Staff

Laura Plaut – Founder and Director

Tessa Bundy, AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer

Liz Schale, Garden Educator

Deanna Lloyd, Garden Educator

Board

Nicole Willis, President

Alexandra (Sasha) Verkh, Vice President

Melissa Sue Roberts, Secretary/Treasurer

Nancy Burnett

Chris Elder

Carolyn Feffer

Megan McGinty

Host

Bobbi Vollendorff

Staff

Laura Plaut – Founder and Director

Common Threads Farm grew out of Laura's 20+ years as an experiential educator and her conviction that nothing is more fundamental and worthy of our attention than how our daily consumption choices affect the health of our bodies, our communities, and our planet. 

Laura holds a master's degree in Nonprofit Administration from the University of San Francisco and a bachelor's degree in Chinese Language and Culture from Amherst College. Prior to founding Common Threads Farm, she chaired the Education Program at Prescott College, served as an Instructor and Course Director for the North Carolina Outward Bound School, directed the Fort Miley Ropes Course in San Francisco, served as the Education and Service Learning Coordinator for the East Bay Conservation Corps; and led international service-learning programs for teens in China, Thailand, and Costa Rica.

Tessa Bundy, AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer 

Tessa bring a wealth of growing and teaching experience, and is volunteering with us full-time from April 2010 – April 2011 to build capacity both in our school garden programs and our summertime farm camp programs.  Tessa says:

"Food is my greatest passion, from cultivation to table. Although I went to school to study art, culture and pedagogy, I found that food and a strong sense of place continually emerged at the center of my work. So I completed my BA with The Evergreen State College while running my first garden for a sustainable community on the island of Inis Mor, Ireland. Since then I have continued to make my home in other unique environments, from the Pays de la Loire region of France, where I taught English, to Alaska where I interned for a CSA project, and eventually back to my home place of Portland, Oregon. Food touches every aspect of our lives - from local culture and economy to personal health. I believe strongly that if we could begin making change in just one area, food would be the place to start."

Tessa currently also serves as the Garden Educator at Beach Elementary, Assumption Catholic School, Shuksan Middle School, and the Lummi Nation School.

Liz Schale, Garden Educator

Liz Schale has an undergraduate degree from Appalachian State University and a Masters in Education from Western Washington University.  She has worked as an educator for over a decade on both land and aboard tall ships. Programs Liz has worked with include Catalina Island Marine Institute, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, the Wooden Boat Foundation, and the Southern Appalachian Science Center. She has been the regional director for Adventure Treks, a summer wilderness program for teenagers and has sea kayak guided for several years. Liz enjoys traveling, paddling (of all sorts), running, gardening and is the proud parent her first chickens!

Deanna Lloyd, Garden Educator

Deanna grew up on a small homestead in Olympia, WA raising animals, designing the garden with her family and playing in the woods.  These early experiences led to her love of the outdoors and she became an avid rock climber, mountaineer, whitewater rafter and mountain biker while pursuing an undergraduate degree in Outdoor Recreation and Environmental Education. While studying she realized the power of education in fostering awareness and positive engagement and decided top off her studies with a teaching certificate in Earth Science/General Science for Secondary Education.  Working under a grant focusing on sustainability for pre-service teachers, Deanna was inspired to create a program getting pre-service teachers in-the-field education experiences with local elementary classes by teaching about gardening and sustainability.  Her garden education passion led her to the initial meetings of what would become the Whatcom County School Garden Collective.  She currently is the WCSGC garden educator at Roosevelt Elementary School, Fairhaven Middle School and Squalicum High School.

Board

Nicole Willis, President

Nicole is an active member of Whatcom County's health community, and is always looking for new ways to bring together partners and improve the health of her community. Nicole joined the CTF board in 2009 and was elected president in 2010. For the last five years Nicole has served as a Community Health Specialist for the Whatcom County Health Department. In this role, she focuses on preventing chronic disease through community level strategies. Her professional experiences give her a broad perspective on community nutrition and approaches to increasing access to healthy foods for everyone. Nicole has a deep-rooted passion in school gardens and youth empowerment, which is what initially drew her to Common Threads Farm. 

