At the close of 2020, we said goodbye to two board members whose terms had ended: Joe McDermott of Seattle and Paul Parker of Olympia. The term of Board President Holly Chamberlain also ended, though she will serve one more year as Immediate Past President. Our deepest appreciation goes to all of them for their service.

Four new board members, elected at the virtual Annual Members Meeting last fall, began a three-year term of service this year: Kelly Clark of Hansville, Matt Inpanbutr of Seattle, Raymond Rast of Spokane, and Bryan Zagers of Seattle.

New Board Members:

Kelly Clark holds both an MBA and a law degree from New York University. As founder and CEO of KWClark Executive Consulting, she works to provide advisory services and long-term strategic thinking to organizations seeking to improve performance. For 18 years, she worked for Carnival Corporation/Holland America Group, overseeing ethical, environmental, and regulatory compliance across the company. With nearly two decades’ experience in maritime law, executive leadership, and strategic planning, she’s excited to help the Washington Trust launch the new Maritime Washington National Heritage Area which brings together stakeholders from across the region.

As a graduate from the University of Illinois-Chicago School of Architecture, with studies at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture in Versailles, France, Matt Inpanbutr has more than 15 years of experience in architecture, concentrating on design, documentation, and construction administration of commercial and public existing buildings, including historic properties. In his capacity as Principal at SHKS Architects, he has worked on such award-winning preservation/restoration projects as the Washington State Legislative Building, Lake Wilderness Lodge, and Bellingham Federal Building. He also serves on the City of Seattle’s Landmarks Preservation Board.

With a Ph.D. in History from the University of Washington, Raymond Rast is an Associate Professor of History at Gonzaga University in Spokane. His scholarship focuses on tourism, mobility, social and cultural diversity, historic preservation, and “sense of place” in the modern American West. He also serves as a current member of the Spokane Historic Landmarks Commission and Latinos in Heritage Conservation. He has written several National Register and National Historic Landmark nominations and has also worked directly with the National Park Service in various consulting roles, including serving as the lead historian for NPS’s Cesar Chavez Special Resource Study which led to President Obama’s creation of the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in 2012.

A Principal with Coughlin Porter Lundeen in Seattle, Bryan Zagers’ interest in historic structures started during his research into the behavior of steel-brick masonry infill buildings while obtaining his Master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In his 23-year career in structural engineering, he has specialized in historic renovation projects, investigating historic buildings to find their inherent strengths and to reuse old materials and reduce the impact of structural/seismic interventions on the historic fabric of the building. He has helped to preserve some of Seattle’s most iconic structures, including Smith Tower, Washington Hall, Cadillac Hotel, and MOHAI. Bryan chairs the statewide committee of structural engineers that focuses on existing buildings.