Shawn Smith

Shawn joined LivingFuture Foundation in 2010 as Director, Member and VP, bringing a refined conservation ethic and a career devoted to the many dimensions of expert land conservation. She is a descendant of Mesoamerican, Cherokee and European ancestors.

Shawn's 25 year conservation career spans valuation/appraisal, long-term ownership planning, ethical revenue-generation analysis, land conservation (planning, valuation, easement negotiation, easement consolidation/amendment), property tax planning, 1031 exchange, and land management and stewardship.  She has worked nationally and internationally for high net worth individuals, academic and investment institutions, farmers, land investors, governmental bodies, and local, regional, national and international NGO’s.

Shawn attended the US Naval Academy for 3 years, holds a BA from Iowa State University, and a JD and Master of Studies in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School.   She is a licensed real estate broker and advisor.

She is putting her decades of extraordinary expertise in service of LivingFuture Foundation’s mission, focusing her time and skills on key projects like conserving SHO Farm, in part by writing a kinship-centered conservation easement that considers all residents - human and nonhuman - alike. Shawn was the visionary impetus behind the 2016 creation of LivingFuture’s domestic duck sanctuary, Sanctuary at SHO.

Melissa Hoffman

Melissa is the Founder, Director, Member and President of LivingFuture Foundation.  She is a farmer and innovative cook, as well as the creative force behind the foundation’s flagship project, SHO Farm (historically known as Teal Farm). SHO Farm is a 1300-acre integrated campus of regenerative food, energy, and building systems designed to support life in perpetuity. Melissa oversaw the design of SHO Farm with the conviction that food-energy-and dwellings could be far more effective if designed in relationship to one another and in intimate relationship to local ecosystems.

Melissa holds a BA in Philosophy from Mount Holyoke College, and studied Film and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Chicago’s MA graduate program. She went on to study organic agriculture and biodynamics, before devoting many years to spiritual practice and inquiry in a modern monastery. She is a perennial, plant-based chef and educator in the marriage of living land systems with the rich traditions of global plant-based gastronomy. She has devoted the last 15 years to studying wildlife-integrated food systems. She is an ongoing student of a kinship-based relationship with all life.