January 2007


North Helpline Board
North Helpline Management and Staff
President: Rita Anderson
Executive Director: Rita Anderson
Vice President: Rob Brewer
Foodbank Manager: Kay Hardie
Secretary: Dela Van Hoy
Emergency Services: Marianne Nijenhuis
Treasurer: Teresa Gill
Foodbank Inventory: Bob Hathaway
Legal: Jerry Edmonds
Foodbank Warehousing: Jill Beppu
Facilities: Gordon Bawden
Sunday Custodian: Jerry Day
Data Base Administrator / Bookkeeper: Jolene Brewer
Board Members:
Fabio Arevalo , Marianne Nijenhuis, Russ Peterson, Lindy Combs, Don Gillis, Jean Larson. Roger Bouck, and Ed PottHarst.
Emergency Services
Lake City Food Bank
Training: Marianne Nijenhuis
Inventory Manager: Bob Hathaway
Statistics: Marianne Nijenhuis
Baby Cupboard: Susan Stone
Baby Cupboard: Susan Stone
Technology: Rob Brewer
Forms: Pat Kushmerick - Lynn Edmonds
Registration: Jean Larson
Hygiene Packs/Scheduling: Ellie Mohr
Grocery: Rescue Jane Hunter - Mary Ellen Sutherland
Information Cards: Nancy Plunkett
Hospitality: Winky Novak
Emergency Food Program: Jean Larson
Volunteer Manager ; Kay Hardie

Board of Directors - January 2007

Rita Anderson, Ph.D. President
Rita has been on the NHL Board of Directors since 2002. She started as a fundraising volunteer, and was subsequently elected to Vice President and Executive Director, and elected President in 2002. As President, she works with other non-profit organizations, federal, state, county and city representatives to secure funding, assure all appropriate rules and regulations are followed, and that North Helpline provides assistance to the community. Rita has a degree in education and management and was an Organizational Development consultant to public and private businesses.

Rob Brewer, Vice President
Rob was elected to the North Helpline Board in 2002 and to Vice President in 2003. As Vice President, he functions as Chief Operating advisor to the Executive Director and he is an active volunteer spending over 15 hours each week on North Helpline business. Rob retired after over 20 years with KPMG [a national accounting firm] as a management consultant for operations risk management in the financial services sector. Prior to working for KPMG, he held a number of operating management positions with SeaFirst Bank [now part of Bank of America]. He continues to provide operational risk services on a contract basis to business focusing on the implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley legislation and general regulatory risk avoidance.

Dela Van Hoy, Secretary
Dela is an original board member and has volunteered at North Helpline since 1989 and secretary of the Board since 1994. Prior to North Helpline, she worked as a parish administrator, and has volunteered in many different community and church organizations. She was involved with 4-H for over ten years serving in a number of leadership roles in county programs. Her first volunteer job was as a lab technician in the Women's Army Corps in WW II.

Teresa Gill, Treasurer
Teresa lived in Lake Forest Park for 20 years until her husband and her moved to Lynnwood 2 years ago. She is a graduate of Central Washington University and became a Certified Public Accountant in 2003. Teresa has been employed for over 7 years with the CPA firm of Eastham Foster CPA's PS located in South Everett. The firm is a general practioner, which means they perform a variety of services from tax preparation to audits.

Gordon Bawden, Board Member
Gordon joined the Board of Directors in 2004. He is an active volunteer devoting over one day a week to the food bank supervising volunteers, setting up for weekly Distribution, and working on the weekends as needed. Now retired, he was a partner in Humphrey Construction.

Melinda Combs, Ph.d. Board Member
Lindy has lived in the Lake City area since 1974. She and her husband have two children, ages 16 and 23 years. She is a retired clinical psychologist and currently teaches classes in paper-crafting, rubberstamping, card and book making at several area stores. Lindy has volunteered in her children's schools and at local churches for many years.

