Harriet Capron, Secretary

Harriet Capron has a BA in mathematics, an MSE in software engineering, and a Juris Doctor. She has spent much of her career in the computer field, as a programmer, systems analyst, college instructor, and writer. She has written twelve college textbooks in the computer field. Ms. Capron is currently a practicing attorney in Port Townsend. She served on the Port Townsend planning commission, is a guardian ad litem for the Jefferson County Superior Court, and is a mediator with the Jefferson County District Court.

Lee Corbin, Facilities Committee

Following graduation from Stanford University, Lee spent 8 years in a variety of management positions with Aerojet-General. In 1968 He formed and became President of Space Management Corporation, a Sacramento real estate investment firm. In 1974 Lee incorporated and became President/CEO of The Huntington Group, a diversified commercial and multi-family property management and construction firm. The firm managed a portfolio valued at some $300 million and was sold in 1998 to Colliers International of Canada. Concurrent with these activities he was a General Partner and co-sponsor of 23 private California real estate limited partnerships with a value of $97 million. From 1990 to 1997 Lee was also a partner in Robbins & Corbin, a Sacramento development firm.

Following retirement in 1998 Lee moved to Yachats, Oregon, where, after chairing the Parks & Commons commission for the city, he served 2 terms as Mayor. On moving to Port Townsend in October of 2006 he became actively involved as a volunteer with MAKE WAVES! and Centrum.

David Hero, Vice President

David Hero has been active in business and community development since he moved to Port Townsend in 1973 after graduating from Carleton College. He started his career as an artist, teacher and commercial fisherman. Since 1989, he has co-owned and operated the Silverwater Café, with an annual budget of over $1 M and thirty five employees. In 1995 he partnered to restore and refurbish the historic Elks Building, which now houses his restaurant. He has served on civic committees that restored Port Townsend City Dock and Historic Union Wharf, and that developed the Urban Waterfront Access Plan and the Port of Port Townsend Long Range Strategic Plan. He was a founding member of the Port Townsend Farmers Market and has served as president of the Port Townsend Main Street program. From 2002 through 2006 he chaired the successful capital campaign to restore Port Townsend's historic City Hall, for which he received the honor of Citizen of the Year.

Earll Murman, Finance Committee

Karen Nelson, President

Karen Nelson graduated summa cum laude from the University of California, Irvine and received a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She practiced law in California before choosing to move to family friendly Jefferson County to continue raising her children in a rural environment similar to where she grew up. Three of her children attended Port Townsend schools and her four grandchildren were born in Jefferson County. During the past eighteen years she has volunteered for various local activities, including mentoring students at Mountain View Elementary School, raising funds for the Port Townsend High School Music Boosters, and, in 2001, leading a successful petition drive requesting that the State of Washington award hospice certification to (formerly) Jefferson General Hospital. From 2004 to 2008 she served on the board of directors as the community representative of the Public Education and Government Access Coordinating Committee that administers PTTV, which she chaired during 2007 and 2008. During that time Karen produced over one hundred television programs showcasing local organizations and individuals and featuring the invaluable contributions they provide our community. She is the founder and chair of Northwest Open Media, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to producing and distributing locally grown documentary media that tells the stories of and interconnects the people of the Olympic Peninsula. Karen is active in the Our Kids: Our Business campaign network for Jefferson County. She shares the conviction that it takes a community to raise a child and a community wide effort to build an aquatic recreation center that will serve Jefferson County families for many years to come.

Forest Shomer, Facilities Committee

Forest Shomer, a 30-year Port Townsend resident, is the owner of Inside Passage Seeds, the premier source for native seeds of the Pacific Northwest. Founder and Director of the nonprofit Abundant Life Seed Foundation until 1992, he has grown and collected seed from over 400 kinds of plants and traded seeds internationally for the past three decades.

Forest served for four years on the Port Townsend Parks Commission (1981-85) and was its Chairman during the period when the Kah Tai Lagoon Park received WA State grant funding and was constructed. His other civic activities include: Jefferson Land Trust board member (1989); co-founder, Port Townsend Festival of the Trees (1990/91); Founding Chairman, Friends of Fort Worden State Park (1993-95); Founding President, Jeff. Co. Noxious Weed Control Board (1998-2002); Kah Tai Alliance board member (2000-03); Port Townsend Tree Committee, citizen advisory board (Chairman, 2004); Keystone Ferry Citizen Advisory Group (2004); regional Ferry Community Partnership, co-founder (2007); Jefferson Transit Long-range Planning Committee (2008); and an original member of Yesango Marimba Ensemble. He was a nominee for Port Townsend Citizen of the Year in 2006.

He gladly lives in the same community as his grandchildren, who are student swimmers at Mountain View pool, and who attend Swan School, as did his daughter--the first two-generation family in the school, which Forest helped establish in 1983.

Nancy Speser, Facilities Committee

While raising two young children in the Washington D.C. area, Nancy started her career in Aquatics while volunteering at the Bethesda YMCA teaching toddlers how to swim. She moved to Port Townsend in 1989. She currently manages and operates the only public swimming pool in Jefferson County and is employed by the City of Port Townsend.

Speser graduated from SUNY Oneonta with a BA in Political Science and Masters in International Relations from University of Buffalo and University of Maryland.

Samuel W. Shoen, Finance Committee

Having begun his career as a physician, Dr. Shoen has spent the past 35 years in management positions in business and government. From 1973 to 1988 he held executive positions with the U-Haul System of companies, including President of U-Haul International. He co-founded a market research company in 1988 and was its President until 1991. From 1991-1993 he served as Special Assistant to the Administrator of the United States Agency For International Development. Since 1994 he has been President of a financial management company. Dr. Shoen has an undergraduate degree from The College of The Holy Cross, an MD degree from the University of Arizona, served a residency at Cornell's NY Hospital, and was awarded an MBA from The Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar. He has served on Boards of both public and private companies and presently is a Trustee for Marylhurst University. Port Townsend residents since 1993, Sam and his wife Berry raised their two children in Port Townsend, and consider themselves fortunate to live there.