The Vashon-Maury Island Chamber of Commerce is thrilled to have access to highly relevant experts in this time of crisis. The experts below have offered their personal time on a volunteer-basis to guide us through the challenges we may be facing in creating the safety net for our businesses.
DISCLAIMER: The discussions provided on a volunteer basis are for general informational purposes only. Any action you take upon the information gathered from these communications is strictly at your own risk. In contacting these specialists, you agree to hold the Vashon-Maury Island Chamber of Commerce and the specialist harmless.
Deborah Diamond
Chamber Chat Webinar: Navigating Tax Stimulus and Unemployment Benefits
Specialty: Taxes, IRS
Bio: Deborah Diamond retired from the Internal Revenue Service after 33 years as a tax auditor, Citizen Advocacy Panel Program Manager, and the final 10 years partnering with federal and state agencies like the IRS Governmental Liaison. Deborah continues to consult with government agencies as a workplace investigator, mediator, and expert witness. She also is a volunteer with AARP Tax Aide and has done free tax preparation at the Vashon Library since she moved here 5 years ago.
Deborah has volunteered to assist Vashon employees and the self-employed who need help navigating the COVID-19 tax stimulus and unemployment benefits systems.
Should you apply for benefits? When? How? We’ve got answers.
Contact Preference: Please send an email with your phone number- she will follow up with a phone call.
Days: Sunday-Saturday
Hours: 9 am- 8 pm
Ellen Ahearn
Specialty: Finance & Accounting
Bio: Senior financial executive with 40 years of experience managing finance and accounting organizations for publicly traded and privately held companies. She has experience with financial modeling, including budgeting, profit & loss statements and cash flows.
Contact preference:
Days: Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday
Hours: 6 pm and 7:30 pm
Phone: (425) 503-6588
Heather Russell
Specialty: Banking
Bio: Heather Russell has been the friendly Branch Manager of the Vashon US Bank branch since 2016. She’s worked in banking in a variety of capacities since 2008 and has intimate knowledge of banking products and services for both small businesses and individual needs. She’s served as the Treasurer of the Chamber of Commerce since 2018. She uses her heart and mind to support and connect the businesses of Vashon, seeking to empower people financially so they may flourish.
Outside of work and volunteering, she loves to spend time with family and friends, and out in nature. She paints abstract watercolors and appreciates art in all forms. At heart, she is a true nerd, reading a variety of topics, and a geek of all things psychological, mythological, and poetic.
US Bank, Branch Manager
Vashon Chamber of Commerce Treasurer
Katie Hermanns
Specialty: Marketing, Website Design, Online Merchandising
Bio: Katie Hermanns is the Founder of KMH Business Solutions & Be Present Media. She has over 12 years of experience as a business consultant specializing in marketing and sales and works with numerous island businesses and off island businesses alike.
Katie and her family call Vashon home and during this challenging time, Katie and her business partner are donating many hours of their time to help island businesses enhance their online visibility and guide them into a more virtual space.
Social Media, Marketing, Operational Efficiency
LeeAnn Brown
Specialty: Healthcare & Insurance
Bio: As an independent health insurance broker, LeeAnn Brown has been helping her Vashon community for over two decades. Her areas of focus are around helping individuals, families and small businesses find the best medical insurance plan for their unique needs, including Medicare.
LeeAnn is certified to help people with our state website (WAHealthplanfinder.org) to access subsidies, choose the best plans or qualify for Apple Health coverage. She is also very experienced in helping self-employed individuals get access to these programs. There is no charge for her services.
Contact preference:
Days: Monday – Friday
Hours: 9 – 5 p.m.
Cheryl Lubbert
Specialty: Business
Bio: Cheryl co-founded and transformed Health Perspectives Group, a patient engagement communication and technology company, from a health advocacy consultancy into one of the largest women-owned businesses in the Puget Sound region. Since 2010, Health Perspectives Group has been recognized locally and nationally as a great employer and business.
