I have been the Executive Director of the South King Tool Library in Federal Way since 2019, and proud of our growth, expansion, and adaptability. We bring a great service, and message to the region and fulfill a need within our community. We opened our second branch in Auburn in October 2023, with an innovative approach to lending in the Outlet Mall for the region. We hold repair cafes, recycling events, classes, workshops, swaps, and other partnership events to increase our reach with the goals of waste reduction at the center.

Growing up in Hampton Roads, Virginia, my family and I were always involved in volunteering – from church luncheons, to Thanksgiving servings, to Special Olympics events, and environmental cleanups. When my own family set down their roots in Federal Way, I decided to find a community project I could really support. I could not have found a better fit than the passionate group of volunteers that formed and run the South King Tool Library. I never thought that my passion could turn into a journey to a career.

I studied International Business, Chinese Archaeology, Japanese Architecture and Gardens at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia before moving to Seattle in 2008. I spent 11 years in the field of Warehousing, Distribution and Supply Chain Logistics.

Brigitte Sistig is the Founder of Repair Network Aotearoa (RNA). She is a creative and committed grassroots community leader who enjoys working collaboratively and networking collectively. Her vision of the RNA ecosystem engendered a solid foundation across multiple sectors in New Zealand integrated in the international Right to Repair Movement. Brigitte actively works toward enabling communities, businesses, and government to co-create a repair culture in Aotearoa.

email: nzrepaircafeinfo at gmail dot com

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/repair-café-aotearoa-nz-8b8095250/

Candice is Shareable’s Program Manager. Candice has trained to become an Organizer over the last 4 years with the Industrial Areas Foundation. She is passionate about the progression of her local community, voter education and registration, social justice, and women’s rights.

Part of the broader Repair Café North Carolina network, Dan started WNC Repair Cafe in 2018, where he continues to organize community repair workshops throughout the western North Carolina region.

Out of his small shop in Weaverville NC, Dan operates Circle Works llc, a small firm that develops appropriate technology for creating value from waste streams and improving small farm efficiency. He’s an experienced educator, gardener, occasional artist and professional fabricator.

He writes music with his band for fun and is raising two children with his wife, Summer.

Dante is chief executive officer of Community Gearbox, an app empowering people and organizations to gather, share, and care for material goods amongst people they know and trust. He brings over a decade of organizing and storytelling in climate and social movements. In his spare time he maintains his connection to grassroots organizing as a facilitator & trainer with the Center for Story-based Strategy.

Eleanor is the Deputy Executive Director & Mid-Hudson Clean Energy Communities Program Manager at Hudson Valley Regional Council. Ms. Peck works on the NYSERDA Clean Energy Communities Program, providing support to communities working to reduce energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions through the implementation of cost-saving clean energy projects.

Presentation: The role of New York’s Climate Smart Communities program in expanding community repair

Elizabeth Chin Start (she/her) is the founder of Start Consulting Group LLC. Her career has spanned work in the circular economy for the last 21 years, with a focus on materials management, especially reuse. This work has spanned local government, private industry, nonprofit, and consulting. Elizabeth founded Start Consulting Group to ensure inclusion, equity, and justice are ingrained in the circular economy. She builds relationships through trust, communication, and empowerment to develop and create strong organizational cultures. Elizabeth is also a reuse artist and magpie who uses any shiny discarded object she can find.  

Emily Barker (she/her) has served as the Executive Director of Reuse Minnesota since August 2021. Her role is to lead the organization, build partnerships, and support the reuse sector throughout Minnesota. Previously, she was a solid waste specialist for the City of St. Louis Park where she championed and implemented reuse-based programs from swaps to deconstruction of city-owned buildings. Emily also worked two and a half years at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency where she focused on commercial and state agency recycling and composting. Emily is originally from Montana and has a biology degree from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington.

Hazel Onsrud is a public librarian in Brunswick, Maine at Curtis Memorial Library, which also serves as a Climate Resilience Hub. She is a mentor and Advisory Board member of Sustainable Libraries Initiative, a MECollab Steering Committee teammate, a LOT Mutual Aid Group coordinator and a 2014 Library Journal Mover & Shaker. Hazel tends to work on community programming and collection development, including an extensive library of things focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Prior to joining Curtis Memorial Library, Hazel co-founded the Maine Tool Library, and in her free time she likes to create things, eat moles and design gardens.

Jason Naumann (he/him) is a visual artist and communications professional for schools, food trucks, landscapers, and more. He began volunteering as a librarian and designer for Green Lents Community Tool Library in 2015. He is very happy to bring all of this experience together with a new mobile tool library through Rockwood Common in Gresham, OR.

