Tatyana Tertitsa

Tatyana Tertitsa

Tatyana, One Community PioneerExpert 3D Sketchup Designer, Active Organic Gardener, Experienced Natural Builder, and Computer Programmer-analyst with a Master’s Degree in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics: Tatyana received her Master’s Degree in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University (Ukraine). She has thirty years experience as a programmer-analyst including 9 years working as a full-time employee for the US Patent and Trademark Office. Tatyana also has a lifetime of organic gardening experience, including managing two Food Bank plots, and a love for natural building. She has constructed her own earthbag cabin and studied and participated in a broad diversity of hands-on natural building workshops including building with cordwood, straw bale, and cob. She is also knowledgeable with passive solar building design, green roof benefits, gray water systems, water gardens, and solar water-heating systems. In addition to this, Tatyana is a self-taught expert in Sketchup 3D design and has worked for One Community since 2013 as one of the primary 3D designers and visualizers.

Born in Ukraine, Tatyana is fluent in Ukrainian and Russian. Living in America since 1995, she is also fluent in English. In her free time, Tatyana loves spending time in her garden, training rescue dogs, biking, reading, traveling, hiking, camping, and do-it-yourself projects. An advanced Yogini, she also enjoys yoga and meditation.

 

ONE COMMUNITY PIONEER
November 2013 – Present

Having been a member of One Community since November of 2013, Tatyana has applied her sustainability knowledge and Sketchup 3D design expertise to almost all of the open source foundations of One Community. Most notable contributions have been research, design, and 3D visualizations for the Highest Good housing, Highest Good food, and Highest Good education components.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES, ACCOMPLISHMENTS, AND SKILLS USED

 

ORGANIC GARDENER
May 1998 – Present

Tatyana’s journey as a gardener and love for gardening began at an early age. She planted her first seed on her grandmother’s farm, where she also learned basic gardening skills. In 1998 she bought her first home and container gardened until tree growth limited sun. Then, from 2009-2013 she moved her gardening to a small county community garden plot specializing in organic-only gardening, where she grew on a 20′ x 30′ plot and managed an additional 40′ x 60′ Food Bank Plot. From 2013 to 2016 she gardened at her sustainable building site in West Virginia. Beginning in 2017, Tatyana was able to expand her gardening skills to an even larger 52′ x 52′ plot closer to her home in Maryland.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES, ACCOMPLISHMENTS, AND SKILLS USED

  • 5 years of experience container gardening
  • 4 years experience community gardening a 20′ x 30′ plot
  • Was the first resident in her neighborhood to install compost bins
  • Helped educate neighbors about benefits of composting garden waste
  • Managed volunteers for 40′ x 60′ Food Bank Plot donating all food to food banks
  • Also provided on-site tours and taught gardening techniques at the community garden
  • Provided educational seminars to local schools on how to grow food organically
  • Learned to drive a tractor, use all gardening tools and techniques
  • Uses lasagna method, heavy mulching, crop rotation, raised beds, strawbale gardening, and companion planning and planting as foundations of her approach to maintaining a healthy and abundant crop

Tatyana practicing her tractor driving skills

 

EXPERIENCED NATURAL BUILDER
May 1998 – Present

Tatyana is passionate about Earth-friendly construction and sees it as a one-of-a-kind building strategy that integrates attractive, comfortable, energy-efficient, and healthy building approaches. She believes that green buildings should be designed to reduce the overall impact on human health and the natural environment. Helping her father build a frame and cob construction home for her grandmother in 1975 was Tatyana’s first sustainable build. Since then, she has taken a diversity of classes to expand her sustainable-building knowledge and singlehandedly built her own earthbag cabin from May 2014 to November 2015, a very impressive accomplishment to anyone who understands the process and physical labor involved in earthbag building (see Tatyana’s video below).

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES, ACCOMPLISHMENTS, AND SKILLS USED

  • Studied and participated in hands-on workshops using different construction methods including cordwood, straw bale and cob construction
  • Knowledgeable with passive solar building design, green roof benefits, gray water systems, water gardens, solar water heating systems, and earth bag construction
  • Singlehandedly built her own 140 sq. ft. earthbag cabin including sourcing materials, working with local county officials, foundation and flooring design and installation, structural design and construction, window and door framing, etc.

