President: Seth Caswell

Chef Seth Caswell understands the importance of the farmer-chef connection at the Settle restaurants for which he's cooked, including his recent stint as Executive Chef at Stumbling Goat Bistro. After training for more than a decade in New York, his return to Seattle allows him to work with sustainable businesses and support local farms. As President of Seattle Chefs Collaborative, he strives to educate diners, chefs, and co-producers about issues of sustainability. For Chef Caswell, supporting local farms means altering menus to accommodate what is seasonal and locally available.

Vice President: Zachary Lyons

Zachary D. Lyons is the Vice President of the Seattle Chapter of Chefs Collaborative, a freelance writer specializing in food and agriculture, and a local food system event organizer. He has been published in numerous publications, including Growing For Market, NewFarm.org, Pacific Fishing, SeattleDining.com, Seattle Business Monthly, Seattle Magazine, Seattle Weekly, Touch The Soil, and Wild Catch Magazine. He coauthored the Washington State Farmers Market Manual (Washington State University, 2008).

Lyons served as Executive Director of the Washington State Farmers Market Association from 1999-2005, and during his tenure, he served on the board of the National Association of Farmers Market Nutrition Programs and the board of the From the Heart of Washington Campaign, Washington's agriculture promotion campaign. He recruited Farm Aid to come to Seattle in 2004, and he served as the primary organizer and liaison for all local events surrounding that event. Since its inception in 2006, he has been the lead organizer of Washington State University's annual Seattle event that showcases what the University is doing for Washington's food and agriculture communities by pairing faculty with farmers with chefs.

Lyons is a veteran certified barbecue judge in both the Pacific Northwest Barbecue Association and the Kansas City Barbecue Society. He has served on the board of the Seattle Chapter of Chefs Collaborative since 2000.

Secretary: Michelle Clair

"The kitchen, the garden...my most formative imprints early in life. I watched the best ingredients get plucked from the garden, go straight to the kitchen and then on to the table, our table of sharing and warm conversation.

Both my grandmothers put me to work on a stool in the kitchen when I was young. Margo, my grandmother in San Francisco had a small garden of lettuce and salad ingredients all year 'round (and let's not foret the rhubarb and chard!!). Raised on a farm in Iowa, Margo was accustomed to everything used in the kitchen coming from the family land. She made the best apple pie and silver dollar pancakes in the world. Then there was Gramma Vera...she lived on top of a great big mountain surrounded by a vineyard in Calistoga. I just remember a garden of huge flowers, huge vegetables, towering fruit trees and full vines. The chickens were an added bonus! Her dinner parties were known to last well into the night.

Both my grandmothers instilled in me the importance of fresh creative food, how to set a table with class, how to enjoy it with friends and loved ones, and how to take joy in the simple things in life...I am forever grateful.

As a Catering Director for Bon Appetit Management Company, I have been able to strike a balance in my personal & work life. Bon Appetit promotes at a national level my years-long philosophy at a personal level..."Food Service for a Sustainable Future." Now, as the Secretary for Seattle Chefs Collaborative, I'm honored to share my philosophy with others by educating them that to get back to the local land is not only the better tasting thing to do, but also the most socially responsible way to live our lives. I'm a fortunate woman to have something fun and valuable to me also be my profession!"

Treasurer: Meg Chadsey

Meg Chadsey does not cook professionally, but she's always been 'culinarily' inclined. Her appreciation for the bounty and flavors of the Northwest first developed when her family moved to Vashon Island in Puget Sound, where abandoned fruit and nut orchards, berries of all sorts, wild mushrooms and the unfortunate inhabitants of the intertidal zone inspired many happy hours afield and in the kitchen. A biologist by training, she recognizes that this abundance will disappear if the ecosystem that supports it continues to be degraded by development and poor resource management. She was looking for a way to educate consumers about the perils of unsustainable fishing many years back, when she stumbled into a Seattle Chefs Collaborative meet & greet at the Essential Baking Company, featuring Thundering Hooves grass-pastured meats. At last-a way to indulge her twin passions of food & conservation! She's been an active board member ever since...

Sargent of Arms: Alison Leber

Alison Leber is the Program Director of the Flagship Program - a not-for-profit project of Beecher's Handmade Cheese/Pasta & Co/Bennett's/Pure Food Bistro in Seattle, Washington. The Flagship Program is dedicated to educating people on benefits of pure, all-natural foods through nutrition education workshops in elementary schools through out the Puget Sound and Portland areas. Alison is the former owner of Brie & Bordeaux - Bistro, Cheese & Wine shop in the Seattle area. The French influenced bistro utilized local, seasonal ingredients before it was in vogue and the Cheese & wine shop specialized in local and imported farmstead cheese. Her background includes stints Seattle area restaurants such as Café Juanita and Gerard's Relais de Lyon, and in the wine industry - from the making to the selling! Alison is a self proclaimed food geek. She is passionate about real food.

Board Member: Nathan Hambley

Nathan Hambley is a senior account executive at Frause, a Northwest communications agency. He has a diverse professional background that includes time as an aide in the U.S. Congress as well as time behind the line at several of Seattle’s notable restaurants (Rover’s, Saleh al Lago, Mistral and Café Lago). He also spent a stint as an apprentice in the kitchen at Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte in Bordeaux. While there, he gained a deeper appreciation for food and wine and learned what powerful drivers the two can be for a region’s economy. Nathan holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Washington and a master’s in international affairs from The George Washington University.

Board Member: Ashlyn Forshner

Ashlyn has a varied background in the culinary industry ranging from food styling to private culinary instruction. She attended the Quillisascut Farm School in the summer of 2003 and her photographs of the farm have appeared in Northwest Palate Magazine, on the Farm AID website, and in the book Renewing the Countryside. Her travels have taken her to six continents, which have helped shape, both her photography and food styles. Ashlyn is a graduate of the Seattle Culinary Academy and supplemented her culinary education with classes at the Samui Institute of Thai Culinary Arts in Ko Samui, Thailand. As well as working in many Seattle Restaurants and Catering Events, she has been a teacher’s assistant for a Food Politics class at the Seattle Culinary Academy and photographed the Academy’s pilot chef/farmer program.

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Other Board Members

Look here for biographies of other board members. Coming soon!