About the King County Community Trustees

Nona Ganz is chair of the King County Community Trustees.  She lives in Kirkland, where she has been the instrumental leader in the establishment of the Green Kirkland program.  Nona has been an advocate for parks and open space ever since she moved to Kirkland in 1969.  A UW graduate and an ex-teacher, she served on the King County Open Space Advisory Committee in the early 80’s.  She was a member of the Kirkland Park Board from 1980-1988 and a Kirkland Councilmember from 199l-2001 and again for 9 months in 2005.  In 2002 she co-chaired the very successful Kirkland Park Bond and Levy.   Presently, as an activist, she is working with the City to develop the Green Kirkland program.  She and her husband, Ulrich, spend much time in the out of doors whitewater kayaking, sea kayaking, hiking and backcountry skiing.

Brooke Alford is owner of Brooke Alford Gardens.  She specializes in creating custom residential gardens with a focus on native woodland, drought-tolerant and edible gardens.  She started her business in 2000, the same year she graduated from the University of Washington with a BS in Urban Forestry.  She also uses her education and experience in her own community.  In 2003 she attended the WSU/King County Watershed Stewardship Program to learn how to effectively work in her local Duwamish River community in Tukwila. 

Since college, she has had a special interest in shoreline restoration/enhancement along this river.  For her senior project she organized an invasive plant removal at the Duwamish River Slip 4, bringing together the Georgetown community, the Student Conservation Association and the Boeing Company.  She now owns a home just blocks from the river.  She joined the Friends of the Duwamish Riverbend Hill in 2002 in order to help preserve an important parcel of shoreline and near-shore land.  Since then, she has taken a seat on the Tukwila Parks Commission. 

While she still has a major focus on the river, as a result of her training in watershed stewardship, she has gained a focus on environmental education.  In 2003 she joined Washington Trout for their Environmental Discovery project at Oxbow Farms in Duvall where 4th and 5th graders from around King County learned about the life cycle of salmon, predators and prey, native plants, wildlife and more.  The following year she organized a station for the KC Watershed Stewards at Bellevue Parks’ Natural Resource Week at Mercer Slough.   4th and 5th graders learned about the water cycle and the importance of vegetated hillsides in our watershed.  Currently, she is working on the first day of environmental education for Tukwila’s summer day camp.  Working with Adventure Camp 5th and 6th graders, the day will include curricula focused on salmon an watershed education, including a trip to Codiga Farm, a side channel on the Duwamish River near the Tukwila Community Center.  It is important to Brooke to help to bring environmental education to this underserved community.  It is her hope that in the future our community will better understand the watershed and our impact on it, leading to an enhanced appreciation of our river.

Juniper Nammi's passion is clean water, especially flowing water of rivers and streams.  A Master’s degree in Water Resources Management from the University of Wisconsin – Madison (the other “UW”) and returning to teach in the watersheds of her home state, are just two of the ways she is giving back to the waters she loves.  In her free time, she enjoys backpacking or maybe quilting, and then there is always photography or reading.  Most recently Juniper has been making the most of her very own garden.  If you are a multi-linguist, you might be able to converse with her in Telugu or Romanian.  And don’t forget to ask her about the time she was chased by a bear!  Juniper is the happiest when she sees a child’s face light up in wonder at discovering something new in the world around them.  She’s sure to be happy much of the summer thanks to Earth Keepers.

Jim Greenfield is a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine practicing at the firm’s Seattle office.  His practice emphasizes real estate and development transactions with a special focus on working with public agencies on capital projects and natural resources. Jim is a recognized specialist in real estate transactions involving conservation of natural resource lands and he is well know for crafting cooperative and creative relationships among and between public and private organizations.  Before joining Davis Wright Tremaine in 1997, Jim successfully managed King County, Washington's $300 million regional park and open space acquisition program for over six years.  Jim is active in the non-profit resource land preservation community.  He is a member of and special advisor to Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland and a member of the Advisory Board of the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust.   Jim obtained his J.D. from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley and his B.S., with highest honors, in Political Economy of Natural Resources from the University of California at Berkeley.

Brad Kahn is a Senior Project Manager at Pyramid Communications Brad where he works to develop strategies, tactics and messages for conservation and public health campaigns. His current and past clients include the Trust for Public Land, The Nature Conservancy, Pinchot Institute for Conservation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Sierra Club and the Sonoran Institute.
 
Before joining Pyramid, Brad worked in the public and nonprofit sectors with High Country Citizens' Alliance, Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative, Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, Interrain Pacific, the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition and Deer Hill Expeditions.
 
Brad holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Brown University and a master's degree in social ecology and watershed management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Thomas O'Keefe is a river ecologist who has explored rivers throughout the Cascades and around the world. He has a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin in aquatic ecology. Tom moved from the east coast to Seattle a decade ago to enjoy the incredible aquatic landscape extending from the marine environment of Puget Sound to the alpine lakes of the Cascades.

Tom is actively engaged in regional and national river conservation and restoration efforts currently serving as Pacific Northwest Stewardship Director for American Whitewater. He specializes in hydropower issues and works with several non-profit groups as a steering committee member on the Hydropower Reform Coalition. Tom has been a research scientist at the University of Washington where his worked focused on river and forest connectivity. He has taught courses in aquatic ecology and watershed management at the university level and as part of adult education courses. Currently living in Seattle with his wife Rie Yamazaki and son Aki, Tom is out on the water whenever he gets the chance.

Dave Russell grew up in eastern Canada.  Fascinated by flight, he pursued education through a Ph.D (Caltech), and worked at JPL in Pasadena before joining the UW faculty in 1967.  He worked in flight, energy, and medical engineering, co-founded a research firm, and chaired his department for 15 years before retiring from the University in 2000.  Dave is a former planning-commission chair, council member, and mayor (1992-96) for the City of Kirkland. He served as president of the Puget Sound Regional Council, was on the board of Sound Transit, and was named “Public Official of the Year” by the Municipal League of King County in 1996.  He was president of Futurewise, and has served CLC in various capacities.  Dave enjoys trying to figure out land-use and environmental issues, working on his yard and cabin, hiking, and playing with his grandchildren.