Passages Northwest - Staff
Jenny Bath, After School Program Manager
jenny "at" passagesnw.org

Angeli Bhatt, Girls Rock Program Assistant
angeli "at" passagesnw.org

Lisa Chaiet, Girls Wilderness Program Manager
lisa "at" passagesnw.org

Robin Chiles, Outreach & Community Program Manager
robin "at" passagesnw.org

Stacy Mercier Earlywine, Co-Program
stacy "at" passagesnw.org

Lisa Foss, Temporary Office Manager
lisaf "at" passagesnw.org

Allegra Guarino, Outreach & Community Program Assistant
allegra "at" passagesnw.org

Katie Hultquist, Executive Director
katie "at" passagesnw.org

Erica Nixon Mack, Co-Program Director
erica "at" passagesnw.org

Ileana Ruelas, Office Manager
ileana "at" passagesnw.org

Caitlin Sampson, Girls Wilderness Program Assistant
caitlin "at" passagesnw.org


Staff Bios

After School Program Manager: Jenny Bath
Jenny brings lots of laughter to Passages. She has been laughing now for 30 years and counting. Although she does not remember the first time, she began laughing when she was just a baby. Over the years she has invested great time and practice to the art of laughing at herself, at life, and as often as possible. She has been privileged enough to travel to Europe, Jamaica, India, Chile, and Argentina and meet tons of different kinds of people. One of her favorite hobbies is to get to know people who are very different from her and laugh with them. She has worked in the Outdoor Education field for 9 years with Outward Bound and a few private schools. She received a B.A. degree in Outdoor Leadership from Warren Wilson College. While she has a dear affinity for the deep South where she grew up, the Northwest has become her home where she enjoys climbing, biking, yoga, fly fishing, eating sushi, and of course……laughing!

Girls Rock Program Assistant: Angeli Bhatt
Angeli is deeply devoted to community outreach, and developing outlets for youth to succeed outside of traditional education. She recently graduated from UW with a Bachelor’s in Political Science and Sociology, and hopes to one day pursue graduate school. She considers herself a dabbler of sorts. In her spare time she likes to spend her energies trying to cultivate the twenty-thousand different interests she has at the moment. She is a lover of the impromptu dance party, dorky art projects, and movement of any sort.

Girls Wilderness Program Manager: Lisa Chaiet
Lisa joined the staff in October 2007 after two seasons in Antarctica and three years teaching mountaineering in Alaska, Washington, and California for Outward Bound. Between getting a bachelors degree in Environmental Science with dual minors in Geology and Sociology, Lisa spent six seasons working on and leading trail maintenance crews across the wilderness areas of the Northwest. She founded and led the Safe Zone project at the University of Idaho, serving to educate the campus environment about LGBTQI issues. An adventurer and an activist, Lisa is dedicated to social change, personal growth, international bicycle touring, and eating sushi.

Outreach & Community Program Manager: Robin Chiles
Robin Chiles comes to Passages Northwest with a life long passion for the outdoors. Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland her fondest memories were of adventures on and around the Chesapeake Bay and horseback riding in rural Baltimore County. She considers herself a life long learner, always looking for new adventures. Her greatest adventure to date is being the mother of five children- one son and four daughters. She has a background in art history/studio art and worked at The Baltimore Museum of Art as their Community Coordinator and most recently as the Outreach Coordinator for the energy assistance program in Seattle. She is a docent naturalist at Discovery Park. This position at PNW will allow her to utilize four of her passions the arts, stewardship of the environment, empowerment of girls, and education.

School Based Programs Manager: Stacy Mercier Earlywine
Stacy’s work is driven by the fundamental belief that girls have an inherent capacity for leadership. Growing up in Maine, she was exposed early on to the power of wild places. Reflecting back, it was the walks in the woods with her family and listening to the calls of loons from the lake in her front yard that instilled a deep respect for and a love of nature. Stacy received her BFA in Dance in 1994 and discovered climbing the following year after moving to Seattle. Stacy believes these two life pursuits have pushed her physically, creatively, and mentally to uncover what she is truly made of. It is this sense of personal discovery she hopes to share with the girls she works with. She’s climbed, hiked, and explored her way through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, India, Tibet, Nepal, and Guatemala. She has a deep appreciation for the diversity of our world. When she’s not out on a Passages course or working with the Girls Rock! program, Stacy volunteers as a lead climbing instructor with the Washington Alpine Club and has worked as a field instructor for Outward Bound. She loves to cook, climb, ski, backpack, dance and ride her bike.

