"Instructor Applicants"
The Solar Living Institute is always looking for new talented professionals to join our team of instructors. If you are interested in becoming an instructor please email your cover letter and resume to one of the following staff members: (Click on Read More...for contact information)
For PV Instructor...
Adam Gaska
Adam Gaska, a native to Redwood Valley. He started farming at Mariposa Ranch, briefly running a small summer CSA, and raising pigs, rabbits, and broiler chickens for a time. In 2005, he started to grow his flock of sheep, now about 50 ewes. Still based in the Valley, Adam raises sheep, cows, chickens, and goats, and gr...
Adrian Dyer
Adrian Dyer has worked in renewable energy since 2005 and installed over 2MW of grid-tied PV on homes and businesses. He started his career as an electrician in 1994 and now holds a California electrical contractor's license.
Albert Johnson
Albert was raised in Southern California in a small farming community. For a vocation, he went into construction where he became a Journeyman carpenter. Along the way he was fortunate to develop his skillsin plumbing, electrical, tile and other related trades. As a hobby, Albert enjoyed studying karate and dance. He we...
Alex Aragon
Alex Aragon is a NABCEP certified solar installer and a C10 electrical contractor. He designs, sells, and installs on- and off-grid systems for his own company and is an installer for many Real Goods projects.
All Edibles Team
Kirk Saunders, Sara Weihmann, and Adrienne Link run All Edibles, a gardening business in the East Bay that helps homeowners realize their dreams of a beautiful and delicious backyard. This young and vibrant crew is setting the stage for the evolution of home food production in the Greater Bay Area!
Allen Martin
Allen Martin has over 20 years experience in residental and commerical building, ten of those in strawbale and greenbuilding. Allen is a certified green building professional and currently works for Sonoma County as a building inspector.
Andy Black
Andy Black is a Solar Financial Analysis and Sales Consultant and owner of OnGrid Solar Energy Systems. He specializes in the financial payback of solar electricity systems. Andy is also an advisory board member of the NorCal Solar Energy Association and a board memb...
Armando Navarro
Armando Navarro has over 25 years of professional experience in the fields of energy efficiency, renewable energy and green building. Mr. Navarro is currently the Assistant Director of the Environmental Technology Center at Sonoma State University, a regional model for green building design and construction. He has e...
Babak Jacinto Tondrehas been an environmental and social justice activist for the past 15 years. Born and raised in Oakland/ Berkeley he completed his B.A. from...
Barrett Raftery
Barrett Raftery was born in San Francisco to an international family. After traveling extensively in his youth he completed his college degree and then continued on to live on-site at the Solar Living Institute. After his internship, he was hired on the Real Goods installation team. Since that time has been entrepreneu...
Benjamin Fahrer
Benjamin Fahrer, a permaculture designer and farmer, manages a small, certified organic farm in West Sonoma County. Benjamin studied eco-dwelling at the New College in Santa Rosa and teaches a variety of workshops in permaculture, farming and ecological design. He strives to incorporate aspects of permaculture design,...
Bill Brooks
Bill Brooks, PE of Brooks Engineering, LLC, has 20 years of experience designing, installing, and evaluating grid-connected PV systems. Over 4,000 installers and 3,000 inspectors have attended his courses throughout the U.S. and abroad. He has authored several widely used publications including the Inspector Guidelines...
Carol McClelland, PhD
Carol is the Founder and Executive Director of Green Career Central, a virtual career center for motivated professionals who are ready to find a green career that expresses their passions, skills, and experience. As the author of Your Dream Career For Dummies, Carol has helped thousands of clients, students, a...
Catherine Woodman
Catherine Woodman has been an environmentalist from a young age. Growing up in Iowa, she developed a deep attachment to the environment and witnessed first-hand the devastation of unsustainable agricultural practices. Her interests in sustainability grew into an interest in economics and the role that local and global...
Chris Jones
Chris Jones is president of the North Bay chapter of the Electric Auto Association. He converted his 1966 Ford Mustang convertible to electric in 2006. He is helping the Santa Rosa Junior College Alternative Fuel Vehicle Program build and document a state-of-the-art electric vehicle conversion through a $25,000 grant...
Christina Rogers
Christina Rogers is a career counselor and owner of Angeles Career Consulting in Sacramento, California. Christina works with a wide range of clients by assisting them in their search for meaning and guidance on their career path. Christina also works with various organizations and state agencies, providing career coun...
