Authors

Leanne Ussher

Leanne is an independent economist specializing in the design of local currencies and accounting systems that support place-based, regenerative economies. She holds a PhD in Economics from the New School for Social Research, known for its heterodox approach. Her publications span agent-based modeling, monetary design, token economics, and the history of economic thought. Leanne spent two decades teaching and critiquing mainstream economics—connecting theory to praxis—at universities including Queens College CUNY, UMass Boston, and Bard College. Prior to academia she worked as Securities Analyst at the Reserve Bank of Australia. Since leaving academia, she transitioned to hands-on community practice, collaborating with a wide range of corporate, NGO and grassroots initiatives including Consensys, French Development Agency (AFD), Wolfram Blockchain Labs, Valueflows, Grassroots Economics, ThriveOn!, Hudson Valley Current, and the Economic Space Agency.

Leo Gaggl

With a background as an agricultural engineer and a lifelong passion for regenerative and local food systems, Leo brings a unique perspective to the project. He has spent years working in software development, building the kind of database-driven web applications that are now called “full-stack.” For the past eight years, his focus has been on leveraging low-cost, long-range sensing technologies (LPWAN) to support sustainable and regenerative agriculture. As an active member of the Internet of Things (IoT) and open data communities in Australia, he was one of the first initiators of The Things Network in Australia, a global, open, and decentralized IoT network. His work has always been driven by a passion for open and collaborative efforts to create public infrastructure networks.