Shawn Maestretti is a regenerative landscape architect, arborist, educator, Co-Founder of Poly/Ana, and the Founder of Studio Petrichor—a Southern California design practice rooted in ecological restoration, spiritual ecology, and whole-systems thinking.

In 2025, Shawn lost his home in the Eaton Fires. Remarkably, much of the surrounding landscape—nurtured over years through water harvesting, native planting, hugelkultur berms, and soil-building—remained intact. Shawn did not intervene after the fire; instead, he observed. This act of witnessing deepened his commitment to teaching a form of design rooted not in control, but in relationship, care, and ecological reciprocity.

Shawn’s work lives at the intersection of art, activism, and embodied practice. Through the reuse of salvaged materials, the honoring of seasonal rhythms, and the cultivation of community-based resilience, he invites others to treat land not as a blank slate, but as a collaborator. In addition to leading Studio Petrichor, Shawn is a cofounder and educator at Poly/Ana—a nonprofit school for regenerative systems—where he shares his experience through storytelling, seasonal observation, and soil literacy.

He has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Pacific Horticulture, Horticulture Magazine, and NPR, and was honored with the Design Futurist Award for his project A Resilient Cottage—a hyperlocal, fire-adapted garden rooted in biodiversity, water harvesting, and whole-systems care.

Shawn continues to speak and teach across California and beyond, offering a grounded and poetic voice in the ongoing conversation about how we live with land in a time of climate disruption.

Leigh Adams is an award-winning educator, artist, and regenerative designer whose work brings together science, story, and spirit. Known for her warm presence and intuitive teaching style, Leigh has spent more than five decades guiding communities toward deeper connection with nature—through soil, through art, and through acts of quiet repair.

As a Co-Founder of Poly/Ana and Studio Petrichor, Leigh creates spaces where ecological restoration and collective healing go hand in hand. She is especially known for her gentle but powerful leadership in bioremediation—restoring polluted soil using fungi, mulch, and native plants. Her work is rooted not only in ecological wisdom but in a deep trust that the land, like people, can recover with the right care.

After losing her home and studio in the 2025 Eaton Fire, Leigh turned to the soil she had nurtured for decades. Rather than scrape it clean, she chose to heal it in place. That decision—and the methods she applied—became a model for post-fire landscape recovery across Southern California, profiled by the Los Angeles Times and studied by community leaders and scientists alike.

Through workshops, installations, and public storytelling, Leigh continues to invite others into a practice of reverence and regeneration. Her work has been featured in Pacific Horticulture, VoyageLA, Metabolic Studio, California Landscape Design, and 360 Real Estate Group, and she is a beloved educator at institutions like the LA County Arboretum and Polytechnic School.

Kreigh Hampel is a teacher, designer, and craftsman drawing on the restorative power of living systems and the creative strength of community cooperation. 

For more than forty years he has designed and built educational programs for stormwater protection, rainwater harvesting, composting, school gardens, household toxics, California condor recovery, solar energy, recycling, and waste reduction. He currently teaches greywater and water harvesting classes at the Burbank Adult School and advocates for fair housing policies and human powered transportation. 

Kreigh served as Burbank’s Recycling Coordinator for seventeen years, overseeing multi-million-dollar budgets, public education, facility operations, and stormwater compliance. He led the City’s home composting program and initiated urban lumber partnerships, while minimizing industrial inputs and maximizing soil health. In 2013 he was named Burbank Employee of the Year, and in 2020 he was recognized as Recycler of the Year by the California Resource Recovery Association.

A graduate of the UCLA Municipal Waste Management Program, Kreigh holds two Permaculture certificates, and has been a guest lecturer and student project advisor at Pasadena Design Center, Otis College of Design, UCLA, CSUN, Pierce College, Woodbury University, CSULA, and others. He has served on the boards of The Los Angeles Bicycle Kitchen, Leadership Burbank, The California Product Stewardship Council, and is currently the Board President of Poly/Ana.

Sanjay Gupta is a Pasadena-based boutique gardener and educator with a focus in growing vegetables and fruit trees in small spaces. He has been with Poly/Ana from the start, providing vital hands-on leadership at numerous workshops over the years. This commitment led Sanjay to being certified in the "Petrichor Method" Hugelist Certification program. 

Every year, Sanjay sets a personal goal to plant 100 trees in his community, which he usually surpasses. While mostly self-taught through rigorous research and frequent trial and error, he credits his wisdom in growing healthy soil and plants to his time living at The Urban Homestead in Pasadena, a residential family farm and close ally of Poly/Ana founders Shawn and Leigh.