Our Team

Meet the Board of Directors

Village Volunteers’ Board of Directors consists of ten Directors with a strong, balanced blend of skills and experience.

JANA PAGARAN- BOARD PRESIDENT

Jana Pagaran is the Corporate Support Account Manager for KUOW NPR. She has had over16 years of extensive experience in development as an Account Executive for the Seattle Times/ Seattle Post Intelligence, Seattle Magazine and Northwest Home and Garden, Seattle Metropolitan Magazine, and the Seattle Weekly. Jana is also a world traveler, having been everywhere from San Miguel de Allende to Uruguay, Croatia, Turkey, Italy and beyond.

KIMBERLY TIPPENS, ND, MSAOM, MPH

Dr. Tippens received her Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine and a master’s degree in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Bastyr University in Seattle, Washington, and completed a family practice residency at the National College of Natural Medicine with an emphasis on community health. Dr.Tippens was awarded a National Institutes of Health-funded post-doctoral fellowship, received an Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Certificate in Human Investigations, and participated in research evaluating expectancy in the treatment of metabolic syndrome and obesity. Dr. Tippens was granted a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award fellowship receiving training in health disparities and health services research while completing her Master of Public Health degree program through OHSU.

ROBERT HOWE – BOARD TREASURER

Robert Howe is the CFO of Howe Real Estate, LLC, a real estate investor and manager since 2006, and Board Treasurer at Village Volunteers. Robert has over 30 years of executive asset management experience in real estate finance, sales, and accounting. Graduating Magna Cum Laude, Robert earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics from UCLA.

CAROL RADLO, MD

Carol Radlo is a family medicine physician who has practiced in the greater Seattle area since 1991. She received her medical degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and completed her family medicine residency at Swedish Hospital.  In the spring of 2006, Carol traveled to Muhuru Bay with her then 17-year-old daughter and spent two weeks as a Village Volunteer at Mama Maria Kenya Clinic.  Her professional interests include women’s and children’s health, health education and communication, and health systems.  In October 2017 she visited Cuba to learn about its medical education and healthcare delivery systems.

CASEY O’CONNOR

Casey O’Connor works at the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, where she leads research on human rights performance measurement. Prior to joining the Center, Casey was a Senior Researcher in the China program of NYU Law’s Robert L. Bernstein Institute for Human Rights. She also worked as a Senior Program Officer at Human Rights in China, where she oversaw the organization’s international case and policy advocacy. In addition to her work on China, Casey has worked in grants administration for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and conducted research on varied approaches to accessing justice for rights violations, including: legal empowerment of indigenous communities, remedy frameworks for environmental and health impacts in the extractives sector, and through the UN human rights bodies. She holds a J.D. from NYU School of Law and a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Washington.

JOHN AGYAPONG

John Agyapong is a Procurement Manager with the Boeing Company, at the Everett, Washington site. John is responsible for developing innovative support solutions for the Commercial aerospace division, as well as business execution using a functional leadership model. Prior to his employment at Boeing, he worked at Microsoft and AT &T. He is a native of Ghana, West Africa, and immigrated to the United States at the age of 16. John mentors young people at Mariner high school in Everett, where he volunteers in a class primarily geared to encouraging women and minorities to obtain careers in the sciences and engineering. He obtained his BS in Finance from Central Washington University in 1996, and his MS in Finance in 1998.

LEAH COLE

Leah Cole is an integration Consultant at Slalom Consulting. As a Solution Owner, she works with companies across all industries to define and automate business processes resulting in improved operational efficiency. She earned her BA at Bates College with a double major in Politics and Chinese and a concentration in Mathematics. Leah has volunteered with Village Volunteers since 2014, helping with volunteer recruitment and communications. She is an avid traveler, baker and outdoors enthusiast.

LISA LADMER

Lisa Ladmer is an artist, art therapist, and an advocate for the environment, human rights, immigration reform, indigenous peoples, women’s rights, reproductive rights, education and children, especially children of conflict. She has been a featured journalist on several radio programs including Latin American Journal. She has traveled to El Salvador and Guatemala for journalistic work and to participate in art therapy programs for children of conflict. She was the regional director of CISPES in Central California from 1987-1990.  She has a fine arts degree with a minor in political science and sociology from UCSB.

Meet the Advisory Board

The Advisory Board is an international network of experts whose collective abilities, experience, and knowledge complement both the goals of Village Volunteers partnerships and initiatives, as well as the organization as a whole.

TOM TERNES worked for 32 years as an Industrial Engineer at The Boeing Company developing his talents in a wide variety of skills including project planning, project implementation, project cost and schedule monitoring, process standardization and improvement, proposal development and writing, cost accounting, contract management and training of project management and Industrial Engineering techniques. Since retiring in 2010 has volunteered as a consultant with non-profits and NGOs, both internationally and locally, performing a range of tasks including grant writing, fundraising, fleshing out business plans, writing and publishing reports and manuals, documenting project lessons learned, developing safety and health plans, creating and teaching an ergonomics course, translating websites and creating marketing posters and brochures. Tom holds a BS degree in Psychology from Washington State University as well as certificates from the University of Washington in Project Management, Fundraising Management and Technical Writing and Editing.

