Board of Directors

Board President

Chris Ziobro

Chris is a Principal Product Designer at Cargado who loves finding elegant solutions for customer needs.

As a Wild Society parent, Chris has witnessed the transformative impact of the programs on his own family. This firsthand experience inspired him to join the board, where he’s committed to ensuring these opportunities continue to flourish for children throughout the community.

When he’s not designing or volunteering, you’ll find Chris exploring the outdoors with his family in Edmonds.

Board Secretary

Caroline Dempsey

For as long as she can remember, Caroline’s favorite spaces have been those without four walls. These special outdoor places have varied throughout her life. As she grew up playgrounds and sports fields were the perfect place to romp around with friends. From this chapter, the power of games and play still stick with Caroline as her preferred mode of interaction. She learned a lot about herself from athletics, as she played soccer through college at Washington University in St. Louis. After college, the desert became a sacred place to learn alongside teenagers at an outdoor therapy company where she worked as a guide for two impactful years.

Currently, Caroline is a Health and Fitness Specialist at The Meridian School in Seattle where she celebrates building community through movement with her students! 

Board Treasurer

Myrna Keliher

Myrna co-founded Wild Society with Forrest Nichols in 2014, thanks to a lifelong passion for spending time in the Olympic Mountains and a grave concern for the future conservation of our wild public lands. Having seen the impact of our programs firsthand over many years, and now with kids of her own, Wild Society’s mission and values only ring ever more vital. Myrna brings years of experience in teaching, community building, and business administration as well as expertise in communications strategy, implementation, and design. She is the artist and owner of Expedition Press, a poetry-focused letterpress shop, named for her first Olympic thru-hike at age 15 on the Press Expedition trail. Myrna lives in south Seattle with her family.

Board Member

Carolyn Hartness

Carolyn, Eastern Band Cherokee / Norwegian, is a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Educator and Consultant committed to a life of service assisting individuals, families and communities to create spiritually based wellness for themselves and future generations. She has been working with diverse communities, tribes and nations in the US, including Alaska and Hawaii, since 1991. She works extensively in Canada, including the Yukon Territory and has presented and consulted internationally in Australia, New Zealand and Norway. Carolyn grew up in the Northwest camping and hiking with her family and friends from the time she was a small child. Her father and elders in the Native American community taught her the importance of connecting with the beauty, wildness and wholeness and interconnectedness of the natural world. She has a deep spiritual connection to the mysteries held within this incredible landscape.Carolyn was part of a program through United Indians of All Tribes exposing youth living on the streets of Seattle to nature by bringing youth to the ocean for a week of camping and exploration. Carolyn conducts workshops on cultural diversity and wellness and works with clients privately. She has recently been featured in a book by Lisette Garcia, Poderosas: Conversations With Extraordinary, Ordinary Women.

Board Member

Jeff Steele

Jeff was born and raised on the shores of the Puget Sound. He began his teaching career in the outdoor environmental education program at Camp Orkila in the San Juan Islands, WA. He soon became their director of the Wilderness Expedition Program where he oversaw sea kayaking, sailing, rock climbing, backpacking and mountain biking expeditions for several years. In this role he fully understood that unless we ask our children to do meaningful things with their young lives, we will have a difficult time fostering the sense of citizen-leadership that we would hope for from our next generation. From high school physics to 7th and 8th grade biology, Jeff is passionate about education and has come full circle, currently serving as Senior Program Director of Camp Orkila. Through his various roles as an educator he has developed a vision of education that fosters and focuses a strong sense of curiosity about our world and ourselves and a practice that is deeply connected to what it means to fully inhabit a local community. Jeff lives on Orcas Island with his wife Alyssa Knickerbocker and kids Rowan, Remy, and Mari.