Daniel Haley
Daniel Haley has been designing drip irrigation systems throughout North America for small commercial agricultural systems, Community gardens, and residential systems for the last six years. Daniel has been in the field of instruction for twenty-five years teaching a wide...
Darrel Deboer
Darrel DeBoer (www.DeboerArchitects.com) is a Northern California architect and furnituremaker who was named by Metropolitan Home magazine in 2001 as one of the 100 most influential designers, and named by Natural Home magazine in July of 2005 as one of the top 10 “Green Architect...
David Blume starred in the 10 part PBS series Alcohol As Fuel.He is a master permaculturist, ecological biologist/designer. and one of the first CSA farmers in Amreica. He's worked around the globe in alternative energy, sustainable agriculture, food/energy security and...
Dave Bonta first entered
into the solar energy arena in the Carter years of 1979, studying Solar Water
heating theory at Bridgeport Engineering Institute under the guidance of Jerry
Falbel and later in Ne...
David Williard
David Willard is the founder of Sustainergy Systems. He has a B.S. in Energy Management and Design from Sonoma State University and is a PG&E certified energy auditor. David has been active for years in the renewable energy and green building fields. He worked for an environmental and green building product center, Gre...
Doug Kent Since
starting at 14, Douglas Kent's passion and knowledge of plants, landscapes, and
urban design has steadily grown. He has written four books, authored over fifty
articles, received an M.S. from the Lyle Center of Regenerative Studies, an...
Doug Livingston Doug Livingston is a NABCEP certified solar installer and worked for Real Goods as a solar systems project engineer for eight years. He now works as an independent consultant, designing and installing solar and hydroelectric systems locally and internationally, and works on various aspects...
Doug Pratt
Doug Pratt provided “humanized” technical support for Real Goods products and services from 1990 thru 2004, and has provided much of the writing and editing for the Solar Living Sourcebook and other Real Goods publications. Doug currently provides system design and technical support for the wholesale PV industry. He ha...
Drew Hubbell
Drew Hubbell studied architecture in the U.S. and Europe and apprenticed in a firm specializing in historic restoration. Drew’s commitment to the ideals of organic beauty deepened and extended to include issues of green building processes and materials. He has worked with regulatory agencies to develop the use of more...
Ed Ristad
Ed started his own auto repair shop in Sonoma in 1971 and became an ASC Certified Master Mechanic.Ed became involved with the Alternative Fuels program at Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) in 2004. He converted a 1990 VW Cabriolet into an electric vehicle (EV) at SRJC, using an A/C motor with advanced glass mat batte...
Elaine Betts
As an experienced management consultant and entrepreneur, Elaine has leveraged her extensive experience in logical process and leadership development, effective time utilization, communication styles and the setting of obtainable and measurable goals.
Eric Corey Freed is principal of organicARCHITECT, an architecture and consulting firm in San Francisco, with over 15 years of experience in green building.
Eric teaches the Sustainable Design program he developed at the Academy of Art University and University of Californ...
Erik Frye
A veteran of solar powered living since 1991 Erik Frye promotes the widespread adoption of renewable energy by everyone who shows interest in the subject. He designs and sells on-grid and off-grid photovoltaic systems at Real Goods in Hopland, California, as well as solar thermal and off grid wind and hydro. Erik tro...
Harald Hoven
Harald Hoven is director of Raphael Garden, master gardener, faculty member, and founder of BDANC (Biodynamic Association of Northern California). He teaches the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening workshop series, leads evening study groups, and teaches gardening and phenomenology to students enrolled in programs at the...
Heather Shepherd
Heather Shepherd is a wastewater and water quality consultant and has been consulting for small wineries, fruit processors, dairies, herbalists and other small agricultural businesses for the last 10 years. She developed the use of constructed wetland treatment systems for use in wineries and is developing their use fo...
Ingrid Severson Ingrid Seversonis a Lead Project Organizer for the Rooftop Resource initiative at Bay Localize. She gained experience in the environmental field through undergraduate studies at
Iris Harrell
Iris Harrell founded Harrell Remodeling, Inc. in 1985, laying the foundation for the values and quality craftsmanship the Harrell Remodeling team is committed to with every project.
Iris is a regularly invited speaker at the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) and National Association of the Remod...
