Hannah Allender
SPARC Space co-Lead
Hannah recently moved to Seattle with a Bachelor’s of Architecture in 2009 from the University of Oregon. Her thesis project was a part of an international design competition in Malmo, Sweden, and focused on issues of public open space, historic preservation, and the idea of being a good ‘urban neighbor.’ She is interested in urban architecture with a focus on site responsive and contextually sensitive work. She thinks sustainability can be achieved through an understanding of the social, cultural, and environmental context in which we design. Hannah speaks Spanish fluently, and lived in Spain. Hannah enjoys travel, painting, sketching, and more recently, exploring Seattle’s neighborhoods.

Paul Andersson
K-12 Education Choose Change Education Lead
As the Choose Change Education Coordinator, Paul brings a variety of teaching experiences to Sustainable Seattle. From an international school in Stockholm, Sweden, to a therapeutic wilderness school in Georgetown, Colorado, Paul is a natural leader and instructor. He is passionate about the earth and its resources, concerned about the growing disconnect between humans and nature, and intent on changing the way societies consume. Paul graduated from Iowa State University with a BA in English Literature in 2003. In constant pursuit of enlightening wilderness and cultural experiences, Paul has lived in several countries around the world. He holds a Certificate in Sustainable Business from Bainbridge Graduate Institute and is involved in an array of sustainability efforts throughout Seattle.

Amber Banks
SPARC Fiscal Sponsorship Program Lead
Amber Banks has been an educator for almost ten years, specializing in working with children with autism and other marginalized populations of children. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA and recently moved to Seattle to pursue research related to education leadership, policy, and reform. Amber currently has a Master’s degree in Special Education and a B.S. in Print Journalism with a focus in Cultural Anthropology. She has worked with children K-12 in public, non-public, and private settings, in addition to piloting inclusion and community-based programs for children/teens, designing curricula, and teaching and conducting research in Latin America. Amber is passionate about writing, gardens, helping communities become the agents of their own change, and bridging the opportunity gaps in our communities and schools. Amber became interested in sustainability through her experiences with pioneering various grassroots community-based projects in both Los Angeles and Seattle and a series of research projects conducted throughout the United States, Cuba, and Central America. Amber feels right at home here in Seattle with its plethora of outdoor activities, vibrant multicultural elements, and delicious restaurants.

Ada da Silva
Social Justice Coordinator
Dedicated to issues of social justice, da Silva has volunteered as an ESL tutor for Proyecto Saber, served as a mentor to a Burmese refugee family with the International Rescue Committee, worked with immigrant preschoolers through AmeriCorps’ Jumpstart program, and volunteered as a translator for the American Red Cross’s language bank.  Ada has lived in Brazil, speaks French and Portuguese and is proficient in Spanish. 

Charles Fritz
Community Development Program co-Lead
Chas moved to Seattle from Kalamazoo, Michigan where he graduated with a B.S. in Geography, concentrating on Urban and Regional Studies. Though declared as, and devoted to being a student of the city, Chas discovered his interest in Geographic Information Science. During his last year and a half of undergrad studies he received a position as a GIS technician at the W.E. Upjohn Center for the Study of Geographical Change where he plied his trade. He has now brought his experience to S2, developing data, maps, and indicator content for the B-Sustainable project. When he isn't working, he enjoys rock climbing, and playing soccer.

Eldan Goldenberg
Director of STARs- Sustainability Training And Resources and Director of Operations
Eldan comes to Sustainable Seattle with experience as a training manager at EOS Alliance, and as a teacher of I.T. skills to jobseekers.  Along the way, he earned a Master's in Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems, and rode a bike around New Zealand.  When he's not at work, Eldan tries to spend as much time as possible hiking, sailing and skiing around Cascadia, and photographing everything.

Nathan Jackson
Communications and Outreach Director
Nathan Jackson graduated from Central Washington University with a degree in Secondary English teaching and began working in various educational positions including AmeriCorps, pre-kindergarten and college level teaching.  He has always had a desire to help others reach their full potential and see that their limitations are only what they set for themselves. He brings experience in non profit organizations, social outreach and communication.  He is especially effective with interpersonal relationships and pragmatic problem solving.  Nathan has a deep commitment to social justice, health equity and education for all. He believes that no real change can happen if someone is over dependent on others and is not fulfilling their own promise.  Change happens when someone learns how to fend for themselves using their own natural talents, education and access to services that empower and free them.

Corey Jefferson
Community Development Program co-Lead
Nurtured in an artistic household, all children and grandchildren in our family have learned three lessons: explore artistic creative expression, learn to work with peers, and give with purpose.  Given this household curriculum, beginning at age four, Corey  traveled to West Africa learning how to ‘give with purpose’. His grandfather  led groups (for over 15 years) of educators from New York to Dakar, Senegal annually in order to survey and exchange ideas on educating the youth.  Outstanding goals were to find parallels in student struggles traversing the trans-Atlantic communities of education, as well as to donate clothing, books, and other supplies that helped sustain their educational system. He was raised on the East Coast and travel there frequently, while broadening my social and professional spectrum in Seattle, WA. Currently, He is a candidate for a post-graduate degree in Global Management by Fall 2010. He is enjoying the opportunity to apply life experiences and new knowledge to a career in Community Development domestically and abroad.

Owen Martel
SPARC Videographer
Owen comes with a background combining video, theater, sustainability, religion, ethnomusicology, and insurgencies.  He is particularly interested in stories of perseverance, in the relationship of people to their natural and built environments, and in collaborative projects that synthesize ideas and methods from a wide variety of sources.  His work ranges from from 30-second experimental shorts to hour-long fiction and documentary pieces (made in conditions ranging from dedicated studios to sheep-haunted mountainsides). Click here to see more. He is a graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts and the University of Otago in New Zealand.

