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Board and Program Managers
Sustainable Bainbridge is an all volunteer-led organization. Members of our Board of Directors serve two-year terms and meet monthly. Our program leaders organize and provide guidance for the many volunteers who support our programs. New faces are always welcome at meetings and events!
The board meets monthly, generally on the fourth Monday of the month. Meetings are normally from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Marge Williams Center conference room, 221 Winslow Way West, Bainbridge Island 98110. Currently, we vary between meeting by Zoom or in person. To check, go to events at the bottom of any SB page. Individual programs meet on various days.
Gaywynn Cooper
Co-program Manager of Bainbridge Beach Naturalists
Gaywynn Cooper grew up in the Pacific Northwest enamored by the forests…
Gaywynn Cooper, Co-program manager of Bainbridge Beach Naturalists
Gaywynn Cooper grew up in the Pacific Northwest enamored by the surrounding forests, mountains, streams and beaches in a time when the area was considerably less developed and the wilds existed in our own backyards. Graduating from the University of Washington with a MA in Higher Education, she taught at Shoreline Community College and in the School of Dentistry at University of Washington. A midlife course change to the high desert environment of New Mexico plunged her into organic farming and all aspects of the food distribution network, including the establishment of a grocery cooperative for her community. Now retired and happily ensconced on BI, her love of teaching and learning has expanded to include NW beach explorations, weekly plankton sampling for Sound Toxins, kayaking, plus volunteering at the Sea Discovery Center.
Michael Cox
Program Manager of Climate Action Bainbridge
Michael Cox has worked in the environmental field for over 40 years…
Michael Cox, Program manager of Climate Action Bainbridge
Michael Cox has worked in the environmental field for over 40 years. Mike worked in Africa for several years, then with the National Wildlife Federation and the City of Seattle, along with over 30 years with the Environmental Protection Agency.
Mike has worked with several Island groups to coordinate the Climate and Energy Forums, Movies that Matter, and the Tuesday Open Mic Science, as well as being the co-chair of Climate Action Bainbridge. Mike was a founding member of the Bainbridge Island Climate Change Advisory Committee and helped develop the first ever Climate Action Plan for the City. In his spare time Mike likes to hike, bike, and take advantage of being retired.
Heather Dowey
SB Board Member
Heather Dowey’s professional experience spans over 20 years in environmental policy…
Heather Dowey, SB Board Member
Heather Dowey’s professional experience spans over 20 years in environmental policy, both in the non-profit and public sector. Her childhood in New England fostered an ethos that led to her working on passage of several wilderness bills in New Hampshire and Vermont after her undergraduate studies. The University of Washington graduate school then got her to move west, and she and her family now call Bainbridge Island home. Currently she works on environmental policy issues at the federal level, including assessing programs implemented under the Clean Water Act and reducing textile waste. Over the past years, Heather has been an active volunteer board member of local non-profit arts and education and gun safety organizations.
Gilian Engelson
SB newsletter editor
Gilian’s interests in social and environmental health…
Gilian Engleson, SB newsletter editor
Gilian’s interests in social and environmental health intersect in her efforts to establish a Library of Things on Bainbridge Island. She has over a decade of experience in the non-profit and government public health world. As a former Lieutenant in the US Public Health Service, she was deployed on several public health emergency missions and, on behalf of the federal government, organized several international conferences on public health genetics. While raising her two daughters, Gilian became very involved in early childhood education. She has created curricula for her daughters’ schools about nature and the environment- be it becoming Monarch butterfly citizen scientists, raising native tadpoles or building vermicompost bins. Over the last few years, she worked as an interviewer for international students who want to study in the United States.
Gilian moved to Bainbridge Island in 2018 from Cabin John, Maryland with her husband and two daughters. During her spare time, you will find Gilian spending quality time with her family, playing tennis, hiking, or skiing.
Jeannette Franks
Program Manager of Weed Warriors
Jeannette had a long career writing…
Jeannette Franks, Program Manager of Weed Warriors
Jeannette had a long career writing, doing research, and teaching about aging and older people. After moving to Bainbridge more than two decades ago, she became deeply involved in environmental restoration. Saving trees and restoring native plants is a way we can have a first-hand effect on global warming. A healthy environment also protects and improves salmon streams, parks, and shorelines.
Weed Warriors sends out a monthly e-newsletter and usually participates in at least one action and/or education event every month. A popular annual project is to cut down a large, well-berried holly tree around the winter holidays, bundle the branches, and distribute them free with a tag explaining why holly is bad for the environment, what to plant instead, and how to dispose of it. Watch for us at the Senior Center Holiday Sale!
