Our Board
Header photo: Bald Eagle pair in the Arboretum wetlands (courtesy Larry Hubbell).
The policies and strategic direction of the Arboretum Foundation are overseen by our volunteer Board of Directors.
Meet our staff.
Officers
Maribeth O’Connor, Board Chair
Maribeth O’Connor
Maribeth O’Connor was born in Chicago, moved with her family to Tacoma in 1976, and has lived in Seattle since becoming an undergraduate student at the University of Washington. Her professional experience includes positions with the UW Medicine as Director of Strategic Outreach, Group Health Cooperative as a lobbyist in both Washington, D.C., and Olympia, and Sorse technologies as Vice President for Medical Research. Maribeth’s experience in the non-profit world includes membership on the board of the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center and the UW Medicine Neuroscience Institute. She joined the board of the Arboretum Foundation in 2022, and served as board vice-president in 2023–24. Maribeth is the proud mother of two adult children. She and her husband split their time between their home in Seattle’s Madrona neighborhood and their vacation cabin on Lopez Island. In addition to gardening, Maribeth enjoys skiing, hiking, and travel.
Glenn Pingul, VP
Glenn Pingul
Glenn is a senior marketing executive and Laurelhurst resident. He brings expertise in brand and digital marketing, AI scientific marketing, and communication strategy including crisis communications working for recognized brands like Nordstrom, Starbucks, and T-Mobile as well as several technology start-ups in Seattle. He is a first generation American, whose parents are from the Philippines. He has volunteer experience with Cancer for College and the Special Olympics of Washington.
John Reed, VP
John Reed
With over 45 years of experience at David Wright Tremaine, John continues to serve as Associate General part-time with the firm’s General Counsel and participate in quality assurance legal matters. John is also a past board member and board chair for Common Ground and board member and officer for the Contemporary Art Council with the Seattle Art Museum. As a frequent speaker at continuing legal education seminars, John provides insights and expertise on a variety of topics, including corporate formation, social purpose corporations, legal ethics, and professional conduct issues. In his free time, John enjoys cycling, salmon fishing and boating, hiking, birding, travel, and playing guitar.
Alissa Rupp, VP
Alissa Rupp
FRAME founder, Alissa Rupp, is a leader in the design of places for community building, informal education, and lifelong learning. She works with the conviction that we can improve public life through the serious work of creating spaces where art, nature, culture, and play intersect. Serving as Acting Director of Seattle Children’s Museum, Alissa assisted the board in refreshing, revitalizing, and reopening this important regional destination. She has also served as a board member and president of AIA Seattle. Alissa spent 21 years with The Portico Group, where she led projects with mission-driven clients, connecting people to nature and culture through design, including work at the Arboretum.
Josh Dickson, Secretary
Josh Dickson
Josh joined the board in 2019, with a broad and interesting background. He currently works in electronic discovery consulting and legal technology project management; however, he has also consulted on projects like an organic farmstead brewery and an agritourism startup. His interest in sustainability, design, and education combined with his graduate degree in Learning and Organizational Change made him eager to dive in to help the Arboretum as a Board member. He lives in Capitol Hill with his wife and two kids, and on the weekends you’ll find them hiking, backpacking, and enjoying good food.
Peter Rees, Treasurer
Peter Rees
Peter is an award winning architect and founding principal at Rees Architects. He works in all aspects of architectural practice, with a particular strength in bringing high-quality design solutions to projects with complex technical and regulatory requirements. After graduating from Columbia University with honors, he and his wife, Laney, also an architect, practiced in Australia for 10 years. They moved to Seattle 30 years ago and have raised their two sons in the Denny Blaine area. Peter’s projects include the Children’s Museum, Alki Market, and many single-family homes. Almost every day when Peter first moved to Seattle, he would begin his day by jogging from his home to the Graham Visitors Center and back.
Thatcher Bailey, President Elect
Thatcher Bailey
Throughout his career, Thatcher has been a staff and board leader for an array of arts, LGBTQ, and social service nonprofits, but his great love is for parks and public spaces. Before he retired in 2023, he served as CEO for Seattle Parks Foundation and then for Friends of Waterfront Park.
