Meet the Team
Staff
Lopez Solid Waste operates under a Governing Board comprised of all current members of the San Juan County Council, as well as a Managing Board of Lopez community members. Our staff is a mix of full-time, part-time, and on-call employees, and we rely on a dynamic team of dedicated volunteers who've always been central to the LSWDD story.
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Ric Carr, District Manager & Public Records Official | rickc@lopezsolidwaste.org
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Colby White, Facility Manager | colbyw@lopezsolidwaste.org
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Jessica Deckwa, Facility Administrator | jessicad@lopezsolidwaste.org
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Sarah Reeves, Community Outreach & Volunteer Coordinator | sarahr@lopezsolidwaste.org
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Rachel Henderson | Take It Or Leave It (TIOLI) | rachelh@lopezsolidwaste.org
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Terry Archer, Operations Assistant & Driver
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Noah Burker, Operations Assistant
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Mary Coffey, Operations Assistant
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Dan Post, Driver
Managing Board
Pam Stewart – Chair | pams@lopezsolidwaste.org
Term expires 12/31/2028
Pam "Stewie" Stewart came to Lopez in 2017 after 40 years in Seattle. A native of Connecticut, she received her undergraduate degree in education from the University of Connecticut and a master's degree in Urban Planning from Florida State University. Pam spent 38 years at the University of Washington, where she was responsible for capital budgeting, campus development, and technology infrastructure planning. Now retired, she's directing her efforts toward activities on Lopez.
Ross MacDonald – Vice Chair | rossm@lopezsolidwaste.org
Term exp. 12/31/2028
Ross is a retired professor, administrator, and consultant in higher education. He worked across disciplines, but always with a social justice agenda. Most of his work was in the language arts, agricultural and environmental sciences, and schools of engineering and business. He also worked on peace and justice initiatives with international organizations and governments in Basque Country, Iran, and Haiti. He has been living full-time on Lopez since 2016.
Gene Helfman – Secretary | geneh@lopezsolidwaste.org
Term exp. 12/31/2026
Gene earned degrees from California, Hawai'i, and Cornell to land a faculty position at the University of Georgia's Odum School of Ecology, where he spent 30 years teaching fish biology, animal behavior, and conservation biology. His research focused on fish behavior and conservation, which led him to write textbooks in those fields, as well as general interest books about fish and sharks. He retired to Lopez in 2017 where he morphed into a fiction writer, publishing novels about sharks and killer whales.
Cyndi Smith | cyndis@lopezsolidwaste.org
Term exp. 10/14/2025
Cyndi started as a Dump volunteer and joined the LSWDD board in 2021. She has a B.S. in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. She is a naturalist and is passionate about island conservation and meadow restoration. She can usually be found outside, propagating native wildflowers, ripping out noxious weeds, or searching for pollinators.
John Trench | johnt@lopezsolidwaste.org
Term exp. 6/30/2027
A native of New York, John has a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Maryland. He became a part-time resident of Lopez in 2000, moving to the island full-time in 2018. John worked in financial services sales and marketing, and before moving to Lopez volunteered as a math tutor for GED students, at a Seattle nonprofit offering citizenship training, and for 15 years at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue. John is passionate about environmental conservation, and you'll often see him picking up garbage on the roadside and volunteering in the recycling area at the Dump.
June Coover | junec@lopezsolidwaste.org
Term exp. 1/31/2028
June joined the LSWDD board in 2024, bringing her expertise as an environmental engineer and certified environmental auditor, with 35 years of environmental consulting experiencing working with industrial clients. Since moving to Lopez in 2019, and retiring fully in 2022, June has engaged in numerous volunteer activities with local nonprofits. When not volunteering, you can find her at the gym or on the pickleball court.