Our Crew
WMC Staff and Personnel
Jon Erdman
Executive Director
Jon’s first experience of the magic of the Wrangell Mountains Center came soon after his arrival in 2014 when he attended the WMC Writer's Workshop. The experience inspired creativity and also implanted in Jon the desire to invest in the unique creative culture found in the Wrangells and at the WMC.
Jon has an accounting degree and two decades of professional experience in business management and public accounting. He is grateful to reside in the Kennicott-McCarthy community as his year-round home, and in his role as Executive Director Jon feels endlessly inspired to cultivate artistic exploration and scientific inquiry in a deeper appreciation for this incredible place.
Michelle McAfee
Development & Social Media Management
Michelle fell in love with McCarthy in 2010 during a block party music performance followed by a backcountry trip into the Wrangell Mountains. Through the Wrangell Mountains Art Center, she taught a songwriting workshop, created the Living Room Concert Series at Porphyry Place, and was a co-facilitator of Riversong with Nancy Cook.
She is a writer, musician, photographer, and gardener based in Southern Oregon, land of the Takelma, and spends most summers in McCarthy instigating jam sessions around a fire or picking guitar on someone’s porch.
michelle@wrangells.org
Ben Shaine
Field Studies Academic Coordinator
Ben has taught with the Wrangell Mountains Center’s college programs since their inception and provides a link for the Center with the academic community. His novel Alaska Dragon (Fireweed Press 1991), set in the Wrangell Mountains, explores the contemporary significance of wildness. He co-authored the Center’s Community and Copper in a Wild Land, an overview of the McCarthy area published in cooperation with the National Park Service. During congressional consideration of legislation designating Alaska parklands, Ben handled Wrangell-St. Elias issues for the Alaska Coalition. His master’s thesis evaluated management alternatives for the Wrangells and his PhD is in environmental studies. Ben and his family developed their homestead on the mountainside near Kennecott, where he lives, writes, wanders and wonders about the power of the Wrangells revealed in its details.
benshaine@gmail.com
Tamara Egans Harper
Administrative Assistant
Tamara joined the WMC in 2012 as coordinator of events at the Kennecott Recreation Hall, which WMC manages. She's worked for WMC since then, assisting with various administrative tasks, including maintaining the WMC’s database of donors, keeping track of all of our wonderful supporters and partners.
Tamara and her husband have lived in McCarthy since 2003 and she enjoys gardening, birdwatching, skiing, biking, hiking, cooking and welcoming guests to her tinycabin bed and breakfast during the summers.
Dave
Facilities & Media
Dave joined the WMC in May 2021 as a WWOOFer, and by June he was managing the facilities. Dave brings a wide variety of skills and interests as well as a keen mind eager to learn. With many facilities projects in process and more coming down the pipe, Dave keeps busy, but this multitalented polymath also brings extensive professional expertise in media work. He leads photo guiding and provides the WMC with professional image and video editing. In addition to being an information sponge, Dave also has a great sense of humor and keeps us laughing.
Facilities@wrangells.org
Joey Boots-Ebenfield
Summer Intern, 2022
This pic — not an actual bear encounter but a good reminder to keep a heads up when working w/ salmon in rural Alaska! — was taken in the summer of 2021 when Joey joined us as a WWOOFer and won the Tall Tales storytelling contest at the Old Hardware Store. Joey joins the WMC in 2022 as an intern focused on Facilities and Operations/Programming. Joey will be entering a PhD program this coming fall and comes to the WMC this summer to continue to gain experience working in remote, far-north settings.
Katina
Summer Intern
Katina is ecstatic for her first year at McCarthy. She hails from Connecticut, but has spent her recent years farming and traveling around most of the U.S. and Mexico. She graduated from University of Vermont with a degree in Environmental Studies and concentration in Food Systems and Community Development, and has worked in food systems in various capacities- from the agricultural end of production farming, the consumer end in the service industry, to the social side of migrant farmworker rights. Her hobbies include reading, knitting, playing a spirited game of Uno, and putting her body into natural bodies of water.
Varia
Summer Intern
Varia is coming to the Wrangell Mountains Center (and Alaska in general) for the first time this Summer of 2022. She is excited to join the WMC community as a Food to Fork and Facilities Intern.
Varia loves learning how to make just about anything, whether it’s shoyu, ceramics, or seeding tables. She laughs easily, talks to herself often, and can usually be found reading, cooking something experimental, or stopped short in the woods shamelessly fawning over moss.
Caroline
Summer Intern
Caroline will join the Wrangell Mountains Center two weeks after graduating from Occidental College where she studied Diplomacy and World Affairs and Economics. Originally from Portland, OR, Caroline is excited to experience McCarthy after four years in Los Angles. She will work as a programming/operations and facilities management intern, with a specific focus on storytelling events and community engagement. Caroline enjoys hiking, cooking, swimming, and reading. She loves to meet new people and is always ready for a card game!
2022 Staff and Friends of WMC
Video by Dave Sarbell