Team
Bianca Perla, PhD
Founder & Science Director
Bianca stumbled upon the power of community science while leading wolf howling surveys in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. She discovered that involving local people in data collection is one of the most authentic ways of creating community around caring for nature. And it’s fun! After graduating with an Earth Systems degree from Stanford University, Bianca worked as a conservation biologist and science educator in many spectacular places including Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Monterey Bay. She returned home to Vashon to raise her family and finish her PhD in Ecology at the University of Washington before starting VNC.
Maria Metler
Education Director
Maria has a passion for place-based education and enjoys connecting people to the nature around them. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Education from Huxley College at Western Washington University. For over twenty years, Maria has taught community members and school students both in the classroom and in field settings. As a lifelong resident of the Salish Sea, she enjoys peddling, paddling, and getting lost off trail as she tracks down her latest nature discovery.
Taylor Umetsu
Research and Programs Associate
Taylor is from O’ahu, Hawai’i where her childhood love for catching sand crabs along the beach sparked a passion for learning and protecting our natural world. Her curiosity and appreciation for flora and fauna deepened when she moved to Washington to study Marine and Conservation Biology at Seattle University. She is excited to work for the VNC and is committed to creating and sustaining connections to the environment and to one another. She seeks to bring a critical framing to scientific practice, centering histories, communities, and relationships to place. In her free time, she enjoys going to brunch, listening to podcasts, and hiking with her dog Mila!
Kelly Keenan
Salmonwatch Coordinator & Wildlife First Responder
Kelly has a degree and professional background in Health Sciences. She is a budding wildlife photographer and avid naturalist. She brings her understanding of humans, science and nature together to act as the Salmonwatch Coordinator and main contact for calls about wildlife on the islands. Kelly has spent considerable time setting wildlife cameras, investigating tracks and signs, and helping with wild animal rescue transports . She is in the midst of publishing her first book on Vashon Butterflies with Rayna Holtz.
Santiago Ramos-Torrescano
Field Education Specialist
Adrian Swain Moonwood
Field Education Specialist
Adrian Swain has a passion for outdoor education. He is an Education Specialist and Field Assistant teaching to all ages at Vashon Nature Center. He is also an instructor for the Vashon Wilderness Program and Journeymen. Adrian has expertise in nature observation skills and tracking and a great attention to detail from these disciplines as well as from his time checking parachute packs for airforce jumpers.
Board of Directors
Jeff Ada
ms is a marine and freshwater biologist currently working for Washington Sea Grant, a department in the UW’s College of the Environment. His naturalist passion lies with discovering, interpreting, and sharing the amazing natural and human history stories that aquatic life can tell us. Jeff also serves on our Science Advisory Council (SAC) and acts as a link between our Board of Directors and the SAC. Learn more about Jeff’s work here: Washington Sea Grant , FB/Twitter @SalishSeaLife.
Ann Edwards. Having spent many formative years in Africa living among local people, animals and plants, Ann has lived her life ever-curious about how humans are nurtured, body and soul, by our living biosphere. As a professional ecologist, Ann has focused on investigating human impacts on life’s inter-connected webs. During her postdoctoral research at NOAA on mitigating the impacts of Pacific fisheries on seabirds, Ann and her husband moved their children to Vashon to raise them in a remarkable and close-knit community, and to grow with the land by clearing invasives to let the natives thrive. Currently, Ann is a consultant helping lead the Cascades to Coast Landscape Collaborative, which brings together agencies, NGOs, land trusts and private landowners across western Washington and Oregon to work towards shared goals for ecosystem resilience on both protected and working lands. She is thrilled to support VNC’s integrated team of scientists and educators who bring both the awe and evidence of nature’s wonders to the people of Vashon and across the Puget Sound.