Members at Large
Dan Brown
Dan Brown
Dan Brown is a Professor at the University of Washington and Director in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, the unit in which UW Botanic Gardens and its predecessor organizations have been housed for more than 90 years. His 30+ year academic career, which began in Michigan, has focused on research and teaching aimed at understanding human-environment interactions through a focus on land-use dynamics using spatial analysis and modeling approaches. He has conducted field work at multiple locations in North America, Asia, and Africa and in 2009 was elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Bruce Cady
Bruce Cady
Bruce Cady is a Montlake resident who frequents the Arboretum. He is a UW alumnus who brings deep experience in financial management. He is an senior advisor and former CFO at Cascade Asset Management Company, a private investment company based in Seattle that manages the assets of the Gates Foundation Trust.
Shaun Corry
Shaun Corry
Shaun is an investment management professional currently at Lesa Sroufe & Co, with a background in finance and accounting. As a member of the Juanita Graham Unit 1/75 Garden Club, she has a strong connection with the Arboretum and enjoys walking here on a daily basis. She is also very active in the Seattle philanthropic community, currently serving on the boards of the Seattle Chamber Music Society and Habitat for Humanity. In 2019, Shaun competed in Seattle Dances—a live dance competition—to raise funds to end homelessness. Her enthusiasm knows no bounds and she is excited to help this place she loves.
Joaquin Hernandez
Joaquin Hernandez
Joaquin Hernadez is a seasoned corporate attorney with extensive experience managing complex transactions, subsidiaries, legal affairs, risk mitigation, and litigation. He is currently Assistant General Counsel for Pixel United (Aristocrat Technologies, Inc.). He brings a combination of strategic leadership, community engagement, and creative problem-solving. Joaquin has served on the board of the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Symphony Foundation, Seattle City Club Board, and the Nesholm Family Foundation Board.
Barbara Jacobson
Barbara Jacobson
Barbara has been an active broker in the Seattle area commercial real estate arena since 1995. She brings an understanding of the contractual relationships, legal processes, due diligence, and legal documentation required around real estate ownership. She has served on the board of Orion Industries and Beverly Lambert Children's Medical Center Guild.
Virginia Korychi
Virginia Korychi
Virginia is a retired banker with expertise in financial and money management, in both private and public sector institutions worldwide, including the OECD, Eximbank, Bank of China, Citibank, and the Inter-American Development Bank. She held management positions in treasury and liquidity management, investment of institutional capital, and restructuring of business and finance divisions. After years of living and working abroad and in the U.S., she and her husband moved to Inverness, a neighborhood of NE Seattle.
Warren KingGeorge
Warren KingGeorge
Warren KingGeorge is the Historian for the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and an active member of the Native American Advisory Group. He represents the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe’s interests in both private and public projects, providing guidance and interpretation for historical and present-day indigenous relationships with land, water, animals, and plants. He is a steward of Foster Island and has done extensive work with WSDOT on collecting and curating indigenous history for a series of interpretive panels that will be installed in the final stages of the WSDOT 520 project. Warren has deep personal connections to the Arboretum, the Center for Urban Horticulture, and all the land and water of the Muckleshoot Coast Salish tribal community.
Scott Lindsay
Scott Lindsay
Scott Lindsay is an attorney and consultant with experience in policy development on matters of public safety, police reform, and homelessness. He has also served as senior counsel to the United States House Oversight Committee for national security matters. He is a member of the Arboretum Foundation’s Advocacy Committee. He and his wife Courtney have two young daughters and live in Madrona, venturing to the Arboretum weekly.
Craig Miller
Craig Miller
Craig Miller is a Madrona resident who is passionate about green spaces and gardens. He is a retired attorney who brings extensive board experience, most recently at Meany Center for the Performing Arts. He volunteers for the El Centro de la Raza Legal Clinic.
Mike Riley
Mike Riley
Mike is recently retired from a fulfilling career in community organizing, lobbying, legislative affairs for nonprofits, political campaigns, and the US Senate. He has experience in landscape design and loves gardening, as well as competitive rowing with the Mount Baker Crew club. Mike is a Past President of the US Naval Academy Parents Club.
