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A 15-member Board of Directors governs the Land Trust. Our Board is an engaged and hard-working group who represents the many different facets of the Bainbridge Island Community.
Our staff includes a full-time Executive Director, Asha Rehnberg, hired in the Spring of 2008. Laura O’Mara joined BILT in 2003 and now oversees the Membership program. Stewardship Director, Brenda McMurray, has been with BILT since the fall of 2006 and Susanne Schneider, our administrative assistant, joined the staff in early 2009. In addition, Judi Wood-Swenson is BILT's contract bookkeeper.
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Val Tollefson, President
Val Tollefson is an attorney and partner with the Seattle firm of Danielson Harrigan Leyh and Tollefson. An Island resident since 1977, Val has been involved in a number of Island non-profit endeavors over the years. He is a former U.S. Navy pilot and currently flies as a volunteer with Angel Flight, supporting people with medical needs, and with LightHawk, in support of conservation. He is married to Mary Ann Tollefson, with whom he has raised two daughters on Bainbridge Island. His grandchildren inspire his work with the Land Trust.
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Tom Backer, Vice President
Tom is an environmental and land use lawyer whose practice focuses on public clients in the greater Puget Sound region. An island resident since 1992, Tom and his partner Jane Leslie Newberry and their son Eli live in the Rose Loop neighborhood. In his spare time, Tom enjoys working outdoors where he and his family are restoring native plant species on land formerly overrun with old-growth blackberries. Tom is also a traveler, bicyclist, and electric car enthusiast.
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Emily Kehrberg, Treasurer
Emily and her husband, Craig, moved to Bainbridge Island in December 2003 from Atlanta, Georgia. The following summer they became acquainted with the Land Trust at the Farmer's Market, and thanks to Barb Trafton's explanation of all the great places they could walk their dog on the Island, they quickly became Land Trust supporters. Emily has enjoyed volunteering with the Community Outreach Committee, the Heart of the Forest Committee, and was especially excited to work on the new Land Trust website. In their spare time, Craig, Emily, and their dog, Sport, enjoy walking in the Grand Forest, and at Hidden Cove and Battle Point Parks.
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Maryann Kirkby, Secretary
Maryann and her husband Rick moved to BainbridgeIsland in 2003 after having lived in the Pacific Northwest since 1973. They have shared their enthusiasm and appreciation of northwest landscapes with their 3 children who have all out-hiked their parents. Maryann's first contact with the Island was attending a studio class here in 1980 while working on a master's degree in Landscape Architecture. She has been on the Land Trust’s Stewardship Committee for several years and has served as a lead steward and scientific advisor on many Land Trust projects. Her interests include hiking to observe native plants, gardening to grow food, public art, music, oil painting, ocean coastlines, island environments and raven calls.
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Ian Bentryn
Ian Bentryn has been an Island resident for 30 years. He is involved with the Island's sustainable farming community, and is a life-long self-taught naturalist. This background provides the subject matter for a monthly column in the Bainbridge Review, Paths Less Traveled, currently on hiatus. He has been active in efforts to preserve, protect and enhance the Island's special places, including campaigns on behalf of Blakely Point, Pritchard Park, and Ericksen Park. His new enterprise-Ian Bentryn Fine Pruning-allows him to be outdoors, happy and birdwatching while at work.
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Bill Eckel
Bill is a native of the Midwest and attended the University of Notre Dame in Physics and the University of Illinois in Urban and Regional Planning. After grad school, he and his wife andI moved to Ballard where they lived for two decades before buying land on Bainbridge, almost 20 years ago. Bill's career has been at KingCounty, developing and managing programs in salmon recovery, storm water management, wetlands protection, groundwater management, ecological/resource land acquisition and management, farm and forest preservation, noxious weed management, and environmental education. He has also managed a small, Group A, water system on the Island. Bill is semi-retired and enjoys vegetable and landscape gardening. His daughter is a post-doc biostatictician at the USC Department of Preventative Medicine.
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Thomas Fenwick
Thomas and his wife Deb moved to Bainbridge Island full time in 1998. Many years before, with a degree in Mathematics and Physics, he did the sensible thing and became a computer programmer. Twenty-five years later, he returned to his high school passion of photography and became a landscape photographer. He became involved with the Bainbridge Island Land Trust when asked to photograph the Close property for the promotional material to fund acquiring the property for BILT. As a landscape photographer, Thomas has observed a wide variety of landscapes and ecosystems and he recognizes the need to help preserve them for the future.
