A collective effort devoted to demonstrating practical regenerative solutions to societal challenges.
Project Coordinators:
Dr. Charles Curtin was born in London, England, spent much of his formative years in West Africa, and resides in Taos, New Mexico. He has worked on place-based climate adaptation projects in New Mexico for three decades. A leading practitioner in landscape conservation, he has decades of experience in collaborative natural resource management, including directing or co-founding multi-million-acre conservation projects, the Blackfoot Challenge and the Malpai Borderlands Group, as well as serving as an advisor to UNESCO and associated United Nations programs. A widely published author, he has written some of the most recognized articles and books in collaborative landscape conservation, including the forthcoming Place-Based Solutions from Johns Hopkins University Press (his writings have been cited more than 9,000 times). He co-founded graduate programs in adaptive management at MIT and has taught at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and elsewhere, with extensive experience founding and managing multi-million-acre community-based natural resource projects. His current work focuses on carbon-negative conservation and rural development practices (www.charlescurtin.com).
Dr. Ilka Villarreal, a Panamanian by birth and a Spanish citizen, serves as the Executive Director of the Mora Arts Council. She has decades of experience in cross-cultural translation, including a doctoral degree in cross-cultural communication from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, and an MA in Arts Administration from the University of Wisconsin. Fluent in four languages (English, French, Spanish, and Russian), Dr. Villarreal focuses on outreach and engaging diverse audiences and alternative ways of knowing and understanding, including promoting arts and culture related to community and ecological renewal.
Project Partners
Ben Adolph from Illinois is the founder of Merge Impact and a nationally recognized expert in regenerative agriculture and ecosystem credit assessment, with over a decade of experience in this field. A proven track record of enabling and monetizing ecosystem recovery for the benefit of landowners. Merge Impact collaborates with us on ecosystem service market development, including verification of benefits, additionality, and offsets. They also have access to biochar markets and support our mission of piloting socio-ecological renewal.
Elmo Baca, of Las Vegas, New Mexico, is the Executive Director of the Las Vegas New Mexico Community Foundation, bringing decades of experience in revitalization and historic preservation. A former Board chairman of the New Mexico Humanities Council, he has an interest in cultural heritage, arts and cultural districts, and architecture. He provides a crucial link to local communities in San Miguel, with the Las Vegas Community Foundation serving as a key partner, raising funds for the non-marketable community outreach portions of the project.
Joseph Griego is a lifelong resident of Mora County, New Mexico, and the state director of Chicanos Por La Causa. Mr. Griego is from Mora County and a critically important advocate for our project amongst key stakeholders and state and national-level politicians. He is a dedicated advocate of our work as a model for minority economic development and empowerment. Chicanos Por La Causa is the largest Hispanic and Indigenous rights organization in the US, with immense resources to apply to development projects. Mr. Griego has decades of experience with project development and the state appropriations process.
Terry Harris, based in Kansas, is Director of Green-G Network and NM REIZE, and has been developing a regional regenerative network. This work involves assisting in the development of biochar and carbon credit markets, which link the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains. Terry has thirty years of experience in rural economic development. He has worked in renewable energy development for the last decade and was a cofounder of the Green-G Network and NM REIZE, coordinating regenerative industries.
Ryan Letoureau is a founding partner in the Grain Ecosystem based in Boston, MA. Grain is the premier developer of carbon credits and waste-to-market valuation in the US. Their platform provides a systematic valuation platform and means of documenting that system recovery goals are attained, sustained, and monetized, providing a sustainable and verifiable stream of ecological, social, and economic benefits.
Roseanna Vitiello, founder of the Place Bureau, London, England. They are a research, strategy, and design studio that defines new frontiers for community development in diverse places around the world. Combining expertise in urban research, strategic foresight, cultural placemaking, and spatial storytelling, Roseanna and colleagues shape resilient places that are alive with meaning, character, and community. We intend Regional Regeneration to be a demonstration project with global impact. Roseanna and her team provide links to the cutting edge of what is happening in Europe and around the globe in community building and developing regenerative socio-ecological systems.
We are working with Dr. Chonggang Xu and associates at the Los Alamos National Labs on carbon balance studies to determine the optimal forestry and land management and restoration practices in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico.