Andy Bessler

Born and raised in Colorado, Andy has lived in Flagstaff for the past 10 years. He is a graduate from Northern Arizona University with a MA in applied cultural anthropology with a focus on cultural concepts of boundaries. Before starting work for the Sierra Club in 1999, Andy's work connecting environmental conservation and cultural diversity included sea turtle protection in Central Mexico with the University de Guadalajara and sustainable agriculture in West Africa with Hausa villagers. As the Tribal Partnership Representative for the Sierra Club, Andy continues to explore the important connections with tribal partners for environmental protection and healthy communities. As a proud member of the F³ board, Andy and his wife Erin, a local business owner of the Yoga Experience (www.theyogaexperience.com), continue to raise their kids, Noah and Ruby, in this great mountain town and expect Flagstaff’s future is bright and sustainable.

Tish Bogan-Ozmun

Tish was born in Washington DC and lived there until moving to the hills of Kentucky when she was 10. After meeting the forest in Kentucky, she moved to Oklahoma and met the prairie as well as her husband Jon Ozmun. She and Jon moved to Flagstaff with their daughters in 1974 when Jon joined the faculty at NAU. Tish started her real estate career in 1976 while raising a growing family. With children and grandchildren living in Flagstaff, Tish is committed to doing everything possible to make Flagstaff a great place to live. In addition to being on the F³ board, Tish is president of the board of Habitat Harmony, Inc. and is active in the Shared Earth Network, a citywide faith-based network for envoronmental activism. Tish’s educational background includes a BA in English and an MA in Philosophy. Working for the preservation of wildlife and habitat are especially close to her heart!

Rom Coles

Amanda Dominguez

Amanda is a Flagstaff native and has been employed at Safeway for 11 years. She recently received a degree in Criminal Justice from Coconino Community College. She is looking forward to working with Friends of Flagstaff's Future to learn about different aspects of our town and is also looking forward to sharing her ideas about the future of Flagstaff.

Debbie Leavitt

Debbie Leavitt, Professional Photographer, was educated in Chicago, Madison, and Santa Barbara, where she accomplished a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Brooks Institute of Photography. As a rock/celebrity photographer in Los Angeles, she captured images of the famous from Bono to Zappa. Leavitt's work has been published internationally, including Rolling Stone, People and the L.A. Times. Her clients include Rhino Entertainment, MGM Pictures, and Scottsdale's Westin-Kierland Resort/Herberger Collection. www.DebbieLeavitt.com Life Philosophy: "Time flies, whether you're having fun or not." In her second term on the board, Debbie is pleased to carry on the fight to maintain Flagstaff's livable environment and economic health.

Eva Putzová

Eva—born, raised, and well educated in Slovakia—is interested in community planning and development suited to human scale. Adopting the pre-automobile development practices of mixed-use pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods, she believes, leads to happier and more sustainable communities and preserves open space. Experienced in strategic planning, social research, and marketing, Eva works for NAU and runs a small consulting business focused on the higher education community.

Lisa Rayner

The daughter of a chemist and a biologist, Lisa Rayner has long had an interest in the natural world. She spent much of her time exploring the forest around her Delaware home. She teaches sustainable cooking and permaculture workshops in northern Arizona. Lisa Rayner has a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resource Interpretation from Northern Arizona University (1991). She is a graduate of the 1993 Black Mesa Permaculture Project's Design Certification Course and 1994 Coconino County Master Gardener Program. Lisa published a small community newspaper with her husband Dan Frazier, Flagstaff Tea Party, and ran a community currency program called Flagstaff Neighborly Notes from 2000–2002. Lisa is the author of the books Growing Food in the Southwest Mountains, The Sunny Side of Cooking solar cookbook, and Wild Bread sourdough cookbook. In 2008 Lisa won the Martin-Springer Institute Moral Courage Award and the Friends of Flagstaff’s Future Liveable Community Award.

Eric Souders

After bouncing around the country for a few years, post formative years in the cornbelt, Eric got off a Greyhound bus in Tucson Arizona in 1990 and never got back on. He spent the next seven years designing and installing photovoltaic systems throughout southern Arizona and preaching the evils of coal, bad corporate behavior and consumptive lifestyles. As luck would have it, an opportunity to become a financial advisor in Flagstaff appeared in 1997 and Eric jumped on the chance to make the move to Flagstaff and help people plan for their futures. Eric is now an independent financial advisor with Ascendant Financial Solutions, a local, family owned advisory firm. Eric believes that what we invest in comes back to us as a community and culture in either positive or negative ways, and his passion is to encourage and support a sustainable economy locally and globally. His personal mission is to keep Flagstaff a wonderful place to live so that his daughter will want to stay here when she grows up. He is an active volunteer for Coconino County Sustainable Economic Development Initiative, board member of Arizona Llama Rescue Inc., a 4-H leader and county fair superintendent. In the mean time, pack trips with his llamas and family, making waste vegetable oil fuel, gardening, playing the banjo and brewing beer keep him busy.

Miguel Vásquez

Miguel is a native of San Francisco, educated at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and the highlands of Guatemala in applied anthropology and agricultural development. Since coming to Flagstaff in 1989 as professor of anthropology at NAU, his work has involved Hopi terrace gardens, cultural preservation, globalization and its impacts, and community ethnography. Currently he is a board member of the Museum of Northern Arizona, the Coconino County Supervisors Hispanic Advisory Board, the Arizona Association of Chicanos for Higher Education, The Arboretum of Flagstaff, and the NAU Commission on Ethnic Diversity. In the past he has served on the boards of the Society for Applied Anthropology and the International Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture. In joining F³ he says, "The whole world seems sometimes to be going to hell, but some places are going a little more slowly, and Flagstaff seems to be one of them. I'd like to help keep it that way." In 2009 Miguel received NAU’s distinguished professor of the year award.

Tamara Wallace Ramirez

Tamara works with the Program in Community, Culture, and Environment at Northern Arizona University. She holds a B.A. in Public Humanities from NAU, and is completing a Master’s thesis on the role of the arts in creating a sustainable culture through NAU’s Master of Liberal Studies Program on “Good and Sustainable Communities.” Tamara serves on Flagstaff’s Beautification and Public Art Commission, the Northern Arizona Book Festival Board, and on Flagstaff Foodlink’s board of directors. She lives here with her husband, David.

Marilyn Weissman

Marilyn Has lived in Flagstaff for 17 years. Originally from N.Y., she also spent many years in Chicago and San Diego. She’s glad to live in a town that has the open mindedness of a big city but lots of open space, easy access to outdoor activities and a community concerned about keeping those qualities into the future. She owns Four Winds Land Surveys, Inc, a small land surveying business in town and along with many years volunteering for F³ projects she is also active in the local chapter of her professional organization and Flagpro, a professional referral organization for small businesses. Marilyn is excited about serving on the board of F³ and combining her knowledge of growth and development issues with her commitment to sustaining a livable city with all of Flagstaff’s great qualities.