Patricia Benton, Chair
Patricia Benton is the former Chief Financial and Operating Officer for OPEN Health, Evidence & Access, a UK based health care consulting company. Her experience across private and public sectors yields a blend of management, financial and partnership building skills. Before joining OPEN Health through the merger of Pharmerit International, LP Patricia was the CFO and COO for Pharmerit. Patricia served as Chief Financial and Operating Officer at Salzburg Global Seminar, an international non-profit located in Salzburg, Austria. Earlier in her career she held the position of Vice President for Finance and General Manager at Comsat Corporation, at that time the leading satellite telecommunications company in the US.
Patricia is currently a board trustee for Lincoln School in Providence, Rhode Island, serves on the board of OICF as Treasurer, and on the board of OCRC. She holds a B.A. in Economics and French from Brown University and an M.B.A. in Finance from George Washington University. She is also a Certified Public Accountant.
Patricia lives on Orcas with her husband, Bruce, who is actively involved in efforts to build out the electric vehicle infrastructure on Orcas to secure a sustainable future for the island community. Three of her children live in Seattle and the fourth in New York City.
Margie Bangs, Treasurer
Margie and her husband, Bill, have a long connection to Orcas Island, more than 50 years. They became “snowbirds” in 2002 and moved here in 2016 when they retired. Margie was a computer programmer and a mathematics teacher, teaching all levels from first grade through university.
“Community service has been an integral part of my life since high school, even when I was working full-time,” Margie says, “It is a special privilege to be part of the OCRC Board. OCRC provides a vital support system for many Orcas residents.” She and her husband are Co-Treasurers of Emmanuel Episcopal Church, and Margie has also served on the boards of the Music Advocacy Group and Orcas Island Food Bank.
Rosedanie Cadet
Rosedanie is a food systems advocate dedicated to garden-to-table food security. Born in Haiti, she spent the first half of her childhood immersed in the rich mix of Taino, African, and European cultures until she moved to Brooklyn, New York where spent the remainder of her childhood. She has since traveled the world and lived in Japan.
An island person at heart, in 2008 Rosedanie found her way to Orcas Island, Washington, and made it her home. Drawing on her experience as a teacher, rugby coach, landscaper, and chef in a restaurant where the majority of the food comes from local farmers and fishermen, she was inspired to bring grassroots agriculture and youth empowerment to her home country of Haiti.
Rosedanie also works with the Orcas Island School District school garden classroom, and Seattle’s Black Farmers Collective. She has been uniting communities through shared garden experiences in Washington state as well as Haiti since 2010.
Jan Ehrlichman, Vice Chair
Jan moved to Orcas 13 years ago from Seattle with her husband, Mark. Her professions have varied over the past 40 years. Jan was a middle school English and Music teacher for many years, a piano teacher for 40 years, and finally a painting contractor before retiring.
Here on Orcas Jan loves being active with a variety of volunteer activities. She has been on the MAG Board for more than 10 years and helps out in OISD’s music classroom regularly. Her days are full of hiking, playing tennis, singing in the Orcas Choral Society, practicing the piano, learning Spanish, painting and drawing, and playing with her three small grandchildren whenever she gets the chance.
In the past, Jan was a single parent of two small children and worked two jobs to make ends meet. Life was hard, but she was fortunate to have good family support. Without that support, Jan recognizes she would have needed help from an organization such as OCRC. Jan is enthusiastic about being a part of the important work OCRC does to help families and individuals in need.
Greg Guzauskas
Greg and his family started life on Orcas Island as Seattle-based weekenders 10 years ago before becoming full time residents in 2020 for the obvious 2020 reasons. He is the treasurer for his road association but otherwise this is his first experience with a non-profit, so he’s here to learn as much as to serve.
Greg has an MSPH in health policy from UNC Chapel Hill and a PhD in public health genetics from UW. He is now a fully remote health economist with the Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy, and Economics (CHOICE) Institute at UW as well as a health economics consultant. His research interests span population-level genetic testing, gene therapies, and other healthcare interventions in diverse disease areas including various cancers, HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, opioid addiction, and rare genetic diseases.
