Jennifer Swanson, Board President
Jennifer has called Shaw Island her home since 2003. She and her husband have had many adventures in island life, including raising a family and experiencing farm life. Through the years, Jennifer has been involved with the local library and historical society as well as being a school board member and superintendent at the little red school house. She is excited to be part of this next chapter in Shaw Island history, a community owned store and landing!
Julia Weese-Young
In a turn of unexpected symmetry, Julia, who was born in the San Juan Mountains, now finds herself raising a family in the San Juan Islands. On her way from mountains to islands, she has lived in four distinct bioregions, worked in environmental education and food systems design, run two farmers markets, and attended graduate programs in Landscape Architecture and Sustainable Design. These days, she runs a small landscape design practice but busts out of the studio at regular intervals to work in the garden, sketch in the orchard, and beachcomb with her children. She is delighted to be part of this process of visioning for a community-centered space at the threshold of this beautiful island.
Anne Wysocki
In 2006, Anne started visiting Shaw (where her spouse’s brother’s spouse’s family has owned property for around forty years), and she moved into her sweet island house in 2016. She volunteers with the Shaw School and the Shaw School Foundation, and she is one of the three librarians at the Shaw Library. Prior to her Shaw life, she taught rhetoric, writing, and design with a digital focus, at universities and programs in California, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Learner Limbach, General Manager, Orcas Food Co-op
Learner has lived in the islands for 20 years and graduated from Orcas Island High School. He is passionate about community and about protecting the way of life that we all love and that draws us to this place. A 4th generation “Cooperator,” Learner gathered a team together in 2013 to create the Orcas Food Co-op, which has become a central hub and an anchor business for the Orcas community. Learner believes a vibrant local food system can be a catalyst for community resiliency and a sustainable local economy. Learner has served on the Agricultural Resources Committee of San Juan County since 2013 (Chair from 2014-2019) and continues to be deeply involved in efforts to strengthen the local food system in the islands.
We invite you to join the team. Please.
Email us if you want to help make community ownership
of the Shaw Store property real!