Staff

Kate joined OLT as Executive Director in March 2021. Trained as an anthropologist, her career before coming to OLT involved research and teaching, including on the relationship between people, livelihoods and ecosystems. For years she dreamed of leaving academia and practicing what she preached. Having visited the Okanogan Valley several times, she was thrilled at the chance to move here and help conserve its natural and working landscapes.

Kate was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but spent much of her early life traveling the world, thanks to her father’s work in global public health, before returning to the US for a BA at Reed College. While working on her PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of California, San Diego, she lived for a year and a half in the Hunza Valley in Northern Pakistan, where she studied the relationship between local cultural and religious values and international development.

She brings her anthropological skills as a listener and observer and her appreciation for the inter-dependence of social and natural systems to her role at OLT. She is happy to talk with anyone who cares about the Okanogan and its people, and she is eager to learn from as many perspectives as possible.

Kate is an avid cook and enthusiastic novice gardener. She enjoys camping and hiking with her husband Kevin and aspires to improve her cross-country skiing form now that she lives in a place where she doesn’t have to drive to the snow.

Michelle Martin
Conservation Coordinator

michelle@okanoganlandtrust.org
(509) 557-6306

Michelle is a new hire with OLT as of January 2023. She will be serving as OLT’s conservation associate conducting conservation easement monitoring, stewardship, and partnership building within the community. Since graduating with her B.S. from Florida State University, Michelle has worked as a wildlife researcher and biologist on a variety of projects studying birds and small mammals. In the last few years, Michelle discovered the niche of conservation work within wildlife biology and after seeing the accomplishments that can be achieved through coordination and hard work. With her new position working for OLT, Michelle will be able to further her conservation career in the land trust framework and use her training as a wildlife biologist to enhance and assist with outreach and conservation easement projects.

Michelle hails from sunny St. Petersburg, Florida but her career as a wildlife biologist has taken her far and wide. She began her career working as a technician for a non-profit organization in the Sierra Nevada of California studying imperiled willow flycatcher. In addition, Michelle has assisted with research projects in both avian behavioral studies for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and long-term monitoring projects on rangeland for Texas A&M University. She has also conducted monitoring work for various avian species along with project management for state agencies such as Utah DNR and Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). In 2021, Michelle received her masters in biological sciences from the University of Lethbridge in Alberta studying the breeding biology of the largely managed but understudied ruffed grouse.

In her spare time, Michelle enjoys cooking, reading, watching sci-fi movies, birding (surprise), backpacking, and spending time with her budgie, Merlin.

Sarah Woodson    Communications & Development Coordinator

sarah@okanoganlandtrust.org

(509) 557 6306

Sarah is OLT’s most recent hire, becoming a part of the team in August 2024, ready to serve the north central Washington community as the Communications and Development Coordinator. A great lover of life and the hearts of others, Sarah dedicates most of her energy to the understanding and practice of kindness. To Sarah, community is an important part of our human experience and survival, so having a role in reconnecting people with land stewardship is the icing on the cake!

Sarah is a long time Okanogan County resident, claiming 80% local, as she was private schooled in Oregon and enjoyed short stays in other cities and states throughout her life. Sarah is a classically trained Chef through the Western Culinary Institute in Portland, Oregon. Attending some compiled college classes at the Omak campus of Wenatchee Valley College has broadened her modern world skills and academic perspective. Her prior employment with Okanogan Trail Construction, Inc. gave her access to the great wilderness and national forests, land preserves and planned communities, and an insight into the systems in place that govern them.

Living currently in Loomis, on her half-acre hobby farm, with her most cherished daughter. Sarah chooses to raise her daughter in the country as an act of sanctity, ensuring she will not be disconnected from our food sources and natural world. Being close to the mountains, especially in a rural area, allows Sarah to collect the medicinal plants and wild foods she keeps as an arsenal of health and wealth. Aside from her innate love for plants, she also finds any time spent with animals is an elevation in spirit.

Sarah’s other passions include photography, writing poetry, energy sciences and healing modalities, studying psychology, gardening, and connecting resources for animal welfare. Camping and exploring is vital to her happiness, as well as watching concerts, plays and some cheesy movies, too!