Meet the Natural Home & Garden magazine team

Jessica Kellner
Editor  

Natural Home & Garden editor Jessica Kellner is fascinated with the ways the wisdom of the past and the technology of today can combine to help us create a modern, sustainable vision for the future. Over the past few years, she has been thrilled to watch a reawakened desire for self-sufficiency as more and more of us grow and preserve our own food, buy from our local economies, and generate our own home’s power. She is determined to give readers the information they need to make their homes healthier, less expensive, more delightful places to live. She is intrigued by new ways to save space, save energy and repurpose household items. She is empowered by the idea that a Facebook callout can turn an abandoned city lot into a community garden.

Thanks to many years of working in the sustainable journalism industry, Kellner has seen how changing our lives can be easy once we change our mindset. She loves to show people that ‘green’ isn’t an alternative lifestyle—in her experience, an interest in saving money, eating well, avoiding toxic chemicals and engaging with our communities is shared by just about everyone. Committed to collecting the best information and tips from both our staff—a group of lifelong sustainability advocates—and our expert writers and consultants from around the globe, Kellner hopes to share ideas and resources that help readers live the good life.

A longtime thrift-store junkie, Kellner is interested in the many ways we can give items of the past a useful future. Her autumn 2011 book, Housing Reclaimed, features homes built almost exclusively with reclaimed materials and cost virtually nothing. She speaks on the topic nationwide.

Kellner lives with her husband, James, and dog, Scout, in a townhouse in Lawrence, Kansas, that’s decorated with secondhand and reclaimed materials. She’s a graduate of the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism—and a big Jayhawk basketball fan. She loves reading classic literature, boating, swimming, running and spending time with friends and family.

Tabitha Alterman
Food and Garden Editor

Tabitha Alterman has maintained a lifelong interest in living lightly on the planet while soaking up all its glory, through both work and play. She revels in fresh air and sunshine, music with a soul, dancing from the hips, long bouts of travel, celebrating the seasons through cooking and — above all — good times with the good people she holds near and dear. She values wit and beauty, but neither above compassion. Her favorite words are bunk, sagacious and smarmy.

Since the age of 10, she’s been filling notebooks with sketches and plans for an eventual “Tabitopia,” where natural building methods and excellent homegrown food are key elements. She’s inspired by the principles of wabi sabi she’s learned from Natural Home & Garden’s former editor-in-chief, and is thrilled to be on board as the team’s technical editor. She is proud that her work for the magazine contributes to well-researched, thoughtful content that is as free from greenwashing as possible. 

Alterman currently serves as a civil society delegate to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, where her focus is on sustainable agriculture. And she’s lucky enough to be paying the majority of her bills with a fun and challenging post as senior editor over at our sister magazine, Mother Earth News. 

Alterman studied English literature at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., aka The Natural State, where she misses the pecan grove and Petit Jean Mountain the most. She has also lived under the grey skies and shimmering spires of Oxford, England; the massive magnolias and wraparound porches of her hometown of Memphis, Tenn.; on the side of a volcano in Hawaii’s Kona Coast; in a bungalow in hip Lawrence, Kan.; in the shadow of South Mountain in Phoenix, Ariz.; and in her friendly-family-filled neighborhood of West Harlem in New York City. Alterman is a recent transplant to New York, where she is delighted to have given up driving altogether, and is pursuing graduate studies in sustainable food systems research. She owes her dedication to conscientious living to the fabulous example set by her parents, who tread lightly on a rural patch of the last remaining tallgrass prairie in the United States.

Amy Mayfield
Health Editor

Amy Mayfield, former editor of Herbs for Health magazine and senior editor of The Herb Companion magazine, is the health editor for Natural Home & Garden. She lives in beautiful, green Corvallis, Oregon, with her husband and two young children.

Mayfield and her family live in a 1950s ranch-style home on a half-acre lot in the city, within walking distance of the children's schools and almost everything else the family needs. The family tries to make the best environmental choices possible, enjoying bike riding, gardening, community-supported agriculture involvement, car-free days, local eating, driving a hybrid vehicle and buying used whenever possible.