Marie Rangel Mendes
STARs PALS Program Lead
Marie Rangel Mendes has joined Sustainable Seattle to help spearhead community outreach through collaboration and sharing. A firm believer in knowledge is the key to success; she hopes that PALS can grow into a wonderful learning and resource forum for sustainable practices. From an early age she admired the works of David Thoreau; connecting with his “oneness” with nature. With an environmental engineering degree from Northwestern University and 10 years of experience in environmental consultation with expertise in air emissions, she aspires to merge sustainability into every facet of work and life. She has worked with P.W. Grosser Consulting for over 6 years and is currently the Branch Manager of the Seattle office. She has assisted numerous clients in handling their wastes properly and understand their environmental impact via carbon footprint and other assessments. She takes every opportunity to learn from others and offer insight to knowledge she has gained over the years. Inspired by her Peruvian and Norwegian heritage, Marie loves to travel, taste news foods, enjoy outdoor activities, and cultural dance.

Laura Musikanski, JD, MBA, CEM, CELR
Executive Director
Laura Musikanski is a fifth generation Seattlelite with a daughter and grandchild born in Seattle. She is lawyer with an MBA and certificates in Environmental Management and Environmental Law and Regulations from the University of Washington. This is her version of a triple bottom line education. Laura is deeply committed to sustainability and the journey that we all are on towards a world. Prior to joining Sustainable Seattle as Executive Director, she was the Director of Sustainability and a Senior Consultant for a national environmental and natural resources consulting firm.  Laura helped private entities, non-profits and counties including McDonalds, Darigold, Chevron, Zurich Insurance, Cascade Designs, AHAC, WSDOT, the Quinault Indian Nation and Pierce County address sustainable development in a context sensitive manner.  She brings fifteen years experience running a small business. She taught at the UW MBA program, spearheaded a program to integrate sustainability into business school curricula in the Northwest, founded a club for second career students at her law school, and volunteers as a CASA, advocating for neglected and abused children, and at New Beginnings-Ending Domestic Violence.

Ania Pastuszewska, LEED AP
Dream a Sound Future Program Lead
Ania graduated from the University of Illinois in Chicago with a B.A. in Architecture and a minor in theater in 2006. She spent the last three years in Durango, CO practicing architecture and skiing a lot. Working in and enjoying the recreational benefits of rural Colorado enforced her strong commitment to protect the natural landscape as we attempt to accommodate our rapid population growth. In her practice, Ania hopes to design buildings that support the dynamics of a community, while addressing the issues of affordability, accessibility and environment, and considering the effect of a dwelling on productivity and happiness of an individual. She believes that for our society to be sustainable we must provide equal opportunities to every person, and this begins with creating a healthy built and natural environment as a stage to every day life.

Cameron Plommer
Phocus Lead
Cameron is a life-long Seattle resident and Cum Laude graduate from Western Washington University with a BA in Economics/Environmental Studies.  As a member of The College of Business & Economics and Huxley College of The Environment, Cameron has a diverse academic background: environmental policy and law; energy, resource and environmental economics; and environmental urban planning.  His past projects include an analysis of the environmental impacts of economic growth on developing nations and a LEED ND evaluation of a local development.  Integrating solid environmental and economic practices is his main career goal.  As an environmental intern with the Department of Energy, Cameron worked with environmental specialists writing National Environmental Policy Act reports and learning how governmental bureaucracy operates.  He believes that sustainability is achieved when citizens, big business and government are all accountable for their actions and are committed to the goal of sustainable communities.  Cameron is excited to begin his career with Sustainable Seattle, as well as developing a personal blog and becoming a more accomplished guitar player.

Leah Reuben-Werner
K-12 Education Green Labs Program Director
Leah is the co-founder with Gilda Wheeler, OSPI Director of Sustainability K-12 Education for Washington State, of the Sustainability Diversity Consortium. This partnership began as a collaborative action plan to impact the lack of racial diversity in the U.S. sustainability movement, as well as at Islandwood’s Sustainability Summer Institute 2009.  An educator with more than 25 years in the field of art and education, she taught locally at Pratt Fine Arts Center, Gage Academy, Seattle Art Institute, and Antioch University in Belltown for teacher certification cohorts. For the past two decades she exhibited as a painter-sculptor-teacher locally and globally.  Leah has 20 years of working experience with non-profit learning, community-based, and environmental teaching and learning organizations, as well as 10 years abroad. A graduate of both the San Francisco and Florence Italy Art Institutes, which she holds a MFA and a M.Ed from the University of Washington (Seattle) in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, with plans to complete her PhD. She has been the director of numerous tutorial, teaching, and learning centers throughout her career, and is a member of the SAM Community of Thinkers. Leah practices sustainability, as a powerful teaching and education philosophy, inseparable from the social justice impact on global environment, economic endpoints, and vice-versa.

Conor Rice
SPARC Space co-Lead
Check back for bio

Kimberly Rigsby
B-Sustainable Program Director
Kimberly believes the issues of sustainability are applicable to all segments of the population and hopes her work at Sustainable Seattle will help to create happy, healthy communities for all people. She recently completed her Master’s of Public Administration. Her thesis focused on food security, specifically providing affordable access of fresh food to low-income families. Kimberly’s career in the nonprofit sector is diverse having served as a volunteer as well as an Executive Director. Kimberly and her family have a blossoming hydroponic garden which they are expanding to provide fresh produce for themselves and others in the community.

Other Volunteers:
Frazier Bardolph. LEED AP
Sarah Halpert
Kurt Harjo
Gabriel Tevrizian

Sustainable Seattle is a 100% volunteer organization working to create new & green paid jobs!