Board & Governance

Kristin Berger (She/Her), President, Portland, OR.

Kristin is the author of six poetry collections and the recipient of residencies from Playa, OSU’s Spring Creek Project (Shotpouch, 2016, and H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, 2012), and Starkey Experimental Forest and Range .She was a member of the nonprofit VoiceCatcher Editorial Collective, which empowers women writers and artists in the greater Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA, and co-edited VoiceCatcher 6 (2011) with Toni Partington. Kristin co-hosted The Lents Farmers Market Poetry Series, bringing over 50 local and regional poets to the Lents neighborhood in Portland. Born in Detroit, Michigan, she received a BA in Creative Writing from Western Michigan University. Kristin has lived in the Portland, OR area, for nearly thirty years, and works as the Executive Assistant for Education Northwest, an educational research and services nonprofit. She is the mother to two children and loves to explore the Pacific Northwest’s wild and interconnected landscapes. She currently contributes poetry for the Writing the Land Project, which pairs poets with nature preserves and wilderness areas. More at kristinbergerpoet.com

Gayle Erbe-Hamlin (She/Her), Treasurer, Applegate Valley, OR.                                         

Born on the 100th Meridian, Gayle is deeply connected to western spaces. For many years she has traveled and backpacked all over the Southwest, Great Basin, and Sierra Nevada mountains. She has a deep affinity for the PLAYA landscape and mission. As a director she brings an eclectic background in public service as an administrator in county government and many years working in hospitality as a restaurateur/caterer and innkeeper. She has also worked in R&D as a scientist in forest products. Currently, she is an active member of the Fiber Arts Collective in Ashland, Oregon where she teaches and shows her mixed media work.

Farnaz Fatemi (She/Her), Secretary, Santa Cruz, CA.

Farnaz is an Iranian American writer and editor in Santa Cruz, CA. She is a founding member of The Hive Poetry Collective, which presents a weekly radio show and podcast in Santa Cruz County and hosts readings and poetry-related events, and is Santa Cruz County’s Poet Laureate for 2023 & 2024. She was formerly a writing instructor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her debut book, Sister Tongue زبان خواهر , was published in Sept 2022. It won the 2021 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, selected by Tracy K. Smith, from Kent State University Press and received a Starred Review from Publisher’s Weekly. Farnaz is a recipient of a Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets and an Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council. She has been an artist in residence at Storyknife, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, PLAYA, Willapa Bay AiR, Jentel, I-Park, and Marble House Project. Farnaz’s poems and lyric essays have recently appeared in Poem-a-Day (Poets.org), Tab Journal, Nowruz Journal, Koukash, Pedestal Magazine, Jung Journal, Grist Journal, Catamaran Literary Reader, Crab Orchard Review, SWWIM Daily, Tahoma Literary Review, Tupelo Quarterly, phren-z.org, and several anthologies (including, most recently, Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and its Diaspora, My Shadow Is My Skin: Voices of the Iranian Diaspora and The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 3: Halal If You Hear Me).

Jerri Bartholomew (She/Her), Corvallis Oregon

Jerri is a fisheries microbiologist and glass artist. with an interest in exploring the intersection of these disciplines. As a microbiology professor at Oregon State University, she and her team researched diseases that affect wild Pacific salmon populations, focusing on how human alteration of ecosystems and climate change affect disease interactions. A long-term project in the Klamath River integrates research and monitoring to predict disease effects on salmon both before and following removal of four dams on that river. Since retiring, she continues to direct the Aquatic Animal Health Laboratory, but increasingly spends time coordinating an Art-Sci Interdisciplinary Fellowship for students at Oregon State. This fellowship challenges students to explore how creative artistic practices can not only illustrate, but inform science.

Pepper Trail (He/Him), Ashland, OR

Pepper is an ornithologist, conservationist, writer, and photographer. He began watching birds as a boy in upstate New York and traces his incurable love of travel to a family trip to Mexico when he was twelve. He earned his Ph.D. in ornithology from Cornell University, and has studied birds around the world, from the rainforests of Suriname to the islands of Polynesia. He lives in Ashland, where he served for over 20 years as the ornithologist at the National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory until his retirement in 2021. He is involved in many regional environmental issues, especially the establishment and protection of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Pepper received one of the first awarded residences at Playa, and has been a member of the Playa Board since 2012. He is a regular contributor to Jefferson Public Radio, the Jefferson Journal, and the Writers on the Range syndicated series. His poetry has appeared in Catamaran, Rattle, the Atlanta Review, and many other journals. He is the author of three poetry collections: Flight Time; Cascade-Siskiyou; and An Empty Bowl.

Carolyn Law (She/Her), Seattle, WA

Carolyn’s public art projects range widely ­­ from design team collaborations with designers and/or engineers coupled with extensive interface with agencies and community groups, to artworks integrated into a specific project area. Her award­-winning projects involve a myriad of places – ­ civic plazas, parks, and infrastructure (such as bridges, public transit, wastewater treatment and streetscapes). Her art planning efforts include conceptual and practical outlines for incorporating public art into a wide variety of sites and locations. Civic engagement with a focus on the public arena has also been a priority. Carolyn’s studio work has been shown regionally and nationally. Currently her focus is on drawings as a visual journal of her thinking, interests and research, and temporary sculptural installations in outdoor settings. Finally, she writes on the creative process and public art.