Our Members

Dave Boehnlein

Originally from Wisconsin, I discovered permaculture working in Central America, and then lived 7 years at the Bullock’s Homestead on Orcas Island becoming a leader in the topic. I have experience in leadership, education, and land management. Along with Doug Bullock and Paul Kearsley, I run www.terraphoenixdesign.com which provides permaculture master planning services. Along with Jessi Bloom, I have also co-authored the book Practical Permaculture and teach permaculture design courses at several institutions. I am passionate about good food (especially fruit), agroforestry, and having fun (games!).

Eduardo Jezierski

I believe we shape our environment with our choices, and that positive things happen when people with shared values work towards long-term goals. This is our life project, for children our own and others’. I am most at home iterative action with thoughtful decisions, surrounding myself with great people, that great design follows nature, and anything worthwhile must surely require a workshop full of great woodworking tools.

I grew up in Argentina, and I like designing, fixing and making things. For 10 years I was the CEO & CTO of a multinational nonprofit that makes technology for health, crisis response and sustainable development called InSTEDD, a TED-prize organization. My background is in physics, engineering, AI/machine learning & evolutionary systems; and have architecture, design, carpentry, and electronic skills; and got my Permaculture Design Certificate a few years ago.

Yuko Miki

I was born and raised in Himeji, Japan. My family has orchards, vegetable gardens, and rice paddies in a suburban context. I came to the US for school in 1996. I worked for 14+ years at a non-profit domestic violence agency (direct service, management, HR, etc.) and launched my own art/illustration business recently (honeyberrystudios.com). I love good food, anything crafty, and cuddly creatures.

Elina Quiroga

I grew up in a small town in Argentina, daughter to a rural doctor and close to family-owned farms and production. I love cooking and teaching and in my immediate family there are restaurant owners and vineyards producing small-scale wine and olive oil. I am a surgeon at Harborview and work mostly on trauma/emergency cases and am on various diversity and leadership councils. With Ed I also run OurPaleBlueDot, an initiative that inspires children to love earth and the cosmos through do-it-yourself space-related projects.

Hilery Avritt

My passions lie in human development, wellness, and nature connection. I enjoy a personal exploration of neuroscience and the science of happiness. I delight in frivolous time in nature and have taken to serious study in primitive skills development and rewilding. I built a chain of Pilates studios in the Seattle area and converted the management of the studio to a democratic organizational model.

I am a forever learner and am currently taking painting, film, and tango classes and am in the process of writing my first screenplay.

I live in Seattle with my cozy and playful family which includes my husband of 18 years, our 15 year old son, our feisty dog Remy and our two squeaky guinea pigs.

Lawrence Tamkin

I love my family deeply. We play a lot of ping-pong. We laugh together much of every day, and we share openly with each other. I also spend much of my time with the employees and clients of my construction company, and it is the nurturing of those relationships that defines much of my affect on the world. I try to model, and encourage, a clarity of purpose, language, and action in the company, and I have also created an informality that tends to engender both self-reliance and team-work, the two complementary pillars of this profession.

I spend time hiking, playing basketball, snowboarding, and reading. As I age toward 50, I have become keenly aware of the brevity of our time and its precious scarcity, and I have re-focused my priorities to enjoy more and to be there more for others.

Karen Cowgill

I grew up in the northeastern US, but have lived and traveled in many parts of the world studying and working in public health. Sustainability and living lightly on the land have always been attractive to me and over the years I’ve dabbled in worm bins, composting toilets, edible yards, and non-PVC solar. I lived in Ithaca at the time the first EcoVillage was founded there, and ever since it’s been a dream to join and work in such a community.

Eric Menninga

I was born and raised in Western Washington and spent almost 30 years writing page-layout software for Adobe and Amazon. Now I’m excited to open the next chapter of my life away from a desk and to focus on building relationships and learning about regenerative design. I love cooking for groups large and small, playing board games with my adult sons, and reading. I’m eager to live in a community that strives for connection with a spirit of gratitude and generosity.

Per Vonge Nielsen

Lived, played, educated and worked in Copenhagen and surroundings till 1987. Software engineering manager till 2008. From 1987 to 1995 in Miami, Nice, Munich. Onward on the North Eastside and enjoy the wooded neighborhood close to St. Edward State Park. I have lived in the area for 25 years part of the time with a mature garden with veggie/berry patches. Travel/ed the world, these days to visit friends and/or family abroad, including son and his family in London, or to explore an area. I regenerate in the mountains on bike, by foot or skis. Curious about human motivation and interactions; the main toolbox has been NLP. Enjoy modern design and art. Have lived in communes and was a founder of Trudeslund cohousing community in Birkerød in 1979-81. However, we sold our townhouse three months before it was finished due to our divorce. My brother was also a founder of Trudeslund and later founded Blikfanget, where he stills live with his wife. My father founded a senior cohousing community, where he lived to his passing. His wife is still living there.

