Yana Ludwig

Yana Ludwig is a cooperative culture pioneer, intentional community advocate and anti-oppression activist.

"Intelligent and wise, with an impressive breadth of experience and a depth of compassion and clarity, Yana is an absolute pleasure to know. She is able, somehow, to be simultaneously impassioned about her work and stance while also being non-judgmental of others' choices. A natural and intuitive teacher, those who collaborate with her learn as much from being in her presence and observing her as they do from the specific and often detailed information that she shares. She is an inspiration and would enhance any experience of which she was a part."

Elizabeth Perrachione, Owner and Principal, Fire Owl Consulting

BIO

Yana Ludwig (she/her) has had two major branches of her career— nonprofit management and programs work, and serving as a thought leader, trainer and consultant for the residential intentional communities movement. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the North Coast Food Web in Astoria OR.

Yana has spent most of her adult life (26 years!) living in community and her work grew directly out of her on the ground experience with what works, and doesn’t work.

For years, Yana was a regular contributor to Communities magazine, and has worked closely with the Foundation for Intentional Community (FIC) since 2002. She currently serves on FIC’s Board of Directors. Her latest book, The Cooperative Culture Handbook, written with Karen Gimnig, is the distillation of years of work with cooperative groups.

Together Resilient: Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption looks at the role of community, cooperation and social justice in addressing and surviving climate disruption, and was awarded the Communal Studies Association 2017 Book of the Year Award.

Much of her work was done under the name Ma’ikwe Ludwig, until this happened.

She is the former Executive Director of both the Center for Sustainable and Cooperative Culture at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, and Commonomics USA, an economic justice organization, and her nonprofit career spans 32 years. Believing that politics is a mechanism for people to get their needs met, Yana was a candidate for US Senate in 2020, placing second in a packed field in the Democratic primary in Wyoming, and running as an open socialist and member of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Yana is a dynamic, compassionate and thoughtful speaker and teacher, committed to creating a world that supports the well-being of all beings. Her 2013 TEDx kicked off a new era for her as a public speaker and advocate for communities, and she spent 5 ½  months on the road in 2015 on a national speaking tour. Yana has had this consulting and teaching practice since 2005, focusing on consensus, facilitation, and cooperative systems development.

Along with her long time primary partner, Matt Stannard, Yana started Solidarity Collective in Laramie WY, an income-sharing community in the belly of the fossil fuel beast. Solidarity Collective produces the Solidarity House family of podcasts, raises chickens, and supports queer, leftist and BIPOC activism in Wyoming.

Yana’s full resume is here, and you can view the Respectful Revolution positive activist profile of her here. 

Some Career highlights