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Board of Directors

The Institute’s directors are a diverse group of dedicated individuals with expertise in a variety of areas. We committed to making a difference on our planet through hands-on field projects, research, conservation & education.

Ingrid Datica

In the early 90s she served as a crew member on the Institute of Ecotechnic’s Research Vessel, Heraclitus and sailed from Venezuela to Belize. In the mid 90’s she worked as a supervisor of the Wastewater Garden constructions with Planetary Coral Reef Foundation and Centro Ecologico Akumal, on the coast of the state of Quintana Roo Mexico, and became vice- president of the PCRF field station in Akumal, Mexico. Ingrid currently lives between Akumal, Mexico, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has experience in a range of fields: ecology, event management, real estate rentals, and property management, arts, dance, and theater, photography, and paints as a hobby.

Judy Ann Hawes

October Gallery
Judy Ann Hawes, (also known as Chili), FRGS, is one of the Founders of October Gallery and Director since its opening in 1979. A native of the Rocky Mountains, she obtained a BA in French Literature from Colorado College, with a year at the Sorbonne and post-graduate work in Linguistics at Claremont Graduate School and has taught at all levels of the educational system both in the USA and Australia. A founder and director of Institute of Ecotechnics , she has managed various ecological projects in the high desert of New Mexico, the Outback of Australia and the south of France. She has traveled widely including major research trips for the October Gallery to India, Melanesia, Peru, Southern Africa and Fiji. chili@octobergallery.co.uk

Marie Harding

Finance, Secretary, USA
Marie Harding (Flash) and John Allen founded Synergia Ranch LLC in 1969 and, shortly after, a founding member of the Instittute. To the present day Marie has co-founded and been a director and/or financial officer of a number of the IE projects. She was alsoa builder, then, first captain of the RV Heraclitus. Marie has been a painter since 1960, with various exhibitions and a mural project for the Caravan of Dreams in Ft. Worth, TX on the History of Jazz and Blues, a Mural of Planetary Dances, and a Theater Mural of one of the Caravan of Dreams plays.

William Dempster

Systems Engineering Director
Director of Systems Engineering and chief engineer for the Biosphere 2 project of Space Biospheres Ventures. William (Freddy) has been the director of engineering systems for the institute since 1969. He started his career as a systems and applications programmer at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California. The programming of applications included relativistic particle physics simulation. He has assisted in all ecotechnic projects including the infamous dome at Synergia Ranch, the heraclitus ship, and the Biosphere 2. He currently still manages systems at Synergia Ranch in New Mexico.

Kathelin Gray

Director
a director, producer, curator, and writer. She has co-founded projects which integrate art, ecology, science and culture. These include the Research Vessel Heraclitus, Biosphere 2 closed ecological system experiment, Institute of Ecotechnics, and the October Gallery, London. She was the artistic director of Theatre of All Possibilities, which toured internationally for 18 years and served as an artistic ‘think tank’ for envisioning projects. Its successor is Theatre for the Reconstitution of Reality, a pataphysical research initiative. She also serves as a consultant to William Burroughs Communications.

Gessie Houghton

October Gallery
a writer, art-critic and videographer based in London. Graduating from Churchill College, Cambridge, he spent two years in West Africa working as an interpreter. In 1980, he moved to Japan where he taught Literature and Linguistics at two of Japan’s more prestigious universities. On his return to London, in 1994, he became Director of Special Projects at October Gallery, a central-London gallery specializing in contemporary art from around the planet. As well as writing essays, articles and catalogues he has edited a number of publications on the many international artists October Gallery represents. Since 2000, he has documented ancient traditions of dance in the Himalaya region, helping create a trove of 500 plus hours of dance footage held in the NYPL archives and available online.

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