 

COMPUTER PROGRAMMER-ANALYST AND SENIOR TECHNOLOGIST
April 1998 – July 2014

Tatyana started her career as a Software Developer in Institute of Cybernetics of the Academy of Science in Ukraine. She now has 30 years of experience including 7 years working as a contractor and 9 years as a full-time employee for the United States Patent and Trademark Office. As a Systems Specialist and Senior Technologist, Tatyana provided analysis, design, coding and testing for Information Client software development projects, analysis of user requirements, preparation of recommendations and specifications, management of daily programs and project operations, and training and support for personnel to manage and maintain these systems. She performed these functions as a US Patent Office contractor to SIGNAL Corporation / Veridian from April 1998 to Dec 2002, to CAIRO Corporation from Dec 2002 to Sept 2004, and to Raytheon from Sept 2004 to May 2005. Tatyana then worked directly for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (no longer as a contractor) from May 2005 to July 2014.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES, ACCOMPLISHMENTS, AND SKILLS USED

  • Visual Basic 6.0, MS ADO 2.6, ORACLE 8.06 and Seagate Crystal Report 8.5
  • Design and development of Classification Data System Desktop (CDSD)
  • Coding, building, and troubleshooting of the entire CDSD application
  • Design and development of Pre-Grant Publications Print System (PGPS)
  • Coding, building, and troubleshooting of the entire PGPS application
  • Design and development of Classification Operations Print System (COPS)
  • Coding, building, and troubleshooting of the entire COPS application
  • Design and development of Patent Fax Dissemination System (PFS)
  • Coding, building, and troubleshooting of the entire PFS application
  • Implementation of CDSD, PGPS, COPS, and PFS systems and contracted training of Patent Office corporate clients on the use, management, and maintenance of these systems

 

MANAGER AND PROGRAMMER-ANALYST
June 1984 – April 1998

Tatyana moved to the United States and 1995 and worked for 2 years as a manager at an upholstering and sewing company, learning English through immersion, and taking English and programming college courses to relearn her programming terminology in this new language. Prior to this, and right after getting her degree, Tatyana worked for 6 years in Kiev as a Programmer-Analyst at the Glushkov Institute of Software Engineering and Cybernetics.

  • Responsible for designing, testing and implementing IBM PC-based informational and reference system of acupuncture training for medical staff of Kiev Central Military Hospital. System was designed for future transformation to knowledge base. Front end was Visual Basic 3.0, back end was MS ACCESS 2.0
  • Responsible for designing, testing and implementing IBM PC based informational and reference system of crime investigations for General Criminal Department of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. System was designed for information gathering and criminal investigation support. Front end was Visual Basic 2.0, back end was MS ACCESS 1.1

 

COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERISM
  • All-Shepherd Rescue | 2013 – Present
  • Mid-Atlantic German Shepherd Rescue | 2011 – 2013

Video of one of Tatyana’s “students”

 

EDUCATION AND ADDITIONAL TRAINING

Tatyana received her Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Kiev State University, Kiev, Ukraine in 1984. She returned to college in 1995 to learn English and relearn computer programming in English. Her education continued through her 16 years of contracted and direct-employ work for the US Patent and Trademark Office and work training was 2-3 classes a year (40+ classes) covering an extensive diversity of programming languages and softwares and how to teach and manage the people that would be using them. She earned the SDM Excellence Award PFS in 1999, Cairo on the Spot Award in 2003, and the SDM Excellence Award in 2004 and 2005.

Also in 2004, Tatyana took her first Straw Bale Intensive workshop, then Introduction to Cob and Natural Building and Wood Fired Cob Oven workshops in 2005, Timber Frame Construction workshop in 2006, and a Cordwood Building workshop in 2007. After that her focus turned primarily to online courses about gardening, permaculture, passive solar building design, green roof benefits, gray water systems, water gardens, solar water heating systems, etc. Teaching herself Sketchup began in 2013. Learning and application for this and a diversity of sustainable building and gardening techniques continues every day.

 

Tatyana-Tertitsa, One Community Pioneer, people making a difference, world-change people, for The Highest Good of All

TATYANA’S JOURNEY TO ONE COMMUNITY

I have been an avid supporter of healthy living and environmentally friendly habitation for most of my life. I first learned how to grow vegetables when I was a child on my grandmother’s farm in Ukraine, and since then I have been on a continuous journey to lead a sustainable lifestyle. 

In Ukrainian villages there was a custom where a community would come together to help fellow neighbors build their houses. It became a huge celebration in which work and fun were casually mixed together. Everyone arrived before sunrise and worked until evening, sharing a big community-prepared lunch in the middle of the day. Throughout the day, everybody was happy to work together and everywhere you could hear laughter and singing. I was fortunate to participate in such gatherings a number of times during my childhood, one of them being when my grandmother’s house was built. It gave me an opportunity to learn how rewarding it is to be a part of a larger community. Unfortunately this tradition disappeared with the modernization of the rural lifestyle, but it is something I have sought to rekindle. 

All my life I have been hoping to find like-minded people where I can build a non-judgmental community based on honesty, personal growth, truthful connection with nature, and willingness to share knowledge and skills with everybody. Over a decade ago, when I was unable to find such a community, I decided to lead by example and started planning my own eco-friendly sanctuary, eventually hoping to teach and spread my knowledge to neighbors in hopes of growing a real community. Then one day I stumbled upon the One Community website and was amazed to find a group of people that shared my vision for a sustainable eco-friendly community.

I am thrilled to be a part of a group of people that believe in the same goal and are on the path to achieving it.  As a part of this team, I get to not only fulfill my dreams but to also help the world advance towards a sustainable lifestyle too.

Tatyana's collage