Christina Ruben
Interim Executive Director
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Over the past 10 years, Christina has been deeply involved in nearly every aspect of the school, supporting programs, operations, student services, development and fundraising, marketing, and organizational growth.
Her long-standing commitment to the mission, people, and culture of NWSWB gives her a deep understanding of what makes the school special. She approaches the role with a collaborative, steady leadership style, focused on continuity and care for the community.
Originally from sunny Florida, Christina began her professional life in a very different world—fluorescent lights and white lab coats—as a microbiologist. She joined the Boat School in 2015 as Development and Communications Manager, where she led donor relations, fundraising, and digital communications. She later shifted focus to admissions and student support, guiding prospective and enrolled students through the application process and campus life.
Today, Christina is a versatile problem-solver and familiar face around campus. You might find her managing digital marketing efforts, giving a tour, supporting students, or connecting with scholarship funders about all things Boat School.
After her husband graduated from the Boatbuilding Program in 2013, they fell in love with the school’s community and the natural beauty of the Olympic Peninsula and decided to make it home. Outside of work, Christina is passionate about horses, has a well-known fondness for gummy bears, and is currently embracing the adventures of off-grid living, chicken breeding, and child-rearing.
Ace Spragg
Education Director & Title IX Coordinator
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Carolyn “Ace” Spragg grew up on the Chesapeake Bay, messing about in boats. Her first boat was a raft, which went through many upgrades over 5 summers of glorious adventures. Her love of the water became the basis for her teaching and camping career, which spanned 20 years as a camp Waterfront Director and Program Director. Relocating to the Puget Sound in 2000, she moved aboard a sailboat and found her way back to teaching – adults this time – who were afraid to dock their boat. This led to 11 years with the Northwest Maritime Center as an instructor, Sailing Director and Program Director.
Ace has her USCG 50 ton Master’s License, International Sail and Power Association Yachtmaster Offshore teaching certification, US Sailing teaching certification, and is a US Maritime Academy Captain’s License Instructor. She’s skippered her boat to Hawaii and back with all-women crews, and happily cruised the beautiful waters of the Salish Sea. She also speaks at various seminars on Docking, Anchoring, Navigation, Tides and Currents and Trip Planning. Somewhere in her twenties she ended up landlocked at Kansas State University and got a MS in Biomechanics (hurray for physics!), but has mostly stuck to the coastal waters of the continent, where her addiction to boats is understood and encouraged.
Heidi Blehm
Compliance Manager
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Heidi grew up in the Pacific Northwest on boats, fishing recreationally with her family on the Columbia River and canoeing 120-miles down Utah’s Green River. She earned a BS in Mathematics from Colorado State University and led a diverse professional career, including a management role with Merrill Lynch and running her own productivity and organization business. After living abroad in Copenhagen and Prague she moved to Port Townsend in 2015 and began working with the school. Her expertise with data organization led to development of the school’s new online institutional archive and, in 2018, to her role as Admissions and Student Services Manager before her transition to Compliance Manager.
Katie Whalen
Financial Aid Officer & Title IV Coordinator
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Katie moved north from Morro Bay, California in 1991 with a friend who was attending the Boat School. She fell in love with the Pacific Northwest, transplanted, and built her own house through a cooperative neighborhood building program. Katie has more than 25 years of experience as Business/Finance manager for non-profit organizations. She is passionate about keeping the Boat School on an even keel and helping students live their wooden boat dreams.
Kristin Potter
Admissions Manager
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Kristin grew up in New England and is a recent transplant to the Pacific Northwest, having relocated from Maine. She earned a B.A. from Connecticut College where she studied Theater, Film, and Marine Biology. She then joined a professional theater company on Cape Cod assisting with marketing, development, and event planning, and also supported theater productions backstage. She quickly learned that the magic that happens behind the scenes is just as important as what happens onstage. Her theater background has inspired her to find roles with organizations where she can be part of a team, meet new people, and bring folks together to share education and celebrate what inspires them. This has led her to customer service positions with varied organizations, including wineries, colleges, market research firms, and nonprofits, as well as another boatbuilding school on the East coast – which was her first opportunity to do a deep dive into the marine industry. She loves living near the ocean and the mountains, and feels lucky to be on the Olympic Peninsula and enjoy the best of both worlds
Lauren Minnerly
Student Services Manager
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Lauren brings over 20 years of experience in Customer Care, Administration, and Sales across industries like agriculture, craft beverages, healthcare, and natural wellness. As the Student Services Manager, she’s all about making sure students feel supported, guiding them with a mix of practical advice and a whole lot of care. With a personal connection to the school, Lauren is proud to help students at NWSWB, especially since she’s seen firsthand how the program shapes its graduates through her husband, an alumnus of the Boatbuilding Program. When she’s not at work, you’ll find Lauren out enjoying the water—whether it’s a local beach, river, or lake on the Olympic Peninsula. She’s passionate about fostering an environment where students feel welcomed, valued, and ready to take on the world.
Matt Stubbs
Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Matt brings over two decades of operational and financial management experience to his part-time role as CFO. After earning a Master’s in Public Administration from Columbia University, he relocated to Seattle. He has held finance, budgeting, IT, and operations roles at both large and small organizations, in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors.
Growing up in the other Washington, Matt enjoyed rowing and fishing on the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay. Inspired by John McPhee’s Coming Into the Country, in 2002, Matt led a team of four on a 2,000-mile canoe journey down the Yukon River from Whitehorse, BC to the Bering Sea. Today, Matt can be found closer to the Yakima River in Ellensburg, WA, where his family’s time is filled with 4H activities.
Beverly Moore
Librarian
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Beverly grew up on a small farm in Sequim, spending her youth riding horses in the foothills of the Olympics, and fishing and swimming at the family’s cabin on the beach near Mats Bay. A YACC job at the Visitors Center for Olympic National Park, which included sorting out the Park’s research library, sparked a passion for connecting books and people. Years later, after a move to Alaska, she was hired as the first paid “librarian” at the tiny Delta Junction Library. At that time the Alaska State Library, in conjunction with University of Alaska Fairbanks, offered a degree program for rural/bush “librarians”, which fit perfectly with her rural lifestyle. Moving “home” after 20 years in interior Alaska, a brief volunteer moment led to an opening at the Port Townsend Public library and 21 years of inspiring work of connecting people to books and so much more! She is now grateful for the opportunity to join NWSWB as librarian, and continue to connect students to resources that enhance and inspire their education.
Rita Frangione
Veteran Specialist
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Rita is the Veterans Outreach Coordinator for Vet Connect, a local veteran service group associated with Olympic Community Action Programs. Rita has more than 30 years of experience as a vocational rehabilitation counselor working in medical, industrial, private, and non-profit settings. She is retired from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs where she counseled disabled veterans in their planning for education, training, and employment. Rita has an MS degree in Vocational Rehabilitation from the University of Wisconsin-Stout, and she is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor.
