Board of Directors

Mitsu Iwasaki, president

Mitsu is Northwest Director at Trust for Public Land (TPL). Prior to his current role at TPL, Mitsu served as CEO of the American Alpine Club, and as Executive Director of the Mazamas and the Northwest Outward Bound School.

His love for wild landscapes led him to a career in the outdoor industry and a desire to protect lands while promoting equity and access for everyone.  With an impulse for adventure, Mitsu can be found climbing, skiing, and trail running throughout the American West on our public lands.

In addition to the Icicle Fund, he serves on the boards of Washington Wilderness and Recreation Coalition, Mountain to Sound Greenway, Conservation Colorado, and Big City Mountaineers. He also serves the Yosemite Conservancy as a member of the advisory board. 

JAMES SCHROEDER, TREASURER

“It is all about the partnerships! We can do more if we work together.”

James has been engaged in his work throughout the state, through our local forests, rivers and treasured sagebrush country. He has led teams that have worked toward some big successes with his most recent focus on building a comprehensive program of forest reforestation and community engagement in the Central Cascades. James is the WA State Director of Conservation at the Nature Conservancy and has held previous positions as the director of forest conservation and partnerships, conservation director for Eastern Washington and as the director of freshwater programs in Washington. Before joining The Nature Conservancy in 2008, he worked for 10 years on Pacific salmon recovery as the senior environmental policy specialist for the National Wildlife Federation and as a program manager for King County’s Department of Natural Resources and Parks. James received a joint M.S. in Environmental Policy and Biology from Tufts University, as well as a B.A. in bioethics from Brown University.

Sharon Lunz, secretary

“North Central Washington is a better place for people and nature because of the Icicle Fund. I appreciate the focus on partnerships and collaboration and the on-going support to help build stronger non-profits. I am honored to serve on the Board!”

Sharon retired in May of 2019 as the Development Director with the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust. During her 17-year tenure with the Land Trust she experienced first-hand how the support of the Icicle Fund at key junctures can help a small, struggling non-profit blossom into a thriving, widely supported organization that makes such a positive difference in our region.

Prior to the Land Trust, Sharon was the Marketing Director for Sleeping Lady. A graduate of the University of Washington with a BA in History, Sharon fell in love with the mountains and rivers around Leavenworth and realized that her planned career of law school was not a good fit. Moving to Leavenworth the day after graduation, she was a whitewater raft guide and ski instructor for 15 years before starting at Sleeping Lady. She lives with her husband Greg along the Icicle, and is passionate about cross-country skiing, biking, hiking, paddling on rivers, lakes and oceans, and gardening.

Paul IshiI

Paul, in his high school and college days, was rightly becoming a ski and fly fishing bum in the Tetons. Until he had the epiphany that he needed to get practical and finish college and get a real job. He pursued a career in hotel management and worked in cities and hotels from Orlando to Jakarta, with San Francisco being his favorite city (3 stints). After 9 transfers he decided it was time to return to the Northwest and manage a family owned historic hotel in Seattle called the Mayflower Park Hotel.

After 38 years of hospitality gigs, he recently retired and is trying to become a ski and fly fishing bum as he always wanted to be. Traveling, Ikebana, and painting are his other favorite pastimes. Professional affiliations have been board member and president appointments with the Historic Hotel Association of America, Washington Hospitality Association, Seattle Hotel Association, Seattle Rotary, Leadership Tomorrow, InvestEd, Evergreen Treatment Services, Downtown Seattle Association, Plymouth Housing Group , 4 Culture, Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board and Seafair. He completed his Business Administration degree at Washington State University and his wife, Jane, is a 1st grade teacher. Paul and Jane, have a daughter, Alison and a son, Owen.

Keni Sturgeon

Keni Sturgeon is an experienced museum leader with a background that includes more than 15 years of experience in senior and executive management. Currently she serves as the Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM) which works with children’s museums across the U.S. and internationally. Prior to joining ACM, Keni was the Executive Director for the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center, a role she took on in November 2018. She has worked with Pacific Science Center in Seattle, as their Vice President of Science Engagement and Outreach, served as the Museum Director and Curator at the Willamette Heritage Center in Salem, Oregon, and was previously the Director of Education and Programs at the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology at Brown University. She also spent time as the Director of the Jensen Arctic Museum at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon.

