Who We Are
The Skagit Housing Consortium is a member-led organization.
Jarrod Ball | President
Paul Woodmansee
Richard Brocksmith
Richard moved to Mount Vernon in 2013 with his wife and two young children. They quickly recognized that Mount Vernon is an amazing community and special place worthy of protecting and nurturing. Richard is committed to that endeavor and looks forward to working with the residents of Mount Vernon and our partnering organizations to make our future as bright as our past.
Richard has Bachelors and Masters degrees in science and served as a research scientist across the Western United States before settling in Port Townsend and then Poulsbo in 2001. Richard has worked for the last 17 years leading regional partnerships across government, non-governmental organizations, and citizen groups to conserve Puget Sound's natural resources and economic and cultural legacy. Richard believes that active involvement, good communication, and strategic partnerships working towards scientifically and culturally-based goals will serve Mount Vernon well.
Richard has been and will continue to be heavily involved in the community. He is the Executive Director of the Skagit Watershed Council based in downtown Mount Vernon. He is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Mount Vernon including serving as the Chair of the Scholarship Committee. He is on the Board of Directors of the Mount Vernon Public Schools Foundation and volunteers regularly in our public schools. He is engaged in Skagit County's Community Emergency Response Training program and served on Mount Vernon's Planning Commission.
Jarrod Ball is a commercial real estate broker in Burlington and has been an entrepreneur, and a non-profit and business leader. He led youth and adult trail building teams, taught backcountry first aid, instructed trails maintenance and construction, and spent winters working as a professional ski patroller.
He started his real estate career at Twin Falls Title & Escrow Company, a startup company in southern Idaho. As part of the leadership team, he helped grow the business to a five-county operation. Jarrod also led complex transactions including large dairy operations, ranches, industrial projects, wind farms and even the largest conveyance of water rights in the State of Idaho. He and his wife, Marina, founded and operated a 1031 tax deferred exchange company, Equity Exchange Services.
During the financial downturn of 2008, Jarrod left Idaho to join the Student Conservation Association (SCA), a national non-profit dedicated to building conservation leaders. Jarrod began as a field leader, growing with the organization to ultimately serve as the Director of Risk Management and Training. In 2019, Jarrod became a Commercial Real Estate Broker, joining Learned Commercial, Inc, working with business owners, investors, and tenants of all sizes.
Jarrod is a graduate of Leadership Skagit, board member with Mount Vernon Kiwanis, and serves on the board of the Skagit Housing Consortium. An Idaho native, he can be found skiing, fly fishing and generally recreating with his family outside of Burlington, Washington.
About Paul Woodmansee
Kelli Baker
About Kelli Baker
Dustin Johnson
About Dustin Johnson
John Sternlicht
John Sternlicht has served as the CEO of the Economic Development Alliance of Skagit County (EDASC) since July 2015. Previously, John worked in economic development at both the regional (King County, WA) and state (Virginia) levels as well as in the private sector, and also served as Deputy Secretary of Commerce and Trade for Virginia Governor Mark Warner. After having earned degrees from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and the University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill, John practiced law in the private and public sectors for over 20 years in NC and VA after his clerkship on the North Carolina Supreme Court. John also studied journalism and communications at the Université de Fribourg (Switzerland), and speaks French, German and Spanish. He has presented across the US and abroad on economic development, equity and inclusion, incentives, negotiation, and organizational development. John and his husband James love living in Skagit County with its majestic beauty and, even more importantly, amazing people. Together they have three sons, two daughters-in-law, and a brand new granddaughter!
Audrea Woll
About Audrea Woll
Shelley Kjos
About Shelley Kjos
Bill Henkel
Bill Henkel is Executive Director of Community Action of Skagit County, a multi-service nonprofit agency that touches the lives of over 34,000 per year, helping about a quarter of Skagit County’s population by stabilizing lives, equipping families to exit poverty, and strengthening our community.
Bill first joined Community Action in 1999, and has served as its Literacy Program Manager, Community Services Director, and, since 2008, Executive Director. His past experience includes as founding Director of the Whatcom Homeless Service Center, a coordinated, communitywide approach to ending homelessness, and as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali, West Africa, at the time the second poorest country in the world. He earned a BA in Economics from William and Mary, and an MA in Communication and Writing from Oregon State University. He serves or has served on many boards locally and regionally, including Mount Vernon Chamber’s Board (immediate past president); Skagit County’s Population Health Trust (Steering Committee); the WA State Community Action Partnership (past President); and many other local and regional boards. He is also a member and former community services chair on the Skagit-Mount Vernon Rotary.
Though his agency’s anti-poverty portfolio is broad, Bill has taken a special interest in preventing homelessness and creating housing that people can afford and where they can thrive. Recently, Community Action began developing its own housing, and is exploring the creative frontier of affordable housing creation, such as private developer--nonprofit partnerships, social investment strategies, and re-purposing under-utilized commercial office space into residential. In all his work, he is most interested in collective strategies to solve our community’s most pressing issues.