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Staff
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Charlie McConnell Director, Dartington Schumacher College
Charlie heads up its senior management team at Dartington Schumacher College. He is also a member of the senior management of The Dartington Hall Trust.
Charlie is a political scientist and has worked for over thirty five years in both the UK and internationally in community development education and in the consumer movement. He has also held lecturing posts in further and higher education. Former jobs include CEO of the Community Education Council, European and Public Affairs Director of the Community Development Foundation, CEO of Carnegie UK Trust and Head of Community Development with the Scottish Government. He was for five years the Secretary General of the International Association for Community Development and was the first Chair of the UK’s professional training standards body for community learning and development. He has written and edited several books and has advised the Council of Europe, UK and Scottish governments on community empowerment. He joined the college in 2008.
Email: c.mcconnell@dartington.org
Tel: +44 (0)1803 847050
Mel Risebrow, Schumacher College Manager
Mel is responsible for the management of Schumacher College.
He came to the College in 2005 after a varied career in senior management in business and charities. For six years he created and ran a successful business in London and before that worked as Director of Marketing and Public Affairs for the British Diabetic Association. Mel’s favourite aspect of the College is the integration of the land, food, cooking and community commitment into the learning process, which ‘produces a kind of magic that is easier experienced than described.’
Email: mel.risebrow@schumachercollege.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1803 860056
Satish Kumar, Visiting Fellow
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In addition to his role teaching at Schumacher College, Satish has recently taken on a new position, overseeing the Tagore Festival which will take place in 2011. The Festival will celebrate the 150 year anniversary of the birth of Rabindranath Tagore, the Bengali writer and social reformer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 and was a huge influence in shaping the vision of the Dartington Hall Trust.
When he was only nine years old, Satish Kumar renounced the world and joined the wandering brotherhood of Jain monks. Dissuaded from his path by an inner voice at the age of eighteen, he left the monastic order and became a campaigner for land reform, working to turn Gandhi’s vision of a peaceful world into reality.
Fired by the example of Bertrand Russell, he undertook an 8,000 mile peace pilgrimage, walking from India to America without any money, through deserts, mountains, storms and snow. It was an adventure during which he was thrown into jail in France, faced a loaded gun in America – and delivered packets of ‘peace tea’ to the leaders of the four nuclear powers. Read more
To find out more about a course with Satish, Walking with the Earth Pilgrim, click here.
Click here to read more about how Rabindranath Tagore inspired the development of Dartington.
Click here to read about Resurgence, which Satish edits
Email: c/o: admin@schumachercollege.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1803 865934
Stephan Harding, MSc Co-ordinator
Stephan oversees the MSc in Holistic Science, teaching on the core models and as part of several of the short courses at the College.
Stephan was born in Venezuela in 1953. He came to England at the age of six with his father and housekeeper, with whom he spoke Spanish (his mother tongue) at home. Since childhood Stephan has had a deep fascination with the natural world, and his scientific cast of mind lead him to do a degree in Zoology at the University of Durham and then a doctorate on the behavioural ecology of the muntjac deer at Oxford University. Read more
Email: stephan@schumachercollege.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1803 860059
Brian Goodwin, Scholar in Residence
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Brian teaches on the MSc in Holistic Science and contributing to short courses. He was Professor of Biology at the Open University before coming to the College ten years ago, with an academic career that combined biology with mathematics in the study of evolution and development at universities and research institutes in the UK and around the world. He has a BSc in Biology, a BA in maths, and a PhD in theoretical biology, but his main learning came through travel and research trying to understand the complex world in which we live. This led to Schumacher and Holistic Science in which education is based on cooperative learning experience in the Schumacher community, both conceptual and practical. He has written a number of books, including How The Leopard Changed Its Spots (1994) and his latest one, Nature’s Due: Healing Our Fragmented Culture (2007). His favourite activities are communing with the wisdom and energy of the River Dart and climbing trees.
Email: b.goodwin@schumachercollege.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1803 869943
Toni Spencer, Course Leader for the Schumacher Certificate in Education for Sustainability
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Toni Spencer is the Course Leader for the Schumacher Certificate in Education for Sustainability, a part-time vocational programme in holistic, transformative education.
