Meet Our Board
- Syrenka Slettebak, President
- Molly Schoeb, Program Chair
- Holly Rowlette, Treasurer
- Sara Rigel, Continuing Education Chair*
- Mark Shaw, National Delegate*
- Devon Love, Advocacy Chair
- Rebecca Hall, Newsletter Chair
- Heather Larson, Website Chair
Syrenka Slettebak, President
Syrenka is Manager of Community Health Education and Volunteer Programs for Northwest Kidney Centers, a non-profit, community based, healthcare organization. In this role, she manages community outreach efforts and health education programs which address the needs of populations most at risk. Before devoting her time to kidney disease prevention and organ donation promotion, Syrenka's background was in social and health services. She has worked for: Safeplace/Rape Relief, Thurston County Headstart/ECEAP, Harborview Medical Center's STD Clinic, Thurston County Refugee Center, Planned Parenthood's Sex Information Line, Cedar River Clinic: A Feminist Women’s Health Center, and The Evergreen State College Women's Health Clinic. She was a member of PNW SOPHE for six years before becoming Membership Chair. In June 2006, Syrenka was elected President of PNW SOPHE, and is currently serving her second term in this capacity. She is proud of all that PNW SOPHE has accomplished in the last year and hopes to build on our chapter’s success.
Contact Syrenka at president@pnwsophe.org.
Molly Schoeb, Program Chair
Molly Schoeb is the Education Program Manager with the Living Legacy Foundation, a non-profit organization educating on organ and tissue donation. Her role drives the high school, college and attorney education programs on organ and tissue donation throughout Washington, Montana, Idaho and Alaska. Molly has a Bachelor of Science degree in Community Health Education from the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse (UW-L). Prior to moving to Seattle she worked on a variety of health education topics with area leaders through her positions at Bloomington, MN Public Health Department, American Cancer Society, Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation and Wauwatosa, WI school district. As Programs Chair for PNW SOPHE, she aims to build partnerships with existing and potential members in outlying states of our region (i.e. WA, MT, ID, AK and OR).
Contact Molly at programchair@pnwsophe.org.
Holly Rowlette, Treasurer
Holly is a student of the University of Phoenix and will graduate in October 2007. She is studying human services management. After graduation she is looking to pursue a Masters in Nursing from Seattle University. Previously, Holly completed an internship at Northwest Kidney Centers, where she is now working as a dialysis technician. Her professional experience is unique and varied. She has been a security guard, courier and bookkeeper and she even trained to become a fire fighter! In the role of treasurer, she oversees the financial health of our chapter, and has served in this role for 1 ½ years.
Contact Holly at treasurer@pnwsophe.org.
Sara Rigel, Continuing Education Chair*
Sara Rigel has been the PNW SOPHE Continuing Education Chair since 2002. In this role, she actively helps community agencies and organizations offer continuing education credits for Certified Health Education Specialists. Sara has worked since 2003 at Swedish Medical Center and is currently the manager for the Patient/Family Education & Community Health Department. Additionally, she is responsible for the management of the Douglas Health Education Center, Ballard Teen Health Center, Joslin Diabetes Center and all of Swedish’s patient education and community outreach programs. Before moving to Seattle, Sara spent several years providing injury prevention education at the Medical Center of Louisiana, Charity Hospital in New Orleans.
* currently serving two-year term
Contact Sara at education@pnwsophe.org.
Mark Shaw, National Delegate*
Mark is our National Delegate and recently worked to represent our chapter's interests in a very important debate on the restructuring of National SOPHE and its governance. Mark has worked in the field of health education and wellness for 15 years, the last 10 with college students. Currently he is Director of Health Promotion at Hall Health Primary Care Center at the University of Washington.
* currently serving two-year term
Contact Mark at nationaldelegate@pnwsophe.org.
Devon Love, Advocacy Chair
Devon Love has worked in the health care field for over 11 years. In her day-to-day profession, Devon works as a health
educator for the Center for MultiCultural Health (CMCH), conducting community outreach and health education in the African American community on issues including diabetes, infant mortality and related diseases and health issues such as nutrition, obesity, physical activity and
cardiovascular disease. In her past five years with CMCH, Devon has helped to move the organization forward in its outreach efforts and goals through local and national presentations which have enabled the work of CMCH to be recognized and influential in the community.
Devon also serves as Chair for the Steps to a Health King County consortium, a grant funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, working to reduce the affects of asthma, diabetes and obesity on the residents of Seattle & King County. Prior to joining CMCH, Devon served as Education Program Coordinator for the Washington Health Foundation where she planned, coordinated and evaluated conferences throughout Washington State. One of the most treasured aspects of her life is to be able to provide linkages to information that her community may not otherwise access.
In her year as Advocacy Chair with PNW SOPHE, Devon has worked to bring additional value to PNW SOPHE membership by providing a link to National SOPHE through the “News U Can Use.” In addition, she previously worked as Coordinator of Youth Ministries for St. Mary’s Parish where she still has an ongoing presence.
Contact Devon at advocacy@pnwsophe.org.
Rebecca Hall, Newsletter Chair
Rebecca is a 2006 graduate of Western Washington University’s Community Health program. While working nights full-time and attending Western full-time, Rebecca was a college peer health educator and assisted in numerous health education projects in her community.
Rebecca’s passion for community health and social justice can be seen in her vast array of experience in health education and program planning. While at Western she assisted in the planning and implementation of a skin cancer prevention campaign for childcare workers at Blossom Childcare. Similarly she assisted in the development of a mock breastfeeding program and campaign for Lummi Nation in order to increase the number of Native American woman who breastfeed in Whatcom County. Lastly, she assisted in the development of a migrant farmworker health survey in order to assess baseline farmworker health status in Whatcom County.
During her internship at Skagit Valley Hospital in Mt. Vernon, Washington she created an employee wellness challenge in order to promote employee health, assisted in the planning and evaluation of the 2006 Women’s Health Fair and Expo, and assisted in the planning and implementation of a Safe Routes to School Campaign for Lincoln Elementary. She has also been on the planning committee for Bellingham’s Bike to School and Work Day for the last five years.
Her technological skills have benefited the health education community. Besides designing numerous handouts, bulletin boards, and presentations; she designed the student and supervisor internship manuals for Western’s Community Health Program and assisted in the development of Western’s "Walk, Bike, Bus" Social Marketing Campaign to increase alternative transportation usage among Western faculty and students. Rebecca has a passion for community health and social justice and hopes to attend graduate school in the near future. Likewise she hopes to grow in her public health professional experiences and develop the needed skills to succeed and be an agent of change.
Contact Rebecca at newsletter@pnwsophe.org.
Heather Larson, Website Chair
Heather Larson is the Website and Health Information Manager at Hall Health Primary Care Center at the University of Washington. Prior to moving to Seattle in 2005, she worked as a Web consultant for a number of non-profit, educational organizations, and businesses in the Los Angeles area. Previously, she worked as a special projects manager developing online training presentations and web-based projects for a streaming media company in Los Angeles; and as an educational research assistant and webmaster at the University of California, Los Angeles. She holds a B.A. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. In addition to technology, psychology, and education, some of her interests include music, travel, politics, the arts, and women's issues.
Contact Heather at website@pnwsophe.org.