Jake Tornatzky
Jake Tornatzky started in the solar energy field with his Bachelor of Science at the University of California at Santa Cruz, focusing on environmental housing design. Upon graduation in 1990, he entered the solar energy field in the San Francisco Bay area and has worked on the design, installation and service of a vari...
James Pinon
James Pinon earned a BS in Physics from UC San Diego and worked for 10 years in Analytical Instrumentation until the 2001 energy "crisis" convinced him to pursue a career in Solar Energy. After studying PV at the Solar Living Institute, he began selling, designing, and installing Photovoltaic Systems and is a NABCEP Ce...
Jason Ulibarri
Jason A. Ulibarri has been a Senior Recruiter in health care and an environmental activist for twenty years. Founder of GreenPlanetCareers.com, Jason understands what hiring managers want and which eco-trends will thrive in the new economy. Submit your resume three days before class and Jason will add material to meet...
Jeff Adams
Jeffrey Adams is a self-employed Ecological Design Consultant and Educator based in Northern California. With a passion for solution-oriented action and helping people strengthen their connection to place, Jeffrey draws on his varied experience in construction trades, landscaping, project management, business, ec...
Jennie Dito
Jennie Dito designs and sells residential solar systems for the Marin office. Prior to joining the company in 2007 she wrote environmental impact reports for a consulting firm in San Diego. Jennie is passionate about nature conservation and natural history and believes she can save the planet one panel at a time. Jenni...
Jennifer Radtke
Jennifer Radtke is a member of the Berkeley Biodiesel Collective, teaches classes on home-brewing biodiesel at her house in Oakland, and taught interns for the Eastbay Biodiesel Internship Program. She is co-owner of Biofuel Oasis, the first biodiesel...
Jim Cassio
Jim Cassio is a career information and workforce development consultant and author of several career resource publications, including the Career Pathways Handbook, Your Guide to the Top 100 Careers, the Green Careers Resource Guide, and most recently, Green Careers; Choosing Work for a Sustainable Future. Jim is an exp...
Joan Martin
Joan Martin specializes in helping businesses with 2-200 employees streamline their nuts and bolts. As a former CFO and COO of small, medium and large companies, she brings a Columbia Univ. MBA, over 20 years in business, and good people skills to help CEOs get their finances and operations optimized.
Joan Weir
Joan Weir, licensed General Contractor, owns J.J. Design & Renovations, a Bay Area residential remodeling company with interests in sustainable and environmentally responsible building management procedures. Ms. Weir received her general contractors license in 1986. Her crafts background started in metal working as...
Joe Jordan has been instrumental in photovoltaic installations on local schools, city agencies, residences and commercial buildings in the Santa Cruz and Monterey
John J. Girton
John J. Girton, CFA, Girton Capital Management’s president and portfolio manager, has over 25 years of experience in investment research. Prior to founding GCM, he was Director of Research and Senior Vice President of Van Kasper & Company, a leading regional investment brokerage based in San Francisco.
John was a Wall...
Joshua Muscat
Joshua Muscat is an herbalist in his fourteenth year of clinical practice, and has been formally studying herbal medicine for the past eighteen years. His education in the art of herbalism includes studies at the Pacific School of Herbal Medicine, the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine, as well as studied with Chuc...
Karen Kleven has been exploring
the social, environmental, and financial impacts of investing for the last
eight years. In 1999 she left the
non-profit world in...
Katherine Steele
Katherine Steele is a permaculture activist, designer and educator. She facilitates workshops on natural building and permaculture and is the founder of the Urban Permaculture Guild in Oakland, CA.
Kermit Carter
Kermit Carter has been involved in Biodynamic agriculture for 37 years, beginning as an apprentice of the British master gardener Alan Chadwick. For the last 13 years, he has managed Flowers by the Sea, a Demeter certified Biodynamic farm on the coast in Elk, California. The farm produces vegetables, herbs, flowers,...
Kevin Bayuk
Kevin started as an artist and filmmaker, explored an eight year meander as a technology entrepreneur (in an attempt to fund his films) and has now graduated into his life as an activated advocate for ecotopian living. Kevin is currently leveraging his skills and relationships to develop organizations and project...
Kevin Moore
Kevin Moore is the founder of Rock Ridge Windmills located just south of the Solar Living Institute in Cloverdale. Kevin is well known in the water pumping windmill world for both historical and new water pumping windmill projects, and has written for Hom...
