Our Origins

retired in 2019. He served ten years as a senior CPD Representative in HUD's Community Planning and Development Seattle Office, where he provided grants compliance oversight. He recently led the steering committee that launched Home on Whidbey, a Community Land Trust focused on affordable home-ownership. Michael currently serves as the Secretary for the Friends of the Clinton Library Board of Directors and is an At-large member of the Clinton Community Council. He has lived on Whidbey since 1983.

Crystal Coglas currently works for Readiness to Learn as an Administrative Assistant. She has a background in many fields; bookkeeping, graphic design, print production, teaching... but the Humanities is where her heart is always drawn. She’s a task-oriented problem solver and loves to work in a team setting. She comes to us with lived experiences of being unstably housed, as a child, a young parent, and more recently, as a single adult. She currently resides in Freeland, Washington and is passionate about the need for sustainable housing on South Whidbey and beyond. Crystal grew up on Whidbey Island and has two adult children.

is a non-profit management and development consultant. Her work has focused on organizational and board management, private and public fund raising, grant writing, project development, management and evaluation, and advocacy. Past clients include PCC Farmland Trust, Seattle Housing Authority, Bellwether Housing, and Goosefoot Community Fund. She served as Executive Director for the Pike Place Market Foundation for 21 years, and on the Board of Plymouth Housing Group and the Capitol Hill Housing Foundation. Marlys is Chair of the Island Roots’ Financing/Fundraising Committee. She resides in Seattle and Coupeville.

serves as Vice President of Affordable Multifamily Originations at Centennial Mortgage, Inc. She is also a principal at the Sun Stone Team where she provides strategic affordable housing subsidy consulting. She has worked with HUD and USDA multifamily lending for over 20 years, concentrating on the preservation of subsidized multifamily housing for non-profit and housing authority clients. Prior to her finance career, she owned and operated South Whidbey’s only laundromat. Sunny resides in Langley.

currently works with Dykeman Architects, and has worked over 26 years on a wide variety of housing projects. He is passionate about the development of affordable, community based housing and is a champion for efficient, sustainable design strategies that minimize cost and conserve resources. Doug serves on the Clinton Community Council, he has served as a board member of the Housing Authority of Island County. He lives on a small farm in Clinton.

is semi-retired from a career in non-profit leadership focusing on meeting essential needs of the most vulnerable, and is Assistant Professor at the UW School of Public Health. She was program manager of the Community to End Homelessness in King County, and led the effort to open Bailey-Boushay House in Seattle, the nation’s first residential health center for people living with AIDS. She served for seven years as the founding director of the Pike Market Community Clinic, and as former Executive Director of Goosefoot Community Fund she led the creation of the Goose Community Grocer social enterprise. She currently serves on the Burke Museum Association’s Advisory Council. Christine is Chair of GHG’s Governance Committee. She resides in Seattle and Coupeville.

works as a loan originator with CMG Home Loans, and is a financial literacy advocate within the mortgage industry. He is a Trustee of Skagit Valley Community College and serves on the Board of the Opportunity Council and the Island County Economic Development Council. He also volunteers with the Island County Opportunity Council’s Financial Literacy and Renters Education (FLARE) program that helps homeless or housing insecure individuals. Ozell resides in Oak Harbor, his childhood hometown.

a Langley resident since 1990, Whidbey Island Realtor since 1994 & Goosefoot Board member since 2008 is a 3rd generation Washington native & UW Alum. She brings values learned growing up in the tight-knit Skagit Valley among farmers, small businesses, loggers, adventurers & community volunteers. Her interest in building started early working on the clean-up crew with her Plaster & Stucco contractor father & helping her brother remodel a three story Granary into a home. She is a past President of the Whidbey Island Association of Realtors and volunteered with the Whidbey Island Garden Tour, the Langley Community Club and Hearts & Hammers. She is an Outdoor Classroom volunteer & board member for the Whidbey Watershed Stewards and loves living in Langley.

Mary Michell has worked for unstably housed families since 2012. She first worked as the Homeless Liaison for Coupeville School District and then in the same position at the South Whidbey School District where she currently works. She also served on Langley's Ad Hoc Affordable Housing Advisory Committee in 2021/22. Mary resides in Clinton at her home of 30 years.

is wrapping up a long career in land development and home building. He has worked with affordable housing since moving to Whidbey in 2000, as a founding board member of Saratoga Community Housing and serving on Habitat for Humanity’s Board. Recently he’s been assisting with design and construction of the THINC tiny homes in Langley. Michael was involved in the Bayview Vision master planning project and is now Chair of Island Roots’ construction development committee. Michael lives in Langley.

is a Restoration Ecologist who has been at the forefront of balancing growth of the built environment with natural resources and habitats. She has written numerous publications, including Wetland Management by Local Governments, and helped craft the first edition of the Wetlands Rating System for Western Washington. Dyanne served on the Whidbey Camano Land Trust Board of Directors for six years. She resides in Clinton, in full view of a wetland.

has enjoyed a career of diverse professional experience including serving as Landscape Architect and Grants Analyst for the California State Resources Agency, and teaching positions at UCLA and Cal State Polytechnic University. His teaching experience focused on studio projects for students of Landscape Architecture and Architecture, exploring integration of natural systems with the built environment. Managing grant funded projects, he played a key role in numerous state-funded, community- driven projects in the greater LA area. On Whidbey, Frank was Executive Director at Meerkerk Gardens, before taking up the position of Program Director for South Whidbey at Home. He worked briefly with the Saratoga Community Land Trust where he became interested in a community based approach to affordable housing. He has been living on Whidbey Island since 2014.