Our Board - PropagationNation

Board of Directors

Philip Stielstra

President of the Board and Co-Founder

Philip Stielstra

Philip fell in love with trees as a child—he would climb the lilac trees that lined his family’s property, moving from one to the next without touching the ground, feeling as if he was above the world.

His appreciation only grew as he moved into adulthood. While living and working in one of Oregon’s national forests, he marveled at the seedlings that would sprout and grow quickly in the middle of acreage that had been clear-cut. After moving back to his home state, he started a business using oak to stop erosion on the shores of Lake Michigan. And while preparing to retire in Seattle following 15 years at Boeing, Philip became a Seattle Tree Ambassador—providing community education, leading Tree Walks, and more.

This lifelong relationship with trees—and a connection with David Milarch of the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, a Michigan nonprofit that is cloning the largest, oldest trees on the planet—served as the genesis for PropagationNation.

“I’m smitten by these trees,” Philip says. “They just won’t let go of me.”

Scott Shook

Board Member

BIO

Scott Shook

Scott was born and raised in Los Angeles. He was in the Boy Scouts, eventually earning the rank of Eagle, where he began camping and backpacking the Sierra Nevadas and first experienced the Giant Sequoias. And a lifelong obsession with big trees was born. He moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to attend Stanford University and stayed there until chasing a girl across the country. That girl became his wife, Sara. They moved back to San Francisco, where he took an engineering job at Tesla. While regularly exploring the California coast from Big Sur to the Oregon border, he became entranced by Coastal Redwoods. It was there that he also began woodworking, building a canoe and furniture from locally sourced redwood. After a significant health scare, Scott took inventory of his life and decided to leave his career in tech, move to Seattle, and focus his time on his passions for woodworking, philanthropy, and being outdoors.

Lynn Grant

Board Member

BIO

Lynn Grant

Lynn Grant became acquainted with Propagation Nation when a friend and supporter asked if she’d be interested in repotting redwood and sequoia trees at a Seattle greenhouse. She didn’t know how satisfying she would find this: tap the sapling out of the pot it had outgrown, untangle the roots, repot in a larger pot, tamp down the rich soil, repeat. The greenhouse was warm, and the rows of previously repotted coast redwoods were healthy and ready to find permanent homes. She had visited Sequoia National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains when she was a child and knew that these trees had the potential to grow into giants. Later, she would take each of her children to Redwood State and National Parks in northern California hoping they would be smitten, like her, with the gob-smacking beauty of the tallest trees on earth. Over time, and after many potting sessions, she became a stalwart supporter of Philip Stielstra and PropagationNation. As the drumbeat of climate change “news” continues unabated, she takes solace in the important work of the organization--planting trees to sequester carbon

and help cool the planet. It is a mighty job that requires many willing volunteers of all ages. But the outcome cannot be more important: ensuring an essential and majestic legacy for future generations.

Kathleen Mahan

Board Member

BIO

Kathleen Mahan

Since retiring from her nutrition practice in 2017, and her 44 year commitment to the writing and regular revising of the textbook Krause and Mahan’s Food and the Nutrition Care Process, 16th ed, 2023, Kathleen Mahan has found a new passion - climate activism. When she learned of the power of trees, particularly tall, resilient and long-living trees, to sequester carbon out of the atmosphere, maintain the water, air, and life on the planet, and also slow climate change, she knew she had found a calling. Through her activities on the board of PropagationNation, she is focused on the mission of propagating and cultivating coastal redwoods and giant sequoias back where they used to prosper and will continue to do so, and keep the Pacific Northwest green.

Kathleen lives in Seattle with her husband and enjoys hiking, walking, rowing, pickleball, traveling, and most recently learning to play the piano.

Their two daughters, now grown, are living in Seattle and Minneapolis.

Dean Hove

Board Member

BIO

Dean Hove

Dean and his family are dedicated stewards of property that has remained in their care since the 1930s. They have overseen the planting of over 3,000 cedar trees, and have further diversified the landscape by introducing Redwoods and Sequoias. In their leisure time, they pursue outdoor activities such as kayaking, hiking, skiing, and gathering clams and oysters. As a child, Dean’s frequent visits to Redwood and Sequoia National Parks in northern California profoundly influenced his appreciation for these species. To preserve this natural legacy for future generations, his family continues to plant these remarkable trees on their land while actively fostering appreciation for them within the community.

