Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary for primates.

board

Board Member Profile: Kimber Leblicq

by

Learn all about our current Board President, Kimber Leblicq, in this post. This is the second post in the series profiling our fantastic Board of Directors. If you missed the first one that introduced outgoing Board President David, you can view it here.

Kimber portrait
While Kimber is just beginning a term as Board President, she has been involved with Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest for a very long time. Kimber’s professional background is in communications, marketing, and fundraising in the non-profit sector in the Northwest. She is also a compassionate advocate for animal welfare and the environment and manages to make  unique sculptural jewelry in addition to all of her other interests!

She has joked with founder Keith and former board member Mary Murray, that, if you counted the two of them, Kimber was the third volunteer for CSNW. This was before Keith purchased the property for the sanctuary, before there were staff, and before Keith had even learned about Burrito, Foxie, Jody, Missy, Annie, Jamie, and Negra.

In 2004 Mary and Keith met Kimber in a coffee shop to discuss Keith’s vision for the organization. Kimber immediately offered her skills and expertise to help advise and build what became the foundation of the organization during this early start-up phase.

Over three years Kimber and an advisory committee created a marketing and development plan; drafted a strategic plan; crafted the mission, vision, and values statements; wrote grant proposals to seek seed funding; reached out to other sanctuaries and primate advocates for a feasibility study; and set up the organizational structure to prepare for the day they were going to welcome chimpanzees. All of this preparation meant that there was already a strong organization in place before the chimpanzees arrived. And it certainly built up the anticipation for that day!

Before the Cle Elum Seven arrived in 2008, the official Board of Directors was formed and Kimber transitioned off of the committee. Kimber proudly watched the fledgling organization grow, and, in 2011, the board asked if she would like to join once again to serve in official capacity.

In her current role as Board President, Kimber is looking forward to launching our new strategic plan, which will drive the organization’s road-map for the next five years.

I’ll end with how she feels about CSNW in her own words, “Serving the Cle Elum Seven is the most important work that I have done as a volunteer. Giving them what they deserve fulfills me every day. I have a deep respect for our organization, for our staff, and for our army of volunteers who work hard to meet the needs of our chimps. Thank you also to our donors for their generous support. It’s a pleasure and an honor to work with like-minded and passionate people and thank you all for being a part of our family.”

Kimber and Medo
Elephant Nature Foundation, Thailand. Medo and Kimber

Board Member Profile: David Brotherton

by

We have some largely unsung heroes that are a big part of Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest – our Board of Directors who volunteer countless hours overseeing the organization. We decided it’s about time we sung about them, so this is the first of a monthly series of blog posts about our amazing board members and how they became involved with the sanctuary.

We currently have ten board members and are looking to fill a few open seats. This post is about our outgoing Board President David Brotherton.

David Brotherton

David learned about the sanctuary through a long-standing board member, Bruce Wagman. David and Bruce share a love of live music and, though they live in different states, often attend shows together.

David first met the chimpanzees more than three years ago. His introduction to the group involved Jody spitting quite a bit of water on him. This baptism left him with the distinct impression that the chimps were not there to entertain, but were giving him the choice to either help out or get out. He chose to help.

David brings to the board a wealth of strategic communications experience as the founder and director of Brotherton Strategies, a Seattle-based consulting firm that works with a wide mix of grant making foundations and socially minded corporate clients. Before getting involved in public relations, marketing and brand strategy, he worked in Washington D.C. as a congressional speech writer and political reporter. Perhaps we should have him report on the politics of the Cle Elum Seven!

David has a passion for Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest and is eager to see the organization thrive long into the future with a firm strategic plan in place. He gushes about the amazing supporters of the sanctuary and describes the organization as unlike any other that he’s known or supported.

He recently served one term as the Board President and is now helping Kimber Leblicq transition into that role. His tenure as president spanned an important period in the sanctuary’s history. David helped guide us through the Taylor Bridge Fire (and not just in a governance role – he brought tortilla chips and beer to the staff and volunteers the day after the fire and allowed us a few moments of relaxation and laughter). He then oversaw the search to hire our no-longer-new Executive Director Jennifer Whitaker.

With the support of one of his clients, Provitro Biosciences (formerly known as Booshoot), David also introduced the chimps to the bamboo now flourishing on Young’s Hill, which the chimpanzees have been loving ever since. Now that I think about all he has done these past few years, I realize that I actually owe him a beer!

Feel free to leave a comment for David below this post.

Missy and her raisin board

by

We included raisin boards in this morning’s enrichment, and Missy demonstrated a new technique for fishing the raisins out (at least one that I haven’t seen before). Rather than trying to pry the raisins out or poke them out the other side, she would insert the chopstick and push it all the way through, like she was sewing with a big needle. It seemed to work well, except for when her tool would get stuck, in which case she would just break it off and start over with a smaller stick.