Staff

Mia Rose Maltz, Co-Founder and Executive Director
Mia Rose Maltz is a co-founder and Executive Director of the RITES Project and has lived in Sonoma County for eight years. Mia has been studying mycology, mushroom cultivation and mycorestoration for over ten years and has taken several classes with Paul Stamets, founder of Fungi Perfecti. She was certified in Permaculture Design at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center in 1999 and again at Earth Activist Training in 2002. In 2003, she was certified to teach Permaculture at the Diamond Light Center in Oakland. Mia is a Fellow of the Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy and she enjoys teaching about Permaculture, mycorestoration, and bioremediation. She attended Colgate University, completed her B.A. in Culture, Ecology, and Sustainability from New College of California in 2000, and currently attends a Masters Program in 'Action for a Viable Future' at Sonoma State University's Hutchins School for Public Policy Studies and Community Action.

Devin Stubblefield, Co-Founder and Treasurer
Devin Stubblefield is a co-founder and Treasurer of The RITES Project. She also works as the Project Coordinator of Permaculture in Paradise. Devin received her B.A. in Culture, Ecology and Sustainable Community, with an emphasis in Ecoliteracy and Social Permaculture from New College of California and has since contributed to a number of Permaculture-based programs for children, teens and adults. Devin is a practitioner of massage and other healing arts.

Erik Ohlsen, Co-Founder
Erik Ohlsen is a Permaculture designer and international practitioner/teacher. He has a diverse background of experience, including forming ecological non-profits and managing his own Permaculture design business. For the past four years, he has worked nationally and internationally with farmers and activists on tangible solutions to industrial farming practices.

Benjamin Fahrer, Secretary
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 of California in Santa Rosa and teaches a variety of workshops in Permaculture, farming and ecological design. He strives to incorporate aspects of Permaculture design, intentional communities and biointensive farming into his everyday life. Benjamin is the Project Coordinator for the Permaculture First Responder programs.

Trathen Heckman, Co-Founder & Exec. Director, Daily Acts; Project Coord., Sustainability Tours
Trathen is the co-founder and Executive Director of Daily Acts, the fiscal sponsor of the RITES Project. He is also the Project Coordinator of the Sustainability Tours and the publisher of Ripples journal produced by Daily Acts. He is also the Executive Director of Green Sangha, an environmental Buddhist organization. Trathen is an author, activist and wordsmith, who writes, teaches and organizes around cultivating and harnessing the power of our daily actions to restore our world. Trathen has given 100+ local, national and international talks and workshops on Sustainability, Ecological Design and the power of daily actions to renew the world.

Kevin Kohley, Project Coordinator of Eco-Gatherings
Kevin is the Project Coordinator of Eco-Gatherings, an International Resource for Eco-Logical Event Production, and a core member of the Symbiosis Gathering production team. He is also a graduate of the Regenerative Design Institute, a year-long intensive Permaculture training, where he studied under the guidance of Penny Livingston. Kevin, in conjunction with Critical Mass Productions and the RITES Project, is currently working on a film entitled Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within, which investigates the evolution of consciousness and the spontaneous reemergence of rites of passage. Kevin earned his Masters of Arts degree at California School of Integral Studies. While there, he focused on historical trends of conscious evolution, rites of passage, and complex systems during his studies in Philosophy, Consciousness and Cosmology.

Karen Chen, Project Coordinator of Green Product Research
Karen Chen is a doctoral candidate at the California Institute of Integral Studies focusing on sustainable design. She was certified in Permaculture Design at the International Institute for Ecological Agriculture in 2004. Karen works to green the hardware industry by evaluating and distributing best-in-class home improvement and building products to local hardware stores. She is co-founder of Ecogatherings, an eco-logical event resource for festivals and large events, and a project of the RITES Project. She is on the advisory board for sustainable community initiatives at the Environmental Education Council of Marin in Marin County, California. Karen works as a sustainability and green products educator in an effort to make community resources and healthier product alternatives accessible and understandable to the general public.