Mayfield’s husband, Ryan, is an engineer who designs commercial-scale solar electric systems and has grand plans for a pole-mounted solar array in the family's backyard.

Mayfield, a native of Santa Cruz, California, graduated cum laude from Humboldt State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in news-editorial journalism in 1999. In her spare moments away from work and kids, she enjoys cooking, reading, thrift store shopping and exercising.

Ginevra Holtkamp
Lifestyle Editor

After spending a few of her formative years navigating the busy streets of New York City and paying her dues in the publishing industry as an intern at Metropolitan Home and editorial assistant at Woman’s Day Special Interest Publications, Ginevra Holtkamp followed her heart (and future husband) to the beautiful state of Vermont.

It was there she began to experience some of the wonderful things a natural lifestyle has to offer: long hikes through the lush Green Mountains, a thriving local foods movement, and lovingly restored historic homes to name a few. In addition to a rewarding freelance writing career, Holtkamp worked as a project assistant at a local architecture firm, where she researched natural building materials and methods, created catching color schemes, and helped clients find furniture and art made by local artisans. 

In 2010 it was time to move again and put down some roots—this time in her husband’s native state of Kansas. The couple purchased their first home, and Holtkamp is excited to share the trials and tribulations of restoring and greening the 1885 house with Natural Home & Garden readers. She’ll also be sharing suggestions for how to live better with less as she gets settled in to the 900-square-foot space.

Susan Melgren
Web Editor

Having grown up in a home where gardening, nature and natural health were important, Natural Home & Garden web editor Susan Melgren brought to the magazine a love for outdoor living and an interest in exploring natural remedies and nontoxic homes that provide a healthy living environment. Although Melgren has yet to unearth any green thumbs, she is currently trying her hand at small-space balcony gardening.

A native of Wichita, Kansas, Melgren finds beauty in her home state where others may not. She has a special appreciation for open skies, wide expanses of prairie, and spring thunderstorms, which she enjoys from her front porch even in the face of tornado warnings. Melgren enjoys a good cup of tea, walking on her old college campus, and cheering on the University of Kansas Jayhawks in football and basketball. She loves to bake, hates to cook, and will read almost any book recommended to her.

Melgren currently lives in Lawrence, Kansas, where she devotes her time to sprucing up her drab apartment with space-saving decorations, dreaming of one day owning a pug, and encouraging her fiancé to save water and recycle with a good attitude.

Michelle Galins 
Art Director

Michelle Galins is the art director of Natural Home. A native of Southern California, Michelle grew up riding horses and playing on the beach.  After attending Cal State Fullerton and earning degrees in fine art, graphic design and illustration, Michelle moved to Colorado, where she takes advantage of the natural resources the state has to offer, such as going mountain biking and taking nature walks with her daughter, Kaia.    

Before she joined the magazine in 2005, living green was always a natural part of Galins’ every day life. “I live it. I was raised by living green and am now teaching my daughter, neighbors and friends how to live smarter,” she says. Galins grows her own veggies, bikes Kaia to school and practices yoga regularly. 

Appreciating natural beauty is another important part of both Galins’ work and personal lives. Kaia paints and does DIY projects with Galins, while Galins’ husband, Andrej, works in the arts, too. As art director, it’s her job to communicate ideas visually. “I want people to relax, enjoy and easily understand the information,” she says. “I want to inspire folks to want to live that lifestyle that they see in Natural Home.”

Editorial Advisory Board

Edith Vanderbilt Cecil is a "green" interior designer and also holds several important business and philanthropic positions. She is the director of Concurrent Technologies Corporation's International Environmental Projects, founder and executive director of the United States Environmental Training Institute, a group that promotes positive environmental change within industry by fostering appropriate environmental technologies and management approaches.

