Board members
BRITTANY PALMER,
PRESIDENT
Brittany Palmer (she/her) is the Executive Director of the North Missoula Community Development Corporation in Missoula, Montana. She brings experience in managing the organization's community land trust portfolio and working in local food and sustainable agriculture, including for a farmer-owned cooperative, to her role at the NMCDC and as Board Vice President for the NWCLTC. As a renter who has personally experienced housing precarity, Brittany believes that housing is a human right and uses this passion to guide the NMCDC and advocate for an equitable community. Brittany has a BA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Cincinnati and an MS in Environmental Studies with a focus in Environmental Justice from the University of Montana where she researched and wrote about whiteness and settler colonialism at the National Bison Range in western Montana.
COURTNEY NAUMANN
VICE PRESIDENT
Courtney Naumann (she/her) is based in Bozeman, Montana representing Headwaters Community Housing Trust. On the shoulders of giants, she leads innovative operations for below-market home sales and directs homeowner stewardship, working to expand regional below-market housing opportunities. Prior to community land trust efforts, she held roles as a conservation district resource planner, planning consultant, and agricultural stewardship program manager across the Pacific Northwest. For four years, she participated in King County, WA's Conservation Futures Advisory Board and equity sub-committee to distribute more than $17 million annually towards open space protection. Courtney is rooted in values of intentionality and reciprocity, exploring the "why's" and "how's" of systems in place and challenging how they can be adapted to better serve.
DAVID ELLSWORTH-KELLER, SECRETARY
David works to provide affordable homeownership opportunities as the Director of the Homeownership Program at Kulshan Community Land Trust in Bellingham, Washington. He came to Kulshan CLT and the Northwest following 11 years working with the Champlain Housing Trust in Burlington, Vermont and one year with the Athens Land Trust in Athens, Georgia. There he became a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Certified Housing Counselor. He earned a Masters in Management with an emphasis in managing mission-driven organizations from Marlboro College in Vermont. He has helped homeowners and homebuyers navigate the process of the purchase and sale contract and closing on over 150 transactions.
NILS PETERSON,
TREASURER
Nils Peterson is Executive Director at Moscow Affordable Housing Trust whose mission is to create affordable homeownership opportunities within the City of Moscow, ID. Peterson came to the position after retiring early from Washington State University. He holds a degree in Architecture, but, having graduated in Reagan's Recession, went on to do other things and is returning to architecture-related work after a 30-year hiatus. Peterson's passion is for sustainable architectural design, balancing those aspirations with the reality of the budgets and subsidies available for affordable housing. "We try to do things with proven long-term value, like extra insulation, even if they don't seem very fancy," he says.
Peterson joined the NWCTLC Board with the hopes of helping the organization grow to serve communities in the Inland NW.
Kim toskey
Kim Toskey originated residential mortgage loans from 2001 to 2017, was a Washington State Housing Finance Commission (WSHFC) Premiere Partner for 10 consecutive years and a Five Star professional for the past seven years. She facilitated conversations between Fannie Mae (FNMA) and community land trusts (CLTs), that streamlined CLT mortgage approvals. She is the founder of Homes and Hope CLT (HHCLT) in Snohomish County, WA. As an affordable housing advocate and volunteer, Kim has served as a housing-related board director since 2006, as well as a financial wellness instructor. She serves on the Washington Low Income Housing Institute Board. Kim and her husband, Peter Catterall are private landlords with both market-rate and subsidized tenants.
alma barraza
Alma Barraza is the Fund Development Director at Proud Ground, Portland, OR. A dedicated bilingual Spanish professional with over 15 years of fundraising and volunteer experience. Alma graduated from California State University, Northridge, with a BS in Business Administration. After owning her own business, she discovered that her passions aligned more closely with nonprofits. From her life experiences in both Mexico and the United States, Alma has been able to recognize that a community can only thrive with equitable access to health services, food security, and housing. She is dedicated to helping break down barriers that are barring people from achieving the life they deserve and the dream of homeownership.
