About The National Center for Appropriate Technology

Executive Director

Fred Bahnson

To his role as NCAT’s new Executive Director, Fred Bahnson brings nearly two decades of experience in nonprofit executive leadership, regenerative agriculture, and strategic communications.

As founding director of two environmental nonprofits—a grassroots community farm in rural North Carolina and a sustainability leadership program at a Top-30 university—Bahnson is passionate about catalyzing peer-to-peer learning networks to support more equitable, resilience communities. For much of his career, he has worked at the intersection of regenerative agriculture, social equity, and climate advocacy, with a focus on building collaborative partnerships between nonprofits, universities, faith communities, and philanthropies.

Bahnson also brings to NCAT his storytelling expertise as a journalist, author, and documentary film producer. He is the author of Soil & Sacrament: A Spiritual Memoir of Food & Faith (Simon & Schuster), which environmentalist Bill McKibben described as “profoundly, beautifully down to earth, which is almost certainly where we all need to spend more time on a planet in crisis.” His writing has been published in Harper’s, Christian Science Monitor, Oxford American, Orion, The Sun, Notre Dame Magazine, Emergence, and Best American Travel Writing. In collaboration with documentary filmmaker Jeremy Seifert, Bahnson wrote and produced “Horizons,” a film about climate change seen through the eyes of nature writer Barry Lopez. He recently co-directed “The Forest Beyond,” a film about a young Shipibo woman’s journey to find the retreating edge of her ancestral forests in the Peruvian Amazon.

Bahnson has shared his work with a wide variety of audiences including sustainable agriculture conferences, universities like Yale, Princeton, and Georgetown, TEDx Manhattan’s “Changing the Way We Eat,” and the 2019 Halki Summit in Istanbul, where he spoke on climate change before an international gathering of faith leaders convened by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. His awards and fellowships include a W.K. Kellogg Food & Society Policy fellowship, a Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting grant, an Artist fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council, and a Religion and Environment Story Project fellowship from Boston University.

Chief Operating Officer

Virginia Kashdan

Virginia Kashdan is NCAT’s Chief Operating Officer. She joined NCAT in January 2022. Virginia is responsible for planning, organizing, and directing organization operations and facilities. Before joining NCAT, Virginia was awarded the Science & Technology Policy Fellowship through the American Association for the Advancement of Science focusing on water quality at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – Office of Water in Washington D.C. After moving back to Montana, she became the director of the Lincoln County Asbestos Resource Program, supporting Operations & Maintenance activities on the Libby Asbestos Superfund Site. While in Libby, she volunteered on the Board of Directors for the Troy Farmers Market and became Secretary of the Board of Directors for the Libby Community Garden.

Chief Financial Officer

Jeff Amerman

Jeff has a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Montana Tech of the University of Montana. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), and has more than 30 years of professional experience with a number of diverse business entities. These include non-profit organizations, for-profit utilities, limited liability corporations, public accounting, and governmental units. Prior to joining NCAT as its CFO, Jeff was most recently Finance and Budget Director for the City & County of Butte Silver Bow in Montana.

Sustainable Agriculture Program Director

Andy Pressman

After several years of working on and managing diversified farms throughout the country, Andy joined the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) in 2007. After college graduation, Andy followed his interest in agriculture by growing and harvesting medicinal herbs. His passion for soils and plants quickly directed him in to growing fruits and vegetables and in developing a passion for agrarian philosophies and land stewardship. In recognizing the importance animals have in agricultural systems, he then immersed himself in learning animal husbandry—from bees, chickens, and rabbits, to sheep, goats, and cattle. Andy is certified in Permaculture Design and received an MS in Sustainable Systems Design from Slippery Rock University – a unique program that focused on the integration of agroecology, sustainable energy and design, and natural resource management. As a Sustainable Agriculture Specialist with NCAT, Andy works in the fields of whole-farm planning, intensive crop production, organic certification, tools and equipment for the small farm, urban agriculture, and community food systems. He and his family also operate Foggy Hill Farm, a small farm and CSA located in southern New Hampshire where he continues to keep bees and pursue his interest in appropriate technologies for managing small farms.

Energy Program Director

Stacie Peterson

Stacie Peterson joined the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) in 2008. She oversees NCAT’s Sustainable Energy Program, which includes the Agri-Solar Clearinghouse, Energy Efficiency Program, Energy Services, Business Partners, Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program (LIHEAP) Clearinghouse, National Energy Assistance Referral (NEAR) Program, Residential Energy, and Energy Codes. She holds an undergraduate and graduate degree in environmental engineering and an interdisciplinary doctorate. Her doctoral program integrated environmental science, environmental history, public health, technical communications, literature, and anthropology. She enjoys developing interdisciplinary projects with diverse teams, such as her work connecting the NCAT’s Sustainable Energy and Agriculture programs in the Agri-Solar Clearinghouse. In her energy conservation work, she’s helped save enough energy to go to the moon and back 2,586 times.

Human Resources Director

Kriss Sullivan

Kriss has been working in the human resources field since 2004, with most of her experience coming from the non-profit sector. As NCAT’s HR director, her duties include planning, developing, organizing, and evaluating human resource functions and performance. She administers robust benefits and compensation policies and develops staffing strategies, recruitment, and new-hire initiation. Kriss received her professional HR certification, SHRM-CP, in 2018 from the Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM). She is president of the local SHRM chapter and has also served on its board for more than 10 years. She is a graduate of Montana Tech and holds a bachelor’s degree in business and information technology.

IT Director

John English

John English has over 25 years of comprehensive experience in advanced full-stack web development. His specialization lies in website development and marketing, with a focus on dynamic websites that leverage the robustness of the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP). Proficient in Python, PHP, and Javascript, John is well-versed in crafting user-centric interfaces and robust backend functionalities. Beyond his professional endeavors, John is an ardent enthusiast of hiking and fishing, where he finds solace in the great outdoors, often embarking on trails that challenge both body and mind. An advocate for community engagement, he volunteers his time at various coding camps, where he helps nurture the next generation of software developers. These activities underscore his commitment to continuous learning and giving back to the community.