Meet The Team

Antonio has been working as an independent consultant on a wide variety of land restoration and building projects since 1990, applying low-impact methods, and developing innovative ecological land management strategies.

A background in landscape architecture, 35 years of experience as a builder & farmer living close to the land, and projects in diverse environments and social contexts combine to a unique understanding of the human place on the planet.

Projects include:

- Vegetation- and biomass management in coastal California

- Permaculture-based reforestation in coastal Jalisco, MX

- Equestrian landscapes, ponds & stonewalls, in New England

- Orchard management (& Old World Integrity) in Germany

- Preservation of olive groves in Toscana and Liguria, Italy

- Passive solar homes -- design & construction

- Roof Gardens in New York City

- Hawaiian ranch-to-farm conversion (since Spring 2014)

The wide-ranging interactions with land, soil, and vegetation have consistently confirmed that the best designs interpret and echo nature and local preexisting conditions, rather than aim at control. The most beautiful environments are 'sustainable' by being solidly anchored in natural processes, rather than imposed from the outside. The experiences have led him to the insights and ecological methods that Antonio applies in his projects today.

Antonio's work intends to help re-define human interaction with nature, replacing impositions of ego and preconceived notions with sequences of adaptive responses.

Born and raised here in Hawai’i, Nahele moved to a remote island in Alaska where she spent two decades helping to run a lodge and raise a family. There, the dark and stark winters sparked her love affair with nursing her own gardens. She began her first garden while working at the lodge, and eventually grew enough plants to feed their guests. She brings with her her experience and knowledge in the art of hospitality, groundskeeping and her love for the land.

“The imagination of children is endless. I believe if they are shown the door they will unlock a wonderful relationship with the natural world……Through our keiki we can see what we couldn’t or wouldn’t before, with eyes wide open and full of wonder”

Nahele will help integrate our essential outdoor food components (along with a sense of wonder) into each and every group of individuals and help us to establish what matters. Whether that be with food harvesting, planting healing native plants, or curating and feeding the soils, she will have her hands and intentions intertwined with ours.

“I truly believe that a school’s mission isn’t to teach knowledge, but to provide children with the opportunity to reach out within themselves to solve problems, in the safety of adults’ non-invasive observation : child-led education.”
Marine is a preschool teacher, mother, athlete and artist from France. She was born and raised in France and moved to Hawai’i Island 5 years ago. She is passionate about all things education and early childhood development. This passion started very early in her life and, with it, the desire to learn more about unconventional teaching methods rooted in empathy, compassion and understanding of the keiki. In 2016 she completed her master’s degree in Education and Teaching, with a specialty in early childhood brain development and psychology. She also completed her 5 year training in the public school system. She became a mother in 2019 - with this new role, her will to contribute to her community as a teacher only grew and she is excited to take an integral role in the Keiki Program at 'Akahiao Nature Institute. Sne envisions a program rooted in Hawaiian wisdom, where we bring our keiki back to their source - the ‘aina, themselves, and the genius of their own body and inner knowing.

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Julie’s passion is to develop programs that connects our youth to the ʻAina. Having worked in a DNA sequencing lab and as a Biologist in construction zones, she was confronted with the destruction and complications that our technological ʻadvancementsʻ were causing to the health of our plant and to the health of our own wellbeing. While working in a non-profit to end the use of fossil fuels in Hawaii, she was invited to join a mentorship program at The Tracking Project. Under the guidance of her mentors John Stokes and Brother Noland, she learned about indigenous philosophies and realized how necessary our connection to the natural world was and how there are practices that can help us become connected once again. She then became a student at The East West Center during which she began her volunteer work at the Gross National Happiness Center in Bhutan and volunteered as an educator at the Green School. She has since received her ME in Educational Foundations from the University of Hawaii, served on the board of Hawaii Nature Center for 9 years and crewed the Hokuleʻa on her world wide voyage. She now serves as the Director at ʻAkahiao Nature Institute that offers nature-based programs to our keiki, providing guidance and space to nurture courage, creativity and connectedness to the next generation.