People
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SUN Board and staff, top: Charlie Crissman, Nelson Salisbury, Matt Mega, Ivona Kacynski, Sarah Zerbonne, Josh Wozniak, Sharon London bottom: Linsey Blake, Ella Elman, Randi Shaw, Peggy Gaynor, Eldan Goldenberg (not pictured: April Mills, Gary Smith, and Janet Way)
- Board
- Staff
Board
2008 Officers
Josh Wozniak, President
Josh Wozniak is a biologist with Herrera Environmental Consultants, Inc. in Seattle. He was one of SUN's three original staff members, and was instrumental in development and implementation of the 1999-2000 survey of Seattle's public lands.
Ivona Kaczynski, Vice President
Throughout her life, Ivona Kaczynski has pursued an understanding of sustainable natural resource management and environmental economics. Her first internship at age 14 with a USAID-funded project, Trade Investment Promotion Services in Guinea-Bissau, Africa brought her closer to understanding the needs of a responsive government, formal legal system and "bottom up" solutions to foreign aid issues in developing countries. Ivona has been active in environmental groups with all institutions she has attended from high school to university, solidifying her understanding of natural processes with a B.S. degree in Wildlife Science and a Certification in Restoration Ecology from the University of Washington. In prior career endeavors, Ivona worked with the Fire and Mountain Ecology Lab at the UW, completed an internship with the World Wildlife Fund Climate Change Science Program, and wrote the Field Guide to the Wildlife of the Seattle Vivarium at Olympic Sculpture Park for the Seattle Art Museum. Today, Ivona works as a Logistics Project Coordinator with Global Energy Concepts, a Seattle-based wind energy company. Her continuing passion lies in exploring applications of technology and business to meet our global natural resource conservation needs in a rapidly urbanizing planet.
Randi Shaw, Secretary
Randi Shaw has been part of the Seattle environmental community since 2003. She worked in the environmental restoration field for EarthCorps, a local non-profit doing field work, education and outreach. She has led crews in the North Cascades and in southern Arizona for the Student Conservation Association performing invasive plant removal work. Shaw is also involved with Passages Northwest, a non-profit organization in Seattle that provides outdoor opportunities for girls and women. Recently Shaw returned to EarthCorps to support their field programs. She will attend the University of Washington in the fall in pursuit of a degree in Environmental Science. She considers it a great pleasure to be able to bring support to SUN , knowing full well how beneficial their resources are for those involved in restoration efforts.
Charlie Crissman, Treasurer
Charlie Crissman spent 15 years in operational and strategic positions for adventure travel, event production and technology service companies. Most recently he was EVP of Strategic Planning at TRX Inc, a NASDAQ listed company and two time Inc 500 member. Charlie works as an advisor to small companies, focused on business strategy, fundraising and product development. He is an avid distance runner and an enthusiastic and frequent user of Seattle’s urban trails. Charlie has a BA from Trinity College and an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia.
Board Members
Linsey Blake
Linsey has nine years of work experience in wildlife biology and a B.A. in Environmental Studies/Conservation Biology from Middlebury College. Desiring a more hands-on approach to conserving biodiversity, she recently moved to Seattle to work for EarthCorps as a restoration project manager. The fundamental connection between wildlife and habitat made this career shift a natural one; to protect one is to preserve the other. She is excited to affect positive change within the Seattle area and its community and brings her interests in wildlife, habitat conservation, and using solid science to make good decisions to SUN.
Matt Mega
Matt Mega is the Director of Urban Habitat for Seattle Audubon. He works closely with local units of government, citizens and non-profit partners to ensure urban habitat protection and environmental health throughout the Puget Sound Region. He moved to Seattle from Minnesota where he held the Director of Planning position with 1000 Friends of Minnesota. In Minnesota he specialized in rural land protection and worked closely with several communities to implement balanced growth and land protection efforts. Matt holds a Master of Planning from the Hubert Humprhrey Institute of Public Policy and received his Master of Science in Landscape Architecture from the University of Minnesota.
April Mills
April Mills is pursuing the elusive PhD in Urban Design and Planning with an emphasis on Urban Ecology at the University of Washington. Her primary research area is the nexus of opportunity between stream and riparian research, policy, and the design of sustainable urban systems. Previous to this she worked as a landscape architect with Jones and Jones Architects and Landscape Architects, Ltd. while obtaining her masters degree in landscape architecture. In a past life she worked for the USGS Biological Resource Division on a range of ecological research projects, predominantly looking at the effects of anthropogenic stress on a wide range of organisms. In her spare moments, she enjoys dancing, learning bass guitar, making jewelry, and hiking.
