ABOUT US
Our People
STAFF
Heidi Dexter is our Director of Development and Partner Engagement. She has more than 20 years of nonprofit and for profit management experience in project management, fundraising, strategic planning and community outreach. Her experience includes serving as Executive Director at Bainbridge Schools Foundation, Capital Campaign Manager at IslandWood and Project Manager at the Trust for Public Land. Heidi received her Masters degree in Regional Planning from the University of MA at Amherst and her undergraduate degree in Human Ecology from the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, ME. Heidi currently serves on the board of the Methow Olympic Development Project.
Contact Heidi if you would like to learn about how you can get more involved with Sustainable Path, Heidi at sustainablepath.org
Lee Benner is our Director of Operations. She has worked for a variety of non-profits whose primary work centered on education, the environment and civic engagement. Her experience includes serving as the Development Director for The Next Fifty – Seattle Center Foundation, Technology Access Foundation (TAF) and the Seattle Waldorf School. She started her career working for the Missouri State Energy Office as a project manager and later worked for the Washington State Energy Extension Service. She has a Master in Public Administration from the University of Missouri – Columbia. She enjoys gardening, hiking, hanging out with her family and friends, and remains optimistic, that someday, the Mariners will win the World Series.
You can reach her at lee@sustainablepath.org
BOARD MEMBERS
Carol Barone was born and raised on a farm in rural Montana and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Microbiology from Montana State University. In 1990, she relocated to the Seattle area and joined Immunex, where she held a variety of positions in the Immunology and Inflammation Departments. In 2001, she assumed an operational and project management role, acting as a scientific liaison between the research and varied business functions first at Immunex, and then later at Amgen. Carol can also be found as a regular volunteer at Leg Up for Kids, a therapeutic horseback riding program for children with disabilities.
Peter Baum, after receiving a BA in Biology from Williams College, spent over 35 years performing bioscience research in either academic or biotech settings. His formal training was in microbiology (PhD, UC Berkeley) and genetics (Postdoctoral, Univ. of Washington) but his work at the biotech firms Immunex, Amgen, and Trubion Pharmaceuticals focused in the areas of molecular biology, immunology, vascular biology, and oncology. His biotech career resulted in both numerous patents and several molecules tested as human therapeutics. He is an inventor on over 30 issued or pending US patents covering new therapeutics and technologies. He also led teams whose work culminated in drugs to treat cancers or autoimmune diseases including several currently in clinical testing and one that was approved to treat rheumatologic diseases and psoriasis. Currently Peter is educating himself in several areas of interest including effective health care reform, alternative energies, and nanotechnology.
David Cosman has a B.A. in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Microbiology from Pennsylvania State University. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, M.D., in 1983 he joined Immunex where he held several positions in discovery research including Vice President and Director of Molecular Biology. After the aquisition by Amgen, he continued to work in research, most recently as a Scientific Director, until retiring in November 2005. During his scientific career, David served on the Keystone Symposia Scientific Advisory Board and as a member of the Faculty of 1000. He has published more than 120 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is listed as one of the Institute for Scientific Information’s highly cited scientists in Immunology.
Kate Davies has a doctorate in biochemistry from Oxford University (1981) and an MA in cultural anthropology and social change from the California Institute for Integral Studies (2002). Kate has worked on environmental quality, health and sustainability for all of her career. In the 1980s, she set up and managed the City of Toronto’s Environmental Protection Office – the first local government environmental office in Canada – and in the 1990s she established a successful environmental policy consulting company which provided services to the Canadian federal government and international agencies. In 2002, Kate accepted a faculty position at Antioch University Seattle in the graduate program in Environment & Community. In 2007, she became director of its Center for Creative Change. Kate has also served on the boards or advisory groups of several environmental organizations, including the Collaborative for Health and Environment Washington, the Institute for Children’s Environmental Health, Washington Citizens for Resource Conservation and Washington Toxics Coalition.
June Eisenman is a board co-chair. Her core board responsibilities include communications, engagement, finance and strategic planning. June studied endocrinology and nutrition in the Animal Sciences Department at Washington State University and received a M.S. in 1982. June entered the Biotechnology sector, working at Immunex from 1982 to 2002 as a scientist in the Cellular Biochemistry, Experimental Hematology and Protein Chemistry Departments, and at Amgen from 2002 to 2007 as a Senior Scientist in the Protein Sciences Department.