RENEE GASTINEAU, MBA is owner and president of Gastineau Communications Inc., a Seattle-based public relations and communications consulting business that works with social enterprises. Ms. Gastineau has a diverse background in communications and public affairs, including news reporting, media relations, corporate communications and event planning. Ms. Gastineau is the author of business trend and marketing articles for professional journals and educational websites. She earned an MBA from Seattle University, a B.A. in Communication and English from James Madison University; a Certificate in Management from the University of Washington; and recently earned the distinction of Accredited Business Communicator (ABC), from the International Association of Business Communicators.

ZEPHANIAH AJODE is a young conservationist in Kenya with great passion for building healthy ecosystems, community development and youth empowerment. He earned his Tourism and Wildlife Management Diploma from Moi University, Kenya. Mr. Ajode has worked for several non-profits and community-based organizations initiating sustainable projects such as organic farming, ecological sanitation, agroforestry; aquaculture, etc. He is an environmental educator, has non-profit management as well as environmental restoration experience. Mr. Ajobe has just completed his Earthcorps Leadership and Restoration training for future Global Environmental Leaders course in the US, and was asked to be an Ecology Educator at the University of Arizona, Cooper Center for Environmental Learning. He was one of twelve to be chosen for the Earthwatch Europe Fellowship program in 2010.

BRIAN P. MAGNUM, PhD received his MS in Medical Anthropology from Idaho State University and became an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Anthropology, where he focused his teaching and research on international healthcare and sustainable development. During this time, Brian developed a post-baccalaureate certificate program in medical anthropology that includes a significant international healthcare experience in the Caribbean Basin. Brian currently resides there as the core international faculty while conducting fieldwork for his joint MPH/PhD in Public Health Epidemiology. He brings a varied background in medical anthropology, public health, and medicine, ethnography consultant to preserve and record cultures.

RISHO EDWARD SAPANO a native of Sudan, Ms. Sapano has worked, both in her homeland as well as in the United States, in the area of disaster relief and community development. Ms. Sapano has worked as Program Field Officer for the Canadian Save the Children Fund in Sudan where she managed relief projects intended for internally displaced persons. These projects included supplementary feeding centers, primary healthcare clinics, education, income-generation activities, and water sanitation services. She also worked for the Sudanese National Committee for Eradication of Harmful Traditional Practices affecting women and girls. For ten years, she held leadership positions with the Sudanese Red Crescent Society and the Sudanese Girl Guides Association. She represented both organizations within Sudan and abroad in Austria, Egypt and Libya. Following her move to the United States, Ms. Sapano attended Clark University in Massachusetts, where she earned her master’s degree in International Development and Social Change. After graduation, she joined Oxfam America in Boston as the Program Assistant for Africa, providing programs and administrative support for the organization’s regional programs in Southern and West Africa. Ms. Sapano is also a member of the American Red Cross.

JONATHAN M. SCHERCH, PhD  is a the Dean of the Graduate Programs in Environment and Community at Antioch University, Seattle, WA. A certified permaculture designer and teacher, his background includes more than 25 years of sustainable community organizing and development initiatives, place-based appropriate technology design and applications, and teaching across five universities. Dr. Scherch is also a Returned United States Peace Corps Volunteer (Jamaica, 1991-93, Community Development Sector), and he teaches and consults on ecological design strategies emphasizing low impact solutions and local resource use.

IN MEMORY: RICHARD MICHAEL TUCKER, MD (1956 – 2007) was a medical doctor specializing in infectious disease at the Wenatchee Valley Clinic where he was a Clinical Associate Professor for the School of Medicine at the University of Washington. Dr. Tucker was also a medical staff member at Central Washington Hospital. He received a Masters of Business Administration through the American College of Physician Executives at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dr. Tucker was a member of the North Central Washington Rural Health Foundation, and in 2000 served as chairman of both the Continuing Medical Education Committee and the Board of Directors. In addition, Dr. Tucker worked on the development of a healthcare delivery system for HIV/AIDS in the rural clinics that work with Village Volunteers. As published in the Seattle Times from June 2 to June 3, 2007:

“Richard was a pillar to his community where he was the medical director for quality and education at the Wenatchee Valley Medical Center and an infectious disease specialist. He was also vice-chairman of the medical center’s board of directors. He started the medical center’s research department in the 1990s and for many years worked with people suffering from infectious diseases, and the underserved and underprivileged. He was committed to his patients, his community, his family and his friends. In addition to his many local commitments, he was working with an African relief organization to develop a vaccine program and health care delivery system for villages in Africa ravaged by AIDS and HIV.”