Nicole holds a bachelors degree from the University of Idaho in School and Community Health Education and a Masters Degree in Public Health from the University of Washington. Nicole and her partner Doug are on their 4th year of their backyard vegetable garden; each year they learn something new. Their border collie Finn loves the home-grown broccoli and carrots. All three can be found biking and running the trails of Whatcom County on a weekly basis.

Alexandra (Sasha) Verkh, Vice President

Alexandra (Sasha) Verkh has been involved with Common Threads Farm since the spring of 2009 as a board member, and is currently Vice President of the Board. Sasha is a business and insurance attorney who loves food.  She has been a zealous supporter and proponent to family and friends of farmers markets and gardens for over a decade.  She has always endeavored to feed her family well and to bring them as close as possible to where food “comes from” with regular trips to farms, farmer’s markets, and orchards.  In the last several years, Sasha has voraciously read through a number of social and political food books.  In doing so, she has begun to understand the breadth and complexity of obstacles small and local food producers face as they compete with agri-business for customers and funding. 

 In joining the CTF board, Sasha hopes ultimately to locate other like-minded people, and through them find opportunities to combine her love of food  and her business/legal know-how to support and advocate for healthy and sustainable food production.

Melissa Sue Roberts, Secretary/Treasurer

Melissa grew up in Iowa surrounded by conventionally grown corn and soybeans.  Thankfully her nutritionist mother turned their suburban yard into a huge garden producing vegetables and fruit to feed her family of six.  Melissa came out west to go to school, graduating from Western Washington University with a B.S. and M.S. in Environmental Science, Aquatic Ecology.  She currently works with Whatcom County as a marine resources planner.  Melissa’s favorite CTF memory (so far):  Watching the turkeys chase her friends around and pester them as they set up camp on the previous CTF site on Lummi Island.

Nancy Burnett

Nancy is a biologist by training and a naturalist at heart. She has had lots of experience gardening and teaching kids science including starting the school garden at Beach School on Lummi Island. She is also a photographer and has been involved in producing a PBS science television series about the animal kingdom.

Chris Elder

Bio will be updated soon.

Carolyn Feffer

Carolyn is a certified Permaculture Designer and educator. She received her certification from the Bullock Brothers Permaculture Homestead on Orcas Island.  Carolyn holds a bachelor's degree in Landscape Design and Environmental Education from Western Washington University. Carolyn works at a local nursery and she also develops environmental education curriculum for the Lummi Island Heritage Trust. She has worked at other small-scale organic farms in Whatcom and San Juan Counties.  Carolyn worked as an intern at Common Threads Farm in 2008. She lived at the Lummi Island site for a few months where she cared for the animals and property. She participates in helping plan fundraising events and enlisting volunteers as a Board Member at Large.  Her favorit  CTF Memory (so far): Practicing carpentry skills with Laura while making a chicken tractor. Also planning a fundraising event at Boundary Bay and representing Common Threads at the concert.

Megan McGinty

Megan McGinty is an avid outdoors enthusiast and has taught in mountains, on the ocean, in classrooms and in treetops. With more than 20 years of experience in experiential and environmental education, she currently coordinates North Cascades Institute's climate change education programs. She likes to ride bikes, look at birds and play in her garden for fun.

Host

Bobbi Vollendorff

Educator and open space advocate Bobbi Vollendorff has been assembling “Bobbibrook Farm” on 20^th Street for over 30 years in hopes of anchoring a permanent greenway along 20^th street between Lowell Park on the crest of South Hill, the SPIE campus on Knox Avenue, and extending south to McKenzie Avenue and Padden Creek.  Bobbi’s sheep, ducks and many gardeners have been at work for years controlling invasive species and preparing the site for educational use, enhanced wildlife habitat, gardening and orchard establishment.

Bobbi grew up in Walla Walla in a family involved in the book and vineyard businesses. She was instrumental in Bellingham’s first two Greenway levy campaigns and received national acclaim for one of the state’s first school recycling grants. Bobbi established the board of Max Higbee Center in 1982 and still serves as its president. She served 6 years on the Bellingham Greenway Advisory Committee and 15 years on the ReSources board. All this while raising 5 sons and teaching for over 35 years in Walla Walla, in the Mount Baker and Bellingham School Districts, and at Western Washington University, primarily in the field of special education.