Keni received her graduate degree in cultural anthropology and museum studies from Arizona State University in 2000, and her undergraduate degree in anthropology and archaeology, with a minor in history, from Sonoma State University. In 2017 she earned a Certificate in Non-Profit Management from the University of Illinois, Chicago. Since 2008, Keni has served as adjunct professor teaching online museum studies graduate courses for the University of Oklahoma’s masters of arts in museum studies program. She is on the Western Museums Association’s board of directors, is on the North Central Washington’s AppleSTEM Network’s leadership board, and is a community adviser to Cultural Access Washington.

Noelle O’Reilly

“Communities are complex ecosystems, both environmental and cultural. The Icicle Fund contributes to the health of the ecosystem of North Central Washington by supporting our natural world, our artists, and those who preserve our histories. I’m honored to serve on the board. “

Noelle O’Reilly is a writer, editor, and educator. She has a bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from Smith College and a master’s in Creative Writing from The Ohio State University, where she was a Fellow in the College of Arts and Sciences. She has taught English at the college level, creative writing workshops for high school students, and taught ESL through the Literacy Council of Chelan and Douglas Counties. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in such publications as The Los Angeles Review, Sonora Review, Conjunctions, and elsewhere. She is also a co-founder of Obvious Gully Press, publisher of outdoor guides to the Pacific Northwest.

EUNICE YOUMANS

Eunice joined the Chelan Douglas Land Trust as Executive Director in August 2022.

Eunice has held leadership roles in conservation for over a decade. She began her work on a global scale, working with scientists to identify the land management strategies that had environmental, financial and climate benefits. Much of this work involved balancing the equally important and competing land demands of development, jobs, agriculture, habitat, conservation and recreation. Eunice managed a Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard conservation portfolio which included thirty miles of recreational beach front, endless miles of dune, forest, and marshland trails and a 300-acre farm with 90 head of cattle, forty sheep and an everchanging menagerie of ducks, chickens, turkeys, goats and pigs. She also helped build a financially successful food waste collection, and a compost production facility which enriched the island soils to generate more local produce. That work attracted international investment to scale up.

Canuche Terranella

Canuche and his family came to Chelan County in 2018 and settled in quickly. His whole family is actively involved in the Wenatchee River Institute community: his son, Cosimo, and daughter, Adele, participate as students, Canuche and his wife, Mercy, as donors, Canuche as board member and, starting in November 2022, as Executive Director. Prior to coming to Leavenworth, Canuche led businesses in the construction and hospitality industries in Seattle and Costa Rica where he developed teams, built business processes, and managed finances with a focus on the triple bottom line (people, planet and profit). Early in his career at Seattle Academy, Canuche taught science, coached, and led outdoor and international trips. Canuche graduated from Bainbridge Graduate Institute with a Master's degree in Sustainable Business and from Colorado College with a BA in Biology. Canuche and his family love exploring the mountains and rivers of our region in all the seasons.  

sarah jo lightner

Sarah Jo is Executive Director of Methow Arts Alliance. She was born in rural Missouri and raised in Nebraska, she studied agricultural economics at the University of Nebraska and silversmithing at Oregon College of Arts and Craft. She spent 23 years in restaurant business management with 12 of those in Portland, Oregon operating her own restaurant.  In late 2008 she decided to sell her business and worked as a consultant until landing in the Methow Valley in 2010. Drawn by the arts and culture scene in Twisp and the deep sense of community in the Methow Valley she opened a silversmithing studio at TwispWorks and started working in non-profit. She deeply believes in the importance that arts and culture play in creating thriving rural communities and is excited to be part of Methow Arts Alliance where she started as Executive Director in April 2024. Sarah Jo proudly serves on the board of directors for the Winthrop Music Association, the Twisp Chamber of Commerce, and the Twisp Creative District. Sarah Jo and her family love boat camping in the Okanogan Highlands in the summers and traveling whenever they get the chance.