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Bill Blanchard: Bill moved to Finn Hill from Seattle in 1989 and joined the FHNA Board in the 2013.  He and his wife Joanie raised their three children on the hill, where they attended the local schools. He spent 25 years in the advertising industry, creating marketing messages for consumer brands and corporations. In 2007 he joined Windermere in Kirkland as a real estate agent. In 2023 he joined the Engels Volker Real Estate group.  Bill served on the Kirkland Strategic Housing Committee; he is Co-Chair of the Kirkland Association of Neighborhoods (KAN), which meets monthly with city staff and Council leadership to help shape the future of Kirkland.
For 10 years, Bill has represented the neighborhood on the Big Finn Hill Parks Committee. As a FHNA board member, Bill is active on the Green Loop project; he helped secure millions of dollars for land acquisition resulting in over 10 acres of land being set aside for open space and future park land. Bill continues to find and mentor future leaders for Kirkland and Finn Hill as well as continuing to locate and acquire land for future generations.

Fred Schaffalitzky: Fred moved to Washington from Switzerland in 2010 and to Holmes Point on Finn Hill in 2013,
where he now lives on a steep slope with his four cats.  After leaving academia in 2005, Fred worked as an
engineer at four large, west coast information-technology companies on projects related to imaging and robotics. 
His only consistent leisure interests are yard work and hiking, and his focus on the FHNA board is conserving and
restoring the urban forests in Finn Hill. Fred has been actively engaged in FHNA’s park stewardship projects and in
identifying and researching potential parcels and easements for the Finn Hill Green Loop.

James Kumin: James has lived on Finn Hill since fall of 2012 when he arrived to serve as pastor of Inglewood
Presbyterian. He grew up in Portland, but then lived in LA County, central New Jersey, and SE Michigan before
making it back to the PNW.
After college he first worked as a city planner while also launching a non-profit learning center in his Latino immigrant neighborhood; he then became a pastor in a desire to integrate his love for neighborhoods and skills in networking resources across lines that typically divide us from each other.  
He enjoys walks with his wife, playing with his two kids (ages 14 and 11), laughing at his dog, and ingesting a wide variety of
good food.  He sometimes thinks about kayaking again. His urban planning background and deep connections with
Finn Hill community are assets on both policy matters and outreach efforts.

 
Kali Oswald: Kali is a mid-west transplant who has lived on Finn Hill since 2010, and prior to that lived in both
downtown Kirkland and downtown Bellevue. She came to the hill to enjoy the natural environment and gain
garden space as she is an avid gardener and canner. She lives with her husband, two elementary aged kids, a dog,
2 cats, and chickens.
Kali has an undergraduate degree in Environmental Policy and Management and a masters certification in Urban Forestry. She previously worked for the City of Bellevue Parks Department in both the Forest Management division and Street Trees and Arterials Landscapes division. She spends her free time with her kids in the backyard gardening, and usually ends up with a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes each year.
She enjoys volunteering for elementary and Green Kirkland Partnership restoring natural areas on Finn Hill. She feels
a strong sense of duty towards protecting green space and creating an ecologically rich environment in which her
friends and family live and is devoted to serving her community with her expertise and experience.

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Scott Morris: Scott moved to the Homes Point area of Finn Hill in 1997 and became involved in the community’s
campaign to save the Juanita Woodlands from development in 2000. Shortly thereafter, he joined the board of
FHNA’s predecessor organization, the Denny Creek Neighborhood Alliance, and has served as the President of both
DCNA and FHNA for the last 12 years. Scott is the general counsel for a Bellevue-based firm that owns and
operates cellular telephone companies located outside the United States.

Susan Carlson: Susan and her husband Eric moved to the Seattle area in 2013 after thirty years in Washington, DC,
where Susan worked for several national environmental nonprofits and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. She and
her husband chose to put down roots in Finn Hill because of its beauty, intact natural areas, and trails.  Since
moving to the Northwest, Susan has been active in several conservation and environmental education initiatives
which include playing a central role in the creation of the new Environmental Education and Research Center
(EERC) at St. Edward State Park, a partnership between Washington State Parks and the University of Washington
Bothell; serving on the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust’s National Heritage Area’s Planning Committee; and
leveraging state’s first major appropriation for Climate Science Education.  She also serves on the boards of the
Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust and is looking forward to supporting FHNA in realizing the vision of the Green
Loop Campaign. 

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FHNA Project Manager

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Emily Mrowicki: Emily moved from Florida in 2007, where she fell in love with the Pacific Northwest
ecology and history. She then pursued a degree in Environmental Science, focusing on Restoration Ecology from
the University of Washington. She worked with a few local non-profits focusing on PNW flora and fauna, helping
them with various research projects such as local amphibian populations, plant mapping, and surface water
mapping. Now a mother to a 4 year old, she has spent most of her time hiking local areas with her son, and
encouraging a similar passion in him to learn PNW plant and fungi identification, stewardship, and respect for the
history of this land.