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Board of Directors
Laurie Aguirre
A country tomboy, from Southern Oregon, Laurie comes by her care and concern for the earth naturally. She has been teaching since
1983 in places such as Grants Pass, Roseburg, Sublimity and
Salem. For the past four years she has been Environmental
Coordinator and second grade teacher at Forest Ridge
Elementary/Optimum Learning Environments Charter, an award
winning charter school within the public school system. Her
students disseminate environmental information to other
schools, the community and the public in the form of Power Point Presentations on a variety of topics. As Salem Audubon Education
Chair, she is involved in extending
outreach to elementary students in Marion and Polk counties through their
"Traveling Programs" to inspire understanding and appreciation for wildlife,
habitat, and environmental conservation. She lives in West Salem and has a daughter and
son attending the University of Oregon.
Carolyn Bolton
Carolyn Bolton was born
and raised along the 8 linear rural miles (as the magpie flies) of
lush irrigated alfalfa, potato, navy bean and sugar beet fields that
stretch between Twin Falls and Kimberly, Idaho. When she graduated
high school, she brought her childhood love of high desert and
thunder storms to Oregon so she could study music in the Willamette
Valley. Here she has remained for nearly 40 years. Carolyn earned a
BA in music and rhetoric from Corban University and certification as
a community, family & public policy mediator from the Institute for
Conflict Management. She has completed additional earth-centered
studies through Naropa University, the California Institute for
Integral Studies and the Whidbey Institute. Carolyn's vocational
endeavors have enabled her to focus a good deal of her life's work
on cause she believes in, from Oregon's Native American Populations
to low income elderly people to people with disabilities to
community organizing/education focused upon helping people taking
personal responsibility for the Earth. Carolyn's adult son and
daughter have both settled with their families in the Pacific NW,
and she enjoys being "Yaya" to three beautiful grandchildren.
Cliff
Boyer
Cliff works in management
for Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette and has worked in
business management for a variety of companies includind Barnes and
Noble Booksellers in Portland and Bend. He graduated from Salem
State College in Massachusetts with a BA in English and he received
a Master's Degree in Literature from the University of New
Hampshire. He was a PhD candidate in Literature and the Environment
from the University of Oregon and completed all requirements but the
dissertation. Cliff taught high school for a couple of years in
Maine and has taught writing and literature classes at the
University of Oregon and Chemeketa Community College. He has worked
as assistant editor and reporter for Salem Monthly Newspaper, and is
on the board of Oregon PeaceWorks where he is assisting in
developing a program to promote sustainability in Salem and the
Mid-Willamette Valley. He is happily married to Lynda Boyer who is a
botanist working on restoration of oak savannah in the Willamette
Valley and growing native plant see for similar restoration efforts.
Jim
Green
Born and raised in Salem,
Jim was inspired by the first Earth Day in 1970 and a great high
school science teacher and has been an environmentalist ever since.
He worked at Heliotrope Nature Foods in Salem in the late 70's where
he met Cameron Healy who founded Kettle Foods in 1978. Jim worked at
Kettle from 1980 to May of 2011 where his passion was to carry on
the tradition of the founder by overseeing the donation of time,
products and money to help non-profits raise funds. He also worked
internally to champion sustainability efforts and to be the company
spokesperson for these efforts. Jim is married with two 20-something
kids and is currently working on the re-development of a 22 acre
site in SE Salem.
Gail McEwen
Gail
received a BS in Geology from Georgia State University, a MS in Oceanography from Oregon State University and a JD from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College. She worked for three years as a Coastal Planner in Tillamook County, eight years for the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, and fourteen years for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Gail works for the Oregon Consensus Program at Portland State University.
Jenny McNally
Interested in sustainable and urban design, Jenny has worked on a
wide range of new and renovation projects throughout the Western US.
Her management strengths have guided projects from early design
through engineering and construction. Jenny has a Bachelor of
Architecture from the University of Oregon and completed studies at
the Danish School of Design in Copenhagen and the Portland Urban
Design Center. Jenny built her first car during high school,
continues the joy of restoring classic automobiles with her family,
and is an active organizer of various community events.
Linda Nishioka - Vice President
Linda is employed at Willamette Ear,
Nose, Throat and Facial Plastic Surgery as the Facial Plastics
Department Manager. She is also the Green Team Leader for that
clinic as well as for River Road Surgery Center. After having
completed the Marion County Master Recycling Program she developed
the first full medical recycling program in Marion County (based on
Providence Hospital’s nationally recognized program in Portland) as
well as leading Willamette ENT & FP Surgery and River Road Surgery
Center to become the first EarthWISE Certified business in Marion
County. Linda has worked in dental and medical offices for over
thirty years. She received her BS from OHSU and is currently
working on her MBA at Marylhurst University. She received her
Sustainable Enterprise Certification from Willamette University in
2009.
