Danielle Stevenson, Ph.D.

Danielle Stevenson is a pioneering mycologist, environmental scientist, and educator specializing in mycoremediation and sustainable practices. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology from the University of California, Riverside and her dissertation was “Phyto-Mycoremediation of Brownfields in Southern California.” As the founder of D.I.Y. Danielle has dedicated her career to harnessing the power of fungi to address environmental challenges such as soil contamination, pollution, and ecosystem restoration. Her innovative work bridges the gap between science, community action, and ecological stewardship. With a background in environmental sciences and applied mycology, Danielle focuses on developing accessible and practical solutions to environmental issues. She has collaborated with communities, researchers, and policymakers to implement bioremediation projects that utilize fungi and other natural systems to clean up pollutants like heavy metals and hydrocarbons. Her efforts include creating educational programs and workshops to empower individuals and organizations to adopt these techniques. Danielle is also a passionate advocate for food sovereignty and environmental justice. She has worked extensively on projects that integrate urban agriculture with soil restoration, addressing contamination in marginalized communities to ensure safe and equitable access to local food production. Her initiatives include Healing City Soils, which combines science and community collaboration to tackle urban pollution and support sustainable land use.

Through her research, outreach, and advocacy, Danielle Stevenson has become a leading voice in regenerative environmental practices, inspiring others to reimagine their relationships with nature and the built environment. Her work demonstrates the transformative potential of fungi to heal not only ecosystems but also the communities that depend on them.

Sam Shoemaker

Sam Shoemaker is a Los Angeles based interdisciplinary artist whose work is a collaboration between himself and living fungi. Shoemaker’s work has been shown at Craft Contemporary, Fulcrum Arts, Armory Center for the Arts, Vielmetter, Make Room, and OCHI, among others. He was also included in World Without End: The George Washington Carver Project at the California African American Museum, an official exhibition of PST ART: Art & Science Collide presented by Getty. Shoemaker has been featured in many publications and news outlets, including the Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Galerie Magazine, W Magazine, Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles, and Graphite. Shoemaker has led numerous mushroom cultivation workshops across Southern California, at venues including Art Center College of Art and Design, Yucca Valley Material Lab, Otis College, College of the Redwoods, Vielmetter, Claremont Botanical Garden, Pitzer College, South Coast Botanic Garden, and Hahamongna Native Plant Nursery.

Tania Kurbessoian

Dr. Tania Kurbessoian, Ph.D. is a microbiologist and mycologist specializing in environmental microbiology, fungal ecology, and applied microbial risk assessment. She earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of California, Riverside in 2022, where her research focused on fungal biology and microbial systems, providing her with a strong foundation in ecological interactions, microbial physiology, and environmental adaptation mechanisms.

Her expertise bridges laboratory science and field application. She is experienced in environmental sampling design, microbial data interpretation, and translating analytical findings into practical remediation recommendations. Dr. Kurbessoian has authored comprehensive technical reports for healthcare, commercial, and residential facilities, ensuring that remediation strategies are scientifically sound, regulatory-compliant, and tailored to site-specific ecological conditions.
With a strong background in fungal ecology, Dr. Kurbessoian is particularly interested in how microbial communities respond to environmental stressors such as moisture, building material composition, and water system chemistry. She approaches remediation not only as contaminant removal, but as ecological restoration—understanding microbial succession, niche dynamics, and environmental drivers that influence regrowth and persistence.
At CAER – Center for Applied Ecological Remediation, Dr. Kurbessoian contributes advanced microbiological insight to support sustainable, science-driven remediation strategies. Her work reflects a commitment to ecological balance, public health protection, and the application of microbial science to real-world environmental challenges.

Shanhuan Manton

Shanhuan is a filmmaker and systems thinker, composting established methods of narrative production to co-create rituals of collective worldmaking. As a facilitator of experiences across mediums, they work to revitalize a communal sense of interspecies belonging. They bring their logistics, teambuilding, and production experience from line producing feature films to CAER’s operations, integrating methods for community authorship and narrative change into the work. Shanhuan co-funded and runs Sympoetic Ecofabulatory - a monthly interspecies meetup in Los Angeles - and is steward of LIOS Labs School of Ecological Imagination. They work to weave networks of support and care throughout diverse communities with a focus on ecological regeneration and collective healing. Shanhuan develops and teaches workshops and interspecies collaboration globally in a variety of contexts including New Moon Mycology Summit, LIOS Labs Desert Transformation Labs. During New York Climate week in 2024, they curated and hosted Interspecies Collaboration Frameworks: Ecocentric Worldbuilding for Thriving Futures, a panel discussion hosted at Biotech WIthout Borders. Shanhuan is an alum of Emergence Magazine’s Seeds of Radical Renewal Leadership Fellowship, further underscoring their dedication to ecologically grounded world-tending.

James Oliver

James Oliver-Peña (he/they) is an environmental engineering graduate student and an engineer-in-training. As one of the co-founders of CAER, he coordinates work between the laboratory and field work, including training interns for soil analysis, producing fungal inoculum, developing site sampling plans, implementing site installations, and carrying-out laboratory experiments. He is a community mycologist and soil scientist, born and raised in Venice, California. His studies in philosophy and time in the Olympic National Forest cultivated a deep curiosity in the intersection of life and death, namely fungi. In his ten-plus years of culturing microbes, fungi, and cells with friends, labs, and community, he explores the intersections of microscopy, bioremediation, human health, urban and SoCal soil microbiomes, and a sense of self entangled with microbes. He is the co-founder of Pacific Coast Cultures, a business dedicated to education and community about microbial relationships in food and ecologies. He has worked professionally and personally with organizations, including Loyola Marymount, UCLA, CAP-LA, LA Compost, Soil Food Web School, Santa Monica Community Gardens, Climate Action Santa Monica, City of Santa Monica, Santa Monica Great Park Coalition, Metabolic Studio, University of Southern California, and Los Angeles Public Library