Penny Livingston-Stark

Penny Livingston-Stark

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Penny Livingston-Stark is an internationally revered permaculture teacher, designer and speaker. Penny has been teaching and working professionally in the land management, regenerative design and permaculture development field for over 25 years and has extensive experience in all phases of ecologically sound design and construction.

Penny specializes in site planning and the design of resource rich landscapes that integrate rainwater collection, edible and medicinal planting, spring development, pond and water systems, habitat development and watershed restoration for homes, co-housing communities, businesses and diverse yield perennial farms.

With her partner, fellow Gaia U associate, James Stark, and in collaboration with Commonweal – a cancer health research and retreat center – Penny manages a 17-acre certified organic farm in Bolinas, California called Commonweal Garden. Commonweal Garden is also home to the Regenerative Design Institute (RDI), a powerful hub of advanced permaculture and leadership training that Penny and James co-founded in 2005.

RDI offers hands-on experience with permaculture design, food production, animal husbandry, beekeeping, wildcrafting, and much more. One of RDI’s core offerings is the 9-month Regenerative Design and Nature Awareness (RDNA) program, which is an in-depth exploration of regenerative design, cultural mentoring, community building and nature connection. RDNA is now a degree pathway for Gaia University associates interested in focusing their work in any or all of these areas through the Gaia RDI regional center.

Among Penny’s latest initiatives is the integration of ‘peacemaking’ and permaculture. In collaboration with an array of permaculture teachers and Native American instructors, she now leads intensive Peacemaking and Permaculture trainings. Together with hands-on training in the principles of permaculture, this course provides training in healing our relationships to the Earth and each other. It has long been Penny’s vision to help create opportunities for urban youth to connect with the natural world as an experiential platform from which they can act as peacemakers and foster interconnection within their own communities. To this end, the RDI team is now offering Ecology Of Leadership training as the basis of a nature-based peacemaking council for Bay Area urban youth.