Akoth Ambugo
Akoth is a caregiver who believes that one of our greatest responsibilities is to learn the ways of divine love by caring deeply for one another. She is privileged to put this belief into practice each day as a Christian Science nurse. In her spare time, she tends gardens and nurtures connections within her community.
Akoth is working to establish a natural farming school in her country of origin, Kenya. Her vision is to bring together people from all directions to share their knowledge, love, and resources; strengthen community; and help address poverty of both body and soul. She believes in the power of community to uplift people and support the journey toward wholeness.
Akoth is committed to learning about Indigenous wisdom and cultivating intentional, respectful communities where all life can thrive. She is deepening her knowledge of natural farming, beekeeping, and food and seed preservation, and welcomes opportunities to share and learn with others who share these commitments.
Lili Gomez
Land Steward, Community Consultant
Lili Gomez is a regenerative land steward and educator dedicated to recuperating ancestral and holistic ways of living and learning. For over three decades she has been involved in horizontally-run educational centers, farms, organizations and other work spaces across the American continent. Her experience and expertise include herbalism, foraging, regenerative land stewardship, natural construction, community mediation, and consensus-decision making. She also has extensive knowledge and experience in homesteading, intentional communities and learner centered spaces. Lili is a faith keeper in her ancestral spiritual traditions. In fulfilling this role she shares her knowledge of herbal medicine, songs, ceremony, and care for body, mind and soul as a way to nourish all life on earth. Her mission is to grow Hawk Mountain Earth Center into a communal land based resource to provide multidimensional support for everyone looking to heal themselves, their communities and the planet.
Poppy Jones
Poppy Jones is a phytotherapist in service to sharing and transmitting the health, wealth, wisdom and intelligence inherent in Nature. Poppy Jones (Narragansett Nation) is grateful for his forest life. He grew up in the (Onteoras) Catskills mountains, fishing, hunting, and growing gardens, leading a life close to nature. With over 16 years of experience in plant medicine and foraging, Poppy connects with the forest by quietly listening to subtle communication through flora, fungi, ferns and trees. Poppy now teaches and mentors students, friends, and family in herbal medicine at resorts, camps, spiritual centers, reservations and universities.
Robert Buesaquillo
Regenerative Design and Stewardship
Robert Buesaquillo Santamaría is a Quillasinga descendant and traditional beadwork artist from the town of Obonuco Pasto. He learned his craft elders he visited in his youth near Putumayo, in the the Colombian Amazon. For over two decades, he has carried and shared this tradition with care and respect. In the late 1980’s Robert co-founded Tribu Valencia, an intentional and regenerative community and cultural house in Quebrada Valencia, a small river settlement in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta Colombia. In 2005, he immigrated to the United States and eventually made New York City his home. Soon after arriving, he co-founded the Colombian cumbia group Ay Mayo, which highlights the rhythms of Colombia’s northern Caribbean coast. As the group’s Kuisi player—an Indigenous flute more commonly known as the gaita—Robert performed at community-centered musical celebrations and collaborated with the social immigrant movement in solidarity with their triumphs in New York City. Beyond his artistic practice, Robert is a lifelong carpenter and a land steward at Hawk Mountain Earth Center where he leads the land management infrastructure, providing the manual labor and expertise necessary to ensure the success of food sovereignty initiatives on the ground.
Primitiva Buesaquillo
Outreach Coordinator
Primitiva Buesaquillo is a queer Quillasinga (Obonuco) and Muyska (Sopo) woman. She was born in the traditional territories of the Arhuaco (or Ika), Wiwa, Kogi and KanKuamo people on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Santa Marta. Primitiva graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Women and Gender Studies with concentration in Psychology and Theater at Rutgers University. Primitiva is a multimedia artist and community organizer whose work is grounded in women’s sovereignty over land and body.
Maxim Pavon
Youth Coordinator
With a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Policy and Planning, Maxim carries his passion for community land trusts forward through land-based solidarity work with many grassroots organizations in North Jersey and beyond. Maxim enjoys varied seasonal work as a form of continual experiential learning while maintaining relationships across the plenteous conferences he has attended over the years. He weaves in the benefits of hypnocounseling to enhance engagement in outdoor recreation, education, and community organizing.