Nile Bachmann, Acupuncturist and Sustainability Business Manager
Nile specializes in pain management at the Blue Ridge Clinic for Chinese Medicine in Floyd. He also manages operations for Upcycle Appalachia, a sustainability business turning post-consumer plastic and wood into beautiful items for home and garden. He loves reading, cooking, parenting, and engaging with his community to foster wellness and a conscientious approach to living.
Nile and his wife, Katie have called Floyd home for over 10 years. The arrival of their daughter has served as a daily reminder of their desire to help create a world of natural beauty and opportunity for all.
Rick Brown, Outdoor Enthusiast and Environmentalist
Rick’s passions run the gamut from cycling to reading to playing his Spanish-built guitar. A former designer of electronic circuits/systems, he now focuses his attention on renewable energy as the owner of SolShine Energy Alternatives, an electrical and solar contracting business, specializing in designing and installing solar electric systems for home and business.
He and his wife, Christy Pugh, live in a 316 sq foot solar-powered home that they designed and built. One of the many reasons Rick and Christy moved to Floyd was to pursue living a radically simplified, rural life by developing a small footprint homestead. Rick’s larger goal is to promote, as author/educator Jim Merkel states, “Small footprints on a finite Earth.”
Mike Burton, Attorney, Farmer, Conservationist
Mike received his Juris Doctorate from Wake Forest University School of Law in 1988 and practiced trial law in North Carolina for 10 years. He farmed in Floyd for several years before accepting the position of Director of SustainFloyd. He was an active and successful leader of the organization until 2013 when he left to work as independent consultant on local food systems development. He served as a board member of the Virginia Association for Biological Farmers and with the Community Foundation of the New River Valley. Mike lives in a straw bale, solar-powered, wood-heated home he constructed and is very engaged with the local community.
Jane Cundiff, Biology Professor, Global Educator, Volunteer Project Organizer, Naturalist & Gardener
Jane and her husband Ken have settled in Floyd after a life as international science educators. They are now adjunct science professors at Radford University and stay busy growing organic food and protecting local ecology. Jane is presently active in several community organizations in Floyd and runs the Wild Edibles Organic Garden Club.
Fred First, Author, Photographer, Biologist
Fred gives voice to the beauty of Floyd. His two books, A Slow Road Home and What We Hold in Our Hands have received acclaim. He has aired more than 30 NPR radio essays and written regular columns for two local papers. His photographs appear widely in such publications as Blue Ridge Country, Appalachian Voice and his photo-blog, Fragments from Floyd. He is a past board member of the Jacksonville Center for the Arts and participates in a number of committees related to tourism and natural resource use in Floyd. He has also served as associate professor of biology at Wytheville Community College, then as a physical therapist before turning to a writing career.
Tom Franko, Timber Framer
Tom Franko tree-planted for years to purchase a stake in a Floyd intentional community – Zephyr – then built a home from timber and stone and found a vocation in the local timber framing industry.
Tom is quiet but outspoken when necessary. He is a husband, father and grandfather. He loves to travel and still works to sustain that. Human connection is the true stuff of life and nothing like an honest community to provide opportunity for that.
John Hopkins, Writer
John is a writer, editor, and sometime community organizer. After retiring from a sub-editor role at The Miami Herald, he founded and for five years led Green Mobility Network, promoting safety and better facilities for walking and bicycling. In Floyd, his interests have mostly focused on the environment.
Roger Kienzle
Roger Kienzle grew up in a suburban neighborhood on Long Island, NY. At 22 he joined the Navy and served as navigation division officer aboard USS Nimitz. Over a ten-year period in those early days he either worked on the water as a clamdigger in Huntington Harbor, LI, on the Nimitz, or lived on the water in a houseboat.
Since getting out of the Navy, Roger has worked as an accountant at CPA firms and for nonprofit and private employers. He has over 37 years experience in accounting, and currently works keeping books using an online software called Xero.
Henry David Thoreau has been an influence on Roger. Floyd is home to many people who have marched to a different drummer, and Roger has lived here since 1987. He has a long-standing woodworking hobby and has made most of the furniture in his house – all in the Arts and Crafts or Stickley style. He hopes to offer objects for sale here in the near future.
Silvie Granatelli, Professional Potter and Mentor
Silvie Granatelli grew up in suburban Chicago. She has undergraduate and graduate degree in Ceramic Arts. Silvie has taught at Berea College in Kentucky and Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. She moved to Floyd, Virginia in 1981 to set up a working studio, where she has spent the last 39 years working as a potter and mentoring young aspiring potters through her apprenticeship program. She was one of the founding members of 16 Hands Studio Tour and one of the original owners of Troika Contemporary Crafts Gallery in Floyd.
Silvie lives with her husband, Jim Newlin on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Lydeana Martin, Floyd County Community and Economic Development Director
Lydeana grew up in Floyd County and is fortunate to still call it home. She works closely with the local Economic Development Authority on business development initiatives as well as with non-profits and the local Planning Commission. She serves on the SustainFloyd Stewardship committee.
Celeste Morikawa
Celeste is a website developer who is passionate about digital sustainability and reducing the footprint of technology on the planet. She is also a certified Nature Connection Guide with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, and has been wandering the trails and forests of the Blue Ridge Mountains for over 30 years. She currently lives in Floyd with her husband in a home they built together using sustainable building practices.
Barbara Pleasant, Writer, Volunteer
Barbara has been covering organic agriculture for 30 years, first with Organic Gardening magazine and now with Mother Earth News. Author of several award-winning books, she serves on SustainFloyd’s Film Committee.
Mark Schonbeck, Consultant in Sustainable Agriculture
Mark lives in Floyd as part of the Abundant Dawn Community. He provides one-on-one consulting for farmers and homesteaders including soil test interpretation, soil health, and nutrient, weed, and pest management for ecological and organic production systems. He also works with National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition in advocating for more sustainable farm and food system policy at the federal level.
Katy Morikawa
Katy has lived in Floyd since 2010, but grew up in Blacksburg and lived in Hawaii, California, and Arizona before returning to the New River Valley. She is passionate about protecting the living earth and has participated in Sustain Floyd’s recycling efforts, among other projects. She works from home as a graphic designer, web developer, and consultant in the small house in the woods she and her partner, a local Floyd man, built in 2018.