Greg lives with his wife Hiba, their teenagers Mirah and Yusef, his in-laws Samira and Mo, 2 dogs, a cat, a tortoise, and 15 chickens. He enjoys staying active by hiking and running, which he probably cancels out with his love of barbecuing and creating unique batches of homebrew craft beer.
Suzette Lamb
Suzette moved to East-est Orcas with her husband in 2020. Originally from Texas and growing up in an Air Force family, she has lived and traveled all over the US and abroad.
Suzette is a licensed psychotherapist and has worked in a variety of non-profit settings serving an array of client populations with specializations in attachment, trauma recovery, and parenting.
She is learning to grow her own food, loves cooking, yoga and the outdoors, and on most weekends would like to be fishing for kokanee.
She is excited to continue getting to know the Orcas community and help strengthen services and programming for all islanders.
Ingrid Mattson
Ingrid Mattson moved to Orcas Island in 2022 with her family. She is the library director at Orcas Island Public Library and lives with her husband and two kids and dog, Roxy, in Olga. Before moving to Orcas for her job, Ingrid was a library director and professor at Cardozo School of Law in New York City from 2018-2022. She's also lived in Ohio, Seattle, and north Florida (where she grew up), but she's happy to stay on Orcas for the rest of her life.
Before going to library school, she was a lawyer for 6.5 years. Here on Orcas, she's a part of the Dementia Friendly Orcas Workgroup, attends lunch at the Senior Center, and runs on the local trails. She's happy to be part of a community that works together to understand problems and develop long-term solutions, which is why she is interested in joining the Resource Center board. Personally, she wants to contribute to organizations that improve folks' lives, and she's seen the impact the Resource Center has on community members and the care and thoughtfulness Resource Center staff show to clients and those in the community connecting with clients.
Judy Scott
Judy lives in Olga and serves as a senior partner in the DC-based law firm of James & Hoffman. During her 40-year career in labor law, Judy focused on issues such as the national fight to end growing income inequality, problems affecting women and immigrant workers, and the plight of low-wage workers. She has served on various boards of organizations committed to economic and social justice, such as the National Partnership for Women & Families, Alliance for Justice and American Constitution Society. She retired in 2017 as General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Over her law career, Judy served as legal counsel to several unions, including the United Auto Workers, AFSCME, Teamsters, and United Mine Workers. She graduated from Wellesley College and Northeastern University School of Law, and previously worked for the Frontier Nursing Service in Hyden, Kentucky.
Judy and her husband, Don Stillman, a retired union activist and writer, have been coming to Orcas with their now-grown children, Scott and Sarah, for more than 35 years.
Lisa Steckley, Secretary
Like so many, Lisa's sojourn on Orcas began many years ago with the odd camping or boating stops during vacation. That eventually morphed into the purchase of her home and final move from Portland.
Lisa's career has immersed her in the technology industry. As a serial entrepreneur she is a partner in a couple small companies: 376Tech providing consumer tech support on Orcas and IOJ Travel, providing group tour production services, primarily for travel to Europe. From time to time she also provides consulting services to tier one industry in software related decision processes.
Orcas provided Lisa the opportunity to be of service to the non-profit sector. She was invited to serve on the OICF board in 2014, where she continues today. In her neighborhood, the Home Owners Association elected her as their president in 2013. In addition, Lisa has become a volunteer EMT with Orcas Island Fire and Rescue. She is also a board member for the volunteer fire association.
One of the great things on Orcas is the opportunity to be involved in many different types of activities at once. For Lisa, this has included volunteering for lighting design for plays at Orcas Center and the Grange, facilitating workshops and evenings with the Labyrinth at Emmanuel, sitting in on the VRBO group meetings, and working with Rock Island during its start-up phase in marketing and advertising.
Jen Wallace
Jen Wallace is the former Financial Manager for the Orcas Island Community Foundation (OICF) and continues to work with them as a consultant.
As a 22-year resident of Orcas Island she has been involved in the community mostly through her places of employment which include Rosario Resort, the Deer Harbor Post Office, the Lower Tavern, Island Market and Washington Federal. Her time at OICF introduced her to the non-profit world where she found an appreciation for serving the
island community.
She and her husband live in the Deer Harbor area. In semi-retirement she enjoys traveling, gardening, cooking and walks with her two dogs. She is looking forward to her first opportunity to serve as a Board Member.