Pat Murphy is the Executive Director of the Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions and the author of the new book Plan C – Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change. He was the co-writer and co-producer of his organization's award-winning documentary film, "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" (2006). Pat lectures widely across the country on energy, Peak Oil, geopolitics, and lifestyle solutions. Prior to working for Community Solutions, Pat was the founder of a software company that developed a "design for manufacturing" program for residential building, which greatly reduced waste in the construction process. He also designed and built active solar homes. In addition Pat had a long career in computer applications in transportation, construction and energy industries. His main interest is on the techniques and strategies for a steady reduction in the per capita use of fossil fuels in years to come. He has been involved in community much of his life and sees community as the context within which sustainability can be reached.
Faith Morgan is a film director, writer, painter and sculptor (although The Power of Community was her first film). She has been associated with the Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions for many years. Over the last four years she has attended the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO) meetings in Europe and helped plan and implement the first three U.S. conferences on Peak Oil and Community Solutions. In 2003 she made two trips to Cuba to study what happened after the USSR collapsed in 1990, when Cuba's oil subsidies were suddenly cut in half. In 2004 she was part of the film crew, going back to Cuba to document the story of this major social disaster and Cuba's creative response to living without cheap, abundant oil. She directed and co-wrote the film The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, released in May, 2006.
Megan Quinn Bachman is the Outreach Director of Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions and has been writing and speaking on Peak Oil for more than four years. She served as Master of Ceremonies for the First, Second, and Third U.S. Conferences on Peak Oil and Community Solutions in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and at the Peak Oil and Environment conference in Washington D.C. in May 2006. Her articles on Peak Oil have appeared in Communities, Permaculture Activist, WellBeing, Vermont Commons and on the Internet at Energy Bulletin and Global Public Media. Megan also co-wrote and co-produced the documentary, The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil.

Megan graduated with a degree in Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where she studied Peak Oil and its implications for U.S. Foreign Policy, and studied abroad at the University of Havana in Cuba.
Rob Content is the Program Manager for Community Solutions. He began an effort to educate his friends, family, and colleagues about the implications of peak oil and climate change in 2005. He has given presentations on these issues to more than a dozen professional, academic, and community-based audiences. He and his wife are currently developing a four-acre permaculture demonstration garden which they will use as the base for community-oriented education about self-sufficient agriculture and food security. Rob earned graduate degrees in philosophy at the University of California, creative writing at Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland, and Renaissance Studies at Duke University. He has worked as a humanities professor, filmmaker, and film critic.

As Program Manager he is responsible for the development and documentation of the Smart Jitney and Agraria projects, as well as the development of an energy-based core curriculum in collaboration with Antioch University McGregor.
Jeanna Breza has been the Administrative Assistant of Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions since February, 2006. Growing up in a home-schooled environment, she is a firm believer in local community and alternatives to mainstream education. She has been avidly service oriented for much of her teen and adult life. In 2004, she served as an AmeriCorps NCCC volunteer in various cities across the country and had the opportunity to work with many non-profits including Austin Habitat for Humanity, Red Cross Hurricane Disaster Relief, and Denver Boys and Girls Club.

As Administrative Assistant, she manages a wide variety of the day-to-day tasks, including bookkeeping, editing, database management, and general office support.

Jeanna and her husband reside in a 400-square-foot apartment and own no car.
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Blurb

The Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions, founded in 1940 as Community Service, Inc., is a non-profit organization that educates on the benefits and values of small local community living. We envision a world where people live sustainably and cooperatively in local communities which are diverse, equitable, and just.

The Community Solutions program, started in 2003, is a national resource for knowledge and practices on low-energy living and self-reliant communities. We educate about the coming global oil production peak and climate change, and design solutions to the current unsustainable, fossil-fuel based, overly centralized way of living.

Community Solutions seek alternatives to both non-renewables (hydrogen, large scale coal/gas-to-liquids, carbon sequestration, tar sands) and renewables (large scale wind systems, biofuels, solar) that are risky and intended to maintain inequitable and unsustainable levels of resource consumption.

Board of Trustees

Karen BerneyKaren Berney is a community health consultant who has trained community health workers in Africa for 30 years and is a Certified Master Gardener.

Nick BoutisNick Boutis is the Executive Director of the Glen Helen Ecology Institute in Yellow Springs and has two decades of experience as a conservation professional, including work with the National Audubon Society, Endangered Species Coalition, and Population Connection.

Bob BrechaDr. Robert Brecha is a professor of Physics and Electro-optics at the University of Dayton and member of the “Sustainable Solutions” group of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. He was also a co-founder and member of the Yellow Springs Electrical Systems Task Force and co-builder of an energy-efficient straw bale house, and has installed solar hot water systems.

Kurt CobbKurt Cobb is a freelance writer who speaks and writes frequently on energy and the environment and is a founding member of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas-USA.

Barbara ForsterBarbara Forster is Director of Development for Wright State University with an MBA from Stanford University. She has served as the founding executive of The Antioch Company Foundation, Executive Director of a children’s home in rural Mexico, and Vice President at Bank of America.

Carol GashoCarol Gasho, who was raised in southeastern Ohio on a small farm where she learned gardening and food preservation among other useful skills, has a background as an engineer and a manager at the Antioch Company and is a member of the Yellow Springs and Miami Township Community Improvement Corporation.

Saul GreenbergSaul Greenberg, PhD, is a core faculty member in the School of Education and Director of Education Partnerships Development at Antioch University-McGregor.

Eric LangEric Lang is a consulting engineer on renewable energy projects and a part-time professor. He has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Delaware.

Faith MorganFaith Morgan has been associated with Community Service for many years and has served on the board since 2003. She has an eclectic background in sales, marketing, home inspecting, remodeling, gardening and beekeeping and was the director of The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (2006).

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