Board of Trustees
Parents are welcome to attend meetings of the Spruce Street School Board of Trustees. The Board is responsible for the strategic, financial, and legal well-being of the school. The Board includes current parents, alumni parents, staff, and community members. Board members are elected for three-year terms.
Download our Strategic Plan and Annual Report.
Aaron Spinks
Aaron is an alumnus of Spruce Street School and, with his wife Christine, is a parent to three children; two are current Spruce Street School students and one is an alumnus. He has worked in technology in the Seattle area since 2006 and is currently the Head of Infrastructure for Stripe. Outside of work, Aaron enjoys running, cycling, and watching entirely too much children's soccer.
Chris Navas
Chris and his wife, Andrea McKinney, are the proud parents of a current Spruce Street School student. Chris has worked for various local Seattle biotech companies for over 20 years and has contributed to the discovery of several new approved medicines. Currently he spends time in cancer research, developing new technologies to lower manufacturing costs of CAR-T therapies. Chris loves spending time with his family surfing on the coast, snowboarding in the mountains, or relaxing at Lake Chelan.
Donna Cochener
Donna is the mother of two Spruce Street School alumni. She has been practicing as a corporate lawyer in Seattle since 1999 and is currently General Counsel, SVP Legal at Neurogene, Inc., a New York-based biotech focused on gene therapy for rare neurological diseases. She is also Chairman of the Board of Cochener Garvey Capital Partners. Donna also serves as chair of the Seattle Repertory Theatre Board of Trustees. She is an avid swimmer, loves to hike, and also enjoys plays, concerts, traveling, and reading.
Erin Becker
Erin and her husband Jon are the parents of two Spruce Street School alumni. Erin has recently retired after a 26-year career as a prosecutor, where her work focused on violent crime. She now enjoys spending time with her family, volunteering, traveling, exploring the great outdoors, and finding new adventures.
Jessica Ross
Vice Chair
Joshua Curtis
Joshua is the father of a current student at Spruce Street School. He has a Masters in Urban Planning and has worked in various roles as a champion of civic spaces. Currently, he serves as the Executive Director of the Washington State Ballpark Public Facilities District. Born and raised in Hawaii, Joshua moved to Seattle in 2001 after serving in the Peace Corps Dominican Republic and is an avid cook, DIYer, and podcast enthusiast.
Lauren Gonzalez
Lauren and her husband Rohan are the parents of a current student at Spruce Street School. Lauren studied International Politics and earned an MBA in Real Estate. For more than 20 years, she has developed, owned, and operated hotels and youth hostels, building businesses centered on hospitality and community. She also volunteers at the Ballard Food Bank and holds a Diploma in Wine. Outside of work, Lauren enjoys cooking elaborate meals, traveling with her family, and reading. She is excited to join the Board of Trustees this year and contribute to the strong sense of community that makes Spruce Street such a special place.
Marney Zellers
Treasurer
Marney is the parent of two children, including one Spruce Street School alumnus. She studied Economics and is the CFO/COO of Chihuly Studio. Marney rows with the Women's Competitive Team at Pocock Rowing Center and enjoys many hobbies, including running, reading, watercoloring, gardening, museums, and theater.
Meaghan Darling
Secretary
Meaghan is a parent to two alumni students after nine lovely years as a Spruce Street School parent. She most recently worked as an Associate Production Manager at ACT Theatre and is happy to be back for another year of serving on the Board of Trustees.
Paul Bruene
Paul is an alumnus of Spruce Street School, having attended 3rd to 5th grade here from 1998–2001. He is now a litigator for a multinational law firm where he primarily works on intellectual property and other complex commercial disputes, and he represents companies in various technology industries. Paul was born and raised in Seattle, and in his spare time he likes reading, old movies, and watching basketball and soccer.
Sam McIntosh
Ex Officio Family Association Representative
Sam and his wife Tania are parents to two children; the oldest is a current student at Spruce Street School, while the youngest is a Spruce Street School student-in-waiting. Sam has extensive experience in program management/DevOps at growth SaaS companies focused on financial services, dynamic pricing, and accounting compliance. Currently he cares for his two children and owns a business focused on designing AI-powered parenting aids. He has been a singer his entire life, and periodically performs in chorales in Seattle.
Sharron is the parent of two Spruce Street School alumni. One child is a 2013 grad of Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, and earned an MFA in Lighting Design from UW. The other is a 2015 grad of The Northwest School and a 2019 grad of Bennington College. Both attended Billings Middle School where her husband Stephen is a past board president. Sharron has worked in higher education for 35 years and is recently retired from her longtime role as the Director of Admission at Cornish College of the Arts.
Stephen Yigit-Elliott (pronounced "Yeet-Elliott") and his wife Serap are proud parents to two children—one who recently graduated from Spruce Street School and one current student. Stephen is VP of Product at Chalk, an AI infrastructure startup, and previously spent 15 years in Seattle building cloud and data products at Snowflake, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud. Before his career in tech, he served as a nuclear submarine officer aboard the USS Henry M. Jackson (SSBN 730), based at Naval Base Kitsap. Stephen is a lifelong singer who performs with The Esoterics, a Seattle chorale, and he enjoys reading, travel, sailing, the occasional endurance event, and making pancakes to kick off lazy Sunday mornings.
Takao Yamada
Chair
Takao and his wife have three children, all of whom are current Spruce Street School students. Takao is a Seattle-based attorney and entrepreneur currently focused on his own independent consulting firm. Takao has had his own start-up as well as co-founding the social justice organizations AirportLawyer.org and WIDEN. Prior to his work in tech, Takao has also spent time working in the hospitality industry, government affairs, and has clerked for Justice Mary Yu at King County Superior Court. Takao loves travel, reading, and the beach. Ideally all at once.
Tim Ford
Tim and his husband Kevin are parents to a Spruce Street School alumnus. Tim began his career as an urban planner, and for the last decade has played a much different role—President and CEO of LRG, a full-service public relations firm based in Washington, DC and Seattle that provides communication support to government and nonprofit organizations. A semi-recent transplant to Seattle, Tim enjoys working on his Green Lake home and planning interesting travel adventures for the family in his spare time.