Melanie Roberson
Melanie Roberson
Melanie Roberson is a Madison resident who frequently runs in the Arboretum. She brings deep experience in change management, organizational effectiveness and development at multiple organizations including Amazon and the Gates Foundation. She is passionate about ensuring our green spaces are welcoming and accessible to all people in our community and believes strongly in nature as a vehicle for mental health and education.
Yuka Shimizu
Yuka Shimizu
Yuka is the Founder and Head of Bellevue Children’s Academy & Willows Preparatory School. She is also the President of Japan Fair, helping to connect musicians, artisans, community organizations, and businesses from both Japan and the US—and to immerse the public in the music, dance, artisanry, and philosophy of Japan. Yuka is a Board Member of the Seattle Symphony and Japan American Society. Born in Tokyo, Japan and now residing in Medina, she enjoys her free time by playing tennis, golfing, gardening, and listening to classical music.
Alon Torres
Alon Torres
Alon Torres is a Seattle resident and Arboretum Foundation donor with a deep personal connection to Washington Park. He more than eight years at Google planning and delivering complex projects across large teams, with hands-on experience organizing community events, volunteer efforts, and public outreach.
Lisa Vasser
Lisa Vasser
Lisa was born in Madison Valley and spent her youth in the Central District and South Seattle. In addition to deep experience with a wide array of community organizations and public initiatives, Lisa brings twenty years of leadership experience in construction project management, real estate acquisition, and growth strategy. She is currently Senior Director for Real Estate and Facilities at TerraPower, LLC. Her passion for mentoring and environmentally conscious space design has led to a successful career, inspiring work across broad industries and among many different types of people and organizations. She has a profound appreciation for nature and the importance of preserving it for future generations. She currently sits on the City of Seattle Design Review Board.
Barbara Wright
Barbara Wright
Barbara is a community leader experienced in managing and implementing complex projects by working collaboratively in a team environment and building successful community partnerships. She has served twice on the Arboretum Foundation board of directors, is currently a member of the University of Washington Botanical Garden Committee, and has served on numerous public boards and initiatives, including the Seattle Parks Commission, Seattle Bridging the Gap Oversight Committee, Parks’ Citizen Advisory Committee, Metropolitan Parks District Campaign, and the Seattle Transit Citizens’ Advisory Committee.
Kara Weaver
Kara Weaver
Kara is a principal at GGN Landscape Architecture in Seattle, with over 20 years’ experience designing and documenting public parks, gardens, campuses, and streetscapes. Her design approach is grounded in her academic studies in anthropology, archeology, and textiles: a background that focuses her exploration of the layers of meaning inherent in every place and their expression in the design of the physical world. Key projects Kara has led for GGN include the Civic Park at Hemisfair in San Antonio, Texas, the Vision Plan for John Treviño Jr. Metropolitan Park in Austin, Texas, and the Health Sciences Education Building at the University of Washington in Seattle. Plant walks at the Washington Park Arboretum were a formative part of Kara’s education in landscape architecture at the University of Washington, and she was thrilled to be able to work on the design for Phase 1 of the Pacific Connections Garden early in her career. More recently, Kara loves to share the beauty of the Arboretum with her two young daughters.
Ex-Officio Members
Christina Owen
Christina Owen
Christina Owen is the Chief Executive Officer of Seattle Botanic Gardens. From 2021 to early 2026, she served as Director of UW Botanic Gardens, overseeing operations and management of the programming and plant collections at the Washington Park Arboretum and the Center for Urban Horticulture, which houses the Elizabeth Miller Library and the Hyde Herbarium. Christina has a Ph.D. in evolutionary genetics of flowering plants from the University of Washington. She has a strong commitment to public engagement, science communication, and inclusive outreach and connection with diverse communities. As an AAAS Mass Media Fellow, she served as a journalist covering science and the environment for public radio in rural Colorado. Prior to joining the Botanic Gardens, she spent 11 years as a Senior Program Officer in Agricultural Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she developed and managed grants in Research & Development to benefit smallholder farmers in low-income countries.