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Barry Fetterman
Barry and his wife Jo Ann have lived on Bainbridge Island for 17 years. Barry retired in 2004. He worked in the investment management business for twenty five years in positions which included: principal and board member at Sirach Capital Management, a Seattle institutional investment management company; vice president and regional manager at SEI, a NYSE listed investment services company; and, he was one of four partners in an investment banking firm in Los Angeles/New York. He is a graduate of Kent State University where he earned his BBA and MBA degrees and currently chairs the investment committee as a trustee of the Kent State University Foundation. He will serve as chair of the Kent State University Foundation for two years commencing in June. Barry is a member of the board of the Bainbridge Community Foundation. He serves as the president of the board of the Bainbridge Island Land Trust in 2008. Barry’s athletic passions include bicycle riding, skiing, and hiking.
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Tom Goodlin
Tom, his wife Cestjon, and two children have lived on Bainbridge Island since 1998 and in the Seattle area since 1988. Tom has a B.S and an M.S. degree in geology, and is a senior technical manager with Sealaska Environmental Services, a native Alaskan corporation. Professionally, Tom performs groundwater hydrology evaluations of contaminated sites and water resource projects. In 2003, Tom and his wife Cestjon granted a conservation easement to the Land Trust, preserving the wetland and woods on their 4.5 acre residential property. They also entered the same property into the Kitsap County Open Space program. Gardening, camping/backpacking, and bicycling are some favorite pastimes. Tom has also coached Little League and soccer teams on the Island.
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David Harrison
David is a senior lecturer at the Evans School of Public Affairs at UW. He is also founder and coordinator of Strategies to Eliminate Poverty, a grant-making program seeking to reduce the extent and severity of poverty in the NW. For the academic school year, he will serve as director of the Nancy Bell Evans Center for Nonprofits and Philanthropy. David is one of the organizers of Skill-Up Washington and is a member of their Executive Committee. Skill-Up WA is a new collaborative in King County sponsored by several foundations and companies, as well as local and state government. Skill-Up WA strives to double, and then redouble, the number of low income, under-skilled working adults in King County who are seeking a post-secondary education credential. David has held many other positions related to education and workforce development, including serving as a member of the Bainbridge Island School Board for several years. He and his wife, Cynthia, live on Bainbridge Island and have two grown sons.
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Kathy Haskin
Kathy began her work in environmental education in 1986. Since then she has taught and designed outdoor learning experiences for students of all ages at centers throughout the United States. Kathy has written and published three environmental education curriculum guides focused on sustainable development and watershed topics. She, her husband John, and their three teenagers came to the Island most recently from Jackson, WY, where Kathy coordinated the Jackson Campus of Teton Science Schools, a residential environmental education and conference facility. Kathy currently works at the Bainbridge Leadership Center, devoting the remainder of her time to her family, community work and writing.
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Julie Matthews
Julie Matthews joined the Land Trust Board in 2005. She spends her free time enjoying the outdoors with her husband Steve and teen age kids Alicen and Chris. Julie is also an attorney for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency focusing primarily on enforcement, air pollution and public records related issues.
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Douglas T. Picha
Douglas Picha currently serves as the President of the Seattle Children's Hospital Foundation. He was the founding Executive Director of both the Foundation and Children's Hospital Guild Association. He has served in the not for profit sector for 33 years. He is a graduate of Washington State University where he received the Alumni Achievement Award in 2002. Mr. Picha is a member of the Association of Fund Raising Professionals (AFP), a current member and past president of the Northwest Development Officers Association (NDOA), and the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP). In 2006 he was the recipient of the AHP's Si Seymour Award. Each year Mr. Picha advises numerous nonprofit organizations and executives on issues related to the not for profit sector. Currently he is a Trustee for the College Success Foundation and has been an active Seattle Rotarian the past 30 year. He resides with his wife Cassie, on Bainbridge Island. They have four grown children.