Karen Kohley, Wilderness Therapy Guide
Karen Kohley graduted from the Univerity of Iowa in 2003, with her B.A. in Foreign Language Education. She is currently attending the Regenerative Designs and Nature Awareness Institute, where she is studying to reconnect people to their roots in the earth, their ancestors, and their community. A certified teacher, she has led various outdoor excursions for K-12 students throughout California, Utah, and Costa Rica. She has taught Spanish, ESL, ecology, botany, biology, astronomy, rock climbing, and snorkeling. In 2005, she worked for a wilderness therapy company in Utah with at risk teens that were experiencing difficulties. Upon returning to California, she began working with Stepping Stones, an organization that is dedicated to creating meaningful rites of passage for youth as they transition from childhood to adulthood. As a certified Permaculture design student and WFR student, she is a student teacher for the Permaculture First Responder Certification course.

Nancy Hurwitz, Development Director
Nancy Hurwitz has been fundraising and grantwriting for non-profit organizations for almost 10 years. She recently started working as Development Director with the RITES and was certified in Permaculture Design at the International Institute for Ecological Agriculture (IIEA) in 2004. She worked as Program Associate for the IIEA and edited the recently published book on alcohol fuel, Alcohol Can be a Gas!. Prior to that, she worked as Project Director of ReThink Paper, a non-profit project of Earth Island Institute, an organization focused on promoting ecological paper production and consumption in an effort to protect our world's forests. Before her work with ReThink Paper, Nancy worked as Program Associate for Fiber Futures, a dedicated advocacy and consulting group that focused on catalyzing the use of agricultural residues and non-wood fibers for paper, building materials and textiles.. She has also worked as Business Manager for Fiber Options Paper Company, a tree-free paper distributing company. In 2001, Nancy started Gemini Productions, a music production company that organized environmentally-sound music festivals and booked tours on the West Coast and in Colorado. She received her B.A. in Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard University in 1997.

Matthew Garrambone, Mentor in the Enviromentorship Program
Matthew Garrambone graduated Northern Arizona University with a degree in Environmental Communications. For two years, he worked with Friends of Flagstaff's Future in Arizona co-coordinating a campaign to preserve open space. Since moving to Sonoma County, he has studied Permaculture with the Regenerative Design & Nature Awareness program, and works full time at Harmony Farm Supply & Organic Nursery in Graton. He is currently participating in the Leadership Program for A Sustainable Future based in Santa Rosa, CA. and is continuing his education in Permaculture and sustainable community building. Matthew is the Course Administrator for the Symbiosis Permaculture Course in Angels Camp, California, in September 2008.

Katherine Steele, Educator & Web Designer for Permaculture First Responder
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. A graduate of the Findhorn Foundation (Scotland) Ecovillage program, she is a designer, facilitator, and educator of the principles of Permaculture in daily living.

Stephen Weisz
Stephen Weisz is CEO and Founder of In Ticketing. A gifted entrepreneur, Stephen has become a leader in the ticketing industry, selling over a million tickets annually. His simple, strategic approach is to deliver impressive results to event organizers utilizing cutting-edge technologies he develops. Stephen champions sustainable minded business practices. He has created the only hemp/flax, recycled paper, soy ink tickets on the market, launched the "Tree Per Ticket" program that has planted over 30,000 trees since its inception, and led the company to be named an official Green Business by Co-op America.

Jeffrey E. Edelheit
Jeffrey's non-profit experience includes being Executive Director of the Middle Way 501c3 for 3 years, member of the Board of Directors of several organizations, and countless volunteer hours. He has over 30 years of solid business experience with start-ups, mid range and major corporations with a concentration on strategy, development, finance and administration. Jeffrey is recognized as an expert with bplans.com providing business expertise to people worldwide. He has expertise in the development of staff and policies to support customer service and sales retention and he has extensive experience in the identification and restructuring of operational deficiencies. He graduated from Northwestern University in Chicago, and was the first American Manager of Hitachi American Limited Semiconductors, now a multi-billion dollar corporation. He currently works with as a Mentor for Contract Executive Management in Sebastopol, California. Jeffrey is a Board Member of the Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce and he has served as a committee member for the City of Sebastopol. He is a guest lecturer at Sonoma State University, has participated in their sustainable business forum and was a member of the development team for their Sustainability Conference in 2006. He is a featured writer in Upbeat Times and has helped with the creation of the Laguna de Santa Rosa Park Implementation, the new Community Garden Skatepark, Chemical Free Sebastopol and the Teen Memorial Garden. Jeffrey is the RITES Project's Financial Advisor, and acts as the Project Coordinator for the Community Garden Skatepark.