Bios

President: Maradel Gale
Maradel has had extensive experience with non-profit organizations. A retired University of Oregon professor, Maradel brings to her work 27 years of teaching and mentoring students in fields ranging from community and regional planning to law to cross-cultural communication. Maradel was a founder and the first President of the Oregon Environmental Council, and formed and directed the UO Micronesia and South Pacific Program, which placed graduate students in island communities to engage in skills transfer in conjunction with a project important to the requesting agency or organization. Upon retirement, Maradel moved to Bainbridge Island, where she has been active in the Winslow Tomorrow process and has been appointed to the City of Bainbridge Island Planning Commission. She is also active with the Bainbridge Island Historical Society and Museum.

Vice-President: Sallie Maron
Sallie is a community volunteer with a college degree in biology and a special interest in land conservation and environmental issues. As the President of the Bainbridge Island Land Trust, she led the effort to acquire 50 acres of land on Eagle Harbor (Pritchard Park) and 64 acres near Gazzam Lake. She also worked on the committee to purchase 38 acres at Blakely Harbor. A former small business owner, she has been involved in many community activities including public landscaping projects, various fundraising campaigns, and innumerable meetings at local bakeries.

Secretary: Matt Keller
Matt Keller is an Information Technology Professional with over 20 years of IT Management experience.  He currently is a Technical Account Manager for VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the data center. Customers of all sizes rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. Matt will be helping customers in the Pacific Northwest leverage technology in innovative and sustainable ways. Matt and his family have lived on Bainbridge for over 12 years, moving here from Anchorage, Alaska.  He recently graduated with his MBA in Sustainable Business from the Bainbridge Graduate Institute.  Matt is also active in the Bainbridge Roller Hockey League.

Treasurer: Els Heyne
Els is an entrepreneur and a free-lance small business financial consultant and bookkeeper. She is one of the founders of the bicycle shop "Classic Cycle" on Bainbridge Island. Els was raised in the Netherlands but moved to Bainbridge in 1984 and has never regretted that move. She recently graduated with an MBA in sustainability from the Bainbridge Graduate Institute. She currently also serves on the board of the Community Housing Coalition and is the treasurer for One Call for All, which last year raised more than $800,000 for nonprofits in the Bainbridge and Kitsap community.

Van Calvez
Van Calvez currently serves as Product Development Coordinator for Environmental Home Center. He is responsible for researching and developing new healthy and sustainable products and bringing those products to market. Van's background is in human factors engineering, usability and ergonomics. Van is a long-time activist and has lived on Bainbridge Island for more than 10 years. Van's service work has included focuses on household ecology, zero-waste, green energy, green building, water conservation, energy conservation and toxics prevention. Van co-founded and co-organized The Conscientious Projector Film Festival with Neva Welton. Van was also a leader in the organization Kitsap Citizen Action Network. Van's claim to fame is his "garbage collection" that is the result of an experiment in zero-waste that has lasted for nearly 20 years.

Chuck Estin
Chuck has lived on Bainbridge Island for 23 years, on a quarter-acre at the South end.  He and his wife and daughters (now grown) incorporated considerable food from his little homestead’s 30 fruit trees, chickens, vegetable beds and community pea patch. His first profession was biomedical research, which he left after 10 years, to teach high school science. He developed a science curriculum using outdoor education, building solar greenhouses and organic gardening, and his own holistic "Systems" curriculum. After 12 years as a high school teacher, he became an educational reform consultant for 5 years. Afterwards he encountered Permaculture as a multi-disciplinary approach to integrating his diverse areas of expertise, including alternative economics and local currencies. He currently designs Permaculture edible landscapes, utilizing his own permaculture nursery (perennial edibles and native plants) and has a demonstration permaculture education Farm on Bainbridge. He sees Permaculture as offering efficient and harmonious ways for humans to live in perma-tribal cultures as members of Nature's system. Chuck takes local food production as a great challenge in a world with increasing energy costs, and is committed to finding ways to make that happen here on Bainbridge.

Kat Gjovik
Kat has lived on Bainbridge Island for 27 years.   After more than 25 years in the business world, working in multiple disciplines, Kat transitioned to the study and practice of whole systems design, organizational development and community building.  For the past 10 years, she has focused her energies on community organizing and political activism.  Kat worked at the 23rd District Democratic Bainbridge Headquarters for the 2004 election, and worked collaboratively on the Bainbridge Island Bill of Rights Defense Committee, the City’s Adopt-A-Road Program, multiple events for peace, regional Earth Charter Community Summits, and Bainbridge Island Earth Day events.  She hosts the regular Bainbridge Island Conversation Café, and recently, served as staff for the Community Housing Coalition, which developed recommendations for solutions to the local affordable housing crisis.  She currently works with David Korten, author of the Great Turning:  From Empire to Earth Community, on outreach and communication for the national Great Turning Initiative.  Her passions include collaborative grassroots organizing for action, designing group experiences and bringing people together in meaningful conversation.