Richard Gayle after earning B.S. from the California Institute of Technology, getting a Ph.D. from Rice University and doing his postdoctoral work in the lab of Dr. Marvin Caruthers at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Richard joined Immunex in 1986, where he worked in Discovery Research, using his expertise in biochemistry, molecular biology, structural biology and protein expression on a wide variety of projects. Leaving Immunex in 2002, he worked on several projects for the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association, including Invest Northwest. In 2004, he joined Etubics Corporation, a biotech startup focused on developing vaccines for the 21st Century, as Vice President, Research. In 2008, he founded a new venture, SpreadingScience, dedicated to providing new internet technologies for researchers, permitting them to access and distribute the large data sets now being generated.
Aaron Hayden is a healthcare specialist and data scientist with SightLife, a global health organization dedicated to eliminating corneal blindness. He served with the Public Health sector of the U.S. Peace Corps in Morocco, North Africa and previously worked in physical science and large data with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, Colorado. Aaron has an MBA from Seattle University and earned a BA in Astrophysics from the University of Colorado.
Séamus Kelly has over seven years of experience as an architect and a supporter of sustainable, quality design. He has worked on varied projects in university, hospital, and other private settings and rigorously strives to push the boundaries of sustainability and conventional design. Notable projects include high performance research labs for his Alma Mater, Iowa State University; the Biorenewables Research Laboratory and the Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering complex. Séamus is passionate about creating healthy communities as well as promoting personal connections to nature and wilderness.
Sue Kraemer received a BA in Chemistry and Biology from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota and a PhD in Radiation Biology and Molecular Cellular Biology from Colorado State University. Recently, she obtained an MBA with an emphasis on Executive Leadership from Seattle University. She has spent over fifteen years as a research scientist in life science disciplines including bioinformatics, biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology. She was a senior scientist at Seattle Biomed and Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University where her research focused on vaccine development in malaria. Sue is a consultant at Clover Consulting where she is continuing to work in global health by providing leadership development for scientists. She also is a faculty member at University of Washington Bothell and Seattle University where she teaches Management, Bioinformatics, and Statistics. She is passionate about bringing people together to solve complex problems while developing powerful communities.
Nan McKay is a consultant to nonprofit organizations and foundations. She developed and led the Environmental Sustainability Program for The Russell Family Foundation. During her six years with TRFF, Nan managed the award of 350 grants to 157 nonprofit organizations in Washington state. From 1985 to 2002 Nan served three Washington Governors in leading work to clean up and protect Puget Sound. She chaired the Puget Sound Action Team and was deputy director and executive director of the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority. She also worked on energy policy with local governments in the Northwest and spent seven years at the League of Oregon Cities working on land use and growth management, community and economic development, election laws, juvenile justice, jail standards, municipal courts, emergency medical services, and energy policy. She has served on and chaired a variety of public and nonprofit boards, commissions and task forces working on issues including energy conservation, land use, mental health, international relations, libraries, jail standards, ethics, environmental education, sustainability, coastal indicators, and management of estuaries.
Linda Park has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Michigan and spent 18 years in the Discovery Research group at Immunex. Linda focused her scientific career on human immune system research, and was director of the Biochemistry Department for 10 years. During her last 3 years at the company, Linda undertook the role of scientific representative and liaison for planning, design and construction of the new Immunex research and development center at Interbay, now home to Amgen Washington. Linda retired from Immunex in 2002 and is now directing her time and scientific experience to projects in the non-profit and philanthropic arenas. She is passionate about bringing both the value of collaboration and cooperation, and an understanding of the interconnected nature of our world, to these new ventures. Among other activities, Linda serves on the community grant making committee for The Seattle Foundation. Linda was one of the original founders of Sustainable Path.
Jennifer Slack was born and educated in Northern California, earning a BSc in biology from California State University Chico. Having moved to the Puget Sound region over 35 years ago she considers herself a de facto Northwest native. In 1984, after 10 years of working in various labs at the Puget Sound Blood Center, she began working at Immunex where she did basic research in membrane biochemistry and protease inhibition. Always an avid world traveler she’s had more time to pursue this passion since retiring from Amgen in 2007. She has been a member of our Grants Committee for the last two years and helps in writing the monthly e-newsletter. She also serves on the boards of the Puget Sound Mycological Society and the Daniel E. Stuntz Memorial Foundation thus exploring another passion, wild mushrooming.
