Introductory courses are open to all learners age 14 and above, offering an introduction and overview of critical topics in regenerative and sustainable design at a level that is broadly accessible to a wide audience.

Introductory courses are typically either online classes taught over several weeks or 2-3 day in-person courses with hands-on and experiential learning.

Foundations courses are designed to provide professionals with the foundational
knowledge required to effectively work on projects that seek to be regenerative and
sustainable. These courses are typically presented at an advanced undergraduate level,
with students expected to already have the basic knowledge covered in the first two or
three years of an undergraduate program in their field.

Foundations programs are open to learners age 18 and above. These are longer classes that often provide a rich mix of lecture, storytelling, hands-on activities, field exercises, and design projects. The in-person courses at this level are 15-day intensives that require the full-time, focused engagement of students.

Many of the Foundations courses have as a prerequisite the completion of two Introductory online courses: The Process of Regeneration and Design for a Living Earth. See course descriptions for required prerequisites.

Professional courses prepare professionals working in a wide range of fields to take on
critical roles in regenerative and sustainable design. These courses are presented at a
graduate-school level and expect the student to have already have completed an undergraduate degree in their field or have equivalent experience.

Courses at the Professional level can be thought of as graduate certificate programs presented in a 7-week, mini-semester format. These programs are intense and focused, with learners expected to be engaged all day for five days each week. This is basically a mini-masters program packed into a half semester.

The prerequisite for the Professional courses is the successful completion of the Foundations course in the same track.

Lead courses are designed for graduates of the Professional-level courses who also have at least 10 years of industry experience. These students return to participate in a Professional course in their track, but this time take on the role of a team lead helping to coordinate the capstone design project being undertaken by transdisciplinary group of Professional students.

These courses offer additional training in the skills required to coordinate large-scale regenerative projects and successfully lead large teams of regenerative design professionals.

Continuing Education courses are designed to address important and emerging topics,
supplementing our standard courses and helping professionals keep up to date. These
courses are all offered online, sometimes as live webinars with Q&A, other times as on-demand courses available through our learning portal.

Continuing Education courses are categorized as either Core Curriculum or as specific to a particular learning track. Learners are encouraged to take any course they find
interesting or that will support their learning objectives, regardless of track.

All credentials offered by IIRD require a minimum of 36 hours of Continuing Education
credit every two years, 12 hours of which must be track-specific, in order to maintain the
credential. All IIRD Continuing Education courses count towards these hours, and
credential-holders may also self-report applicable courses offered by other training
providers for credit.

Dr. Nicole Wagner, associate professor at Texas State University, focuses on soil health and horticultural crop production. She is the founder and project director for Texas State University’s Bobcat Farm, a student-run regenerative fruit and vegetable farm that also serves as a research site for exploring regenerative crop production practices, soil amendments, and composting methods.

She has won several awards, including the Texas State Presidential Excellence in Teaching, and has been a co-principal or principal investigator for grants and private donations totaling over $6million. After completing her Ph.D., she worked at USDA in Washington D.C. forecasting commodity crop production in South America, developing briefing materials for the Secretary of Agriculture, and organizing senior executive-level meetings in Washington D.C. and internationally.

In 2008, she was a member of the U.S. government’s delegation to the United Nations Presidential-Level Conference on World Food Security in Rome. A farmer at heart, she has worked on a large corn-soy farm in Minnesota, as well as an organic vegetable farm and the
largest organic dairy in Montana. Currently, she operates a small biointensive farm in Buda, Texas.