Evan Marks

About the Author

Evan Marks is the founder and executive director of The Ecology Center, a nonprofit organization in San Juan Capistrano dedicated to building healthy communities through food, farming, and ecological education. A lifelong surfer, farmer, and systems thinker, Evan’s work is rooted in the belief that thriving ecosystems and thriving communities belong to the same conversation. Evan studied Agroecology, with an emphasis on sustainable agriculture, at the University of California, Santa Cruz. After graduating, he spent nearly a decade working in ecological design and regenerative agriculture across California, Hawaii, and internationally, including Costa Rica, Peru, Mexico, Ghana, and Nigeria. These experiences shaped his understanding of how traditional knowledge, local food systems, and hands-on learning can restore land, livelihood, and culture. In 2008, Evan founded The Ecology Center on a one-acre dirt lot in Orange County. Under his leadership, it has grown into a 28-acre regenerative farm, ecological education center, and living demonstration of what community-rooted systems can look like in practice. Through apprenticeship programs, school field trips, the Farm Stand, chef dinners, workshops, festivals, and the daily life of the farm, Evan continues to invite people into direct relationship with the source of their nourishment. His work is helping put the culture back into agriculture.