Debra Lynn Dadd is the author of six consumer guidebooks that have been a leading influence in the green consumer market for more than a decade. Called "the queen of green" by The New York Times, Debra is the author of Nontoxic & Natural; The Nontoxic Home; Natural & Earthwise; The Nontoxic Home & Office; Sustaining the Earth; and Home, Safe Home. She has made numerous appearances on national radio and television programs, including National Public Radio, CNN, and the Today show.

Brian Dunbar, IDEC, NCIDQ, Associate AIA, is director of the Institute for the built Environment and associate professor of interior design at Colorado State University. Brian has compiled in-depth research on sustainable design, healthy buildings, the innovative design process, and design theory as well as research for the American Institute of Architects and the U.S. National Park Service. He is a member of the AIA's Interiors Committee and the Committee on the Environment, the Interior Design Educators Council, the Design Communications Association, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

David Eisenberg is the founder and director of the Development Center for Appropriate Technology in Tucson, Arizona, an organization that supports the development and use of sustainable approaches to meeting human and ecological needs through appropriate use of technology. The co-author of The Straw Bale House, the book that introduced Americans to straw bale building, he has helped build homes of rammed earth and adobe as well as the spaceframe and glazing systems for Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Arizona. He has led straw bale workshops throughout the world and consults on design and construction details and code issues, as well as research and testing projects for straw bale construction.

Steven Foster is president of Steven Foster Group, a worldwide information resource for the medicinal and aromatic plant industries. Steven has served as a renowned medicinal and aromatic plant specialist, commercial consultant, and lecturer. He is the author of twelve publications, including 101 Medicinal Herbs.

David Johnston is president of What's Working, an international environmental design and consulting firm in Boulder, Colorado, that specializes in environmental construction technology. Co-author of the Denver Metro Home Builder's Association Green Builder Certification Program, David also has developed green builder programs for the cities of Boulder and Aspen in Colorado, the city of Los Angeles, and the East Bay area of San Francisco. His firm developed a marketing strategy for the U.S. Green Building Council to introduce the nation's first commercial building environmental rating system--Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)--and was selected to represent the United States at International Energy Agency meetings to develop international research on sustainable building. He is the author of Building Green in a Black and White World.

David Pearson is the author of The Natural House Book, published in 1989, which was one of the first books to introduce mainstream audiences to natural building. A promoter of Gaian thinking ("everything we do affects the health of the whole planet"), Pearson's mission is to prove to designers-and homeowners-that bearing a greater responsibility to ensure the future of the earth is a privilege, not a burden. David's work focuses on three touchstones that buildings of the future need to integrate: environmental awareness, the use of healthy, non-toxic, and sustainable materials, and a deeper understanding of the spiritual side of the home. He has also written Earth to Spirit: In Search of Natural Architecture and several books on sustainable design for Chelsea Green.

Sarah Susanka is an advocate of "less is more" in residential architecture and interior design. Susanka has emerged as one of America's favorite home architects. As a result of the success of The Not So Big House and the new vision it holds for the American home, she was featured by U.S. News and World Report as one of 18 innovators in American culture. Susanka has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, the Charlie Rose Show, and numerous radio shows around the country. She is a former principal and founding partner of the firm chosen by LIFE magazine to design its 1999 Dream Home.

Wanda Urbanska is an author, sustainable lifestyle consultant and producer of PBS' Simple Living With Wanda Urbanska. 

Carol Venolia's now-defunct newsletter, Building with Nature, was one of the first in the field and developed an extremely loyal following during its lifetime. (Many of those subscribers have now been brought into the Natural Home fold.) The author of Healing Environments: Your Guide to Indoor Well-Being, Carol is an architect and consultant who has also been a pioneer in the green building movement.

Pliny Fisk and Gail Vittori are the co-directors of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, a think tank in Austin, Texas, that has pioneered green building. Pliny founded CMPBS in 1975 (he's truly the Daddy-O of this movement), and he and Gail have since created a veritable church for the green movement. Pliny and Gail are working with the Department of Energy's Building America program and with the Environmental Protection Agency to develop software that helps builders and homeowners determine the impacts of the building materials they choose.