Temporary Office Manager: Lisa Foss
Lisa has worn many hats at Passages Northwest. After teaching in traditional settings for many years, she came to Passages originally as a Girls Wilderness instructor in 2001, and has taught several rock-climbing and backpacking courses as well as women’s day trips through the years. She also served as the Women’s Program Manager for 3 years before taking some time off to raise her young daughter, Lillian. Lisa is thrilled to be back as temporary Office Manager, and she trusts that some other opportunity to work at Passages will show up after this position expires!

Outreach & Community Program Assistant: Allegra Guarino
Allegra comes to Passages from The Hudson Valley in New York. After spending two years studying Social Work in Washington D.C., she moved here to begin a more ecological line of study. She is currently finishing her undergraduate degree through Skidmore College in The University Without Walls. In Seattle, she likes to hike with her dog Dakota, play the banjo, explore new coffee places, and check out live folk music. She feels that growing up in nature has shaped a huge part of who she is and wants to be a part of making nature something every girl can tap into. Allegra is excited to spend time with the women of the future through her outreach role here with us.

Executive Director: Katie Hultquist
Katie brings a commitment to social and economic justice to Passages Northwest. Most recently, she served as the Assistant Development Director for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice in Washington, DC. Previously, she helped young people create their own community enterprises at Youth Venture, a spin-off of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. In 1996, she worked on the finance team for Harvey Gantt, candidate for U.S. Senate in North Carolina. Katie holds a B.A. in International Studies from the University of North Carolina and an Executive Masters in Not-for-Profit Leadership from Seattle University. Her interests include running, singing, and exploring the Pacific Northwest. Katie has enjoyed competing in recreational events such as the Dublin Marathon, the Washington, DC AIDS Ride, and the Danskin Triathlon.

Program Director: Erica Nixon Mack
Erica Nixon Mack comes to Passages Northwest after spending much of her last six years working for the North Carolina Outward Bound School as field instructor, climber, and whitewater specialist. She also spent a great deal of time traveling, climbing in the Southwestern US, volunteering for “the Service Bus,” living in Guatemala, mountaineering in South America, and reconnecting with her first career by working as a Physical Therapist. Erica is a “Hoosier,” having grown up in Indiana and graduated from Indiana University with a BS in Physical Therapy. She is passionate about social justice issues and believes in the ability of group experiences in the wilderness to teach people of their own inherent power. She came to Passages Northwest to further those passions in a more urban setting, and is excited to focus her energy on and girls. She loves poetry (slam or otherwise), climbing (rock or tree), running, doing yoga, being connected to a sense of community, the quote by Ghandi, “be the change you seek in the world,” and feeling connected to nature.

Office Manager (Temporarily On Leave): Ileana Haunani Ruelas
Ileana’s roots are from the Waianae coast on the island of Oahu, in Hawaii. She moved to Seattle three years ago, and is currently an aspiring breakdancer. In her spare time she loves to spend time with seniors and children, eat, sing karaoke, swim, use weed whackers, and dance (of course). Throughout her working tenure she has enjoyed her experiences as a community developer in SeaTac, a grant writer, a Hawaiian Language teacher, and a program coordinator in Lynnwood. She has traveled throughout the Hawaiian Islands, New Zealand, Fiji, local Senior Centers, and federal prisons to invest in the work of economic and social justice in our communities. The composition of her current vocation includes pouring her passion into her role at Passages, and a church called Ohana Project. Ileana holds a B.A. from the University of Hawaii in Sociology, and is in hiatus from her ‘thrilling’ M.A. pursuits. In her lifetime she would like to paddle the Molokai channel, be a taro farmer, and never stop dancing.

Girls Wilderness Program Assistant: Caitlin Sampson
Caitlin began her life in Eastern Oregon, learning to ride horses, play the drums, sing, and dance with the support of her family. She dreamed of becoming a rodeo queen, or perhaps, one day, a country music singer. When she graduated from high school, she traded in her spurs for a backpack and climbing shoes and began her quest to educate youth about the environment and social justice issues. Since completing an internship with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry Outdoor Science Camps, and a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Education at Lewis & Clark College, she has been instructing for many different outdoor education organizations. Coming to Passages is a step toward fulfilling her life goal of influencing positive change in the lives of others and the communities in which she lives.