In Memoriam: Debbie Oberbillig

Board Member

BIO

Debbie Oberbillig

Debbie has extensive experience in recruiting, training, coaching, and leadership. Her passion and expertise are consulting with and coaching CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business leaders and developing programs to coach and retain future-ready leaders and teams. Debbie is highly committed to community service and actively volunteers with human services organizations to promote the growth and development of women and children. Most recently, she served twelve years on the Bellevue LifeSpring Board, fulfilling multiple roles, including Treasurer, Secretary, Human Resources Advisor, Governance and Board Development Committee Chair, and many board committees. Currently, she is a proud board member of the intergenerational PropagationNation Board.

Advisory Board

Fredric Korn

Co-Founder

BIO

Fredric Korn

Fred was twelve when he first encountered giant sequoias, which were hard for him to even comprehend. “They were like majestic life forms seemingly from another realm,” he says.

While Fred grew up to become an analytic philosopher and a business consultant, those sequoias and their coastal redwood cousins remained magical to him. Perhaps the most magical thing is something we can’t even see—they are the best in the world at removing carbon from the atmosphere, and by extension, fighting the increase in global temperatures that threatens the planet.

Fred co-founded PropagationNation because he understands that while the magic of these trees might be invisible to the eye, what they do is quite tangible when it comes to climate change. To play an even bigger role in forests across the Northwest, they need our help.

Ted Lagreid

Advisor

BIO

Ted Lagreid

Ted LaGreid feels aligned with PropagationNation because of the founder’s integrity and the clarity of Philip Stielstra’s intention.

“It’s so straightforward. Plant trees. It’s easy to align with it.”

Ted is also interested in the concept of assisted migration.

“We are helping trees walk.”

Ted helps to guide our team through strategies for getting trees to “walk” as possible. He is applying his background of getting small businesses to grow big to grow redwood and sequoia forests in the northwest!

Bob Bashor

Co-founder

BIO

Bob Bashor

Bob knows what the rest of us know: our planet is troubled by warming that results from the burning of fossil fuels. Many species of plants are very troubled. Indeed, many large native-to-the-northwest trees that collect and recycle the carbon resulting from fossil fuel use are increasingly troubled. Research has informed Bob that Coast Redwoods and Giant Sequoias are champions of collecting and recycling carbon and do already prosper in our northwest forests.

Bob’s work for forty years in The Boeing Company and private practice has been in organization development, which are activities based on valid information, free and informed choice, and methods that build internal commitment to planned change. The work of PropagationNation calls on this experience.

The trout in the Yakima River know Bob well, and he’s pretty sure there is some way to combine organization development and fly fishing, but he hasn’t quite found it yet.

Jon Stielstra

Advisor

BIO

Jon Stielstra

Jon Stielstra has been a Certified Public Accountant and enterprise software consultant in Wisconsin until retiring in 2019. He is currently active volunteering in three non-profit organizations as an executive team member.

Bob Barnes

Advisor

BIO

Bob Barnes

Bob Barnes has six grandchildren and a passion for trees. These are not unrelated facts.

His passion for trees is because of his concern for the future of mankind. He sees PropagationNation as a step forward for the planet and our future, his grandkids included.

For the last four years, many of the redwoods and sequoias that we have been able to give away have been cared for by Bob at his nursery in West Olympia. Bob does the work to grow tiny seedlings we receive from organizations like Archangel Ancient Tree Archive to much larger young trees, ready to be planted by other members of our nation.

Alan Marshall

Advisor

BIO

Alan Marshall

Alan has recently planted 100's of Coastal Redwoods near his family's small farm on the Kitsap Peninsula. New to forestry, Alan brings passion for the environment and community-building efforts to Propagation Nation. Recent projects include researching the carbon capture market and protecting local Banner Forest. In a previous life as a software engineer, Alan helped innovate early parts of the Computer Graphics and Internet industries. He also has 3 patents in the security architecture core to phone-based, tap-and-pay systems used by Google, Samsung and Apple Pay. For fun, Alan leads sea kayaking adventures on the open Pacific Coast and enjoys woodworking - while keeping tabs on his 2 grown sons working in the Seattle tech industry.

We love big trees—and the planet.

We are connecting people with coast redwoods and giant sequoias in the Pacific Northwest, assisting migration of these magnificent trees for climate adaptation and enhancing our region's resilience and natural beauty.

PropagationNation was founded by three Boeing retirees in 2019. Since then, we’ve facilitated the planting of over 100,000 coast redwood and giant sequoia trees in more than 130 communities across 37 Washington and Oregon counties.

But we’re ready to do more—much more.

PropagationNation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Our directors are unpaid.

Every dollar raised goes to furthering our mission.

Connect(opens in new tab)

Donate(opens in new tab)

Order trees

(opens in new tab) (opens in new tab)

Interested in leaving a lasting legacy?

PropagationNation is fueled by a passion for trees and a commitment to simple actions that will help heal the planet.

Get Involved