mim mcconnell
Mim McConnell advocates for affordable housing through her role as Co-Executive Director of the Sitka Community Land Trust, Sitka AK. Mim's background includes successfully running her own business since 1998, in addition to positions as a RE/MAX Baranof Realty Realtor®, Welcome Aboard Boat Broker/Owner, and five years employed for a local non-profit as business advisor and project manager. She has served her community by helping to start, and serve as president, an organization seeking to end extreme poverty and hunger and empowering people in Sitka, and decades of experience serving on boards, commissions, assemblies and councils, including serving on regional committees, a Federal council, a national committee and as a City and Borough of Sitka Assembly member and Mayor.
tyrone brown
Tyrone Brown (he/him) is the newest board member of Thurston County Land Trust, and works for Proud Ground, Portland OR. Tyrone has devoted his life to advocate for better protections for tenants, making housing equitable and accessible, in addition to educating the community on their rights. With many years of experience working in housing justice, organizing and policy work alongside his lived experience dealing with housing insecurities a majority of his life, he brings his passion and many skills to his work. Tyrone leads many efforts to deepen equitable practices within organizations, community, policy and any other place BIPOC have historically been excluded from the table. One of the many efforts was founding a Black Leadership Organization called BLAST, in Thurston Co.
chinmayo ricketts
Chinmayo Ricketts is a homeowner with and Board member of the San Juan County Home Trust. She purchased a home in the trust’s Sunrise Neighborhood in 2012. She joined the Board in 2022. With the Board she works to create ‘forever affordable’ housing in San Juan County. She brings understanding of the critical needs for all working class heroes to have affordable stability in their housing.
Through a grant from CCHD she was part of the group that traveled to the NWCLT regional conference in Montana. She later was nominated and accepted into the first Ambassador Program with Grounded Solutions, traveling to Washington DC in 2015 to advocate for assistance and funding for affordable housing. She has attended and spoken at many CLT conferences across the US.
JESSIE BAINES
Jessie Baines is a dynamic community leader whose career began in a moment for social justice, the Thomas et. al. vs. the Puyallup School District class action civil rights lawsuit wherein he and his fellow classmates were subjected to racism and discrimination. Baines would go on to play an integral role in the establishment of the first Office of Diversity Affairs within a public school district in the United States, moving forward Brown vs Board of Education.
A graduate of WSU, Baines represents equality and opportunity in his work. He is the owner of HULK Construction, a Tacoma-based general contracting firm where he oversees business development and client relations.
In 2020, Mr. Baines established the Pierce County Land Trust which is building its first 12 unit development.
MarneyMcClearY
Marney McCleary is a Project Developer for the Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) based in Northwest Montana. She was the Acting Executive Director of the Northwest Montana Community Land Trust (NWMTCLT) during its formation, and is presently a board member. Marney is the Vice-Chairperson for Trust Montana. Marney brings over 30 years of housing experience and expertise to this role. She has developed both single- and multi-family housing, been a Community Development Corporation (CDC) director and housing agency director in a resort community as well as an urban setting. Marney was also an acquisitions manager for a LIHTC syndicator. She was recently appointed to the Whitefish Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.
amy warreN,
EX OFFCIO
Amy Warren is the owner of Hive Development LLC which builds permanently affordable homes in Bend, OR. She was the Co-founder and Executive Director of Kôr Community Land Trust in Bend, OR. Amy has lived in Bend since 1996 and has seen first-hand the change in housing needs in this growing outdoor mecca. She has a passion for environmentally friendly building, and believes that sustainability and affordable housing should go hand-in-hand. Amy has a degree in Energy Systems Engineering and has worked in the construction field since 2002. She spends much of her time away from work with her husband and two daughters, playing in Bend’s great outdoors. Amy is honored to serve as part of the NWCLT team!