Clare Sherley

Although raised in Eastern Washington, I spent much of my adult life in Boston, Santa Cruz, and the Olympic Peninsula. I moved to Seattle to study midwifery and love how this holistic, person-centered philosophy of human interaction impacts all my relationships. I also spent time visiting an eco-village and resonate with the philosophy of connected living and shared resources found there.

As a white queer-femme midwife and midwifery educator, I work to view our world through an anti-oppression lens and am committed to disrupting power structures that support and enable racism, sexism, ableism, classism, and homophobia. We strive to build a community that lives, works, and plays within that context.

Jack Slowriver

I am serious and silly, hopeful and authentic. I am a non-binary, white queer person who values community and the relationships that have nurtured me into who I am today. I have an unwavering commitment to social justice, health equity, reproductive freedom, and anti-racism and have spent my professional life working towards these goals. I currently work for a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in the Seattle metro area.
In my spare time I like working with my hands, reading, and sending letters to friends via the USPS.

Susan Atkinson

Professionally, I am a salon and yoga studio owner .
As a volunteer, my calling is to make a difference with climate change, which has led me to an interest in permaculture and regenerative agriculture. Accelerating the sequestering of carbon from the atmosphere down into the soil is how I want to spend my retirement years, as well as connecting with others in a co-housing group. I look forward to participating in a future large Rooted NW community garden!

Sarah Poston

I grew up outside of NYC, and learned to love organic farming at a small Quaker high school/organic farm in New Hampshire. My maternal ancestors have been in Snohomish county for three generations. My great grandparents settled in Edmonds during the mid 1800’s and started the first dairy there. On both sides my ancestors were farmers. Nature has always been my place of peace and spiritual connection and I love the rhythms of living close to the land, working with animals and growing food.

I spent summers growing up in Washington on the Olympic peninsula and moved to Seattle as a young woman. I got my nursing degree at Seattle University and practiced there for 10 years before moving to Colorado. I devoted myself to spirituality and tramping through the Mountains of Colorado and New Mexico. I became a Family Nurse Practitioner in the early 2000’s and have focused on Holistic approaches to chronic illness and mental health. In recent years becoming a Somatic Experiencing therapist and working with journey assisted and attachment-based therapy modalities. I have a deep interest in supporting individuals to heal personal and transgenerational trauma. (sarahpostonfnp.com) I always have a garden and have played with edible landscape and permaculture principles at my Colorado home.

I have a young adult son who is an amazing being! I am excited to come back to Snohomish County, where I feel the strongest sense of home and place. I am so looking forward to living in the Rooted NW village and participating in raising our own food and deepening our friendships!

Kathy Thompson

Both permaculture and cohousing have been in my thoughts for over 20 years, permaculture because it seemed to fit my personal style of gardening and cohousing because it seemed such a sensible way to live. As a retired public health nurse, I appreciate the systems approach to its design. Our Rooted NW community has welcomed not only me, but my dogs, chickens, mother and sister. I am looking forward to having the Rooted NW people as neighbors and working partners!

Carla Schneider

I believe in being kind to one another and to the Earth.

My biggest project the last several years has been to replace our lawn with a collage of fruit, berry, vegetable, and pollinator- and wildlife-supporting plantings. Many of the plants were given to me, and now I take great pleasure in sharing seeds, cuttings, and divisions with others. I also believe that Nature often brings to us what we need, and am annoyingly enthusiastic about edible “weeds.” I can be a little overzealous about my flock of backyard ducks, too, but then again, they are pretty darn cute… (Simone is pictured)

Erik Schneider

I love playing hard, working hard, and getting dirty in nature. I love eating, cooking, and growing food.

I care deeply about our planet and the people sharing it. For me, it starts with food. Discovering the effects of food production and food access and then implementing changes that allow everyone to have nourishing food inspires me. I believe everyone deserves access to the best food possible and I believe our planet will grow in abundance when this happens.

The thought of playing and working in a community on a farm excites me. The possibility of doing this while also continuing my technical career, which I also love, makes Rooted NW the ideal place for me to call home.

