parrique

    Tim Parrique is a heterodox economist who is passionate about political economy and philosophy of science, and trying to reinvent the way we think about the economy. He holds a PhD in economics, for which he wrote The Political Economy of Degrowth, which explores the idea of degrowth. Originally from Versailles, France, and currently based in Clermont-Ferrand, he blogs at timotheeparrique.com, tweets at @timparrique, and never says no to a game of chess.

    Yusra Bitar

    Yusra Bitar is a researcher from the Levant ecoregion, currently completing her MSc in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management at the New School. Her current passions include food sovereignty as a means of liberation, in addition to understanding the global military's contribution to climate change and ecocide. Her interest in post growth comes through the degrowth route, which she was first exposed to through a related art piece in a magazine. Positive ideation for the future has been on an upward slope through the degrowth lens since then. She previously worked as a "development" consultant in Beirut. She was born and raised in Beirut and currently lives in New York City.

    Zai Starchild Ziere

    Davion Ziere is a global citizen focused on embodying the world we wish to live in. Founder of Origyn, Zai is an artist, serial post-growth entrepreneur, writer, and community bridge who cultivates visions and systems that value and respect all forms of life. His accolades include being recognized by the State of Georgia for substantial economic development work in communities of color, writing legislation for the US House of Representatives, crafting curriculum for national nonprofits such as the Children's Defense Fund, and consulting universities on how to build community around creativity and innovation. He is the eldest of nine siblings and loves his family, community, travel, and exploring all that we don't know.

    Zolo Mendbayar

    Zolo is a Fulbright scholar with an MS in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management from the New School. Her research focuses on Indigeneity and how it directly connects to social justice, which sits at the intersection of environmental, climate, racial, and economic justice issues rooted in colonial and exponential growth-based systems. This interest stems from growing up on the periphery of an urbanized city. Although born and raised in the capitalist era of Mongolia, she continues to bear and research the nomadic pastoralist and Indigenous lifeways of millennia within and beyond her homeland. Zolo is currently based in Brooklyn, where she’s unlearning, exploring, and re-building her own truths and values.

Post Growth Institute CC-A 2018

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