Green Century Institute

Michael Gosney, Founder, Co-director
Michael Gosney is a pioneer in digital publishing who has developed multimedia, Internet and ePublishing projects for sponsors and clients such as Apple Computer, Toshiba, Lucent Technologies, GE Capital Mortgage, Kodak and Peter Norton. He has produced publications and events with leaders in sustainable design. Books include Deep Ecology, ed. By Michael Tobias, After Eden by Michael Tobias, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth by Buckminster Fuller, Arcosanti: An Urban Laboratory? by Paolo Soleri.

Michael founded Verbum, Inc. in 1988, with the publication of Verbum magazine, one of the first desktop published magazines and an influential catalyst for "cyberculture" and advanced media development. In 1991 he published Verbum Interactive CD-ROM, the industry's first true multimedia title that set a standard against which early new media productions were measured. Michael and the Verbum team produced many books and CD-ROMs in the 1990s educating creative professionals on digital media production. In 1998 Verbum produced Peter Norton's PC Guru, a consumer CD-ROM with a companion website that again set a new standard for digital media design. In 1998 he co-founded two new ventures: Studio-V, a production group specializing in web design working for clients such as National Discount Brokers, GE Capital Mortgage, and Lucent Technologies; and Radio-V, an Internet-based music channel in partnership with industry leader EMusic.

Michael has served as a director on the board of Paolo Soleri's Cosanti Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona since 1995. He has produced the bi-annual Paradox Conferences at Arcosanti, Arizona with speakers including Janine Benyus, author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature; William D. Browning, Director, Rocky Mountain Institute Green Development Services; Elizabeth Burdock, Director of PATH, Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (www.pathnet.org), U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Development (HUD); Erik Davis, author of Techgnosis; Joe Firmage, scientist, entrepreneur, author; Jon Jerde, founder of the Jerde Partnership International, foremost urban designer; Mark Pesce, co-inventor of VRML; Paul Ray, author of The Cultural Creatives; and Paolo Soleri, urban designer and founder of Arcosanti, a model eco-city project in central Arizona. Michael has also produced the annual Digital Be-In in San Francisco for 12 years, a seminal gathering and exposition showcasing humanistic applications of digital media and exploring the emergence of "cyberculture" as force for social evolution.

Marc Kasky, Co-director
Marc Kasky has served as the Executive Director of San Francisco's Fort Mason Center since 1980. As the driving force of one of the nation's most successful community projects, his responsibilities included planning and management for the conversion of the former military base into a vital center for the arts, ecology, peace and education. He currently serves as Director Emeritus for Fort Mason, working on long term planning, ongoing development activity, consulting with other communities on Fort Mason Center-type projects, and public relations.

Currently Marc is involved in the landmark "Kasky vs. Nike" lawsuit concerning corporate vs. human rights and the "corporate right to lie." See http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org for extensive material on the case.

Prior to his position with Fort Mason, Marc was the Executive Director of the San Francisco Ecology Center where he managed all aspects of the influential environmental education center.

Marc currently serves on several Boards of Directors: Green City Project, Chair; Waking Up In the Nuclear Age; Home Away from Homelessness; Presidio Alliance, Chair; SF Community Television Corporation Advisory Board. Previous boards on which he has served include Apprentice Alliance, Business Arts Council, Bay Area Book Council, Bay Area Peace Navy, Bay Voice, City Celebration/World Arts West, Compumentor Project, Design Council of the San Francisco Bay Area, Creating Our Future, Elmwood Institute, San Francisco Leadership Council (Chamber of Commerce), Treasure Island Citizens' Advisory Board.

Marc speaks extensively in the Bay Area and nationally on the conversion of surplus public facilities to community cultural use. His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including California Living, The Association of Humanistic Psychology "Perspectives," Fellowship magazine, Awakening In The Nuclear Age Journal, the Men's Journal and the Briarpatch Review. Marc earned a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a Masters in City Planning from Yale University.

Marjorie Athwal, Director, Secretary
Marjorie Athwal, a resident of Berkeley, California, was born in India where she spent her formative years. A travel industry professional, she has travelled extensively, with the study of community and cultures as a central interest. She has worked with several non-profit groups, and holds a real estate license for practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has also been a grassroots activist and was an organizer for the Oaks Project that does training in citizen democratic participation. Marjorie has been a student and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism in the Nyingma Lineage for 10 years. Presently she is living and working in a Buddhist community in Berkeley.