Administrative Assistant

Member of FMR staff since: February 2008

Duties: Keeping the daily office operations flowing smoothly and with as few glitches as possible: ordering office supplies, handling the mail, maintaining the office equipment and managing the physical space, helping to administer Board of Directors matters and supporting special projects with various staff as they come up.

Education: Hiking in mountains and canyons, paddling rivers, swimming in as many rivers, lakes, oceans as possible and being outside as much as possible in as many parts of the world as possible; listening and speaking with as many diverse people from as many parts of my town and the world as possible; reading.

Then there’s the usual: dropping out three times until I created my final paper degree from Metro State Saint Paul in Women’s Studies and Nonprofit Management. I also attended Prescott Center College in Arizona, then Santa Fe Community College and the University of New Mexico in pursuit of a Geology degree.

Professional experience: Carpenter since 1979 in Arizona and New Mexico and then here in Minnesota for a few years: all residential from the ground up, with my favorite being finish carpentry.

VISTA Volunteer for New Mexico Solar Energy Association.

Grant writing and dabbling in local news reporting and magazine articles.

The Green Institute, as a supervisor for a 1917 duplex remodel using reclaimed building materials and construction trainees; manager of the ReUse Center Warehouse and Jill of all Trades for the ReUse Center.

FMR accomplishment most proud of: The oak savanna and prairie restoration in the river gorge.

Hobbies: Exploring new wild places, local and far away; hiking to the tops of mountains; gardening; hanging out with my nieces and nephews and grand nieces — being an “auntie.” Scrapbooking photos and archiving my family history and ancestry; making stuff with wood; hanging out in the garage; knitting; speaking and learning Spanish; poetry readings with friends; jumping in holes in the ice after saunas.

Favorite book: Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

Favorite band: The Light of the Moon — a gaggle of acoustic musicians that play every instrument with passion and love.

Favorite location on the river: The sand bar at the base of 36th Street and River Road in Minneapolis.

Last big vacation: Prague, Dubrovnik and Korcula, Croatia.

Environmental hero: Dr. Helen Caldicott, a co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility. She travels the world educating people about the health and moral dangers of nuclear energy. And she’s been doing it for 30+ years.