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Michael Hicks, Living Roots Ecovillage Founding Member, Farm Leader, Massage Therapist, Counselor |
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Michael has led a very passionate and dynamic life thus far. A variety of broad experiences has given him an optimistic perspective of how we can proactively create a better future for ourselves, our communities, and our planet. His intent is to empower others to find their peace, their bounty, and their own deeper path through life.
Out of high school, Michael was nominated to attend the US Air Force Academy. After spending two years there, he transferred to and graduated with high honors from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, with a degree in Accounting and Finance. Two years of working in corporate America then sent him into his deep self-exploratory years. He traveled for two years around the world, visiting far off corners of the planet such as Lapland, Timbuktu, and Tibet. His love of diversity and life was expanded during these years as he witnessed both the beauty of this earth, its creatures, its cultures, and at the same time, the destructive environmental and social damage that is occurring on this planet. This knowledge and awareness has led Michael down a path of healing and philanthropy.
Michael has traveled to 40 countries, worked as an outdoor experiential education teacher for Outward Bound, and owned and operated Indian Creek Farm, where he sold organic vegetables and herbs. More recently, he was the Finance Director for EO Products, a family owned organic and natural personal body care company in California.
He has done much volunteer work and served on various boards, which include the Board of Directors for the Local Growers Guild, the Board of Directors for Lost River Community Coop, and the Bloomington Community Farmers Market Advisory Board.
While in California, Michael graduated from Diamond Light School of Massage and Healing Arts with a Professional Bodywork Therapist certificate. He also attended the California Institute of Integral Studies, where he focused on personal/spiritual growth with an East/West perspective as well as individual and relationship counseling.
Currently, in addition to being the director of the Center, he manages the farm, CSA, and garden operations for the Center and is also a nationally certified massage therapist by NCBTMB. He offers Holistic Life and Career Counseling and Coaching, and Family and Relationship Counseling through the Center. He will be bringing his vast knowledge of sustainable living, food, and gardening to the public via workshops.
He is currently writing a book using his travels and gardening as metaphors for personal transformation and growth. His hobbies include gardening, food production/preservation/fermentation, mead/beer making, cheese making, cooking in general, natural living, herbal medicine making, yoga, traveling, hiking, listening to live music, and trying to play drums and the guitar.
Gina Herman, Founding Member Living Roots Ecovillage, Healing Arts Leader, Certified Nurse Midwife |
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Gina is excited to be a founding member for Living Roots EcoVillage. Her diverse life-experiences have led her to this point, and she is excited to see where we all go from here.
A native of Southern Illinois, Gina obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from Northern Illinois University in 1998. She was commissioned as an officer in the US Navy as a part of the Navy Nurse Candidate Program and served 5 years active duty in San Diego, CA and Camp Lejeune NC, where she worked as a postpartum and Labor and Delivery Nurse. She is very grateful for her time in the service not only because of the leadership qualities she was able to develop, but because her experiences in being where she didn’t want to be gave her a clearer definition of where she DID want to go.
After completing her service, she left nursing for a time and took a route towards Wholistic Health. She completed a certificate program as a Wholistic Health Practitioner through the Wholistic Life Center in Washburn Missouri in 2005. This was her first experience living in an intentional community, and if the Center hadn’t closed shortly after her arrival she would probably still be there. Recognizing the value of community life, she sought out another community to call home for a time. She completed a Conscious Gardening apprenticeship and later became the staff nurse at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, AZ. She worked closely with Dr. Gabriel Cousens and participated in a study on the effects of a raw vegan diet on Diabetes as presented in the Documentary Simply Raw.
While she found great balance at the Tree, midwifery continued to call her back, and she enrolled at Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing in the fall of 2006. She rejoined a group of friends from The Wholistic Life Center who had moved to Petaluma, CA and completed a certificate in Wholistic Massage Therapy through Sky Hill Insitute. For her midwifery training she was blessed to be able to complete most of her clinical experiences at the Women’s Health and Birth Center in Santa Rosa, California, which offered the out of hospital experience she had been craving. In 2009 she graduated with a Master of Science degree in Nursing with a Certificate in Midwifery. She felt called to return to the Midwest to make out-of-hospital birth a viable and safe option for women who had previously not been given a choice.
She feels that a world-wide shift in Consciousness is in the works, and is looking forward to the evolution of Living Roots EcoVillage and being a part of the change.
Blake Cothran, Farm Manager, Kirtanier |
Blake Cothron is a long-time organic gardener and agriculturalist, as well as artist, writer, environmentalist and activist.
He has lived in intentional communities, including eco-villages, ashrams and communal farms for years. He values humanity, clear and compassionate communication, simplicity, organic local food and medicine, natural beauty and kindness but most of all the spiritual teachers and traditions of the world and the path of Yoga, Sanatana Dharma.
The Center's Vision
The Center for Community Empowerment, Inc. envisions a world in which all communities have access to healthy, locally-grown, organic food and herbal medicine which are grown in ways that are both environmentally and personally sustainable.
The Center's Mission and Goals:
The Center for Community Empowerment, Inc. aims to strengthen community vitality by not only supplying our nearby communities with healthy, locally-grown, organic food, but also by promoting, inspiring, and educating others to do the same.
We are focused on the process of growing plants as much as we are the end results. We infuse gardening and farming with yoga and meditation. This leads to a way of growing food that is not only environmentally sustainable but also personally sustainable. This way of gardening is holistic in nature. It recognizes the cyles and patterns of life, which can best be explained and embraced from a mind, body, heart, and spirit perspective.
By sharing our skills, passions, and deeper life purpose with others we hope to empower them into peaceful action, transforming their lives in positive ways that align them with the health and happiness they seek, whethere it be living a life working with plants or something else that serves the common good.
With this spirit we have established a regional “CENTER” that supports positive growth for a healthy and regenerative future.
The “Center” aims to:
- Offer educational, counseling and coaching opportunities as well as personal, cultural and economic solutions to current hardships
- Add value to people's lives by sharing our passions and skills
- Collaborate peacefully and mindfully; to create a network of allies in order connect people to the resources they need
- Inspire a peaceful culture and to deepen individual relationships to nature, to people and to community
- Connect and listen deeply to our inner wisdom and to live in alignment with our own life purposes
- Contribute to growing global movement of consciousness raising
- Work creatively, intentionally and with integrity, maintaining an open mind and a loving heart
- Re-generate a culture of health and happiness for the present and future generations.