"Now is the time to learn to rely on each other.
I put my trust in you. I put my trust in us."

—Langston Kahn

Executive Director, WEAN

Whidbey Environmental Action Network engages community to protect ecosystems on Whidbey, Camano, and beyond. Photo L. LaMar.

South Whidbey School District Board Member & Legislative Representative

SWSD supports students to become multiculturally engaged, literate, and active community members.

Language of Spaces Facilitator

Language of Spaces equips you with the tools and practices you need to empower yourself in a self-organized environment.

Thank you for passing SWSD's 2023 bond initiative. The physical building improvements that this bond will support are needed to protect our students' health and safety. Thank you for helping to give our students the healthy and inspiring learning environments they deserve.

Thank you, voters!

Three out of five incumbent school board members—Joe Greenheron, Brook Willeford, and I—were reelected in November 2023. Thank you for your support. I am greateful that this board can continue the work we've begun with foci on building a school culture of care and belonging; creating learning environments that support every student's success; and sound financial planning including work to realize the potential of our capital bond.

This bond will provide South Whidbey students with much-needed upgrades to buildings, creating safer, healthier, and more inspiring learning environments at both our elementary and secondary campuses. These significant and necessary facilities upgrades are not funded by federal, state, or local education dollars and this bond is necessary for student wellbeing.

Why I serve on the school board

I love working with our community to nurture inclusive and inspiring schools where our children can learn, grow, and thrive. I am asking for your vote so that we can continue making our students’ learning spaces safer, healthier, and more welcoming. With your vote I’ll work with our board, administrators, and student leaders to continue improving our school facilities, our district culture, and our learning opportunities for every student. I am committed to the social-emotional wellbeing and academic growth of our students, supporting innovative and equitable approaches in curriculum and policy. It has been a privilege to work with student leaders to better meet their educational needs in an evolving world. I am honored to serve this district’s mission to support each student to be a resilient, innovative, compassionate, and productive graduate prepared for a diverse and dynamic world.

Career and education

I am a South Whidbey High School graduate (class of '97). I have a BA in English from Suffolk University ('03, summa cum laude) and am the executive director of Whidbey Environmental Action Network, a 38 year old environmental nonprofit. I have held past roles as a donor fundraiser with Showing Up for Racial Justice and as a communications manager and executive director of the Whidbey Institute. I have also worked as an organic farmer, a community educator, and a freelance journalist.

Family and hobbies

I love animals, plants, nature, music, and art. I spend much of my time hiking with my dog, motorcycling with my partner, listening to live music, gardening, and taking road trips. I have lived on Whidbey off and on since 1991 and in Scatchet Head since 2016. South Whidbey is also home to my dad and mom, my brother and nieces, and my two youngest daughters—a South Whidbey Academy student (class of '25) and a SWHS graduate (class of '23). My oldest daughter, SWA class of '18, is an EMT and firefighter in California.

Let's connect!

Shaila Tenorio, Robin Jones, Marnie Jackson, Christopher Sebastian, Aph Ko, Grace Ford. Photo by Brenda Sanders, 2016.

I was born in the traditional territories of the Ohlone people. I live and work in the traditional territories of the Coast Salish and Snohomish tribes, and of the peoples collectively associated with the Tulalip Tribes—the island Tscha-kole-chy, named Whidbey by colonial settlers.

I acknowledge the violence of colonization and the ongoing harm of systemic racism. I acknowledge this land and the people for whom it is an ancestral home, and I thank them for their generations-long stewardship of this place and its interdependent beings.

I acknowledge the languages, including Chochenyo, Lushootseed, y Español, that have shaped the relationships of people and place in each of the places I've lived and I see the vital role of language in shaping our worldviews. I recognize the limitations of making this acknowledgement in written English.