Team - Whidbey Institute

Resident Caretaker

Thomas lives onsite and works with the team to ensure all participants and visitors find a welcoming home at the Institute. He supports the land and facilities, helping to create an environment that facilitates the life-affirming work happening here. As a photographer, filmmaker, contemplative juggler, and teacher of movement awareness, Thomas seeks to inspire a sense of wonder and delight in our relations with Earth and Other.

Housekeeper

Sommer started working with us in October 2018. In addition to her work with the Whidbey Institute, Sommer loves spending time with family. She’s a homemaker with a six-year old stepson, Reece, and a partner, Jason. They have two dogs and a cat, and enjoy baking, cooking, board games, and movies.

Housekeeping Lead

Lynne oversees our housekeeping team’s scheduling and ordering and helps tend our spaces. Horses and horse rescue have a special place in her heart. She enjoys spending time with her human and animal family, being physically active, and drinking gigantic smoothies.

Database & Community Events Lead

When she’s not at the Whidbey Institute keeping our office in order, Madisun runs her own brand of community merrymaking as a freelance events coordinator and operates a non-profit program under the Whidbey Island Arts Council. In her free time, she can be found on a historic pumpkin farm, living as a steward of the Reserve with her husband, a rescued street-to-farm dog, and four hilarious ducks.

Housekeeper

Jessica is a member of our housekeeping team. In her spare time, she enjoys sewing, painting, and baking. Jessica also loves gardening, spending time with family, working out, hiking, and enjoying her dog and birds.

Photo © Heather Ramirez

Administration & Logistics Lead

Meg loves being on a team of hard working people dedicated to creating spaces where everyone feels welcome. Her past work areas ranged from renewable energy to postpartum support to owning her own specialty food business. Meg’s son and daughter both soaked up the rain in the forest kindergarten at the Whidbey Island Waldorf School and they love to lead her on the Institute’s trails.

Development Lead

Holly is a mission oriented, passionate, and experienced business strategist. Her academic and professional expertise ranges from industrial engineering, manufacturing, and marketing to economic development, business development, and grassroots network development.

Communications Lead

Marnie is a storyteller, editor, and graphic designer. She is also engaged in fundraising and equity work. She has a background in teaching, journalism, and nonprofit communications and a B.A. from Suffolk University. She’s a mother of three daughters and a large animal family including three dogs, two cats, three rabbits, a mule, and two cows. Her interests include gardening, boxing, rock hunting, vegan advocacy, and photography. She blogs at www.marniejackson.com.

Executive Director

With a background in business administration and nonprofit management, and specialization in financial modeling and management, Heather’s focus is integral organizational development: growing an organization’s systems, structures, practices, mindsets, and culture in alignment with a deep and worthy purpose. A magna cum laude finance graduate, Heather is also graduate of Pacific Integral’s Generating Transformative Change in Human Systems program, and has held leadership roles with Sustainable Connections in Bellingham (as founding staff), Sustainable Seattle (as Interim Director), Excellence Northwest (as Interim Director), and Blue Marble Biomaterials (as Director of Finance and Accounting).

Facilities Lead

Beno lives according to a simple philosophy: “if you take care of what’s in front of you, close by, then by extension you’re helping to take care of the world.” Beno has been involved for decades as a volunteer and for several years as a staff member, serving as a handyman/go-to-guy with extensive skills, a creative outlook, and a contagious attitude of honesty, service, and dedication.

Westgarden Steward

Jules LeDrew grew up near Boulder, Colorado and loves nature, plants, and people. She is an instructor at Half Moon Yoga in Langley as well as a clinical herbalist, and holds a premed degree in Herbal Science from Bastyr University. She brings her passion for botanical medicine, Ayurveda, and the potential for thriving human/plant relationships to her work as our Westgarden Steward.

Volunteer Lead

Marta is a part-time Volunteer Lead for the Whidbey Institute as well as Power of Hope Camp Manager, landscaper, and board member of Sister Island Project and South Whidbey Youth Soccer Club. Her past experience includes co-founding and coordinating volunteers for Calyx School, volunteering with the Peace Corps, teaching English in Guangzhou, China, and working as volunteer coordinator at the Abused Deaf Women’s Advocacy Services. She is active in local arts and theater and is a nationally certified Sign Language interpreter.

Housekeeper

As a member of our housekeeping team, Brittney helps keep our spaces clean, fresh and inviting! Stay tuned for more about her.

Land Steward

James is responsible for taking care of the land and everything that lives on it or passes through. His schooling and work experience revolve around restoration ecology and invasive species management, as well as public policy. He is an avid outdoorsman, spending much of his free time foraging, fishing, and hiking. Getting people connected and engaged with their environment is his calling, and his goal is to empower people to have healthy relationships with themselves, others around them, and the environment.

Housekeeper

Brittany is a married, very busy mother of three: two girls and a boy. She’s a soccer mom, dance mom, toddler mom and volunteer in the PTA of her girls’ Montessori School. She works mostly evenings so she can dedicate a lot of time being involved in her children’s lives and activities. She loves crafting, building, upcycling things, being outdoors, and enjoying good old-fashioned family time.

Housekeeper

As a member of our housekeeping team, Rose helps keep our spaces clean, fresh and inviting! Stay tuned for more about her.

Lead. Love. Live. Liberate. Debra offers a successful history of serving and leading at various organizational levels. Her extensive background in criminal justice, government, spiritual development, adult and youth development, and change management makes her a knowledgeable practitioner. Her clients include local, national, and international organizations.