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Carol Sperling
As a 33-year resident of Bainbridge Island, I have been a long-time admirer of the Bainbridge Island Land Trust and its impressive track record of preserving open space on the Island. I was honored to be asked to serve on the Board of this outstanding organization in June of this year. In addition to this Board, I have spent a combined total of 16 years on the Island School and Hyla Middle School Boards of Trustees. I have also been an active participant in Girl Scouts (troop leader for 12 years), Boy Scouts, and my church. Now as an “empty nester,” I have more time to pursue hiking, biking, travel, and gardening with my husband, Dale, and to continue my community volunteer work. Our 92-year old house also continually vies for time and attention. The preservation of our Island’s beautiful natural landscape and open space has become an important mission for me
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John van den Meerendonk
John has been a resident of Bainbridge Island since 1984. From 1985 through 1990, he was the Horticultural and Grounds Superintendent at the Bloedel Reserve and he still volunteers there for plant i.d. walks. Presently, John works with Botanica, Inc., a landscape consulting, design and installation company that he founded it 1990. John has been a teacher and lecturer in the Plant Sciences and has also been involved for many years with the Hardy Fern Foundation and continues to serve on their board. He has served on the B.I. Forestry Commission as well and recently John joined the board of Seapix, a new foundation focused on the use of media and film in the public education of the marine environment of the Pacific Northwest. John’s interests are all things of the natural world, agricultural systems and travel.
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Asha Rehnberg, Executive Director
Asha joined the staff of the Bainbridge Island Land Trust in June of 2008. She is a conservation professional with a solid background in real estate law. In the 1990s she was a paralegal in the Real Estate Dept. of Gray Plant Mooty law firm in Minneapolis. In 2001 Asha and her husband Larry Pluimer succumbed to the attractions of the Northwest (where they spent most every vacation anyway) and relocated to Spokane, Washington. From 2002-2006 Asha was Land Protection Project Manager, and eventually Conservation Director, for the Inland Northwest Land Trust, an outfit with a stellar reputation that has helped to permanently protect over 8,500 acres in eastern Washington and northern Idaho. From Fall 2006-Spring 2008 Asha and Larry reveled in the dramatic scenery and drippy beauty of British Columbia, where she served as board member and secretary for the Bowen Island Conservancy and as a very active volunteer for the Cape Roger Curtis Trust Society. In May 2008 Asha and Larry moved again (for the last time in a long while) to Bainbridge Island, where they were soon joined by Asha’s mother and sister. Asha is thrilled to be an active part of the Bainbridge community and deeply honored to be the E.D. of its local Land Trust.
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Brenda McMurray, Stewardship Director
Brenda brings over 20 years of natural resource, community engagement and public relations experience to the Land Trust through her involvement with a number of non-profit, state and local organizations and agencies including the Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding Board, local and state Audubon Societies, the Watershed Information Center in Yakima, and Educational Service District 105. Brenda joined the Land Trust in 2006. Working with landowners, volunteers and the community, Brenda oversees the Land Trust’s Stewardship Program, which helps ensure protected properties retain their conservation values - forever. Brenda is a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest, with the past 18 years spent in Washington. She lives on the Island and constantly explores the rivers, mountains, coastlines and more with her 8 year-old son, James.
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Laura O'Mara, Membership Director
Laura feels entirely fortunate to work with the Bainbridge Island Land Trust--the Board, Staff and Members are a remarkable group. Having worked for a number of non-profits in paid and volunteer roles, she joined the Land Trust at the urging of a BILT member, and as the last of her three children entered 1st grade. Laura frequents Island trails with her husband, children, dog and friends--always in awe of the great physical beauty that surrounds us. She continually works with native plant restoration on her family's South-end property and plans to reside on the Island forever.
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Susanne Schneider, Administrative Assistant
Susanne is excited and happy to be a part or the Land Trust ~ good people, good cause, good work. She has lived on Bainbridge Island with her husband, Mark, and their 3 children since 1993 . A life time ago she was a retail buyer for major department stores but has spent the better part of her years on the Island as a full-time mother and a professional volunteer in many different capacities. Susanne is a happily transplanted mid-westerner who loves the Northwest and gets out to experience it's wonder first-hand whenever time allows.
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Tim Colgan, Intern
We welcome our new intern, Tim Colgan, with Greenriver Community College. Tim and his dog, Jack, have years of experience out in the field doing search and rescue. Tim joined BILT and hit the trail running in early April and will be with us through the end of June. He will largely work out in the field at Hilltop working to help with field assessment or be here at the office. In addition to working for BILT part-time, Tim is a full-time student and holds down another job at night.
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Mission