She brings with her diverse experiences in the fields of sustainability and design. Previously she was a Lecturer in Eco Design at Goldsmiths College, following a career in design and trend forecasting: as founding design editor of Wallpaper* Magazine and as an independent designer and consultant. She then spent a few years immersed in wider ideas and practices of change, working with The Institute of Contemporary Arts and Forum for the Future amongst others. She holds an MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice from Bath University. Previously she was Co-Director of Social Venture Network UK and on the advisory boards of [Re]Design and Attainable Utopias.
Hailing from London, via living in an eco community in Dorset, Toni divides her activities beyond Schumacher College between Embercombe – as a freelance course leader and facilitator, Transition Town Totnes adventures, foraging, facilitating ‘The Work that Reconnects’, and other creative projects.
Email: toni@schumachercollege.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1803 869941
Heather Gillard, Administrator
Heather is the administrator/receptionist at Schumacher College. She deals with general enquiries and administration. She takes care of participants from the time of their first enquiry to their arrival at the College. Before her arrival at the College in 2001 she worked as office manager for Kindred Spirit magazine. Prior to that she made a change of direction and downshifted after more than fifteen years of working for the US Government as UK Sales Manager for the Stars and Stripes newspaper. Her favourite place in the College is the window seat in the library at the opening meeting at the start of a new course, listening to new participants introducing themselves. ‘How incredible to be able to go to work and meet such an amazing assortment of wonderful people from all over the World.’
Email: admin@schumachercollege.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1803 865934
Melanie Stewart, MSc Administrator
Melanie administers the MSc in Holistic Science course, giving support to the academic tutors and the students. She works three days a week at the College, and her remaining time is occupied with studying complementary therapies, healing, astrology and related subjects. Before coming to Schumacher, Melanie had worked in central London for many years: in business marketing for the Financial Times and more latterly in government communications in Whitehall. Melanie has a BSc degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (Linguistics with Music) and in the Autumn will qualify as a reflexologist. When she left London she was keen to align her working life with her core values: ‘It’s fantastic to be working in a place dedicated to exploring and developing more authentic paradigms for living as opposed to the pursuit of profit and power without care for the environmental and social consequences.’
Email: melanie@schumachercollege.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1803 869943
Lisetta Tripodi, PA to Charlie McConnell and Mel Risebrow
Lisetta supports Charlie McConnell and Mel Risebrow in their busy roles. Prior to starting at Schumacher she worked as a PA at the Met Office in Exeter, and before that she spent five years as desktop-publishing secretary for the Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York. She has several years’ experience as a PA, both within the Health and Education sectors. She also has experience as a typesetter for a design company and typesetting house, and as a proof-reader for the BBC Monitoring Service.
After 10 years in the beautiful but chilly county of Yorkshire, Lisetta is delighted to have relocated to the South West, her half-Italian constitution better suited to the milder climes.
Email: schupa@schumachercollege.org.uk
Tel: 01803 860058
Inga Page, Programme Manager
Inga manages the short course programme at Schumacher College, as well as arranging partnership courses and external lets.
Inga has worked at the College since 1994, and took over management of the short course programme in 2008. She studied philosophy at the University of Bristol, then moved to San Francisco where she worked in community conflict resolution, studied for an MA in International Relations and became active in the movement against US intervention in Central America. Her interest in the work of Vandana Shiva brought her to Schumacher College in 1992, and soon after she returned to the UK and moved to Devon. She lives in Ashburton with her husband, daughter and a flock of chickens, and is gradually digging up the lawn and expanding the food-growing areas in her garden. “Schumacher College is constantly evolving – the lovely people that work here and attend courses, and the vibrancy of the ideas they bring, means that working at Schumacher is never ever dull!.”
Email: i.page@schumachercollege.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1803 860052
Anna Lodge, Marketing and PR Co-ordinator
Anna co-ordinates promotion, marketing of courses, website activity and press work at Schumacher College.
Previous to working at Dartington Schumacher College and after a period managing at a restaurant in France she was Events Manager at the Refugee Council in London. Prior to this she worked for the BioRegional Development Group co-ordinating the green lifestyles project on the pioneering housing and office development BedZED. Anna has an MSc from the London School of Economics and BMus from the University of East Anglia. Her favourite thing about Schumacher College is the energy created by the people here – participants, staff, teachers volunteers, and visitors.
Email: publicity@schumachercollege.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1803 860054
William Thomas, House Manager
William manages accommodation, physical resources and I.T. systems, whilst being resident caretaker.
