This year, two new candidates are in the running to join our board of directors. They were nominated by the Nominating and Governance Committee of SJPT’s board after a rigorous selection process, and would bring unique strengths and professional backgrounds to the organization’s strategic oversight at a time when making a strong case for conservation in the San Juan Islands’ future has never been more crucial.

We are pleased to introduce Joe Herrin and Robin Reid as new candidates to join our board, and grateful to them for stepping forward to assume this demanding volunteer role.

Joe Herrin

Joe Herrin is a fourth-generation Seattle-area local with strong ties to the San Juan Islands, having visited them by boat for most of his life. He earned degrees in architecture at WSU and the University of Pennsylvania, then spent nearly a decade doing architectural work for corporations. After a life-changing bicycle ride across the U.S., he left the corporate world and co-founded Heliotrope Architects, a Seattle-based studio whose ecologically sensitive designs include many custom residences in the islands. Joe has volunteered to help with past SJPT fundraising campaigns and has done pro bono architectural consulting on multiple SJPT preserves. In 2002 he and his wife, Belinda, purchased an A-frame cabin on Orcas Island, and they eventually plan to live on the island full-time.

Robin Reid

Robin Reid describes her life’s work as using community-based science to enhance community resilience, conservation, and justice. While earning her Master’s degree in ecology at the University of Washington in the 1980s, she first visited the San Juan Islands and began developing a deep affinity for the Salish Sea region and these islands. She now serves as a Senior Scientist and Professor Emeritae at Colorado State University, continuing to work on community conservation projects here and abroad from her home on Lopez Island. Robin and her family have stewarded the land that is now their home since 1998. Throughout her career she has been a strong advocate for collaboration in conservation. She looks forward to continuing this work as a Preservation Trust board member.

In addition to these two new candidates, five incumbent board members are standing for re-election this year. Click their names to learn more about them.