Kimi Healey, Treasurer grew up on the shores of Quartermaster Harbor where she spent her childhood combing the beach for treasures, listening to sea lions hoist themselves up on rafts in the middle of the night, and riding horses. She has a BA in Business Administration from the University of Washington and spent 15 years in the financial services industry. Kimi and her husband returned to Vashon in 2008 to raise a family where they could enjoy the abundant nature that makes this island so special. She and her family live on a wonderfully wooded property where they measure annual rainfall (mostly because Kimi likes numbers), use their wildlife camera to spy on the animals that frequent their woods (a plethora of rodents, a few family of deer, numerous songbirds, owls, and at one time a pair of nesting Cooper’s hawks) and dream of one day eradicating their property of Himalayan blackberries.
Trish Howard has lived on Vashon since 1981. In her early years, she built timber frame homes with logs harvested from the homeowners land and milled at a local mill. She still owns and operates a small cabinetmaking shop. In 1989, she and eight other Islanders, fearing that the easy commute on the new passenger ferry would put development pressure on Vashon’s natural habitats, founded The Vashon Maury Island Land Trust. A life threatening illness, shocked her into spending most of her time in her children’s classrooms at Chautauqua Elementary School. When the Multi-age teachers asked her to teach science in their classrooms, she began building the Chautauqua Elementary School Garden. The Garden won the King County Green Hero Award. The Vashon School District hired Trish to be a Science Coach at Chautauqua Elementary school to develop and pilot curriculum for grades 1-5. Trish is excited to be involved in the Vashon Nature Center, where she can get back to her true passion of making science available and engaging for all ages.
Paul Kampmeier, Secretary lives with his family on the south end of Vashon Island. Paul thinks just about every living creature in the world is extremely interesting and worthy of awe, attention, and admiration. For better or for worse, he also has the hubris to think the world should agree with him. This fuels his professional life: he’s a public interest environmental attorney who represents activists working to protect wildlife, streams, old forests, clean water, and terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the northwest. And it fuels the rest of his life where, when given the opportunity, he likes to ponder the interdependence and impermanence of all things and the complexity and beauty, however fleeting, that results. Paul believes being and playing outside, and being really curious about what’s outside, nurtures all of this and promotes all good things. More importantly it is just plain fun. Paul joined the board to learn, to help, and to be a part of something that inspires people to smile and do the same.
Roxanne Lyons and her family live on Maury Island where she can be found walking the forests and exploring the beaches with family and friends. As a former science teacher and instructional director for school districts large and small, Roxanne has worked with teachers to expand science education into the natural environment, and to bring scientists into classrooms. In her pre-Vashon life, Roxanne worked as the Executive Director of a nonprofit supporting community organizing and advocacy for underserved communities. Through her consulting business, Roxanne currently works with nonprofits by coaching executives and boards to partner with communities, maximize efficiencies, diversify funding, and work strategically. Roxanne is an enthusiastic believer in intersecting children, science and the natural world – hence her deep appreciation for VNC and it’s awesome staff!
Michael Tracy traded the island of Manhattan and a roof-top garden for Vashon Island and 27 acres of forest in 2011. He retired in 2021 after many years in private client wealth management, and now devotes much of his time to the stewardship of “his” forest: scouting and building a network of trails, and working to maintain the health and beauty of the land and water. From 2012 to 2016 Michael programmed the bi-monthly lectures and presentations for Vashon Maury Audubon. Prior to his move to Vashon Michael made New York City his home for over 25 years, where his interest in the arts led him to serve a term as president of the Classic Stage Company (CSC) Repertory Theater, and where he continues to serve on the Advisory Board of The Wooster Group theater company. Helping to maintain a vibrant arts scene on Vashon, Michael has presented numerous lecture/concerts at Vashon Center for the Arts.
Jen Williams, President. Jen was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest and grew up sailing and exploring the Puget Sound region. Moving to Vashon as a teenager, Jen began to explore this island and its varied ecosystems at an early age. Now raising her own family here and teaching young children with the Vashon Wilderness Program, Jen values deeply the connection between humans and the natural world. Jen loves the Vashon Nature Center because it connects people of all ages to our local ecology by inspiring curiosity and endless wonder about the natural world. Jen holds a Masters Degree in Environment and Community and strives to create global change on a small community scale. She has farmed for more than 20 years on Vashon and is dedicated to learning the complexities and art of plant breeding and seed saving.
Header photo by: Jim Diers