Kari IsaacsonChair
Kari Isaacson retired from Walla Walla’s Blue Mountain Community Foundation in the fall of 2020 after seven years. Her work there to help the people of four counties in SE Washington and NE Oregon resulted in tremendous growth in assets, scholarships, and early resources for the 2020 US Census, and helping people through the 2020 flood and early days of the pandemic. After retirement she volunteered for the local Democratic Party as a poll watcher in the 2020 general election. She became Party Treasurer in 2021 and was elected Chair in 2022. She is a lifelong Democrat whose first political volunteering was going door to door for candidates in the 1968 presidential election in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University and University of Oregon School of Law and had a successful 40-year career in the nonprofit sector. She has raised millions of dollars over her career to help people and has supervised annual grant budgets of over $25 million at several major foundations to help children and strengthen rural economies, including Native Communities. She also worked in business, with Frank Russell Company of Tacoma and as an executive with UnitedHealth Group. She has served on numerous nonprofit boards. Growing up in a Scandinavian and Lutheran community in Portland, she comes from a family with a strong work ethic. As a kid she worked in the fields during summers picking strawberries, raspberries, and beans, and worked through college and graduate school. Her grandparents and great-grandparents homesteaded in the Midwest in the late 1880s and early 1890s, finally selling the land 100 years later. Like all homesteaders, they worked incredibly hard and also were incredibly fortunate as immigrants from Europe to be able to participate in a government program that provided opportunity.
Jon PaullVice Chair 1
Jonathan (Jon) Paull is originally from The Dalles, OR, and has lived in multiple states throughout the last 15 years while serving in the Marine Corps for 3 years and working at various dams and hydroelectric power plants. He has called Walla Walla his home since 2015, choosing this community because it felt like a good place to put down some roots and raise his two sons. He graduated from American Public University with a BS and MS in environmental science and currently works in the hydropower industry as an environmental protection specialist. Jon is also the proud owner of a local hemp tea company, serves as PCO for Maple precinct, and is a member of the Walla Walla Sustainability Committee. In his free time, he likes skiing the slopes at Bluewood, rockhounding, making wine, and traveling to new places. He loves this community and country and wants to work with all our neighbors to promote and vote for a progressive legislative agenda that supports the working class and provides a better and more secure future for our children.
Frances ChvatalVice Chair 2
Frances Chvatal serves as second vice chair of the Executive Board. Frances was born in WW, raised on a farm in Touchet, graduated from WSU, and since 1993 has called Walla Walla home. She has been a nurse for 38 years and currently serves as chair of Providence St. Mary Community Mission Board. She works as a public health nurse at Walla Walla County Department of Community Health. Frances and Ron raised their daughters in Walla Walla and have both been involved in political activity and community service for several years. “Some people have to do more so others can do better.”
Amy SchwabTreasurer
Amy Schwab is the treasurer of the Walla Walla County Democrats. In her day job, she leads Pacific Northwest regional partnership development for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) where she connects Lab capabilities with local and regional clean energy transformation challenges across electrical power, energy efficiency, and transportation systems. Raised on a South Dakota farm, Amy’s first job was driving tractor and combine in the wheat fields. After a corporate career in Minnesota with a Fortune 100 financial services company, she joined a Pacific Northwest consulting firm. In 2001, she moved to Walla Walla, her husband’s hometown where, in addition to consulting with big name companies around the world, she also helped small local businesses and organizations. In 2004, she joined the Walla Walla County Democrats. Amy helped organize the Grandmothers Roundtable and chaired the 2007 Walla Walla City Comprehensive Planning Steering Committee where she led an award-winning feet-on-the-street public participation campaign. When the recession wiped out the consulting market, Amy was recruited into NREL’s Washington DC office to lead planning for the DOE’s biofuels research and development program. She relocated back to Walla Walla in 2021 and will retire from NREL in late 2022 to focus on serving her community and spending time with her grandchildren.
Tim CopelandSecretary
Tim is the secretary of the Walla Walla County Democratic Central Committee and is a member of its Executive Board. He is a former executive director of the Blue Mountain Land Trust. He joined the land trust in November 2014 and retired in March 2022. His prior work experiences include service as a commercial lending officer, a bank senior vice-president and director, a certified financial planner, and the development director of a regional art museum. He was engaged in commercial banking for 15 years, was the managing director of a Walla Walla-based financial planning practice for 20 years and directed the development operations of Maryhill Museum of Art for over five years. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Washington State University, earned a graduate degree in commercial banking from the Stonier Graduate School of Banking, and received the Certified Financial Planner designation from the College for Financial Planning. A Walla Walla native, he lived on and helped manage the family farm for over 40 years. He has been the president of the Walla Walla Community College Foundation, Downtown Walla Walla Foundation, Lillie Rice Center, Kirkman House Museum, Exchange Club of Walla Walla, and served on the boards of a several non-profit organizations in Walla Walla. Tim presently serves on five non-profit boards. He is a board member and former president of the Washington Association of Land Trusts, a board member and former treasurer of the Oregon Agricultural Trust, a member of the Blues Zones Walla Walla and College Place Project’s Steering Committee, the treasurer and a board member of the Kirkman House Museum, and a board member of Roots of Resilience. He is also a student at the Walla Walla Community College in its Agroecology series.
Jan CornState Committee Person
Jan is State Committee Person for WWCDCC. Her involvement prior to an elected position was attending the Women’s March on Washington D.C. in 2017, Women’s Marches on Walla Walla, and Black Lives Matter rallies and vigils, and serving as an At Large Board member for Network of Exceptional Women, whose mission is to help progressive women get elected and serve on boards and commissions. She has supported our local Democrats’ campaigns by phone banking, writing postcards, distributing pamphlets, and holding meet and greets. She also served as Board Member and Past President of Walla Walla Rotary, Board Member for Walla Walla Valley Chamber of Commerce, and Board Member for Community Council, and volunteered for the American Cancer Society at Providence St. Mary Medical Center. She is currently serving on the local party Elections Committee and State Elections Committee. She fervently put her feet to the activist ground when Donald Trump was elected and has become acutely aware that “in order for Democrats to win, there needs to be a 24-7-365 campaign operation that is registering new voters, reaching out to ‘swing’ voters, and running ads pushing the progressive message and defining Republican politicians and policies” (Dan Pfeiffer, “Untrumping America”). She loves this community and country and wants to work with all our neighbors to make our lives better together.
Woody SimmonsState Committee Person
Woody found Walla Walla after his youngest daughter entered Whitman College in 2010. He retired from the Travis County Sheriff’s Dept., Austin, Texas, as the Director of Programs. In 2014, with his wife Cathy, he moved to WW. He is a veteran and holds degrees in Political Science and History; he also is a licensed nurse, avid gardener, and urban chicken rancher. His first election was 1972, voting for George McGovern, and he has campaigned for local, state, and national Democrats since. This is his second term as State Committeeman for Walla Walla. He is PCO for Birch precinct.