Jon is the Technology Librarian at the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, Maine. He focuses his programs on continuing education for adults whether that is computer, trade or life skills. Jon is passionate about growing the Repair Café the library began and has grown though partnerships between several community organizations. When not in the library, he enjoys baking, tackling new DIY programs and playing with his two dogs.

Justin Avellar helps small businesses and nonprofits with a wide range of transactional legal issues such as contracts, employment law, and corporate formation and governance. After working for an international law firm in New York City, Justin decided he wanted the opportunity to make a positive, local impact so he opened up his own law firm, Avellar PLLC, in Seattle.

Justin is committed to giving back. He is an active volunteer and board chair at Seattle REconomy (the parent org of the NE Seattle Tool Library) and is a board member at Meaningful Movies Project. In his free time, Justin enjoys gardening, discussing sustainability, cooking, and outdoor activities with his spouse and dogs. He earned his BA from Tulane University and JD from the University of Chicago Law School. He has lived all over the US and is thrilled to call the PNW his home.

Kami is the schemer-behind-the-scenes of Repair x Reuse WA and leads the Repair Economy efforts: connecting, convening, and elevating the work of fixers, tool librarians, remakers, and small repair/reuse businesses. Born and raised in Nashville, Kami found her jam in community organizing – and had the honor of working with incredible people and organizations across the city and state. She then spent the 2010’s in New Orleans and Los Angeles before arriving in Washington in January 2020. Kami earned a BA in Religious Studies from The University of the South (Sewanee); an MS from Tulane University – focusing on sustainable organizational development and community disaster resilience; and completed an Urban Permaculture Design Certificate in Detroit in 2012. Besides her interests in systems thinking and organizational capacity-building, she loves serving as connective tissue between great people and great ideas.

email: kami at repairreuse dot org
LI: linkedin.com/in/kamibruner

Laura is a systems-thinking, research designer with over 15 years experience in materials reuse. Laura uses research methodologies in order to understand, quantify, and measure the impact of consumerism. Trained in environmental science with a masters in sustainable interior design, Laura worked as a materials researcher at Material ConneXion and a project manager at the NYC Center for Materials Reuse prior to joining Hyloh.

Director of Research and Programs, The Maintainers

I have been part of The Maintainers team since August 2020, and support the team in various capacity building areas including organizational development, community coordination, and research. My background is in non-profit development, academic research, feminist education and community health programs. I am specially interested in the intersection of maintenance with social care, and in the development of a research agenda that meaningfully bridges disciplines together.

Leanna Frick (she/her) is a lifelong organizer with a career in nonprofit fundraising and management. She began volunteering with her local tool library, the Station North TL in Baltimore, in 2015 and never looked back. 

Director of Operations and Engagement, The Maintainers

I have been with The Maintainers since March 2022. I provide operational support for fellow and partnership led events and conduct strategic community outreach. Formerly, I worked at the leadership level of a national nonprofit supporting rural schools and teachers. My interests take place at the crux of belonging, low-waste lifestyles, place-based arts, and reproductive rights. I’m especially excited by networks of community care, and look forward to enacting authentic and meaningful events and partnerships for The Maintainers.

Mya Keyzers (looks like Key-zers, sounds like Kaisers), (she/her) works for the Recycling Market Development Center (Center), within the Solid Waste Program of Washington State Department of Ecology. The Center is a partnership between Washington Department of Commerce that focuses on Circular Economy principles by developing domestic markets and processing infrastructure for Washington’s recycled commodities and products. The Center provides research, innovation, and technical assistance to convene equitable stakeholder engagement that builds a stronger circular economy for Washington.

Nathan leads U.S. PIRG’s Right to Repair campaign, working to pass legislation that will prevent companies from blocking consumers’ ability to fix their own electronics. Nathan lives in Arlington, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children.

Paige is Shareable’s Communications Manager. Paige has a background in design, art, and communications and is passionate about storytelling, building community, and organizing to build a better world.

Dr. Sabrina Chakori is a postdoctoral researcher at CSIRO, Australia’s National Science Agency, educator and multi-award social entrepreneur committed to building a socially just and ecologically sustainable society. Her research explores degrowth transitions across different  domains, such as food systems and circular models.

With over 17 years of experience, Sabrina has led numerous collaborations globally, including an initiative with Queensland’s Environment Minister to introduce the law banning single-use plastic bags. To translate her degrowth knowledge into practice, in 2017, she founded the Brisbane Tool Library (BTL), a social enterprise that encourages people to borrow various items with the goal of reducing productivism and consumerism. BTL has been Australia’s first and only ‘library of things’ hosted in a public library, at the State Library of Queensland. Her work led to several recognitions, including the WasteSmart Brisbane City Council Award (2023), Create Change: 7News Young Achiever Award (QLD, 2020), and the Emerging Female Leader bursary from the National Council of Women of Queensland (2020). Sabrina is also a co-founding editor of the Degrowth Journal, a journal that explores degrowth, embraces slow science and advances the decommodification of knowledge. Sabrina is a Planetary Health Equity Hothouse Fellow (Australian National University) and Post Growth Institute associate fellow.

