As of January 1, 2023 we have converted to a co-director model for leadership of Vashon Nature Center. We are excited about this change and all that it symbolizes and brings! Read below for a letter from your new co-directors: Bianca Perla and Maria Metler!
Dear Vashon Nature Center community,
This year, Vashon Nature Center crossed the threshold of our 10th anniversary with a sweet celebration. Thank you to all who turned out to celebrate! Together as staff, board, and community we are emerging into the light of this 11th year strong, focused, and filled with joy for what we do.
At this pivotal moment in our development, we are delighted to announce we are re-organizing the Nature Center to reflect our values and mimic the strength and wisdom of ecological systems.
Bianca and Maria will now share the directorship of the Nature Center! Maria will step fully into her role as Education Director. Sharing the tasks of the directorship will allow Bianca more time to do what she loves best as Science Director.
Maria reflects, “We’ve had ten years of highlighting the importance of biodiversity, community science, and education. Ten years of expanding our collective understanding of the definition of community to include species of all kinds – from tiny snails to grasses and fungi. And for me personally, ten years of pride in being part of the work, the visioning, the celebration, the success, and now the direction of this organization. I am thrilled to step up as a co-director of Vashon Nature Center alongside Bianca!”
Bianca says, “I am delighted to walk hand in hand with Maria towards the next ten years of this amazing work. The strength that we get from each other is key to our success and I love that our new roles will reflect what we already do so well, working together in a partnership that supports and nurtures this organization, its people, and its important vision.”
As co-directors, we are trading the hierarchical structure so common in Western society with a resilience, redundancy and consensus based flow echoing natural systems. Thank you to the amazing women leaders at Sea Potential and Okanogan Highlands Alliance for sharing their experience with this lesser-known approach of co-directorship to help us better understand the strengths of this approach and how to navigate it.
Thriving natural and human systems are based on mutual partnerships and shared roles; are strong, and adaptable, and incredibly beautiful. After 10 fulfilling years, we feel that co-directorship will be a sustainable, enjoyable, creative, and effective way of meeting the growing momentum of our work.
Core to our work and stated strongly in our mission is the goal of transformation- a movement through a threshold to another way of being. VNC strives to epitomize a different way of being than the status quo.
- We push the envelope for our community, in a positive way, so more people are exposed to enriching ways of relating to wildlife, plants, and each other.
- We challenge the academic establishment to see new ways of doing research that respect and integrate local communities.
- We help our schools embrace fresh ways of educating our youth using heart-based connections and authentic experiences for transformative learning.
The types of transformations we foster at VNC create examples that will help humanity cross a threshold to a more empowering, connective, and life-sustaining society.
We appreciate all of you who support and foster this transformative work. Here’s to a new year and a new way of being!
Bianca and Maria
