Centrum Foundation is pleased to announce new Board officers for 2015, effective January 1.  Port Townsend community leader Carla Main will serve as the President of the Board in 2015 and will be joined by local residents John Wilcox (Vice-President), Leah Mitchell (Secretary) and Sequim resident and Port Townsend business owner, Aldryth O’Hara (Treasurer).

Locating in Port Townsend in 2001, Carla Main retired from the City of Seattle where she was a community developer, neighborhood organizer and city planner.  Prior to that she worked as the director of a small, rural non-profit multi-service center and was the Employment and Personnel Director of Fremont Public Association (now Solid Ground) in Seattle.  She has served on many national and local boards including The Northwest Maritime Center, Seattle’s Greenwood Arts Council, and the International Community Development Society.

Involving herself deeply in many of Port Townsend’s organizations, Main was on the Organizing Committee for the Jefferson Community Foundation has served as a Board Member of COAST Winter Shelter and the Gifting the Future Giving Circle among others. She has also served as a Local Coordinator for the Tribal Canoe Journey Landing, and is very involved with the Port Townsend Quaker Meeting, the Jefferson Solar Group, and many local initiatives. She has immersed herself in the local music community as well and performs as a vocalist in local clubs.

John Wilcox was a nationally-known business consultant with Howard Johnson & Co.  He and his partners built the firm to seven offices prior to selling it to Merrill Lynch in 1998.  John consulted to corporate boards on strategic and organizational planning, executive compensation and governance projects. In addition, John was a paid speaker at national and regional conferences and taught at summer management programs at the University of Virginia, Southern Methodist University and Ohio State University.

John has been an active director on community and corporate boards.  Most recently he served on the University of Washington’s Tyee Board and its Washington Press Board, an academic publisher. For five years he chaired the Washington Rowing Stewards Board and led a major fundraising effort that brought financial security to the program.  Earlier, he served on the board of Planned Parenthood of Seattle-King County and, as chair through a particularly turbulent time, launched the initial steps that led to the consolidation of several western Washington chapters into a single, cohesive unit.

Leah Mitchell retired to Port Townsend in 2011 after a 36-year career in advertising in Los Angeles.  She says that Centrum was one of the major draws in her decision to move up to the Pacific Northwest, as she knew that her love of music in particular, and of the arts in general, would become a main focus of her retirement years.  As Senior Vice President, Director of Media Services for various high-profile ad agencies, Leah managed teams of media researchers, media planners and media buyers to deliver advertising campaigns to clients such as Toyota, Pizza Hut, Baskin-Robbins, New York New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, California Department of Health Services (Anti-Smoking and AIDS Prevention), and Legoland Theme Park.  Leah served on the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra in various marketing and development capacities.

Aldryth O’Hara is a partner with Gooding & O’Hara, CPAs, in Port Townsend.  She graduated from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington in 1975 with a major in Political Science.  Following a career in banking and time off to raise a family, she completed her accounting education and became a CPA in 1992.   Aldryth received a Master of Science in Taxation from Golden Gate University in 2000.  During the past fifteen years she has gained extensive experience preparing tax returns and providing business and tax advice to businesses and individuals on the Olympic Peninsula.  She also serves on the board of Jumping Mouse Children’s Center, providing expressive mental health therapy unique to each child’s needs, for as long as it takes.