Since 1982, Ross Chapin, AIA, has lead a 6-person design-oriented firm based on Whidbey Island north of Seattle.  His firm is focused on modest custom residences, “pocket neighborhood” developments and mixed-use projects, in the Northwest Region as well as nationally.

Ross has partnered with developers for over twelve years to create innovative housing and neighborhood prototypes, which are now shifting the way American mainstream thinks about their houses and communities.

His projects have won numerous design awards, including the 2005 and 2007 AIA Housing Awards, and have been published in the Architectural Record, American Planning Association’s Planning magazine, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fine Homebuilding, Metropolitan Home, This Old House, Sunset magazine, and more than 25 books, including Solving Sprawl (NRDC), Sarah Susanka’s Not So Big House series, Home by Design, Patterns of Home, The Good Green Home, The New Cottage Home, Blueprint Small, among others.  Ross often lectures at universities and conferences, including the recent keynote address on “Holistic Approaches to Planning, Design and Building” at a housing conference at Dartmouth University. 

Jacob grew up on San Juan Island, WA and has been involved in community-based development since high school. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Urban Environmental Policy from Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA.  

Jacob also received a Richter Fellowship in 2004 to travel to Ladakh, India where he investigated a relationship between environmental ethics and Tibetan Buddhism.  Jacob spent a semester in Ecuador interning in a community food security project that works in indigenous communities to teach organic agriculture and nutrition to school-aged children and their families.

Jacob recently led a group of high school and college students on a trip to South and Southeast Asia where they engaged in community-based projects – like installing micro-hydro electric systems in rural Thai villages.  Jacob is also a founding member of the San Juan Bio-fuels Association, a group that recycles waste vegetable oil for the community and processes it into biodiesel.   

Rene Neff is a retired teacher living in Langley, WA. and currently working as a literacy coach for the So. Whidbey School District. Rene taught for 15 years in Seattle, WA. before moving to Whidbey Island. During her 18 year tenure as a teacher in Langley she co-founded a non-profit organization called the Maxwelton Salmon Adventure (MSA). Her students were instrumental in getting Conservation Futures Funds from Island County to purchase a 6.3 acre site along Maxwelton Creek as a permanent site to study salmon. Rene’s students also asked the local Rotary Club to build an Outdoor Classroom on the site which now serves the So. Whidbey School District and beyond as an environmental learning center. Rene served on MSA’s Board of Directors as President for several years during which time MSA received a Congressional award for their work.

Currently Rene Neff is a city council member for the City of Langley.  She is interested in helping Langley diversify its economic core by bringing transformational learning businesses to Langley.

She has a BA from Western Washington State University in Multi-Ethnic Studies and Education, and an MA from Antioch University Seattle in Management-Change Leadership.

 

Dan received a BA in Environmental Design with emphasis in Architecture from UC Berkeley. He was editor of Concrete, the journal of the College of Environmental Design. During school, Dan ran a design-build company: JADE Design Build.  

After school, Dan spent ten years as Senior Project Manager for BBI Construction in Oakland, CA.  His work included a wide range of projects, including managing the design and construction of 53 “tot-lots” in Oakland, seismic repairs and upgrades of numerous buildings, laboratory space for private biotech firms and for UC Berkeley, improvements at Oakland and San Francisco airports, among others.

Upon moving to Whidbey 8 years ago, Dan has been running JADE Craftsman Builders; building custom homes with a strong emphasis on green building. Dan has a strong interest in building community, and has worked in various capacities with intentional communities, retreat centers and co-housing groups.

For the last 15 years Jerry has been involved in coordinating change in organizations with a special interest in not-for-profit organizations. Education and science have been at the core of his work. He has been the Executive Director of the Foundation for Accelerated Vascular Research (FAVR) since 2004. Prior to this work he served as Director of The Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Texas, headmaster of various independent schools and also began a software support and development firm in the 1980's.

Jerry has a personal interest in organizational dynamics (including board governance roles), strategic planning and science/education. He has helped refocus FAVR.

He has a BS from Denison University, he did graduate work in Biochemistry and Microbiology Ohio State University, and he has an MAT from Antioch Putney School of Education.

 

 

 

WE Convergence Team Members

 

Eliza grew up on Whidbey Island, where she inherited a strong passion for the natural world from her community. She has recently returned to the Northwest from the UK where she worked as a graduate ecologist for Atmos Consulting, an ecological and renewable energy consultancy. She completed her bachelors in Environmental Studies and Spanish from Guilford College in North Carolina. Her work as a founding organizer of an NC local organic food cooperative, instilled in her the importance of a local economy in environmental and social sustainability.

Eliza has served on the executive board of the Institute for Children’s Environmental Health, taught environmental education on the Schooner Adventuress in the Puget Sound and helped to build a school with the Sister Island Project in the Dominican Republic. She is interested in hands-on learning and hopes to encourage more of her own generation to take an active role in the creation of a vibrant sustainable culture. 

 

 

Doug, born in Seattle, has practiced law on South Whidbey for the past thirty years. His current primary areas of practice are estate planning, probate, land use, real estate, and small business formation. Doug has helped to establish the Whidbey Institute, Whidbey Island Waldorf School, Maxwelton Salmon Adventure, Hearts and Hammers, South Whidbey Schools Foundation and other non-profit organizations serving the South Whidbey community. He served on the Board of the Whidbey Institute, a regional retreat and educational foundation, for over 25 years, and is currently the attorney for the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts.

Known to his friends as a swashbuckling, Duck Dodge sailing, movie night organizing, dog training and bike riding inspiration, Geoff has made Seattle his home for over 3 years. He began teaching himself how to sail on the lakes of Michigan and has shared his passion by teaching nearly every willing person around him how to sail. In addition to sailing and organizing social gatherings, Geoff is committed to the community and over the past 6 years Geoff has raised 5 service dogs.

Beginning his education in architecture at Lawrence Tech in Detroit, Michigan, Geoff was drawn to the environmental impact of building early on. He continues to explore ways of decreasing long term environmental damage through sustainable, earth friendly building practices, like rammed earth construction. Helping develop a school and curriculum is a natural extension of his interest in both building innovation and teaching. Geoff's goal is to instill the passion and excitement for nature and collaboration, and help leave this world in better shape than we found it.

In addition to working with local architectural firms, Geoff has his own consulting business and takes on local design challenges around Seattle that relate to human powered transit. Geoff is also starting a bicycle website directed at empowering beginning and advanced cyclists to fix and maintain their bikes.

Danielle was raised on Whidbey Island, and attributes her love of art and nature to this richly cultured community.  As a child, she was involved in such inspirational programs as Children’s Environmental Trust, with whom she traveled to the Peruvian Amazon.  Coupled with her inheritance of language, Danielle believes programs such as this shaped her desire to support a diverse community and environment.  She has been honored to participate in many community programs on and off Whidbey, such as Hearts and Hammers, The Power of Hope, and Colleges Against Cancer.

Danielle returned to the Seattle area after completing her Bachelors Degree in Art History and Fine Art from Occidental College in Los Angeles.  During her course of study, Danielle completed an overseas program in Florence, Italy, which introduced her to art restoration under Diane Kunzelman of the Fortezza da Basso.  Danielle received an artistic scholarship through Occidental, and her paintings were recently featured in the Occidental review 2008.

Danielle is excited to give back to the community she loves, and to emphasize the under-represented youth voice in the cultivation of a sustainable culture.  She believes there is great beauty in the natural complexity of life, and hopes to contribute to the creation of a vibrant, well-balanced community through art and mutual empowerment.