Jerry Edmonds, Board Member
Jerry is a Northwest native from Poulsbo and is a graduate of UW (BA and MA in Economics, 1971) and the University of California at Berkeley (Law, 1974) and was elected to the Board in 2004. He has been a resident of Seattle since 1974 and (more recently) Kenmore. Jerry is a partner in Northwest law firm of Williams Kastner & Gibbs (Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland) practicing in business law including commercial litigation, insurance and corporate governance. He is Vice President and a Director of Lawfund, a statewide organization that raises money through the Campaign For Equal Justice for legal services for indigent persons.

Jess Gobel, Board Member
Jess was elected to the board in January of 2002, his duties and functions are to provide oversight to strategic and operational planning as well as physically assisting on Saturday's with food distribution. Jess has seventeen years experience working in commercial credit and banking employed with such companies as SAFECO Credit, US Bancorp, First Interstate and presently with Genie Industries as their credit manager. Jess is a 1985 Economics graduate of Washington State University.

Don Gillis, Board Member
Don was raised in Seattle's Wedgwood area, but moved to Oregon in 1978. He is a Horologist by Trade and opened "The Clockworks" in Albany, Oregon when he moved there. Don is married and the father of four children and one grandchild. He and his family returned to Seattle in 1987 where purchased Lake City's Gillis Clock and Watch in 1991 which has been a family owned business for forty-six years. Don's passions are family and the great outdoors

Jean Larson, Board Member
Jean has volunteered for over 10 years at North Helpline and has served on the Board of Directors since 1997. She was appointed Board of Directors Development Chair in 2003. Jean retired after 30 years in health care administration and was a small business owner.

Marianne Nijenhuis, Board Member
Marianne has been a volunteer at NHL since 1992, with a focus on the Emergency Services. Her background in hands-on health care and managerial health care have been useful to her in her position as "lead" for Emergency Services. On Saturdays Marianne helps at the NHL Food Bank as a "floater", filling any open position. Past volunteer experience includes: Case manager for clients of the Deferred Prosecution program at the Municipal Court; Volunteer coordinator for pledge at Public Television Station KCTS; Teaching ELL; Auditing records at DSHS; and Board Member at the West Philadelphia Arts League.

Russell Peterson, Board Member
Russ has spent the last fourteen years in business management, including, owning and successfully operating his own business, and was elected to the NHL Board in 2004. He started his own business while attending college at the University of Washington, graduating in 1992. After eight years of self employment he went to work for a large automotive group as a Sales Manager. He has been a business manager for an environmental compliance organization and is now a Division Manager for a non-profit small business advocacy organization.

Russ and his wife Mary Ellen have done volunteer work in Seattle for approximately 17 years. This has included the Bread of Life Mission, Blessed Sacrament Catholic church, and since 2002 at the North Helpline's Lake City Foodbank.

Fabio Arevalo, Board Member
Fabio has lived in the Seattle area since 1976 when he moved from Virginia after finishing his Bachelor of Science in architecture and he now works for the Boeing Company as a project architect. He has volunteered for the Red Cross for over 15 years and he served as a board member for "Christmas in April," a non profit organization. Fabio has volunteered at North Helpline's Lake City Foodbank since 2003. He lives in Seattle with his wife Esperanza.

Ed Pottharst, Ex-officio Member
Ed has worked for the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods since 1999 and since 2003 he has served as the Neighborhood District Coordinator for the greater Lake City area. He previously worked for Seattle City Light as a project manager and environmental coordinator. He has served on the boards of several nonprofit environmental, youth, and hearing loss groups. He and his wife Elizabeth live in Ballard and have three children, Aviva, 15 and a Garfield High School sophomore, Amy, 3 and 4 month old Danny (in March). Elizabeth works as a peer health educator at the University of Washington student health center.

Roger Bouck, Ex-officio Member
Roger has been active in Rotary, United way, Volunteers of America, and in 1988 helped found North Helpline. He retired in1992 from Boeing, and has been active in the community since then. He and his wife Lovell moved to Mill Creek in 1990 after living in Lake Forest Park for many years. He was the energy behind bringing the RotaCare clinic to North Helpline.