Maradel Gale
SB Board Secretary
Maradel has had extensive experience with non-profit organizations…
Maradel Gale, SB Board Secretary & Program Manager of Bainbridge Beach Naturalists
Maradel has had extensive experience with non-profit organizations. A retired University of Oregon professor, Maradel brings to her work 27 years of teaching and mentoring students in fields ranging from community and regional planning to law to cross-cultural communication. Maradel was a founder and the first President of the Oregon Environmental Council, and formed and directed the UO Micronesia and South Pacific Program, which placed graduate students in island communities to engage in skills transfer in conjunction with a project important to the requesting agency or organization. Upon retirement, Maradel moved to Bainbridge Island, where she has been active in a wide range of community projects. She is a founder of Sustainable Bainbridge, and a member of the City of Bainbridge Island Planning Commission. She is also active with the Bainbridge Beach Naturalists.
Jane Hannuksela
Co-program Manager of Beach Naturalists
Jane has well over 35 years of experience in the field of environmental conservation…
Jane Hannuksela, Co-program Manager of Beach Naturalists
Jane has well over 35 years of experience in the field of environmental conservation, first as an oceanographer and then as a lawyer. She began her career as an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), working in Seattle and Alaska. After moving to Wisconsin, Jane went to law school with the goal of combining oceanography and law. She achieved this goal by again working for NOAA, this time as an environmental lawyer, representing the National Marine Fisheries Service. She worked on fish and habitat protection issues at the headquarters office while living in the DC area for 18 years. After moving to Bainbridge Island in 2002, she transferred to the NOAA Northwest Regional Office and worked on anadromous fish and habitat conservation issues, including numerous hydropower dam relicensings in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, federal dam Endangered Species Act consultations, habitat conservation plans, and ocean energy projects. Jane is now retired and enjoys being a citizen scientist and beach naturalist. She helps monitor for invasive green crabs, sea star wasting disease, and returning salmon on Bainbridge. She recently became co-lead of the Bainbridge Beach Naturalists, and likes sharing information about our intertidal inhabitants with people who join the beach explorations. Jane loves being retired and having the time to participate in these volunteer activities, as well as hiking, kayaking, traveling, gardening, reading, cooking, and most of all, hanging out with her husband, kids and grandkids.
Lara Hansen
SB Board Member & Organizer of Movies That Matter, Climate & Energy Forum and Drink Like You Live Here
Lara has worked in the non-profit sector on climate change…
Lara Hansen, SB Board Member and Climate & Energy Forum
Lara has worked in the non-profit sector on climate change and related issues, such as sustainability, both locally and globally for over two decades. In addition to her work with Sustainable Bainbridge, she is the Chief Scientist and Executive Director of EcoAdapt, a Bainbridge-based non-profit working on developing solutions to the challenges of climate change wherever people are inspired to take action. She also supports science education in the Bainbridge Island Public Schools, including collaboration on climate curriculum. Prior to creating EcoAdapt, she was the Chief Climate Change Scientist for the World Wildlife Fund, and a Research Ecologist with the Environmental Protection Agency. To balance her scientific life, she works to integrate nature and art in her daily life. As an optimist she assumes we’ll get our acts together on climate change–who would want the alternative? She looks forward to joining Bainbridge Island in making climate-informed decisions to support better long-term outcomes for all of us.
Diane Landry
SB Board President & Program Manager of Zero Waste
Diane has been leading SB’s Zero Waste program…
Diane Landry, SB Board Member & Program Manager of Zero Waste
Diane has been leading Sustainable Bainbridge’s Zero Waste program since its inception in 2010. She is well-suited for the role, as she has little compulsion to buy things and has trouble throwing anything away! Prior to moving here in 2008, Diane was on the Falls Church (VA) education task force of the city’s Environmental Services Council for sixteen years. Under its stewardship, she created Operation EarthWatch, an environmental action program for elementary school students that is still going strong after 25 years.
Diane is also a member of the Watershed Council and trained to be a beach naturalist. She has walked many of the island’s trails with the Bainbridge Striders and appreciates the efforts of the BI Land Trust to protect increasingly more acreage for our enjoyment, for aquifer recharge, for wildlife corridors, and for the plain old beauty of it. In addition to heading up BI Zero Waste, Diane is a substitute teacher for the Bainbridge Island School District.
Susan Loftus
SB Board Member, Program Manager of Bainbridge GreenWays
Susan Loftus is one of the founders…
Susan Loftus, Board member & Program Manager of Bainbridge GreenWays
Susan Loftus is one of the founders of the Bainbridge GreenWays. She studied the psychology of design at the University of WA (called Person/Environment Relations at the time) before splitting psychology and design into two separate careers. She received an MSW from Columbia University, became a child therapist, and later became a landscape designer. As all great tapestries in life go, she now finds herself weaving together these careers into her volunteer work to support biking and walking on Bainbridge Island. Understanding how the built environment can influence behavior change is central in developing a successful sustainable transportation system.