Kevin Myers
Kevin Myers is an Applications Engineer at SunPower Corporation in San Jose, CA, where he was recruited from the Solar Living Institute Internship Program. After spending 6 inspiring months as an intern at the Solar Living Center, he had the opportunity to further develop his solar knowledge as an employee of a PV modu...
Kevin Rowell
As program director for Kleiworks International, Kevin Rowell has spent many years working with people around the world to develop safe and ecologically friendly building methods. He is a guest instructor at Merrit Community College and New College of California. He is co-founder of The Natural Builders, a design and c...
Koralie Hill
Koralie Hill is an independent contractor and instructor based in Oakland, California. She has an M.S. in civil and environmental engineering from Cornell University, is a NABCEP certified solar PV installer, and a California certified electrician. Since her start as an intern with Solar Energy International in 2004,...
Kyle Collins
Harkening from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Kyle moved to California in search of training in sustainable agriculture and permaculture. Kyle's love of fungi grew out of the exploration and personal development of his college years. Kyle has studied and worked with fungi as an Environmental Educator, Permacultural...
Laura Allen
Laura Allen is a Bay Area educator and greywater activist. She has a BA in Environmental Science from UC Berkeley, and a teaching credential and masters in education from the New College of California. She is a co-founder of The Greywater Guerrillas and co-editor of Dam Nation: Dispatches from the Water Underground (So...
Liz Merry Liz Merry (MBA) is the is a sole proprietor of Verve Solar Consulting. Ms. Merry has been educating people about the solar industry since 2001, when she first organized a group of homeowners to install PV systems as a group in Davis, CA. Since 2006 Ms. Merry has taug...
Lois Simonds
Lois Simonds is a licensed electrician with entry level NABCEP certification. She completed an apprenticeship in IBEW in 1989 and has worked independently in residential and commercial work. She’s a team leader for volunteers at Grid Alternatives, a non-profit organization that installs solar systems for low inco...
Loralyn Perry
Loralyn Perry is a NARI Certified Green Building Professional. She owns and operates a green and sustainable consulting business serving commercial and residential clients in the northern California area. She is a Certified Project Manager who brings together strong creative problem solving abilities with the experienc...
Marisha Farnsworth Marisha Farnsworth is the co-owner of The Natural Builders, a contracting
company based in the East Bay that focuses on green, ecological and indigenous
building systems. She also works as an organizer and a teacher with the
non-profit Kleiwerks International.
Mark Armstrong
Mark Armstrong has been an adjunct instructor with the Trade Technology Department at Santa Rosa Jr. College for eight years. He teaches Beginning and Advanced Alternative Fuel Systems, Bio-Diesel Reliability, Heavy Duty Electrical / Computer Systems, and Natural Gas (CNG) Drive Systems. Mark has written all of the a...
Mark Tighe
Mark Tighe is a master builder experienced in strawbale construction.
Massey Burke
Massey Burke’s career in natural building began with the Ecoshanty, a humble but well-loved earthen getaway on the Solar Living Institute site. While the Shanty did not survive the great flood of 2004, Massey’s interest in natural building did, and she went on to study integrated natural buil...
Max Meyers
Maximillian Meyers is an Ecological Designer, Permaculture Teacher, Farmer and Director of the Mendocino Ecological Learning Center (www.melc.us), a nonprofit educational organization and ecological reserve offering green job training and sustainable living skills to the public free o...
Melissa Hardy
Melissa Hardy is a co-owner of the BioFuel Oasis and a member of the City of San Francisco's Biodiesel Access Task Force. Melissa has been teaching about Biodiesel and vegetable oil fuels since 2002.
Mia Maltz
Mia Rose Maltz is a co-founder and Executive Director of the RITES Project (www.ritesproject.org) and has lived in west Sonoma County for nine years. Mia has been learning about mycology, mushroom cultivation and mycorestoration for twelve years and has taken several classes with Paul Stamets, founder of Fungi Perfecti...
Michael G. Smith
Michael G. Smith with Emerald Earth, an intentional community in Mendocino County (California), is experienced in many aspects of natural building, including cob, straw bale, straw-clay, natural plasters, earthen floors, and alternative foundations. He helped f...
Michele McGeoy
An entrepreneur from an early age, McGeoy got her first taste of operating a business at age 11 running the school store. Years later, Michele’s most prolonged business adventure was Tailored Solution which developed database software for law schools. Over 40% of the law schools around the country used her softwa...