William graduated in Psychology, worked on BBC Radio Bristol as an interviewer, and has trained in massage and counselling. He gave up all thought of a career at an early age, but spent several years manufacturing giant wind chimes. He believes that beansprouts could save the world.
Email: william@schumachercollege.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1803 869940
Wayne Schroeder, Catering Manager
Wayne oversees catering at the College. He started working in January 2001 and has the challenge of keeping the College on the cutting edge of food policy with regard to organic, fair-trade and local ingredients. He used to work as a food technologist for a Marks & Spencer based company in South Africa where he grew up. He has also trained and worked as a chef and cheese-maker in Scotland and as a baker in Switzerland.
Wayne lived at Findhorn for 11 years where he underwent a process of learning to serve. His service now involves inspiring others to consider sustainability issues through food, both within the College, in other organisations and the wider community.
Wayne is also a qualified Craniosacral therapist.
Email: wayne@schumachercollege.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1803 860051
Julia Ponsonby , Senior Caterer
Julia looks after the kitchen for two days a week when Wayne is calmly attending to his cranio-sacral patients. Before the birth of Stephan and Julia’s son Oscar in 2001, Julia worked full time as the Catering Manager and put together the college cookbook Gaia’s Kitchen which won the gourmand world cookbook award
for best veggie cookbook in 2001. Julia has been at the college since the beginning and occupied various roles- as a participant on the first course (Gaia theory 1991), as then as craft teacher, housekeeper and rota-spinner. She originally came to the College to deepen her knowledge of ecology so as to become a more effective and coherent member of the Green Party. Long back in the mists of time she studied Social Anthropology and Philosophy at the University of East Anglia. ‘I have always loved cooking and making things, but never thought I’d end up as a professional cook! Only at Schumacher College where the steamier side of the culinary world eclipses under the banner of team work and love of good fresh local food could I have enjoyed this nurturing role for so long.’
Email: julia@schumachercollege.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1803 860051
Sarah Bayley, Kitchen Assistant
After making the leap from suburban Surrey to deepest Devon, Sarah and her husband joined an intentional community on Dartmoor. It was here that her vegetarian cooking skills flourished and she realised how nurturing food could be for people. When the vacancy at Schumacher arose, she jumped at the chance – to learn from Wayne and Julia was an opportunity not to be missed!
Sarah lives in nearby Totnes and enjoys playing on her allotment in her spare time.
Email: c/o: admin@schumachercollege.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1803 860051
Susie Smith, Interim Marketing & Development Manager
Susie joined Schumacher College in September 2008 to co-ordinate marketing & publicity before taking on a new position of Interim Marketing & Development Manager working across the Sustainability and Social Justice departments at Dartington.
In her current role Susie is exploring new ways in which Dartington can help Local Authorities and businesses embed sustainability into their own activities while at the same time assisting the Social Justice department to develop a marketing function for research in practice the research network for children’s services.
Susie has worked in a variety of marketing roles across the third sector dealing extensively with young people, their teachers, parents, schools and partner organisations. Previous positions include self employed Marketing Advisor to start-up businesses, Fundraiser for The Vegetarian Society (of the UK), Schools Liaison Officer for North Trafford College and later Trafford College in Manchester and Marketing Co-ordinator for a Sheffield Law firm.
Susie has a degree in Business with a specialism in Marketing from the University of Sunderland.
Email: Susie@rip.org.uk
Tel: Mon/Tue +44 (0)1803 865934 Wed/Thu/Fri +44 (0)1803 867692
Hal Gillmore, Landscope Project Officer
Hal recruits and develops projects for our Landscope initiative which aims to regenerate the landscape through sustainable land-based business and enterprise, both on the Dartington estate and throughout the region.
Hal is from a farming family in South Devon, is an active member of Transition Town Totnes and also works as an accredited trainer for the Transition Network. His previous commercial experience includes tourism, training and business development in a variety of roles, including developing programmes for corporate and government clients that integrated development needs with social responsibility agendas. In a former life he has also led expeditions to wild and remote regions of the world, including three and a half years living and working in Latin America.
Email: h.gillmore@dartington.org
01803 849390
For more information about our visiting teachers please click here
Schumacher College is part of the Dartington Hall Trust, a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and as a charity (company no. 1485560, charity no. 279756). Registered office: The Elmhirst Centre, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EL, UK.