Esther Parvin
SB Board Treasurer
Esther is a Seattle native who has been everything from a construction worker…
Esther Parvin, SB Board Treasurer
Esther is a Seattle native who has been everything from a construction worker to a stay-at-home mom. At present, she works as an office manager and is involved with several local nonprofit organizations, including the Marge Williams Center.
Christine Perkins
SB Board Member
Christine has worked extensively with many groups and organizations…
Christine Perkins, SB Board Member
Considering herself a lifelong amateur naturalist, her avocation is environmental protection and education. She has a particular interest in environmental justice issues. Before moving to Bainbridge Island, she lived on an even smaller island which is a protected sea turtle nesting site. While there, she worked as a citizen scientist in the Sea Turtle Nest Monitor program and educated the public on local wildlife and protection issues. Christine is grateful to live on Bainbridge Island with its strong sense of community and concern for the environment, which ties so well into her appreciation for nature and efforts to protect it for future generations. She has a passion for everything outside–gardening, admiring trees, backpacking or hiking, and has a reputation for being easily distracted by watching wildlife and eating berries on the trail.
Deb Rudnick
Program Manager of Watershed Council
Deb Rudnick, Ph.D., is an ecologist who is passionate about observing…
Deb Rudnick, Program Manager of Watershed Council
Deb Rudnick, Ph.D., is an ecologist who is passionate about observing and stewarding the environment of our beautiful Island and Puget Sound. Deb received her doctorate in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from the University of California, Berkeley where she conducted research on invasive aquatic species and their ecological and social impacts. Deb grew up connected to the fields, woods, marshes and meadows of New England where she was born and raised, and slowly migrated westward, with stops in Colorado and California before setting down roots on Bainbridge Island. Deb has worked for federal, county and local governments, in private industry, and has taught across grade levels from kindergarden to college. She is currently the K-5 Science Coordinator for the Bainbridge Island school district. She also serves on the West Sound Program for Ecosystem Recovery’s Technical Advisory Committee, and on COBI’s Climate Change Advisory Committee. When she isn’t monitoring salmon, conducting outreach, or doing one of her other day jobs, Deb loves to knit, birdwatch, ride her bicycle, and hang out with her family and their menagerie of dog, gerbil, and chickens.
Gene Smith
SB Board Member
Gene is eager to get more involved in environmental and social issues…
Gene Smith, SB board Member
Gene is eager to get more involved in environmental and social issues in the Bainbridge community through his position on the SB board. He and his family are relative newcomers to the island, but previously in Atlanta he was involved in setting up edible gardens in schools, being fundraising chair for an environmentally focused preschool, and tutoring at risk youth. Since arriving on Bainbridge, he has enjoyed coaching ultimate frisbee at Bainbridge High School and supporting his wife in her efforts to get a low-impact vegetable and flower farming operation up and running. In his earlier career, he worked within the corporate sustainability space and as a project/program manager for various certification programs aimed at different aspects of the built environment. He currently works in business development with an emphasis on retailer engagement for Underwriters Laboratories.
Naomi Spinak
Program Manager of ReFashion Bainbridge
Naomi is a textile artist and educator with a strong focus on using art…
Naomi Spinak, Program Manager of ReFashion Bainbridge
Naomi is a textile artist and educator with a strong focus on using art to inspire community members to take action on environmental and social issues. She has been involved in running the Bainbridge Island Trashion Show (now ReFashion Bainbridge) since its inception in 2016. She also headed up the Sustainable Clothing Environmental Conference and regularly teaches classes and workshops focused on re-use. She has an MFA in Costume Design for Theatre and Film and is starting a certificate in Sustainable Fashion through Remake, an organization dedicated to revising fashion systems to make them more sustainable and equitable. Her artwork has been shown at The Bainbridge Art Museum, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Kirkland Arts Center, and Harvard University among other places. She has three busy children whom she is raising to work to make the world kinder and more thoughtful.
Barb Zimmer
SB Board Vice President and Program Representative of Climate Action Bainbridge and Bainbridge Greenways
Barb worked on housing, energy and drinking water projects in several states…
Barb Zimmer, SB board Member, Program Representative of Climate Action Bainbridge and Bainbridge GreenWays
Barb worked on housing, energy and drinking water projects in several states and was happy to return to the Pacific Northwest, where she grew up playing in the woods, waters and mountains. She has enjoyed participating in many Sustainable Bainbridge programs over the past decades and is on the steering committee of Bainbridge GreenWays. Barb is also a past BIYSC girls soccer coach and is an annual Rotary Sale volunteer, as well as a Rotary Reader at Commodore Options School.