My favorite activity is going to Mt Rainier with Carla and our son. We love to hike and relax in the most beautiful and inspiring place we know. I also enjoy practicing meditation, yoga, and Wim Hof breathing/cold. I’m currently studying compassionate leadership, non-violent communication, and the dismantling of oppression.

Mindy Iris

I discovered traveling at a young age and did a year of college in the ancient city of Bath, England, exploring the cathedrals, the countryside, and eventually the rest of Europe. Landing in the magical Island of Crete, I recognized a homecoming, from lives lived previously. I completed a degree in Biology before returning to Crete, learning Greek, and living in a fishing village not far from the Ancient Palace of Knossos.

I found one of my life’s purposes to be in Wholistic Health, where I combined the gifts from my travels and learning about people from all over the world. I have had a successful 30+year career facilitating healing, and called Durango, Colorado home for 32 years. Besides an active private practice, I found a calling to be a volunteer firefighter and medic. Being part of a team, knowing that one’s life depended on that cooperation and teamwork, was a remarkable and life-changing experience.

In 2017 my husband Tom and I began spending more time in the Seattle area for cancer treatments that were keeping Tom well — we relished the moistness and the diversity of the city. We found a poster at the Seattle Central Co-op promoting this Permaculture Co-housing Community. Tom had developed the first Permaculture Farm in our Colorado county, growing figs and persimmons at 9500′ altitude! When we got to the land that spring, we knew we had found what we didn’t know we were looking for — a community of caring members committed to regenerative agriculture and care between people. Tom transitioned over while we were becoming members. I have been lovingly supported during my grieving by this remarkable community. I feel that I have found my tribe at last!!

Rachel Hultengren

I am the creator, producer, and host of Free the Seed!, the Open Source Seed Initiative podcast that tells the stories of how new plant varieties make it into our seed catalogues and onto our tables. My background is in plant breeding for organic systems; before pursuing my Master’s in plant breeding & genetics, I interned at Let Us Farm (a diversified organic veggie farm near Olympia, WA) and worked for the Agricultural Development Initiative at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Though I grew up in central California, I’m an enthusiastic transplant to the PNW; our family now lives in Seattle, Washington.

David Hultengren

I grew up in Shoreline, WA, and although I’ve spent time in Germany and the Netherlands as an exchange student, as well as Ithaca, NY, my plan has always been to come home to live in the Pacific Northwest. I love the quick access to nature, and have a strong sense of attachment to the area.

In addition to enjoying the outdoors, I like to spend time with my family, cook, read, play board games, watch sports (mostly soccer and basketball), and occasionally even play them if the opportunity arises, which lamentably does not happen very frequently with a full-time job (software engineering manager) and a toddler.

At Rooted I’m looking forward to spending more time in nature and learning more about everyone else in the community, as well as myself.

Jacob Laub

My past lives include time as a professional ballet dancer, journalist, photographer, and yoga teacher, but today you can find me producing video courses focused on personal development, health, and social impact as the co-founder of Commune. When not compressing teachers’ wisdom into pixels and bits, you are likely to find me building with mud, flailing around the garden, climbing very tall rocks, making soup out of whatever is left in the fridge, and fermenting anything remaining after the soup. I live with Julia and our daughter Maeva in the yurt we built up a little canyon in Topanga, CA.

Julia Dancyger

I am somehow sitting down to write this while taking care of a 2-month-old and being in graduate school to be a nurse practitioner. But that’s the power of community! In other words, grandma has her. A bit about me: I have some Jewish Moroccan spice from mom, Eastern European anxiety from dad. I’ve been in Los Angeles 32 years… which are all the years I’ve been alive. I am passionate about health care, currently in school so I can be present in the lives of elderly individuals when they may need holistic support. I’m uplifted by the growth of plants. Organic, colorful, juicy, earthy nutrition is my most reliable lover. Close runners up are Jacob and daughter Maeva. My daily movement practice keeps me effervescent. You might find me somewhere quietly dreaming, or curiously making my way into your business because I want to collaborate with you.

Sara Aiello

Originally from upstate New York, I honed driving in the snow and developed a strong work ethic growing up in a family business. I now call the Pacific Northwest home. Mom of two fierce girls, a fur baby and hens — I spend my days as a tech executive and a wife to a farmer in the spare time. It takes a village, and I’m excited to build one.