Prior to Health Perspectives Group, Cheryl has more than 25 years of executive management and commercial development experience at companies ranging from start-up to Fortune 500. Cheryl served as president of a venture capital-backed start-up focused on consumer insights and analytics, and she held leadership positions at biopharmaceutical companies including Abbott Labs, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Immunex and Amgen.
Cheryl and her husband, Jim Gerlach also started Nashi Orchards in 2012, an award-winning perry and hard cider business, at their island home and orchards where they sustainably grow the Asian and European pears and heirloom apples and transform them into delicious libations.
Contact preference:
Days: Monday – Friday
Hours: 6 pm - 9 pm
BARBARA MCMAHON
Specialty: Career/life/executive coaching, Organizational development consulting
Bio: Barb has over 35 years of experience working with all types of organizations at all levels – assisting individuals, teams, and executives. In addition to supporting leaders create healthy and high performing organizations, she has coached people who are struggling with career transitions and/or performance issues. Her passion is helping people uncover their unique motivated talents and crafting strategies to assure good job fit. She has a Masters in OD as well as a coaching certification through The Hudson Institute. For more information visit her website: www.mcmahonconsult.com .
Contact Preference:
Email: barb@mcmahonconsult.com
Robert Litman
Specialty: Breathing Education
Bio:Robert Litman has been a faculty member and head of the Departments of Anatomy and Physiology and Movement Education at the Desert Institute of the Healing Arts Massage School in Tucson. He is a registered educator and trainer of the Buteyko Breathing Educators Association. He was a preceptor at the University of Arizona School of Integrative Medicine, teaching The Breathable Body to visiting doctors for Dr. Andrew Weil. He has a Graduate Certification as a Breathing Behavior Analyst at The Graduate School of Behavioral Breathing and Health Sciences, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, The Breathable Body is the inevitable synthesis of the modalities of Robert’s life work of studying, teaching, and living embodiment. This approach spirals together the movement modalities of Continuum, Contemplation, Buteyko Breathing, and the Duggan-French Approach to Somatic Patterning Recognition. Following these tenets, Robert teaches his students skills that enable them to regulate and maximize the nourishment that breathing is meant to provide. He lives on Vashon Island, Washington, and offers private sessions and classes in movement and breathing, locally and worldwide. His YouTube video “The Relationship Between Breathing and Anxiety” has 108,000 views. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhEEtWNbLJ4&t=1777s
Contact preference:
Days:
Hours: 10 am - 6 pm
Vashon Testing Site
Specialty: COVID-19 free expert advice
Bio: toll-free line to ask any of your business-related COVID questions!
Contact preference: phone (option 3) and email
(844) 469-4554 (option 3)
Hours: 9am-6pm
Jeffrey Sayre, Attorney
Specialty: Mediation of Commercial Lease Disputes
Bio: I operate a boutique law firm consisting of 6 attorneys, with offices in Seattle, Olympia, and Vashon. I’ve been practicing law for over 30 years, and a good part of my practice has focused on commercial landlord/tenant disputes and defaults. As a litigator, I have also participated in hundreds of mediations. My wife and I are 30-year island residents and we’ve raised all three kids here, so I know how tricky the island can be when a dispute arises among islanders.
Over the past few months, I’ve received a tremendous number of calls regarding the inability of commercial tenants in Seattle to make their lease payments. If those calls were to come from Vashon, we would typically refer the parties to different counsel because I established a policy long ago not to litigate or otherwise get deeply involved in island disputes. It’s just too small of a community here; I know far too many people, which could result in a conflict of interest; and, as important, I’d have problems shopping at Thriftway if I were adverse to half of the community. What I can offer, however, is to act as a neutral mediator if some of the island’s commercial landlords and tenants were willing to sit down in an effort to reach a workout. By definition, that would entail a compromise, but there are several options available to those landlords and tenants that seek an equitable way forward. My service would be pro bono, and I would not represent either party, but I’m willing to spend a few hours in an effort to help them bridge the impasse.
Days: Monday - Friday
Hours: 9 – 5 p.m.