Your Board of Directors​

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Libby Hartman, President and all-around organizer.  Libby became a board member shortly after moving to Sequim from Seattle in 2018. Libby’s career has been in Management Consulting and the Hi Tech industry and she most recently works for Microsoft in the Customer Experience and Service Organization. Libby lives with her wife Jane, a retired therapist and their two dogs, Bodhi and Otto, who love to ‘welcome’ visitors and passerby's with loud raucous barking. Jane loves to cook and Libby loves to eat so they are a perfect pair. Jane LOVES the quiet of Sequim and McFarland Farm and Libby is working at transforming how she spends her down time from ‘city shopping’ to ‘country landscaping’. when she is not playing Pickleball. She now feels very competent on her lawn mower and is considering buying some overalls. We believe in kindness, community and connection with our neighbors. We hope to someday host the MF community on our deck when the weather is warm.

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Andy Luts -- Vice President. Andy and Deidre, his wife of 38 years, grew up in the Bremerton/Silverdale area.  After completing his BSME at the University of Washington, newlyweds Andy and Deidre moved to Upstate New York where Andy began his career in gas turbine combustion engineering, working for General Electric. 

In 1997, after 9 years developing low emissions combustion systems, shoveling snow and swatting mosquitos, Andy and Deidre moved across the country to San Diego, CA, where he joined Solar Turbines, Inc. There, Andy spent the next 27-years working at Solar in various engineering and engineering management roles, including 12-years as the manager of the Combustion Engineering department, a group of ~50 talented engineers.

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Andy retired from Solar in early 2023 and the couple returned “home” to the PNW, settling in McFarland Farms in December of that year.  Andy’s hobbies include boating and fishing, woodworking, camping/traveling in our trailer and camper van, flying R/C airplanes and is an audio enthusiast.

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"We feel very fortunate to live in the McFarland Farms community and Happy Valley – a pastoral setting beneath the Olympics which we don’t take for granted."

With his newfound discretionary time, Andy looks forward to serving the McFarland Farms community by participating on the Board as vice-president.  Andy and Deidre look forward to meeting you and learning how you came to find this enchanting area!

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Christine Charters - Treasurer.  Moved to McFarland Farm in April 2022 from Seattle after I retired.  Stepped up to being Board Treasurer since I have worked at the University of Washington as a Fiscal Specialist (budgets) most recently at the College of Education.  I thought that doing the board work would help me better connect to the community and meet people.   Other interests are history, politics, art, gardening, and I am a big reader. I am the PCO – Precinct Committee Officer for Clallam Co. Republicans, Happy Valley Precinct 237.

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Vanessa Gunther — Secretary. After taking a year off to pursue a personal goal she's back serving as the board's very capable and efficient secretary!

After 15 years of vacationing here to see friends, she moved to McFarland Farm from Southern California in early 2021. She lives with her three dogs; Owen, Obadiah, and Oliver - who wonder why it took so long to make the move. They can be seen regularly taking her for a walk in the neighborhood early in the morning.

A retired professor of history — which means she knows many things — and isn't afraid to tell you about it, she still had to be instructed on how to turn on a generator (Seriously, who knew there was a choke?), ride a zero-turn lawnmower, and plant plants that would actually live in the arctic loam soil.

She's also a retired registered nurse. An active member in the Community of Francis and Clare, she regularly volunteers in the Soup's On program at St Luke's Episcopal in Sequim.

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​Karen Griffiths – Mailings, Web master. she moved to Sequim from Southern California with extended family in 1997, and then into McFarland Farms in 2016 with her elderly mother (who suffered from Alzheimer's and has since passed away), and young grand-nephew -- a very vocal and active 3-year-old -- along with horses and dogs. You may have seen Karen and her nephew tootling through the streets in her golf cart with their dogs running next to it.

In summer 2022, her nephew moved to his grandmother's home near the beachi n Southern California and now loves to surf an ride his bike everywhere. Sadly, the last two of her horses, both top barrel and Western games competitors, passed from old age (living to ages 30 and 31)one in spring and the other in the fall of 2023. 

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A former Special Sections editor, writer and photographer for The Peninsula Daily News, she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2004, which, subsequently, caused her to go on disability a year later.  However, she continued on writing her bi-monthly column, “Peninsula Horseplay” for the PDN. 

Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic, degenerative disease of the central nervous system.  In short, it’s the body’s immune system attacking its own central nervous system, crazy right?  The disease effects all with it in different ways. For most of us it's an "invisible disease," in that the minority of us are NOT in a wheelchair or use a walking cane. Trust me when I say its multiple symptoms are constantly wreaking havoc inside our brains and bodies!

Thankfully, for most of us there are disease modifying drugs that work to slow the progression. I’m on Copaxone.  Here's a link from the Nation MS Society if you'd like to learn more: MS Symptoms & Signs of MS | National MS Society. Suffice to say some symptoms can wax and wane, which is why you may sometimes see me walk with a pronounced limp, use a rollator or mobility scooter, and sometimes no aids at all. Hey Living here on the Farm is, well, it’s a beautiful place in the neighborhood. Oh, I also own a few pairs of well-worn overalls, while board member Libby Hartman is still a wannabe.

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Ken Phillips - Member at Large. My wife Kris and I moved to Sequim in 2005 from Auburn Ca. They both retired from working for the LA and Placer County Sheriff’s Departments.  Kris enjoys riding her horses everywhere on the peninsula, and nearby trails at Miller Peninsula and Dungeness Trails. ​

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Joe Sorenson - Member at Large.

Upon retirement, Joe and his wife Bernie were excited to follow their daughter, Dr. Danyelle Walker, DDS to the area after she joined Laurel Dental Clinic in Port Angeles, and where they can dote on their two grandsons – a teen and preteen.

House hunting was done by his wife and daughter. They chose the McFarland Farm property in 2022 in part, he said, “for its resemblance to their previous home, and “this place just looked like the right for the family.”  

A big bonus for the family is the variety of biking trails in close proximity that are well-suited for a family favorite activity — mountain biking. “We just love this little Dungeness Trails area,” he said.

“We're passionate about the outdoors,” said Bernie. “This place has lots of outdoors, and it's just a beautiful place. And the most important thing to us are grandkids. And with our daughter moving here, there was no other place to be.”

Joe had an amazingly successful career as a manager of Les Schwab Tire Center up in Juneau, Alaska where, Bernie said, “he was dearly, dearly loved by all in Juneau for his amazing leadership and support to the community.”

Bernie herself recently retired (December 2024) as an educator for 43 years, after finishing up three years running a three-state consortium for educators across Alaska, Washington and Oregon.

It was while attending the 2024 annual meeting that she nudged Joe to join the board, reminding him he “likes to volunteer for stuff.” His aim is to help the area keep its rural lifestyle and a nice place to live.

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