Brett Aiello

An aerospace engineer by degree and a farmer by passion. I launched Reconnecting Roots Farm after completing the Viva Farms Practicum in Sustainable Agriculture. I look forward to relocating my farm to Rooted NW as I officially trade a computer for a shovel. My interest in growing good food has made me a student of organizations that occupy the local food space — the Slow Food movement, bioregionalism, heritage livestock and heirloom seeds. I’m excited to grow delicious and sustainably grown food for my family and community.

Jonathan Smolens

I’ve been interested in natural building since I was a kid. I remember being fascinated watching some slightly older boys build a tree house. I’ve been in the construction industry for over 40 years. Mostly conventional construction but also some natural building. I lived in a spiritual community for 11 years. We had 160 acres in New Mexico and there I remodeled one community home and built another mostly from materials from the property. My view is that humanity is in a precarious situation, and we need to find a way to live in harmony with each other and the Earth. To me the vision of a sociocratic-permaculture-ecovillage is a beautiful response to this situation. I feel it is my life-calling to build an ecovillage. I feel a nice connection with the people here and look forward to this adventure.

Matthew Groff

Fine wine, excellent food, beautiful flowers, and old growth forests are just some of my favorite things. After graduating high school in the Hudson River Valley I hitchhiked, drove, and flew around the country for several years till I settled in the most beautiful part: Washington state.

At WWU I majored in environmental studies and political science. For most of my career I was a landscape and irrigation contractor. I had a few trucks and a small crew of people who worked on both commercial and residential maintenance and installation. For about 10 years I worked this business out of a 10-acre commercial blueberry farm. We sold blueberries and other crops out of this farm to the retail market and also to the wholesale market.

My goal now is to get back into regenerative agriculture — to produce for the local retail markets and possibly get into the wholesale market.

Milya Eekman

My childhood was spent between the Netherlands’ countryside and the beach towns of southern California. But despite the upheaval of immigrating I always felt rooted in love of family, a love of nature, and an appreciation of healthy living. I raised my three kids to also appreciate those values and I am excited to be part of a community now that also reflects this. At Rooted, I look forward to growing both the community and the food that will sustain us. I plan to help my partner Matthew with blueberry farming and hope to do some flower farming as well. I take endless satisfaction in knowing that we are rescuing this one beautiful parcel of land from development and are nurturing and stewarding it towards a more sustainable, regenerative future.

Matthew Trotter

I grew up in rural Pennsylvania loving the expansiveness of my heart in nature along with the variance of plants, animals, and humans through the seasons. When we moved to the PNW in 2020, Jenn and I felt like transplanted trees — we had been limited to small pots during years of transition and we yearned for some place to root down. My passion for earnest connection along with Jenn’s interest in permaculture made us click almost instantly with this project.

My passion for connection developed around campfires, telling stories and eating food. I also developed a great love for social dancing; I grew intoxicated by the connection possible between two people when moving to music. More recently, I have been focusing on my career in medicine, finding the relationships I build to be life-changing.

Jenn Trotter

In her book Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer talks about the beautiful idea of “becoming indigenous” to a place — learning to recognize the earth around you as a neighbor and friend, and sharing intimacy and trust with her by recognizing her rhythms, reciprocating her gifts, and enjoying her vibrancy. I came to the PNW in October, 2020 and immediately felt like I was being welcomed into the home of an old friend. I’m so excited about practicing intentional, grateful, and trusting relationship with all the neighbors at RootedNW — human and non-human alike.

Christine Hanna

For most of my adult life I’ve alternately dreamt of getting closer to the source of our food through community farming, and being part of a co-housing community. My passion for systems change and illuminating solutions have driven my professional work, including my current role as executive director at YES! Media. Rooted NW for me brings my passions and skills together with others into a grand experiment that deeply inspires me. And it’s a chance to model for my children and others what it means to bring your heart, mind, and hands to the ongoing and collective work of building a better world. And I think we’re going to have a ton of fun doing it!

Chelsey Dambro

After riding the winds of jobs and education for several years that took us crisscrossing the country and the Atlantic Ocean, my partner, Adam, and I are looking forward to putting down some roots with Rooted NW.

My hope for Rooted NW is that it becomes a place of learning and creativity. A space for caring for each other and repairing the balance between humans, non-human creatures, and the environment — an example of solarpunk optimism.

In the meantime, I will be daydreaming about how to make a library in the common house that rivals the library in Beauty and the Beast but with reclaimed materials.

Adam Yahyaoui

One of my goals in life is to understand what is happening now. I like to analyze information from different perspectives to get to the heart of the problem and the problem that I have spent several years investigating is climate change. I was attracted to Rooted Northwest because it offers a low carbon lifestyle in practice with others who have similar goals of caring for the Earth.

