Meet the SGSC Board
Mary Fleck, Co-Chair
President of Genesee-Schmitz Neighborhood Council. A former trial lawyer, she has advocated for and brought forth the voices of a wide range of clientele. She has volunteered in Seattle schools with the Finding Urban Nature program and she has been involved in many Seattle volunteer work-party projects. Ms. Fleck has been assisting Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association in the youth education portion of its Delridge Wetland project.
Elaine Ike, Co-Chair
A former manager for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) where she worked in disaster response throughout the U.S. to assist communities in rebuilding. Part of this work involved recognizing and honoring community ties and community strengths. She has significant experience with multicultural projects, having been director for international students at Gonzaga University for many years.
Martin Westerman, Executive Board Member
A civic activist based in West Seattle. He serves on the boards of the Seattle Green Spaces Coalition, West Seattle Transportation Coalition, and the Fauntleroy Community Association, and helps create positive changes to benefit both West Seattle and our City. He has authored two environmental business books, scores of environment-related articles, taught sustainable business and business communications for eight years at UW’s Foster Business School, and crossed the United States by bicycle.
Peggy Sturdivant, Executive Board Member
Writes “At Large in Ballard” for The Westside Weekly, a newspaper that serves Seattle and south end communities. She’s founder of Ballard Writers Collective and worked in environmental consultation and educational outreach. She has worked on three Small & Simple grants from the City of Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods, including an ongoing speaker series for the Low Income Housing Institute. She brings her extensive experience with print media, social media and coordinating volunteers to the Board.
Calyn Hostelter, Treasurer
Co-owner and general manager at Second Use, with locations in Seattle and Tacoma. A lifetime resident in the south end and White Center she has a commitment to environmental causes personally and professionally.
Michael Oxman
A community activist and certified arborist. He has extensive experience working with volunteers to restore parks and open space.
Karen Lyons
Artist/sculptor with a Masters in Botany. She has been Manager of the Solstice P-Patch in West Seattle since Spring 2014. Solstice P-Patch has eight gardens raising food for the Seattle Foodbank. In 2015 they contributed 1,375 lb. of food. She employs her Botany and management skills in managing the gardens and outreach.
Willard Brown
Director of Housing and Environmental Programs at the Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association. He has worked for over 30 years as a key employee and served as Property Management Administrator for Redevelopment at Seattle Housing Authority. He serves on the Advisory Council for African American Elders. Mr. Brown has experience in grant implementation. He has a successful track record of developing positive relationships, a proven managerial skill set in leadership and implementing projects at all levels and a desire to give back to the Delridge community he cherishes.
Phillip Tavel
Attorney, an entrepreneur and an educator. For the past ten years he has primarily worked as a Public Defender in King County, and he serves as a Pro Tem Judge in King County District Court. He has also served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children. Tavel has been a volunteer for several West Seattle organizations and has been running the largest weekly trivia night in Seattle for almost ten years (Wednesday nights at Talarico’s Pizzeria). He also serves on the Board of Directors for Allied Arts and is the Vice President of the Morgan Junction Association. Phillip lives in West Seattle with his wife and son.
Jeremy Grisham
Program Specialist for YOUR Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs’ Behavioral Health Program, the Veterans Conservation Corps, where he works to connect veterans, their family members and the community to ecotherapy opportunities across the State. Jeremy’s work focuses on Jungian based analytical psychology, ecopsychology and conservation psychology. He has earned a BA from Antioch University Seattle in Liberal Arts with an emphasis on psychology and ecopsychology, and he is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. Additionally, Jeremy advocates for community partnerships that work towards actively healing the environment through habitat restoration, creating a metaphor for veterans in transition, as they heal the planet, they heal themselves. Jeremy is a dedicated father of three children ages 24, 20 and 2. Jeremy and his family live in Everett, Washington. Jeremy is a medically retired US Navy Hospital Corpsman of 12 years. Diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, he continues to work hard to manage the daily symptomatic barriers to everyday life that these ailments often present. Jeremy is a combat veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Tom Rasmussen, Advisory Board
Seattle City Council member for three terms from 2004-2015. Tom chaired key City Council committees including the Housing, Human Services & Health Committee; the Transportation Committee and the Parks & Seattle Center Committee.
In 2008 as Chair of the Parks and Seattle Center Committee he led the successful campaign to renew the six-year Seattle Parks Levy which raised $145.5 million for new park land acquisition and renovation of existing parks and playgrounds. Tom has served on numerous regional and state boards including the Seattle/ King County Board of Health, the Puget Sound Regional Council and the Association of Washington Cities. Prior to being elected to the Seattle City Council he was the Director of the Seattle Mayor’s Office for Senior Citizens. He has been a volunteer member of numerous neighborhood and community organizations.
Ana Vasudeo, Advisory Board
Ana was formerly a Board member and Chair of SGSC’s Environmental Justice Committee. She currently serves as Program Director at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition where she works on a number of transportation equity initiatives. Formerly, she was the Director of the Blue Greenway, the planning initiative to transform San Francisco’s eastern waterfront into a series of parks and open spaces. In Seattle Ana took the lead in developing a community engagement strategy for stopping the sale of the Myers Parcels. She is an environmental planner and environmental justice advocate and holds a Master of Regional Planning Degree from Cornell University.
Julia Weese-Young, Advisory Board
Urban Landscape Design, Planning & Research
Adaptive Capacity, Ecoliteracy, Didactic Illustration
Julia started her first landscape project at age four: a small garden built on a steep triangle of forgotten, eroding dirt between two sets of concrete stairs. It turns out, the process of problem solving and visioning she engaged in for that urban slice of ground was a micro version of what she’s been doing ever since. As an ecological designer, a landscape researcher, and an environmental educator, the work of Seattle Green Spaces Coalition is important to her because ample, quality urban landscape is an environmental imperative. In this time of ecological destabilization and uneven distribution of (ecological) burdens, our future well-being depends on our ability to preserve and increase landscape functions and ecosystem services and to distribute these benefits equitably within our built environment systems.