Koreen Brennan

Koreen has extensive experience in both permaculture design and in education. She has taught permaculture design at Pine Ridge Lakota reservation, various locations throughout the US, a number of universities, and countries in the Americas and Europe.

She is a sought after public speaker, and has been lecturing on permaculture since 2006. Her areas of expertise and passion are food forestry, small farms and food security, designing for resilience, community building, and regenerative economics including the sharing economy.

She has been involved in alternative education over the last three decades, including immersion education, mentoring and other approaches, and has been teaching permaculture since 2006. In a society with information overload, she believes that it is not the amount of information one has, but the relevance and usefulness of it that creates competence and understanding.

[...More ] Thus, she focuses on teaching practical application in real life situations. Understanding the fundamentals of a subject can help one think with how to use skill sets in a wide variety of situations. Connecting the dots from theory to real life use is key.

As a designer, her focus is on helping people create abundant edible landscapes, self-sufficient urban or rural homesteads, resilient and high yield small farms, business guilds, and intentional communities. Specialties include soil building and remediation, water catchment and use, edible landscaping, planning urban and rural integrated farming, reducing energy needs, and building more resilient finances and communities through collaborative holistic integration at village scale. She deeply appreciates the value of both beauty and utility, and so strives to meld aesthetics and practicality together to create designs that last, that work, that minimize care and expense, that produce abundantly, and are beautiful.

Koreen has grown hundreds of species of edibles in a variety of conditions and climates, run edible nurseries, engaged in master planning, business incubation and holistic economics using whole systems strategy and design, facilitated community development and facilitation, organized events, and has been a passionate educator, life coach, and mentor, so finds herself taking on diverse projects at times. She organized permaculture style disaster relief for thousands of Haitians living in camps after the earthquake in 2010, coordinated the formation of the Sustainable Urban Agriculture Coalition St Petersburg, organized natural building projects (straw bale, earth berm walipini) at Pine Ridge Lakota reservation, and is a founding co-organizer for the North American Permaculture Convergence and the international permaculture Co-Lab effort (formerly known as The Next Big Step). She is a Diplomate and a Board Member of the Permaculture Institute of North America, or PINA (pina.in). Courses taught by Koreen offer an internationally recognized certificate endorsed by PINA upon successful completion of our courses.

Koreen manages a permaculture medicinal herb and orchard demonstration farm in West Central Florida where she gets to dance with the natural world. She strives to live a balanced life, to walk her talk, and to make decisions in the interest of the next seven generations.

Koreen has studied permaculture with Larry Santoyo, Toby Hemenway, Scott Pittman, Robyn Francis, Darren Doherty, Eric Toensmeier, Wayne Weisman, and Warren Brush and has trained in aquaponics and urban food systems with Growing Power. She has also studied tracking (Tom Brown Tracking School), alternative education (George Wythe College), conflict resolution and non-violent communication, and a host of related subjects. She is an avid life long learner and continues to expand her knowledge and experience with continuing education in botany, hydrology, environmental science, natural building, regenerative agriculture, systems science, alternative economics and organization.

Permaculture Design Magazine Issue 120, May 2021

Yes Magazine, July 24, 2019

The Food Forest Handbook, Published April 2017 (designs featured in the book)

Permaculture Design Magazine Issue 101, Aug 2016

PlanetShifter Magazine, Aug 29 2014

Sustainability, Radical Solutions Inspiring Hope, Edited by Bob Banner, 2008

Koreen is an engaging and inspirational speaker who speaks on a wide variety of topics such as What is Permaculture, Practical Sustainability, Creating Resilient Opportunity From Disaster, Regenerative Economics, Changing the World with Permaculture Principles, Creating Abundance in Your Own Backyard, Successful Urban Agriculture, Small Farming, and more.

Sample speaking engagements:

Going Green kick-off event, San Fernando Valley Business Alliance/Green Leadership Coalition, 2008

Tuskegee University, 2010

Keynote, Beyond Sustainability Conference, Hillsborough Community College, Tampa, 2011

Keynote, First Annual Meeting, Sustainable Urban Agriculture Coalition, St Petersburg, 2013

Keynote, Florida Permaculture Convergence, 2013, 2014

Florida Small Farms Conference, 2013

International Permaculture Convergence Cuba, 2013

Florida Gulf Coast University, 2014

Florida State University St Petersburg, 2014

International Permaculture Convergence UK, 2015

Body, Mind, Spirit Conference Tampa, 2015

Food and Thought Health Freedom Summit, Naples, FL 2016

Florida Small Farms Conference, 2016

North American Permaculture Convergence, Solar Living Institute, California, 2016

Sustainable Living Conference, 2016, 2017, 2018

Florida Permaculture Convergence, 2017, 2018

Indigenous Wisdom and Permaculture Skills Convergence, 2017, 2018

Twigs and Berries hosts Virginia Extension Service representatives, 2018

Keynote, Eat Local Week Sarasota, 2018

A-Ha! Holistic Health Expo, Spirit University, 2019

Stetson University, 2019