Our Crew
WMC Staff and Personnel
Jon Erdman
Executive Director
Jon’s first experience of the magic of the Wrangell Mountains Center came soon after his arrival in 2014 when he attended the WMC’s Wrangell Mountains Writing Workshop. The experience inspired creativity and also implanted in Jon the desire to invest in the unique creative culture found in the Wrangells and at the WMC.
Jon has an accounting degree and two decades of professional experience in business management and public accounting. He is grateful to reside in the Kennicott-McCarthy community as his year-round home, and in his role as Executive Director Jon feels endlessly inspired to cultivate artistic exploration and scientific inquiry in a deeper appreciation for this incredible place.
Sabrina Simon
Director of Operations and Organizational Development
Sabrina is a farmer, a yoga teacher, a world traveler, an intentional community communard and has aspirations of contributing to a more connected and more just post-capitalist society. She is passionate about creating community, healing relationships with Mother Nature, singing, ritual and creating sacred space for individual and collective healing, growth, and connection.
Professionally, she is passionate about nonprofit work that focuses on the environment while creating greater access to education and programs that will shift our societies priorities toward protecting land, water, culture, food and nurturing its inherent relationship with the Earth. She recently returned to the states from Peru and is excited about continuing her intentional community tour which will take her to Portugal in the fall. She feels deeply honored to be working with WMC and is hopeful that she can be of great service to the organization.
Michelle McAfee
Development & Social Media Management
Michelle fell in love with McCarthy in 2010 during a block party music performance followed by a backcountry trip into the Wrangell Mountains. Through the Wrangell Mountains Art Center, she taught a songwriting workshop, created the Living Room Concert Series at Porphyry Place, and was a co-facilitator of Riversong with Nancy Cook. She is a writer, music-lover, photographer, and gardener based in Southern Oregon, land of the Takelma.
Tamara Egans Harper
Administrative Assistant
Tamara joined the WMC in 2012 as coordinator of events at the Kennecott Recreation Hall, which WMC manages. She's worked for WMC since then, assisting with various administrative tasks, including maintaining the WMC’s database of donors, keeping track of all of our wonderful supporters and partners.
Tamara and her husband have lived in McCarthy since 2003 and she enjoys gardening, birdwatching, skiing, biking, hiking, cooking and welcoming guests to her tinycabin bed and breakfast during the summers.
Varia
Operations Manager/Facilities Coordinator
Varia arrived in the Wrangell Mountains Center (and Alaska) for the first time in Summer of 2022. She joined the WMC community as Facilities Intern, and quickly hopped in to all the goings on on WMC campus. She stays involved helping to coordinate our Facilities Committee, assisting development projects for the upcoming season. We are excited to have her back for the 2023 season!
Varia loves learning how to make just about anything, whether it’s shoyu, ceramics, or seeding tables. She laughs easily, talks to herself often, and can usually be found reading, cooking something experimental, or stopped short in the woods shamelessly fawning over moss.
Joey Boots-Ebenfield Program Coordinator, Field Studies Program
Joey first came to McCarthy as a WMC volunteer in 2021, and quickly realized he had found a place to take root. Returning as staff the next summer, he helped plan and run programs and worked on facilities projects while continuing to get to know McCarthy and the Wrangells.
Joey started a PhD at the University of Maine in 2022, focusing on social-ecological relationships of the circumpolar north. He is beyond excited to weave his research into the Wrangell Mountains Center Field Studies Program, where his roles as program coordinator and as an instructor will allow him to explore themes of community and place-based research, holistic systems science, and local climate adaptation while learning more about the land alongside students and other partners.
He loves wandering among the glaciers, rivers, and mountains, backcountry building projects, learning the lore of local flora and fauna, propagating mischief, and laughing with friends; all easy things to find in the Wrangells.
Katina Leier
Katina hails from Connecticut, but has spent her recent years farming and traveling around most of the U.S. and Mexico. She graduated from University of Vermont with a degree in Environmental Studies with concentration in Food Systems and Community Development. She has worked in food systems in various capacities - from the agricultural end of production farming, the consumer end in the service industry, to the social side of migrant farmworker rights. Her hobbies include reading, knitting, playing a spirited game of Uno, and putting her body into natural bodies of water. She teaches gardening and natural science in NYC.
Kristin Link /
AIR Program Coordinator,
Field Studies Program Instructor,
Instructor for Field Sketching and Journaling Workshop and Community Group
Kristin Link is a fine artist, science illustrator, and educator who lives on the Nizina River just outside McCarthy. She works with the WMC as an instructor and facilitates the Meg Hunt Artist Residency Program. She has worked with the WMC in various capacities since 2010, including stints and Program Associate and as Executive Director. You can learn more about Kristin’s work on her website: www.KristinIllustration.com.
Ben Shaine
Field Studies Academic Coordinator
Ben has taught with the Wrangell Mountains Center’s college programs since their inception and provides a link for the Center with the academic community. His novel Alaska Dragon (Fireweed Press 1991), set in the Wrangell Mountains, explores the contemporary significance of wildness. He co-authored the Center’s Community and Copper in a Wild Land, an overview of the McCarthy area published in cooperation with the National Park Service. During congressional consideration of legislation designating Alaska parklands, Ben handled Wrangell-St. Elias issues for the Alaska Coalition. His master’s thesis evaluated management alternatives for the Wrangells and his PhD is in environmental studies. Ben and his family developed their homestead on the mountainside near Kennecott, where he lives, writes, wanders and wonders about the power of the Wrangells revealed in its details.
benshaine@gmail.com
A Peek back at WMC Staff and Friends
Video by Dave Sarbell