Topic:  Beyond "public" and "private": Lessons in community-based sustainable design from Recode Oregon

Speaker: Brenna Bell, Environmental lawyer and educator; Co-founder, Tryon Life Community Farm

Recode Oregon is a community group that engages the grassroots as leaders in changing local and state regulations that inhibit sustainable building and land use.  This talk will discuss Recode's successful campaign to legalize the re-use of graywater in Oregon, drawing lessons about how we can unleash community driven planning to facilitate decentralized, coordinated innovation in the values and practices of sustainable urban living.

Brenna Bell's Bio:
Brenna brings to her work a lifetime of passion for the Pacific Northwest, twelve years of organizing experience, and an extensive background in environmental law and education. Using her experience as a co-founder of Tryon Life Community Farm - a community sustainability non-profit in Portland, Or. - Brenna helped launch Recode Oregon in 2007. Through Recode, Brenna was the lead organizer and government liaison for the campaign to legalize graywater reuse in Oregon.

Brenna attended Lewis & Clark College, where she self-designed a major in Social Ecology, and later attended Lewis & Clark Law School, where she graduated cum laude, served as President of the Student Bar Association,  and received an Environmental and Natural Resources Certificate.

Brenna has worked with numerous non-profits, including Oregon Wild, the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, TLC Farm and Willamette Riverkeeper. Brenna is on the board of directors for TLC Farm, and has served on the boards of the Oregon Sierra Club, NW Constitutional Rights Center and the National Lawyers Guild. She also lives, and is raising her two young children, in Cedar Moon - the intentional community at TLC Farm.

Cascadia thanks the City of Vancouver for sponsoring the venue.