Mike Arenson
Mike Arenson, popularly known as Solar Mike, has more than 30 years experience in the solar industry. For the past decade Solar Mike has specialized in solar electric systems, and has worked on hundreds of solar projects in California. He is a college instructor, and has received the U.S. Department of Energy “N...
Mike Symons
Michael Symons is an off-grid photovoltaic specialist. He is a C-10 electrical contractor and NABCEP certified solar PV installer. He has over 28 years of designing and installing off-grid systems and has lived off-grid for the past 21 years. Mike started teaching courses with the SLI in 2007. He was a marine elect...
Peter Oliver
Peter Oliver is a network engineer who began working on cars as a pre-teen and was involved in auto racing for many years as an assistant mechanic and pit crew member. He has been interested and involved with the EV network since 2003 and is the owner of Make Mine Electric, a company that creates classic replica cars t...
Philip J. Kranenburg, CPA
Philip J. Kranenburg, CPA is the managing Director of Kranenburg Capital Management LLC and a registered investment advisor with over 20 years of experience advising, operating and investing in growth companies and clean technology. Kranenburg is also a College of Marin Trustee focused on "greening" the campuses throug...
Rob Keller
Rob Keller received his MFA from UC Davis in 1999, where he became interested in incorporating bees into his art practice. As the owner of a small bee business (The Napa Valley Bee Company), Rob's goals are to build a community of beekeepers in his area that practice responsible, sustainable hive management with the be...
Rody Jonas
Rody Jonas received a degree in Physics from UCSB and after working for an aerospace contractor for several years, Rody decided to follow a longtime dream and pursue a career in Renewable Energy Technologies. He is the founder of Healdsburg-based Pure Power Solutions, which specializes in off-grid RE solutions.
Ryan Lamberg
Ryan Lamberg, Co-Founder, Vice President and Communications Director of Community Fuels, a Bay Area biodiesel production company. Ryan is responsible for developing communications materials, monitoring the regulatory environment, and identifying grant and reg...
Ryan LeBlanc Ryan LeBlanc, NABCEP certified solar installer and founder of Natural Energy Works, has been a renewable energy system designer, installer and consulta...
Sasha Rabin has a degree in Ecological Design from Evergreen State College. She has studied natural and traditional methods of building in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Indonesia, and the southwest United States. Following her internship at the SLI in 1999 she apprenticed at the Cob Cottage Company and worked with them...
Since the early 1990s Scott been instrumental in installing over 1000 PV systems beginning with the installation and maintenance of solar electric systems for the remote student research facilities around Southern CA. In October of 1997,...
Stefan Stehling
Stefan Stehling is the garden manager of the Healthy Traditions Garden, a component of a diabetes prevention program at Sonoma County Indian Health Project, Inc. He is a Permaculture practitioner and instructor, and teaches biointensive gardening techniques for developing sustainable food systems. He serves on the boar...
Stephen Lyon, Ph.D.
Stephen Lyon, Ph.D. has twenty five years experience as an enironmental scientist. His areas of research include drinking water, domestic and agricultural wastewater treatment, groundwater recharge, constructed wetlands and bioremediation. He has taught at San Diego State University, U.C. Irvine, and California Poly...
Tamara Wilder
Tamara Wilder of Paleotechnics has been a primitive technologist for the past eighteen years, and regularly teaches old ways living skills programs to people of all ages through a variety of hands-on workshops, school programs and skills demonstrations. She also co-authored the book Buckskin: The Ancient Art of B...
Tom Williard
Tom Williard spent 20 years in the electronics industry as a senior hardware and software engineer and manager. He worked for a number of imaging and communications companies, most recently Ascend Communications, before deciding to devote his time to the local community in Bolinas, CA. He is on several boards in Bolina...
Tyson Grul
Tyson's career in solar began in the financial industry. After graduating Magna Cum Laude from U.C. Santa Barbara, Tyson spent nine years at the Pacific Stock Exchange specializing in equity options. He distinguished himself there as “market maker.” While trading, Tyson became increasingly interested in th...
William Korthof
William Korthof is a licensed electrical C-10 and solar C-46 installer with experience in on-grid residential and commercial solar applications through his company, Energy Efficiency Solar, Inc. He is a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona in Civil Engineering and the Regene...
Workshops
