Board Members

Katie Schielke – President

Katie is originally from Port Angeles and Olympia and moved to the Seattle area in 1997. She attended the UW where she received a BS in Human Centered Design and Engineering and a BA in Psychology. She spent her early years working in technology and then went on to business management consulting in financial services. She now spends her time as a community advocate, using her technology and business skills to benefit nonprofits and the City of Shoreline. She is passionate about getting kids and our community outside in nature, and spent the last four years as a member of the Shoreline Parks Board. She fell in love with Kruckeberg Garden years ago, and is looking forward to raising our community’s awareness of this special place. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking and playing in her large garden in Richmond Highlands.

John Hushagen – Vice President

John was raised on a small farm in southwest Washington state by transplanted Minnesota dairy farmers. Following a Lutheran upbringing, he graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in 1973 with a degree in American history. After many years of vocational trial and error, he trained to be an arborist and received a master’s degree in Urban Horticulture from the UW.  In 1985, after grad school, he started a tree care company, Seattle Tree Preservation, Inc., which he sold in 2018. He now works part-time as a consulting arborist. He and his wife, Jan, have many trees and shrubs in their Innis Arden garden purchased at the KBG nursery.

Rissa Sanchez – Secretary

Rissa Sanchez is a transplanted Californian who resides in Shoreline. She is grateful to be able to find respite under the canopy of the conifers at the Kruckeberg Botanical Garden or on the shores of Puget Sound. Over the years, her gardening interests have shifted from intensive vegetable gardening to a more relaxed approach with native and xeriscape landscaping. With retirement as a Research Project Manager from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center around the corner, she is thrilled to have joined the KBGF board to help shape and support the future of this Shoreline refuge.

Christina Arcidy

Christina is originally from the Boston area and moved to the PWN over 20 years ago, with 10 of those years being here in Shoreline. Growing up, she enjoyed playing outside all four seasons of the year in both her mother’s vegetable garden and the woody wetlands near her parents’ home. She comes to Kruckeberg with a background in nonprofit management and youth recreation programming. Christina currently works for the City of Shoreline doing policy analysis and program management in the City Manager’s Office. She believes there is a place for everyone in Shoreline and is excited to bring new people of all backgrounds to the Kruckeberg Garden for contemplation, education, and inspiration. In her free time she enjoys tending her own small edible and ornamental gardens, adventuring with her school-age child, and knitting for her friends and family.

Rejean Idzerda

After growing up in Ohio, where Rejean helped her grandfather tend his vegetable garden, she meandered west, attended college in San Francisco, and grew her very own first tomatoes. Graduate school brought her to Seattle, where she earned a Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the University of Washington, followed by a career in teaching and research in molecular endocrinology as a professor while raising two boys with her husband. She then turned her attention to her main passion—environmental protection, serving in several community organizations, and advocating for political and social action on the environment and climate change. When not out working for the environment, Rejean is out enjoying it. She’s a huge proponent of parks, gardens, and all open space, being so important for the stability and health of the ecosystem and all the plants and animals, including humans, that are part of that web.

Julia Cox

Julia graduated from UC Davis with a BS in Landscape Architecture and minors in landscape restoration and horticulture. After a decade working for public parks in her native California, she moved to Shoreline with her family in 2018. With two young kids at home, Julia has been looking for ways to contribute to the community and is excited to be a part of the Kruckeberg Garden. Julia brings professional experience in public land planning, management, and design. She is currently interested in how our local landscapes can be more resilient to climate change.