Lisa Macchio
Lisa has a bachelors degree in wildlife biology and a Masters Degree in Marine Resource Management from the School of Marine Affairs at University of Washington.  Using her education has served her well in her position at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the past 18 years where she works tirelessly on water issues.  She is also a divemaster and has been scuba diving for the EPA dive team for the last 14 years.  She has seen much of Puget Sound, including Bainbridge Island, from underwater; which fits with her passion for all things water related.  Her after work energy had been devoted to raising her daughter on Bainbridge Island, who has since amazed her mother by electing to attend the UW, of all places (where she is now a junior).  Lisa’s reserve energy is and has been devoted to Island community service. She was appointed by the mayor to serve as an Open Space Commissioner and has served on the Commission for the past 7 years, a Commission that has used public funds to acquire well over 250 acres on the Island as public open space.  Lisa also served on the City’s 2025 Growth Advisory Committee and on the Washington State Ferries Citizen Advisory Committee as a bicycling advocate/representative.  Lastly, Lisa launched the Coalition to Save Blakely Harbor, which was a grass roots effort which successfully activated the entire Island community to speak out and let the city know that the community wants continued protection of Blakely Harbor, one of the many “gems” of the Island.

Donna Mohr
Donna Larkin Mohr was born, raised, and educated in Southern California. When the opportunity presented itself, in 1972, to move further north, she was truly delighted and has always felt she belonged in the ever-green Pacific Northwest. As a child of a middle-class family, she did not want for much; but, when the holidays came around, she new it was not prudent to dream big because her parents provided gifts for several family members, including her two brothers. So, the beautiful green Schwinn bicycle she so longed for was, quite simply, not a possibility. However, thanks to a wonderfully generous grandmother, she got the green machine, which forever altered her life. She saw in that bicycle the ability to "fly" almost anywhere she wanted to go, with nothing but the expenditure of a little of her own energy. As the years passed, the green machine became her mental symbol for her love of the environment, mother-earth-Gaia-and all the magical flora and fauna surrounding her. -- A major segment of Donna's life was spent in the corporate world where her last position was as a Systems Development Director. She is a relative newcomer to Bainbridge, moving here from Montana in 1995. Donna is currently serving as President of the Interfaith Council of Bainbridge Island & North Kitsap.

Molly McCabe
Molly Erin McCabe, AKBD is a professional designer specializing in sustainable kitchens and baths.  She is the co-designer and co-builder of a three star Built Green home on Bainbridge Island and has worked with a variety of local not-for profit groups. Molly has lived on Bainbridge Island since 1991 with her husband Clive Pardy and has two children, Kendra age 12 and Logan age 10.

Barry Peters
Barry is a co-founder of Sustainable Bainbridge who has performed volunteer and leadership roles for several environmental, political and community service organizations, and in the faith community. During his professional career as an employee benefits attorney and human resources consultant, Barry advised businesses on what it takes to be a responsible and effective employer, and on the best practices for responsible governance of employee retirement savings, pensions and health benefit plans. His career also includes four years as a director of a community action and anti-poverty agency, and several years as administrator of a University program in England providing educational forums to government leaders from Africa, Asia and Latin America. Having just retired from full-time consulting in January, he's now devoting full time to giving back to the community. He is a founder and chair of an environmental stewardship committee at his church. Barry was elected to the Bainbridge Island City Council in 2008.

Neva Welton
Neva has a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology, is co-author of "Global Uprising, Confronting the Tyrannies of the 21st Century: Stories from a New Generation of Activists"; (2001, New Society Publishers) and "Speaking and Listening from the Heart: A Facilitators Handbook"; (2005, dsistas Press), and recently resigned from her last position as Director of Communications for The People Centered Development Forum's Great Turning Initiative. An island resident for 27 years, Neva has devoted much of her time to community work in various capacities. She was a member of the 2025 Growth Advisory Committee; co-coordinator of 2005 Bainbridge Island Earth Day events; lead precinct organizer for the 23rd Legislative District Democrats in 2004; executive producer, 2001-2004, of the Conscientious Projector: Films of Hope for the People and the Planet; co-founder of the Bainbridge Island Bill of Rights Defense Committee, which helped pass a local resolution to protect the civil rights and liberties of island residents; PTO president; and Helpline volunteer. Neva also worked for the City of Bainbridge Island creating and implementing their 1999/2000 Emergency Preparedness Campaign.