Alan Pennington
Alan Pennington is an Arkansas native
who graduated with a BA in Biology from Hendrix College in 1982.
Prior to moving to the Salem area in 1997, Alan was a science and
math teacher in three foreign countries—Indonesia, Spain, and North
Carolina. He graduated from Oregon State University in 1999 with a
Master’s Degree in Environmental Health and then worked at the City
of Salem as a Natural Resource Outreach Specialist and at Dayton
Junior High as a 6th grade science teacher. He joined
Marion County’s Public Works as a Waste Reduction Coordinator in the
summer of 2008 and heads up the EarthWISE program for the county.
He is happily married to Leona Guthrie and has two children—Emmett
and Aaron.
Meg Rowe
Meg is a Midwest native who landed in Oregon at the
end of a long hitchhiking trip - she fell in love with the intense
greenness of the Oregon landscape and pretty much never left. She
has a special reverence for the forests and helped to reforest parts
of the Deschutes and Targhee National Forests as a member of a
reforestation cooperative. She worked as a studio artists for 15
years, using visual language to bring awareness to social and
environmental issues. She pursued a law degree to address those
issues more directly and, using the tools of a lawyer, find
solutions to the environmental challenges facing this and future
generations. She is helping to build the Climate Masters program
and contributing to the Long-range Planning Committee.
She holds a law degree from the
University of Oregon with a Certificate in Environmental and Natural
Resource Law; an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago; and a BA in
Psychology from University of Montana.
Robin Straughan
- Secretary
Robin is currently pursuing a
certificate from the University of Oregon's Sustainability
Leadership Program. Most recently she worked at the Oregon
Department of Energy as the Renewable Energy Program Coordinator.
In this capacity, she assessed issues and barriers to development
of renewable energy resources in Oregon, proposed and analyzed
policy changes, and coordinated outreach about renewable technology.
She also served as the agency's Sustainability Coordinator, leading
their green team's award-winning efforts. Her background includes a
BS in geology from the University of Notre Dame and a Certificate of
Public Management from Willamette University. She grew up in
Pendleton, but has lived in the Willamette Valley since 1998.
Before joining the Department of Energy, she worked in areas of
natural resources conservation and restoration, water quality
management, public outreach, environmental site assessment, and
agricultural research. In her spare time she enjoys photography,
biking, yoga, cooking, and spending time with her husband and two
cats.
David Smedema -
Treasurer
David
has his B.S. in General Science from the University of Iowa, and his
J.D. from the University of Iowa Law School. During his forty years
as a lawyer, he practiced law privately and served as an Oregon
state trial judge for over 18 years. He was appointed as the
District Judge for Benton County by Governor Robert Straub in 1975
and was subsequently elected to a full term. In 1991, the Oregon
Supreme Court appointed him Circuit Judge Pro-Tem in Multnomah
County, where he served until 2002. He was a volunteer lawyer at
Marion-Polk Legal Aid until 2007, when he semi-retired. After
installing solar panels on his own home and auditing a PCC course
for solar installers, David began working as a part-time solar
consultant to facilitate commercial and residential solar projects.
He gives solar presentations, conducts solar site analyses, explains
financial incentives, and coordinates the design and installation of
these projects. He was awarded Pro Bono Emeritus Lawyer of the Year
in 2005. He enjoys spending time with his grandchildren, playing
golf, reading, and attending plays at Pentacle Theater and at the
Shakespeare Festival.
Deborah Topp
Deborah Topp is the Natural Resources
Outreach Specialist for the City of Salem, Public Works Department,
where she works with community members to conserve water, reduce
water pollution, and protect local watershed resources. Internally,
Deborah coordinates the City's Environmental Action Plan, a City
operations-based sustainability plan. She has over a dozen years of
experience in water quality, water conservation and science
writing for education. Her work with City staff led to the City of
Salem receiving Excellence in
Communications and Conservation Awards in the
Water Conservation for Youth and Calendar and Posters
categories from the American Water Works Association in 2008, and
the Excellence in Environmental Education Award for
outstanding organization from the Environmental Education
Association of Oregon in 2009.
Jim Vu
Jim received a BA in Business
Administration from the University of Washington.
He grew up
in Seattle and moved to Salem in 2002. He currently works for
Willamette Valley Bank as the Business Expansion Officer. Before
working at Willamette Valley Bank, Jim spent eight years as a
pharmaceutical sales representative. He enjoys running, cycling,
wine tasting and especially spending time with his daughter.
Jon Yoder,
President
Jon
was a Biology teacher at North Salem High School for twenty- two years.
He has been involved in coordinating the Mill Creek project, a restoration and educational project along Mill Creek, and efforts to
build the SELC. He is interested in connecting student-citizens to authentic experiences in the community. Jon is also the Secondary Education Coordinator for the Northwest Center for Sustainable Development, which involves conducting teacher institutes
and writing educational manuals.
The Friends of Straub Environmental Learning Center's
bylaws are also available.
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