Levi – a native of south Texas, USA – is a former educator and administrator who started planting trees at age 13 working for his father’s landscaping business. Always an advocate for localizing food sources, he began working with Community Garden Projects in Chicago and Texas in 2000. The Firefly Learning Academy, a Montessori-based preschool and cooperative for financially disadvantaged families which Levi founded in 2003, included gardening as part of the curriculum and used the produce for the children’s meals.

In 2005, he was a member of the Rhizome Collective and their Urban Sustainability Training in Austin, Texas and worked on soil remediation efforts with the organization in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Levi traveled to India in 2012 as part of a group working at Thakkar Bapa Grama, a privately run school for rural and marginalized children on the outskirts of Bangalore. It was there he met Malvikaa and learned of Swayyam’s mission. 

Levi is primarily interested in permaculture and agroforestry methods to create healthy biospheres, produce food without chemicals and manage the world’s limited water supply. His passion is to integrate these efforts with the education of the next generation.