Shaunna is a dedicated advocate for the circular economy model, emphasizing sustainability through conservation, reuse, and community empowerment. She believes that fostering a culture of repair and resource-sharing can build resilient local economies while reducing waste. At The Makers Hub, Shaunna integrates these values, focusing on practical solutions that encourage people to extend product life cycles, reduce environmental impact, and cultivate self-reliance within their communities

Since 2019, Shelby has supported herself by running a small art business, Cactus to Pine, that upcycles retired outdoor gear into new products. With her pup, Huckleberry, she’s been traveling by camper all over the country, selling her products as she traveled. Last year, she came home to Western NC where she began volunteering with the Asheville Tool Library and Western NC Repair Cafe and putting down permanent roots in Marshall. 

Suzie Fromer is the coordinator for Repair Cafe Hudson Valley, a consortium of over 50 Repair Cafes that was founded by John Wackman in 2013. The daughter of antique dealers who specialized in the restoration of vintage furniture and woodworking tools, Suzie grew up shopping at flea markets and antique shows for vintage jewelry as well as assisting in her father’s workshop. A lifelong gem and mineral collector, she learned metalsmithing and jewelry making first as a camper at Buck’s Rock Creative Work Camp and later as a teaching assistant at Dartmouth College’s Clafin Jewelry Studio. She has spent the last 18 years in Westchester, NY, where she has run a food allergy support group, been an advocate for OIT food allergy treatments, chaired the board of her local farmers market and run a jewelry making and repair business. She started volunteering as a jewelry repair coach for the Hastings Repair Cafe in 2019 and fell in love with the repair cafe concept. Suzie lives in Irvington, NY with her husband and two teenage boys and can be found fixing jewelry at a Repair Cafe throughout the Hudson Valley almost every weekend.

Sydney Porter (she/her) is the Program Coordinator for Sustainability and Circular Economy at Seattle Good Business Network, a coalition of residents, local businesses, non-profits, and municipal organizations. She began her work in sustainability during her time as an Environmental Studies student at the University of Washington. In her time as a student, Sydney led grassroots campaigns to pass legislation in Washington to promote sustainable, thriving communities. In her two years at Seattle Good, Sydney has applied her systems thinking and education in community-based environmental movements to advance a circular economy across Washington industries. Sydney works with local businesses and public sector partners to provide individualized sustainability guidance, convene around shared goals and challenges, and leverage the power of community to create peer-based circular systems.

As the former lead of the innovative Columbia Springs‘ Repair Clark County program, Terra brings a wealth of expertise in event coordination and volunteer management. Raised on 70 acres of forest in southern Oregon, Terra has always had a strong earth ethic. Terra earned a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Science, with an emphasis in public education and has been running environmentally focused events for more than a decade. 

Tina is lead planner & circular economy strategist for the Recycling Market Development Center at the Washington State Department of Ecology. Tina’s work at the Center focuses on market development for recyclable materials in Washington state. She currently leads the Center’s repair and reuse efforts including the NextCycle Washington project.

Tina started her work with Ecology as an intern in 2000 in the Water Quality Program. She spent six years working with the Water Resources Program on water rights and well drilling issues, and most recently spent six years as the Children’s Safe Products lead with the Hazardous Waste Program.

Tina holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Policy and is a graduate of Huxley College of the Environment at Western Washington University.

Tom is the interim executive director for Shareable. He is also the executive producer and host of the award-winning documentary film and podcast series “The Response,” producer of the “Cities@Tufts Podcast,” co-facilitator of SolidarityWorks, and communications lead for the Rural Power Coalition.

Since forever I’ve worked with my hands and felt an urgency about taking care of what we’re fortunate enough to have. My biographical scaffolding begins in South Texas. Then the East Coast for liberal arts, finance, social ethics and theology, and ultimately the Bay Area. Over those years — a corporate run, community service, momhood, and all along the way: fixing stuff and making things that are meaningful to me. I started The Culture of Repair Project in 2017 when I couldn’t stand walking by one more thing left on the curb that just needed a screw or a dab of glue. The project’s mission is for repair to be an actionable and pervasive cultural value and is now principally focused on bringing repair into K-12 educational settings. This work currently takes the form of collating details about and links to teaching resources around the world, making grants, and information sharing. 

Theoretically, I balance advocating for repair with an art practice (www.vitawells.net), but balance is elusive. Finally, I know the Camino de Compostela quite well and am ever looking for flechas — following the field of stars.