Our Team

Nick Tittle grew up in Washington DC and attended the University of South Carolina where he received a bachelors degree in small business management and entrepreneurship. Nick spent three years managing volunteers, interns and apprentices at the Panya Project Permaculture and Earthen Building Education Center. Nick specializes in consulting and teaching about a variety of subjects including natural building, organic gardening, forest gardening, soil food web technology, animal husbandry and alternative economic systems and has consulted in Thailand, China, India, and the USA. Nick is currently based in Charleston, South Carolina where he is the farm coordinator for Fresh Future Farm as well as working on setting up an Urban Permaculture Education Center.

Gregory Crawford has a decade of work experience on small-scale, organic, community-supported farms in Washington State. Gregory has spent over two years at the Panya Project, facilitating courses & managing the natural buildings. He has created his own course-curriculum through an entirely self-directed education at the Evergreen State College. Gregory is currently transforming a neglected & abandoned 3,700 sq ft home in Detroit, Michigan into an urban permaculture resource center called Win/win Reactor. Win/win hosts workshops & courses focused on permaculture's value within the city, replicable appropriate technologies, food production/preservation, ethically-aligned livelihood, personal & community empowerment, & much more.

s managing director of the Panya Project, Christian Shearer has worked extensively in tropical climates with earthen construction, ecological agriculture, and the regeneration of degraded land. Christian lives part-time in northern Thailand, and is available for design as well as on-the-ground implementation management & education. One of Christian's areas of expertise is creative resource management, connecting the "waste" products from one industry to the inputs of another for optimal eco-social profitability. He has recently opened an education center in Teton Valley, Idaho, and has taught a number of courses internationally, including in Thailand, Nicaragua, India, Malaysia, Taiwan and the United States.

Adam Dusen is the founder and director of Hundred Fruit Farm, a 10-acre permaculture farm in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Adam has a master’s degree in sustainable development from Linkoping University and is a permaculture designer, educator, organic farmer, aquaponics consultant, and organic farm inspector. He helped manage the Panya Project in Thailand over a period of several years, working as a permaculture farm manager at the Center for Sustainable Development in The Bahamas, and most recently returning to the U.S. to start Hundred Fruit Farm in 2015. At Hundred Fruit Farm, Adam is growing over 100 different kinds of fruit and developing a multi-species orchard, food forest, and permaculture nursery.

Geoffroy Godeau is from Belgium where he graduated in landscape architecture. He discovered permaculture in Nicaragua, while traveling the world. He has been living on and off at the Panya Project for the last five years, learning and teaching mainly about natural building. He has been working and teaching on natural building projects in Belgium as well, and investigating and practicing permaculture techniques in landscaping projects. He is also part of "brin de paille" the French speaking permaculture network in Europe.

Brecht Deriemaeker is a Design Engineer with Master degrees in both Electromechanical Engineering and Industrial Product Design. He combines regenerative thinking with engineering and tackles problems as pointers towards opportunities for global change. As a consultant he focuses on permaculture masterplanning, energy systems, water supply and web design. He has worked on a variety of different projects in Thailand, China, India, Barbados, Indonesia, Guatemala and Vietnam.

Lola Byron is originally from Birmingham England. Lola has been the natural building manager at Panya Project since 2013, teaching numerous PDC’s, hands-on Permaculture and Natural Building Courses. Lola is available for Permaculture and natural building consultations and ground level implementation and management. With a background in studying and teaching Fine Art and Sculpture she loves to apply these artistic skills to create beautiful buildings from earth, specialising in adobe, cob and earthbags. Having now completed 6 house builds, project managing 4 of these, she is always excited to pass on her knowledge and inspire and empower others to re-connect with the earth, make positive changes and become more self-reliant.

Kyle Smith is originally from Swaziland, Africa. After completing his studies in horticulture, he worked at Kirstenbosch Botanical gardens in Cape Town, South Africa. His main focuses are conserving indigenous plant species, rehabilitating degraded ecosystems and designing and establishing education gardens. Kyle has been the perennial plant manger and a long-term community member at the Panya Project. He facilitated numerous Permaculture design courses, organic gardening and natural building workshops; Kyle is passionate about conserving soil ecosystems, plant propagation and small-scale ecological agriculture.