Staff
We have a small staff, both paid and volunteer, who run our programs and help behind the scenes.
Teri Hein, Executive Director
Teri is a native Washingtonian, veteran classroom teacher, and published author. She has traveled extensively and taught in Latin America. In addition to awards for her teaching and writing, she received a Fulbright Scholarship to research Ecuador’s varied cultural influences on the learning styles of its children.
Kathleen Goldfarb, Director of Programs
Kathleen comes to 826 Seattle from the alternative world of Seattle Public Schools where she has been a middle school teacher of writing, reading and social studies. When she is not pushing literature on young readers she can be found mining the bookshelves of local thrift stores for the raw materials that support this hobby.
Samar Abulhassan, Programs Coordinator
Samar, a once-upon-a-time obituary writer, looks forward to the lively task of helping the kids of Hamilton Middle School write vivid stories while liberating their unique alphabets. She completed an MFA at Colorado State University in creative writing under a very blue sky. She moved to Seattle last fall from the San Francisco Bay Area, where she wrote poetry and worked in public schools for seven years. She finds the most vital glimmers of home in her notebooks.
Justin Allan, Store and Events Manager
Justin, a multiple discipline artist, purveyor of barn yard noises and faux languages, and long-time stargazer brings his nine plus years retail experience to 826 Seattle as the Store and Events Manager. He attended Everett Community College and Cornish College of the Arts, though a degree in anything substantial continues to elude him. He currently lives in a historic building on First Hill with his temperamental and noisy cat.
Alex Allred, Financial Manager
Alex can usually be found happily crunching numbers in the 826 Seattle office, though she loves numbers and words equally. She studied English and Creative Writing at U.C. Santa Cruz, and served as Archie McPhee’s Accounting Manager for nearly eight years. She and her husband live in Seattle’s Central District and enjoy playing peekaboo and taking naps with their baby daughter.
Sarah Beecroft, Operations Manager
Sarah started volunteering with 826 Seattle what seems like a long time ago. She studied Geography and Philosophy at the University of Colorado and has spent much of her adult life working in social services and making maps and websites. Likes: Robots, science fiction, mechanical pencils, red maple leaves, snowflakes, and when people refer to data as plural. Dislikes: Eggplant, Comic Sans, and the word “webinar.”
Leslye Walton, Programs Coordinator
At the tender age of 6 1/2, Leslye found she was extraordinarily gifted at two things: telling other people what to do, and coming up with delicious stories in which to entertain them whilst doing so. Fast forward a few years, Leslye is now a writer and sometimes teacher with a BA in education and a MA in writing. When she isn’t encouraging young writers at 826 Seattle, Leslye enjoys eating gluten-free pastries, attending yoga classes and writing about the strange and wonderful characters that live in her head. If coloring was considered a respectable hobby for an adult, then coloring would be included on this list as well. Her writing, which tends to lend itself to the genre of Magical Realism, has been compared to the works of Roald Dahl and Tim Burton. For the record, Leslye is afraid of zombies, failure and whales (but that’s a story for another time). She looks forward to the day when she can find her own novel on sale at Half Price Books for $3.50. Leslye currently lives in Tacoma with her fiance, Joe, his dog Asia, and her spirit guide, a cat named Griff.
Janine Beaman, Programs Coordinator
We are very, very excited to have Janine. We wait with baited breath for her bio, which will appear here soon.
Doug Woodbury, Mathematician-in-Residence
Doug is our drop-in tutoring math whiz, one of those rare breeds that can actually explain advanced algebra and trigonometry to even the least enthusiastic high school student. While we have other great math tutors, we count on Doug to head up our math team daily. In his spare time, Doug likes to cook and play obscure German board games. (He also teaches writing workshops!)
Jake Lindsay, Youth Mentor
Jake Lindsay is completing his Senior year in high school through the Running Start Program at Seattle Central Community College. He lives in an old, small, elevated gray house in Wallingford (which is effectively every house in Wallingford) where he can be found writing at his desk, reading on his bed, or playing guitar in an empty bedroom’s closet (where the acoustics are louder and his singing voice sounds more manly). Height: over regulation, width: under regulation; born with extra-ordinary muscular strength, balance, and a perfectly, if not mathematically, symmetrical face (the picture says it all—he made sure Devyn took a picture of his good side); has a remarkable sense of smell, at night, he cannot see; and after a recent buzz-cut gone awry is vehemently planning on growing a pony-tail. Or, by his brother’s words, “Oooh! He-ey, I’m Jake, I’m writing a bio. I’m a hipster— He-ey, don’t do drugs— You know— I read a lot. I write. Hey.”