Debra has become known for creative, human-centered program development and insightful change work along with her zesty inclusive social learning and facilitation skills. Most recently, Debra’s work includes serving as an educator consultant where she enjoys growing the talents and mindsets of employees in government. Debra was recently named one of Training Magazine’s 2018 Emerging Training Leaders, an award based on the nomination of her course participants.

Larisa Benson is the convener of the Government Joy Network, ushering in new ways of serving the common good. She coaches executive teams in mindfulness practices, unleashing human potential to thrive in challenging conditions.

Secretary

Joel de Jong is a consultant at Limen and host of the Emerging Future podcast. Combining diverse experience, he approaches projects and life in general with an eco-centric, shared commons mindset that leads with authenticity and integrity and creates space for others to make novel contributions.

Mark Forman is a film maker, writer, and founder of Forman & Company. He has spent decades storytelling on behalf of mission-driven organizations and projects, and has been donating his services to the Whidbey Institute since 2016.

Sheryl is an educational consultant supporting the well-being of children, youth, and young adults by strengthening the development of social and emotional skills through research, practice, and policy. She is a founder and board chair of Aperture Education and a current advisor for University of Washington campus culture initiatives focused on resilience, mindfulness, and self-compassion.

Treasurer

Cole is a Social Impact Consultant/Bridge Builder at Ponto in Seattle, and has held former roles as a lecturer at University of Washington Bothell, Director of I’mact Partnerships at Unleesh, and Director of Education at Global Brigades. He is passionate about creating equality of opportunity, and wants to make our land and programs more accessible to many.

Vice-President

Barbara lived on five continents in ten countries before age 18. Her work with Transition Dynamics, a consultancy she founded to serve expatriate and repatriate communities, is informed by her global upbringing. Before joining the Whidbey Institute Board in fall 2013, and in addition to her work with Transition Dynamics, Barbara co-founded Personal Leadership (PL) Seminars and the PL Facilitator Community of Practice.

Phyllis is an organizational alchemist and founder of two consulting practices. She focuses on community resilience and regeneration (Resilience Collaborative) and organizational renewal (Civic Alchemy). She is a former Senior Policy Advisor to the Seattle City Council, and helped create the Puget Sound Regional Food Policy Council.

President

Kate is principal and owner of Floyd | Snider, Inc., an environmental consulting firm, as well as a certified mediator and former Seattle Girls’ Choir board chair. She’s played a key role in fundraising, event production, and strategic leadership.

We are delighted to welcome Frank to the board in August 2018.

Frank, a former banker and technology entrepreneur in transition to full retirement, is converting his business to a 100% employee-owned enterprise as a commitment to social equity and common sense. A product of a multi-cultural background, Frank is sensitive to systems, processes and entrenched beliefs needing attention for a better human and community experience for all its members.

Tucker is a Whidbey Island resident, father, and senior project manager in the Property Development group at Point B where he enjoys applying his strategic thinking, problem solving, and leadership skills on complex real estate development projects. He has been volunteering at the Whidbey Institute since 2010 when he helped spearhead a Beaming Bioneers conference. Tucker is passionate about cultivating intergenerational conversations, leadership development, and broadening the reach of the Whidbey Institute.

Hilary has served the Whidbey Institute since 2012, first as a graduate student-in-service with Bainbridge Graduate Institute—now known as Pinchot—then as a board member. She has two decades experience in nonprofit development and socially conscious companies, with a focus on fundraising strategies. She recently relocated to Portland, OR but continues her commitment to the Whidbey Institute community.

Westgarden Intern

Breeze is a wanderess who considers the whole Earth home. Originally from the midwest, she was drawn to the Pacific Northwest at a young age. She obtained a B.S. in environmental science from the University of Oregon with an emphasis in biology. After graduating she traveled to India, where she studied yoga, and Tasmania, Australia, where she pursued permaculture design. Her current focuses are studying medicinal plants and transitioning to a zero waste lifestyle. She craves wild spaces, deep conversations, and harmonious relations.

Appletree Garden Steward

Mara Grey is a botanist, Celtic harpist, storyteller, master gardener, and author of The Lazy Gardener and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Flower Gardening. Mara has studied Scottish Gaelic for many years, and enjoys experiencing the world from a multicultural perspective. She values the role of storytelling in work and life. 

Executive Chef

Christyn has a great reverence for food as an integral part of a healthy, balanced life. She has had a long career in fine dining and hospitality as well experience and travel in global vegetarian cuisine. In addition to running the Whidbey Institute kitchen, she owns Raw Indulgence, a gourmet organic raw meal service on Whidbey Island.

PHOTO © RAWINDULGENCE.KITCHEN

Forester

Bob frequently comes to the land for a day or a week at a time to build trails, remove hazard trees, clear windfall, and support our land care team with his labor, skill, and wisdom. “My personal belief has been that everybody who’s any good at anything ought to float a certain amount of that talent on the water,” he said. “Since the thing I’m best at is being a sort of a forest handyman, that’s what I’ve got to donate.” Bob is also skilled as a machinist, model railroader, and student of nature.

Web Designer

Matt McDowell designed and maintains our website, working closely with our team to understand our organization’s audience and needs, shape content decisions, and provide great design solutions as well as ongoing technical support. He lives in Langley with his wife and two sons, and provides design and consultation services to a number of other organizations and businesses in our community and around the nation.

photo © McDowell www.screenthumb.com