Education

Courses

• Environmental Education (PJI) (EDU-326)
• Population, Food and Sustainability (ENV-368)
• Population, Food and Sustainability (GEO-368 (ENV-368))

About

Dawn Berkelaar has been a part-time adjunct instructor at Redeemer since 2021. Prior to that she worked as an editor for 20 years with ECHO, a non-profit organization in Florida that shares sustainable hunger solutions for small-scale farmers. Dawn has been an educator in various forms for more than two decades. She has wide-ranging interests, most of which can be summed up by one question: “What does it look like to live well, within limits and with limitations”? Her current reading and writing circles around the topic of Christian spiritual transformation.

Dawn and her husband live in Hamilton and have four young adult children. Dawn is an elder in her church, where she is also a member of a newly-formed discipleship curriculum team, a member of the worship committee, and a mentor at Friendship Club. Her hobbies include reading, running in the woods, writing sonnets, and conversing with kindred spirits. 

Selected Publications

Dawn Berkelaar Google Scholar Profile

Book Chapters

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Doings, Readings, Thinkings: C.S. Lewis on the Discipline and Reward of Personal Correspondence.” In An Afternoon with C.S. Lewis: Modern Perspectives on Lewis’s Life, Work, and Legacy, edited by Stanley E. Porter. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2025. 

Books

Motis, Timothy N., and Dawn Berkelaar, Editors. Agricultural Options for Small-Scale Farmers: A Handbook for Those Who Serve Them. ECHO, Inc., 2012. (Available in hard copy and Kindle ebook format, in English, French and Spanish)

Books Edited for Other Authors:

Bunch, Roland. 2019. Restoring the Soil, 2nd Edition (subtitle: How to use green manure/cover crops to fertilize the soil and overcome droughts, edited by Timothy Motis and Dawn Berkelaar. ECHO, Inc.

Bunch, Roland. 2012. Restoring the Soil: a guide for using green manure/cover crops to improve the food security of smallholder farmers, edited by Timothy Motis and Dawn Berkelaar. ECHO, Inc.

Selected Articles in Christian Courier

Berkelaar, Dawn. “A Web of Connection.” Christian Courier, May 23, 2025.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Hearing Elohim.” Christian Courier, March 21, 2025.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “The Science and Significance of Sleep.” Christian Courier, March 6, 2024.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “God Can Use Us: Carrying each other’s burdens.” Christian Courier, November 1, 2023.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Brokenness: Facing Our Fear.” Christian Courier, September 22, 2023.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “What If It Could be Beautiful?” Christian Courier, August 11, 2023.

Selected Articles Published in ECHO Development Notes.

(EDN articles regularly summarize scientific information for non-scientists, at a level that someone with a high school education could understand. Most of these articles have been translated into Spanish and French.) 

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Responding in the Case of an Epidemic or Pandemic.” ECHO Development Notes no. 147 (2020): 1-3.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Insects for Food and Feed.” ECHO Development Notes no. 137 (2017): 1-6.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Women in Agriculture.” ECHO Development Notes no. 134 (2017): 1-6.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Bringing Back the Pollinators.” ECHO Development Notes no. 125 (2014): 1-5.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “FONDAMA Yard Garden Program (with Mark Hare).” ECHO Development Notes no. 124 (2014): 1-4.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Strategies to Help Prepare for and Respond to Disaster.” ECHO Development Notes no.122 (2014): 1-4.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Microfinance: The Savings Group Model.” ECHO Development Notes no. 115 (2012): 1-4.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Schoolyard and Community Gardens (with Katie Johnson).” ECHO Development Notes no. 114 (2012): 1-6.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “The Importance of Indigenous Food Plants.” ECHO Development Notes no. 113 (2011): 1-4. 

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Multiplication and Use of Soil Microorganisms.” ECHO Development Notes no. 110 (2011): 1-6. 

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Effect of Sprouting on the Nutrition of Grain and Legume Seeds” ECHO Development Notes no. 106 (2010): 4-6.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “A Successful Approach to Field Cropping in Southern Africa.” ECHO Development Notes no. 98 (2008): 1-7.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Artemisia annua anamed: Hope Against Malaria.” ECHO Development Notes no. 95 (2007): 1-7.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “A Non-chemical Method of Rat Control for Rice Fields.” ECHO Development Notes no. 93 (2006): 3-4. 

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Grain Amaranth (with Jacob Alemu).” ECHO Development Notes no. 91 (2006): 1-5. 

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Aflatoxin–A Cause for Concern.” ECHO Development Notes no. 87 (2005): 1-7. 

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Indoor Air Pollution from Cooking Fire Smoke.” ECHO Development Notes no. 85 (2004): 1-5.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Chaya.” ECHO Development Notes no. 78 (2003): 1-5.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Papaya Leaf Tea as a Malaria Prophylactic?” ECHO Development Notes no. 77 (2002): 6-7. 

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Colloidal Silver for Clay Water Filters.” ECHO Development Notes no. 72 (2001): 4-5.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “SRI, the System of Rice Intensification: Less Can Be More.” ECHO Development Notes no. 70 (2001): 1-6.

Selected Articles Published by the on-line journal In All Things

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Caring for Creation and Climate: A Review of Refugia Faith.” In All Things, May 18, 2023.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Love and Money.” In All Things, May 23, 2023.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Directed Attention: Facilitating Flow.” In All Things, November 10, 2022. 

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Directed Attention: Finding Flow.” In All Things, November 8, 2022.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “The How of Communication: A case for integrity, humility, and curiosity.” In All Things, September 20, 2022.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Freedom in Finitude: Reframing how we look at limits.” In All Things, August 8, 2022.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “‘Yes’ to a Dress: A journey in being clothed with care.” In All Things, January 27, 2022.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “The Discipline of Gratitude.” In All Things, November 23, 2021.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Striving to be the Church Reformed, Always Reforming.” In All Things, October 28, 2021. 

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Letting Go.” In All Things, June 23, 2021.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Eat This Bread: Blessed, Broken, and Given.” In All Things, April 6, 2021.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Putting on the Brakes: A review of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.” In All Things, January 14, 2021.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Fasting, Feasting and Ferial Fare.” In All Things, November 24, 2020.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Grounded.” In All Things, June 30, 2020.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Introducing the Planetary Health Diet.” In All Things, May 21, 2019.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Finding Focus.” In All Things, May 7, 2019.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Facing our Fears.” In All Things, August 21, 2018. 

Berkelaar, Dawn. “The Liturgy of Sleep.” In All Things, May 31, 2018.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Christian Wisdom on Technology Use and Parenting.” In All Things, April 18, 2018. 

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Digging Deep (The Purpose of Lent).” In All Things, March 15, 2018. 

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Taking Off Our Armor.” In All Things, December 27, 2017.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Practicing Presence.” In All Things, December 5, 2017.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Expectations.” In All Things, April 27, 2017. 

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Enough.” In All Things, March 23, 2017. 

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Sabbath: Slowing to Celebrate.” In All Things, July 28, 2016.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “Force of Habit.” In All Things, May 11, 2016.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “A Beautiful Crucible: Motherhood as Discipleship.” In All Things, May 3, 2016.

Berkelaar, Dawn. “How Do You Know?” In All Things, March 21, 2016.

Other

Otis, Gard W., and D.R. Bakker. “Honey-hunting in Mindanao, Philippines.” American Bee Journal (June 2000): 477-480.

Awards and Certificates

• National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Postgraduate Scholarship, 1997-99 
• University of Guelph Graduate Scholarships 1997, 1998 
• Dordt College Distinguished Scholar Award 1992-96 
• Dordt College Honors Scholarship 1992-96