Meet the SFS 2021 Board Candidates
The nominating committee of the Slow Food Seattle Board of Directors has selected four candidates for board positions. Nominees are usually confirmed by members attending the Annual Meeting, but due to the pandemic, this year’s meeting has been postponed and we are calling on members to cast their votes of approval by December 10th in the form below.
The applicants submitted online questionnaires which were evaluated by the committee, and the potential candidates were interviewed via Zoom. Part of the criteria for selecting the candidates include those who would bring balance, enhancement and experience to help the Board reach its goals.
This summer, an early board resignation left an open seat, and in accordance with chapter bylaws, the Board appointed Tiffany Cooper to fill the unexpired term. She has been serving as Board Secretary and is now added to the ballot for membership approval.
The Board has also nominated Nicole Hagestad, Audreanne Matheson and Shane Clyburn to fill the seats of departing board members who have fulfilled their terms.
Tiffany Cooper
Tiffany is a Snoqualmie Valley farmer with Carnation Farms with over a decade of experience with Slow Food and managing organic farming operations in Colorado and southern California. One of her greatest connections with the land was when she harvested potatoes in first grade, this was one of the first times her hands touched the dirt and she was hooked. Although she is a recent transplant, she is soaking up the PNW culture for all things farming and food.
Tiffany is an avid mushroom forager and canner and she puts up over 100 jars of preserves, pickles, and tomatoes each season. Tiffany's interest in Slow Food is to bring people closer to where their food is grown and to help people have access to good, clean and fair food.
NICOLE HAGESTAD
Nicole started her first community garden plot at the age of ten. She brings decades of knowledge and experience of community gardening and the food system to Slow Food. Over the years, she has helped neighbors and community members of all abilities begin their own organic cultivation journeys. In her spare time, Nicole distributes surplus produce to the local community in and around South King County-Pacific and Algona. Healthier food for lower-income families is one of the initiatives she would like to drive as a SFS board member. (There is a generational gap in many communities that separates younger people from their crockpots.)
A homemaker and grandmother, she wishes to use her volunteer time to help facilitate the efforts of Slow Food Seattle to promote "abundance awareness" in the Puget Sound to solve issues around food and justice.
AUDREANNE MATHESON
After college, Audrey began her career in the nonprofit sector where she was introduced to nonprofit work in sustainable agriculture, biodiversity and food justice which has fueled her continued education and volunteer opportunities ever since. She was the Garden Chair and organizer of the annual Edible Garden Tour for Slow Food Santa Cruz and volunteered for the Ecological Farming Association and EcoFarm Conference.
She completed both a comprehensive organic gardening course at UC Santa Cruz and a business intensive at the Food Craft Institute. Inspired by the idea of creating community around food and her grandmother’s pie recipes, Audrey started a fledging cottage food business baking specialty pies. Her dream of expanding into a nonprofit with educational baking and cooking workshops for youth is becoming a reality as she, her brother and their spouses have recently purchased Bow Hill Blueberries, an organic blueberry farm and business in Skagit Valley.
Audrey is excited to contribute through both her work on Slow Food Seattle’s board and the family business to good, clean and fair food for all.
SHANE CLYBURN
Shane manages the West Seattle and Columbia City Farmers Markets for Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets, helping provide sales opportunities for local farmers and food artisans in the city. He returned to Washington from New England in 2019, where he served as Chair of Slow Food Boston, managed markets for Massachusetts Farmers Markets, and opened a local food specialty shop inspired by Slow Food values.
Shane has been an ardent supporter of decentralized, local food production since his time as a student at the University of Washington. While there, he was a founding member of the UW Student Food Cooperative, volunteered on the UW Farm, and organized for the creation of the Campus Sustainability Fund. He also helped secure investment for the co-op from the very first round of CSF funding. Shane's roots stretch back to a childhood spent working on his family's farm and exploring the forests and beaches of Whidbey Island. He plans to one day revitalize those old livestock pastures into a diversified, regenerative market farm and gathering space.