Gary Smith
Gary Smith retired as the Northwest Deputy Regional Director for NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service in 1995 following 38 years as a state and federal fisheries biologist and administrator. After retiring, he completed the Washington Native Plant Society’s (WNPS) Native Plant Stewardship Program in 2000, and now actively volunteers in community-based restoration projects, vegetation monitoring and mentoring school children in restoration education. Gary has served on the WNPS Central Puget Sound Chapter Board of Directors since 2002, and has been the WNPS Stewardship Program Chair for the past five years, responsible for stewardship training in King and Snohomish Counties. He also serves on the WNPS State Board of Directors and is active in the Society for Ecological Restoration-Northwest.
Advisory Board Members
Janet Way
Janet has lived in the Seattle area for 24 years and in Shoreline since 1988. She has a degree in Art Education and is a small business owner. When she and her family moved into the Paramount Park neighborhood, she began working on restoration projects for a tributary of Thornton Creek. Her neighborhood organization, Paramount Park Neighborhood Group has developed local wetland restoration grant projects to protect and enhance the area. This work has led to her involvement in a variety of local environmental issues, including a project to promote the Daylighting of Thornton Creek at Northgate. Way is the President of the Thornton Creek Legal Defense Fund, a member of Northgate Stakeholders and the Northgate and Shoreline Chambers of Commerce. In 2005, she helped to form the South Woods Preservation Group to protect the South Woods property, which is adjacent to Shorecrest High School. Way is married with two grown sons.
Staff
Sharon London, Executive Director
Sharon London has experience as both a natural resource manager and educator. She previously served as the Executive Director of Homewaters Project, an organization that connects Seattle area school children with local nature and community using inquiry based science and GIS. Prior to this, she performed GIS analysis on salmon habitat at the National Marine Fisheries Science Center, NOAA. She has also worked for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF International) as an advisor for Lao forestry officials assisting in the establishment of a trans-boundary protected area between Laos and Vietnam. Her teaching experience has been as an adjunct faculty in Geography at Western Washington University and Antioch University. London served as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand at a national park teaching environmental education and English to local students. London holds an M.S. in Geography from Oregon State University with a focus on GIS and Forestry and a B.A. in Geography from the University of California at Berkeley. London joined SUN in October 2006.
Ella Elman, Field Ecologist
Ella Elman has held a wide range of positions with nonprofits, government and academia. Prior to joining SUN , Ella spent 5 years working with volunteers at the Cornell Cooperative Extension in New York, a season with the King County Noxious Weed Program as a Noxious Weed Specialist, and several years administrating biological data transfer projects for the Pacific Northwest Information Node. In her last job with the US Forest Service Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory, Ella characterized fuel loadings for various types of forest ecoystems in the Western United States. Ella holds a B.S. in Natural Resources from Cornell University and an M.S. in Forest Ecosystem Analysis from the University of Washington.
Justin Howell, Design Intern
Justin will be working as a Design Intern at SUN to help develop an interactive web application as part of his master’s thesis at the University of Washington. The “Restoration by Design” project will provide a set of intellectual tools to help community members communicate and organize design principals and best management practices for a broad spectrum of ecological restoration activities. Justin comes to SUN with an enthusiasm for ecological restoration fostered by a broad range of professional and recreational experience. He has worked as a Crew Leader for EarthCorps here in Seattle, an Educator / Assistant Land Manager for the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies in Basalt Colorado, and as a Program coordinator for Northwaters Wilderness Programs in Northern Ontario. Justin enjoys a variety of outdoor activities but displays a particular passion for mountaineering. He has climbed many peaks throughout the United States, Peru and Bolivia.
Nelson Salisbury, Field Ecologist
Nelson Salisbury earned his Bachelor of Science degree with a major in botany from Humboldt State University. Since his graduation he has had the opportunity to experience a variety of disciplines within the natural sciences through work with the Bureau of Land Management, The Pacific Lumber Co., and the Student Conservation Association. His duties have included monitoring range and riparian areas on federal lands in Southern Idaho, surveying for rare and endangered plant species on private timber holdings in Coastal Northern California, and managing teams of volunteers collecting native plant seeds for the Millennium Seed Bank Project in Southern and Central Oregon. He is a graduate of the Native Plant Stewardship Program and a member of the Washington Native Plant Society.
Sarah Zerbonne, Outreach/Ecological Field Assistant
Sarah Zerbonne has traveled coast to coast in her efforts to promote sustainability and spread awareness on environmental issues. Earning a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Colby College in Maine, Sarah utilizes an interdisciplinary approach in her work and in life. After college, Sarah gained experience in the green building field interning with a Georgia non-profit dedicated to energy efficiency and sustainable design and construction. Sarah soon found herself in Seattle, where she got involved with the environmental restoration movement serving as an AmeriCorps member for two years with EarthCorps. Sarah hopes to take the knowledge she has gained through her various work experiences to assist SUN as it continues to grow and develop. When she is not working, Sarah thoroughly enjoys singing, hiking, cooking, and spending time around the beautiful trees of the Puget Sound region.
