Kendall Runyan (she/they)
Business Administrator
businessadministrator@lostvalley.org

Kendall Runyan serves as the Business Administrator at Lost Valley, where she has worked in various administrative roles for over two years. In this position, she focuses on improving organizational management systems and administrative processes.

Kendall is passionate about dynamic governance systems and appreciates Lost Valley's commitment to fostering harmonious relationships with both the natural environment and community members. She strongly believes in the organization's mission as an educational center and its potential to demonstrate alternatives to extractive societal practices.

With a bachelor's degree in political science and certifications in permaculture design and sociocratic facilitation, Kendall brings diverse experience to her role. Her background includes extensive work in education, particularly with children, and administrative experience in a county elections office. She also completed an internship with C-SPAN, enhancing her understanding of media and public service.

Additionally, Kendall is an organizing member of a local Regenerate Cascadia hub, working to promote bioregional relationships and sustainable futures.

Brian Byers (he/him)
Executive Director, Land Steward & PDC Lead Instructor
executivedirector@lostvalley.org
landsteward@lostvalley.org

Brian Byers is a permaculture designer, educator, and activist with over a decade of experience in sustainable agriculture and forestry within the Willamette Valley. As a passionate advocate for building resilient communities, reconnecting individuals to the natural world, and fostering a sense of place, Brian brings a holistic, systems-based approach to all of his work.

Brian holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Gutenberg College and has studied permaculture with regional experts including Andrew Millison, Heiko Koester, Hazel Ward, and Jude Hobbs. He is a certified permaculture designer with advanced certifications in surveying, earthworks design, forestry, and teaching.

Since 2016, Brian has served as the lead instructor for the Lost Valley Permaculture Design Course (PDC). His tenure at Lost Valley also includes roles as Garden Manager (2014–2016), Land Steward (2019–present), and Executive Director (2022–present). In these capacities, Brian has enjoyed supporting the organization’s mission to promote ecological and social resilience through education, land stewardship, and community engagement.

Leanna Sadin (she/they)
Grants Manager
grantsmanager@lostvalley.org

Leanna began the role as Grants Manager after completing two internships and the Permaculture Design Course at Lost Valley in 2023. These learning opportunities were deeply transformative as they offered a pathway toward a more community-centered and ecologically oriented way of living. As grants manager, Leanna helps to secure funding opportunities that support Lost Valley’s goals to provide accessible education in permaculture, conserve and restore native ecosystems, and strengthen community resilience. 

Leanna has a bachelor's degree in sociology and a background in sustainability consulting. While her previous work involved international sustainability projects, her current work focuses on weaving local relationships for slow and small solutions. With a passion for social and environmental justice, Leanna loves that her work is oriented around finding and implementing initiatives that support food sovereignty, land stewardship, community health, and connection with the more-than-human world. Outside of work at Lost Valley, Leanna loves foraging and exploring in the forest, working on the land and in the gardens, and making music with friends.

Glen Carlberg (he/him)
Internship Coordinator
internshipcoordinator@lostvalley.org

Glen Carlberg joined Lost Valley as Internship Coordinator in May 2024, bringing a unique focus on how individuals develop through their relationships with both land and community. In his role, he emphasizes personal growth and empowerment, focusing on how to authentically pursue what calls to us most deeply – including understanding how setting boundaries can help us better commit to our deepest values.

As Internship Coordinator, Glen creates intentional spaces where interns and community members can share deeply and feel witnessed in their journey of connecting with the land and the more-than-human world. His approach draws from decades of experience working with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, where he honed his organizational, managerial, and communication skills. This background enables him to support interns in creating fulfilling and harmonious experiences at LV. Glen finds particular joy in composting – both literally and metaphorically. Whether working with forest and garden materials or helping transform challenging human experiences, he appreciates the process of converting what's no longer needed into nourishment for future growth.

Holly Glaspey (she/her)
Visitor Coordinator
visit@lostvalley.org

Holly Glaspey is the visitor coordinator at Lost Valley. She moved to LV with her husband and two sons in July of 2024, and began this role in January 2025. She has long held an interest in sustainable design principles, and is passionate about designing and living within systems that are respectful of earth’s relationships and processes. Living at Lost Valley provides a path for living out these values. The visitor coordinator role is especially exciting to Holly because it allows her to welcome interested parties to see the Lost Valley approach to these sustainable living principles and other aligned ideas, such as permaculture, nonviolent communication and sociocracy. Holly has a degree in graphic design from Portland State University and a minor in communication. Running her own freelance graphic design business for a decade gave Holly ample chance to learn to be organized, manage multiple priorities simultaneously, and to be inviting when communicating with potential new friends or business allies.

Vanessa Miller (she/we)
Outreach Coordinator
outreach@lostvalley.org

Vanessa has been supporting Lost Valley’s communication, education, and outreach efforts since early 2025, first as an intern and now as Outreach Coordinator. Vanessa brings a strong orientation towards local, living, mutually upraising relationships both within our community as well as our surrounding area and greater bioregion. A natural storyteller and lover of people, she is the sustaining force behind our neighborhood work parties, newsletters, and social media platforms.

Vanessa loves to organize gatherings, events, and educational offerings that bring together groups, peoples/cultures, and initiatives in the spirit of family and service. Vanessa organized her first educational event at Lost Valley as an intern in the Summer of 2025, bringing her teachers and friends from Andean-Amazonian Colombia to share about processes of deep cultural regeneration through the ancestral arts. Having been to nearly 30 countries, lived in Austria over 8 years, and studied extensively with Indigenous communities in Colombia, much of her work is focused on cultural renewal and processes of re-indigenization through the recovery of seeds, stories, songs, and dances.

Outside of her work with Lost Valley, she is a writer, coach, and educator specializing in holistic detoxification and community-based rites of passage for youth and the dying.

Kelson Gorman (he/him)
Garden Manager
gardens@lostvalley.org

Kelson is the Garden Manager at Lost Valley, where he oversees agricultural systems that promote food security, resilience, education, and research. He fosters a learning environment focused on permaculture and agroecological approaches to local food systems. Kelson emphasizes the importance of building relationships with the more-than-human world and the role of stewardship grounded in place.

Passionate about collaboration, Kelson works alongside community members to create a compassionate world that supports future generations. He stands in solidarity with global agroecological movements advocating for just, sustainable food systems that prioritize local communities over profit.

Kelson has a degree in Sociology and Philosophy from the University of Oregon, as well as a strong foundation in Latin American Indigenous movements. His experience includes working on multiple farms through WWOOF and permaculture programs in Central America, and earning a permaculture design certificate. Kelson completed a six-month internship at Lost Valley in 2024 and has extensive experience in community gardens.

Outside of gardening, he enjoys rafting, backpacking, basketball, and mutual aid work.