I am thrilled to be part of this community with my partner, Chelsey, who inspires me to think outside the box. When I’m not enjoying lively debates with her, you can find me wrapped in a blanket of music, petting my cat, baking bread, and training for the next marathon.

Dan Cohen

I grew up kind of skinny and klutzy as a kid in Oakland, California. I spent many days with my parents gardening and building with my dad. There were long summer days I spent time sliding down grassy slopes on cardboard and hours and hours playing games with other kids at the local school yard. As I became an adult, my love for sport has not waned, I am looking for a volleyball court we can laugh and play in, after working in a community garden or on a project that we have put together. I look forward to sharing those things I enjoy and singing my heart.

John O'Leary

Originally from NY’s Catskill Mountains, John hitchhiked out to the Pacific Northwest, turning 20 on the road. It wasn’t long before the area felt like home, but he kept moving nonetheless! Highlights from his adventures include several months each in China, Ireland, and England, plus nearly two years in Bavaria. His wanderlust waned by the time he turned 30, and since then he has been deepening his appreciation for the beings and dynamics of the land and sea so cherished by hundreds of generations of Coast Salish peoples. Union activism, youth services, and managing the water resources program of a local tribe have been some of his eclectic pursuits over the past decades. He’s excited about joining RootedNW where care and respect for land, water, and all living things is such a central tenet.

Kristofer Plunkett

Born in Germany but a PNW native, I was fortunate that my family settled in this beautiful green wonderland. After growing up in the Olympia area, I studied computer engineering at the University of Washington before spending the next ten years working in the Seattle software industry.

Looking beyond tech, I discovered the emerging hemp industries, started a small retail business selling hemp products like CBD, and even farmed hemp in Oregon. Learning more about farming instilled an appreciation for the role agriculture plays in our wellbeing and that of our living planet.

Outdoors I enjoy jogging, hiking, paddle boarding, snowboarding, and gardening. Indoors you’ll find me practicing yoga, cooking vegetarian dishes, and reading about the world. I’m excited to support regenerative farming at Rooted NW while living in community with others who share a similar love for nature, health, and togetherness

Don Price

I was born in Seattle in 1968 and am the oldest of four. I struggled with separation, divorce and remarriage throughout my childhood which created strained and broken relationships. It made me question my devotion to “family” and forced me to better understand the need for self care and NVC. Not to say that there weren’t good times as well. I learned to work hard from my Grandfather, commercial salmon fishing out of Ilwaco, WA. My Dad taught me to be curious about the world around me and encouraged me to take everything apart to learn how it works, then put it back together again. My Mom reflected the kindness and compassion that I see in myself today. I’m happiest in the nature that the PNW provides, particularly the wild coast that is unique to the continental US. I love fly fishing, backpacking, gardening, sports and spending time with Steffi. My mind tends to run in overdrive. Finding Rooted and its people have given me a rare laser focus. Steffi and I have a nervous excitement about becoming medicinal herb farmers on the land and that picture is becoming clearer by the day.

Steffi Wehner

Originally from Germany I chose the breathtakingly beautiful Pacific Northwest as my home over 25 years ago. I’m a writer and make my living creating travel blogs and marketing materials. I’m also an avid wildcrafter, fisherwoman, medicine maker and PNW foodie and love to roam the mountains, rivers and woods with my sweet husband Don. We are excited to start a medicinal herb farm here at Rooted NW, complete with wood cultivated plants, chakra garden and local, organic, handpicked medicinal herbs and flowers.

Janet Khamashta

I’m a student of life. From the joys of motion within this body to the challenges of creating form for function. I cut against the grain. As a woman, a builder, an engineer, a farmer, an athlete. I strive to live my best life, learn how to have fun in all activities, and prepare to finish this life with a good death. I love and respect nature as she replenishes and nourishes me. I have embraced the vision of the Rooted community and welcome the journey that lies before us all.

Marsha McCaleb

I grew up in a small farming community in Iowa. Large, organic gardens were everywhere and if you didn’t or couldn’t have one, many neighbors would make sure you had plenty of healthy food to eat and preserve for the winter. This hard work and sharing seemed so important for community bonding and health, and I see Rooted NW as a similar model, learning, sharing and caring.
Much of my time now, when I’m not out in nature running, hiking, cycling or bird watching, is spent volunteering, both at the food bank and as a hospice caregiver. My mission, no matter the client or organization, is to treat everyone with dignity and respect.

Morgan Keuler