About Us
Why "Kulshan Carbon Trust"?
Kulshan (KOOL-shahn) comes from the Lummi name for Mount Baker, the peak that anchors our region. We keep carbon in the soil and forests below it, held in trust for generations to come.
Mission
We catalyze community-led collaborations that empower land stewards to implement regenerative solutions, such as biochar, to restore ecosystems, draw down carbon, and build resilience across our bioregion.
Vision
We envision a thriving Northwest Washington landscape where collaborative regeneration revitalizes forests, fields, and waters, sustaining resilient communities for future generations.
Our Staff
Gabriel Travis (he/him)
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Gabe plays a vital role in the day-to-day operations of the KCT, supporting our projects and internal operations. He graduated with a B.S. in Energy Science from Western Washington University with minors in Energy Policy and Sustainable Design. Gabe is interested in the forces that drive people to adopt more sustainable practices.
Kate Hermenet (she/her)
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Kate is our Communications & Operations Coordinator. She is completing her B.S in Environmental Science at WWU. She has previous work in science communication and data analysis. In her free time you can catch her running toxicology bioassays in her lab or down at boulevard park reading the newest best seller.
Kade Eckert (he/him)
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Kade’s background is in business, but he’s spent his career redirecting those tools toward a single question: how do we build food systems that are both regenerative and economically viable? Along the way, he’s helped build early-stage ventures in fast-paced startup environments, learning how to move quickly while staying grounded in real community needs. That path has taken him across temperate ecosystems around the globe—through composting and waste systems, agriculture, and food sovereignty work—and back to the Cascadia bioregion he calls home.
Our Board
Howard Sharfstein (he/him)
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Howard co-founded and serves as President of the Kulshan Carbon Trust. His work for KCT focuses on strategy development, alliance building, and crafting trustworthy agreements.
Howard is a retired environmental attorney and former corporate sustainability leader. Playing in the fourth quarter of life, he is striving to apply more than four decades of policy, legal, and business experience as an environmental professional to help co-create regenerative natural climate solutions that build climate resilience and contribute to climate restoration.
Jessa Clark (she/her)
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Jessa is a co-founder of Kulshan Carbon Trust. She grew up in Bellingham, WA and graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in Earth Systems and M.S. in Sustainability Science & Practice. Jessa believes that a collaborative and holistic approach to addressing climate change has the power to spark systemic change.
Ethan Smith (he/him)
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Ethan Smith joined Kulshan Carbon Trust as a member of the Board in 2024. Ethan is a designer, strategist, and advocate for regenerative systems, drawing on over 20 years of experience in sustainable innovation and brand development. He lives in Bellingham, WA, where he supports organizations in shaping holistic strategies that prioritize ecological and community resilience.
Ethan’s career has spanned roles in corporate design, consulting, and nonprofit initiatives, including work with the Biomimicry Institute. His journey has evolved from industrial design to guiding businesses in reimagining their purposes and adopting whole-systems approaches. With a focus on impactful climate solutions, Ethan aims to contribute his expertise to further Kulshan Carbon Trust’s mission of building sustainable, carbon-resilient communities.
Chad Eller (he/him)
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Chad joined our Board in 2024. He is a chemist with significant experience in R&D, manufacturing, and process improvement. His interest in biochar began more than a decade ago, and since then he has read many hundreds of scientific journal articles about all aspects of biochar production, characterization, and applications. Chad’s interests also extend to agroforestry, renewable energy, and other sustainable technologies. In his free time he enjoys reading, playing strategy board games and spoiling his dogs.
Noah Gannon (he/him)
Kelly Mistry (she/her)
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Kelly joined our Board in 2025. She is a quantitative ecologist, completing an MS degree in the Quantitative Ecology & Resource Management (QERM) program, advised by Dr. Mark Scheuerell, at the University of Washington in 2022. She also worked as a research scientist in the Quantitative Conservation Lab at UW, supervised by Dr. Sarah Converse, from 2022 to 2025. The projects she has been involved in have ranged widely in species, geographic location and management objectives, including harvest management of commercial fisheries in Alaska, suppressing an invasive reptile on Guam and conserving an endangered mammal in Washington.
Tevon Lautenbach (he/him)
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Tevon joined the KCT Board in 2025. He is passionate about sustainable waste management and dedicated to driving growth in the composting industry. As General Manager at Skagit Soils Inc., he leads a team committed to transforming organic waste into valuable resources, contributing to a healthier environment and a thriving community. They produce high-quality compost that enriches soil, reduces landfill waste, and supports sustainable agriculture.
Carrie Brausieck(she/her)
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Carrie is the Executive Director of Kulshan Carbon Trust and works to advance nature-based climate solutions throughout northwest Washington. She is passionate about agroforestry as a solution to competing land use, climate adaptation & mitigation, and working land resilience. Carrie specializes in agroecological systems, multifunctional riparian forest buffers, forest farming/food forests, and alley cropping.
Mariana Pickering (she/her)
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Mariana recently relocated to the Pacific Northwest and is committed to advancing place-based climate solutions. She founded and led Emu Passive, an international training company focused on high-performance buildings, and now serves on the leadership team at B.PUBLIC Prefab, a woman-owned public benefit corporation advancing sustainable construction.
Mariana brings experience in organizational leadership, partnerships, fundraising support, and science communication, and is especially interested in connecting construction waste streams with biochar and other natural carbon-sequestration strategies.
Our Allies
2024 Annual Report
2024 was a year of growth and impact for Kulshan Carbon Trust. From scaling up biochar field trials with local farmers to shaping wildfire resilience strategies and strengthening community partnerships, we made bold strides toward climate resilience and ecosystem regeneration. Our Annual Report highlights key milestones, financial progress, and the inspiring collaborations that are building a thriving, climate-smart future in Northwest Washington.
Our Carbon Trust is just the beginning.
The future of our concept is a network of nonprofit carbon trusts that tailor natural climate solutions to their regional environmental, social, and economic context.